Chapter 103: Chapter 97 – Returning the Villagers

"Is something the matter?"

Out of nowhere, I suddenly raised my head and turned to the south.

Quite a few hits rang out on [Presence Detection].

Or rather, it was a lot, and they were increasing rapidly.

[Claret, can you go check to see what's showing up to the south?]

"Yes Master."

The dark spirit rose up from my shoulders and passed through the wall.

(Ah, right. She can't go through the ceiling because its coated with magical fire to keep things lit up.)

Even if it wasn't supposed to be an attack, it was still something that could harm her. Though I wondered if that was true for her level, it was better not to get hurt either way.

"No, it's nothing dangerous."

At least I hoped so, but there wasn't any point in making Epione worried if I didn't have to.

But since there wasn't really anything for me to add, I simply went back to making lunch. If the soup over boiled, the veggies would get too soft and the potatoes would turn into mush. Sometimes that was good, but this wasn't French style potato soup. Beef stew warranted firm potatoes.

 

"Master, they seem to be those adventurers that were following you a little while back, along with some people wearing the same outfits."

[By those adventurers, you mean the ones we came into this forest with?]

"That's right."

So that part was good. But the people wearing the same outfits?

[What do you mean the same outfits?]

"For some reason, they were wearing the same armour and even bigger clothes that looked the same over top of that."

[...Were they soldiers?]

"Maybe?"

Normally a person wouldn't confuse such a thing, but this was Claret we were talking about. If it didn't have anything to do with me or my predecessor, there was a decent chance that she would've not taken any interest in it and never filed it away in that uselessly hollow head of hers.

But that said, I was probably right. Either they were soldiers, or knights, or guards, or some equivalent. Most likely the reinforcements that were promised a little while back.

It had taken slightly longer than I had predicted, but it was within reason, once you considered the distance this place was from the city we started at.

I fished my usual robes from my bag and put it on.

Its been over a week since I wore this thing, but it felt nice on my skin. I had missed wearing it, and already I was feeling nostalgic.

"There's something I need to check."

I informed the closest women as they ate.

Before I could move, something wrapped itself around my leg, immobilizing me. It was the arm of the newest mother, the one I helped deliver her baby.

She looked up at me with concern in her eyes.

"You will be back, right?"

In her place, Epione asked me. Looking up, all the others who heard me had the same look.

"Of course. I'll be back soon."

I gave her head a reassuring pat. The woman opened her mouth and closed it repeatedly, before she let go after a moment of hesitation.

The glint of worry didn't leave any of their eyes, but they did seem to accept it at least.

"Don't worry. It won't take long."

I turned from the group, but before I left the room, I turned back, remembering one last important thing.

"If anyone asks, I'm just an elf. Not a vampire. Could you make sure that everyone knows that?"

"Oh, right. I got it."

Epione nodded repeatedly. It was good that I didn't have to explain myself.

With those parting words, I made my way out of the room and to the stairs.

Before I stepped up the stone staircase, I checked my outfit once more.

My shoes, my one glove (the other went missing when I lost my right arm in the last fight), the belts that held my robes secure, and my hood.

Without the hat that ended up missing and mostly likely destroyed during the previous fight, I had to go through the extra effort to make sure that my hood didn't move out of place by accident. Perhaps fortunately, due to the lack of a hat under it, my hood fell even further down my face than usual, but that would help obscure my face even better than before. At a time like this, not being able to see as well wasn't really an issue. The light of the sun was annoyingly harsh and putting a bit of extra precaution to prevent it from scorching my face was nice.

Finally, I activated [Spirit Form] and then used [Alter Silhouette] to shorten my fangs and change the colour of my eyes to hide my vampireness.

Once I was sure that I've done all that I could, I climbed the steps.

When I reached the top, the sight of the first few adventurers came to view as they rounded the final corner of the hallway.

The first two were the pathfinders from the investigation. They both readied their weapons as they saw me, but glanced at the walls and ceiling before acting any further than that.

"Wait! It's me!"

I extended both hands to show that I was unarmed.

"You?! You're unharmed?"

A large figure pushed through the next few people and looked at me in surprise.

"Fortunately."

I could only give a wry smile. I was now unharmed, but there was no way that anyone could call my miserable state at the end of that battle as unharmed.

The two pathfinders lowered their weapons and the whole group approached. There was a large group of soldier-like people that followed behind the adventurers.

"What about that vampire? What happened? There's a lot of damage to the walls."

"He was killed by another vampire."

"What?! We've got another monster on our hands?!"

"Ah no! There's no monster here anymore!"

I practically had to grit my teeth. Being called a monster, especially by a person who was supposed to be my ally pissed me off.

"Really? Another vampire showed up, and after killing the leader of the bandits, it just ran off somewhere?"

