After leaving her house, while the effect of the speed potion hasn’t worn off yet, Nagi ran straight towards the village with a speed that average human doesn’t possess.

While she was going through the small woods covering the village, she suddenly remembered the siblings she helped back then. Even though she was pretty rude to them, she couldn’t help but worry for them even a little.

And if it is true that they are here because of the potion, then Nagi has to do with the village on why they were attacked. Nagi bit her lips, and she was anxious. She was nervous, and her heart started to beat faster as she reached the village soon.

(Tsk! It was all my fault. But how did they manage to obtain the potion? Not only that, but they also knew it was me who created it and where to find me.)

It didn’t take much time before she reached the village. Soon, the smell that came from the burning woods came into her nose. Even though she continued hoping that they were alright, the scene she saw with her eyes brought her back to reality.

What Nagi saw with her own eyes was that the whole village was on fire. The crackling sounds of wood slowly being withered by the flames and warm heat her skin was feeling were all real.

Without waiting for a second, Nagi ran straight at the center of the village. She tried to look everywhere, hoping that there were survivors, and yet her effort was in vain.

Nagi didn’t find even a single person in the village. If the villagers were killed, why couldn’t she find a single body? Even if they were burned, there should at least even remain from their corpse unless the fire used to them was that strong enough to incinerate them.

Not only that, it is strange that Nagi wasn’t alerted even in the slightest, even if there was really a massacre that happened in the village. After all, her house is just below the village. Judging from the fires devouring the houses, it shouldn’t be that long since the fire started, and yet, there are no traces of people as if all of them disappeared.

Nagi took a deep breath and managed to calm down. She started to look again at the village slowly this time. And just like what her hunch was, it seems like they were forcefully taken away.

Later that night, a small carriage was making its way in a wood kilometer away from the village. On the couch, there were two people. A middle-aged man in his 40’s and a man who looks like he is in his 20’s. The young man was wearing old small leather armor and a sword on his waist.

He was a mercenary or escort who was hired to protect the carriage. Currently, that man was holding a lamp and keeping their track with light while the other was driving the carriage. Inside the carriage were a girl and a boy in their teens. They were wearing plain and yet good qualities clothes.

“Dad, aren’t we going to stop and rest now? Lyra is tired already. Besides, I’m getting hungry too.”

“Endure it, son. Just a little more, and we’re out of the woods. You know that it is dangerous to stay in the woods at night. You don’t know when will a monster will attack you.” The driver said and continued in the way.

Soon, the carriage was about to reach the end of the woods when a group of one-horned wolves appeared blocking the way. The carriage suddenly stopped to avoid clashing with the wolves. With how big their body was, even if they could kill them by crashing with the carriage, they were not guaranteed that they would not sustain injuries after the crash.

The man who was driving the carriage quickly went to the back and went inside. Then, he went to the box in the corner and opened it. He got the sword and looked at his son and daughter, who was startled. “Randel, Lyra, stay inside the carriage. Don’t come out until I tell you!”

Lyra and Randel nodded at their father as if it was not the first time they had experienced this kind of situation. The father was satisfied and quickly went to the mercenary to help him.

The mercenary was on his guard as the one-horned wolves were only observing them. The one-horned wolves have little intelligence as they know that the only thing they need to be wary of is the mercenary.

As long as they kill that person, they will enjoy their meal tonight. From time to time, one of them will come forward and try to bite the mercenary with their big canine teeth, but the mercenary managed to defend himself, making their attack fail.

Such a thing was normal. What does a mercenary use when he can’t do his job in the first place? The man who went to pick a weapon quickly went to the side of the mercenary and assisted him.

“What do you think of the situation?” The man said as he was trying to assess the whole situation. Because of his business, it was not his first time experiencing such a dangerous thing, which is why he is calm despite the situation.

Still, it doesn’t mean that he is not scared in the slightest. Despite all of his experienced, he couldn’t help but be a little worried, especially now that his children were inside the carriage.

“It’s not good. If it is the normal one, it would not be a problem, but the one we are facing is experienced. Probably, they were able to survive a lot of battle. Not only that, each of their moves has coordination with one another. And the biggest problem was that there were three of them. Fighting one is already difficult, and if you add another two at the same time, we have a slight chance of winning.” The mercenary had a grim expression on his face while he was on alert on what the one-horned wolves will do.

“So, we can’t leave here unscattered, huh. Can you win?”

“Don’t worry. This is what I paid for. Even if I can’t, if it comes to the worse, I will make some time for you to escape.”

“Here they come!” The man shouted.

Just as he said, the one-horned wolves started to move. But this time, the three of them dashed towards the man and the mercenary. This time they were in real trouble, but in the next moment, the three one-horned wolves collapsed in the middle of the air and dropped dead in their front.

The next thing they knew, there was already a person standing next beside the one-horned wolf. It was hard for them to recognize them in the dark with their limited source of light from their lamps and the moon. The person was also wearing a cloak which made it hard to guess their face.