Water Magician

At dawn, they left the City of Kyradea and arrived at their destination, Avery Village, in the early afternoon.

“We arrived pretty early.”

“Because we walked fast. It usually takes a whole day …”

Niels replied with a bitter smile to Ryo’s comment.

All four had training their stamina in particular, so these long-distance travel times were significantly reduced.

The duration a person can sustain high performance … that was a very important factor, whether they’re an athlete or an adventurer.

Long live stamina.

The dwellings were concentrated in the center of the village, but the cleared fields were spread over a fairly wide area outside the village.

Some villagers were working there, but when they saw the four of them, they approached them.

“Niels? Oh, Niels! It’s been a long time!”

“Niels~ Welcome back~”

Looking at the villagers waving at Niels with a smile, Ryo commented with a reassured expression.

“Niels wasn’t banished because he was hated by the villagers. That’s great.”

“Why would I be banished?”

Nils retorted with a half-exasperated tone rather than an angry tone.

“Because Niels looks like you would be a neighborhood bully or rather a rambunctious kid … weren’t you a rascal?”

“Uh … I can’t deny that …”

“It’s customary for those people to be kicked out of their village and become adventurers.”

“Why is Ryo so assertive on that matter …?”

“Does Ryo have such an acquaintance?”

Etho and Amon whispered about Ryo’s assertive tone that was actually based on his light novel knowledge.

“An-anyway, let’s first greet the village mayor and Baba-sama.” (TLN: Baba-sama is just a title for an elderly grandmother, usually those in power similar to a village elder.)

Forcibly changing the topic, Niels strode toward the center of the village.

The other three also followed after him.

The square in the center of the village. A large house was built next to it.

The building itself was made of wood, but the inside seemed to be quite spacious.

“Boulan, are you home?”

Niels entered without hesitation after opening the door.

However, as expected, the three others hesitated.

Niels might be able to do as he wished as he was familiar with them, but the three of them were different.

They ended up looking into the house from outside of the door.

It was a very large space as if it were used as a meeting place.

After waiting for a few seconds, a man in his fifties with a big body and thick muscles similar to Niels came out from the back of the house.

“Oh, who … are you Niels? Is it really Niels?”

The man called Boulan examined Niels over and over again, from head to toe, as if he had seen something unimaginable.

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“You’re really Niels? … I can hardly recognize you.”

After he said that, they hugged each other firmly.

“Hardly recognize? … I think it’s only been less than a year since I left the village.”

“Well, that’s right … you somehow give off a sense of credibility now … When you left the village, you were just a rascal …”

“Pft.”

When they heard that, the three people behind him burst out laughing all at once.

“Wow, Boulan, don’t say that. Oh yeah, these three, Etho, Amon, and Ryo are my party members.”

“Nice to meet you.”

The three bowed and greeted him all at once.

“Oh, nice to meet you. I’m the village mayor Boulan. Well, we shouldn’t be talking while standing, have a sit.”

Prompted by Boulan, the four sat down.

Just then, a woman who seemed to be of the same age as Boulan came out from the back with cups on a tray.

“Niels, welcome back. Welcome, everyone.”

“Ranran, I’m home.”

A woman called Ranran smiled, placed cups of something in it, and immediately withdrew.

“Now then, Niels came at this timing so …”

“Yes, we accepted the request from the village to the guild.”

“I see … hmm? But that request was to the Adventurer’s Guild of Kyradea, and it was quite a high-ranking request, right?”

“Nobody picked it up anymore at Kyradea so it was transferred to the City of Rune. Well, I managed to somehow increase my rank and take it.”

When Niels said so, Etho and Amon smiled bitterly.

“I see … well, having Niels would be better than having strangers.”

After speaking thus far, Boulan took a sip of a glass of water.

Seeing that, Niels asked.

“I heard that Boulan didn’t cooperate with the adventurers who came the second time. What happened?”

“Oh … that’s, well, the core of this request …”

“Honestly, I don’t know where to start, so I’ll explain from the beginning. It might take some time.”

Boulan started talking.

“We first saw skeletons six months ago. Around … the eastern forest. And three months ago, we found goblins. This was also at the southern part of the eastern forest …. I was the one who saw them, but I haven’t seen them since then. If someone else saw them, I could be sure that I didn’t mistake it but we couldn’t find any even after looking for them.”

He stopped talking and drank some water.

“The skeletons would always be around the small opening in the forest. We finally gathered enough money to make a subjugation request. Well, I thought it would be nice if the goblins could also be subjugated, so I wrote that as well. So, when the first party came … did you hear about the results?”

“Yeah, two were seriously injured.”

“Yes. It seemed that they were surrounded by more than 20 skeletons, so the party returned to the city. The problem was the battlefield.”

Boulan frowned.

“Did they perhaps enter … the depths of the eastern forest?”

Niels must have had an idea. He asked boldly.

