“Hieee! Hurgh, hurg-ACK!” the woman cried out in pain as she attempted to stand up. Her eyes widened like fish eyes as she caught a glimpse of us.
She sprang up, alerted of our presence, and tried to run away, but the moment she did, her legs gave up. I had healed all her wounds, but that didn’t mean her body was in any shape ready to move. She still had [Exhausted (Moderate)] and [Starvation (Minor)]. Her body was just too weak, right now.
“Oh, hello! You woke up,” I said as I approached her with a smile, doing my best to pronounce everything correctly in Common tongue.
“Stay back!” she cried out, stretching her hand forward to separate me from her. I instantly stopped my advance. “Wh-Who are you? A-Are you one of them?”
‘One of them?’ … Right, those rope marks on her wrists. She probably was kidnapped.
“I don’t believe I know who you are talking about but we three are simply passing through this forest, that is all,” I answered, waving my hands with a wry smile to show my sincerity. “Oh, right, where are my manners? My name is Hestia, it is a pleasure to meet you.”
I curtsied out of reflex. I did wonder why I did it, but guessed it was probably Tasianna’s influence up until now. She had been treating me like a princess, after all. Well, what was done was done. Then again, elegance and courtesy might dissuade her from thinking I was a brigand.
Noticing she was still confused, I continued by introducing my companions, “These are my friends. The wolfkin is Saori and the fai— wind elf is Tasianna. We found you when you fell unconscious and chased those wolves away from you.”
I should be happy Tasianna hadn't pounced on her yet but the literal cold eyes she was giving the young woman weren't any better. I was trying to show to her we were friendly, that we had no intention of hurting her, but Tasianna really wasn’t helping towards that cause.
Thankfully, after I told her through [Telepathy] to stop, she listened to me and just went back to sorting out the dresses Saori made for her. She was clearly still on-guard but this was better than her bone-chilling glare.
I turned my attention back to our hungry guest and continued speaking with her, “I am sorry about that. If it would be acceptable for you, may I take a look at your ankle? It seems like you injured it after you fell.”
“Huh!? W-What are you planning!?” she stumbled on her own words, looking at me like a scared rabbit.
“Nothing, nothing! Please, this is all I am planning.” With a smile, I conjured up a white magic circle atop my palm. “You were pretty injured when we found you. I healed you with a simple spell when you were unconscious.”
It was more than just a simple wave of my hand, but she didn’t need to know the details.
“… H-Holy Magic… Are you a shrine maiden or priestess?” the woman said with widened eyes, glued to my spell, before eying my white mage robes. “A shrine maiden then…”
What?
“Ahem, I’m more like a wandering entertainer who wishes to help,” I stated, ignoring her stare. “So, will you allow me to help you?”
Blinking her eyes at my answer, the woman stayed mute for a few seconds, thinking over her options and choices. She eventually looked into my eyes and confirmed my offer with a nod. I walked over to her and took a look at her injury, before assessing she had actually twisted it.
Alright, I actually do want to do a proper check-up this time. Guess I should use them, Mana Eyes, on!
Exactly as I activated my newest skill [Mana Eyes], I was quickly assaulted by a screen of blue, penetrating my brain with a huge influx of information. I was straining my eyes to keep them open, feeling as if I was staring into the sun only that everything before me were blue mana particles swimming around in the air.
Compared to when I was first introduced to this new view, I was sorta prepared for it this time. I made sure to have my parallel minds ready to intercept everything so they could process it on my behalf. Wouldn’t do me any good to use my other “processors.”
However, despite all my preparations, my brain couldn’t handle all this stress for too long, but it was enough for me to see what I needed. I could see mana particles exiting the woman’s body through her mana paths, I could see the concentration of my mana inside the magic circle quickly transforming the mana into odd forms and shapes as it entered the woman’s body, attaching themselves to her body and performing what they had to, to heal her body.
If I wasn’t getting the greatest migraine of my life right now, I probably would continue watching this scene, but I just couldn’t. It was physically impossible, and it exhausted every single one of my parallel minds, as they had to work overtime to keep up with the amount of information I was receiving. Honestly, this might be the closest you could describe overclocking your brain.
Thankfully, I wasn’t an emotionless machine, but that also meant I couldn’t just handle the pain like a computer. Besides for skills like [Mental Stability] or [Mind Protection], nothing in the System actually helped me keep this up. My stats were useless against this mental stress and my skills weren’t being too helpful.
Yeah, even with my parallel minds helping me out, I can’t process all of this perfectly. Maybe it’ll get better when the skill levels up, but I’ll get an information overload if I keep this on for too long.
After getting a proper taste of how much of a strain it put on my mind, I deactivated the skill. My eyes felt hot and my brain seemed like it could explode any second now. My breathing was laborious, and I could hear my heart beating faster than usual.
He, I deserved that after that torture…
With a resounding crack, I brought her ankle back to its proper position and then healed it with the [Moderate Heal] spell, in case anything was broken.
“My foot… Thank you very much, Miss Shrine Maiden. And… sorry for being rude, and thank you for saving me from those wolves! May the Goddess’s light illuminate the path before you,” the woman prayed before me with a smile, but quickly turned it into a frown. “However… I-I’m sorry but I don’t have the money to repay you for the white grace. I apologize, sincerely! Please, I ask for forgiveness!”
A piece of information did stick with me when I traveled with the lizardmen and that was their fear of holy magic. More specifically, holy magic practitioners. According to Apsala, she associated holy magic with human priests who occasionally came to her home's swamps for invasions or raids, therefore, making her cautious of anybody who practiced it as she didn't have a good impression of the Goddess of Light, Aurena.
