Chapter 4: Chapter 4

• 3^rd Person POV

*THUD *THUD *THUD

Thunderous footsteps echoed throughout the village as the blonde-haired man arrived at the tent. In a rush, he opened the flaps while shouting.

“OLD HAG! What the fu- “

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH! WE ARE HAVING A MEETING!”

He immediately goes silent from the high-pitched but filled with affection remark at the opposite end of the tent. Clearly indicates that the person he’s referring to is healthy & hale.

His worries calm down & his heart eases upon hearing the familiar voice of his mother as he checks around the interior of the tent.

In front of him is a large rectangular table paired with chairs. This place is known to be the ‘Council’s Tent’ where important meetings are held in the village of Vogun. It served as a house for him too when he was young but after he got married, he relocated to another tent nearby, though his mother still stays here.

At the opposite end of the table, a much larger chair is placed & sitting on it is an equally large female figure as him, her tanned skin is like the boss & scars on her cheeks and left eye exude fearsome attitude.

Her clothing can be seen in a glance due to the illumination provided by the glowing rocks attached to the ceiling of the tents.

She wore sandy colored hide armor revealing her muscular abs & padded with thick shells on her shoulder and around her vitals. Right beside her chair, is a menacing looking great-hammer resting and ready to be taken in case of any attackers.

Her face resembles that of the boss albeit more feminine with long blonde hair tied into a wild pony tail, her piercing red eyes stare at him eyeing up & down and even if the figure is sitting, her height already dwarfed the rest of the participants in the council meeting. Including the boss albeit minor centimeters difference.

This is the chieftain of Vogun, Maleah of the scorched sun.

The one leading the settlement and once renown in the hunter’s guild with the title ‘Maleah the Unfettered’ proving that she had hunted a great beast in the past and as per tradition of her clan. She stopped working as a hunter & instead lead the village of Vogun.

The name ‘Scorched Sun’ is her ancestral clan and she is the direct descendent of that clan. Which is known to this day to be the first humanoids that settled on the great wasteland of Airun after the event of ‘God’s Wrath’.

Although they have similar characteristic of humans, they are half-giants. A race born from giant & human. Most of the population in Vogun consists of half-giants and humans as they can adapt to the harsh environments of the wasteland. But there are other races as well.

Her son that’s called boss by the citizens & his group of hunters would be the next leader if something happens to her, but it appears he did not want that to happens since clearly, he cares for his mother.

She stares at her son and squint her eyes before saying.

“Leo… You’re out hunting, again aren’t you?”

Like a sharp needle, the accuracy of her deduction hit Leo’s chest as cold sweat begin to emerge from his back. As he turns his head to the side preferring to watch something else.

“N-n-no?”

His way of speaking stuttered upon reply, with Maleah confirmed her suspicion about it. She just looks down and emit a long sigh.

“At least you came back safe, I swear this child would shave off several years of my life”

Leo shrugged his shoulder meekly eliciting a slight twitch on his mother’s eyebrows. It seems that she used that young lad to make Leo rush towards the council’s tent and that’s his little payback.

*Ehem Ehem*

“Ah! Where was I?”

Maleah return to what’s currently at hand and in the meantime, she gestured to Leo to sit down next to her. The seat that is prepared for the next leader as Leo follows suit obediently. There are several figures in this council’s tent currently sitting and listening to the mother & son interaction.

In front of her and to her left, is a shorter male human wearing blue robe with elaborate embroidery. He’s the one who make the sounds of fake cough to catch attention.

Tiny and thick glasses paired with his greying white hair probably estimating him around late fifty years old in human age. His demeanor & clothing choice showed that he’s probably a person of academics rather than a hunter. Nevertheless, his sheer presence in this council room indicate that he’s a person of importance.

“Oh… that’s right! Professor Francis, you said you were bringing good news?”

“Yes, indeed. It appears that Gastodons have begun on their migration.”

Maleah’s lips curved upward upon hearing the news making a relieved & excited smile. Gastodon is the elephant like creature that Leo & his party has hunted.

The reason for her smile, is because Vogun relies on meat hunted by the hunters to survive and during the migration there will be a lot of resources for them to harvest & preserve for months to come.

Though… her eyes turn serious in split second before asking to Francis.

