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Beast Tamer Who Got Kicked Out From the Hero’s Party Chapter 138 Part 1

CHAPTER 138: THE CORPSE’S MEMORIES PART 1

There were some trees’ remains scattered on the flat, round stone.

This must have been the original location of the shrine.

Looking at it now, it barely managed to retain its original form at its foundation.

From what I could see right here, it looked like it was not all that big of a shrine to begin with.

Maybe the original shrine was only reaching to my waist in terms of height.

The dust and dirt on the remaining fragments suggested that it had been neglected for many years.

So the people in the village of Pagos must have known of the shrine, but still…….

They really must have thought that no Devil was sealed within the shrine, and so they neglected it and left it alone for many years.

「Nyah…… Could it be that the shrine just fell apart naturally……?」

「Well, it looked to be in a pretty sorry state to begin with, so that might actually be a part of the reason here.」

Kanade and Sora said their own impressions out loud when they saw the remains of the shattered shrine scattered all over the place.

However, Ax shook his head in response to that.

「No, I don’t really think that this was the case here.」

「…… Nyah? Why not?」

「Just take a look at this.」

After saying that, Ax picked up a piece of the broken shrine in his hand.

It must have been a part of the main framework of the shrine.

It was battered from the effects of exposure to the rain and other elements over many years, but……

There was also a part of it that had been cut cleanly in half.

「If it had decayed naturally, it wouldn’t have been damaged like this. It must have been broken by a swing of a sword or maybe even an axe…… either way, some sort of blade was responsible for this.」

「Oohh.」

「That’s actually surprising. I didn’t expect you to be able to notice such a small fact, Ax.」

「You’re horrible! How can you actually say something so cruel right into someone’s face!?」

Even though Ax said that, he seemed to be a bit teary-eyed, as he seemed to have a weakness for verbal abuse from girls.

「Are you absolutely sure about that?」

「Oh, come on now! Not you, too, Rein! At least you could believe me!」

「No, it’s not like that. I’m just checking. No offense, man.」

「Well, I’m afraid that Ax is right here.」

Cell said as if to follow up.

In her hand, she held a gem-like stone.

「What is it?」

「This is what used to generate a protective barrier around this place, the one that protected the shrine from monsters and wild animals. Or rather…… what’s left of it.」

「There was a need to have this place protected with a barrier?」

「There are monsters in this area, and a fair amount of them to boot. It seems that a barrier was put in place to protect the shrine from accidentally being destroyed. However, it is the kind of barrier that won’t protect you from elements such as wind and rain, so the shrine must have gradually started to deteriorate over time……」

「You mean…… Because of the barrier, normally, monsters and demons wouldn’t be able to touch it. So this means that the only ones who could destroy the shrine were people……?」

「That’s what I think it all boils down to. Well, I think that if any genuine Demon did show up around here, they would have been able to destroy the barrier with relative ease…… But this is just my own speculation. I cannot be certain of that for sure.」

「Hmm……」

So this means that we managed to deduce that it was more than likely that someone was actually responsible for destroying the shrine.

But who could have done that?

And what purpose would they have in doing that?

Could it be that they were aware of the Devil’s existence? Or maybe not?

There were still so many things here that we had no clue about.

「Did you manage to find anything else that might be a clue to us?」

「No, I can’t really say that I did…… What about you, Cell? any luck?」

「No luck over here as well. I don’t see anything else but the remains of the destroyed shrine.」

「I see. So…… Does that mean that coming here was only a huge waste of our time?」

Although we managed to determine that there was someone who willingly destroyed the shrine, that was all that we have come to know.

We have failed to obtain any sort of information about the Devil, or how to re-seal it for that matter.

I was really hoping that if we came here, we would be able to obtain some sort of a clue or aid in our investigation, but…… apparently we were going to leave this place just like we have arrived here: empty-handed.

「…… No, I wouldn’t say that us coming here was a waste of time at all.」

「…… Huh? Luna?」

「Rein, everyone. Come over here. I think I found something really interesting. Ugh, Nina, you…… You might want to stay there for the time being. Tina, please keep an eye on Nina, alright?」

Tanya suddenly beckoned us to her side while also advising Nina to stand back.

So, she has found something, but…… Why would she even want Nina to stay away?

「…… Hm? Ahh, umm…… O-Okay.」

「Hmm, I don’t know what is actually going on here, but you want me to stay back with Nina and keep an eye on her, right? Okay, can do!」

Fortunately enough, both Nina and Tina did not object to that and stayed where they were for the time being.

As for the rest of us, we moved a short distance away from the site of the shrine…… and approached a steep mountainside right next to it.

Was the reason as to why Tanya wanted Nina to stay out of here because the cliff was too steep and she was afraid that she might fall down?

That’s what I initially thought…… but then I quickly came to understand that this was not the case.

「This is……」

「Since you were busy investigating the shrine itself, we thought that we might as well look around the shrine’s perimeter. It was then that we were able to find this guy.」

Looking towards where Tanya was looking…… There was a human corpse that was stuck on the slope of the mountainside.

「Ugh, this is……」

「…… So awful.」

Ax and Cell frowned at the same time.

When you are an A Rank Adventurer, I guess that you encounter corpses on your path more often than not.

But even so, the sight of this particular corpse was more than enough to make those two battle-hardened A Rank Adventurers frown and twist their faces in distress.

I was somehow able to understand how that corpse must have looked like.

「Unyah…… T-This is…… this is really something else……」