Knowing this, I knew using holy magic should be the best way to become friendly. I wasn’t a member of the clergy, but at least being helpful would antagonize her. However, what was this talk about money?
“Money? I’m sorry but what do you mean by that?” I asked to resolve my confusion.
“Miss Shrine Maiden, the money for your miraculous service. The white grace!”
White what-now?
“Mi’lady, you sacrificed your own mana to summon the Goddess’s miracle for a farmer’s daughter like me. I-I prayed to the Goddess for rescue, and it seemed you were the one who she sent! I must repay you a faithful white-robes like you! B-But…” The woman went silent, fidgeting with her fingers as she kept her head down.
This is problematic. Why do I always meet these religious people, jeez. I need to ask Tasianna for more information. I can’t do anything now, I mulled to myself.
After thinking for a bit, I asked her a question, “… May I have your name?”
“Y-Yes, of course, Miss Shrine Maiden! It is Lorena,” she responded firmly.
Hmm, now that I look at her face without all the dirt and grime, she doesn’t look as old as I thought. Not around my age, maybe around Saori’s?
“Alright, then, Miss Lorena. We can speak about all of this later on, but I think you require some food, no?” i stood up with a smile, pointing at her growling stomach, causing her to hide her blushing face.
“Saori! Tasianna!” I called out, now finished with my talks, interrupting them as they tested out different dresses as if they were in a clothing store on Earth. “If you haven’t heard, this is Lorena. Now that it’s getting late, how about we eat?”
Putting everything inside her own storage, Saori showed me an "ok" gesture with her fingers and began unpacking our wooden utensils and stone dishware, placing them onto a table I had brought out. Once I gave Tasianna her teapot and cups, she helped herself to some of Saori's herbs and began making tea for us.
Lorena, seeing everything coming out of our storage, was initially flabbergasted about everything, asking, “What is this magic?! How did everything appear from thin air?!” but quickly accepted what was happening. After all, the moment Saori opened the lids of our two stone cauldrons, he mouth went slightly agape at the freshly-cooked aroma.
As we talked about, crispy pork skin was on tonight’s menu. Yum! In addition, some pork stew! Ahhhhhh, I just loved Saori’s stew so much.
Regaining her rationality, Lorena then wanted to help us with the preparations but was swiftly refused by Saori and Tasianna. Saori told her, “Please, you are our guest. Let us do the work.” while Tasianna bluntly brushed her off, “Do not touch our Lady’s food…” Did Tasianna believe she would poison it, I wondered.
I should be angry at her rude remark but watching Tasianna tremble and struggling to keep herself composed made me pity her. She really didn’t like being this close to Lorena. Where had my lovely and polite maid gone?! Why does she act like this around a starving and tired woman?!
This really will take a while. Tasianna, do your best. Fighting!
Once we finished our preparations, I produced some chairs and we all sat down as Saori and Tasianna served both our meal and tea. Not surprisingly, there were also some complications here as Tasianna was pretty reluctant about serving her tea to Lorena, forcing me to order her to do so.
With a quiet “Itadikimasu” from us three, which included Tasianna, we were about to eat but were stopped by Lorena who asked us why we weren’t praying beforehand. Saori and I never really prayed, only saying “Itadikimasu” to give our thanks for the food, while Tasianna recently stopped doing it in favor of copying us.
I told her we had been keeping it casual amongst us, explaining we would wait after she prayed if she wanted to. She thanked us with ferver before doing her prayer to Aurena as quickly as she could. Once she was finished, she immediately jumped onto her stew with ravenous hunger and began devouring it with gusto.
You should be able to see this, right, Aurena? You did say something about being able to see through the eyes of your followers?
“Thank you, this-this is so good,” Lorena celebrated after crunching into some crispy pork, gorging all of it up with gusto. As I mentioned to Saori, since she was starving for a while, we had given her a smaller portion to not overly stress her stomach.
Hehe, she’s eating exactly like a lizardman… pretty surreal, I thought, finding it good she had an appetite.
After she finished her first bowl, Lorena asked for another one — obviously since it was just a little — but Saori rejected it. Not ‘cause she was rude or stingy, but ‘cause of refeeding syndrome. The introduction of heavy food after weeks of malnourishment could kill people, actually, and this was why I told Saori to reduce the portion size. I didn’t know how long Lorena went hungry, but it was better to stay on the safe side.
Lorena, seeing as she didn’t know this, was confused at first, but accepted it since Saori explained the biology part as easy and simple as possible. Really went to show how she was a teacher. In Peolynca, you could only really die if your Health reached zero, but body problems could cause your Health to drop after all.
As such, we decided to talk with her after the explanation. I was also quite curious. "I'm sorry, if you are fine about it, could you tell us what happened to you? Finding you unconscious in the woods isn’t normal, right?”
Upon hearing me ask that, Lorena immediately jumped on her feet and shouted, “No, I forgot! I must return to the village now! I need to call for help!”, before trying to sprint off into the night.
Some people would let her off as it wasn’t their problem in the first place and while others considered intruding into her business. Me? Well, I didn’t think I was that good of a person, but letting her off during the night, when there were wolves around, and seeing as her body was still weak, sounded a bit irresponsible. I didn’t want her death on my conscience.
Constructing a [Terra Wall], I impeded her advance and called her out, “Miss Lorena, you might be in a hurry to leave but it’s already evening. I don’t think it’s wise to wander alone, especially since there are monsters around.”