“What about ‘that’? I’m sure it will appear when there’s a lot of prey especially the one ‘it’ likes”

Leo agrees to his mother, knowing what entity the migration will attracts. Francis nods to her question as he opened a small old book with papers already turning yellow. Clearly it is old but still in use by Francis. He flipped to a certain page then speaks.

“It will, but my students have made this to counter it”

Francis take something out from his pocket in his robe, earning a raised eyebrow from Leo & Maleah. What they see is a small vial containing transparent liquid with a crystal topper.

“What’s that?”

Leo inquires while pointing his index finger to the crystal vial as Francis opened the topper. In doing so, a pungent smell began to waft that’s immediately recognized by both Maleah & Leo.

“The smell of a Gore Boar?”

Maleah speaks and even if Maleah isn’t reacting to it, in closer look one can see that her eyes twitched a little bit & slightly facing her nose away from the source.

Leo pinched his nose preventing the scent to enter and Francis already covered himself with a handkerchief that’s been infused with herbal scents as the smell is indeed incredibly foul.

A large figure with golden hue on his skin already copy what Leo is doing and preventing more scent to come into his nose.

While the half-giant with red brownish hue on his skin seems to be unaffected by the scent at all.

Professor Francis begin to speak although in a muffled voice due to the handkerchief.

“My student managed to concoct synthetic smell of Gore Boar. That way we can stay away from ‘that’ or at least keep ourselves away from ‘its’ sight”

Francis immediately put the stopper again and made a gesture as several assistants who already move incredibly far away starts to pull up the tent flaps allowing air to circulate until the scent have wafted away.

“Well, its still in its starting stage and the migration still have several months to last. I’ll ask the hunters guild to participate with my students as well”

“Then we wouldn’t mind”

A gruff voice comes from the other side of the table, a large half-giant with red-brownish tint on his skin. He’s wearing leather armor showing his musculature and powerful built, clearly this half-giant is strong.

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He’s Itgul of the Crimson Sky, the left-hand of Maleah, and the leader of the hunter’s guild. Where he manages hunting, requests, carving, harvesting, but also in charge of guards in Vogun. He’s the military department of Vogun so it makes sense that he’s participating in this council’s meeting.

While Professor Francis is the right-hand of Maleah who’s in charge of Research & Development of Vogun including uppermost scholar about Airun animals. His wife, Cecilia studied the weather effects, plantations, and medicine in Vogun.

The pair are known to be the scholar duo in Vogun as their predictions & information are mostly accurate and their achievements in Vogun have been recognized by many. It fits to the description knowing they came from the Etude, the city of academics.

Unfortunately, Cecilia is quite busy in making more of the synthetic sample as such she couldn’t come to the meeting.

“I can’t wait to hear the results”

Maleah eagerly said as this development would be something useful to avoid ‘that’ creature from attacking. Leo rubbed his chin as he thought of something far before this conversation, it is from a distant memory before finally speaking.

“Old hag, I’ve heard rumors about several people going to come to Airun. The ones from over east. Is that true?”

(“The east or Eastania continent is mostly consist of martial artist and I couldn’t figure out what was the reason. Its inconsistent, some say they wanted to invade this village, but some says they are exiled or something.”)

Leo inner thoughts can be read by Maleah since Leo showed in on his face, Maleah look at her son, wide-eyed, and slack jawed clearly an exaggerated response of surprise.

“My son has been paying attention to the rumors apparently”

Although it passes in a second, Leo can sense her satisfaction & pride when she said that but still, he let out a small sigh.

Maleah went into deep ponder as she says.

“Based on the letter, they come from the capital city of Eastania as refugees. I believe everyone already know that Eastania have ‘Martial Artists’ compared to Westania ‘Aura Knights’. Most of the refuges there as said in the letter, are martial artists belonging to what they have called ‘Sects’. I suppose it’s like what we say, ‘Clans’ in Vogun.”

Her son, Francis, Itgul, and another figure nods to her musings understanding the situation. The other figure who’s participating is a half-giant like Maleah, Leo, and Itgul albeit on a smaller side in terms of height.

Contrary to the tanned skin that’s characteristic of Scorched Sun clan or reddish-brown tint of Crimson Sky clan. This half-giant has slight tint of golden hue on his olive skin whenever the sun from the open flaps hit him. Wearing simple yet elegant white tunic completes with brown jacket decorated by sophisticated embroidery & blue long pants.

