Chapter 70: Volume 6 - CH 66

Raymond Dantes, the heir to the barony of Ares and adventurer who had accepted a contract from the Academy of the Wise through his fiancée, was steadily making his way through the villages on the map.

He has parted ways with his subordinates, and even though he is alone, he is doing his job well with a dexterous attitude, even if it is a job he never intended to do.

His fiancée, Sheryl, and High Mentor, Graham Coogan, don't think much of him, but he has a different opinion of them. He is not well received in social circles as he is too rough around the edges, but his roughness is appreciated by some of the ladies as a sign of strength, and his reputation with the guilds of commerce and industry and the people of his family's lands is not bad. He has a surprisingly serious attitude when it comes to business, as he comes from a family of merchants who have always placed contracts at the top of their list, and he has a soft touch for people despite his large, warrior-like appearance. The elves he has dealt with so far have all agreed to what he says and have successfully evacuated to the World Tree Village. But of course, it was not only his ability, but also the fame of the Academy of the Wise. He is aware of this, to his annoyance, but even so, he has not had any trouble so far, which shows his high ability.

Raymond's subordinates are all capable, if not in terms of personality. That's why Raymond treats them well. Although all of them have scars on their shins, he feels that it would be a shame if they could not fully demonstrate their abilities due to their status, position, or past history. This time, too, they were probably doing reasonably well.

In this area, Raymond is a transparent meritocracy.

It is partly because of Raymond's rebellious nature that he does not have anyone around him who can talk about the right argument, but there are many such people around his father. Raymond knew very well that he would have to use those people if he took over. Raymond is not just a crude man like Sheryl thinks he is.

So far, the number of people who have been temporarily evacuated to the World Tree Village is about 60. The expense was quite painful, but he was determined to make it up to them later. He was reluctant to do this job because his fiancée Sheryl asked him to, but it was not a charity project. Of course, he's going to be reimbursed for all the expenses he have incurred - and he's willing to accept a little extra. If not, he owed it to Sheryl. Raymond made up his mind that if the marriage ceremony was over, he'll make sure she repay this favor with her body.

The next day, he would go to the meeting place――On the last day, Raymond felt uncomfortable as he was passing by, and when he wandered along the animal path, he was surprised to find the presence of people. There were no villages around here according to the map he had, but the fields that had been cleared were clearly man-made.

「I didn't know there was a village in this area. ......」

Raymond breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that he had almost missed it. Even though the job was not to his liking, Raymond took the task seriously and worked hard. His father's training had a great influence on him, and his father had made a fortune in his own lifetime and has had his fair share of hardships, and his father has always told his children to be diligent in their work. He is not a hard-working man with a long history.

At a glance, there were five or six houses. The fields and other areas were well maintained, and although it was probably a new village because it wasn't on the map, it seemed to be thriving in its own way. Raymond found an old woman who was working hard in the fields and called out to her.

「Old lady, may I have a word with you?」

「Oh, there's a person in this village. What a surprise」

The old elf woman replied without hesitation to the human man, who looked like a rugged warrior. She seems to be surprisingly friendly. Raymond shrugged in trouble as if to say, "It's save me a lot of trouble".

「I've been hired by the Academy of the Wise in Ares, and they're telling me that there's going to be a major disaster in the area soon.」

「Disaster?」

Raymond nodded exaggeratedly at the old woman's parroting.

「Yeah. I haven't heard the details either, but they say it'll be dangerous for about ten days. The people at the academy are doing a great job of going around telling the people in the villages here to run to the 『Dark Green Forest』.」

It was a bit theatrical, but the old woman still sounded impressed. But she shook her head from side to side as if troubled.

「That's a good thing. But, you know, ...... I have a life, too.」

「That the things. What's amazing about the Academy of the Wise is they provide 5s per person for living expenses while you run away.」

In this way, the elves who live on the outer edge of the Dark Green Forest have a good relationship with humans, and unlike the settlements in the World Tree Village, they exchange money properly. Ten days is just about the limit of what they can manage even if they leave their fields unattended. 5s is enough to cover their living expenses for the time being.

