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Chapter 73: Carine Village. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2020-06-04 01:44:24 +0000 UTC“Hestia, if it isn’t rude to ask, what sorta beastman are you?” Lorena asked. “I’ve never seen your type around here.”
After finding an opening in the forest, we were welcomed by a slow streaming river in the middle of a deforested area. After wandering along it for a bit with the guidance of Lorena, we managed to find some fields. According to Lorena, they already harvested the last batch of crops for the year, so the fields were rather empty.
However, what actually surprised me wasn’t the field itself but the remains of the crops. To Saori’s and my surprise, we actually found rice plants. Tasianna did mention that something similar existed in Peolynca but that it was a staple in dwarven society. I didn’t really expect to find it here.
As we were observing the fields, Lorena suddenly asked me what type of beastman I was.
“Uhh, I'm a dragonewt, a half-dragon," I told her, hiding my dragon origin.
Still remembering Saori’s lecture about hiding our real forms, I decided to just say what was obvious to anybody who could see. I technically am a dragonewt in this form, my status board says that, after all.
…Come to think about it, something doesn’t feel correct.
“Oh right, Lorena can I ask you a question?” I spoke, now that it was my turn to ask some questions. “Besides your initial reaction when you woke up, you’ve been…well, comfortable? Yeah, I believe that word fits. You seem rather comfortable around us despite there being two beastmen.”
This has been bugging me ever since I healed her. Although she was acting cautiously when she first met us, she completely let her guard down after I healed her. Yeah, I made the correct move and showed that I could use holy magic, the same element her goddess is associated with, but that shouldn't be enough to make somebody act friendly, right?
Tasianna told me that the history between humans and beastmen is rather tense. I was expecting some racism or stereotyping, of some sort. I know it is pessimistic of me to think so, but Tasianna honestly made everything sound super terrible.
There is also the case of those bandits. Lorena mentioned that a few beastmen were among the bandit party, so I honestly thought she would be a bit more vigilant of us.
“Oh, is this because of how I reacted when I woke up? Ah, I’m sorry about that, I know that was pretty rude,” Lorena said in hurry. “I was pretty nervous because I thought I was caught by the bandits, so I wanted to run away as soon as possible. He he, that was a bad mistake on my part. All three of you look far too pretty and proper to be one of them.”
"Uh, no, that's not what I meant. This is my first visit to these lands, and I was informed that humans didn’t like beastmen. I’m surprised that you’re acting so friendly to us,” I admitted, believing that being forthright would yield the most answers now.
“HUH?! Who would say such things? Well, I guess I never left my village before this incident but why should humans hate beastmen?” Lorena said, tilting her head to the side, raising an eyebrow. "We have no beastmen villagers but beastmen hunters usually come to our village to hunt down wolves and goblins. I think our village chief would send a request to the hunter guild once our guards notice large groups of monsters or beasts."
Wait, what?
Ignoring my confusion, Lorena continued, "I mean, the more animalistic-looking beastmen are scary and they can be pretty rowdy and rude, but none of them ever harmed anybody from the village. The only terrible people are those damn bastards that attacked our village."
…Excuse me, but what?
[“Tasianna, could you explain this?”] I demanded through [Telepathy] so Lorena couldn’t hear us, looking at Tasianna with a tint of confusion.
[“This…are you sure those books you have read were not outdated, Tasianna?”] Saori, too, was questioning Tasianna, breaking away from her aloof public appearance as she gave our fairy friend a worried look, unsure of what she knew was outdated or not.
Tasianna flinched back from our glares, waving her hands in a panic as if she wasn’t at fault, [“I-I, no! Lady Hestia, Miss Saori, I didn’t lie to you about this! I am sure that my books were telling the truth! Humans and beastmen should have a bad relationship with each other…at least, in history. Maybe that human is lying!”]
[“Tasianna, please, pointing fingers at somebody else? You are better than that, so stop that,”] Saori expressed with clear disappointment. [“Besides, at this point, I truly believe that those books you have read are not up-to-date concerning recent times. It is alright, Tasianna, it is not your fault. I know I sound upset but this has also piqued my interest. What is the political situation when a peasant like Lorena has a friendly attitude to a beastmen, and what caused it?”]
The ends of Saori's lips suddenly curved up, turning her previous frown into an inquisitive smirk as she placed a finger on her chin. Compared to her playful and enthusiastic attitude concerning anything money or sewing related, her historian side was way more serious. I guess this is the difference between a hobby and a passion.
“Uhm, excuse me…is everything alright?” forgetting that Lorena couldn’t hear anything, all three of us flinch from hearing somebody interrupting our conversation.
“Oh? It is nothing, Lorena. I was just curious to see you growing rice,” Saori said, using an excuse to hide our surprise.
