Proofreader: Xemul

Loren and the party searched the village for a while, but what they found was that not a single villager was in sight.

There were signs of attacks all over the village, and although it was expected that a large number of people had been injured or killed, not a single corpse had been found, and it seemed that these events had occurred long before their party visited the place.

“What do you think, Loren?”

Loren pondered over Lapis’ rather vague question.

They knew for certain that something had happened in this village, but had no idea as to what it might have been. If there had been any bodies or survivors left behind, they might have been able to find some clues, but when even that was not available, Loren didn’t know where to start.

“I’m not saying I’m a muscle-brain, but… I’m not good at this kind of thing.”

As Loren said this, his thoughts gradually began to lean towards the idea of pretending to have not seen anything and move on.

Even if the cause of the disaster was now known, the village would not be restored. If there were survivors or something, it would not be impossible to think about revenge and such, but there was none here. It was not uncommon for a remote village to be destroyed for one reason or another; the country would eventually take notice, and another new village would simply spring up somewhere else.

“That reminds me, to some extent, there are soldiers stationed to protect the village, aren’t there?”

“Yes, there are. In a village like this, there are usually a few to a dozen soldiers stationed by the government to guard the village.”

“No sign of them. Or…have they fled?”

It also depended on the scale of the attack, but Loren guessed from the traces left in the village that there were so many that a dozen or so soldiers could offer no resistance. Though whether the soldiers fought bravely there or ran for their lives, he could not be sure.

“If the soldiers had fled, the information would have been passed on to the government, so it would not be surprising if they had formed a sizable force and come to recapture the village.”

“And if no one has come, either they’re in the middle of organizing, or the soldiers couldn’t get away… Either way, it’s a troublesome story.”

“A farming village isn’t an isolated place, is it? Isn’t there another similarly sized farming village nearby?”

At Gula’s words, Loren and Lapis looked at Dia. She was supposed to be the most knowledgeable of them all when it came to the geography of the area.

“There are several of them. Do you want to visit them while there is still some daylight?”

“Yes. If there is a safe village, we should let them know.”

Whether it was to ask for help from the government or flee the area, the other villages would not be able to make a move unless they knew that there was imminent danger. That was why Loren thought it would be a good idea to inform them of this information, and without any objections, the party decided to leave the destroyed village and travel around the neighboring farming villages, driving wagons under Dia’s guidance.

However, it seemed that the situation had already deteriorated considerably long before Loren and his party made their move.

Dia led them to a nearby farming village, but what awaited them there was almost identical to the scene they had seen in the previous farming village.

“Loren, this village is no better.”

Gula, who had entered the village for a quick survey, reported so to Loren, who was keeping watch on their wagon parked on the outskirts.

According to her report, in the second village they visited, there was no trace of any villagers, living or dead, houses were destroyed here and there, and marks of some kind of struggle were left all over the place.

“The foodstuffs are all gone, but most of the cash and household goods have been left untouched.”

“That’s odd if this was the work of bandits.”

If the village was attacked by bandits, who usually took everything, it was incomprehensible that they would leave valuable belongings behind. Especially the cash; they should have taken it no matter what they left behind, and it was strange that they had left it untouched.

Loren wondered about the possibility that the resistance on the village side had been so fierce that the bandits had given up on those items. If that was the case, it would be a reasonably plausible explanation for the current situation; maybe the surviving villagers had abandoned the village to carry the injured and the dead away and to seek help from the government.

“But even in that case, they wouldn’t leave cash behind…”

Cash was necessary, both as traveling expenses and for other use before they could get help. The possibility of villagers abandoning the village without taking any of it was inconceivable.

“Loren, there is something else that is actually odd.”

Dia called out to Loren, who had been lost in unanswerable thoughts. When he looked at her, wondering what more there was to see under the circumstances, Dia was keeping her gaze fixed on Mt. Fire Flute, visible from the village.

“I have come this close, and yet there is no reaction. This is very strange. I would have thought they would at least come to check on me.”

Loren could not tell which were the more powerful beings, the Elders or the Ancient Dragons. However, there was no doubt that both are powerful beings, and it was indeed strange that there had been no response from the Ancient Dragon’s side when such a being like an Elder was approaching.

