Chapter 127: The Bear Goes to Save the Villagers

Chapter 127:
The Bear Goes to Save the Villagers

 

AFTER THE TOUR of the thread workshop, we re joined the children waiting outside. As we started walking again as a group, I heard someone shouting close by. Then Kumayuru and Kumakyu cried out from Shia and Cattleya’s arms.

“Monsters!” someone screamed, and everyone tensed. I immediately used my detection: there were five goblin signals and three other signals farther out.

A crowd gathered. “What happened?”

“Oh, Village Head, I—monsters appeared in the fields!”

“Yes? What kind? How many?”

“Goblins. I spotted three of them myself.”

Wrong. Five, plus three more further off.

“Take the men,” the village head ordered.

“We’ll go as well,” Maricks said to the village head.

“No, you students should head inside the house. We can take care of three goblins.”

I checked again with my detection skill—there were eight goblins now, and maybe there’d be more soon. Dangerous stuff…

“Shia,” I called out softly.

“What is it?”

“There are eight of them now. I’ll let you decide. If you want me to, I can go over there.”

“No, we’ll go.”

“But this isn’t part of your practical training.”

“If you hadn’t said anything right now, we would have gone back without doing anything.” She shook her head. “I can’t do that now.”

Shia handed Kumayuru over to me and headed over to Maricks and the others.

“There are more goblins now,” she said, “so we’re going too.”

“Shia?”

“Shia?” Cattleya echoed.

Maricks and the others were taken aback.

“What’s wrong, Maricks?” Shia snapped. “Is that sword just for show? Timol, for what other reason do you train with your magic? Cattleya…”

Cattleya nodded briskly. “Don’t say another word. What’s the point of having such power if we don’t protect the weak?” She handed Kumakyu to me.

Maricks nodded, invigorated. “You’re right. Let’s go!” he roared, and they rushed after the fighting men of the village. The village head tried to stop them, but the four weren’t listening.

Neither was I. What choice did I have? I put down Kumayuru and Kumakyu and chased after them.

 

When I got there, the goblins and the villagers were squaring off.

Maricks barked instructions, the four spread out, and it was on. Not that it was much to talk about. They were more than capable of dealing with eight goblins. In the end, they worked with the villagers to take ’em out.

Made me feel a bit like a third (fifth?) wheel, to be honest.

 

As a thank you, the villagers treated us to a real feast of a lunch.

“On this occasion,” said the village head, “we’d like to thank you for defeating the monsters. Thanks to you, we avoided any serious harm.”

“Do monsters normally appear near the village like that?” I asked.

“No. We have seen them farther out in the woods, but they never come to the village. Monsters aren’t fools; they don’t encroach on populated territory.”

“But you have seen them inside the forest?”

“Yes. Increased numbers, in fact. We were all just discussing whether to put out a slaying quest to the adventurers’ guild.”

As the village head spoke, Timol, Cattleya, and Shia looked over at Maricks for some reason.

Maricks blinked. “What?”

“Nothing,” said Timol. “Just that it’s you, Maricks, so I thought you’d be like, I’ll go.”

“Yeah,” said Shia, “you’d be like, leave it to me.”

Cattleya nodded. “I was convinced you would blurt out that you’d slay them all.”

Maricks shrugged. “They’re not attacking, you know? The goblins are just chillin’ nearby. We’re not adventurers here.”

Hmm. So the goblins typically settled far away from civilization and didn’t mess with populated areas. I was mulling that over as everyone talked and ate when the door flew open.

“Pa!” A man gasped as he barged into the room.

“Garan! What on earth has gotten into you? We’ve got company, lad!”

“There’s no time for that, Pa. Monsters are comin’ up near the silkworm nests.”

“What did you say?”

“You heard me. I escaped, but Gewn and Geld are still at the shed.”

“How many?!”

“More than ten goblins, but I saw more of ’em on my way back to the village. We’re looking at twenty, maybe more.”

“Goblins again? What is going on?”

“Pa, what do you mean again?”

“Goblins appeared near the village just earlier. We defeated them, but…” The village head stood. “More importantly, gather the men! We’ll save them all, right away!”

“But most of the men are working. It’ll take time for us to gather the…I…”

We were looking at double the number of goblins, maybe more. An average group of guys might not be able to take ’em without truly heavy numbers in their favor.

“Just gather who you can,” said Kaboss. “We can talk after.”

Well, I was the adventurer here, so I supposed I had no choice but to head on over. Or so I thought, but right then? Maricks stood from his chair.

“We’ll go save them.”

“Maricks?”

Everyone was surprised at that.

“There are people in trouble being attacked by monsters,” he said. “Saving them is only natural.”

“You just said to leave it to the adventurers, didn’t you?”

“Situation’s changed. We’ve got people who can’t escape anymore. If we don’t go help them this instant, we might not make it in time. What, you want to let villagers die?! And even if they gather reinforcements, we’re here right now. We can help till they show up.”

Maricks was right. Monsters were attacking them right now, and we didn’t know how long anybody would be safe hiding in the shed. I didn’t know how many men the village had to gather either, but it would take time for them to prepare.