「Well, well, well. Then there's no reason to refuse.」

The human man said that this is how he goes around to the elves living in the outer edges of the Dark Green Forest to talk to them. The Academy of the Wise is certainly a research institute for human magicians in Ares. Not only did they foresee a disaster and go around warning people about it, but they also prepared the living expenses for the time being. The old woman smiled brightly.

「How many more people on this village?」

After handing her five silver coins and telling her condescendingly to be careful and run away, Raymond asked her about the actual situation of the village. The village wasn't on the map, and he didn't know how many people were in it.

「Sixteen, I guess. Oh, it's a little hard to tell, but there's a mother and her child living on the outskirts of the village. The daughter is a half-elf.」

Raymond twitched.

「Is the mother an elf?」

「Yes, she is.」

Raymond smiled at the old woman's smiling response. He didn't know the age range of the mother and child, but he guessed that if it was a daughter, she would at least be in the age range of the sale. If she lived on the outskirts of the village, there was little danger being discovered. It's a good situation to snatch them.

「I heard something nice. The lives of elves are important to us humans, too. I'll give you 6s. You take care of yourself.」

Absent-mindedly, Raymond handed her another silver coin. If you think you can make some extra money with that brothel, the information is worth the money. At least Raymond is not stingy. The old woman breathed in admiration as she rolled her eyes and took the other silver coin.

「You should be careful too. The Academy of the Wise is quite impressive.」

「No, no, no. It's part of the job.」

He shrugged and asked about the whereabouts of the other residents. The old woman showed Raymond around the village, saying that all of the residents except for the mother and child on the outskirts of the village that the old woman had mentioned lived in a rather tight-knit group, and that she would be happy to talk to the other residents. He talked to all thirteen people except the mother and her child, and with the old woman's help, he easily got their consent to run away to the Dark Green Forest.

Raymond told the old woman that he would call out to the mother and child on the outskirts of the village and helped her pack up her things for the time being. There was no way that a disaster could actually happen in the vicinity of this place, but the fame of the Academy of the Wise was still strong. Even if Academy's wrong, they can't complain about the extra income of 5s.

After seeing off the fourteen people who had entered the Dark Green Forest with their immediate belongings, Raymond pulled back the smile that had been plastered on his face. To be honest, it was tiring to keep a blank expression on his face.

He was about to head in the direction of the house of a mother and her daughter who lived on the outskirts of the village, when he stopped himself.

「 ...... No, tomorrow's fine. After I meet up with the others. If it's a mother and child, two is just right.」

Two elves, mothers and her children would be convenient to snatch, but the elven soul itself is slightly higher than the average human soul. There are a lot of elves who are good at water and wind magic, and if the mother and child are familiar with these magic to some extent, then they are dangerous on their own―Raymond calmly judged. In any case, the rendezvous point is not far from here, and there is less danger if all his subordinates are here.

Raymond has a certain amount of trust in his own subordinate. There may be a few leaks, but he'll certainly be able to excuse them for a hastily arranged job.

Hoping and praying that both mother and child would be old enough to sell, Raymond headed to the meeting place. He would meet them the next morning.

＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊

It's been seven days since they left the Dalewood Canyon.

They stopped at a small town on the way to buy clothes and shoes for Solor, as well as some fabric for the future, and their journey proceeded peacefully.

Of course, on the other hand, there are those who are trying to exterminate Satoru.

After the bath, he did not replenish Solor's magic power. In response to Leia's advice not to use more than necessary, Solor has used very little magic. In addition to the fact that she is a beautiful woman, her silver eyes give her an air of mystery, so there was no need for her to disguise herself when entering or leaving the town.

During the night, Leia, Rico, and Minerva have been switched around, and sometimes two people at a time. The day before, however, Rico had started menstruating for the second time since they had met. As was the case with her last period, Minerva was not happy about the close proximity of the smell of blood. he said it made it difficult for her to smell anything else.