Although the half-giant is already old, no doubt there’s a hint of youthful energy blazing on his eyes. This is Chrys of the Golden Sand, a direct descendant of Golden Sand clan who have capabilities in making relationships, wit, and incredible sense in economics.

Due to this, he’s placed in one of the important chairs in the council meeting as he’s in charge of import & export including handling businesses to another country.

Maleah rubbed her chin while thinking.

(“Surely, they must’ve heard rumors about Airun the land of beasts.”)

Airun, the wasteland of monsters, the land of beasts, the dead zone, the unblessed, etc. That continent bears many names but one that stick is the land of beasts. Since after the event of ‘God’s Wrath’ it is littered with monstrous creatures that’s capable of killing humans with ease.

If not for the settlement of Vogun & Scorched Sun clan the land wouldn’t have any humanoids in them. Although besides the fact that dangerous monsters in Airun exists, one could not ignore the materials & resource provided from those beasts.

One beast has thick hide that’s hard enough to replace a stone building and flexible enough to be used by people of Vogun as tents for their home. Increasing the efficiency to build a home rather than using stones.

In fact, that great beast’s hide was the one that gave Maleah the nickname in the hunter’s guild as ‘Unfettered’ upon slain with her descendant Leo followed suit in her footsteps to slay another great beast.

(“Entering Airun is basically what’s humans in Westania called as ‘Death Sentence’. Francis too being called by his peers when he decided to come into Vogun from Etude”)

(“But why would people of Eastania, that surely have heard of the rumors decided to come into Vogun willingly?”)

Maleah is quite sure upon reading of the letter, that is the intention of the sender to enter Airun willingly.

She ruminated about the reason of that until a flash of realization hit her as she thought about the personalities of Eastania’s martial artists.

She smirked with a newfound glee

“I have decided…. to accept the letter’s request”

“M-mom?”

Leo perplexed by her decision, followed by the other councils as Leo asked back to what makes her to suddenly accept. She takes a good look at her son before speaking her mind.

“Martial Artists of Eastania have prided in themselves about strength, honor, skills, and battle experience if its according to the rumors. So much so that they couldn’t help but continuously challenge themselves to get stronger if it means their death.”

“Oh? I see…”

Chrys and Itgul nods in agreement already connecting the dots with Francis follow suit. Leo still have confusion etched on his face until a dawn of realization hits him a bit later.

“You wanted to add manpower to Vogun then?

Leo asked and Maleah replied with a nod.

(“Although we have enough manpower to operate the hunter’s guild. Adding more would benefit more but managing them… I suppose I’ll rely on Chrys & Itgul for that”)

“I’ll start preparing their arrival then”

Without even needing to ask, Chrys already replied with a firm tone, his eyes already darting left & right seemingly in his own mind thinking about what to do.

While Itgul huffed, already agreed to what Maleah’s going to say.

Maleah nods back with a smile and concludes.

“Alright, that finished our meeting for the day. Now, my son you are already have a husband & he’s worried sick about you. Try not to go out hunting for far too long or I’ll whack sense into you”

Maleah gripped her war-hammer while giving a kind smile to Leo with him flinched from the threat and apologizing.

 As they left, the main district where the Council Tent is has already gone quiet with several citizens already went to sleep.

Though the hunter’s guild tent that can be seen from afar still bright from the glow rock lanterns, Itgul went there accompanied by Leo’s fellow hunters. Seeing this, he knew that they are working overtime to dismantle the slain Gastodon so it can be celebrated to a big feast.

As they have gone to their respective homes, Francis felt something off for a split second before it fades as quickly as it came. Being a scholar from the city of Etude, he is more perceptive to the invisible energy that ubiquitous to this world or better known as ‘mana’.

For the first time in 20 years since he transferred to Airun for his research, he felt it… a presence of mana albeit so faint that he might be imagining it himself.

(“There’s no way, right? Airun’s land is desolate due to it doesn’t have any mana in them. That’s what makes King of Westania and Etude declared Airun to be the dead zone.”)

Shaking his head, thinking that its just him being tired from producing the Gore Boar artificial scent. Francis went back home to rest.

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