“Well then, Miss Resitia, that little hamlet over there is the town of Anglerton. It’s a small town, but already one of the bigger ones for this region,” said Kurt as he pointed towards a small town in the distance. Compared to the village, the town was better defended against wild animals and the like, with a short palisade probably about three meters tall surrounding the houses in the center.

The fields outside were out in the open, though. Some fields had fencing around it, but the different ways they were constructed hinted that they were likely made by different people on their own expenses, likely by the owner of those fields. There were some men and women with [Militia] classes patrolling the outer regions, but not many of them.

Farnham’s Hold, the village they were at the day before, also had only rudimentary fencing around its houses and left the fields in the open, but at least in their case they lived in a quiet place, relatively distant from creatures that could be a threat. Most of the animals – and the few monsters – in the vicinity of that village were only around the mid first tier at worst.

Something a fresh second tier farmer could likely deal with on their own.

In contrast, the forests near Anglerton teemed with more dangerous creatures. Even on their way to the town, Resitia, Kurt, and Leo had to deal with a few beasts that were not clever enough to run from them. Kurt and Leo both had skills that allowed them to sneak around unnoticed and other hunting related skills, so they usually avoided such creatures.

Resitia was nowhere near as capable of hiding herself like that, but she soon found out that skewering one of the creatures on her spear was just as effective a deterrent to the other creatures around.

The creatures themselves were of minimal threat to her, only in the late levels of the second tier. For villagers or local hunters, however, such creatures still posed quite a bit of danger, and they might even lose their lives to them on bad days. As such, the three damaged the creature’s carcass more to give the impression of a hard fight as a clean kill would have been suspicious.

With the carcass carried by a pole that Kurt and Leo carried on their shoulders – none of them wanted to draw undue attention to Resitia’s unusual prowess – the three of them headed to the town. The place was rather quiet that day. The [Militia] that patrolled around town stifled yawns as they walked around, protecting the farmers who worked the land under their protection.

There were quite a few surprised looks and gasps directed their way when they came into sight, the [Dire Boar] carcass they carried likely the cause of the surprise. It was rare for the town’s [Hunter]s to bag one of those. More often the beasts were the ones who hunted the hunters, with more than a few having lost their lives to one.

As such the town always considered it a cause for some celebration each time someone managed to hunt one. Kurt and Leo were familiar faces to the townspeople, known to them as some hunters who lived in the wilderness and came to villages and towns to trade their catch from time to time. This was the first time they brought something as big as the boar though.

A few noticed Resitia walking behind them, and the easy way she carried herself, or the practiced manner with which she rested her spear on her shoulder. The people who were in a more martial path immediately noticed that the girl was likely one like themselves, and guessed that she likely helped the brothers with the kill.

Of course, Resitia had changed her clothing to more common ones and even traded her crafted spear for a simpler one in order to disguise herself properly. Some things were harder to hide, however, and the way a warrior carried themselves was one of those things. Fortunately, given her attire and the fact that she was following Kurt and Leo, it was mistaken as the habits of someone used to living in the wilderness instead.

“Mister Edgar, think you could use this for dinner?” asked Kurt as he cheerfully greeted a middle-aged man who came out from an inn in the town. The man was apparently the inn’s proprietor and chef and looked positively giddy at the sight of the [Dire Boar] carcass. The beast was one of the most dangerous monsters in the vicinity, but its meat was also known to be a delight when cooked properly.

“Why, I certainly do!” replied the middle-aged man with a beaming smile on his face. “Why don’t you take it over to my kitchen first, then we’ll talk compensation inside? Drinks are on me!”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Resitia gave the siblings a questioning look, which Leo answered with a nod, indicating that the man was trustworthy. The three of them lugged the carcass around into the Inn’s kitchen, where it took up all the space of the largest table they could find, and even then the beast’s limbs still hung over the table’s sides as it was too large to fit entirely.

Then they walked to the inn’s common room and met with the proprietor who immediately plied them with mugs of ale as he cheerfully bargained with Kurt over the beast’s price. In the end Kurt gave the man a cheaper deal as he conceded that the carcass had been quite damaged, keeping up his disguise as a hunter from the woods. On the other hand he also extracted part of the cut back in exchange for offering to dismantle the beast. Typically only hunters knew how to dismantle monsters properly, as most people wouldn’t come into contact with them often.

