Chapter 50
‘Hey, wait a minute, wa-wait a minute! Are we seriously flying right now? This is dangerous!!’
Wynn, Leti, and Paul flew through the moonlit sky .
‘W-we’re not gonna fall right? I could die . I will definitely die if we fall . ’
The three of them were surrounded by a thin, translucent membrane resembling a giant soap bubble .
Beneath their feet, the river stretched across the plains like a black sash .
“Ahaha! Isn’t this cool, Onii-chan?”
“It’s really cool, Leti!”
Unlike Paul, who was flailing around helplessly, the two children laughed mirthfully .
“We have to chase after them without them noticing . Can you do that, Leti?
“Okay . ”
Leti nodded, and the bubble rose higher into the sky .
“N-no way…”
Paul let out a cry of disbelief .
He didn’t know much about magic .
However, he did know that this defied common sense .
Some adventurers could use magic .
Many of them were either former nobles or knights whose lords had fallen in battle .
Commoners didn’t have the opportunity to read magic books, but most adventurers could pay a moderate sum of money to learn how to cast simple spells, like lighting a fire .
That was why Paul had seen magic being used .
Paul had only seen rudimentary spells being used, but he doubted that magic could be cast as simply as Leti made it seem .
“D-did Leti do this? Leti can use magic!?”
“Now that I think about it, how long have you been able to fly like this, Leti?”
“Ummm… Just now?”
Leti tilted her head .
“I was like: ‘I wonder if I could fly,’ and I did . ”
“Leti really does have a talent for magic!”
“Eh? But, Leti wants to be a knight, like Onii-chan!”
“I-is this really fine? We’re not going to fall, right? Right?!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine!”
Wynn put both of his hands against the bubble and looked down at the ground .
‘He must also be a big shot, huh?’
Cold sweat poured down Paul’s back like a waterfall, making his shirt uncomfortably wet .
He kneaded his temples and forced himself to smile .
He could do nothing but smile .
He slowly regained his calm .
The uncomfortable floating feeling didn’t go away, but it was silly for him to be the only one panicking .
“…First of all, take care not to be seen . ”
There was no point in flailing around .
After all, he couldn’t do anything about it; also, when would be the next time he could fly in the sky like this?
That was why he decided to just enjoy it .
After calming down, he looked around .
He was closer to the moon and the clouds than ever before .
He could see bright lights in the distance . That was probably Simurgh .
The river that flowed through Simurgh was glistening in the moonlight . The main road looked like a thick, white line that extended from the gate, through the plains and forests, and off into the distance .
He looked down to see that the ground below them had turned from a grassy plain into a black mass of trees .
‘Dang . I’m not gonna stop adventuring if I can experience stuff like this!’
Paul was still an adventurer at heart .
He thirsted for the unknown, and enjoyed the thrill of discovery .
Somewhere in the forest, there was a small spring in a clearing .
There were several wooden structures that appeared to be houses . However, most of them seemed to have burnt down, leaving only charred pillars in their place .
Forest weeds had started to grow in the ruined fields .
It was the very definition of a ghost town .
Strangely, there wasn’t a single road leading out of the village .
Only a small stream of water from the fountain flowed away from the village .
A small avian girl slipped through a gap between the pillars, into one of the crumbling houses that had survived the fire . She was careful to avoid catching her wings on the pillars .
It was barely wide enough to be considered a room .
Only a sliver of moonlight slipped through the cracks of the crumbling wall to illuminate the room .
She had been living there for a few days, so her hair and wings were grey from the ashes .
The girl crouched in a corner of the room and bit into the precious cabbage .
She had stolen it from one of the nearby human settlements .
It had been several months since she had ended up alone . At first, she had eaten the food that remained in the fields, but that had quickly run out .
Then she had wandered the forest in search of food .
Nuts, plants, mushrooms, anything .
Due to the longevity of avians, it would be hard to judge her actual age, but she was as young as she looked .
In her limited knowledge, there were few things she could safely eat .
She had heard from the adults that there was a human settlement downstream .
The village might have been remote, but it wasn’t isolated .
The adults of her village often flew to the human villages and hid their wings to buy various goods .
That was why she knew that there was food there, where humans lived .
One day, after being unable to find food for several days, she had spread her wings and left the forest .
She had seen a large field, and also a house with chickens, pigs and sheep .
It was food .
She couldn’t take the larger animals, but chickens were small enough to carry .
So were the vegetables and eggs .
She knew that she was doing something bad .
She had stealthily crept towards the chicken coop and timidly stuffed two eggs into her pockets .
On her way back, she had seen ripened melons, so she had quickly plucked one .
She ate the eggs raw and smashed the melon into the ground so that she could greedily devour its contents .
The melon’s sweetness had filled her mouth, causing tears to flow from her eyes .
From that day, the girl, unable to hold back her appetite, increased the number of trips to that house .
She felt guilty, so she sometimes left behind nuts and mushrooms that she had found in the forest .
Even though she was young, she knew not to be seen when doing something bad .
