Chapter 2 - Second Village, New Acquaintance and Beautiful Girl

Ricardo spoke loudly to someone who seemed to be the beautiful girl I had seen earlier, but I didn't know for sure because at the moment I was pretending to be unconscious.

After a few minutes of walking he stopped, “How much longer are you going to pretend? ".

Ricardo threw me, and my back landed hard on the floor.

“Ouch… can't you treat other people more gently? "

" Hah! Still lucky I still want to play along your game. Well, now tell me honestly your condition and who are you really is? "

As Ricardo said that, two middle-aged men who had been in the field and a beautiful girl entered the room we were in.

“My condition? Looks like my right hand was injured from your punch earlier. Ah! Okay... "

As I was joking, I saw Ricardo clenching his fists with the same aura I felt a few minutes ago. I also told them what I told to Walter before and what had really happened to me so far.

"Eastern huh... it's been several decades I haven't heard of anyone arriving back in this country. ". The response of a middle-aged man who looked well-built and had a very neat appearance.

"You believe in what I say? To be honest, even I am still confused whether to believe it or not with my current condition…”

Ricardo answered my question, “I didn't feel any malice when we fought earlier and the young lady's grandfather is also an Easterner. ". While pointing at the beautiful girl currently approaching me and checking my arm.

“Alright, for now you will be a prisoner of the village for some time to come. You will be treated by the young lady and will not be held in a cell, but you must not leave the village! I will report about you and yesterday's incident to the authorities. "

“Oh, regarding what happened yesterday I think there is something odd. Looks like someone planned all of this. "

I also explained how I felt about the robed man, and my suspicions about him being the mastermind behind all that happen that night and asked Ricardo to check his equipment.

Then regarding some of those bandits, I asked him to find out who they were, because their movements were too in order for a normal bandit, and they could be knighted from somewhere that turned outlaw.

After that Ricardo and one of the elders left the room, another middle aged man introduced himself as Paolo and the beautiful girl who was currently checking on my condition was named Yui.

Paolo says as a formality he will use magic on me to mark and track my position when he activates it, in other words, when I leave this village he can find out where I am.

“Your hand only suffered a minor injuries, but just in case I want you to not use your right hand too much for a while. I will also use healing magic to enhance your body's natural recovery process. "

'Ooh! Magic!! This is just an interesting thing!! If only I could learn it...'

Yui told me to rest for today. In the afternoon, Walter and John came to see me and said they were going for training in this village, and gave the news that Ricardo was talking to the bandits, and would see me the next day.

The problem of the bandits' equipment was left in to the Magnolia village, and was indirectly under the authority of Walter as the current village representative.

Walter told that several years ago, he had attended training to become a vigilante corp after failing to take the exam to become a soldier because of his weak stamina, John, who was originally just a woodcutter after the incident that night decided to take part in the training.

' Walter is good in many aspects, but has limited stamina and John, who has the physical ability and stamina. If they trained again, they will get stronger for sure. '

I watched the two as they talked some things about them. I also asked Walter about magic, and he informed that people who freely control their body's Mana to the creates magic like stage weren't that many, so I asked further about this.

Basically, according to the theory, everyone has Mana in their bodies, but only some are skilled enough at manipulating Mana and using Mana on their surroundings, and they are people who have the potential to become [Mage]. While others can only regulate Mana in their own bodies as people who train their bodies do, the principle is similar to that of ki users.

Everyone has an affiliation to one of the elements and the elements are divided into fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, light, darkness and [void]. Each element has their own unique characteristics, but Walter doesn't really understand it.

Then there are those who reach a higher level in controlling Mana, as well as the capacity of Mana that exceeds Mage they are usually referred to as [Wizard]. They could even manipulate Mana in directions that were difficult to imagine and explain.

After that, they left me and let me rest, that night the atmosphere was really calm and I've spent two nights in this new world. I looked out of the window and saw the night sky, the stars were abundantly adorning the night sky and the moon was shining. The night sky wasn't that much different from my original world, but sights like this were getting hard to find. A new world with swords and magic, who knows what will happen in the future. I enjoyed the breeze that night and rested.

The next morning, Ricardo came up to me and told me the progress of the bandits and myself. Mash, Nash and several people admitted they were former knights of the former small kingdom in the west. Losing their country, they ran and wandered in the great forest and finally came to a part of the forest near here.

Then the man in the robe I suspect invited them to join his group and persuaded them to carry out the attack that night, but no one really knew who was he.

The bandits who roam the big forest, mostly don't question each other's identity and background, because the majority of them are exiles or people who hide in the forest after committing crimes.