After passing through the Dalewood Canyon, they crossed over a little bit of countryside, and the greenery gradually became thicker. The density of the trees increased, and the forest below them became deeper. If this is the outer edge of the Dark Green Forest, how deep is the forest in the center?

He didn't want to be too close to the edge of the forest, as he didn't want to be targeted by monsters from between the trees, so he led Minerva with a little room to spare. The trees were unfamiliar to Satoru ―― they looked to be mostly coniferous trees, like fir trees.

As far as the eye can see, it's all forest. It would be quite a challenge to find a village in such a large area. Still, they could occasionally make out a path between the trees. There are people around here who live off the blessings of the Dark Green Forest.

Before Satoru could find it, Rico pointed ahead to the lower left.

「Is that village......I think?」

「Let's go down there. If there are any elves there, I'd like to ask them about it. Minerva.」

『Roge~rr』

Without even needing to use the reins, Minerva turned her wings into the sliver of forest. Normally, Satoru wouldn't drive Minerva, a large Flying Dragon, directly into a village, but it would be a hassle to use 【Mimicry】 Minerva from a short distance away. If it were a large town, it would not have been possible, but in a small village, it could be done.

In the gaps between the trees, there were small fields. They can see a few houses――but there is something wrong.

「......There's something different about the atmosphere.」

Minerva landed on the edge of the field, her huge body leaping to the ground. Satoru immediately knew what the strange feeling was.

「...... There's not a single person or child here.」

Satoru looked around carefully. He thought that maybe they were hiding because they were afraid of Minerva, but it was strange that no one was out in the field while the sun was still high in the sky. Besides, Satoru's intuition told him that there was no sign of them hiding.

"Swhp", Leia emerged from the shadows with Solor, glared at her surroundings, and then chanted the art.

「『Detect Life』」

She closes her eyes. After a moment, Leia also shook her head from side to side.

「...... Unfortunately. There's no sign of anyone around here.」

It didn't look like an abandoned village, but there was no sign of people. It looked as if it had been the scene of a sudden disaster and people had rushed out to escape. Satoru looked back at Leia.

「Wait a minute. I'm going to try that art too. Do you have chanting?」

「It's a Holy Art, but this one should have a chant. I believe there's a chant somewhere.......」

Basically, there is no chanting in holy art. This is because it is a field where the risk of misuse is particularly high. But even so, of course, there are chanting systems in place for some arts.

「There it is. This is the chanting.」

"Detect Life" is a holy art for which chanting is basically forbidden, but it is also useful for locating people buried alive, so chanting was provided. Leia found the chant she wanted in one of her magic books and presented it to Satoru. The power of Leia's magic is of course one of the highest in the world, but Satoru's is an order of magnitude higher. If you think you can follow up on a wider range, there is nothing better than for Satoru to try.

「Let's see, .......

『A clear soul is the blue water. A fierce soul is a red shimmer. The indefinite is a yellow ball.

In the name of Rayus Eager.

Let shining life be light.

【Detect Life】』」

「Close your eyes. The red sign is a monster. The yellow ones are the 【Immortal Family】, and the blue ones are humanoid. How it is?」

Satoru did as he was told and closed his eyes. Behind his eye lids, he could vaguely see the surrounding terrain. There's one blue, one red, one yellow right next to him - the numbers doesn't match. Perhaps Solor is outside the scope of this art. Satoru continued to spread his consciousness farther and farther away in the manner of a radar. A few red dots here and there, a little farther away ―― probably from a beast or monster. As soon as he detected a part of the forest, the other part of the forest became swollen like sludge and he could not detect it. Perhaps it was the effect of the 【Lost Forest】.

「The forest was too stagnant to see, ....... but there it is. It's pretty far away, but it's in the  west and in the south.」

There were two to the west, six a little farther south, and one still farther south from that. It was hard to get a sense of the distance, but his feeling was that it was at least ten miles or so away. The farthest one is probably 20 miles or so away.」

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「The one to the west seems to be a little closer. Let's go that way.」

After warning Minerva that she was about to reach for the crops in the field, Satoru straddled her again.

I have a small, bad feeling about this.