The coins were quickly exchanged and they toasted with their mugs to celebrate the deal’s conclusion when a commotion from the outside reached their ears. Almost as one, the group walked towards the windows to see what was causing the ruckus outside, and while the other three – as well as the inn’s patrons – looked used to the situation, Resitia was definitely unused to it.

A small group of men on horseback rode through the town streets while the people on the side of the road knelt and lowered their heads in obeisance. The riders looked particularly smug and arrogant to her eyes, while the way they dressed made it quite clear that it was likely some noble with her retinue of guards riding behind.

The noblewoman was riding along the town’s main road – likely headed towards the manor at the center of town – when a child crossed the road in front of her horse, causing it to rear back in surprise. Resitia had no idea why the child was there. Maybe their parents were occupied and the kid ran off on their own, maybe they were just coming out from a side alley and had not noticed the procession. Either way the point was moot.

What she saw was how the noblewoman screeched like a harpy, apparently affronted that one of the townspeople had not only not knelt, but even crossed her path. She saw a rather young couple – likely the child’s parents – rush out hurriedly from the side and knelt to plead with the clearly angry noblewoman, but to little avail. The noblewoman then raised the riding crop she held and whipped it at the child.

Fortunately the child’s mother managed to cover them with her own body, taking the crop to her back. That just seemed to infuriate the noblewoman more, however, as she whipped harder at the woman’s back, over and over. She lashed the man as well, who was still kneeling and pleading for his family, and only after a while did her temper tantrum subside.

Only after the noblewoman and her guards left for a good distance did the bystanders dared to move in to help the unfortunate family. The child was fortunately unharmed, as they were shielded by their mother throughout the ordeal, but the father took many lashes that left bleeding wounds all over his chest and shoulders, even a couple across his face that would likely leave lasting scars.

The child’s mother was worse off, as most of her back was a raw, bleeding wound. The woman had long fainted under the whipping but remained crouched over her child regardless. Several of the townspeople rushed her over to an infirmary, but Resitia knew that unless the infirmary happened to have a skilled healer class with magical healing capabilities those injuries might very well cripple the woman for life.

She also noticed that none of the townspeople seemed to dare to raise their voice in protest over the torment that the family suffered for shielding their child. It was something that looked unthinkable to the girl, who had the thought that any person with decency would have stood up for them. Instead, at most a few people shook their heads sadly at the going-ons.

That included the inn proprietor and some of the patrons who had crowded near the windows to get a glimpse of what happened. Soon after the spectacle ended they returned to their seats and resumed what they were doing as if nothing happened, and nobody said even a word about it. That really puzzled Resitia, and her questioning glare made it obvious.

“The lass ain’t ever been here before, hasn’t she?” asked the inn’s proprietor to the siblings.

“Yeah, she usually stuck to her family, but they ran into misfortune of late, which is why she’s with us today,” said Kurt as he used the cover story they agreed upon. Resitia not speaking much was also something they agreed on, as they were worried that she might say the wrong thing in a fit of emotion that might make people suspicious of them. To avoid that she just pretended to be mute. “I’m pretty sure this is her first time in Anglerton.”

“Better remind her not to go against the lady then,” said the innkeeper with a shake of his head. “Lady Rosaline Carlsburg is the Baroness that rules over Anglerton and most of the surrounding villages. In this region, her word is law, so it’s best not to get on her bad side. I feel sorry for the Cairns but they really should have known better than to let that happen.”

Resitia noticed that the man had not mentioned whether he meant the family should not have let the child run off from their watch and thus anger the noblewoman, or whether he meant they should have known better than to try to shield the child from said woman’s wrath. Leo discreetly gave her a shake of the head to tell her not to pry further though, so she held her peace.

One thing she was quite certain about, however, was that the Human Kingdom also had its darker side much like the demons’ territories. The way the noblewoman treated the townspeople as beneath had and so gleefully visited violence upon them for such a small “affront” was quite repulsive to Resitia. She also understood why the tribal spies had suggested that Iryl and Esperanza might be better off staying behind for this trip.

Someone who was clearly willing to whip a child would not have cared for people hiding themselves under hoods if they piqued her curiosity. While Iryl was there as a buffer of sorts, it was still unsafe to allow people to get a close look at Esperanza’s features under her hood, as while her shapeshifting has indeed improved greatly over the months it was still noticeable under close observation.

Such a thing might well have busted their infiltration and leave them with little choice but to burn the town – and all the people in it – to the ground to eliminate witnesses, and none of them wanted to take such a drastic action at the moment.