In three days the soldiers from the city of Rockaxe will take them as prisoners. Then regarding my status, the kingdom decided to let me make a new identity as adventure and start from lowest rank adventurer as a disguise to cover the fact that I am an esterner and of course to keep an eye on my whereabouts.

I'm free for life in this kingdom, but if it is judged that I am doing something suspicious and can endanger the kingdom, they will immediately arrest me and punish me. Applications have been made to the adventurer's guild, and just as I'm about to start a journey and leaving the village, I need to get there and register myself and make reports wherever I go.

While I was in the village, one or two people would follow me wherever I go. Ricardo, who heard me helping maintain the weapons and equipment of the Magnolia villagers would recommend me to the blacksmiths in this village if I wanted.

I also accepted the offer and this afternoon I was allowed to meet the blacksmith. Ricardo also asked about my previous life and at that time Paolo was also with us and listening story about me.

My name is Hyuga. Hyuga Bezalel Uzuki, my parents are from two different countries and they often go around doing their jobs, and since 15 years ago I lived with my grandfather. I am currently 29 years old, single and my job..

It's not something to be proud of because I don't have a permanent job, it's just that I've worked in various places and helped some of my acquaintances do business.

Apart from that I don't really like being tied down in one place, for one reason and another my grandfather was very supportive for that life style, that me not having a permanent job.

My grandfather or rather my late grandfather died two years ago and he was the one who taught me martial arts. When training me nothing is scarier than him, but he is also someone that I love and respect.

After hearing my story, Paolo nodded his head, it seems he used some kind of magic to know if I was telling the truth or not. After that I saw Ricardo as if he wanted to ask something, but held it back.

“You want to know about the moves I made back then? But I want to know first where you learned it from.”

"Huh.. it turns out you're quite a considerate person. There used to be someone who taught me…”

Judging from the look in his eyes that he seemed to remember the person who taught him the technique earlier, Paolo glanced at him and smiled.

“The technique I use is my family's technique, our [dojo] has several students, so it's possible that the person who taught you studied at our place. But I don't think I've ever heard anyone who's been to this world or suddenly disappeared. "

"Of course you don't know him, he taught me when I was a teenager about 20 years ago. Ha ha ha ha... "

' 20 years ago? Looks like grandpa never told me anything and...'

"Okay, I'll go back to the training ground, if you want to go around the village, there are two of my people waiting for you in front. Ha ha ha ha... "

' Somehow his mood has improved since remembering the past. But yes, it is better like that. Ha ha ha ha... '

“Paolo I have something to ask you about a few things, can I have some of your time me for a moment? "

I asked him about magic, he gladly told me about that topic. According to him, magic fell into several categories from Mana flow control, elemental affiliation, compatibility and various other things.

Although everyone has a tendency to one or two elements, for a Mage the application of Mana control is very wide and has many types, including the detection magic that he used on me.

Then regarding Mana is the energy that surrounds us as well as the human body, the concept is a bit similar to the ki I know, but it seems to be a different kind. For people who can only manipulate the Mana in their bodies, they do not fall into the Mage category, but can train elemental affiliation and increase their physical abilities.

Fire types have a strong burst of power, water types usually heal faster than others, wind types have agility, earth types can usually harden their bodies and skin and are very good at defending, lightning types usually have sharp reflexes. The light type can give energy to others and heal wounds, the darkest type is usually sensitive to Mana flow, then the void type is the most mysterious of all, physically not visible signs but usually they have unique abilities.

However, for Mages the physical criteria are not very prominent, because usually they can use one or even more than one type of element.

Paolo claims to only master the basics of magic and is not a reliable mage, he focuses his magic skills on defense types so he is not good at fighting. But somehow my hunch said that I'd better not fight him.

I also asked about [Magic swordsmen], according to him, they are the type that quite a lot of people who are talented as Mage but have the low Mana capacity choose. So some people choose to master both physical and magical abilities at the same time, although mastering them well is difficult.

After that I asked about [Summoning magic] and [Spatial magic], both of which are rare magics and few are compatible with these two types of magic. Summoning magic is usually used to summon certain animals or objects, in the case of Esterner it is still a big mystery to the common people, and people who come to an understanding of this usually don't open their voices and share it.

Then regarding the spatial magic, the number of people who have a compatible match is quite small. Therefore the most commonly known are teleportation and storage magic that manipulates space and dimension gaps.

Our conversation had been going on for an hours and the sun was almost at its highest point, probably around 11 am, Paolo also said there was still something else to do, then Yui again used her healing magic on me and told me to eat.

After lunch, I walked with two of Ricardo's men and looked around the village, for the size of the village this place is two and a half times larger than the village of Magnolia and is like a small town.