It would have been understandable if the Ancient Dragon was a much more powerful entity, so far removed in power that it did not need to pay any attention to the movements of an Elder, but from what he had seen of Dia, it did not seem to be the case.

“You can see the Ancient Dragon from here?”

“Well, actually, I don’t feel such a powerful presence from that mountain. I have never been this close to the mountain before. Since I don’t feel anything… maybe there is no Ancient Dragon on that mountain anymore.”

“That can’t be. Maybe because we are introduced by another Ancient Dragon?”

Lapis was flustered by Dia’s words, but the Elder just calmly asked.

“When was the last time that Ancient Dragon came face to face with its own kin? Unlike us Elders, no matter how great the Ancient Dragon may be, they still have a lifespan.”

When she said that, Lapis had no choice but to close her mouth.

The Ancient Dragon named Emery, who gave Loren’s party information about the Ancient Dragons living in the human realm, was living in the demon territory, and she didn’t tell them how long her kin had been living in the other realm. It would not be surprising if the dragon had lost their life for some unfortunate reason before their party arrived here. Whether it was an external factor, such as the appearance of a very powerful enemy, or an internal factor, such as the lifespan of the Ancient Dragon itself, either possibility could not be dismissed.

“It would be better if they had died of natural causes.”

Nim said, keeping a wary eye on the area.

“Let’s just report to the Adventurers’ Guild that there are no more dragons on Mt. Fire Flute. Maybe we can get a dragon corpse in our hands. That’s worth a lot of money.”

Nim said that there was nothing to throw away from a dragon’s body. Flesh, skin, scales, teeth, and even bones were all high-end raw materials and ingredients that fetched a hefty price when they hit the market. And if they came from an Ancient Dragon, the price could skyrocket, and in some cases, it could bring in more than just a fortune.

“The scales and fangs alone are quite something. We’ll be lucky if we can pick them up.”

“If we can.”

Loren’s original objective was the information he might get from the Ancient Dragon, but if he couldn’t get it, he couldn’t help but shift his interest to the cash income.

However, that was only if the desired Ancient Dragon was really dead, and he had no idea what had happened to it at the present.

“Old dragons are able to suppress the power of their own presence. We can’t assume that they’re dead, but… it’s strange that they don’t appear at all.”

“If they know that Dia has no hostile intent, they may not have bothered to show up at all.”

In Loren’s opinion, no matter how powerful the Elder was, if there was no hostility, an existence such as the Ancient Dragon would not be so alarmed.

Dia nodded gravely at his words.

“I thought so, too. I’ve tried to intimidate them a few times since a while ago.”

“Don’t make things worse.”

Loren brought his hand down on the top of Dia’s head, making her hold her head in both hands and crouch down on the spot.

Seeing this, Nim looked at Loren with amazement.

“Loren, you are an amazing child. How dare you hit an Elder?”

”You’d better think it’s because I’m an Elder who can take a joke, elf.”

Dia, with tears in her eyes and head in her hands, said in a displeased tone, and Nim hurriedly hid behind Loren. As Loren thought that using him as a shield was meaningless because he would have no chance if Dia truly attacked, Lapis asked him for the second time.

“Loren, what do we do now?”

“Well…”

Loren looked up at the sky and checked the position of the sun.

Although the sun was still reasonably high in the sky, the time of day was such that they unlikely had enough time to get close to the mountain. Loren thought that if they were going to climb Fire Flute Mountain, which no one knew what was on there, it should be during the daytime, and he did not want to spend the night in the mountain without a compelling reason to do so.

Thinking that it seemed best to camp out for the night and head for the mountain tomorrow morning, Loren looked around their surroundings.

The area around them consisted of a highway and some plains, and just one step away from a forest. Loren felt that it was a waste to avoid the open space of the village and camp out on the plains or among the trees, but he also wondered if it was really a good idea to camp in a village where villagers had disappeared for unknown reasons.

“A compromise would be to camp a little further from the village.”

There was some open space on the outskirts of the village so that wagons could be parked. Loren suggested that they camp there, and the other members readily accepted his suggestion, perhaps thinking that it was better than inside the village and that it would be troublesome to set up camp too far away from the place.

“No one would think of raiding a village once it had been destroyed.”

No one doubted Lapis’ opinion that this would be a relatively safer place to spend the night than other places.