“Oh, really? You know, that happened because the previous lord of our land suddenly introduced it to us, literally ordering that this should be what we should grow,” Lorena explained. “These lands belong to nobles, so our elders weren’t able to refuse the decision. Whatever we can keep after giving our harvest tax tastes great, but they require so much work to grow.”
Lorena was slumping her shoulders but suddenly snapped herself back straight, “Ahhhh, I’m sorry but we have to go now! It’s so carefree traveling with everybody that I forgot about what we have to do! Please, can we hurry up!?”
Widening our eyes at the fact that we got distracted by rice plants, we remembered why we were hurrying since morning. Lorena, once again, got onto Saori’s back and our party dashed like the wind where she told us to. While we were running, I quickly got another look at my two companions’ new clothes.
Both were made using Saori’s [Mana Weave] so they counted as mana clothing, perfect for us three shapeshifters.
Tasianna's was based on a halter dress but adapted to look like her fairy form's clothing, resembling more like a fantasy outfit. It was primarily a cyan dress with tints of purple and white to give the dress some life and style. As Tasianna wasn’t a frontline fighter like Saori and me, we had more liberty to add more fluff to it, creating a rather stunning dress for her.
As both her fairy and wind elf form were flat, the chest part of her dress was left covered and white. Beauty in modesty. While the top part wasn’t as decorated, the skirt part of the dress showed how much effort Saori put into it, turning the hem of the dress into multiple vividly colored butterfly wings, overlapping with each other as if they were resting.
The whole dress also came with two separate cyan sleeves that started from her biceps and ending at her wrists. She was also wearing a mana-blue butterfly styled cloak and a bandana on her left wrist, which was actually Tasianna’s clothes as a fairy, there in case she ever decides to transform into a fairy.
As a final addition, Tasianna also requested Saori to add a white waist apron on the dress, as she wanted to signify to the world that she was a maid. Although she loved the dress, she still considered it too colorful to be worn by a servant. Tasianna honestly took pride in looking like a maid when she’s willing to do that.
So, to please her, Saori sewed an apron with a similar design as her hem, while keeping it completely white to resemble a maid dress.
Saori’s outfit, on the other hand, threw away any notion of looking cute like Tasianna’s and mine. Hers looked the most modern among us, taking on a professional style with a black dress shirt and trousers, looking as if she was about to enter a classroom for a lecture.
Instead of a cloak like ours, Saori is styling a black and white short-sleeved trench coat that was pretty reminiscent of a certain Victorian assassin game that I knew about. To finish her look, she also sewed herself a crimson red scarf and fingerless gloves, finalizing herself a very rogue-like outfit while maintaining a sense of modernism.
As you should know, Saori couldn’t make boots at all, so Saori and I were running through on the grounds barefooted. It wasn’t much of a problem for us as I had my scales and Saori’s were protected by thick fur and paws. Tasianna was the only one who needed some foot protection, so I just made some wooden sandals for her.
Interestingly enough, Saori absolutely hated the fact that she couldn't make boots as she despised seeing her legs covered in fur. That was the main reason why her outfit barely showed any skin. I can imagine her wearing some long boots, reaching her thighs if we ever get some.
Also, to note, we switched out Lorena’s rags with one of our spare blue mana dresses, as she didn’t fit into any of Saori’s custom creations.
As I was musing about how absolutely, fricking awesome we looked now, we eventually reached the vicinity of a group of houses.
Many of the houses were demolished, showing signs that they were burnt down from the still black grass that remained despite the buildings being slowly removed. A few new buildings have already been constructed but they looked like they were rushed, probably just there so they could stave off the cold winds and nights.
There were no walls or anything that resembled defensive structures. It was very likely that the budget and manpower was invested into getting houses and the necessary facilities up, decisions that benefited the recovery of the once-raided village.
Hmm, I guess you don’t need too many walls when a few guards and…a militia? I dunno but they look like watchmen.
Saori, using her incredible eyesight, used [Identify] on the few remarkable ones but was quickly let down. They all were stronger than Lorena, who was practically a weak or untrained F rank monster, but none of them impressed us. They could all go up against an F rank and defeat them, but they would have trouble fighting against an E rank alone.
Both their stats and skills weren’t anything to talk about, but it was enough to protect themselves. It also was interesting that all of them had some kinda weapon ability.
So, from peculiar and dangerous monster skills to weapon abilities. I guess this is the biggest difference between humans and monsters.
It makes sense, human ingenuity isn’t reserved for equipment and tools alone. Techniques and knowledge are also a reason why humans can dominate beasts, despite the difference in raw power.