Lorena stopped before crashing onto my wall, asking in confusion how the wall was constructed and if an earth mage was around. It took her nearly ten seconds to finally calm down to respond to my words, “Miss Shrine Maiden, did your companions cast magic? Please, I-I know I owe you, but I need to go now! My village needs to know what happened to us!”
“That was my work and please call me Hestia. I am not a shrine maiden, for your information,” I cleared things up. “I’m not holding you back for something idiotic as you ‘owing’ me, okay? It’s just, you know, a bad idea to wander off alone… into a forest… during the night.”
“I agree with Lady Hestia. Miss Lorena, you are in no state to walk and I believe you are not able to defend yourself if the worse were to come?” Saori added. “We mean you no harm, and whatever you must do can wait for morning. So, please, stay.”
Jeez, Saori. If you actually use “Lady” in this situation then this misunderstanding will never go away! I told myself, now realizing how inconvenient it was that my two companions were addressing me with “Lady” in public. I understood I allowed them to if we needed to maintain an image, but goodness, was it necessary here?
“Th-Thank you very much for your offer, but I really have to go! My ma and pa and many other villagers are counting on me to return to our village and to rescue them!” Lorena shouted. “Please, don’t stop me! I can’t waste any more time-urgh!”
You literally devoured a single bowl of stew in literal seconds, almost drinking it. Can’t you see your [Starvation] still hasn’t disappeared?!
When I first used [Identify] on her to get a quick summary of her injuries, I noticed a few interesting things on it. First, her stats were incredibly low, around the lower end of a Rank F monster. She was also level one. This was probably the norm for a normal person, but it was even more important she took a rest. It would be suicide to run off now.
"Here, let me help you stand up," Saori stood up and went to Lorena's side, offering her shoulder. "Your body has reached its physical limits for the day, Miss Lorena. We do not wish to force you to stay but we cannot allow you to go on with a good conscience. Stay the night with us and rest. Once morning comes, you may do what you wish.”
Lorena tried to stand up on her own, but her body had finally realized she literally had zero Stamina and a malnourished body. Finally, giving up on her escape, Lorena leaned herself onto Saori’s shoulder and allowed her to set her down onto her chair.
Afterward, Saori poured her a cup of tea. She shouldn’t eat, but drinking was important. Thank goodness she wasn’t dehydrated. After drinking all of it, her mouth curved into a satisfied smile, before it reverted, showing her trepidation.
After wetting her throat with more tea, she thanked us wholeheartedly, genuinely having fulfilled most of her needs besides sleep. Although looking at how she was fidgeting with her cup and her trembling legs, I really was starting to become interested in what happened with her.
However, the first to speak wasn’t me but Lorena, “Miss Shrine Maiden, may I ask a favor of you?”
“Sure, ask away. However, please call me Hestia,” I responded. “As I have said before, I am not a shrine maiden of Goddess Aurena. I’m not a member of the clergy.”
It was true. I really was not a priestess or a shrine maiden. Aurena never said anything about it in the missive she sent me, simply telling me I should get to one of her churches and pray to her so we could speak.
I was, however, an aspiring idol. Unfortunately, up until now the natives of this world had not heard about the idea of an idol. Neither Tasianna nor the lizardmen knew about it. At least with the former, I was sure the idea wasn’t widespread enough. As such, calling myself a wandering entertainer was easier to explain than telling them what an idol was every single time. Showing was better than telling, especially for idol culture.
“O-Oh, yes… if that is okay with you, Hestia. And you can also drop the ‘Miss’ part for me, too. I think I’m a few years older than you but by not much,” Lorena said with a gentle smile. “Oh, Miss Saori and Miss Tasianna, right? If it’s alright, could you call me Lorena, too?”
Fair enough, I thought with a shrug and nod.
“I am fine with that, Lorena,” Saori accepted the proposal. “So, what do you wish to ask of us? You mentioned a favor?”
“Yes, I know this is extremely rude of me to ask, especially after all you’ve done for me, but could you please guide me back to my village?” Lorena stated while clasping both her hands together and placing them in front of herself in a prayer-like pose. “I must return to my village as soon as possible and inform them of what happened to me and the others! Please, guide me to them. Although you aren’t a shrine maiden now, you have their robe! You must have been one when you learned magic, correct?”
Uhhh, no? Also, my robe? No! This isn't some church thing, this is a white mage robe! A white mage robe! Not some stinking church robe! Verdammt!
“Please, wait. I understand what you need but we require more information than this,” Saori interrupted Lorena, cautiously asking her for more details. “Could you start with what happened to you? Lady Hestia, inspected you while you were unconscious and… what exactly happened? Did someone kidnap you?”
Lorena fell silent for a while, shaking as she placed the teacup back on its saucer. “O-Our village was attacked during the night… fireballs rained on our houses, waking us up in the middle of the night. Th-Then… Goddess… the-they brought— Yiek! T-They—”
Lorena flinched as her expression distorted, trembling as she tried to remember what happened. Her left hand instinctively moved towards her lower private place, covering it up as she tried to calm herself down. This was not a good sign.
“Don’t push yourself,” I urged her. “Nothing will happen to you here, I promise. If there is something you don’t want to tell us, then don’t. You don’t need to.”
Saori nodded, agreeing with me, helping Lorena calm down a bit. Only Tasianna looked away, trying to look preoccupied as she continued with her meal. I was sure she figured something was up, but her indifference to the problem felt so callous. She really wasn’t invested in Lorena’s plight at all.
