Chapter 36: Chapter 35: Hatred Among Villagers – A Hasty Decision

Silence had settled down on the villagers as if they were attending a funeral. Many had died, but this was not the main reason for which they were not saying a word.

Masaru and the rest of the party were astonished by Saori’s show of power.

The silence only lasted for seconds as loud screams of joy could now be heard coming from the people that put everything they had into the fight. It was a heroic battle that would not be forgotten for generations.

“Just what are you? Such skill with the sword! You remind me of our master, Sagurou.” Masaru said.

The adventurer took his helmet off and made his way to their savior. He bowed slightly out of respect and gently took Saori’s hand in his to kiss it.

“Allow me to humbly thank you in the name of all of us at Shields of Honor for saving our guild, our lives, and our homes.”

“Glad you understand how great and worthy of praise I am.” She said with a cocky smile and flushed cheeks, clearly embarrassed by the hand kiss.

“You may kiss my toes too.” The girl said as she pushed the man down onto one of his knees and positioned her right foot on the other.

“Ha, ha, ha!” A few people laughed but stopped at the first warning.

“Quiet, you fools! You don’t realize what we would all have become if it wasn’t for this extremely talented girl.” Masaru shut them up and kissed Saori’s red boot.

Helping herself with the walking stick, Anta stood up, then snapped her fingers.

“Off your horse, kiddo. You deserve the praise, but don’t let it go to your head.”

“Meh, you had to ruin it,” Saori replied.

Masaru stood up when he saw the older woman. He had long messy hair and a scraggly beard.

“Anta, haven’t seen you in years. How have you been?” He was overjoyed to see the woman again.

“Nothing good happened these past few years, really…”

As the two caught up, Shigeru took a sword off the ground, climbed on top of Shina’s dead body, and raised the blade toward the murky night sky.

“For victory!”

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEES!” the adventurers screamed in unison.

“Today we won! We showed that scummy devouring witch how strong we are. We proved that WE CAN NOT BE DEFEATED!" He raised the tone to emphasize the last part.

“Exactly!”

“Yes.”

“You’re right.”

People agreed with him and that was all that mattered at that moment. He didn’t care whether they actually believed what he said or if they just said it in the heat of the recent battle.

“This witch, Dragnya, has been sending us letters, orders… She’s been kidnapping us, forcing us to do inhuman things, and consuming us for way too long!”

People looked at each other and nodded in the crowd.

“I say we take the first step toward a better life. I say we go on a WITCH HUNT!”

Maron made his way next to Shigeru and joined in the conversation.

“Our lives have been ruined and those dear to us k-k-killed. M-My son… he... he… is dead.”

The pain of a father who lost his son was evident to the crowd. A tear rolled down his cheek as he struggled to find his words. His eyes were filled with sadness and despair.

“I will not find peace until I avenge my son… No, I shall NOT find peace until I inflict twice the pain that I’ve been dealt.”

He took a short break from speaking to breathe.

“We know from the letters that the witch has a son. As revenge, we’ll take him away from her!”

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!”

“Screw that witch!”

Several of the villagers that had been taken to safety came back to listen. Their faces were twisted in anger.

“They want to participate in the witch hunt,” Justav informed.

Having felt that this was getting out of control, Masaru explained to everyone that this is a hasty decision made on the spot.

Leaning against a wall, with her arms crossed under her chest, Saori smiled. It was not a kind smile, though. It represented her enthusiasm for retribution and her anticipation of the ecstasy she would feel during the hunt.

Alma’s lust to kill the evil sisters and eat their hearts was felt by Saori in every inch of her body, which sent a shiver down her spine, making her tremble. Saori hid her claws that suddenly started to grow.

She was distracted from her thoughts by someone. A guy in the crowd with a familiar figure kept on avoiding her glance ever since she arrived at the battlefield. Every time she would get close to where he stood, the man would make sure to maintain the same distance, if not increase it.

“Very suspect.” The girl thought, “Where have I seen him before?”

That’s when she remembered. He was the guy who started the fire behind Leyla at the story-sharing stand. Back then he pulled the collar up to cover his face. The thin man was either a traitor or one of the witch’s lackeys.

“If you’ll excuse me…”

Hearing the beast girl’s voice from behind, he tried to run without looking behind but tripped and fell. Before he could stumble to the ground, a punch, stronger than anything he felt in his life, sank into his abdomen, lifting him off the ground and stopping his breath for several seconds.

