“...There, that should fix it... are you fine now?” I asked the elk man, whose name I hadn’t learned yet, as I fixed his antler with the help of the sceptre of the forest, whose powers I was able to channel through my new magic conductive armour.
His new antler looked like the old one to me, but it seemed the man was still feeling some discomfort from his new antler. Was it because it had just now regrown, or was there another reason? Not sure, but as long as he doesn’t continue screaming for his dear life, then it’s fine.
“Y-yes I am... err, sir.” The man answered, he was still a bit shaken up, and uncomfortable with talking to me, but after he understood that I didn’t pose an immediate threat, he had become at least willing to talk to me.
Though, can’t say I don’t understand him. Hell, I am actually still a bit surprised by how the goblins and Heinrich’s expedition acted around me. Surely, there aren’t that many creatures like me around the world, are there?
Though... I guess there are quite a few weird creatures and monsters around the world, as I don’t really see any other way for deities to come into existence other than in extraordinary situations like mine.
“Now that you are fine, can you answer a few questions for me?” I asked the man, who immediately tensed up as he heard what I said, but he nodded non the less.
“First of all, what is your name? And to get things started, let me give my name.
“I am William. I am known by other names too, of course, but you don’t need to know them for now.”
“M-my name is Jarek.” He answered, and I asked him the actual question I wanted to hear.
“Now, Jarek, can you tell me where we are?”
“W-where we are? What do you mean, Sir William?”
“Are we inside the borders of Kingdom Of Teria?”
“What? N-no, we are in the border region between Eyria and Teria. Though, my village answers only to Eyria, and so far, no Terian noble has ordered my village to pay taxes to them instead, so you could just say we are in Eyria.”
“...Rifu-san, where is Eyria?”
“It’s south-west of Teria.”
“Didn’t you say that I’d end up in Teria if I followed the river that followed the mountains? How did I end up in a whole another country?”
“Did you see a lake while going north?”
“Umm... no?”
“Then you are most likely following the correct river, and these people settled here after I did my last survey of the area a century or so ago. Which is to be expected. Just follow the river like normal and you’ll end up in Teria in 2-3 days.”
“Ohh... okay.” I told Rifu, and turned my attention back to the man.
“Is your village nearby?” I asked him.
“Err... it is... nearby, yes.” He said, but it seemed he didn’t want to talk more about his village. But if it was on the river to the east, then we’d run into it.
“Jarek, is your village on the river to the east?” I asked him, and for a moment he seemed worried, but he quickly fixed his composure. Or tried to at least.
“N-no. It’s not.” He said stuttering.
“...Jarek, me and my men are on our way to Teria, and if your village is near or on the river to the east, we are going to encounter it tonight at the latest.
“So, I’d like you to be honest with me. Is your village situated near the river to our east?” I asked him. And I wanted him to actually tell me if his village was on the river or not because, if it was, I wanted him to act as some kind of middleman between us.
He wouldn’t be the... best middleman, but it’d was going to be better than just rocking up to a random village with bunch of goblins and golems out of nowhere.
“Y-yes... it is near the river to the east.” He said after a few seconds of silence. And I took a moment to look up to the sky.
And the sky was a pinkish orange with some blue on the corners of my vision, but not much. It was going to be night soon.
“Well then, Jarek, can I ask you to be a middleman for me?”
“W-what?”
“A middleman. Between me and your village. My men and I would normally start setting up camp a few hours from now, but seeing as your village is quite nearby, I’d like to set up camp near there for now, or if possible, take advantage of your hospitality and spent the night in there.
“Of course, if that’s not possible, I understand. I just want you to make your mayor, or elders aware that we mean no harm, and are just passing by.” I said to the man’s shock.
But even though he seemed uncomfortable with the arrangement, he accepted to act as a middleman, and I took him towards where the goblins and the golems were.
And Jarek seemed to know nothing about what a goblin even was, and just asked me about the little green men.
This was a surprise, but it made sense to me. Afterall The Dark Lord’s men were only even in the area for big targets like Rifu, so, going after a few small kingdoms and their comparably weak deities would make no sense.
