Chapter 119
And, the chapter is being spoken from an adventurer’s party POV.
<Side Note: Viewers discretion is advice>
「.......We’re about to reach the territory of Oose Kingdom, so everyone, be careful.」 (TLN: Oose(オオセ), from what I found after ’researching’ for a while, is a shark, the full name is <Orectolobus Japonicus>, or carpet shark/Japanese wobbegong.)
「.......Yeah. We would’ve known without you telling us in the first place though.」
We’re a B rank Adventurer party called the 「Soaring Wind」.
From the Guild’s request, we were hired to confirm whether the rumour about whether the demons had started an invasion in this country.
If the rumours were true, our objective then is to investigate the current situation of the Oose Kingdom and protect those who can still be rescued.
We, the 「Soaring Wind」 have the so-called standard, 6 people in a party.
The team consists of a shield role(Tanker), two attackers, a Explorer(Seeker), and a Magic User(Caster).
Long ago.....let’s see, this members has been active for more than 5 years.
Huh? About me? Well, I’m an attacker of course, and the leader of this party.
This time around, there were two reasons as to why we accepted this dangerous request.
The first was, the rewards and Guild Points were too amazing to pass it.
This request would be a long-term constraint as it seemed that demons were involved, but never have I seen a request giving such a high reward.
If we were to complete this request, and gain the Guild Points, our Adventurer Rank would jump from B to A.
Normally, it would take a huge amount of Guild Points to hit from Rank B to A.
Also, you must hold a consistent track record to be trusted by everyone.
Killing two birds with one stone.......that was the reason why we took it as it was just too attractive.
......And, another one being.
To be honest, there was a huge reason why I wanted to come here.
The request that we received this time for the invasion of Oose Kingdom, it was one of our party member’s hometown, the Seeker.
When he heard about his hometown being invaded, he just couldn’t stay silent about it.
If we leave him be, he might go there all by himself, and since it’s a good reward, we came here knowing of the danger.
Being together for 5 years and experiencing life and death situations, I would not let a friend of mine go through something alone and die by himself.
「After this cliff, we should be able to see the town of Mildo.」
After the Seeker dude said that, he walked to the edge of the cliff in a fast pace.
Then, overlooking below the cliff, Seeker raised a sharp voice before falling down from his knees.
「.......Th, This is......」
Losing his voice, we ran towards Seeker who was kneeling down at the edge of the cliff.
Then, what we saw was........
「Wh, what’s wrong......I’m sure the Town of Mildo is just after this clif.」
Whether he noticed that we were next to him or not, Seeker’s voice leaked out.
The spectacle that spreaded under our eyes was the ruins of the once called the Town of Mildo being burned with a large flames.
「.......This is really bad.」 I unconsciously muttered.
Looking at it closely, the buildings in the town collapsed everywhere, and it wasn’t easy thinking that a town became like this simply because of a fire.
「Hey, Leader.......this must be because of the Demon invasion, right?」
The Tank in our member started asking me.
「.........Yeah, I can’t make a confirmed decision.....but the possibility is quite high.
What’s more, judging by the looks of it, it seemed like no one’s alive.......」
After saying so, Seeker trust his fist angrily onto the ground.
「Why ! Why Why Why Why! ! !」 While screaming, he continued punching the ground.
His fists ripped, and blood were scattered everywhere, but he did not stop.
I was looking at him for a while, but Tanker thought this was getting out of hand, thus he pulled his arms away.
「...........I know how you feel right now, but you better stop doing that right now.」
I left the crying Seeker to Tanker, and Caster started discussing about our next objective.
Speaking of Caster, he is the most thoughtful and calm in making judgements among all of us.
「What should we do right now?」
「.......Let’s see, there is no doubt that the Demon Invasion existing is most likely the case.
What I mean by that is whether we should pull out from here onwards.」
「Hmm, that is true.......About the survivors, what are your thoughts for that?」
「To be honest......this is hopeless, because that’s the way it is. Though, it will be worth searching further into this.
If there are any survivors........and we did not search for them, then they would truly end up dead.」
.......Well, that is true too.
Either way, the Guild did request for us to rescue any remaining survivors.
「Okay, let’s hurry up and find them then. Let’s rescue them even if there’s only 1 survivor left.」
Making our decisions, I ordered them, and Seeker who had been crying until now was the first to rushed to the site of the Town of Mildo.
「Ooooi, I didn’t ask you to go alone !」
There might be some Demons still lurking around.
Moving alone is definitely bad.
Hurriedly, we ran and chased after Seeker.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
「How is it, anyone?」
「There’s nobody......」
We have been walking around the town searching for people for almost 2 hours.
When I looked at it from the top of the cliff, I couldn’t quite make it out as it was too far, but a lot of bodies were rolling throughout the site of the Town of Mildo.
Elderly men, young women, small children......
They would’ve lived happily if not for the invasion of those Demons.
Every corpse seemed to be suffering with a despairing expression.
Plus, the body of the women were gathered into one pile, and there were traces of marks, indicating that they were abused.
「This is painful but.....let’s withdraw for now.」
In a desperate fashion, I called out to Seeker who was still searching the town through and through.
Then, Seeker suddenly cried out loud!
「.......I, I can hear someone!.......Leader, I can hear someone’s cry ! !」
「What ! ? There’s still a survivor ! !」
We who heard his voice drew attention to this all at once.
「.......Over there !」
Seeker ran towards the person who was weeping.
Naturally, we followed behind him immediately.
「I can hear the cry from here ! Oii ! Are you alive ! Can you hear me ! ! We’re coming over to save you right now ! ! ! ! !」
Certainly, from the back of a collapsed building, I could hear a small child crying.
We split up and started removing the rubbles.
If the rubble collapses, there would be no child anymore.
We carefully and quickly proceeded with removal work.
........Around 40 minutes have passed since then.
Finally, we were able to save a girl that looked around 5 years old from the collapse rubbles.
.......It’s probably the father’s child.
Hugging the girl, a man who took his last breath was also discovered from within the rubble.
We quietly gave a silent pray to the father who desperately protected his child from the debris.
「.......Papa ! Pa paaaaaaa——- ! ! !」
The girl whose face was smudged with soot screamed at his already cold father.
I won’t forgive, I’ll never forgive this.......
I’m not the Seeker, but I will absolutely not allow the Demons to go scot free after doing such a horrific thing.
Tired of crying, we let the girl slept and left her to a healer, and we made tomb to bury his father who protected his child admirably.
「We don’t even know his name, what a courageous man.
We promise that we’ll take your daughter to the kingdom safely.
.......So,.........So, please be at ease...and rest.
And, I’ll promise you.
Someday, your regrets.....I’ll definitely clear it up.」
To the girl’s father, and those who died in vain in this town, thus we decided to hurry back to the kingdom.
TLN Note: Shit got dark real fast, I almost cried.