"Shut up, if not for him we wouldn’t be in this shitty situation right now!"
Oven reached a breaking point long ago. His hand curls into a ball and delivers it to Holen’s face. The detective forcefully looked to the side, his cheek hunting from the punch.
"Are you done?"
However, instead of fighting back, Holen simply accepted it. His right hand wiped the blood from his mouth and turned back. Oven was left stunned after witnessing this. His eyes t Holen’s and he couldn’t help but look away.
The detective sat on the snow floor rubbing his left cheek.
"Oven, when did we first et?"
"...." The knight bit his lips "Four years ago, when I was a rcenary"
"I had known both of them longer than you, but I had to make a decision. Either we all died in that forest or we survived. Your decision almost dood us all, we got off light this ti but we couldn’t count on luck next ti. I’m telling you this as a friend, I don’t want to lose more."
"..."
"Now, onto our objective, we’ll be heading back now, however first we must locate where we are can you do that Oven?"
Luckily, Oven had a little bit of knowledge of the northern land, he’d been part of a group of knights that invaded this land before. He ought to rember soplace when he was passing by, making him rather useful for the job.
Holen specifically selected Oven for such a purpose. All the people in his party had ford to find this piece of scroll.
"I hope that piece of paper was with all this"
Oven quickly snatched the map and surveyed the land for any potential landmark they could use. Holen and Jell quietly followed Oven, trying not to disturb him doing his work.
-----------
"How does it look?"
Behind Reeva, Quin was on a horse looking down from the vantage point. He just quickly caught up with Reeva so he asked the question but before Reeva could answer, Quin looked downward.
The settlent was surrounded by another series of mountains, which is a common occurrence in Duraberg to Guragua; mountain ranges occupy much of the region, so if soone wanted to settle here, they would need to find an area that wasn’t on a mountain.
And such a place was usually surrounded by its mountain, making it rather easy to find a scouting point.
"It looks as bad as it could get"
Dozen more, the monster walked around the place. No less than their village when they checked it. Dozens of deer and a healthy mouth of trees.
"Change of plan, we might need to sneak the food out."
There was too much monster in the area to clear it in a reasonable ti.
"....." Quin thought about Reeva’s earlier statent and sighed He sure changed his way pretty fast
Not that Quin was complaining, as he agreed with Reeva’s stance. There is too much moster for them to clear without bringing more in. Quin had witnessed firsthand how a monster might bring another monster in. There is no guarantee that it will be any different.
"When do we go?"
"Now"
There was plenty of ti till nightfall, and Reeva wanted to take advantage of it. They left their horse with a group and moved out, with just Folo accompanying them, leaving Max and one other priest as backup. in case a monster attacks.
The three of them waited until the deer wandered to the side and stopped looking at them before making their way into the nearby house. They knew from previous encounters that these deer were sight-dependent; if they saw sothing, they would chase it. But if the deer never sees Reeva, he won’t be chased.
They deduce this from the fact that the deer did not pursue the group after they were lost in the forest fire. They had to keep an eye out for anything released into them, though.
"That’s likely a cloth maker house...."
Lemire was looking out the window, trying to find where they could get more food. Right now, they’re on the edge of the village with barely any house. And nobody lived in most of them. They had to find a house that had supplies.
They already had partial success with this house. Every household had prepared for winter, which ant they naturally had food stocked up. But it wasn’t enough for a group of knights and so civilians.
"That seems like a farr’s house"
That’s what they needed right now. They waited for the deer to walk over and walk opposite of it. Quickly they made their way into another house.
This one looked quite different from the last one. To begin with the place with like it was lived in and people left in a panic. The table was still filled with als that they last eaten. The chair was out of place and even knocked over.
After arriving on the horse, everyone started searching for where they stashed the at and stuff. If they were a rich man in Lemore the food would have been kept underground where they were extra cold.
However, the village people only had their house, and only in rare locations would you find an underground room. And usually, they would hide a nasty secret if discovered.
"Found it"
Lemire whispered and gestured both of them to follow him. Attracting attention when they were in enemy territories would be the worst outco. Quin and Reeva follow the man to a room.
Opening it revealed a stash of at that had been salt for preservation. A bag of hard bread that usually molds slower than normal and lastly, so water that is already frozen by now.
"Let’s take it and bring others"
They could made this trip with more people since it was easy enough. There are multiple bags of goods in here and two deer worth of food. In this house alone they could likely last the group for a week more.
Quin walked close to the deer at but as he was about to pick it up, he felt sothing was wrong. The salted deer at on the drying rack was not full. The at has a slight cut, indicating that soone has been eating it.
He could have been wrong...
Bang!
The side cabinet swung open, and the axe launched at Quin. The priest had been braced since he sensed sothing strange and expertly evaded the axe. The tal cut through cold air and arrived on the wood floor.
The priest turned around and delivered a kick that sent the attacker flying onto the wall. He quickly locked the attacker down after the threat was neutralized.
After the dust settled Quin was already on top of the attacker, Locking the guy’s hand in place. The guy in question was a middle-aged man with long ssy hair, now grunting on the floor.
"Release ! I’m sorry!"
"Why did you attack " Quin didn’t let his guard down. He wouldn’t want to be surprised by anything.
"I thought you were the deer! So I attacked first, I’m sorry priest please forgive this man. I’ve been a devout sun god believer all my life, please spare this once!"
"Lower your voice" Quin demanded
"Unhand him"
Reeva ordered and Quin loosened up his grip on the guy’s hand. Then he quickly stood up, however, he stilled cautiously and looked at the middle-aged man.
"Thank the lord..." The guy muttered "I swear I will donate my whole savings to charity"
"You don’t have to do that, however, why are you here? This place isn’t safe."
"Well...." The middle-aged man looked troubled, his eyes darted around the room and his face slightly tiled to avoid Reeva’s gaze.
"Quin I think you’re making him uncomfortable..."
"No, no, no!" The middle-aged man felt chills down his spine when Reeva wanted Quin to back down because the priest behind him looked like he was about to kill him. "It’s just a slightly embarrassing story... On the day of the attack, I already woke up to the whole village missing..."
He overslept?
"Do you expect to believe that?" Quin said, this ti his voice coder than before.
"No, I’m serious! then that curse fucking deer arrive and ran over the village! In my years of hunting, I had never seen sothing so vile."
"You’re a hunter?"
Reeva asked curiously. The guy then pointed at the deer at on the rack.
"That’s my prize for the winter. at to last around 2 months before I had to hunt another one."
"How did you get left behind? They should have notified you when sothing that big was happening...."
"Well, I guessed I was a bit of a loner. I only talk with one person to sell my hunt. Maybe that guy forgot about or sothing, I don’t know.... Maybe I’m just unlucky"
"....." Reeva felt skeptical about the guy but he could see the fear in his eyes "You want out?"
"Yes, please! I don’t want to be here anymore, overnight when I sleep I always dream of sothing breaking inside my house and killing in my sleep... I could barely sleep... Please take with you"
"Strip, I’ll need to check your body"
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