"At the very least, there's only us and the survivors now."

Lying about things could get dicey, so rather than do such a clumsy thing, I just kept to the truth. After all, I wasn't some sort of monster. I was a person.

If only people would recognize that all of me was a person, not just part of me.

Maybe Alicia was the only one that did.

After explaining a little more, I lead the group down the stairs to the room where everyone was at.

I only allowed a handful in as the group was quite large and I didn't want to alarm the women inside. Many in the group argued about the treatment but the investigation leader shut them all down.

The leader introduced himself to the group and explained what was going on.

I confirmed it all, and after some work, we finally left that prison.

 

It was late in the second day after we left that we finally arrived at the empty village.

We brought everything that could be salvaged.

I pulled a hastily put together wagon with the unresponsives riding on top, together with the newest mother.

There was no way they could walk, and there were too many for me to carry. Some of the adventurers or reinforcements could've carried them, but they all reacted poorly when approached by them, so it was really the only solution.

Of course, while it only took part of a day to reach the bastard's mansion from the village, returning took much longer. Everyone's stamina was low to begin with, and the most heavily pregnant of them couldn't go far without rest.

They also refused help from anyone but each other as well.

While the soldiers and some of the adventurers got frustrated at the slow pace, I pretended to also get tired here and there to give even more reason to take more breaks.

Though it looked like the leader figured me out, he never outed me. Most likely he just approved of my tactics.

The return to the village was a sombre one.

Even though they had finally come home, nobody looked excited. Nobody rushed to their empty houses.

When we reached the village square, I finally pulled out the giant urn filled with the ashes of victims that died.

I explained what it was.

Many stared at it, many others simply fell to their knees and cried.

The only thing I could do was make dinner using the food we brought back from the bandit base. After I made sure all the woman had eaten, I was lead by some of them to one of the larger buildings, and helped me carry the unresponsives to the largest room inside of it so they could rest.

I chose to spend the night there as well.

The adventurers and soldiers?

Frankly, I didn't really care. They seemed to find their own accommodations, and I was satisfied that I didn't hear any disturbing noises that night.

 

"So what happened to the kids?"

I finally asked the team leader after serving everyone's breakfast.

"Some of the guards are escorting them back to the city. The lord'll decide what to do with them."

"What do you think he'll decide?"

Part of me didn't want to know the answer, but I asked anyways. There was still some hope inside of me. It was why I put in so much effort to only knock them out in the first place.

"Chance are, they'll just be executed. Even at best they'll be made into criminal slaves."

"But they're just kids!"

"They're bandits. Regardless of their age."

He looked down at me and firmly stated so.

I knew. I knew that, but still, most of them were so young. They probably didn't even have a choice.

"Even still. Isn't there some way for them to have their sentences reduced? Some sort of rehabilitation or something? And maybe they could be guards or something after? They're pretty strong already."

"And who'd do that? And who'd pay for that? And even if you find people for both, who'd hire them afterwards? What would they do? Nobody would trust freaks like them."

"Dhampires."

"Huh?"

"They're Dhampires. All of them are half vampires right? That makes them dhampires."

No matter how much I looked at their stats, their race was always filled with nonsense characters, and nobody seemed to know what to call them. But for me, someone from Earth, there was a word that fit them perfectly.

"I've never heard of that term before."

"Some people far away call their kind that."

I couldn't really tell him where that place was though. He wouldn't believe it.

"And the babies those women are carrying. They're also those..."

"Dhampires. Yes. You're not going to say they need to die too, are you?"

"It's not my call. The lord'll decide."

I didn't like that answer at all.

"But you can convince the guild master, right? And he can convince the lord?"

If he couldn't, then what was the point of being a guild master of the local Adventurers' Guild branch?

"It's not like those babies had done anything wrong. They're not guilty of some sort of crime, are they? Little babies that can't even stand on their own two feet yet?"

"...I'll have a talk with him."

I was going to have to be satisfied with that.

Really, this entire thing had tired me out, and I just wanted to go home.

"And also, tell the guild master to have my reward deposited into my account."

"You're not returning to the city?"

"I'm not."

I've been lied to. Twice. In a row.

I understood why, but that didn't make it any less annoying. I didn't really want to meet the guild master at all.

Peitho on the other hand...I was angry at her, but I understood. She did end up helping me, and while her words were a lie, she did lead me in the right direction and I did get what I needed most. Considering how smart she seemed, she probably predicted all that, but really wanted me to help out the villagers along the way.

She also probably thought that I might not go if she didn't bait me with information about vampires in the first place.

Thinking about it, if it wasn't for the fact that I had Magni waiting for me, I probably would've gone looking for a library to get more information on vampires if she hadn't pointed me in that direction.

