Chapter 72: The Start of a new Request.

“Hieee! Hurgh, hurg-ACK!” the woman cried out in pain as she attempted to stand up.

The moment she woke up and was alerted about our presence, she immediately tried to get up but that didn’t lead to anything as her dislocated ankle gave in. I actually noticed it, but I intentionally decided against healing that one as I was a bit worried that she would run away from us.

Paranoid, I know, but I was worried due to Tasianna’s description of the relationship between beastmen and humans and thought that she would run away from us. Also, by leaving the injury there, I gave myself a chance to heal it, enabling me to show off that we were friendly.

A bit devious, I know, but well…there wasn’t any excuses besides me being cautious.

“Oh, hello! You woke up,” I said as I approached her with a smile, doing my best to pronounce everything correctly in Common tongue.

“Stay back!” she called out, stretching her hand forward to separate me from her. “Wh-Who are you? A-Are you one of them?”

“One of them”? Is she talking about the people that did “that” to her?

“I don’t believe I know who you are talking about but we three are simply passing through this forest, that is all,” I answered, waving my hands with a wry smile to show my sincerity. “Oh, right, where are my manners. My name is Hestia, it is a pleasure to meet you.” I introduced myself with a curtsy.

I actually have no idea why I just did that, honestly. Was it due to Tasianna’s influence or was it ‘cause I wanted to give her a proper impression of me? Whatever, what’s done is done. I can only hope now that she doesn’t think that we’re some random brigands or something.

Noticing that she was still confused, I continued with introducing my companions, “These are my friends. The wolfkin is Saori and the wind elf…uhh, is Tasianna. We found you when you fell unconscious and chased those wolves away for you.”

I should be happy that Tasianna hadn't pounced on her yet but the literal cold eyes that she was giving the young woman weren't any better. I was trying to show to her that we were friendly, that we had no intention of hurting her, but Tasianna really isn’t helping towards that cause.

Thankfully, after I told her through [Telepathy] to stop, she listened to me and just went back to sorting out the dresses that Saori made for her. I feel like she was still on-guard but that was better than her bone-chilling glare.

I turned my attetnion back to our injured guest and continued speaking with her, “I am sorry about that. If it would be acceptable for you, may I take a look at your ankle? It seems I missed it when I healed you, he he.”

“Huh!? W-What are you planning!?” she asked, still wary.

“Nothing, nothing! Please, this is all I am planning,” with a smile, I conjured up a white magic circle atop my palm. “It is a simple spell to heal your wounds, nothing else.”

“…H-Holy Magic…Are you a shrine maiden or priestess?” the woman said with widened eyes, glued to my spell.

“Uhm, I’m more like a wandering entertainer that wishes to help,” I stated. “So, will you allow me to help you?”

Blinking her eyes at my answer, the woman stayed mute for a few seconds, thinking over her options and choices, eventually coming to the conclusion that she might as well allow me to heal her leg.

Confirming her answer with a nod, I walked to her and kneeled. Taking her injured ankle in my hands once more, I conjured up another white magic circle, this time for the spell [Moderate Heal].

Alright, I actually do want to do a proper check-up this time. Guess I should use them, Mana Eyes, on!

Exactly as I activated my newest skill [Mana Eyes], I was quickly assaulted by a screen of blue, penetrating my brain with a huge influx of information. I was straining my eyes to keep them open as they were exposed to an experience similar to looking at the sun, only that everything before me were blue mana particles swimming around in the air.

Compared to when I was first introduced to this new view, I was sorta prepared for it this time. I made sure to have my parallel minds ready to intercept everything so they could process all of it.

However, despite all my preparations, my brain couldn’t handle all this stress for too long, but it was enough for me to see what I needed. I could see mana particles exiting the woman’s body through her mana paths, I could see the concentration of my mana inside the magic circle quickly transforming the mana into odd forms and shapes as it entered the woman’s body, attaching themselves to her body and performing what they had to, to heal her body.

