When I next opened my eyes, I found myself in front of a gate with two elves guarding it. Although it was very early in the morning, the guards were very much awake and clear-headed as they eyed us sharply.

Each of them was holding a magical staff that they raised as one of them said, “State your name and business.”

 

Well that was a way to welcome visitors.

I staggered several steps back due to feeling intimidated.

At which Maiara walked in front of us, shielding us as she took the token of the royal family and announced, “We’re from the kingdom, here to inquire more about the incident.”

“…Oh, right. We’ve heard.”

Their expression wasn’t right but I couldn’t really figure out why.

“Forgive our impudence. Dear esteemed guests, please follow this humble self to the village chief’s place.”

“Eh? Is it alright, this early in the morning?” I reflexively asked.

“The chief was notified about your intention of coming here and has told us to escort you there.”

Hmm, if that’s the case, they should’ve already known that we’re coming so why the need to be intimidating like that…

Even if they were afraid of intruders blending in, they should’ve still given a warm welcome first then when the visitors seemed suspicious, they could go on their intimidating mode!

 

We walked as I complained inside my mind.

Not too long after, we arrived at the village chef’s place—wait, how do I know that?

Well… It’s simple!

The village chef’s house was different from the other houses here, so I could tell that it was our destination.

There was a guard standing in front of the house too, and the chief’s guard quickly spoke to the guard who brought us here before he entered the house in a haste.

As we waited, I surveyed the surrounding.

If we were to talk about a typical standard for villages, then this village was indeed huge and seemed a bit more advanced than typical village. It wasn’t even an exaggeration to call this a small town on its own.

It was not as modern as the capital of Cielle, but still, the way the village’s infrastructure was ordered and looked carefully planned, it really exudes the air of a well-governed culture-rich village that dated back to hundreds of years ago.

Lots of tribal villages like this tend to weaken over time with globalization and modernization, and the few that were left that I knew of in Riviera had their population and culture dwindling and it was apparent at a glance. But there was no such trace here. It was pretty awesome how thriving this village seemed.

And not too far away, I saw a huge building that was the biggest and tallest building in the village. From the looks of building, it seemed to be a temple. A very large temple.

This was a pretty established village and temple. Was this all thanks to the demi-god and the saint’s existence?

 

Right as I finished looking around, the guard that went in finally saw us again and told the guard that brought us in something I couldn’t discern from my distance with them. The guard that brought us in nodded and then left.

The chief’s guard welcomed us as he said, “Welcome. Let me escort you to see our village chief. He’s been waiting for you.”

 

…And that was how we met with the Vittae village’s chief.

He was definitely a considerably old elf, for he had the appearance of a middle-aged man, complete with grey hair and beard.

Elves are races that have long lifespan and eternal youth, so only old elves would have this kind of appearance.

 

“Welcome, honoured guests. It must have been a long and tiring journey. And I must admit that I am surprised to see that we have pretty young guests here. I thought I’d get much older guests, hahaha,” the old man gently laughed.

“We want the perspective of the young. I hope you won’t find this offensive in any way,” Maiara said.

“Not at all. On the contrary, we’re happy to receive younger visitors here. Not many younger ones want to visit this place. We’re very proud of our long-standing rich culture, so we hope you can enjoy your stay here and come to like this place and its culture.”

…I wonder…

I wonder why the chief won’t say anything about our purpose of coming here?

“But, pardon me, Chief, our main objective here isn’t cultural experience. It’s to inquire more about Eneidaestina, the saint that was born in this village,” Ein suddenly spoke, startling me.

I was thinking of the same thing, but Ein here was so bold as to mention it!

“Ah… Yes…,” the chief staggered in his words. The atmosphere suddenly changed oddly.

The chief’s prideful demeanour from earlier completely disappeared as he sighed and said, “We’ve let the kingdom come to know of our most shameful disgrace… and we had to involve outsiders in our village’s matter. We humbly apologize for all the troubles we’ve caused and we’re really grateful that the kingdom considers this a very important matter that they’re willing to involve themselves to help us, going as far as to take care of our long-awaited saintess that had fallen into an unfortunate predicament…”

 

His words are so flowy and elegant.

But…

Disgrace…

The most shameful disgrace…

I felt my stomach churn at those words.

Instead of showing his worry about the ‘long-awated saintess’ and asking her current condition, all I could grasp from the village chief was about the village’s face, its reputation and honour that they received from the ‘tool’ called as ‘the saint’.

If the people of this village turned out to be the same as the head of the village, I think I wouldn’t be able to come to love this village and its people.

 

I wonder how Eneida’s parents felt about the village chief’s words.

Wait, are they even still alright after the village chief didn’t hesitate in saying that the village’s disgrace is the currently cursed saintess, which is their daughter?

I hope that the village didn’t do anything bad to Eneida’s poor family…

It’s enough that they had already lost their younger daughter, but to have their only remaining daughter to get caught up in a very bad situation… It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Eneida’s condition right now is exactly something that’s worse than death.

They must be very crushed.