The grocery store, the training ground, the village hall, the clinic which is where Yui is, in the north of the village there is a fairly large field and the blacksmith's place which is the last place I went today is a little to the south of the village center.

When I got inside, there was only a fairly old man working in front of the fireplace, a man named Leo with a stout build and not too tall about 155cm, a thick beard with gray hair in some places. Maybe he was a Dwarf. When I asked Ricardo afterwards, Leo was a half-dwarf so he wasn't that stubborn.

I looked at the person in front of me and was amazed by the way he worked, he was a person who was very concentrated on his work, even when we called him he didn't budge and focused on what he was doing.

I watched Leo work, I used to work part-time for a blacksmith that my grandfather knew, and according to my intuition the man in front of me is a very good at his job.

After Leo noticed our presence, he greeted me and said that Ricardo had already spoken to him, and if I was interested in working with him I could work immediately after getting permission from Yui to be able to remove the bandage on my arm.

He burst out laughing when he said I was crazy enough to be head on fist to fist with Ricardo, and I honestly regretted it quite a bit at this point. At the corner end of the room, I saw an ombra dog's fur.

“That thing at the corner end of the room? "

“Oh! In an instant you realized it? It is the material of the ombra dog during the events in Magnolia Village. The skin does have burn marks, but can still be used and the fangs are still in good condition, then there is a magic crystal with a very small size too. "

"Then the rest? "

“Their meat is not good to be eaten, too tough and smelly. And only the materials I mentioned earlier have value, I've asked Ricardo to send people to return their corpses to the forest but no one has come yet. ", I looked at the two people who were near me.

“Currently some of our members are helping with repairs in Magnolia village, only a few are in the village right now, most of them left are trainees in the training period. "

Says one of the escorts, I asked could we help carry it into the forest and asked one of them to ask Ricardo about this.

I feel I have a part in this creature's death, therefore at least I want to pay my last respects and return them to the forest.

The man who explained to me earlier went to ask permission from Ricardo, another one and I waited at Leo's place.

"Already taking care of one person, now he asks to go to the forest ... ", At first I heard the grumbling of the person who was now accompanying me and pretended not to hear it.

Not long after that, the man returned brought the carriage and Walter also comes with him. Walter doesn't have any scheduled for practice right now, so Ricardo told him to come with us to the forest.

Although we headed to the forest, but only to the outer boundary of the forest which is usually still a relatively safe area. Usually beasts that die, after the materials are taken, then the rest will be thrown into the dump by the vigilante corps member with the aim of maintaining the cycle of the food chain in the forest.

Of course the vigilante corps hunt the beast not only for the materials but also to reduce the number of beasts that comes near the village. In a world like this and also era, beast population is still so large more than mankind's population and also one of biggest threat. So periodically hunt is very important.

However, in some places far from the forest, most beast corpses are destroyed by burning it.

We entered the forest and after 15 minutes of walking we disposed of the ombra dog's corpse, I paused and hoped that they could return to nature and be useful to the forest.

The boy who was grumbling earlier named Yugo, looked to be around 16 years old, a youth with a well-trained body and looks like his childish nature hasn't yet gone away.

He seriously looked into the forest, and without realizing by his partner and Walter as well, Yugo walked into the deeper part of the forest.

" Who’s there?! STOP, don't you run away!! "

We who were surprised to hear Yugo's scream immediately rushed after him, Yugo ran over something and further left us and went into the forest. We kept running after him.

“I feel a lot of presence ahead. We have to bring Yugo back. "

Said Bent, one of the people assigned to accompany me besides Yugo. While continuing to chase, Walter focused his gaze on Yugo.

“There's someone up ahead who seems to be being chased by Yugo… and a bunch of [horned rabbits] are in front of them. " 

When we arrived, Yugo was protecting someone while dispelling the crowd of horned rabbits. I purposely lowered my speed and got behind Walter and Bent then tried to use Appraisal Glasses to look around me.

(Horned rabbit: rabbits that have horns and are very agile, different from their cute appearance, they are aggressive creatures. Rank: F. Materials: horned rabbit's fur, horned rabbit's horn, horned rabbit's meat.)

Then some faint writing appeared as I looked further around us. I sensed several other presences a few meters from our position. I approached Yugo and the others who were on standby.

“ This is not good. We are surrounded by many beasts. ", Said Bent as he took the two short swords at his waist.

" Hah! Weak creatures like them weren't even enough for me to warm up. “, Yugo arrogantly readied the short sword in his hand

“Yosh! I leave it to you young man. I will take shelter near that big tree”

I patted Yugo's shoulder and pulled the person Yugo chased after to a large tree not far from our position.