If I wasn’t getting the greatest migraine of my life right now, I probably would continue watching this scene, but I just couldn’t. It was physically impossible, and it exhausted every single of my parallel minds, as they had to work in overtime to keep up with the amount of information that I was receiving. Honestly, this might be the closest you could describe overclocking your brain, similar to how you would do it for your computer.

Thankfully, I wasn’t an emotionless machine, but that also meant that I couldn’t handle the pain. Besides for skills like [Mental Stability] or [Mind Protection], nothing in the System actually helped me keep this up. My stats were useless against this mental stress and my skills weren’t being too helpful.

Yeah, even with my parallel minds helping me out, I can’t process all of this perfectly. Maybe it’ll get better when the skill levels up, but I’ll get an information overload if I keep this on for too long.

After getting a proper taste of how much of a strain it put on my mind, I deactivated the skill. My eyes felt hot and my brain seemed like it could explode any second now. My breathing was laborious, and I could hear my heart beating faster than usual.

Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Mental Stability Lv. 6] [Mental Corruption Resistance Lv. 3] [Mind Protection Lv. 3] [Mana Eyes Lv. 2] [Parallel Thoughts Lv. 9] gained

Multiple acquisition requirements fulfilled. [High-Speed Calculation Lv. 1] [Multi-Thought Processing Lv. 1] acquired

He, I deserved that after that torture…

With a resounding crack, I brought her ankle back to its proper position and then healed it with the [Moderate Heal] spell, in case, anything was broken.

“My foot…thank you very much, Miss Priestess. And…sorry for being rude, and thank you for saving me from those wolves! May the blessing of the Goddess of Light be with you,” the woman said with a small smile, but quickly turned it into a frown. “However,…I-I’m sorry but I don’t have the money to repay you for this service. I apologize, sincerely! Please, I ask for forgiveness!”

A piece of information did stick with me when I traveled with the lizardmen and that was their fear of holy magic. More specifically, holy magic practitioners and the race that they belonged to. According to Apsala, she associated holy magic with human priests who occasionally came to her home's swamps and attacked many scale-kins, therefore, making her cautious of anybody who practiced it as she didn't have a good impression of the goddess of light, Aurena.

Knowing this, I used this information against this woman, which proved to be a success as she just thanked me in a blessing-like way. However, what was this talk about money?

“Money? I’m sorry but what do you mean by that?” I asked to resolve my confusion.

“Miss Priestess, the money for your miraculous service. Didn’t you summon a miracle from our Goddess to protect me? My prayers have come true and you have come to help me, but without repaying you, how can I call myself a faithful servant of our Goddess,” the woman said, fidgeting with her fingers as she kept her head down.

This is problematic. Why do I always meet these religious people, jeez. I need to ask Tasianna for more information. I can’t do anything now, I mulled to myself.

After thinking for a bit, I asked her a question, “…May I have your name?”

“Yes, of course, Miss Priestess! It is Lorena,” she responded firmly.

Hmm, now that I look at her face without all the dirt and grime, she doesn’t look as old as I thought. Not around my age, maybe around Saori’s?

“Alright, then, Miss Lorena. We can speak about all of this later on, but I think you require some food, no?” I said with a smile, pointing at her growling stomach, causing her to hide her blushing face.

“Saori! Tasianna!” I called out, now finished with my talks, interrupting them as they tested out different dresses as if they in a clothing store on Earth. “If you haven’t heard, this is Lorena. Now that it’s getting late, how about we start dinner preparations?”

Putting everything inside her own storage, Saori showed me an "ok" gesture with her fingers and began taking some ingredients out. I also began unpacking our utensils, dishware, and cauldron, placing them close to our campfire. Once I gave Tasianna her teapot and cups, she helped herself to some of Saori's herbs and began making tea for us.

Lorena, seeing everything coming out of our storage, was initially flabbergasted about everything, asking, “What is this magic?! How did everything appear from thin air?!”, but quickly accepted what was happening.

Regaining her rationality, she then wanted to help us with the preparations but was swiftly refused by Saori and Tasianna. Saori told her, “Please, you are our guest. Let us do the work,” while Tasianna plainly said, “Do not touch our Lady’s food…”

You know, I should be angry at her rude remark but watching Tasianna tremble and struggling to keep herself composed made me pity her. She really didn’t like being this close to Lorena. Where has my lovely and polite maid gone?!