Lorena took another deep breath, only for tears to suddenly stream from her eyes. She whipped them away, keeping herself composed and continued her story while in a prayer, “T-Thank you, huck… It happened about a month ago. HarvestFest just ended and we just came back to our village after enjoying the festivities at Firwood. We were so exhausted, and we thought it would’ve been a peaceful night, huck!”
Lorena explained a raid happened that night. A group of humans and beastmen invaded the village, robbing everybody from their belongings and killing a few of the guards. Their fief lord managed to react in time to stop the attack before it got any worse, however, it was too late as the group had kidnapped any woman and man they got their dirty hands on.
Lorena and her parents were among the few villagers who were unlucky to have been captured. They were stripped of all their valuables and then placed into prison wagons as the bandit transported them away from the camp. Whispers from the bandit informed them some would be sold into slavery, while others would be transported towards brothels.
They were brought to the bandit’s camp and were kept there. Lorena thought it had to be a slave trader or somebody who wanted to buy the villagers, as the bandits kept talking them down as if they were just sacks of coins.
Lorena and the villagers had prayed to the Goddess that their lord would send help soon, explaining to me he and his wife were supposedly quite gracious and fair. Although he wasn’t always around, due to his duties as a noble, they believed he would send help since they were his serfs.
“Nobles hate losing their serfs, after all. From their view, you are the people responsible for the land’s cultivation, as such, their taxes,” Saori chimed in, before slapping her mouth shut, realizing she had spoken out of turn. Looking at how her face was turning red, she probably realized she let out the history nerd in herself.
In any case, eventually, their prayers did come true as a band of mercenaries arrived at the camp. Unfortunately, they were hopelessly outmatched as the bandit’s mage and leader decimated the whole band with ease. Any men were executed for entertainment, while the women were thrown into the cells with the villagers.
At this point, Lorena's floodgates opened up once again as she wailed in pain. It took her a near minute to calm her down again.
“Nobody came anymore after that. The bandits also kept moving and moving around, never staying in one place for too long after those mercenaries attacked,” Lorena recalled with a trembling voice, ready to break into tears once again. “A-And then, about a week ago, a couple of men appeared at the camp. I don’t know who they were, but they began talking to the bandit leader, this-this brute of a beastman. Slavers; one even looked like a rich merchant.”
Beastmen, huh? No wonder she was so wary of us at first. Still, how could she think a cute girl like me was a nasty brigand? … Mhm, bad joke. Let’s keep that to ourselves.
No matter how much she resisted, the lack of good food and the tiring environment she lived in made it impossible for her to break free. The rich-looking slave trader had also brought a guest with them, an equally well-offed merchant, according to Lorena.
Dressed in fine clothing with jewels aplenty, this obese man eyed her and the villagers like a predator, sending chills down her spine when he suddenly approached her. With a single snap, the slave trader had her brought to a nearby tent.
The man had placed fruit and wine on the table, urging the starving Lorena to partake in some of them. Malnourished, she couldn’t resist her body’s demands and pounced on the food like a beast. She ate everything in a mad frenzy, only for the man to suddenly drag her away in the middle of eating and throw her onto his bed. Like a sadistic bastard, Lorena trembled as she recalled his demonlike grin.
She quickly understood what was going on. She tried to resist, but the fat merchant effortlessly kept her pinned down, ready to begin his assault on her. Whether it was to slap her or tie her up, the man indulged in his sadistic pleasures before Lorena was too exhausted from the abuse to struggle. She had given up. By closing her eyes, she had accepted her fate and wanted it over with… only, she couldn’t feel any pain after a few seconds passed.
The man had disappeared.
Confused, the girl suddenly heard a commotion outside the tent. Peeking through it, she saw the the fat man and the bandit leader arguing with each other as some of the slaves were put into cages. The argument was so heated, the slave trader had to intervene. With everything going on, most of the bandits and guards weren’t looking in Lorena’s direction.
Lorena knew at this point she had to go. This was her moment to escape. She wanted to free her parents and villagers but at that very moment, she was overwhelmed by the fear of the man returning. She was almost sexually assaulted, and although it hadn’t happened, the mental damaged had already be inflicted.
Her natural instincts took over and forced her body to sneak out of the camp and run as fast as she could. She didn’t look back, despite knowing her parents were there. She didn’t watch where she was heading, as her brain turned on auto-pilot. Her flight or fight response activated. As long as her adrenaline could keep her going, she would run, and it didn’t matter to where.
“I fell unconscious then and woke up when the sun came. I-I remember everything, hieeeeeee,” Lorena broke down, and this time, it didn’t seem like she could stop it. “I left everybody there! I don’t even know if they’re still there or not.”
She was determined to get back to her village. She didn't know where she was nor in which direction she had to go. All she knew was her village was located right next to a river as the crops they were farming required an immense amount of water to keep alive.
Lorena wasn't used to the woods but she knew the basics on how to survive and forage for food. This was a result of her father bringing her out on trips with the other villagers. This was usually a father-son event but she didn't have any siblings, so her father took her instead.
She managed to create simple fires to stave off the cold night while being able to gather a few berries and fruits to keep herself from starving. Her attempts were small and meager, but it kept her alive.
Eventually, she was attacked by those wolves we saw today. She didn’t know how to hunt, and her body was not in any condition to do so in the first place. She couldn’t do anything but run, run as fast as she could… until her Stamina failed her.
“Once again, thank you so very much for rescuing me. If you hadn’t… then, I would have probably met Goddess Death at this point.” Lorena bit her lips with teary eyes.
Leaving her to let her emotions run wild, the three of us created a telepathic link to talk amongst us. We had to talk about our next steps. [“So, what do you guys think? I say we help her.”]
