Chapter 23 - The Ester Village Massacre

Kingdom of Green, Ester Village

Duke Gerald was currently walking and inspecting every house of the village. A report had been sent to him this morning that unknown perpetrators had massacred the place. The Ester village was one of the places under his jurisdiction.

A tax collector was supposed to do his collection once every month. But, according to the narration of the collector, he already felt that something was amiss when he saw that no guards were present at the gate.

When he entered the inside of the village, he saw the corpses of the people scattered everywhere and what was more bone-chilling was, the bodies of each person were dry. It's as if something sucked their vitality and blood out of them.

The other knights covered their noses as some felt like they would throw up due to the smell and the gruesome scene.

One of the knights reported.

"Your Grace, we already inspected all the houses, and we conclude that there were no survivors."

Duke Gerald looked at the infant corpse on the ground, drained by its blood, and silently clenched his fist, then commanded.

"Check every clue that you can find and report it to me. I will report this directly to the king."

-----

Back at the Duke's residence. West Wing Castle.

Louise sat on one of the chairs at her reception and silently ate the grapes Heron prepared. Then, a while later, she heard a series of footsteps and knocked on the door.

She looked outside through the windows and noticed that the sky was starting to turn dark. She already informed the Duke that she would be returning today, but he did not visit her right away.

The door was pushed open, and he saw the Duke entered wearing his white long sleeves tucked by a black trouser. Louise slightly tilted her head and commented.

"You smell blood."

Gerald was slightly surprised but recovered right away and took the chair in front of her.

"There was bad business in one of the villages under my jurisdiction."

Louise pushed some of the grapes placed on a plate that she was eating towards the Duke. Gerald stared at it but did not dare to pick one. He then continued his narration.

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"There were unknown perpetrators that massacred the Ester village. They did not even spare the children."

"Well, some of the barbarians and thieves often do that in a small village."

Louise explained and was about to continue to pick some grapes when she heard the Duke's following words.

"Something drained them of their vitality and blood."

Louise stopped and looked at the Duke.

"Oh, that's quite interesting. Would you mind sparing me the details?"

***

The candles inside the receiving area were almost half when the Duke concluded his narration. Louise, on the other hand, was silent for a few minutes.

"I can't believe that they were also creating havoc here. These events were getting troublesome."

Louise stated while scratching her chin.

Gerald looked at her.

"Do you know about those perpetrators?"

"You don't need to use "those," because a single entity only did the massacre."

Gerald was astonished as he widened his eyes

"What?! That entity is powerful?"

"Well, I've been chasing those stupid demons for many years to no end, and they were good at hiding. I even visited the Mystical forest to look for them, but I encountered you instead."

The Duke raised his brows.

"It's quite unusual for you to do some righteous thing such as capturing demons. Did someone ordered you?"

"You can put it like a mission, and I just happened to be bored. So that's why I volunteered myself."

Gerald stared at her with disbelief. Now that was something anew. Who would volunteer themselves in some dangerous mission because they were bored? This girl's thinking was quite abnormal.

"Did you catch any of them?"

Louise responded.

"Some, but they were too many of them. And most of the time, I always ended up fixing the mess those monsters left. And I'm doing this for free."

"Do you think that there is something that we can do?"

Louise answered right away.

"No, They were way stronger than you think. It may take five high-ranking mages in your kingdom to take one of them. I can't even guarantee that there will be no casualties at that."

Then she added.

"But I would suggest that you burned the corpses of the victims unless you wanted to have some additional trouble."

"Hey, don't tell me that they may turn into a living dead?"

She slightly smirked

"You can think of it as a possibility."

Gerald asked curiously.

"Why do you know so much about them?"

He saw the girl shrugged and smiled.

"Well, I wonder."

---

When the Duke left a few minutes after their discussion, Louise stood, then called out,

"Heron, open teleportation to the Ester village."

The small kid appeared on Louise's side, bowed, and waved her tiny hands. Then, a teleportation circle emerged, and they both entered and disappeared from the room.

--

The Ester Village.

Louise observed her surroundings and saw the gruesome scenes that would send chill in every person who would witness it.

"Master, aren't you going to burn these corpses?"

Louise placed her hands at her back and observed that the other corpses had already rotted and produced some nasty smell.

"I'm not a busybody that will always stick my nose on those demons' mess."

"But, aren't you going to answer to the council if this continues?"

She lightly chuckled.

"Why would I? I am not the blockhead who accidentally released those demons' seals. But..."

She tilted her head and smiled coldly.

"I'm getting tired of playing this hide and seek game. If I can't seal those monsters back, then I'll have to eradicate them. So, they better hide carefully."

Heron shook a bit when she felt a heavy aura emitting from her master.