The three of them fought to defeat the horned rabbits while protecting us, the one who was the most excited among them was definitely Yugo. I saw the person near me with a panicked face looking around.

Several horned rabbits managed to escape and tried to attack me, my right hand is currently advised not to move too much, so I won't burden it as much as possible.

I purposely chose this big tree, one of which was to guard my back. The horned rabbit's attack pattern is to jump and thrust its horns at its opponent, their teeth are quite sharp, but the shape of their head is not that suitable for attacking with a bite.

At first glance they look like rabbits in general, only they have horns and also with a larger body size.

' Are all the animals in this world vicious and bigger?! Ha.....'

I caught the horned rabbits that were trying to stab me, and I stuck their horns into a large tree near me. While occasionally hearing the sound “Hiiiiii...!! “ From the person next to me.

“Hey you, why are you lurking around the village? Not that time your boss has helped you run into the forest. "

The person was shocked and looked at me," You??! ".

"Whoops, looks like our conversation should be postponed first. "

I felt a presence approaching and when I saw Bent, his usual face like someone who didn't have much expression became serious, Yugo still looked fine but Walter looked tired.

“Walter, back off and switch places with me! Bent how are our conditions? "

The three of them were surprised by my words and looked at me. Walter slowly retreated close to me while keeping a close watch on his surroundings.

“Looks like a second wave is coming. Plus, in the distance I feel something bigger slowly approaching. "

“ Any chance to run? "

“Their movements are quite fast, it is difficult to escape. "

“Hmm… seems pretty bad. All right, show me all the equipment you have. "

The four people who were near me were again surprised by my statement, they did what I asked and showed what they brought.

Bent is carrying two short swords and two knives, Yugo is carrying a sword and a knife, Walter are carrying a sword with two knives. And then the guy who was with us now, he carried two knives and a [short bow] with a stock of arrows under his cloak. I saw his injured arm and was bandaged with cloth, and he also has a rope.

' Looks like his arm is injured and he's not able to use arrows for now. '

“Walter, use the arrows and control your breathing, don't push yourself. Lend me your sword and knife. And you, help Walter from behind…”

" Roger that! "

The formation I proposed was Yugo and Bent on the front lines, I helped from the middle and Walter guarded us from the back. This time it was not only the horned rabbits that appeared, but the goblins also came out to attack us.

( Goblin: Green humanoid had a small stature tall as a child. Rank: F.)

As before, Yugo attacked first and was assisted by Bent. I tied the knife to the rope and helped from behind, throwing the knife and pulling it back with the rope. I can reduce the burden on my right arm and can help them from behind.

Yugo has the best stamina out of all of us, he's the one who moves the most but doesn't show any signs of fatigue yet, unfortunately his moves are the most reckless. The fight can go well because Bent very well supports Yugo's movements, a very good combination. 

' Wow... their movements are good, both of them what makes it a good combination. Really that man! Although I know being alert is good, he deliberately put them as my watchers. Ha...'

I thought that if the two of them fought me, it would be quite troublesome. Luckily, this time we were on the same side.

On the other hand, I saw Walter's movement, the accuracy not so good, but also not that bad, every arrow that is released at least always hit the beast even though sometimes it is far from the vital position.

' He has a talent with bow and arrow... the main-dish seems to have come...'

A large tall figure began to appear from behind the trees. A large humanoid with a pig's head and holding a stick that seemed to be used as a bat slowly approached.

( Orc: Large humanoid about 2 meters high, has a strong physique, but slow. Rank: D. Material: Orc's hide; Orc's meat; magic crystal very small.)

“Orcs?! "

"Oi, Yugo! Can you deal with it? "

" Hah! An Orc, I can deal with it myself…”

"Well, we leave the Orc to you..."

I removed the bandage on my right arm, and grabbed Walter's sword and stood ready to help the front line. Yugo advanced against the Orc alone while Bent and I fought the goblins assisted by Walter with his arrows

Although Yugo's stamina is superior, Bent has the ability above Yugo, and currently he is aiming behind the trees so that he is not so visible to others.

Of course I can't really see it right now, but I can still feel the presence of the goblins rapidly diminishing that side.

“ Bent! "

I shouted for him and pointed towards the deeper part of the forest, and he nodded.

Meanwhile Yugo was still fighting the orcs persisted, even though the Orc's attacks weren't that fast, but avoiding the swing of the wooden club from its very strong hand was quite troublesome for Yugo.

Yugo slashed the Orc's body here and there and with more and more wounds, it started to lose a lot of blood and made it weaker.