[“I also think we should at least help her back to her village. We do not know where we are and this might be a good chance for us to get some directions while doing some good,”] Saori remarked. [“… However, just to make sure, Hestia. You are not intending to hunt down those bandits, right?”]
I would lie if I didn’t think about it. As a fellow girl, I couldn’t exactly let this go unpunished. This fat pig thought it was right for him to force himself on somebody just ‘cause of the situation? Sure, it didn’t happen in the end, but causing somebody such psychological trauma was unforgivable in my book.
I was being a bit emotional here, but I also didn’t think leaving such scum around was smart. I honestly wanted to go to those bandits and turn them into ash, right about now. Let them feel the consequences of being absolute scum and igniting the wrath of a female.
However…
[“No, of course not. I heard the stuff about the mercenaries,”] I responded. [“I’m pretty sure I’m stronger than your average person, but I’ve already experienced once what it feels like to run into something recklessly without proper information. I’m not gonna do it, again.”]
During the rescue mission to find and save the lost lizardmen, I accidentally stumbled on one of the snake heads of the [Vellestra Leviathan] and nearly died in the process. It was the first A rank monster I’ve ever met, and the power difference was clear to behold. I had no chance of winning; zero.
This wasn't paranoia here; it was being cautious and valuing my life. Maybe the bandits had an ace in their sleeves? Lorena did mention a mage and a hulking bandit leader. I didn’t know what the standard of power was. No power scaling tier list was around to help me understand it better.
Yes, I had the lizardmen as references, but that was such a small sample size. I promised Saori I would give her an idol concert, and my priority was my music career. That promise was more important to me than to go on a vigilante mission just to avenge Lorena. I sympathized with her but I had to look out for my friends, foremost.
[“Thank goodness, you are learning,”] Saori said with relief. [“You should know about the whole concept of villeins, right? As I said, a lord valued their serfs like belongings. They are their source of income and a fief lord’s duty as a vassal was to defend the land and make it profitable. They should have some knights and soldiers responsible for all of this. Leave it to the professionals, Hestia.”]
[“Yeah, yeah, I know. I won’t jump into something without a plan, I promise.”] I waved her concern away. [“Still, considering how long this lord is taking… Anyways, what is your answer, Tasianna?”]
Tasianna turned towards me and gave me a small bow, [“… I will do as you command. Your wish is my duty, Lady Hestia.”]
Oh goodness…
Yep, Tasianna was zero interested in Lorena’s problem. At least, she was willing to help just ‘cause I said so. She was so hot-headed and impulsive before Saori’s speech but now she was ice-cold, brrrr.
With that decided, Saori told Lorena we would accept her request to bring her back to the village. She was elated to hear this, promising to repay us when with the village chief’s help.
After that was done, Saori kinda forced Lorena to wear one of her new clothes, as she found the rags she wore dreadful. This little dressing event lasted until both Saori and Tasianna finally finished choosing out their new outfits.
We then went to sleep and woke up the next morning. Knowing Lorena was in a hurry, Saori carried her piggyback style as she was too slow to keep up with our speed. It only took our party a few hours to finally find a river and then the village after Lorena gave us directions.
Although the river was sparkling blue, it still felt it was a level below the majesty the Belzac forest had. As murky and dirty as the swamp was, it was an impeccable vista. Natural beauty.
However, every location had its charm, right? The Belzac swamp had its view and a feral beauty due to the monsters and wild plants. On the other hand, this place drew my eyes ‘cause of the crops the field was growing.
Is that a rice plant?
AbyssRaven
I already have a bunch of the artwork already done, so here is another bite. I already showed you guys how Hestia should look, now this is "adventurer grab Hestia!" Saori's and Tasianna's artwork will come in the next two chapters, so please anticipate and fanboy/fangirl.
If you guys want to support me, Hestia and "A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale" (or just read up to 20 advance chapters + any Patreon-only chapters) please check out my Patreon: Rawr
For two dollars, for the cost of a coffee, you can read up to four chapters for the whole month! You will have my eternal gratitude for any support you can give me! Please.
Thank you for reading this chapter.
“Hieee! Hurgh, hurg-ACK!” the woman cried out in pain as she attempted to stand up. Her eyes widened like fish eyes as she caught a glimpse of us.
She sprang up, alerted of our presence, and tried to run away, but the moment she did, her legs gave up. I had healed all her wounds, but that didn’t mean her body was in any shape ready to move. She still had [Exhausted (Moderate)] and [Starvation (Minor)]. Her body was just too weak, right now.
“Oh, hello! You woke up,” I said as I approached her with a smile, doing my best to pronounce everything correctly in Common tongue.
“Stay back!” she cried out, stretching her hand forward to separate me from her. I instantly stopped my advance. “Wh-Who are you? A-Are you one of them?”
‘One of them?’ … Right, those rope marks on her wrists. She probably was kidnapped.
“I don’t believe I know who you are talking about but we three are simply passing through this forest, that is all,” I answered, waving my hands with a wry smile to show my sincerity. “Oh, right, where are my manners? My name is Hestia, it is a pleasure to meet you.”
I curtsied out of reflex. I did wonder why I did it, but guessed it was probably Tasianna’s influence up until now. She had been treating me like a princess, after all. Well, what was done was done. Then again, elegance and courtesy might dissuade her from thinking I was a brigand.
Noticing she was still confused, I continued by introducing my companions, “These are my friends. The wolfkin is Saori and the fai— wind elf is Tasianna. We found you when you fell unconscious and chased those wolves away from you.”