Judging by the state of the fields, it was clear that people had been working there until recently. Despite this, there was no sign of life in the small village, as if they had been spirited away.

If it really was a spirited away, it was beyond human knowledge. Satoru didn't want to take the initiative to help people who had nothing to do with him.

But what if it's not a spirited away? The fact that there are extremely few signs of human presence in the area can only be attributed to the work of man. For example, if there was a dangerous monster out there that people couldn't handle, or if a large-scale disaster had been foreseen, he could understand this situation, but the 【Detect Life】 he just did showed signs of a monster or beast, but it didn't seem to be that dangerous. It's just that Satoru's feeling is that the monster doesn't seem to be dangerous, but in fact, it may be outrageous, but even so, this situation is too strange....

Yes, it was as if the government had issued an evacuation order.

「First of all, this way, I think we're about ten miles away.」

Satoru thinks as he gives instructions to Minerva.

If this situation was caused by human hands. It's probably the Academy of the Wise, he thought.

＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊

The girl was working on the farm.

Generally, elves don't do any farming. They are not a race that needs much food to begin with, and with the blessings of the forest, they have no problem at all just surviving.

But that's only in the village. Once outside the village, the benefits of the blessings of the forest would be visibly reduced. Besides, the influence of human rule here is stronger than that of the elves. Even the smallest amount of wealth is taken away as a tax.

As long as she lives in this land, it is inevitable - so there is no other way but to cultivate the land with unaccustomed hands and a hoe and reap the harvest so that she will not be troubled even if it is taken as a tax.

The girl stopped hoeing, wiped off her sweat, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, the sun was fading.

The girl felt a sense of unease and looked up at the sky. There was a large Flying Dragon. It was the figure of a king of the sky, which was rarely seen in this area. As she was about to run away, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. She saw a human figure around the neck of that large Flying Dragon.

I've only heard stories about them, but I wonder if those are the flying dragon knights. If that's the case, it's not like I'm going to be eaten, so I don't need to run away――The girl made up her mind. If they wanted to, there was nothing the girl could do about it by running away.

The large Flying Dragon flapped its wings and came down on the side of the field.

I knew it. At the base of its neck, there is a person. And there are two of them. The girl stares at the two people who jumped and landed.

The girl was nervous for a moment when she saw the girl with the dark elf-like skin that is the common enemy of the entire elven race, but her ears were round. She was human. With relief, she saw one more person. A very large young male human being ― the girl looked at his face and shouted, Eh? The girl cried.

「Father ......?」

It can't be. If that young man was her father, there was no way their ages would match. But the young man's face was so similar to the one she remembered of her father. Confused, the girl rubbed her eyes.

Shaking her head, the girl drove away her doubts. Anyway, the man who looked like a Flying Dragon Knight and the brown-skinned woman who looked a little older than the girl were apparently customers.

The man approached slowly and looked at the girl's face――a look of surprise on his face. The look on his face as if he were looking at something unbelievable.

「...... Alice?」

The girl tilted her head to the voice that was muttered to her. I don't know what "Alice" is. Is it someone's name?

「Errr, what can I do for you?」

In the girl's voice, the man―Satoru could not hide his confusion.

The girl's face in front of him was too familiar. Of course, it couldn't be. The girl's age in front of him was too young. The girl in front of Satoru was probably thirteen or fourteen years old.

But the resemblance was too great to be someone else's ― to Satoru's beloved sister, Alice.

The girl's face is exactly the kind of face that Alice would have if she had grown up. However, there was a difference.

Her ears. The slightly pointed ears were those of a half-elf.

Unable to grasp the situation, Rico looked back at Satoru with a curious expression. Satoru caught Rico's gaze, came back to himself, and shook his head in panic.

「Oh, well, um...」

She was so flustered that she couldn't really put it into words.

He doesn't seem like a bad guy――The girl giggled a little. This older brother was tall and had a bit of a rugged face, but he didn't feel like a stranger.

「Is Onii-san a Flying Dragon Knight?」

「Oh, ahh, no, err, I'm not a knight, but well it's similar to that.」

Satoru replied, somewhat flustered.

