Chapter 27 (1/2)

“Actually, not long ago, villagers going inside the forest to hunt would report on a very frequent basis that they heard sounds of a spirit crying!”

With something along those line, the chief began talking.

Somewhere not far from the village is a piece of forest where humans don’t frequent.

This forest is nothing special unlike the forest next to Magnolia city where many different type of magic beasts live. It’s a pretty plain forest, at the very most there would be some wild beasts or weak magic beast migrated there from somewhere else.

Due to this, the village made this piece of forest their hunting grounds. Villagers would enter it everyday to hunt. It’s a primary source of food for the village.

It started quite recently, when some villagers went in to hunt, they could hear a little girl crying.

The villagers thought it was just some kid who got lost in the forest, they wanted to locate the kid and bring her out.

But before they could locate the girl, an odd phenomenon appeared.

Noah didn’t know what the event is but according to the village chief, the sky broke and a hole appeared!

After seeing the weird phenomenon, villagers didn’t continue their search for the litte girl. Since then, cries of a kid could still be heard in the jungle from time to time and the sky would break open from time to time as well. s.h.i.+t was hair raising.

And so, the cries of an unseen kid would bring about curses and break open the sky became a wide spread rumor within the village.

The villagers are still more simple minded so they believe in this rumor.

Soon, villagers didn’t dare to hunt in the forest anymore. The villages thus lost a major source of food for the village and food became scarce resulting in a big issue.

Without much choice left, the village chief could only request help from magician guilds to get rid of the spirit.

More specifically, the job is to find out the truth behind the cries and the broken sky phenomenon so that the village can return to its normal state.

“The rewards are put together by the collective contribution of all the villagers, it’s not much, only 200’000J but I hope you could lend us a helping hand.”

The village chief lowered his head and bowed, for a guy his age this is the utmost he could muster.

“Could you please accept our request?”

Noah frowned and then went silent.

It’s not that Noah wants to turn this request down but this request has too many uncertainties behind it. He isn’t sure whether or not he could solve this job by himself.

The reward is just right for such an uncertain job, if there isn’t too much issue then this job is still worth it.

Moreover, he’s not so focused on the reward part. If it’s money, he still has some leftover reward from the Lake of Ritual mission last time so he’s not really wanting for money. There wasn’t a need to consider the reward much.

After deliberating for a bit, Noah spoke.

“Honestly speaking, village chief this job has too many risks, whether or not the spirit caused the sky to break is uncertain. I cannot guarantee that I will be of much help. Therefore, I will rest one night in this village and then proceed to the forest to have a look before deciding, is that alright?”

“Yes! We’re very grateful!”

The village chief sounded more relaxed, Noah grinned and tightened his grip on the clothed sack behind him, thinking about what to look out for on the job tomorrow.

…..

By normal standards, this village isn’t that big, however it is surprisingly modern.

The buildings might be a bit old compared to those in Magnolia but it’s architecture isn’t that different, unlike some villages where the buildings are pieced together by stones. The room given to Noah might be a bit on the small side but it’s functionality isn’t lacking so there’s nothing to complain about.

Under the village chief’s recommendation, the boss of the hotel knows that Noah is a magician from Fairy Tail who came here to help the village with its problem so he didn’t charge Noah any lodging fee.

One thing he noted was that unlike the case with the village chief. When the innkeeper found out that the magician from Fairy Tail is a small kid, he looked disappointed even though he didn’t specifically say anything. This made Noah a bit depressed.

Let’s hope the job tomorrow will be completed swiftly…

Thinking like that, Noah went to sleep for a bit. After that, he came out of his room and arrived at a table in the inn’s lobby to sit down. He then ordered some food to replenish his energy.