Though he didn’t ask about my golems. Maybe he had seen some in a dungeon, or heard stories about them?
“There is my village.” The man said as we turned around a couple of trees, and in the distance, I could see a large village with a lot of farmlands around it.
The village itself must’ve had at least 300-500 people living in it if I had to guess, and even though I had never been to a place this small in my last life, its size still amazed me as the only sign of civilization I had seen in the last few months was the goblin village, which only had 100 people or so living in it.
And as we continued to approach the village, some farmers people took notice of us, and tough some seemed a bit scared or surprised, they didn’t do anything weird like screaming as they saw Jarek walking in front of us.
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But not that that deterred some town guards or militia from being alerted and stopping our approach into the town.
“Stop where you are!” Screamed one of the guards lined up in front of the village’s gate. He didn’t have anything differentiating him from the other guards, as they all wore basically the same armour and had the same weapons, but it appeared that he was slightly higher rank than the others.
“Who are you and what do you want!” He screamed once again, and I waited for Jarek to start speaking and... he didn’t.
Turning my face to him, he just seemed scared to be in this position which I understood.
“Ahem. My name is William, and as you can see, my men and I are not from around here, and I wanted to alert your village as to our presence, as not to seem like enemies.
“This kind man we found in the forest, Jarek, offered to relate my message to your mayor, and I’ve told him in more detail what are our goals.” I said, nudging Jarek slightly forwards.
“Y-yes! That is correct captain! These people, led by Sir William, want to go to Teria.” He said, and the guard captain nodded.
“I’ll lead you to the mayor Jarek, follow me! But the rest of you will remain here, understood?”
“Of course, captain. We mean no trouble after all.” I said, lifting my arms up slightly, and as Jarek and the captain entered the village, I took a few steps backwards and joined the goblins.
“Now, what do you all think will happen right now?” I asked them, and they seemed surprised.
“What do you mean, Lord Eternal? Have you... not made plans?” One of the goblins asked, surprised.
“I have. But I also want to hear what do you all think will happen next, and how would you react and prepare for different scenarios?
“Now, all of you sit down and make yourselves comfortable, this teaching session will take some time...” I said, and started listening to the different ideas that came out of the goblins, and explained in detail our current situation, and making new scenarios as I saw it fit.
This was going to be great to understand better how each of the goblins thought and acted...
----------------------------------------
I followed behind the guard captain as we entered the village, and let out a sigh of relief as we got out of sight of... whatever that was.
“...So, your name is Jarek?” Asked the captain, turning his head slightly to me, and I nodded.
“Do you know where those things are from?”
“No, captain... well, they probably come from somewhere south, but I am not sure about it. I was just walking through the forest, looking for small game when I encountered them. Though, the... man leading them, Sir William, says that he is leading his men to Teria. For what, I have no idea.”
“Hmm... what else did he say?”
“Nothing much, he just wanted for me to be some kind of middleman between him, and the village so there wouldn’t be any troubles. Though, he told me the name of the short green people with him, they are called goblins.”
“Goblins huh... never heard of them. Maybe the elders have though... anyways, I am going to try and arrange a quick meeting with the elders and the mayor. If we are lucky, the priest will also show up.” The captain said, and quickly took me to the mayor’s manor in the village centre, put me in a room and told me to stay there.
After maybe half an hour or maybe less, I was called by some servants to come and talk with the mayor, and the elders in the hall, and quickly made my way there, following the servant they sent to me.
Entering the hall, I could see the town elders sitting to the sides of the room, while the mayor sat in his throne at the end of the room, flanked by an old man in elegant robes.
“Priest Elijah...” I thought to myself, recognising the man.
“Ah, here you are...” Said the mayor, and with my entrance, the room fell silent.
“Young man, Jarek, I’ve already heard about this... Sir William and his entourage from the captain, but I want you to tell us what you know about them.” The mayor said, and I started talking.
“Thank you for the honour—”
“Skip the pleasantries please, I know this is your first time in the court, and that you are rightfully worried about offending someone important, but this matter is quite urgent.” The mayor said, and I skipped the pleasantries as he asked.