Uh-huh, she just nodded without understanding his explanation or not, the girl looks up at Minerva, the Flying Dragon, standing behind Satoru and Rico.

「It's a big Flying Dragon. ...... I've never seen a Flying Dragon before, but I didn't know flying dragons were this big.」

The girl's lack of fear made Satoru finally regained some of himself.

「Ah, yup. This guy's pretty big.」

If you live a normal life, you don't have many chances to see a flying dragon. Flying dragons are creatures that nest in mountainous terrain and live in territories. If someone intrudes on their territory, they will show no mercy, but they rarely go outside their territory. Some flying dragons stray from their territory very occasionally, but it is said that this is the act of males who have lost the battle for control over their females and are looking for other females, or dragons who have been raised in herds because they are unable to have children with their parents. If the general public sees them, they are either stray dragons or dragons that are managed by the country.

The girl looks at Minerva and Satoru closely. She was about thirteen or fourteen years old, with slightly pointed ears, so she was probably a half-elf. However, she doesn't look like the elves or half-elves that Satoru has seen so far. The color of the girl's hair was jet black with a hint of green, the color of a raven's wet feathers. It's rare for a half-elf or elf to have this hair color, let alone a human.

「E-errr, are you here alone, little girl?」

「I've never heard anyone call me "little girl" before. You can call me Liz, Onii-san.」

Satoru was taken aback again when Liz smiled broadly in return. She looks a little younger when she smiles, reminding him of Alice back home.

「Ah, I'm Satoru. This is Rico, and the Flying Dragon is Minerva.」

「Nice to meet you.」

Rico smiled, too. After seeing the face of this half-elf, Liz, who was probably a little younger than her, Satoru's behavior became suspicious.

「Yes, nice to meet you too.」

The girl smiled at Rico and nodded.

「So, to your question, I live here with my mother.」

She looked at the small house located a little far from the field. Another person appeared from the house.

「Liiiiz!」

「Mother!」

She seems to be Liz's mother. Satoru's time froze when he saw her mother walking toward here, dragging one of her legs, though from a distance.

It can't be. It's impossible. But her face was so similar to the one that was burned into his mind. Satoru's agitation deepened.

「Mom ......」

Satoru's voice was mumbled, and Rico glanced at Satoru.

Satoru must be a Foreigner that Leia summoned to this world with the art of 【Otherworldly Summoning】. There is no way the mother is related to Satoru in this world.

Rico sighed as she looked at Satoru in confusion. It's a rare thing, but this Lord is somewhat buoyant.

「No, ......」

Satoru shook his head.

It's not possible. His mother died eight years ago when she gave birth to Alice. The resemblance between her and his mother's image in his mind is confusing, but it's impossible. Besides, the differences are much clearer than between Liz and Alice.

「Elf, right?」

Rico muttered to herself. A half-elf's ears are slightly pointed, but an elf's ears are clearly different in length. Satoru's mother and Liz's mother had very different ears.

「Oh dear, are you a guest? How unusual」

Satoru and Rico bowed their heads to Liz's mother, who approached them slowly. There's no sign that she's too wary of them. There's a Flying Dragon (Minerva) behind him, but the mother doesn't seem to be intimidated by it - is she bold?

「Are you a married couple?」

「Married! Married couple!?」

At the unexpected voice, Rico let out a bare yelp. She panicked and looked at Liz's mother and Satoru and danced a strange dance. No magic power is sucked out.

Satoru gives a small shake of his head and does his best to face reality. "They're different", he said. He tells himself over and over again that they're not Alice and his dead mother in front of him, and he lets out a sigh.

「Not exactly. Oh, and... My name is Satoru.」

「Eh ......? Oh, I'm Rico.」

When Satoru and Rico introduced themselves, Liz's mother smiled just like her daughter.

「My name is Reine de Ruyes. It will be late soon, so please come to my house if you like. I apologize for the small place.」

In any case, he wanted to have a little chat with the elves, and the sun would be down in half koku. Rico and Satoru looked at each other, nodded, and decided to accept the offer.

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