That was why—
“Foound them!”intentional elongation
When she saw a human boy’s smiling face peek out from behind the pillar, the cabbage she was nibbling on fell from her mouth, and she broke into tears .
“How terrible . ”
They had chased the Avian girl to the hidden village of the Avians .
It had clearly been attacked .
Judging by the vegetation encroaching upon the village, it had probably been about half a year since the village had been ruined .
The crops had all withered, and there were rotten fruits laying uneaten .
「みーつけた！」
“Foound them!”
As Paul surveyed the ruined village, Wynn called out .
Paul ran over to the half-ruined house where Leti stood and peeked in through the gap between the pillars .
“In here?”
Leti nodded .
The gap was barely wide enough to let a child’s body through .
“Hey Wynn . What’s it like inside? Who’s in there?”
“It’s just a single girl!”
“I can’t come in . Can you bring her out?”
“Sure . ”
Paul deciding that carelessly moving the pillars might cause them to collapse, and he waited for Wynn to come out .
“Alright . ”
Wynn crawled out from the gap .
“Hey, it’s alright now, please come out . ”
The girl crawled out after Wynn .
Her clothes were ragged from being caught on tree branches . Her unkempt hair and wings were dirty .
Even a child from the slums would have been cleaner .
However, that thought soon left his mind .
‘Oh, it really is an avian!’
Paul was elated to see an avian, something that he had only known through stories and rumors .
They were beings on the same level as High Elves, and in some places, they were idolized .
The girl, a semi-mythical avian, was hugging a half-eaten cabbage preciously and sobbing as Wynn and Leti stood around her .
“Are you alright? Are you hurt?”
She looked to be the same age as Leti, so he patted her head .
Paul let out a sigh .
It just wouldn’t feel right to question such a young girl about the thefts .
Rather, he was shocked at her living conditions .
However, there was something he had to ask .
“So, could you tell us what happened?”
Paul drew closer to the girl, trying to ask her about her circumstances .
The girl backed away from him with a frightened squeal .
Paul scratched his head .
“Hmm… Let’s talk in a calmer place . Leti, can you fly us to Laura’s house?”
“I think I can . ”
“Then, we’ll talk more there . Also, I would like to do something about this girl’s clothes . Then—”
“There’s something coming!”
Wynn interrupted Paul .
Wynn held the wooden sword that normally hung on his waist with both hands .
Paul noticed what Wynn was referring to .
The air felt colder, more menacing .
With their backs to the ruined house, Wynn and Paul stepped forward to protect the two girls .
‘What did we get ourselves into!?’
At that thought, something jumped out of the rustling bushes .
“Hah, hah, hah, eek…”
The avian girl let out a feeble cry in between short breaths .
“It’s fine . Onii-chan will beat it!”
Leti comforted the girl .
Wynn stood between the monster and the two girls .
“Wynn, you can’t do it . Let me do it! . ”
The monster was a bit larger than a child . It had dark skin and a horn on its forehead .
It wore primitive clothes and held a rusty sword .
It was the fiend known as a goblin .
Goblins reproduced quickly, and lived in groups centered around a Goblin Lord .
Due to their high reproductive rates and the fact that many groups settled near human villages, goblins caused a lot of damage to humans .
They were not particularly strong, as indicated by their size, and pretty much every adventurer would be able to defeat a single goblin .
That included Paul .
“Uoooooooo!”
Paul swung his sword with a shout .
The goblin leapt backwards .
The goblin eyed Paul and the children while staying outside of Paul’s range .
“Haaaaaah!”
Paul swung his sword sideways .
Their swords smashed against each other . The goblin stumbled backwards from the force of Paul’s blow .
Paul was not yet a full-fledged adventurer, so his swordsmanship was still rough .
He used his full strength for every blow . However, Paul’s crude swordsmanship slowly wore down the goblin’s stamina .
Even monsters were made of flesh and blood .
Paul’s sword began to actually hit the goblin
The bleeding goblin’s movements slowly became duller .
‘Okay, now to finish it off!’
Judging that it was at its limit, Paul prepared to make the finishing blow .
“Uoooooo!”
With a shout, he swung his sword — through thin air .
“What!?”
The goblin leapt to the side . Enduring its wounds, it ran past Paul .
“Shoot!”
He hadn’t realized that he had ended up straying quite far away from the house .
He had been so focused on chasing after the goblin and showering it with attacks that he had forgotten to stay close to the house .
The goblin ran with the last of its strength .
It sprinted straight for Leti and the Avian girl .
It aimed for easier prey, two helpless-looking girls .
Paul couldn’t run after it in time, due to the recoil from his slash .
“Shit!”
The goblin was only a few meters away from the girls .
The goblin raised its rusty sword as it leapt at them .
Suddenly, the goblin let out a loud shriek .
He had finally seen Wynn in front of the girls, with his wooden sword pointed upwards .
Just as the goblin leapt at the girls, Wynn stabbed at the goblin’s throat from the side .
The goblin tumbled over the ground .
Paul then ran over and finished it off by slashing its unprotected stomach .
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