Once we finished our preparations, I produced some chairs and we all sat down as Saori and Tasianna served both our meal and tea. Not surprisingly, there were also some complications here as Tasianna was pretty reluctant about serving her tea to Lorena, forcing me to order her to do so.

With a quiet “Itadikimasu” from us three, that included Tasianna, we were about to eat but were stopped by Lorena who asked us why we weren’t praying beforehand. Saori and I never really prayed, only saying “Itadikimasu” to give our thanks for the food, while Tasianna recently stopped doing it in favor of copying us.

Saying that it’s alright and that we wanted to keep this casual, I managed to explain to her why we didn’t do it. Nonetheless, she still gave a prayer to Aurena as thanks for the food. Once, she was finished, she immediately jumped onto her stew with ravenous hunger and began devouring it with gusto.

You should be able to see this, right, Aurena? You did say something about being able to see through the eyes of your followers?

“Thank you, this is so good,” Lorena praised without giving up gorging herself.

He he, she’s eating exactly like a lizardman…pretty surreal, I thought, finding it good that she had an appetite.

After she finished her first bowl, Saori asked her if she wanted seconds but she humbly declined it. Saori seemed to have wanted to give her more but respected her choice, nonetheless, giving up on it. So, instead of doing that, we decided to ask her what happened to her.

"I'm sorry if you are fine about it, could you tell us what happened with yourself? Finding you unconscious in the woods isn’t normal, right?” I asked her with obvious curiosity.

Upon hearing me ask that, Lorena immediately jumped on her feet and shouted, “No, I forgot! I must return to the village now! I need to call for help!”, before trying to sprint off into the night. I guess some people would let her off as it wasn’t their problem in the first place and trying to intrude in other’s businesses would be considered rude, but I would feel bad letting a young woman go, who barely ate enough considering her body’s state and who nearly ended in some wolves stomach.

Constructing a [Terra Wall], I impeded her advance and called her out, “Miss Lorena, you might be in a hurry to leave but it’s already evening. I don’t think it’s wise to wander alone, especially when there are wolves around.”

Lorena stopped before crashing onto my wall, asking in confusion how the wall was constructed and if an earth mage was around. It took her nearly ten seconds to finally calm down to respond to my words, “Miss Priestess, is this one of your companions doing? Please, I know I haven’t paid my due yet, and that I am being rude, but I have to leave now! I have to inform my village about what happened!”

“That was my work and please call me Hestia. You are mistaken to think that I’m a priestess,” I informed her. “I’m not holding you back because of anything besides thinking that it might be a bad idea for you to wander off alone…into a forest…during the night.”

“I agree with Lady Hestia. Miss Lorena, you are in no state to walk and I believe you are not able to defend yourself if the worse were to come?” Saori added. “We mean you no harm, and whatever you must do can wait for morning. So, please, stay.”

Jeez, Saori. If you actually use “Lady” in this situation then this misunderstanding will never go away! I told myself, now realizing how inconvenient it was that my two companions cannot stop addressing me with “Lady” in public.

I know I allowed them to do so and it honestly wasn’t so bad with the lizardmen, but I was feeling a bit embarrassed every time they said it. I honestly thought I got used to it, but it seems I was wrong.

“Th-Thank you very much for your offer, but I really have to go! My ma and pa and many other villagers are counting on me to return to our village and to rescue them!” Lorena shouted. “Please, don’t stop me! I can’t waste any more time-urgh!”

You literally devoured a single bowl of stew in literal seconds, almost drinking it. Can’t you see that your [Starvation], still hasn’t disappeared?!

When I first used [Identify] on her to get a quick summary of her injuries, I noticed a few interesting things on it. First, that her stats were incredibly low, around the lower end of a Rank F monsters, and that her level was only one. I have the impression that this is what I should expect a normal woman would have.

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Secondly, that she had [Starvation (Moderate)] and [Exhaustion (Moderate)]. She managed to reduce both after dropping unconscious and eating Saori's stew, but neither has disappeared yet.