I should be happy Tasianna hadn't pounced on her yet but the literal cold eyes she was giving the young woman weren't any better. I was trying to show to her we were friendly, that we had no intention of hurting her, but Tasianna really wasn’t helping towards that cause.
Thankfully, after I told her through [Telepathy] to stop, she listened to me and just went back to sorting out the dresses Saori made for her. She was clearly still on-guard but this was better than her bone-chilling glare.
I turned my attention back to our hungry guest and continued speaking with her, “I am sorry about that. If it would be acceptable for you, may I take a look at your ankle? It seems like you injured it after you fell.”
“Huh!? W-What are you planning!?” she stumbled on her own words, looking at me like a scared rabbit.
“Nothing, nothing! Please, this is all I am planning.” With a smile, I conjured up a white magic circle atop my palm. “You were pretty injured when we found you. I healed you with a simple spell when you were unconscious.”
It was more than just a simple wave of my hand, but she didn’t need to know the details.
“… H-Holy Magic… Are you a shrine maiden or priestess?” the woman said with widened eyes, glued to my spell, before eying my white mage robes. “A shrine maiden then…”
What?
“Ahem, I’m more like a wandering entertainer who wishes to help,” I stated, ignoring her stare. “So, will you allow me to help you?”
Blinking her eyes at my answer, the woman stayed mute for a few seconds, thinking over her options and choices. She eventually looked into my eyes and confirmed my offer with a nod. I walked over to her and took a look at her injury, before assessing she had actually twisted it.
Alright, I actually do want to do a proper check-up this time. Guess I should use them, Mana Eyes, on!
Exactly as I activated my newest skill [Mana Eyes], I was quickly assaulted by a screen of blue, penetrating my brain with a huge influx of information. I was straining my eyes to keep them open, feeling as if I was staring into the sun only that everything before me were blue mana particles swimming around in the air.
Compared to when I was first introduced to this new view, I was sorta prepared for it this time. I made sure to have my parallel minds ready to intercept everything so they could process it on my behalf. Wouldn’t do me any good to use my other “processors.”
However, despite all my preparations, my brain couldn’t handle all this stress for too long, but it was enough for me to see what I needed. I could see mana particles exiting the woman’s body through her mana paths, I could see the concentration of my mana inside the magic circle quickly transforming the mana into odd forms and shapes as it entered the woman’s body, attaching themselves to her body and performing what they had to, to heal her body.
If I wasn’t getting the greatest migraine of my life right now, I probably would continue watching this scene, but I just couldn’t. It was physically impossible, and it exhausted every single one of my parallel minds, as they had to work overtime to keep up with the amount of information I was receiving. Honestly, this might be the closest you could describe overclocking your brain.
Thankfully, I wasn’t an emotionless machine, but that also meant I couldn’t just handle the pain like a computer. Besides for skills like [Mental Stability] or [Mind Protection], nothing in the System actually helped me keep this up. My stats were useless against this mental stress and my skills weren’t being too helpful.
Yeah, even with my parallel minds helping me out, I can’t process all of this perfectly. Maybe it’ll get better when the skill levels up, but I’ll get an information overload if I keep this on for too long.
After getting a proper taste of how much of a strain it put on my mind, I deactivated the skill. My eyes felt hot and my brain seemed like it could explode any second now. My breathing was laborious, and I could hear my heart beating faster than usual.
He, I deserved that after that torture…
With a resounding crack, I brought her ankle back to its proper position and then healed it with the [Moderate Heal] spell, in case anything was broken.
“My foot… Thank you very much, Miss Shrine Maiden. And… sorry for being rude, and thank you for saving me from those wolves! May the Goddess’s light illuminate the path before you,” the woman prayed before me with a smile, but quickly turned it into a frown. “However… I-I’m sorry but I don’t have the money to repay you for the white grace. I apologize, sincerely! Please, I ask for forgiveness!”
A piece of information did stick with me when I traveled with the lizardmen and that was their fear of holy magic. More specifically, holy magic practitioners. According to Apsala, she associated holy magic with human priests who occasionally came to her home's swamps for invasions or raids, therefore, making her cautious of anybody who practiced it as she didn't have a good impression of the Goddess of Light, Aurena.
Knowing this, I knew using holy magic should be the best way to become friendly. I wasn’t a member of the clergy, but at least being helpful would antagonize her. However, what was this talk about money?
“Money? I’m sorry but what do you mean by that?” I asked to resolve my confusion.
“Miss Shrine Maiden, the money for your miraculous service. The white grace!”
White what-now?
“Mi’lady, you sacrificed your own mana to summon the Goddess’s miracle for a farmer’s daughter like me. I-I prayed to the Goddess for rescue, and it seemed you were the one who she sent! I must repay you a faithful white-robes like you! B-But…” The woman went silent, fidgeting with her fingers as she kept her head down.
This is problematic. Why do I always meet these religious people, jeez. I need to ask Tasianna for more information. I can’t do anything now, I mulled to myself.
After thinking for a bit, I asked her a question, “… May I have your name?”
“Y-Yes, of course, Miss Shrine Maiden! It is Lorena,” she responded firmly.
Hmm, now that I look at her face without all the dirt and grime, she doesn’t look as old as I thought. Not around my age, maybe around Saori’s?
“Alright, then, Miss Lorena. We can speak about all of this later on, but I think you require some food, no?” i stood up with a smile, pointing at her growling stomach, causing her to hide her blushing face.
