The sound of a cart rolling echoed through the quiet forest as it mingled with the cries of distant birds. The dirt road made the cart bump up and down.

“It smells…”

“Rimi!”

As we always did, the three of us sat at the back of the cart and enjoyed the ride. I rested at the edge, resting my shoulders on the corners of the cart while leaving my head up.

Rimi and Evans on the other hand sat at the center, resting on the giant piles of hay.

The sky was blanketed at the corners from the canopy of the trees like a beautiful frame that made itself part of the artwork it housed. No matter how much I looked at the skies of this world, it never failed to amaze me.

“Excited, Ian?” asked Evans.

“I was just thinking what the Oxen’s strength stat must be to pull all this weight.”

Evans sat up. “Ian, I think you can be a philosopher. What must be the stat of the oxen.”

“Right? I told you, my genius frightens me sometimes. Maybe I should write a book?”

“Are you guys mad?” Rimi muttered.

“You are the last person who should say that.”

I was still engrossed in the idea of the book. “I’ll call it ruralmensch.”

“And what will it be about?”

“Life lessons you can learn from Triangular Tiled Roofs, Strawberry-topped shortcakes, and Shawn’s Skewers.” I could already imagine the success. “I’ll clear Shawn’s tab with the book sales.”

“He’ll sooner have your blood than your book sales,” Rimi said, unamused.

I kept looking at the sky. The clouds were moving at the same pace as our cart, almost as if they were following us. Heavy, wide clouds.

“So, about those heroes,” suddenly Rimi said. “What if we ever run into them?”

Argh. That was a bad topic.

“What of it?” asked Evans.

“I will probably have to leave the party if we do,” said Rimi. “I mean, think about it. I can be a heroine, right? Maybe one very cool and powerful hero will fall for me.”

She chuckled at her own words.

“The type that is hostile to everyone except me. Hm hm, perfect. I am sorry, but I’ll choose love and saving the world.”

I didn’t know Rimi knew Otome Isekai tropes so well. Was she a modern person too? My eyes trailed away from the skies to my companian. Evans was looking at Rimi with a wry smile.

I personally knew the heroes, but I couldn’t say that. “The sketches made them look pretty normal, to be honest. Not like a heroic prince that would swoop you up on a white horse.”

“Really?” said Rimi. “Those were just sketches anyway. I am sure heroes look good.”

We did have some models, actors, and an idol trainee in our class, but I didn’t remember their faces well enough.

“What is your type, Ian?” asked Rimi.

I crossed my arms, hiding my own smile. “I think Evans looks like a hero.”

“Pfft.” Rimi broke into laughter, covering her mouth. I noticed Evans shooting me a small glare and decided to shut up.

“Evans… hero… haha… hhahaha…”

“I didn’t know your ’type’ was in men, Ian. The mage from Papatou’s party would be disheartened.”

“Hey, that’s not the case ok?” I snapped. Eventually, our resident extrovert’s laughter contaminated Evans, and then I laughed with them too.

A sigh left me as I looked up at the sky. “Really though. Both of you are like heroes for me… I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

Rimi and Evans quietened down. They flashed each other soft smiles.

Evans suddenly nudged me with his legs. “What are you saying, bastard.”

“So awkward,” Rimi added.

It was a low blow, but they were clearly embarrassed by my words and didn’t mean to be rude. I smiled and sat up, our gazes turned to the road in front as the oxen suddenly slowed down.

“O-oh…” the farmer who had been quiet all this while suddenly muttered. He pointed ahead. “There are goblins here.”

Just as he said, a group of five goblins were in our path. We all shared a collective sigh.

“Rimi you handle the left, Ian take the right, please. Sir, you can keep driving.”

The farmer was momentarily confused by Evans’ words while Rimi and I moved. Rimi nocked an arrow on her bow and took a stance on the cart itself while I waved my hands.

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An ethereal magic circle, latchd with runes formed in the air below my hand. I now had one circle around my heart and my mana flowed with far more order than before. I also learned a good deal of simple spells.

The goblins could only look at us and growl as at once, arrows darted through the air and landed straight in their heads. At the same time, I pressed my hand forward.

“Fireball.”

A ball of flames shot through the sky and landed on another goblin, sending it flying back.

Goblins, which had almost killed me a long time back, were now no better than bugs we had to exterminate on the road. Goblins were some of the weakest creatures after all.

Two more arrows and another fireball dashed through the sky and in almost no time, all the goblins were on the ground. They could only run about as we took them down in moments.

“Well then, let’s continue.”

“Let me grab my arrows, wait.”

Rimi hopped off to get her arrows from the dead bodies and we set off again.

The farmer was thoroughly impressed.

“You’ll do great,” he muttered. “With your quest, I mean.”

***

We reached the destination not long after the encounter. There were a few more mishaps on the road, which we handled just as easily.

The hamlet Magen was situated around a small tributary for a river further down the sound. Houses were lined up in the center with fields all around them. The road split from the center into two paths. The one that led toward the river housed the giant mansion of the mayor while on the other end was a church.

Though it all seemed visible from a bird’s eye view from the top here, the hamlet looked pretty sizeable.

“That’s as far as I can take you,” said the farmer.

