Return of the Fallen Volume 2 Chapter 12
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Author: Blue_Rat
ch12
Stunned by the child’s question, Kimi couldn’t find a way to properly answer her and just told her to ask her mother when she’s older.
Shin and Danny continued to laugh while stripping the men and searching their bodies for the Enhancing inscription. Kimi had to cover the girl’s eyes just in case but it was hard to control a squirming child without hurting them, so the two eventually got up and walked a short distance away. Not too far but far enough so the child could not see the naked men on the ground.
Asuna and Nunully seeing Shin and Danny laugh while stripping other guys was a weird sight to behold which sent a creepy chill down the ladies’ spines.
After searching all the men though, Shin and Danny had come up empty-handed. This only added to the confusion.
“Things aren’t adding up. With these Limiter tattoos and no Enhanced tattoos, these men should be incredibly weak, far weaker than the average man but somehow their strengths seem right at the average level.”
Nunully spoke her thoughts out loud to no one in particular but this just made Danny more curious.
“If these Limiter tattoos are suppressing them, then doesn’t that mean that their real strength is actually near our own without those Limiters. Why would they have these then and who put these inscriptions on them?”
Nunully couldn’t answer that for she too had no clue.
Danny rubbed his chin in thought.
“I suppose if we really want to know we’ll just have to wake one of them up and ask?”
“NOOO!”
A terrifying shout rang out.
The woman who had been unconscious all this while suddenly screamed out in horror as though she was about to be killed.
Asuna was the first by her side and tried to calm her down.
“It’s OK, you’re safe, it’s all over.”
The woman though crawled backward in a panic.
“Get away from me! Mei, Mei where are you! MEI!”
The small child came running over and leaped into her mother’s arms.
“Mama, mama!”
The two began to cry but the mom quickly placed Mei behind her and picked up a nearby rock ready to fight for her life. Mei though began pulling on her arm.
“Mama, they saved us, don’t fight, don’t fight.”
The woman’s eyes darted between Kazuki and the rest but due to the blood loss she suffered, her mind started to spin with dizziness and she began to collapse to the ground. Thankfully though Asuna was near and helped support her.
“It’s OK, you’re safe now. I and my friends won’t harm you and these men can no longer cause you harm.”
The woman felt pain in her body but relief in her heart. With a loosened grip, the rock fell from her hand to the ground. She looked at the unconscious men on the ground and saw that they weren’t dead. Her hand shook as she pointed at them hatefully and begged.
“Kill them. Please, those monsters, because of them, because of them my husband died and we…”
The woman’s body trembled and she bit down hard on her lower lip causing blood to run down her chin.
One could feel the sorrow in her voice as she spoke about her husband.
Mei seeing her mother so hurt felt tears flowing from her face once more.
Asuna wrapped an arm around her and sat close beside her. Shin and Danny used the extra rope one of the men carried and tied them up together. Taking their clothes, they threw them over their naked bodies so the child would not see. Kimi sat down near Asuna and kept her light floating above her palm but she could feel her power growing weak, so she told Kazuki. Soon a bit of firewood was gathered and a small crackling fire warmed everyone as they sat around patiently for the woman to speak.
The time it took for her to calm down wasn’t long, now that she knew her daughter was safe. Asuna gently urged her.
“Please, can you tell me what happened, maybe me and my friends can help.”
The woman slowly began to explain what happened. First, she introduced herself as Tsura and her daughter was called Mei. The woman had lived in her village with her daughter Mei and her husband for their whole lives and everything had been normal and peaceful for as long as they could remember until recently that is.
“On one normal day around a week or so ago, the village received a group of guests. This was beyond rare and they were welcomed into the village. They had journeyed for a terribly long time in search of something and had become weary in their travels. Since the village was so remote, the villagers were rather excited and accepted them curiously, well everyone except the village chief, who was also the old man lying unconscious on the ground over there.”
“The chief had wanted to kick them out immediately and warned of disaster but because nothing ever happened in our peaceful village, everyone just chalked it up as baseless worry. How wrong we all were. In the first few days, the guests were quite normal and simply interested in the villager’s way of life but it became increasingly clear that the guests had an objective. On several occasions, this small group of guests were caught snooping around the village, asking all kinds of questions about the Magnitium rocks and how and why they’re powered.”
“Eventually the friendliness everyone had built up with the guests turned sour and everyone in the village told them to leave. The guests left with no complaint and the matter was put to rest… or not. Later that very same night, the pigs at the back of the village were squealing as though they were being gutted, causing a bit of alarm to fill the village. When the villagers and I made it back there, we saw one of the guests who we made leave earlier that day, climbing out of the village well with a strange object in hand.”
“As soon as the chief saw it he panicked. Grabbing a pitchfork he tried to kill the man in cold blood right then and there but the villagers quickly stopped him. At the same time, they apprehended the man who took the object out of the well. When asked why the chief would kill the man for nothing, the chief could hide the secret no more.”
“He told everyone that the object was a powerful treasure that protected the village from harm and that it was a precious relic of our ancestors. This enraged all of us and we wanted to kill the thief when the other guests came back and demanded that their friend be returned.”
“Not only that, they wanted the treasure as well. This, of course, didn’t sit well with anyone and a fight broke out between the villagers and the outsiders. What no one knew was that the outsiders were not just your average adventures but were actually hardened Mages. They killed more than a dozen people and destroyed most of the village before stealing the treasure away.”
“After the adventurers left, everyone was in mourning but the one most devastated was the village chief. That’s when things took an even more drastic turn. After our ancestor’s treasure was stolen, something began to hunt our villagers. Just like the chief said, that treasure protected our village from harm but with it gone, a strange creature appeared and began killing a villager every night.”
“With most of the village destroyed, there was nowhere to hide and we started to get picked off one by one. All we could do to avoid death was to hide out in a nearby cave and so all of the villagers hid away there but that was no refuge. Food was scarce and we could no longer go out to hunt without that monster laying waste to us, that’s when people started blaming one another.”
“The chief, though, directed it all toward my husband. My husband was the main person who prevented the chief from killing the thief that night and so the chief blamed him for everything that happened since. We were then shunned by the rest of the village which pushed my husband into a corner.”
“The remainder of our food continued to shrink and so the one and only person who was made to head for another village to bring back more was my husband. With the way we were being treated, he felt there was no other choice than to go himself for fear that we all would be punished. He was forced out because of this and he died. It’s the chief’s fault. He’s the one who made my husband die and they all allowed him to go out alone. They all wanted him dead and now my husband…Damn this cursed village, damn all of its people.”
Everyone was taking in all of this when they heard a dry harsh cough behind them.
*Cough cough cough cough*
“Lies!”
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