I can personally say that doing anything while you had these two status effects was suicidal. If you had something like [Adrenaline], then I can understand your decision to move, but without it, it was just dumb.

"Here, let me help you stand up," Saori stood up and went to Lorena's side, offering her shoulder. "Your body has reached its physical limits for the day, Miss Lorena. We do not wish to force you to stay but we cannot allow you to go on with a good conscience. Stay the night with us and rest. Once morning comes, you may do what you wish.”

Lorena tried to stand up on her own, but it seems her body has finally realized that she literally had zero stamina and a malnourished body whose owner refused to eat more to fill herself up. Finally, giving up on her escape, Lorena leaned herself onto Saori’s shoulder and allowed her to set her down onto her chair.

Afterward, Saori took her bowl and filled it up with another serving of our stew, offering it to her once again. Lorena tried to humbly decline it, again, but that didn't work on Saori another time, as she expertly persuaded Lorena that she needed food if she wished to have the energy for the morning.

After two more bowls of stew, Lorena’s [Starvation] disappeared and her lips formed a satisfied smile, although her eyes were still tingling with anxiousness and restlessness, probably concerning whatever was so urgent.

After wetting her throat with more tea, she thanked us wholeheartedly, genuinely having fulfilled most of her needs besides sleep. Although looking at how she was fidgeting with her cup and her trembling legs, I really was starting to become interested in what happened with her.

However, the first to speak wasn’t me but Lorena, “Miss Priestess, may I ask a favor of you?”

“Sure, ask away. However, please call me Hestia,” I responded. “As I have said before, I’m a wandering entertainer and not a priestess of Goddess Aurena. I wouldn’t dare call myself one.”

It was true. I really am not a priestess or a shrine maiden. Aurena never said anything about it in the missive that she sent me, simply telling me that I should get to one of her churches and pray to her so we could speak.

I am, however, an aspiring Idol. But the thing is that until now, nobody in this world knew what an Idol was, and even after describing it to them, they had no recollection of anything similar to it. The lizardmen called me a ritual dancer and Tasianna simply understood that I sang and danced energetically.

There would be confusion if I told Lorena that I was an Idol, and I wasn’t in the mood to go through the effort to describe it every single time. That’s why I’m calling myself a wandering entertainer until I can show them what an Idol was. Showing is far superior to an explanation, especially when it concerned Idol culture.

“Oh, yes, if that is what you want, Hestia. And you can also drop the ‘Miss’ part for me, too. I think I’m a few years older than you but by not much,” Lorena said with a gentle smile. “Oh, Miss Saori and Miss Tasianna, right? If it’s alright, coul you also call me Lorena, too?”

Fair enough, I thought with a shrug and nod.

“I am fine with that, Lorena,” Saori accepted the proposal. “So, what do you wish to ask of us? You mentioned a favor?”

“Yes, I know this is extremely rude of me to ask, especially after all you’ve done for me, but could you please guide me back to my village?” Lorena stated while clasping both her hands together and placing them in front of herself in a prayer-like pose. “I must return to my village as soon as possible and tell everybody there something important! The forest is filled with dangers like those wolves, but I believe with the presence of a holy mage then we should have the Goddess’ protection with us! Even if you aren’t a priestess now, you must have been when you learned your magic, correct?”

Uhhh, no?

“Please, wait. I understand what you need but we require more information than this,” Saori interrupted Lorena, cautiously asking her for more details. “Could you start with what happened with you? Lady Hestia, inspected you while you were unconscious and…what have they done to you?”

Lorena fell silent for a while, apprehensive of revealing how she got “that”, “I-I…please, whatever I say, can you please keep it to yourself? I-I don’t want anybody to know this, nobody! I can’t have anybody know. I promise I will say everything under the guidance of our Goddess.”

Tears began to stream down her face as she clutched her hands together, once again adopting a praying pose. She was trembling as she covered her lower private part, probably remembering the reason for her trauma.

“Don’t worry, nobody will know anything you say from our mouth, I promise,” I said with a deep frown, knowing from just looking that she really didn’t want to talk about it.

