"The painting?"
The old man blinked a few tis.
"Yes. The villagers said sothing about being punished because of what happened to a painting, or sothing like that."
The old man tapped the ground with his cane with a smile.
"Right. I rember that."
He raised his cane and pointed at the building that was the least damaged one.
"Those people who first arrived in this town also found a painting near the book that I ntioned before. That painting was a symbol in our village for years. People also gave it a na and regarded it as a treasure."
"What was the painting?"
"It was a half-destroyed ruin. The sa ruin in the center of the plain before it was destroyed completely. A pillar, so broken tiles. Pieces of stones and debris surrounding the broken tile with a wall visible in the back. And so other details about the ruin's state hundreds of years ago."
"..."
"..."
The unit mbers looked at each other in silence.
'Isn't that the sa painting that Mr.Rhoads had? Isn't it the sa place that we were looking for?'
The description matched each other too well.
"What happened to the painting then?"
The old man sighed and continued.
"A couple of years ago, a young villager stole it and ran away from the village. We couldn't find it no matter where we went and what we did. I guess he might've sold it in the black market or whatever else they call it."
"I see."
Team leader Dains nodded his head.
It seed that they had found so pieces of the puzzle only by talking with an old man.
'The painting we have is most probably the sa painting as the village chief is talking about. The details math too well that it is hard to call it a coincidence.'
Hundreds of years ago, so people found a painting of the ruin inside an old building that probably belonged to thousands of years ago.
After so strange things happened, the villagers believed that the ruin was blessed and started to worship it.
The villagers kept the painting in the village after that and took good care of it for years.
The ruin got more and more destroyed as ti passed until it was hard to tell that it was the sa ruin in the painting.
A few years ago, a villager stole the painting and ran away. The villager sold the painting and the villagers couldn't find it anymore.
The painting reached the smugglers' hands after so ti. The smugglers were the ones that worked under Mr.Rhoads.
Mr.Rhoads obtained the painting that way, unaware of its origin and aning. Then Philomns attacked him to get the painting.
'Then, Philomns is looking for this place? Or have they already found it?'
That was also highly likely that they were searching for this ruin.
Team leader Dains was probably thinking the sa thing as he asked another question from the old man.
"Village chief, has anybody visited this place recently after the painting was stolen?"
The village chief slightly tilted his head at the hunter's strange question.
"Hmm... Soti after the boy left with the painting, people started to visit the ruin from ti to ti. There weren't that many but they were all weirdos. It would be alright if they only visited the ruin... but they didn't stop there and even ca to the village. So of them were thieves that stole the villagers' belongings. So destroyed our farms and so killed the animals. Sigh. I'm glad that those people don't co here anymore."
"...."
"...."
The unit mbers looked at each other again.
'Were the visitors from Philomns or were they re thugs?'
There was no way to know that at this point. They couldn't ask the village chief either as there was no way that he could recognize if the visitors were from a group of terrorists or so other criminals.
They were now sure that this place was where they were looking for. They had finally found the place shown in the painting.
But there was a small problem.
'We destroyed the ruin...'
They had co all the way here to investigate that place, but they had accidentally destroyed the place that they were looking for.
"...."
"...."
"Then-"
The old man resud talking.
"Will you help us? I've told you the whole story about the village and the ruin."
Team leader Dains thought for a mont before nodding his head.
"We will talk with hunters and prepare anything necessary for you and this village."
The old man smiled and stood up. He held his hand in front of the team leader and smiled.
"Thank you so much."
Team leader Dains shook hands with the old man.
"It's nothing much."
. . . .
The unit ca back to the village and spent the night at the village. The villagers still didn't act that friendly with them, probably because all of the outsiders that they had seen in recent years were either thieves or bastards.
The next morning the team left the village, telling them that they had to look for their main team and go hunting.
After exiting the village and walking to an empty place, they used a device to teleport back to the headquarters.
Crunch
Asa stuffed potato chips into her mouth until her mouth was full to the point of exploding. She then opened her mouth and tried to say sothing.
"I dan't dell if de mimion was muccsfull or mot!"
Deputy team leader Bray rolled her eyes.
"Asa, I've told you not to talk with your mouth full."
"MMUMNM!"
Asa made an unrecognizable voice as a sign of her displeasure and chewed the chips in her mouth.
"She says 'I can't tell if the mission was successful or not.' "
Rai translated Asa's words while placing a bottle of water in the teenager's hand.
"MM MM!"
Asa nodded her head.
"Rai has unlocked a new talent. He can now fully understand any weird creature's words."
Serria stretched her arms with a smirk on her lips.
In her words, Asa's eyes widened. She forcefully swallowed all the chips in her mouth and shouted.
"Who are you calling a weird creature? Huh? How dare a newbie talk to her senior like that?"
"What? I didn't call anybody here a weird creature. If you think that I ant you or anybody else then you must ask yourself why you think that way, senior."
Asa frowned and glared at Serria with anger.
"You think you can get employed here if you talk to like that?"
Serria leisurely waved her hand in the air.
"Hmm. I didn't know little girls were allowed to interfere with the team leader's decisions."
"T-this crazy woman!"
Asa exhaled a deep breath, lost for words. She gritted her teeth and turned her head to the opposite side of Serria. She stuffed another handful of chips into her mouth and chewed them while glaring at Serria.
"....."
"....."
Serria's two friends, Reyan and Kairen, looked at her as if they were looking at a piece of trash.
'Why are you arguing with a teenager 8 years younger than yourself?'
'Aren't you ashad of yourself?'
'This woman hasn't aged ntally.'
Even the other unit mbers were looking at her with such looks asking 'Why is a 23-year-old adult woman arguing with a teenager?' with their eyes.
Serria ignored their glares and continued to smile like soone who had just gotten their revenge. She didn't seem to be on good terms with Asa from the start. The teenager had been ignoring her since the first day for who knows why, and Serria couldn't stand being ignored.
'Of course, she doesn't need to worry about being employed or not. She is a magic swordsman so there is no way that team leader Dains would expel her. Ah, you unfair world.'
She could act as trashy as she liked and still get the job. Even Reyan didn't need to worry much about such things. The two of them would get employed as long as they did their jobs well.
Kairen was the only one who had to worry about all and any of the team leader's different kinds of looks and flinch every ti soone stared at him.
"Ahem!"
Rai coughed awkwardly.
"She is right. Did the mission succeed or fail? We found the ruin but it got destroyed. And we didn't even investigate the destroyed ruin and ca back here right away."
Deputy team leader Bray answered him.
"I guess it was successful? We didn't get the chance to investigate the ruin, but there is no need for us to do that."
"No need?"
"Well, the team leader agreed to help the villagers protect themselves against monsters. That said, he will most probably assign soone from Monster Hunting Division to do that. And no one had said that you can't investigate a ruin if you are a hunter."
"Ah!"
"So the Monster Hunting Division will continue the case?"
The deputy team leader shrugged her shoulders.
"That's only my guess. We also need soone to keep an eye on that area. We should know if Philomns visits that place later. Surely we can't let normal hunters wander around such a place. It is best if we assign soone who can handle everything at the sa ti."
Elsie and Rai nodded their heads and didn't ask more.
Crunch Crunch Crunch
And Asa continued to chew chips with a frown on her face. The sound of her chewing the chips and Darren snoring were the only sounds in the hall for a mont.
"Ah! Right!"
The deputy team leader suddenly clapped her hands with an excited face.
"Monster Hunting Division! Monster Hunting Division!"
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