“Saori! Tasianna!” I called out, now finished with my talks, interrupting them as they tested out different dresses as if they were in a clothing store on Earth. “If you haven’t heard, this is Lorena. Now that it’s getting late, how about we eat?”
Putting everything inside her own storage, Saori showed me an "ok" gesture with her fingers and began unpacking our wooden utensils and stone dishware, placing them onto a table I had brought out. Once I gave Tasianna her teapot and cups, she helped herself to some of Saori's herbs and began making tea for us.
Lorena, seeing everything coming out of our storage, was initially flabbergasted about everything, asking, “What is this magic?! How did everything appear from thin air?!” but quickly accepted what was happening. After all, the moment Saori opened the lids of our two stone cauldrons, he mouth went slightly agape at the freshly-cooked aroma.
As we talked about, crispy pork skin was on tonight’s menu. Yum! In addition, some pork stew! Ahhhhhh, I just loved Saori’s stew so much.
Regaining her rationality, Lorena then wanted to help us with the preparations but was swiftly refused by Saori and Tasianna. Saori told her, “Please, you are our guest. Let us do the work.” while Tasianna bluntly brushed her off, “Do not touch our Lady’s food…” Did Tasianna believe she would poison it, I wondered.
I should be angry at her rude remark but watching Tasianna tremble and struggling to keep herself composed made me pity her. She really didn’t like being this close to Lorena. Where had my lovely and polite maid gone?! Why does she act like this around a starving and tired woman?!
This really will take a while. Tasianna, do your best. Fighting!
Once we finished our preparations, I produced some chairs and we all sat down as Saori and Tasianna served both our meal and tea. Not surprisingly, there were also some complications here as Tasianna was pretty reluctant about serving her tea to Lorena, forcing me to order her to do so.
With a quiet “Itadikimasu” from us three, which included Tasianna, we were about to eat but were stopped by Lorena who asked us why we weren’t praying beforehand. Saori and I never really prayed, only saying “Itadikimasu” to give our thanks for the food, while Tasianna recently stopped doing it in favor of copying us.
I told her we had been keeping it casual amongst us, explaining we would wait after she prayed if she wanted to. She thanked us with ferver before doing her prayer to Aurena as quickly as she could. Once she was finished, she immediately jumped onto her stew with ravenous hunger and began devouring it with gusto.
You should be able to see this, right, Aurena? You did say something about being able to see through the eyes of your followers?
“Thank you, this-this is so good,” Lorena celebrated after crunching into some crispy pork, gorging all of it up with gusto. As I mentioned to Saori, since she was starving for a while, we had given her a smaller portion to not overly stress her stomach.
Hehe, she’s eating exactly like a lizardman… pretty surreal, I thought, finding it good she had an appetite.
After she finished her first bowl, Lorena asked for another one — obviously since it was just a little — but Saori rejected it. Not ‘cause she was rude or stingy, but ‘cause of refeeding syndrome. The introduction of heavy food after weeks of malnourishment could kill people, actually, and this was why I told Saori to reduce the portion size. I didn’t know how long Lorena went hungry, but it was better to stay on the safe side.
Lorena, seeing as she didn’t know this, was confused at first, but accepted it since Saori explained the biology part as easy and simple as possible. Really went to show how she was a teacher. In Peolynca, you could only really die if your Health reached zero, but body problems could cause your Health to drop after all.
As such, we decided to talk with her after the explanation. I was also quite curious. "I'm sorry, if you are fine about it, could you tell us what happened to you? Finding you unconscious in the woods isn’t normal, right?”
Upon hearing me ask that, Lorena immediately jumped on her feet and shouted, “No, I forgot! I must return to the village now! I need to call for help!”, before trying to sprint off into the night.
Some people would let her off as it wasn’t their problem in the first place and while others considered intruding into her business. Me? Well, I didn’t think I was that good of a person, but letting her off during the night, when there were wolves around, and seeing as her body was still weak, sounded a bit irresponsible. I didn’t want her death on my conscience.
Constructing a [Terra Wall], I impeded her advance and called her out, “Miss Lorena, you might be in a hurry to leave but it’s already evening. I don’t think it’s wise to wander alone, especially since there are monsters around.”
Lorena stopped before crashing onto my wall, asking in confusion how the wall was constructed and if an earth mage was around. It took her nearly ten seconds to finally calm down to respond to my words, “Miss Shrine Maiden, did your companions cast magic? Please, I-I know I owe you, but I need to go now! My village needs to know what happened to us!”
“That was my work and please call me Hestia. I am not a shrine maiden, for your information,” I cleared things up. “I’m not holding you back for something idiotic as you ‘owing’ me, okay? It’s just, you know, a bad idea to wander off alone… into a forest… during the night.”
“I agree with Lady Hestia. Miss Lorena, you are in no state to walk and I believe you are not able to defend yourself if the worse were to come?” Saori added. “We mean you no harm, and whatever you must do can wait for morning. So, please, stay.”
Jeez, Saori. If you actually use “Lady” in this situation then this misunderstanding will never go away! I told myself, now realizing how inconvenient it was that my two companions were addressing me with “Lady” in public. I understood I allowed them to if we needed to maintain an image, but goodness, was it necessary here?
“Th-Thank you very much for your offer, but I really have to go! My ma and pa and many other villagers are counting on me to return to our village and to rescue them!” Lorena shouted. “Please, don’t stop me! I can’t waste any more time-urgh!”
You literally devoured a single bowl of stew in literal seconds, almost drinking it. Can’t you see your [Starvation] still hasn’t disappeared?!