They might look weak but I shouldn’t underestimate them. I was a human once, too, and I know how good they can be working together. Until I can get a good reference, I shouldn’t look for a fight.
…Well, I never intended to do so. I can’t go around and look for conflict everywhere I go. I’m a dragon but I don’t have to act like a feral monster.
Lorena jumped off Saori’s back with gusto and sprinted towards the village. As we couldn’t leave her alone until she made it to the village, my party ran after her.
As we approached the village, some of the militiamen saw us and shouted, "Guards!" and "Everybody come over!", and then suddenly unsheathed their weapons.
“Stop! Who the hell are you people?! Nobody ‘sides the folks living here can get past,” one of the militiamen shouted to stop us.
“Halt! This land belongs to Lord Count Helvas. If you don’t stop now, we will attack!” one of the guards shouted.
Ahh, how nostalgic. It’s always a great feeling when people point their weapons at you~
“No, wait!” Lorena screamed. “I’m a part of Carine Village. I’m one of those that got kidnapped during the raid a month ago. Please, I need to talk with chief Colwyn!”
The guards and the militiamen looked at each other for a moment, unsure if they could trust her words or not, but eventually snapped out of their confusion and reasserted their stance.
"We are under the order of the Lord Helvas to not allow anybody in without their ID. Show your ID and you can go in,” a guard said.
“What?! Did you not listen to me? I was one of the ones that got kidnapped! How am I supposed to have my ID with me when I escaped!” Lorena then turned to us in a panic. “Hestia, Saori, could you please show them your IDs. I bet they will let us through once they see yours.”
“Sorry, we do not have any,” Saori said nonchalantly.
“Same,” I agreed with a shrug.
“…,” and Tasianna stayed silent.
Tasianna lost hers during her stay with the trolls and we never got ours. What else could we have said?
“If that is the case, then please leave the area. We are under orders of our lord to protect this village. We can’t make any exceptions for you, Misses,” one of the guards said.
Looking at the fact that the militia also agreed to it, we really have no way to persuade them. Well, too bad but I’m not really willing to cause a ruckus today. We have to think of a different way.
“Wait, even if that is the case, you can’t do this because…uh,” suddenly without much warning, Lorena grabbed my arm and pushed me forwards. "She's a priestess of our Goddess! We are by law not allowed to forbid a member of the Church to enter a settlement! You can't stop us, otherwise, you will have sinned in front of a priestess!"
WHAT?!
“Uhhh, Lorena?” I looked at her with bewilderment.
“Please, play along,” she whispered. “If you can use holy magic then you must have been a shrine maiden or priestess-in-training. That still I counts…I think.”
What do you mean ‘you think’?! I don’t need Aurena believing I’m somebody who pretends to be somebody else just to get benefits!
…Also, Tasianna could you please stop glaring at Lorena like that! Your aura is sending a chill down my spine.
"Wait? A priestess?" Lorena's words seemed to have caused some unrest among the watchmen as they were once again talking among themselves. Militiamen or guard, it didn’t matter as everybody had their own interests to follow here, some were worried and were willing to let us through while some stayed steadfast and argued back.
“Oi, mate, what you think you doing? We got clear orders and I’m not gonna break my contract, here. Don’t care if it’s a priestess or the pope, nobody gets in the village without IDs,” one of the militiamen shouted at a nervous-looking guard.
“The hell?! Use your fucking brain, merc! She’s a priestess of our Goddess here, mate. I don’t know about you, but I have a family to take care of and I’m not fucking risking angering her,” the guard rebutted.
“And how are we supposed to explain this to the cap, eh?” another guard spoke up. “He’s gonna report this to Lord Helvas and we will get punished if we break our orders. I’ll apologize at church for this, but I need the job, mate.”
An absolute mess erupted from Lorena’s lie, voices clashing with each other and getting louder and louder the longer this fight lasted. Nobody went for their weapons but if we left them to their own devices, all of them would probably end up using their fists to “strengthen” their arguments.
As the chaos continued, eventually, a few other people arrived to see what the cause of the ruckus was. Considering they had no weapons and their clothes were very similar to Lorena’s, before they became revealing rags, I would guess that these must be her fellow villagers.
“Oi, what is with all this noise before 3rd bell? Are we getting attacked, again?!” coming forth from the mass of villagers, an older looking man with a lumberjack beard shouted as he carried a woodcutter’s axe with him.
At his sight, Lorena let go of me and ran pass the quarreling watchmen, making herself towards the villagers, “Chief?! Everyone! Chief Colwyn, it’s me!”
“Hey, lass, nobody told you could enter yet-warrgh!" one of the militiamen noticed this and was about to apprehend her, but through a twist of fate, he suddenly tripped on a small patch of earth, crashing on the ground face-first. This was the universe speaking…and not me using [Earth Wall] to stop him. Nope, that wasn’t me at all.