Yugo was able to focus on fighting the orcs because Walter was holding back the remnants of the goblins that were approaching him. When he saw an opportunity, Yugo immediately drew a sword straight into the Orc's heart and managed to defeat it.

“ HAHAHAHA... Even orcs are no match for me! " “Congratulations... You're really great. ", I gave Yugo a round of applause while walking back from the deeper part of the forest.

"You see what I'm capable of? Ha ha ha... "

“Yugo……”, Bent patted Yugo's shoulder and sighed

" Hah?! What does that breath of your's mean? "

“Let's collect what we've already defeated this time! You help collect usable materials. And the great lord Yugo, can the one who's still so powerful retrieve the carriage we left behind? "

We collect the scattered beast corpses and separate which ones can be retrieved materials and which ones can't.

Goblins didn't have materials to pick up, but people used to take their ears as evidence of having hunted them and could be exchanged for money when brought to the adventurer's guild.

' Uwaaaa.... looks like this time we did an over kill. '

The results of the corpses we collected were 56 goblins, 40 horned rabbits plus 22 that were still stuck in the tree and were unconscious, then 3 orcs.

“To think that there would be so many beasts roaming this area. And what's more those three orcs…”

Bent said as he stacked the goblins into two piles, one less and one more.

“Are they stray orcs that are wandering all the way to the these parts of forest? ", Walter asked.

This large forest is usually divided into 3 parts to limit and provide a safe distance for people who want to enter it. 100 meters from the forest boundary is the outer part, from 100-400 meters the boundary is the middle part and above that is the inside part of the area that is rarely touched by most of ordinary people because with a higher level of danger.

Our current position is still in the outer part of the forest and is a hunting ground for vigilant corps members. While the habitat of orcs is generally more deeper or middle part of the forest.

“Sorry, if I may speak, lately, some beasts from the deeper part of the forest have more often been spotted in the outside part of the forest. We had to move several times because of that. "

Meekly the person with us behave, he was part of the bandits who attacked the magnolia village and secretly searched for them all the way here through the forest. His name if I'm not mistaken is Tim.

"Hmm......"

"What are you thinking Hyuga?"

“From this many, roughly how much meat can we get. "

Everyone looked at me when I said that.

"Why are all of you looking at me like that?? "

Walter sighed and answered my question.

" Lots. In fact, very much a lot…”

After that Yugo returned carrying the carriage and paved the way to this place and was surprised to see that there were 2 other orcs that we pulled from the deeper part of the forest.

The carriage we brought was barely able to carry all the beasts that could be utilized, but it would be a shame if this much meat was wasted right.

I let go of the 22 horned rabbits that were stuck in the tree I previously knocked unconscious, then tied their legs with the vines I found thanks to the Appraisal Glasses. This should be thin enough for them to let loose when they wake up. Yugo and the team were pulling the carriage and we are pushing it from behind.

When we arrived at the village, everyone was shocked by what we had brought and we went straight to the vigilante corps headquarter and reported what had happened to Ricardo.

Leo was summoned from his place and together with a few others would process the beasts we got, I proposed to divide the meat among all the these village's villagers and some the meat will be sent to magnolia village, and then it was decided that today the Camellia village would hold a feast with the meat we obtained today.

Everyone gathered at the vigilante corps training grounds as it was the largest place in the village and started the feast with abundant meat.

The residents brought various types of dishes that they prepared for dinner together. Ricardo while laughing and drinking the [ale] in his hand, introduced me to all the people in the village.

' This person, even without knowing me is a good person or a bad person by introducing me to everyone here. Considering the type who relies on his intuition even more than me.. well, even though I can't say I'm a good person myself..'

I smiled as Ricardo patted me on the shoulder and enjoyed the evening. After the banquet ended, I went back to Yui's clinic and met her, then apologized for the bandage on my right arm I took off.

“Even if you take off your bandages, it seems you can take good care of your right arm. So this time I will not scold you…”

Even though she said that, her eyes clearly looked like she wanted to scold me. This beautiful girl in front of me, even just looking at her, I feel my condition seems to be getting better. Although I have to admit, the glance in his eyes right now is really sharp and piercing.

" Sorry..... "

“It seems you are really well trained to be able to fight without putting too much weight on your arms…”

She bandaged my arm and after that used healing magic on my arm again.

' Actually, what still makes me curious, Yui you are like an angel, that just seeing her make any heart calm, but you also are so well trained that I feel you even stronger than Ricardo... If I do something stupid, I'm done, for sure. '

" Hehehe... "

While saying that to myself in my mind, I couldn't help but chuckle awkwardly at her statement. Another day has passed in this new world and I can't imagine what the future holds.