…

          As the adventuring group known as darkness, a large animal trialed behind them. Her form was large, her tail was rather perky as it waved from side to side. This made the people watching second guess their sight.

The swords of darkness looked at the beast in front of them in wonder and shock. The wise king of the forest looked on at the other group in a bit of wonder. Hamsuke didn’t really see the adventurers as all that strong. She herself was only about level 35.

          They stared each other down for a couple of minutes at the bare minimum. The swords of darkness could feel a sort of wisdom and power behind the creature’s eyes and were afraid because of it. Meanwhile, Hamsuke was thinking about lunch.

          Nfirea was soon to speak up. He was quivering on the spot. Shock and awe were evident in his voice. It was as if the world was coming to an end, and he was thew one to see it. It was kind of funny for the him to act like that in Nabe’s opinion.

          “Th-th-that’s the wise king of the forest. He’s supposed to-,” but before he could finish his words, Viridael stopped him.

          What she started to explain shocked the other group into silence. The news of the wise king of the forest’s true nature made them second guess their ears.

          “The wise king of the forest is actually a female. Also, I was unaware of this before, but this magical beast used to belong to my family line and when I and Hamsuke met she bonded with me. Hamsuke is the real name of the wise king of the forest,” she explained much to the shock of everyone who wasn’t a member of Darkness.

          The other group looked amongst each other and started to mutter about this and that to try and figure out what to do and how to respond to this situation in general. This day was simply strange. First, they run into the wise king of the forest, then they find out that it used to be a pet or companion animal of one of Viridael’s ancestors.

          It was then that Nfirea began to speak once more. In all honesty, he was starting to do all the talking for the people seemingly out of the loop. Not that that was a problem for the swords of darkness. They were quite happy about not really having to speak when their minds were beginning to fry.

          “But the village needs the wise king of the forest. Without her, the other animals and demi humans could invade the village and kill everyone,” he reasonably asked.

          That was true. If the tomb wasn’t watching the village that Aeskell and Ainz had basically staked their claim on wasn’t protected by them, then the departure of the only beast that didn’t murder everyone in the vicinity would mean certain death.

          But, there was just one simple thing. Nazarick had decided to stake their claim on the village. If any force were to arrive and try to take the town, then they would be met with the power of a lot of pop monsters and maybe a couple of Pleiades.

          Though, they hadn’t put a Pleiades around the town yet, even though Viridael was starting to want to. If they were going to make a start on this planet, then they might as well make a claim on the place where they first showed their proverbially faces.

          Of course, Viridael couldn’t tell the other group that, but she decided to tell them something else, a little bit of a half-truth. Something that wouldn’t hurt them in the long run. It might a bit of an overshare, but she felt a tad bit cornered by his question.

          “Well, in my private conversation with Miss Emmot, she relayed to me that they have something that can help them in an emergency situation. She told me herself that their saviors gave it to them,” she explained.

          Nfirea wanted to ask what that thing was, but stopped himself, it seemed to him that this wasn’t the place to start and ask what was going on with the village and the weird private conversation she had with the girl he loved.

          So, in the end he simply remained silent. At this continued silence where Viridael expected him to continue to ask her questions, and his simple silence on the matter, Momon intervened.

          “We probably should get ready to head out for the road, right?” he asked the two groups.

          Nabe and Viridael nodded, while the large hamster simply wiggled her tale in happiness that she had found her master after all this time, and she would be able to go on adventures with her that her master kept raving about.

          The swords of darkness dearly wanted this day to end, so they simply affirmed the words of the large and powerful man. Yet as they walked to the village, they couldn’t help but feel like something was missing.

          Ah whatever, it’s just the author feeling a bit down while writing this. a bit of writer’s block never hurt anyone.

…

          The swords of darkness as well as the other adventuring team simply known as darkness walked back onto the trail as they left the village of Carne behind them. Nfirea had said goodbye to the girl that he had a crush on that everyone could see but the girl he loved. She had explained to him that they had been given a tool to defeat anyone that had the wrong idea of Carne.

          But she hadn’t told him what it was. That didn’t surprise him much. He had been told that their savors were rather powerful people that had saved them from the Slane theocracy. That in and of itself was a secret that she told him he couldn’t tell anyone.

          That made him second guess once more. It was rather unbelievable; and what’s worse, the town’s saviors had made her promise not to give him, or anyone, any more information.

          He shook his head off the rather new memories and ideas that had pervaded it for the last couple of hours and looked ahead to the road once more. Nfirea was driving the wagon of course, and Lukrut was sitting beside him on the lookout for anyone or anything that could endanger them.

          He looked behind himself to see that two ladies from the adventuring team darkness talking rather animatedly. The large magical beast was walking behind the cart in front of their gaze, and it seemed like they were talking about Hamsuke’s fur.

          He then turned to his left to spot Dyne and Peter talking about this and that. Though, they themselves seemed to be skirting the topic of the large rodent behind the cart. To Nfirea’s right was Momon and Ninya.

          They seemed to have hit it off rather quickly and he swear he could hear a certain angry succubus grind her teeth in frustration. But that was simply his mind playing tricks on him. This was going to be a rather long drive to the city though, as nothing strange happened even until they arrived.

          They had even made record time as the horse seemed to not tire for the first leg of the journey. While it was strange for his horse, known for its rather sorry state of stamina, to be able to leg it rather quickly back to home. It made his day as he would be able to see his grandma and alchemy shop rather quickly.

          Hopefully nothing would ruin this week for him.

…