As Lorena ran screaming towards them, some of the villagers suddenly expressed surprise, exclaiming stuff like, “Hey, isn’t that Lorena?!” and “What the hell, weren’t you captured with your family, lass?!”
Lorena was embraced by a group of women, crying as they saw the once enslaved girl. "Are you alright, you poor thing, you look like a stick." and "Lorena, thank the Goddess, you've made it back. I thought I would never see you again, my friend", are just a few heartwarming "welcome back" from this tear-jerking sight.
Yesterday, Lorena's tears were filled with sorrow, caused by the recent events of her life and also her decision to prioritize her survival over others, feeling guilty that she had to do it. Now, her face was filled with relief and joy, a reward for successfully returning to her village after a week in the wilds.
“Back off, back off,” interrupting this sight was none other than lumberjack beard, the chief of this village. “Lorena, is that really you? H-How did you make it back?” he asked in astonishment, placing his large hands on her dainty shoulders.
As if she remembered her original goal, Lorena grabbed onto his arms and hectically shouted, “Chief Colwyn, the bandits! W-We need to send help now! My ma and pa, and the other villagers! We have to act now, otherwise-”
“Hold onto your equerochs, how am I supposed to understand anything from all that screaming, lass?!” the village chief expressed, stopping Lorena from speaking by blocking her mouth with his hand. “Let’s go into my house, and talk there…who are those women over there?”
“Huh? Oh, they! They rescued me from a pack of wolves and brought me safely back!” Lorena explained. “Ah! That beastmen lass with the horns, she’s a former priestess of our Goddess! Chief, she used her miracles to save my life! The White Grace!”
“Wha-?”
‘The White Grace’? Huh, is that what people call holy spells? I think Lorena did mention something like that yesterday. Well, whatever it is, it’s causing a stir among the villagers.
A few villagers were looking at me with deep curiosity while others were conflicted if they should believe what Lorena said at face value or not. Putting myself in their shoes, I couldn’t say that I would fault the skeptics. I was just a stranger and nothing besides my white mage clock was very “priestess”-like…even then, nobody would understand the reference anyways.
“…I see, if you’re telling the truth, then we have to welcome them properly,” the village chief said with a frown. “Hey, guards! I can confirm the identity of this girl, she’s one of us! Also, let those lasses inside, too! I’ll speak with Lord Helvas about everything, so don’t worry!”
With that, our passage into the village was pretty much guaranteed. The chief said a few words to the other villager and then told them that he would take care of us, giving my party a passionate welcome, “Welcome to Carine Village, I’m their chief, Colwyn. A blessed Light day onto you, Priestess of our Goddess, we welcome you and your companions to our humble hamlet, protected by her merciful light.”
This religious greeting was very similar to what Tasianna once gave the lizardmen, emphasizing on giving respect to the gods that the current day was dedicated to. It just so happens that today was LightDay, Aurena’s day, and also a Friday if it were on Earth.
This little bit of information actually was enough for Tasianna to figure out the exact date. According to her, today was the 6th of AutumnSun. With this little amount of information, we managed to solve one of our problems after we left the cave.
Now knowing what day, it was, I knew exactly what I had to do now. As a cover for our future life outside Belzac forest, Saori and I had to take on a religious following, even if it was fake. Everybody in this world was religious, especially when every origin god had multiple subordinate gods under them.
I was already sorta affiliated to Aurena due to [The Light] and my [Holy Magic], so choosing my deity wasn’t so hard. To create the perfect persona, Tasianna made sure to drill into me how the fairy royal family would give thanks to the gods. Considering it was just remembering some words in addition to acting formal, I had no problems learning it.
I pinched the hem of my clock, which was closed and only showed the lower half of my thighs due to modesty, and gave a curtsy, reciprocating a greeting worthy enough to greet royalty, “I thank you so graciously for your hospitality on this fine LightDay. Let Goddess Aurena’s hands hold you tightly in your time of need, and her light warm you with hope in the cold of the darkness. Under her guidance, I, Hestia Atsuko, accept your reception from the bottom of my heart, Chief Colwyn.”
Finishing my response, the surrounding suddenly turned silent, awestruck as they slacked their jaws. Even the rowdy guards and militiamen were affected by it, some turning deadly silent as not even their armor and weapons clattered, while others dropped on both knees and started asking me for forgiveness.
<Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Noble Aura Lv. 5] evolved into [Noble Aura Lv. 6]>
<Multiple acquisition requirements fulfilled. [Alluring Aura Lv. 1] [Stage Fever Lv. 1] [Admiration Lv. 1] acquired>
Damn, I nailed that perfectly! Mhmph!
