Chapter 40: 40

The Kijins’ Village

 

It was easy tailing the demonic beast that had headed north.

The drops of blood that it was leaving on the ground alone were all I needed. 

I ran after the trail of blood while feeling grateful to Perry for cutting off the basilisk’s legs and making the beast leave a trail.

 

I have no idea how long I ran for-

But I eventually arrived at a strange place.

 

It was a village.

 

I found myself standing before a block of wooden homes that were lined up on one side of the round, open forest. Those homes weren’t small hovels or shacks, they were some pretty well-built houses.

Each one of those houses had a mud fence around them and they also had some kind of gate that was made of wood. They made me think of elves at first since elves lived in forests, but this type of living style was closer to humans. 

The way they used wood instead of stones to build the houses reminded me of the eastern style architecture that originated from the demon island.

 

There were about 20 houses here. Assuming each household has five people, this village would have a population of a hundred or so.

This is the depths of the Titis forest where demonic beasts roam freely during the day time. If there were more than a hundred people living here, people would be constantly talking about this place.

 

However, I have never heard of such a village being here.

Which means that this is-

 

「The kijins’ village, huh?」

 

I’m probably right.

Why? Because I should have definitely spotted an open village like this when I was in the sky on the wyvern’s back.

But I had never once noticed it. Perhaps this place was protected by some kind of technique that prevents outsiders from discovering it. 

This is a hidden village that was shut off from the outside by a barrier- right now, that is what all the signs in front of me were suggesting.

 

「However, if that’s the case…」

 

How did I break through the barrier and get in? I followed the trail of blood here, so that means the demonic beast had already gone inside. So why is the entire village completely silent?

Did all the villagers evacuate?

Even if they did, given the agility of this beast that hunted down the people in the『Scythe of the Grim Reaper』, I can’t imagine not seeing any of the hundred villagers at all. It’s impudent of me to say this, but there should at least be a few corpses lying around.

There were no signs of the villagers fighting back either. It’s strange to not see a single fence put up or any arrows around the area.

 

 

After I entered the village following the beast’s trail of blood, things became more and more confusing.

Even if the villagers had fled from the beast’s attack, the doors on all the houses were tightly shut. No, rather than saying somebody had shut those doors, it might be that nobody was living in those houses in the first place.  

All the windows were closed, and the homes didn’t have any signs of life at all. Things like vegetables drying on porches, farming tools leaning on the houses’ eaves, plants growing in flower pots, none of those could be found.

 

As I went deeper into the village while thinking about those things, I felt like I found the answer to how I got through the barrier.

 

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…Over there, the forest was being eroded by blight.

The trees were decaying, the grass was dying, and the soil was rotting. A bubbling sound was coming from the muddy soil there as it emitted a poisonous miasma.

The vegetation that had turned into a weird dark purple color looked like fruits that were on the verge of rotting. A strange sweet and sour smell was drifting in the air. The leaves that were blown off the trees by the wind instantly became black when it touched the rotting ground like it was burnt by a bonfire.  

 

It was a scene of a normal forest being swallowed by the blight.

 

There was an especially huge tree in this place. But even that giant tree that looked like the symbol of the village, was being eaten away by the blight from bottom up.  

Its roots were rotting, the trunk had cracks. Within the next few days, the erosion will make the giant tree fall over from its weight.

When I suddenly had the idea to look in all 4 directions around me, I saw that the village’s south, west, and north sides all had a huge tree in place as well. Most likely, those 4 trees were the connecting points of this village’s barrier.

Since one of those trees was swallowed by the blight, it became impossible for the barrier to stay up- That speculation was just a random guess, but it probably isn’t that far from the truth. 

Surely, the beast had noticed that the barrier was destroyed and came here. To the basilisk, the kijins who were hiding in this village are probably just that delicious of a target. That’s why it didn’t care about leaving the last survivor of the 『Scythe of the Grim Reaper』shaking in that brush. 

 

Looking back at it, the members of the 『Scythe of the Grim Reaper』were attacked by the demonic beast, but they weren’t eaten.

To that beast, humans are of a lower species that aren’t even considered food.

That’s why it didn’t eat them.

And that’s why it isn’t even looking over at me right now.

 

I felt unpleasant as I stared at the king of snakes that was glued to the trunk of the giant tree, as if I was seen as a joke to it.

 

◆◆◆

 

If I had to describe what the basilisk looks like, it’s like a lizard with eight limbs.

Rather than calling it the king of snakes, I think it’s more accurate to call it the king of lizards.

It has dark-purple colored venomous looking scales. Its body is over 6 meters long. If I include its strong-looking tail, it might be over 10 meters long. 

Thanks to Perry, the captain of 『Scythe of the Grim Reaper』, three of its eight limbs were gone, but it was still clinging onto the body of the giant tree just fine. It doesn’t seem like losing those three limbs had much effect on its movements. 

Even now, with four of its limbs sticking on to the tree, it was still holding onto its prey, a young girl of the kijin race, tightly with its remaining limb.

I recognized that pair of horns. She is definitely the same girl who I saved back then.

However, her complexion didn’t look so great. She appeared to be unconscious, and her body looked limp–it was as if she was dead.

She had no apparent injury on the outside, but given the toxicity of the basilisk that can rot the earth, even being close to it could inflict some serious damage. If it directly touches someone…It might already be too late.

 

「…Shinsou Reiki (Energize, soul equipment)」

 

…Well, it doesn’t matter if that girl was dead or alive, I’m killing that basilisk.

I entered an explosive state with one breath as I covered my entire body in kei. 

With my soul equipment ready, I didn’t care if it didn’t notice me or it was just ignoring me, I dashed out and simply slashed at the king of snakes as it opened its mouth wide to try to devour the young girl.

 

 

 

 

 

TLN: There she is!

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