"Lorena, you have my word that we will not tell anybody what you are about to tell us," Saori responded with a focused gaze.

The only one who didn’t say anything was Tasianna as she was more pre-occupied with enjoying her meal. She should be able to guess what happened to the poor girl, which makes her indifference a bit callous. It seems she really isn’t interested in anything Lorena has to say.

Lorena swept away some tears as she started to speak, “T-Thank you, huck…It happened about a month ago. HarvestFest just ended and we just came back to our village after enjoying the festivities at Firwood. We were so exhausted, and we thought it would’ve been a peaceful night, huck!”

Lorena explained that a raid happened that night. A group of humans and beastmen invaded the village, robbing everybody from their belongings and killing a few of the guards. In the aftermath of the attack, the group of bandits kidnapped any woman and man who couldn't escape, taking them as prisoners.

Lorena and her parents were among the few villagers who were unlucky to have been captured. They were stripped of all their valuables and then placed into prison wagons as the bandit transported them away from the camp. It seems they got lucky as they were able to keep their clothes, especially important as winter was coming.

They were brought to the bandit’s camp and kept there, waiting for somebody. Lorena thought that it must have been a slave trader or somebody who wanted to buy the villagers, as the bandits kept speaking about money when they taunted them.

Lorena and the villagers hoped that some help would come as not everybody from the village was enslaved, trusting them that they would call the mercenary guild for help. And, as they wished for it, some help eventually did come but those mercenaries were hopelessly outmatched and dispatched. Most man was killed during the attack while any surviving women were spare from the worse ending.

At this point, Lorena's floodgates opened up once again and wailing of pain and sadness resounded from her. It took her a near minute to calm down again, continuing her story.

“Nobody came anymore after that. The bandits also kept moving and moving around, never staying in one place for too long after those mercenaries attacked,” Lorena said with a trembling voice, ready to break into tears once again. “A-And then, about a week ago, a couple of men appeared at the camp. I don’t know who they were, but they began talking to the bandit’s leader. After that, he told one of his men to bring a girl forward, and I was the one they chose.”

No matter how much she resisted, the lack of good food and the tiring environment she lived in made it impossible for her to break free. She was sent into a tent with an obese man dressed in fine clothing and jewels aplenty.

He told Lorena to enjoy the fruit and wine that was placed on the table. Lorena, who was starving at this point, couldn’t help herself but jump into it just like she did just now. She ate everything in a mad frenzy, so unbecoming of a person that it resembled more like that of an animal.

After she was full, she suddenly felt extremely drowsy and was unable to hold herself on her feet, instantly falling on the ground and losing consciousness. The next moment she woke up, she found herself on the ground feeling extreme pain and blood around her bottom.

She wanted to reject the very truth at that moment, wanting to believe that she was merely on her period, but nothing could change that she was feeling a pain that she never felt in her life before. She wanted to cry but she also noticed something else that made her stop her tears.

And that was the noise that came from outside the tent.

Peeking through it, she could see the fat man and the bandit leader arguing with each other as some of the slaves were put into cages. The argument was so heated that most of the bandits and the fat man’s bodyguard were concentrated around that area, leaving everything else without a guard.

Lorena knew at this point that she had to go. This was her moment to escape. She wanted to free her parents and villagers but at that very moment, she was overwhelmed by an incredible fear of staying in the camp.

She was just raped. She was bleeding so heavily from her bottom, not because of natural causes, but because of wounds that probably occurred during that despicable moment. And all of that after she spent nearly a month in captivity.

Her natural instincts took her over and forced her body to sneak out of the camp and run as fast as she could away from it. She didn’t look back, despite knowing that her parents were there. She didn’t watch where she was heading, as she just wanted to get away as far as possible, running completely on adrenaline at that point.

“I fell unconscious then and woke up when the light of the sun shined into my eyes. I-I remember everything, hieeeeeee,” Lorena began weeping again. “I left everybody there! I don’t even know if they’re still there or not.”