“Mayor, Elders, Priest Elijah, as far as I know these people come from somewhere south, and are headed north, to Teria for some reason that I don’t know about.
“The green men following Sir William are called goblins, and while I haven’t asked about it, I believe the rocky beings with them are called golems, though my untrained eye can’t say for certain.
“When he first started talking to me though, he asked where we were, and was surprised that we were in the border region between Elyria and Teria, and after figuring out that our village was in situated near the river, he asked me to become a middleman between him, and the mayor as to be either allowed to take refuge in the walls of the village, or be allowed to set up camp near it.” I said, and waited for the mayor or the elders to ask me any questions that they may have.
“And how did he figure out that our village was here?” The mayor asked, eyeing me.
“It didn’t seem like he knew of our village before coming here, but asked me if the village was near the river, or on it, as he was following the river with his entourage, and wanted me to be the middleman between his men, and the village if that was the case.
“Seeing no point in lying to him, as he was already going to stumble on the village, I told him the truth that our village was next to the river.” I said, sweating a bit as I said so.
I was scared that the mayor would choose to punish me for revealing where our village was to some potential enemies, but as I looked at his face, instead of anger I saw understanding.
“Hmm... is that so?” He muttered loudly, while his eyes were closed, probably thinking about something.
“Okay then, you can go now if you have nothing else to add. But you are to stay in the manor’s premises for now. We will send a servant to fetch you if needed.” The mayor said, and I started heading out.
“Hmm? Stop, young man.” A voice said, and turning around, I saw priest Elijah looking at me.
“Y-yes, priest?” I asked him, surprised as to why he was even talking to me.
“Your antlers... they don’t look normal, what happened to them?” He asked, and I remember that I had forgotten to talk about how I first met Sir William and his men.
“T-that... sorry, priest, I forgot to mention how I first encountered Sir William and his men. Do you want me to recount the story?” I asked him, and he nodded.
“I was hunting small game around the forest when I heard something that sounded close to talking, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was being said, so I moved towards the source of the voice, and saw Sir William talking to a few of his men.
“And then, I wanted to try and escape without being detected, but I accidentally stepped on a twig, and Sir William heard me.
“I believe he thought me some kind of monster, or animal as he then stabbed forth his sword next to my head, but instead of hitting dirt, he hit my antlers, and broke one of them.
“Though, he quickly apologized to me after realising I was no monster and instead a man, and healed my antlers with some magic.” I said, and was ready to be allowed to go again, but instead, the priest seemed even more curious.
“Some magic... huh? Jarek, why don’t you come a bit closer to me.” The priest said, and I obliged to his request until I was in his arm’s reach, and he started caressing my antler with a curious look on his face...
It was... weird for a man to be touching my antlers, but priest Elijah was an old man, and a priest, so I doubted he had any nefarious intentions with me.
And as I watched his face, I saw his eyes go wide for a second, as if he had just realised something important.
“J-jarek, how did the man heal you again?” Father asked, his voice shaken for some reason.
“How he healed me? Like I said, Priest Elijah, he grabbed my broken antler in his hands and re-grew my antlers in a few seconds.”
“W-were there any chants? Or magic circles?”
“I... don’t remember him chanting, or drawing any magic circles, priest, but I do remember a soft greenish glow coming out of his hands.” I said, and as I did so the priest froze, his eyes widening larger than ever before.
“Priest, are you alright?” The mayor, who was sitting on his throne next to us asked, and I could hear some commotion from the elders around us.
“Y-yes, I-I am fine... I am fine...” The priest muttered, as he pulled his hands from my antlers.
“Then what is it that has got you scared? This William and his men are not badomens, are they?” The mayor asked, getting a bit concerned due to how the priest was acting.
“No... they are not, at least not for now... though, I have to commend you for how lucky you are, Jared.” The priest, getting calmer and calmer by the moment.
“How lucky I am? What do you mean, Priest Elijah?” I asked the man, and with a sigh he looked straight into my eyes and talked.
“Because what you met was no man or beast, but a deity instead.” The Priest said, and as he did so, hell broke out in the room.