A village of missing people wasn't exactly something I would've chased if it wasn't immediately in front of me. It was something that should've normally been left to the local authorities and Peitho would've had to have done a lot of persuading to have made me go help.

Or rather, if that had happened, then I would've just gone by myself rather than as part of the investigation and due to my inability to follow tracks, would've ended up at a dead end and forced to give up with no good clues to work off of.

Considering what ended up being what had happened, that would've been quite the disaster.

It really made me wonder just how much Peitho had figured out about me.

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Having given my answer to the team leader, I moved on to the others.

"Could you gather everyone for me?"

I asked the favour to Epione.

"Of course!"

And with those two words, she went off and gathered everyone.

That was, everyone from the bandit's hideout. None of the soldiers nor adventurers were included. Even the unresponsives were brought over even though none of them had shown any major signs of recovering yet.

"Now that we've managed to get back to the village, this is where everything really starts. Where your lives start."

Many of the women nodded, some had tears flowing down their cheeks even, and there were a few cheers as well.

"Be strong. There will be countless difficulties ahead in the future, but as long as you persevere, you'll overcome them, as you've overcome this harsh chapter."

Even more cheering erupted.

"I'll distribute some things to help jump-start your new lives, and I hope that you all will find happiness in whatever form it takes."

The cheering quickly stopped and was replaced with confusion.

It seemed like I needed to be more clear about my intents.

"I don't know when we'll meet again, but I hope that everyone had been able to find some happiness by then."

Shock rippled through the group as realization of what my words meant were disseminated and deciphered.

"Wait! You're leaving?!"

Epione was the first to cry out. Many others had as well.

"Of course. I have other obligations to tend to as well."

I was still being targeted by assassins. Without knowing what sort or when such a being would appear, staying with this group who couldn't protect themselves was crazy.

In addition, I wouldn't be able to raise my level in this area. More than anything else, my level was the thing that protected me from any attempts as things stood, and my confrontation with that bastard proved that it wasn't nearly high enough.

If I could, then my goal was to at least double my level before any encounters. If I didn't aim for such lofty goals, then I wasn't just putting my own life at risk, but the lives of those who were staying close to me.

But I suppose that leaving without any resistance from all the people I had gotten to know here was unrealistic.

Practically everyone cried out and quite a few had tears running down their faces.

(Just how attached had everyone gotten to me in such a short period of time?!)

Maybe it was just inevitable since I was the only person they had relied on since they were freed from that bastard, but it was troubling. Staying just wasn't an option.

"Hmmm...how about this? I'll give you a few ways to contact me in case something happens? And even if nothing happens, I'll come visit when I can, though I can't promise the next time will be soon. Is that enough?"

The expressions everyone was giving me told me that it wasn't even close, but nobody spoke up, so at least they accepted that they couldn't ask for more.

I was glad. I had no idea how to give any more, as I wasn't going somewhere that was populated in the first place.

"The first is a travelling merchant. His name is Mint and he travels across several cities, but his base is in the north, a small village called...ummm...'Edgeworth!' That's it!"

It took some effort, but I was glad I managed to remember the village's name. Nobody else would've known what it was, so if I didn't remember, then I would've been screwed.

(Oh wait, Alicia's from that village. I could've just asked her if I forgot.)

That thought made me extra glad I didn't forget. Forgetting the name of her birth town would've been a disgrace.

"The other is Philia, the director of an orphanage in Linsington City."

Mint was probably the better one to contact, as he would be easier to get a hold of as he came pretty far south during his usual course. On the other hand, if the timing ended up being bad, Philia would be the more reliable one to contact since she didn't move around.

And if they absolutely had to travel, Philia could accommodate them while Mint couldn't.

"You can send a message through either of them. If it can't be sent through a letter, then Philia could take care of you until I arrive. Got it?"

Many of them nodded, but there wasn't any signs that they were satisfied.

"You really have to go?"

"I do. There's things I have to do, and some of them can't be done here."

Quite a few heads fell at my words.

"Aaa...!"

Something pulled at my sleeve. The one closest to me looked up while sitting on the dirt. She held the newborn baby in one arm while gripping my sleeve hard enough that her hand turned as white as my skin.

"I'm sorry, but I really need to go. Everyone here is like a sister to you. You'll be far safer with them than me."

I gave her a pat on the head then kneeled down and kissed her on the cheek before bringing her into an embrace.

Her hand let go of my sleeve and wrapped itself around my body before pulling on a fist full of my robes.

"Take care of your baby. We'll meet again, and I look forward to seeing how much he's grown by then."

I pulled away and kissed her on the cheek again.

Her mouth opened and closes, like she was trying to say something.

Without any expectations, I stayed there, waiting until she gave up.