She was determined to get back to her village. She didn't know where she was nor in which direction she had to go. All she knew was that her village was located right next to a river as the crops that they farmed needed an immense amount of water to keep alive.

Lorena wasn't used to the woods but she knew the basics on how to survive and forage for food. This was a result of her father bringing her out on trips with the other villagers. This was usually a father-son event but she didn't have an siblings, so her father took her instead.

She managed to create simple fires to stave off the cold night while being able to gather a few berries and fruits to keep herself from starving. Her attempts were small and meager, but it kept her alive.

Eventually, she was attacked by those wolves that we saw today. She didn’t know how to hunt, and her body was not in any condition to do so in the first place. She couldn’t do anything but run, run as fast as she could…until her stamina failed her.

“Once again, thank you so very much for rescuing me. If you hadn’t…I prayed so earnestly for our Goddess’ protection,” Lorena said with tearful eyes.

As she cried, Saori, Tasianna, and I used [Telepathy] to talk about the situation, [“So, what do you guys think? I say we help her.”]

[“I also think we should at least help her back to her village. We do not know where we are and this might be a good chance for us to get some directions while doing some good,”] Saori remarked. [“…However, just to make sure, Hestia. You are not intending to hunt down those bandits, right?”]

I would lie if I didn’t think about it. As a fellow girl, I can’t exactly let this go unpunished. If there is one thing that I learned from watching random history documentaries, was that women during these ages valued their virginity quite a lot. You couldn’t get married easily if somebody knew that you already lost it, and the general social stigma was pretty harsh on them.

If anybody knew about this, then I don’t know what will happen with Lorena. I honestly want to go to those bandits and turn them into ash. Let them feel the consequences of being absolute scum and igniting the wrath of a female.

However,…

[“No, of course not. I heard the stuff about the mercenaries,”] I responded. [“I’m pretty sure that I’m stronger than your average person, but I’ve already experienced once what it feels like to run into something recklessly without proper information. I’m not gonna do it, again.”]

During the rescue mission to find and save the lost lizardmen, I accidentally stumbled on one of the snake heads of the [Vellestra Leviathan] and nearly died in the process. It was the first A rank monster that I’ve ever met, and the power difference was too clear. I had no chance of winning, zero.

This isn’t paranoia here; it was being careful. Maybe the bandits have an ace in their sleeves? There is also the fact that I don’t know what the standards were for strength. How strong are human bandits in general?

Yes, I have the lizardmen as references, but that is such a small sample size. I promised Saori that I would give her an Idol concert here. That promise is more important to me than to go on a vigilante mission just to avenge Lorena’s lost purity. I sympathized with her but I had to look out for my friends, foremost.

[“Thank goodness, you are learning,”] Saori said with relief. [“You should know about the whole concept of villeins, right? Her village should have a lord or a knight that should be responsible for her village’s protection. Leave it to the professionals, Hestia.”]

[“Yeah, yeah, I know. I won’t jump into something without a plan, I promise,”] I said while scratching my neck. [“Anyways, what is your answer, Tasianna?”]

Tasianna turned towards me and gave me a small bow, [“…I will do as you command. Your wish is my duty, Lady Hestia.”]

Oh goodness…

Yep, Tasianna was zero interested in Lorena’s problem. At least, she was willing to help just ‘cause I said so. She was so hot-headed and impulsive before Saori’s speech but now she’s ice-cold, brrrr.

With that decided, Saori told Lorena that we would accept her request to bring her back to the village. She was elated to hear that, promising to repay us when she gets to speak with her village chief.

After that was done, Saori kinda forced Lorena to wear one of her new clothes, as she found the rags that she wore, dreadful. This little dressing event lasted until both Saori and Tasianna finally finished choosing out their new outfits.

We then went to sleep and woke up the next morning. Knowing that Lorena was in a hurry, Saori carried her piggyback style as she was too slow to keep up with our speed. It only took our party a few hours to finally find a river and then the village after Lorena gave us directions.

While I wanted to comment about the beautiful blue, sparkling river that was different from Belzac forest’s deep murky swamps, my attention was directed at something else.

Is that a rice plant?

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