But wait…

Why didn’t Eneida tell us anything about her parents?

It can’t be that Eneida’s curse killed her parents as well, right?

If so…

My heart tightened in pain imagining that worst possible scenario.

It’d be too tragic for her.

I hope that won’t be the case, since Eneida still remains strong right now.

 

“It is of no problem. The Vittae village is part of Cielle kingdom’s area, and their people is also the kingdom’s people. It’s obvious that we’d be more than willing to lend a hand if possible. The Vittae village has been a huge help to the kingdom from the old times, after all,” Maiara talked smoothly. She didn’t show any slightest bit of reaction towards the chief’s words.

Looking at her, I was in a total awe.

As expected of someone who’d been born, living, and working under the royal family for so many years!

Of course, if she can’t do this much, I don’t think she’ll be the one entrusted by the royal family to be sent here as their representative.

 

We talked a bit more before we were persuaded to take a rest first.

The chief talked about how we could continue our talk over the welcome feast that would be held after we took a short rest.

Since we were also feeling a bit tired, we eventually agreed.

It wasn’t like we were in a hurry and if we were to rush things here, I felt like it’d give bad impression to the village chief and also to the people of the village.

Moreover, it didn’t seem like the village chief would relent and begin talking about Eneida straight away, so it wasn’t like we had any other choice.

Ugh, politics and stuff sure is hard…

 

We were escorted to the only inn available in this village.

Currently, it didn’t seem like there were many visitors right now. Perhaps it was because it wasn’t really a welcoming place for tourism and with the miracle of the saintess gone, the number of the visitors dwindled quickly.

It was such a shame, for a village this rich in culture and history could’ve been a popular tourism spot in Cielle kingdom, but I’m sure the people of this village had reached this conclusion after serious considerations.

In a way, I was impressed at their pride and capability to stand on their own feet, not depending on the outsiders for their living.

 

Anyway, we occupied two connecting rooms that were spacious enough.

There were some refreshments provided for us inside the rooms to fill our stomach before we took a rest. For a village’s level, having this kind of inn was excellent.

So, after eating the refreshments, we slept comfortably.

I felt more refreshed during this short sleep than when I was sleeping in the woods.

Camping was a nice experience in all, but nothing beats sleeping in a comfortable room, on a very fluffy bed, under a thick blanket!

 

We woke up just before lunch time and quickly readied ourselves.

The village’s escorts, sent by the village chief quickly guided us to our welcoming feast.

I was wondering how exactly this village would be holding their welcoming feast for us, like where and how exactly…

This would be my first-time experiencing stuff like this, so I must say that my heart was throbbing with excitement.

Apparently, there was a village square that was pretty big where regular events were held. I was again stunned as this kind of square seemed like a square in a farming leisure game that I once played, in which the town had festivals and events happening in it too.

But in the game, it was a town. Here, it was a village.

 

Several influential figures came up during the welcoming feast to give their introduction and words of welcome to us.

The drinks and food served were all the village’s unique meal and drinks.

As we were eating, there were shows after shows in the stage for us.

From traditional dance, singing, to a more elaborate show that combined the use of actors and the use of water, and magic. Similar to the one we saw before we were teleported here, but this one was easier to grasp as there were actual performance with actual elves playing the part.

As I had guessed, it was the story of the origin of this village and the strong culture of saints here.

We were also brought to the part of the village square where the ground was transparent. There, I finally understood that this village was indeed high up in the sky, in one of the floating islands that were available in this world!

 

After the feast was over, the village chief and his vassals walked us back to the village’s heart.

As we were approaching the chief’s house, I saw two uniformed men approaching us from the other side.

It wasn’t the knight nor guard’s uniform, however. They were wearing uniform befitting of a temple priest’s outfit.

 

“You are early. I haven’t even dispatched my men to inform you that the banquet is ending,” the village chief said, as if he had been expecting to see them.

The two priests slightly bowed to the chief as one of them said, “The high priest has predicted that the banquet is near its end and has dispatched us.”

The other one faced us and announced, “Dear esteemed guests, please follow us priests to the Temple of Life.”

All of us were surprised hearing that as we thought we’d be talking to the village chief after the banquet was over, and not receiving another welcome from the temple…

Maiara turned to look at the village chief in confusion.

The village chief then explained to us, “If we are to talk about the thing that dear esteemed guests are seeking to hear, it’d be better for all of us to talk together later in the temple.”

He then turned to the priests and said, “Isn’t that what Elariandruel himself want?”

The priests nodded as one of them said, “It’s exactly as Chief Gaiadrieth guessed.”

The other one extended his hand and pointed it towards the direction of the temple as they said, “Now, shall we go?”

 

And that was how all of us were escorted to the Temple of Life, the only place where Eneida had known all her life, the place where the past saints of Vittae village were raised and breathed their last breaths in.

…

Also, I didn’t catch the chief’s name and instantly forgot it when we first introduced ourselves.

The elves’ names were so hard to remember, especially if they’re ancient names like Gaiadrieth and Elariandruel…