"Iii...Iii..."

(Huh?!)

It was different from the usual. She closed her eyes as if it took everything she had to recall the words she was trying to speak.

"Iii...Ilithyia...Hygia."

(Those...those were actual words!)

Or rather, a name?

"Ilithyia Hygia?"

She dropped her head before raising it.

"N...n...name!"

"That's your name?"

She dropped her head, or rather, nodded, again before giving me a gentle smile.

"N...name!"

"I see, that's your name!"

It was so great to finally get her name. Or rather, any words out of her. It really showed that she was well on her way to fully recovering. The wound in her heart would someday properly close, and maybe that day wasn't far off.

It made me want to stay to help bring that day come myself, but such a thing wasn't reasonable. Staying just wasn't possible as things stood.

"Name?"

But she repeated her last word again. This time her smile had fallen and there was something else in her eyes.

"...Name?"

I could see a hint of uncertainty there, but there was also something else.

"...N..name?"

That something else grew. Her eyes looked so pure, so innocent, that it took me a moment to recognize it.

Curiosity.

"You mean my name?"

Ilithyia's smile returned and she gave me a hefty nod.

"Right. I never gave everyone my name."

I looked up and saw everyone silently leaning in close. It seemed like they clued in that I was finally going to reveal my name.

It wasn't like I purposely hid it from them, but I had just forgotten to properly introduce myself due to the shock of what I had originally seen, and it never came up since.

"Well, my name's Scarlet."

"Scarlet?!"

"She said her name is Scarlet?!"

"Just like the saint!"

"Wh, wh, wait! I mean, yea, I was named after her, but I'm hardly comparable to someone as great as her!"

She was a person with a lengthy legacy. I was only someone who helped out a few people here and there.

(Well, quite a bit more than a few this time, but this is an exception.)

Such expectations were way too heavy for me in the first place.

"No but..."

"Right?"

"Yea!"

It didn't look like my words did anything but have the reverse effect.

There was clear reverence in everyone's eyes. Even Ilithyia had the same look in hers as well.

"No, I mean, I just helped you girls out for a bit. Anyone would've done so. It's hardly something to be praised about."

It really was within common sense.

"""..."""

Everyone stared at me for a moment.

"She's even as reserved as they say the saint was!"

"It's like she's the saint reborn!"

"I've never heard anyone live up to her name as well as she does!"

(Ah, even this backfired.)

I didn't know if my common sense was just that different from the standards here or if their bias was just warping everything into a positive feedback loop or something.

(Confirmation bias is terrifying.)

It didn't seem like anything I could say would change their minds. All I could hope was that this wouldn't turn into some sort of cult or something.

*Sigh*

"Anyways, moving on to important things."

I unshouldered my bag and reached inside. Out came a bag of coins.

After a quick check, I removed a handful of coins and threw them back into my bag before tying the coin bag's throat again. The ones I removed were mostly just the smaller coins that would only add unneeded bulk and weight.

"Here, make sure everyone gets a fair share of this."

I dropped the sack at Epione's feet. A muffled sound of clinking metal reverberated for a moment.

"What's this?"

She tried to pick it up before realizing how heavy it was.

"Some money. Make sure everyone gets an equal share."

"Wha wha wha?!"

The girl stepped back in a panic, as if I just told her it was a bomb.

(How rude.)

"I don't know what you girls'll receive to help restart your lives, but things'll probably be tight for a while. Use this to ease your burden."

"We, we can't take this! It's so much!"

The girl finally approached the sack and looked inside.

"It is a lot, but there's a lot of you. Even if you don't need it, use it on those that do then. Most of you are carrying a child inside of you, and it'll be difficult to work when you get close to term. The first few months after your babies are born will also be next to impossible to work, so use this money then."

"Miss Scarlet..."

They all looked at me with a serious expression on their faces.

"If you still don't need the money, then use it on those who can't work themselves. Ilithyia and the others like her need lots of extra help until they get better. Use the money so that they can get the help they need to live. Ah, right."

I pulled out another coin from my bag. A divine gold coin.

If I remembered right, just this one was worth as much as the bag of gold coins I had just given these women.

(As things stand, this is too dangerous to simply hand over as is.)

With that thought in my mind, I pulled out a large fang and quickly worked it into a simple pendant with a crescent moon engraved on it and slipped the coin inside a thin cavity before stuffing it with some clay from the ground. Finally I cropped a string of leather from a random sheet I had and looped it through a hole in the pendant before tying it around Ilithyia's neck.

"If what I gave you isn't enough, I put in something you can use to trade at the Adventurers' Guild for more money."

When I turned to look at everyone though, the sight that greeted me was far different from what I had expected.

They were all bowing towards me.

(Ah, jeez.)

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