“Hey, here’s a waste of a man.” Saori threw the guy in the center of the crowd as if he was a disposable item, “I’d punch him more, but I am not an animal abuser.”

“You scum… you are the one who started that fire and got my son KILLED!” Maron came closer to give him his share of punches but got stopped by a big axe.

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“Mind explaining before we proceed any further?” Masaru asked.

A few minutes later, once he understood what was going on, Masaru raised his hand to ask everyone to stop the discussion, “It’s enough for tonight.”

An eye-catching sum of money was apparently enough to convince him to betray the village and risk everyone’s lives, including his own. Not to even mention that he was one of the men working at the church.

The adventurers decided to organize an assembly tomorrow morning in the village’s center where they would talk about what to do next, both regarding the witch and the culprit. He agreed that if most people felt the same way regarding the witch hunt the following day, they would make their next move.

Right now, there was a lot of cleaning and rebuilding that needed to be done, so everyone was urged to go back home or to the guild if their homes had been destroyed during the attack.

 

*

 

From her comfortable bed, Saori stretched her scarred legs up to admire them.

“Uuuuuu. Haven’t they gotten a little bit more muscular, gran? Am I not amazing?”

Ignoring her, the old woman put the pots, the plates, and the forks they used for dinner back into the old kitchen cupboard.

Full of energy and without minding the lack of attention, the girl started spinning, flipping, and jumping on the bed like a real athlete.

“Cretin.” Her moves were quite spectacular, but that was the last thing the old witch wanted… the annoying brat to take up all the space in the bed after an exhausting day.

“Can you stop?” she asked with a calm voice, but raging inside.

“Sure thing.” The girl said as she jumped off the bed and made a spectacular landing, then bowed and stretched her arm out respectfully, “All yours, my lady.”

The woman slowly took a seat on the bed by supporting her weight on the cane.

“By the way, gran. Was that plan really necessary? I’m pretty sure that monster was the one I sensed on the day you found me by the river in the secluded cursed village.”

“Shina is my creation… was, I meant to say. And yes, the adventurers joining us on our first witch hunt trip is crucial, especially now that Masaru is here as well. How did you know?”

“Your heartbeat.”

The young girl jumped from two feet to one hand and was maintaining her balance with four fingers.

While seeing everything around her upside-down, she added, “Like there is anything those people can do. They will simply hold me back.”

“Don’t let them. Just think of them as shields. Use them to your advantage. Cut through anything that stands in your way. That’s the only way to win against a witch...”

“Huuuuhh…” Saori didn’t seem to be shocked by what she said but could not agree, “That is just wrong.”

“We lost so much already, a few extra people won’t change anything. You already forgot the promise we made that day?” Anta asked.

“Of course not.”

“Look, kid. I don’t like this either. I hate killing people to achieve my goals. I cried my ass off during Shina’s carnage… But this is to save humanity. If you can’t do this much, then you will never defeat a witch.”

The girl jumped back on her feet and lay down on the bed next to the old woman.

“How do we find Dragnya in the first place?”

“Go to bed. I am tired and you should be too. You will find your answer first thing in the morning.”

With this, Anta turned her back to Saori.

“Goodnight to you too, gran.”

Under the moon’s pale light, the girl slept much longer than she hoped.

 

*

 

A pleasant breeze of cold wind slipped between the wall and the half-open window.

With a smile on her face, the girl breathed in deeply and stretched in her bed, pushing the blanket away with her toes. The unintentionally scratched blanket that was covering the beast fell on the floor.

Saori stood up and opened one eye as she yawned after ten hours of sleep. She checked the surroundings and couldn’t see Anta anywhere, not even downstairs. The girl understood why when she saw the mechanical clock on the wall showing that the time was already two o’clock in the afternoon.

“Shit, I am late for the meeting!!!”

Panicked, Saori rushed upstairs to change into her outdoor clothes.

On her way out, something made her stop. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Out of all the people, this time it came to her.

The girl remembered the last thing Anta said to her before going to sleep last night: “You will find your answer first thing in the morning.”

The answer was right there in front of the main door, laying on the ground. It was a letter!

Saori picked it up to see whether it really was what she believed or not. She was right. On the back of the letter, written in capitals, there was the name of the witch: From Dragnya.

“Congratulations, stranger. You have been carefully selected for the challenge.”

 

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