I had no choice but to go too.

“All of you,” I said, “speak up. Because—”

And right when I was going to tell them I had this, Timol spoke.

“I don’t mind.”

“Cattleya?”

“If their assessment is correct, it’s just goblins. It seems there’s a larger number, but I think we will manage. Also, if there are lives we can save, we cannot abandon them. What do you think, Shia?”

Shia glanced at me. I stayed silent, pulling my hood low and keeping mum. Ellelaura had told me to let them do what they wanted, but to save them when they were in danger. I wasn’t about to stop them from going out to defeat the monsters. Them thinking and acting on their own was part of the practical training: If Shia and the others said they were going, I’d go with them. If they weren’t, I’d go out to help on my own.

“Shia?” Cattleya pressed.

Shia gave me another look to check and turned back toward the others a moment later. “Okay, but with conditions.”

“Conditions?”

“First, we don’t do anything rash. We stick together. We stop if we don’t know for sure that we’ll win. And we’ll borrow the abilities of Yuna’s bears. If we know where the monsters are, it’ll be less dangerous, right?”

The three of them thought it over. Finally, Cattleya spoke: “I believe Shia is correct. If we have the bears’ detection abilities, it would be less dangerous. It would also make saving the villagers easier.”

“Agreed.”

“I as well. If we’re using the bears’ ability, then I’d be fine going. That’ll prevent us from being attacked from behind too.”

Shia nodded. “Is that also okay with you, Yuna?”

Well, they already knew about Kumayuru and Kumakyu’s ability, so why refuse? Besides, Shia probably used that as a pretext to let me accompany them. If they needed Kumayuru and Kumakyu’s ability, then the students wouldn’t object to my accompanying them, and arguing about it couldn’t eat up valuable time.

I nodded. “All right.”

With that, everyone stood up from their chairs and started getting ready for the rescue.

“All of you…” The village head was bewildered by the students’ actions.

“Sir, may we have someone show us the way?”

The village head looked at the students’ faces.

“There isn’t time to think it over,” said Maricks.

“All right.” The village head looked over at the man who had come in earlier—his son, by my guess. “Garan. They’re students, but they can do this. Show them the way.”

Garan looked the students over for a second before nodding. “Understood. Follow me.”

“Please,” the old man added, bowing his head, “do not do anything rash.”

The students bolted.

 

The shed we were headed to was partway up the mountainside. We traveled by carriage until we reached the base of the mountains. “We can’t go further than this by carriage,” said Garan, slowing us to a stop, “so we’ll take the rest on foot.”

Garan got off and the rest of us followed. Ahead, the path split, and neither road was large enough for our carriage. The shed the villagers were holed up in was up one of those roads, and Garan broke into a run as he led us.

Kumayuru and Kumakyu followed behind on their tiny feet. I used my detection skill too. There were monster signals, though they were scattered. I’d thought there’d only been goblins, but I saw wolf signals too. Kumayuru and Kumakyu would croon when anything got close.

Garan ran ahead on the road. The road was pretty wide, but bumpy.

Two goblin signals up ahead. Kumayuru and Kumakyu let out a little “Cwoon.”

“Yuna?!”

“We got monsters.”

Garan stopped. Maricks went out ahead.

“From the right!” I called out.

As Maricks and Shia turned toward the right side, two goblins leaped from the woods and were almost immediately taken out without any problem.

“Yuna, are there others?”

“Looks fine, there’s none nearby,” I said.

We took off toward the shed. We ran wordlessly. I didn’t get tired, thanks to my bear shoes, but no one else complained as they ran. Timol seemed like he was having a tough time, but he was still running as fast as he could just behind Maricks.

“Right again,” I called out. Maricks and Shia dealt with the goblins, Cattleya and Timol covered them from behind using magic, and that was that.

“Is it still further on?” asked Maricks.

“Just a bit more,” Garan called. We were close enough for me to see human signals with my detection…and the monsters surrounding them. The humans were still alive, probably because they were in the shed. Good—we’d made it in time.

 

Everyone was out of breath except for me. Of course, with my shut-in’s stamina, I would’ve been out of breath as soon as we got into the woods without my bear gear.

They caught their breath for a moment, taking a moment to drink some much needed water.

“Wow, Yuna,” Shia marveled. “Aren’t you tired?”

“Pssh. Me? I’m an adventurer. I’m trained for this kinda thing,” I said, lying. I’d never trained a moment in my life, and no way did I have the discipline to bother trying. But everyone was still looking at me with awe. Even Maricks, believe it or not.

“All right, let’s go.” Garan took point and started running.

We rushed up a slight incline and there it was: The shed. Along with about ten goblins.

Shia turned to Maricks. “What should we do?”

“We go in fast and hard before they break in. Shia, Cattleya, and I charge ’em. Timol, you track our movements and support us from behind.”

“Yep!”

“Yes.”

“Mm-hm.”

Maricks told Garan and me to hide, then started running off.

As if I was going to listen to him when there might be an emergency. Nah, I ran right after Maricks and the others.