Chapter 44 – Turbulent Indications (1/2)

Chapter 44 – Turbulent Indications

That night was truly turbulent.

After all, we saved the injured『Dryad』girl, had a misunderstanding with her companions and had to deal with them, after that stopped an abduction attempt,

And immediately later, I sensed『a certain smell』I had sniffed before along with severe killing intent……but in several seconds it was over,

And immediately after, this time, the city was being noisy with screams and angry bellows.

And, after we reached there thinking what happened……only to find a scene of carnage unfolded there, although it was mostly over.

The origin place of screams & angry bellows was the plaza near the front entrance of the city.

There were corpses of quite a number of demons.

It was the corpses of demon crowd that, probably, came to attack the city, however were annihilated by the guards or a passing by adventurer.

And in the centre was,

「Huh, you people came late. I have already finished work here」

Sherry-san who just cut down the last demon –a lizard-like gorilla, with scales closely packed on its whole down- with a single sword stroke.

☆☆☆

After that, we heard from Sherry-san, about what exactly happened there.

Apparently the raid was truly abrupt.

All of a sudden, war roars of demons was heard from the direction of forest, and couple of minutes later, the demons now lying on the ground as corpses raided in, apparently. They raided with an intense force, coming from the deep forest.

The demons seemed to be in excited state, and maybe came here after rioting in forest, because the time fight started, many of them already had their fangs dyed scarlet.

There was a fear of the guards who went out to patrol became their food, however after confirming it was found out that there were no victims, hence a piece of relief.

The blood sticking on the fangs was believed to be the blood of other demons.

Like that, although there were various points that were bothering, but it was more urgent to intercept the raid, hence the guards, and adventurers and bodyguards in the near area, grouped together and put up a fight.

Among those members, was Sherry-san, an A-ranker with abilities that surely stand out, moreover she attacks the strong opponents proactively, hence including that fact; the incident was finished without much damage. That was what happened before I reached here.

Although there were injured people but all had minor injuries. Those people were currently being treated in the hospital of city, which had opened in the closed hours all due to their virtuous minds.

I see, then it was all fine……apparently, it didn’t end with just that.

Well, if a report saying, demons raided late at night, came in……anyone would get anxious……more than that, the reason for this abrupt attack was not known.

If going by the talk of town head, whom we met during day, then this had never happened before.

The demons living in the forest nearby, basically never tried to leave their territories in the forest, and even without attacking the city there was abundant food in the forest, and so never get troubled with that too. Hence the situation of the city being assaulted itself had never happened in past several decades.

And even problematic was the power and type of demons that attacked.

More than half of the demons, who attacked, weren’t from the nearby forest……but were the demons that lived in North from here, a Danger Area with higher difficulty level. These types of demons weren’t found in this area.

That area was the place those『Exceed Hoppers』lived, the『Green Canyon』……after all demons from there moved south, coming till here, and raided in excited state, this caused most of the people feel anxious.

「This had never happened till now, right?」

「Yeah, this is the first. Well, it’s not like there aren’t demons around this area, but……they are at the level of, at most『Wolf』or other demons like that. The fence covering the city has a smell, made from flowers, that does not let low-class demons come near, so they don’t become a threat to us」

The town head said as such in the plaza that was no guaranteed to be safe.

Heh……so this city even had something like that, as expected.

「However……『Wing Boa』,『Lizard Kong』and『Rhinosaurus』……these demons surely never appear in this area. Just why……」

Ah, now that you say it, there sure were demons like, a snake with wings, a gorilla with scales all over its body, and a rhinoceros-ish. All were now dead, though.

And from behind Elk told me that they were all equivalent to C Rank.

A level that only skilled adventurers could deal against, that sure could be said as difficult.

Even so both Elk and I seem to get involved into troubles like these every time.

The demons that should be present appear in the place that they shouldn’t……

Just in case I asked the town head if there was some dangerous demon nearby? But he had no clue about it.

I also asked Sherry-san, but as she wasn’t even a local person, so of course she wouldn’t know anything about it.

「Hmm well, there were some who resisted a bit……but you see, recently I’ve been training with Minato-kun, so that level doesn’t satisfy me anymore, you see, right?」

「……I don’t care and know whatever you are talking about」

Our talk ended like that.

Moreover later she even asked『How about right now? 』. Geez, hey you seriously need to read the atmosphere.

While I rejected her with a sigh『no way』, Elk, standing behind me, poked my shoulder repeatedly.

For not interrupting the town head who was planning countermeasures and making deductions about this incident with some influential people of the city, I lowered my voice and,

(What, Elk?)

(Minato, this incident bothers me, but……let’s get out of the village later. A telepathic message came from Neil-chan. She wanted to say something to you)

(I see……got it. Then later let’s give some suitable reason and get out)

After that, town head stopped the argument because he might’ve judged no answer would come out, and enhanced the defence as a just in case countermeasure, and with that we adventurers broke up with them.

Incidentally,

At that time, Sherry-san asked『Where are you going? 』and seemed to come along with us, but,

I refused saying『I don’t want others to come along with me……』while holding Elk’s hand tightly (it won’t be a joke if I got lost in this darkness with my bad sense of direction).

『Ah, I see~. Sorry, but yeah I would become the third wheel in that, well have your fun time♪』

Sherry-san ran away saying that to me with a lukewarm stare, later, the red-faced Elk punched me in the gut with her whole might saying『You idiot!!』……if there was a person who understood the reason for these two acting like this, please tell me!

☆☆☆

And like that……

While getting blows for some unknown reason, I somehow warded off Sherry-san, we both reached the meeting place (that Elk decided using Telepathy), and after coming here……

「Hey, Minato-kun, Elk-chan, Pardon me for intruding here first」

「U-Um……this person is……?」

……Why is this guy here?