“We’ll make the descent on our own.” Evans handed him a bag of coins. “You’ll be here in two days, right?”

The farmer lowered his straw hat as he accepted the money.

“You won’t have to worry about that. Well then.”

With those words, the farmer turned the cart around and started trodding away. We waited until he was gone in the distance before making our way down.

The descent was not difficult. It was a little steep, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

Our scout was the most nimble and pretty much dashed through the path. With each hop, Rimi was covering a big distance and landing on a rock. Evans and I, on the other hand, had to be more careful with our steps.

It felt like trekking down a particularly difficult slope. On one side was the end of the woods, and on the other, we could see the plains and the hamlet.

The golden light of the sun fell on the fields and the huts as they glowed beautifully.

“Pretty, right?” I asked Evans who was staring at the distance.

”Yes,” he said.

We both stopped for a moment to take in the view. Our gazes swept through the hamlet. There were a few small figures walking around in the village.

My eyes fell on the field furthest from the hamlet. It was on the side of the church, half destroyed.

“That’s our spot, I guess.”

Evans nodded. “That looks like it. It’s destroyed very cleanly.”

“Are you guys coming!?” Rimi’s shout reached us from further down. Evans and I looked at her and picked up our pace again.

There was no need to dawdle at the route.

We descended down and walked about fifteen minutes more to reach the hamlet.

It was a quiet and tiny village. As soon as we entered the grounds of the hamlet, our eyes darted around. The houses around were held up by wooden frames and baked bricks stuck by mixtures of gypsum and limestone.

The soft echo of a hammer and the humming of people returning from the fields nearby echoed around.

It was, actually, very quiet for a village. The animals were silent and people did not run around in the place despite there being a good number of houses.

“Everyone must be scared of the monsters,” said Rimi.

“I hope it's not too much trouble,” I added.

Evans continued looking around. The village was definitely pretty. We had gone on multiple quests the last few months, but none of them had shown us a place quite like this.

The three of us took the left path, the one closer to the river, to end up at the manor that had been serving as an administrative building.

The manor was quite enormous but out of condition. Cracks had spread through the walls and wild grass grew all around its premises. Evans stepped up to the door and pushed it open.

A creak rang. Sunlight filtered in through the windows of the second floor and fell on the hall that was shaped like an Atrium. Dust flew around as if the place hadn’t been cleaned for months.

“Woah…” Rimi’s voice echoed through the space. Right after us, the door of the room leading deeper in swung open.

A few young men sat there, smiling. They looked to be in their thirties or forties. One of them rushed over to us.

“You must be the adventurers from Liones Guild. I am sorry for greeting you like this, you arrived sooner than we expected.“

Our leader usually handled all these conversations. Evans waved the worries away with a smile. “Not at all. We had to come soon when we heard about your situation.”

“Right, please come inside.”

The man led us deeper into the mansion. He closed the door behind us and guided us to the room. There, four more people were gathered around a table. One woman and three men. The one sitting at the head of the table stared at us with his chin resting on his hand.

“Thank you for coming so soon,” said he.

“Not at all, we are happy to help,” Evans answered. They pulled a seat for him, and Rimi sat too while I stood behind them.

I noticed the head’s graying hair that stood out the most.

“Even though the pay is low, you are helping us out a lot.”

“I understand it might be tough for the village already, monsters on top of it.”

There were also some wounds on him, and a few on the others too. It was as if they had fought something but were trying to hide it.

I wasn’t looking around out of curiosity. It had simply become my nature to doubt every time I met someone new. Evans appreciated it as well, and he asked me to keep an eye on people.

It was not uncommon to lie about the difficulty of missions or for us to run into scammers and bandits. There was also a lot of information I could gain from observing everyone else.

While Evan handled conversations and distracted people, it had become my job to observe them when they weren’t expecting it.

The conversation continued smoothly.

“A nocturnal monster you say...”

“That’s right, it disappears every morning. Probably into the woods. We have been too scared to work in the forest since it happened.”

“Village chief, did anyone see the monster? Maybe a glimpse?”

“Yes,” the village chief nodded. He pointed at the woman accompanying them. “Bella’s husband had seen it once.”

Bella nodded. “It looked like a giant snake with red eyes, though it had limbs. The night was moonless, so it was difficult to get a good look, but I can tell you it was a terrifying beast.”

Evans crossed his arms.

“Can we talk to your husband?”

Bella lowered her gaze and the others in the room shook their head.

“Ah… I am sorry for your loss.”

I looked at Bella. She simply covered her face, but I could still see her eyes. I see, he died.

We wrapped up the conversation after asking for a few more details.

“It would be a good idea to monitor things tonight itself. It’s already late in the evening. You are sure it comes out every night, right?”

“Yes,” said the village chief. “Please be safe.”

Evans shook his head. “I would have gone into the woods, but it's almost sundown. We will definitely clear this for you.”

The village chief smiled.

“Rufus will show you guys to an empty house. You can rest there for now.”

Rufus was the man we had seen at the very beginning. He bowed gently and started to walk out. Rimi suppressed a yawn, stretched her hands above her head, and followed behind.

Evans made eye contact with me before we both nodded and left too.

This was going to be a long night.