“Yeah. The battle desecrated the depths of the forest. So when the second party came, some villagers tried to chase them away. I understand that it would be impossible to choose the location if it was a life-threatening battle. But at the same time, I understand why the villagers chased them away as that is a place we’ve been told about for generations and they might even taint it with blood. It’s a difficult topic …”

“Yeah, you’re right …”

At that point, Niels looked to the other three.

And he confirmed that they did not understand.

“I’m sorry, you guys probably don’t understand. But this is about the secret of the village … I can’t speak about it without the permission of Baba-sama and the general meeting. Please wait a little longer.”

Niels explained and bowed to the three.

After that, the four moved to Niels’ birthplace in the village.

Currently, the family estate was held by his younger brother and his wife, who lived there, and he was delighted to tears about Niels’ return.

And the three apart from Niels had to wait in the house for Niels to persuade the villagers.

Meanwhile, Niels’ younger brother Niroy and his wife Sana welcomed them.

“In other words, when Niroy became an 18-year-old adult, Niels gave up the family estate and farm and left the village to become an adventurer?”

“Yes. My brother didn’t like farming since he was little … but our parents died just before he grew up, so he had no choice but to take over … Originally, he planned to leave the village right after he reached adulthood. But he remained behind to raise me.”

His younger brother, Niroy, was a very gentle young man whose face was similar to Niels, but whose body size and personality were not similar at all.

“Niles may look like that, but he’s good at looking after others.”

“Niels-san truly did a great job.”

Etho and Amon praised Nils.

Of course, Niels wasn’t there.

He would have denied it with a bright red face if he was present.

“Now, Niels …”

“He’s in a general meeting of villagers held at the village mayor’s house. They’re probably discussing various things there …”

It seemed that it was being held in that space where Ryo the others talked to the village mayor Boulan earlier.

“Villages have all kinds of conventions and traditions …”

Amon, who grew up in a village and just recently left, said understandingly.

“Yes. But this time, my brother and the people he trusts came as the subjugation team, so I don’t think there will be anyone who opposes the subjugation. The previous party was chased away because they completely ignored the conventions and tried to enter the forest …”

“Oh, I could guess that was what happened.”

Etho nodded and said.

No one would report something disadvantageous to them. They would omit or deliberately not touch the subject … that was often the case.

I didn’t lie. You just didn’t ask, so I didn’t answer.

The boss would have to ask the right questions … but that’s unusually difficult.

As a result, the client and requestor were left dissatisfied.

The world was full of difficult matters.

“Oh, I’m back.”

Niels returned from the general meeting when five people, including his brother’s wife Sana, were chatting.

After a break, Niels began to explain.

“In conclusion, we received permission to subdue the skeletons. Tomorrow night. So, before that, I thought of investigating the goblins in the daytime tomorrow. They would lead us to the place they saw the goblins. Well, it’s just a gamble to see if they would appear there once again and we might not find them. So about the skeletons …”

Nils gulped down the water in one go.

“I got permission at the general meeting to talk about everything, but of course, don’t say anything to anyone else. Is that okay?”

“Okay.”

“Yes.”

“Got it.”

Etho, Amon, and of course Ryo nodded.

“This village is a little special. There are two special aspects. First, the guardian beast of the village lives in the depths of the eastern forest. To be frank, I have not seen it before. Only the village mayor and Baba-sam have met it before. So I don’t know what the guardian beast looks like and we don’t really know if it’s still there …”

“Guardian Beast …”

“Sometimes there are villages with that kind of folklore … Niel’s village is the same …”

Amon was surprised as usual while Etho was more surprised in an academic manner.

(Guardian beast … what a fantasy!)

Ryo was the only one feeling excited.

“Today, the village mayor and Baba-sama will meet the guardian beast to explain. That we would investigate the goblins and subdue the skeletons. Well, because of that, I was told to avoid bleeding in the eastern forest but … I told the general meeting that we would try our best.”

“Skeletons don’t bleed anyway.”

“It’s okay as long as we don’t get hurt, right?”

Etho and Amon give their impressions.

(That guardian beast would get corrupted by evil gods or cursed, go crazy and attack us. And there’s a high chance that it would be a new mission to release it from that corruption!)

Ryo was imagining a light novel-like development.

“Ryo, are you thinking of something strange?”

Niels’ question that hit the mark was fired at him.

“N-N-O, I-M-N-O-T-T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G-O-F-A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G.”

Niels stared at Ryo.

“Well, the guardian beast is the first one, and the village has another special aspect?”

Ryo changed the topic to somehow divert his pursuit.

“Sheesh … The other is a shrine.”

“Shrine?”

It was the priest Etho who reacted.

“Yeah, but it’s hard to explain, so Baba-sama said that she’ll explain it herself tomorrow. I don’t know how to explain it. Sorry but wait till tomorrow.”

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