[Vol. 5] Chapter 220: The Naless, Uninhabited Town
As an intense battle raged at the borders of the Fulan Province, with both sides fighting overtly and covertly, using all their strategies, a new visitor arrived today at a seemingly unremarkable town near the now demon-occupied Angel City.
“This should be the place, right? A town without even a na, not marked on any map. If it weren’t for the intel provided by our employer, no one would have thought there was such a place so close to the Angel City…”
Sitting in the carriage, Mr. Xavier, the president of the Xavier rchant Guild, slightly lifted the curtain in front of him. As he looked out and saw the low buildings in the distance growing larger, he couldn’t help but speak with a hint of emotion.
Sitting directly across from him, the captain of the guard, Miss Sasha, sighed in response.
“Yeah, yeah… Who knows if anyone even lives here. If we deliver the goods and find that everyone inside has been slaughtered by the ?Slaughter? or turned into sothing strange, we’d be in serious trouble.”
Xavier tried to reassure her, sowhat helplessly.
“Don’t be so pessimistic. Look, we’ve encountered demons several tis on this journey, and we made it through safely each ti. Maybe those creatures aren’t as violent and cruel as we thought. Since this town isn’t even marked on the map, it should be fine.”
A young girl with brown hair tied into a ponytail, dressed in a fitted leather outfit covered by a large coat, with a quiver on her back and a simple longbow resting on her legs, pouted, seemingly unimpressed.
“How naive. Do you know why those demons didn’t attack us? It’s because no one in this caravan has any faith, so they’re not interested in us. Plus, we actively avoided them.”
“They’re in a rush to support the battlefield on the other side of the place, still fighting hard over there, so they couldn’t care less about small fry like us passing through. Do you really think demons are so kind of benevolent monks?”
“This town is definitely full of people from the Holy Empire, followers of the Goddess. Since the Angel City has been overrun for so long, if any demon patrol passed through here… well…”
“Haha…”
At this point, Xavier could only chuckle ambiguously. Yet, as if he was slightly concerned, or perhaps just wanting to change the topic, he casually asked, “By the way, Sasha, you seem to know a lot about demon behavior. Did you encounter them on your previous adventures?”
“As if! I’ve lived my whole life in the Human United Kingdom. Demons supposedly carry out over ninety-nine percent of their activity within the borders of the Holy Empire. What are the odds I’d run into them?”
The brown-haired girl with the short ponytail casually wiped her ancient longbow with a cloth, not even looking up as she replied.
“My teacher told . Before this trip, she said that traveling in the Holy Empire cos with the risk of getting caught up in demon attacks, so she shared so of her battle experiences with them from her past journeys just in case.”
“Oh, I see. It sounds like your teacher is quite a powerful and knowledgeable elder.”
“Pfft~”
Hearing the girl suddenly suppress a laugh, Xavier tilted his head in confusion.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Pffthaha… It’s nothing, really. It’s just that calling her an ‘elder’ makes her sound like so old relic. If my teacher heard that, you’d probably be in for so serious payback. She may seem cold and distant, but she’s incredibly vengeful, you know.”
“?”
Just as Xavier grew more confused and curious about the mysterious teacher of his guard captain, who never revealed their true identity, there was a knock on the carriage door from one of the caravan mbers.
“President, we’ve reached the outskirts of the town. It seems pretty quiet inside. What should we do next? Go straight in?”
“Oh, no rush.”
Xavier set aside his curiosity and focused on the matter at hand. He pushed open the carriage door and stepped outside to take a serious look at the scene before him.
A seemingly ordinary small town.
The town’s boundaries could be seen in one glance, mainly built with a combination of fences and walls. The distance from the east to the west end appeared to be no more than a few hundred ters. The dozens of one- and two-story houses in sight made the place feel more like a small village than a proper town.
Xavier imdiately noticed that the fences and the interior of the houses appeared relatively new. Considering the absence of this town on any general map…
It was likely that this was a newly established settlent, no more than a year old.
“It is indeed very quiet, not what you’d expect from a normal village or town. Could it really have been wiped out by demons?”
Behind him, the voice of the guard captain muttered to herself as she leapt down from the carriage. However, after so thought, Xavier made an unusual decision. Unlike his usual cautious approach, he simply glanced around the exterior of the naless town and then nodded decisively.
“Alright, let’s go in. We’ll follow the main road through the town and not wander around.”
“?!”
This irrational, almost impulsive decision naturally sparked surprise and confusion among the group, especially Sasha.
However, Sasha had a good sense of boundaries. Though she often had a sharp tongue in private, she rarely challenged the president’s decisions publicly. Since he had already made up his mind, she didn’t say anything further.
She lifted her longbow and stepped forward.
“Alright, I’ll take the lead.”
With the president and the captain of the guards in agreent, the rest of the caravan had no objections. Under Xavier and Sasha’s leadership, the convoy slowly made its way into the town.
It remained eerily quiet.
A strange, seemingly deserted town.
The walls of the houses and the roads underfoot appeared clean and well-maintained, clearly the result of regular upkeep. Yet, there was no sign of any life.
Occasionally, a light breeze drifted from the distance, rustling the newly budding branches of spring with a soft “swoosh,” mingling with the rhythmic clatter of wheels and horse hooves on the ground. It was as if they were a group of foolish outsiders who had wandered into a foreign, eerie place.
This scene was too familiar, and it brought unsettling mories back to Xavier and so of the older mbers of the rchant group, reminding them of a terrifying incident from long ago.
A forgotten fear began to resurface, slowly taking root once again.
“Pre-President, could it be that this place is also…”
Finally, one of the mbers, unable to suppress their anxiety, let out a whimper. In this deathly silent, empty town, their fear sounded painfully loud.
Though Xavier’s face also looked slightly uneasy, he gently reassured the person with a calm voice.
“Don’t worry, this isn’t Bavo Town. We won’t encounter that situation again.”
“Even if you say so, why is there no one here? Even if the village was massacred, there should be bodies…”
“No, there are people here. You just haven’t noticed them yet.”
The guard captain, Sasha, who had been walking at the front of the caravan beside Xavier, vigilantly observing their surroundings with her longbow in hand, suddenly spoke up.
“Prepare for battle!”
She stopped in her tracks and raised her hand. The warriors flanking the caravan imdiately halted, drawing their weapons in perfect unison. Sasha swiftly pulled back her bowstring, aiming an arrow toward a shadowed corner of one of the wooden houses.
“Co out! Whoever you are, after watching us for so long, it’s ti to show yourself. Or would you prefer I help you out?”
The surroundings fell silent. Under Sasha’s command, the caravan stopped, and even the clatter of the rolling wheels faded away. Xavier looked in surprise at the brown-haired girl beside him, about to say sothing when…
From the spot Sasha was aiming at, the sound of faint clapping erged.
“Impressive awareness. For a human without any special bloodline, you’ve achieved quite the remarkable level of perception at such a young age. Your guard unit is quite capable as well. This caravan of yours is interesting indeed…”
As the calm voice praised them, a young man dressed in a light golden robe with a half-concealed hood stepped out from the shadows. He smiled politely at Sasha and the others.
“Nice to et you all. I am Elrand, a missionary of the ?Light Worshipper Church?, though you might be more familiar with the na ?Church of Radiance?, as it is referred to by so people. I’ve been waiting for you for so ti.”
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