We had followed Kario-san to the village of Zenje, the sight of which struck us speechless.
“What the, it’s like a fortress.”
Indeed, the sight that met our eyes was not that of a peaceful rural farming village; Zenje was surrounded by robust walls that could have belonged to a fortress.
“Hahaha, it might be a bit surprising for people visiting for the first time. Well, I must say we were rather surprised when it was built too!”
“What do you mean!? You didn’t build this?”
Kario-san shook his head in response to my question.
“As if. There’s no way we’d be able to make something as amazing as this.”
“So then!?”
Kario-san nodded at Jairo’s question.
“Yep, Rex made it overnight one day!”
“Overnight!?”
I accidentally said out loud at the ridiculousness of it.
“This village was attacked by monsters a lot in the past. Normal animals wouldn’t come near the village, but large monsters don’t just ignore such things.”
““““Oof””””
We were all suddenly reminded of what could have happened back then.
But, but, this time, we had actually thought about our enemies properly before trying to lead them to a human settlement!
And we thought that since it was Rex’s village, there would be strong people all over the place, and we were right!
“Well anyway, everyone in the village was all worried and everything, and Rex went and built that amazing wall in just one night. We were all amazed!”
“““That’s all you thought!?”””
Weren’t the people of this village a little weird!?
“Ooooh! As expected of him!!”
The idiot said excitedly, but he always did that, so I ignored him. It wouldn’t do anything for the conversation either.
“Heeey, I’m baaack. Open up!”
Kario-san shouted, and an unfamiliar old man stuck his head out over the ramparts.
“Oho? Rather early today, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, there was a pack of ‘em close by. I’ve also brought some acquaintances of Rex with me.”
“Oho, now that’s a rare sight.”
Said the old man looking at us.
“Hoho, what lovely ladies. The lad works fast, it seems.”
That’s a strange misunderstanding to have.
“Just open the gates already grandpa.”
“Righty-ho.”
The old man cheerfully replied, and the wall opened.
“Wait, it was a door!?”
Apparently a part of the wall had been a large gate all along.
“Come on then.”
Prompted by the old man, who had made his way down to the ground, we entered the village.
And then, we became speechless again at the sight so very different from what we had been expecting.
It was a bit of a let-down.
“It’s an ordinary village.”
That’s right, Zenje was an ordinary village.
It had fields, it had waterways, some unknown big round thing was spinning away merrily, and there was a cluster of small houses.
“It’s an ordinary village.”
“That it is.”
“B-big bro’s hometown is a normal village…”
Zenje was such a normal village that even the Rex-obsessed Jairo wasn’t able to accept it.
“All right, I will go close the gate.”
The gates closed again with a loud grinding sound.
It looked like the old man had closed them manually, but there was no way that was actually the case, right? It was a huge gate, after all.
Also, there weren’t any stairs nor a ladder, so how had he made his way down from up on the ramparts?
“Rex’s house is this way.”
Kario-san said, guiding us to Rex’s house.
We were quite grateful, since we had thought he would only take us to the village itself.
“Flame Inferno!”
“!?”
A field on our right was suddenly covered in flames, dyeing our fields of vision red.
We were actually rather far from the field, but even then, quite a substantial amount of heat managed to reach us.
“Wh-wh-wh-!?”
“Oy! Rex told you to put up a barrier when using magic, didn’t he!”
“Sorry”
Said a little boy, frantically lowering his head in apology. Wait was he the one who did that just now!?
“Lian! You pay attention to the kids properly!”
“Sorry mister, he did it before I could stop him!”
“Honestly… Sorry ‘bout that. It’s their first time getting rid of weeds, so they’re a little over-enthusiastic.”
““““They’re getting rid of weeds!?””””
What the hell were they thinking using flames like that for something like getting rid of weeds!?
Wait, what the hell is he, reacting as if that’s normal!?
And the other villagers in the vicinity are laughing it off too!?
“What’s with this villageee!?”
However, we would soon come to realize that that was but an introduction to this village.