The orange haired-man——Zari, was standing near Neil-chan with vigilance.

「No well, I have a Magic Item that can wiretap Telepathic communication to a level. I used before and heard Elk-chan and that『Alraune』miss talking. Sorry for hearing selfishly and even coming here」

He thought that we would be more vigilant if he reached later, and so he went on ahead to here, the place Neil-chan and Elk decided. ……what the fuck does his sorry mean, this bastard.

But, I did think that this had common sense, and Neil-chan wasn’t someone who would do anything bad. He surely would have enough natural virtue that Irene-san would believe him for being the bridge between us.

For the time being, I said that I won’t tell him anything about Neil-chan, and as for the crime of wiretapping the telepathic talk, I dropped my knuckles on the crown of his head without saying anything else.

I hit him quite a power so he did faint down, and without waiting for his recovery, we continued our talk with Neil-chan.

The kidnappers, who came to abduct the girls, were already gone from the forest, apparently. At least for now, they were gone.

However, the number of people Neil-chan and others spotted weren’t just one or two people, so they can’t let down their guard, as of yet.

Regarding the demons of north that abruptly raided the city; apparently, they didn’t go to forest so all the Dryad’s were safe. Good, great.

And, regarding the presence I sensed before, I had no more info that the current one.

Among the Dryad’s there were some people who had seen that『green-coloured big lizard』, however Neil-chan hadn’t seen it.

「……What do you mean that there were humans who tried to abduct those Dryad girls?」

Around the time our talk finished, Zari finally recovered and said that first.

His face had a strange expression, for some reason.

「Indeed. Just in case, we had tied up two of them……probably they might be Slave Dealers or Kidnappers. I don’t want to think much about this though……」

「Well certainly……although these girls are small, but they look good……」

Hearing that, Neil-chan understood the meaning, and her body trembled terribly.

A beat later,

「……No, that is not possible, I think……?」

Zari gave an unexpected answer.

? What did he mean by that? Were those people, not Slave Dealers?

I had heard that among Slave Dealers there were some who would make anything their commodity as long it had a human shape; let it be demi-human, fairy or even a demon. That was the reason I thought they would be the same.

Zari said.

「Ah, I see, so you both don’t know about it, right. In short sprite-species like『Dryad』and『Alraune』, at least most of them, aren’t able to live in the place outside they were born from」

「Eh, is that so?」

「That is so. If I remember correctly then, for the Dryad and Alraune the atmosphere of forest and water are important……if they went far away from this forest, this valley, for a long time, then probably……」

「……That is right. We will die」

Neil-chan said. Is that so?

For example if they were abducted and taken away, to a place far from this forest, the life force of Dryad and Alraune would rapidly decline and in some days they would die.

That was also the reason they didn’t wanted to be abducted, or so she said.

Conversely, if they were in the forest, they would be able to take the blessing of life force and magical energy, and would have an increase in covert ability for not being found out by the peoples. According to her, the forest helped in deleting the presence.

That as the reason, the sprite-species like『Dryad』that die in some days after getting away from their birthplace, were useless existences to the Slave Dealers or kidnappers. After all, by the time they reached the city for selling them, they would either be dead or on their last breaths.

It wasn’t like Zari was knowledgeable about sprites; he got hold of this sort of information from his work as information broker, that he possessed them as common sense. I see now.

「Then why were they trying to capture Neil-chan and others?」

「Who knows……well if screw up those two we captured, won’t they spill out the truth?」

「Err, thinking the same, I, after you both went back, tried to question those two, but……」

「Holy moly! Alraune-chan, you do torture with that cute face? Aren’t you quite extreme? 」

「T-That is wrong!! I didn’t do anything like that! I just prepared some flowers that have a scent that if sniffed would make a person talkative and honest」

「……That is already quite like that」

The Neil-chan being teased by Zari had apparently used a natural truth drug. Did this forest have a flower like that? This could be little scary. Although I think it wouldn’t work on me.

However, the result wasn’t favourable.

Those two, apparently were just some rogues hired, and moved because of money. The identity or the goal of their employer wasn’t told to them, supposedly.

In the end, the truth about Dryad Abduction Attempt still remained a mystery.

……Strange things sure are continuously going on……

For the time being, even if we talked more, there wouldn’t have been any new information, so we returned to the city.

Before going back, we thought of giving the two we tied up to the guard of city, and came to the place the two were tied up……

……But the scenery had completely changed.

From what it looked it, it could be easily understood that these two, after returning to sanity from the use of truth drug, cu the ivy using a small knife they hid in the wristband area of their wrists, and planned to run away.

And apparently,

Those two had been killed by someone that came here right after they cut the ivy.

They might’ve fought, or so it seems like form the weapons they had in their hands (Where the hell were they hiding them).

However, from their body state……which was torn from limb to limb, and were now not in human shape, but rather a lump of neat, along with traces of cut section which told that these two died without resisting much. Just from looking, it was obvious that the problem was of their ability difference.

After all, although they have died in such a terrible way, but there was no trace of a fight occurring here.

It hadn’t changed much from the time I beat these two down.

In other words, without getting chance to fight, they were killed instantly, it meant that.

Elk, took a shock from this terrible scene that would be too shocking for children, and was currently patting the head of Neil-chan, who was hiding behind her back while trembling terribly.

The difference from before would be, their blood had already made a puddle here……and some footprints that I don’t remember, were here. The footprints came out of the forest, and again returned back.

For the time being, I planned to not chase after it. Fighting in dark forest, this is just reckless, nothing else.