When I first used [Identify] on her to get a quick summary of her injuries, I noticed a few interesting things on it. First, her stats were incredibly low, around the lower end of a Rank F monster. She was also level one. This was probably the norm for a normal person, but it was even more important she took a rest. It would be suicide to run off now.
"Here, let me help you stand up," Saori stood up and went to Lorena's side, offering her shoulder. "Your body has reached its physical limits for the day, Miss Lorena. We do not wish to force you to stay but we cannot allow you to go on with a good conscience. Stay the night with us and rest. Once morning comes, you may do what you wish.”
Lorena tried to stand up on her own, but her body had finally realized she literally had zero Stamina and a malnourished body. Finally, giving up on her escape, Lorena leaned herself onto Saori’s shoulder and allowed her to set her down onto her chair.
Afterward, Saori poured her a cup of tea. She shouldn’t eat, but drinking was important. Thank goodness she wasn’t dehydrated. After drinking all of it, her mouth curved into a satisfied smile, before it reverted, showing her trepidation.
After wetting her throat with more tea, she thanked us wholeheartedly, genuinely having fulfilled most of her needs besides sleep. Although looking at how she was fidgeting with her cup and her trembling legs, I really was starting to become interested in what happened with her.
However, the first to speak wasn’t me but Lorena, “Miss Shrine Maiden, may I ask a favor of you?”
“Sure, ask away. However, please call me Hestia,” I responded. “As I have said before, I am not a shrine maiden of Goddess Aurena. I’m not a member of the clergy.”
It was true. I really was not a priestess or a shrine maiden. Aurena never said anything about it in the missive she sent me, simply telling me I should get to one of her churches and pray to her so we could speak.
I was, however, an aspiring idol. Unfortunately, up until now the natives of this world had not heard about the idea of an idol. Neither Tasianna nor the lizardmen knew about it. At least with the former, I was sure the idea wasn’t widespread enough. As such, calling myself a wandering entertainer was easier to explain than telling them what an idol was every single time. Showing was better than telling, especially for idol culture.
“O-Oh, yes… if that is okay with you, Hestia. And you can also drop the ‘Miss’ part for me, too. I think I’m a few years older than you but by not much,” Lorena said with a gentle smile. “Oh, Miss Saori and Miss Tasianna, right? If it’s alright, could you call me Lorena, too?”
Fair enough, I thought with a shrug and nod.
“I am fine with that, Lorena,” Saori accepted the proposal. “So, what do you wish to ask of us? You mentioned a favor?”
“Yes, I know this is extremely rude of me to ask, especially after all you’ve done for me, but could you please guide me back to my village?” Lorena stated while clasping both her hands together and placing them in front of herself in a prayer-like pose. “I must return to my village as soon as possible and inform them of what happened to me and the others! Please, guide me to them. Although you aren’t a shrine maiden now, you have their robe! You must have been one when you learned magic, correct?”
Uhhh, no? Also, my robe? No! This isn't some church thing, this is a white mage robe! A white mage robe! Not some stinking church robe! Verdammt!
“Please, wait. I understand what you need but we require more information than this,” Saori interrupted Lorena, cautiously asking her for more details. “Could you start with what happened to you? Lady Hestia, inspected you while you were unconscious and… what exactly happened? Did someone kidnap you?”
Lorena fell silent for a while, shaking as she placed the teacup back on its saucer. “O-Our village was attacked during the night… fireballs rained on our houses, waking us up in the middle of the night. Th-Then… Goddess… the-they brought— Yiek! T-They—”
Lorena flinched as her expression distorted, trembling as she tried to remember what happened. Her left hand instinctively moved towards her lower private place, covering it up as she tried to calm herself down. This was not a good sign.
“Don’t push yourself,” I urged her. “Nothing will happen to you here, I promise. If there is something you don’t want to tell us, then don’t. You don’t need to.”
Saori nodded, agreeing with me, helping Lorena calm down a bit. Only Tasianna looked away, trying to look preoccupied as she continued with her meal. I was sure she figured something was up, but her indifference to the problem felt so callous. She really wasn’t invested in Lorena’s plight at all.
Lorena took another deep breath, only for tears to suddenly stream from her eyes. She whipped them away, keeping herself composed and continued her story while in a prayer, “T-Thank you, huck… It happened about a month ago. HarvestFest just ended and we just came back to our village after enjoying the festivities at Firwood. We were so exhausted, and we thought it would’ve been a peaceful night, huck!”
Lorena explained a raid happened that night. A group of humans and beastmen invaded the village, robbing everybody from their belongings and killing a few of the guards. Their fief lord managed to react in time to stop the attack before it got any worse, however, it was too late as the group had kidnapped any woman and man they got their dirty hands on.
Lorena and her parents were among the few villagers who were unlucky to have been captured. They were stripped of all their valuables and then placed into prison wagons as the bandit transported them away from the camp. Whispers from the bandit informed them some would be sold into slavery, while others would be transported towards brothels.
They were brought to the bandit’s camp and were kept there. Lorena thought it had to be a slave trader or somebody who wanted to buy the villagers, as the bandits kept talking them down as if they were just sacks of coins.
Lorena and the villagers had prayed to the Goddess that their lord would send help soon, explaining to me he and his wife were supposedly quite gracious and fair. Although he wasn’t always around, due to his duties as a noble, they believed he would send help since they were his serfs.
“Nobles hate losing their serfs, after all. From their view, you are the people responsible for the land’s cultivation, as such, their taxes,” Saori chimed in, before slapping her mouth shut, realizing she had spoken out of turn. Looking at how her face was turning red, she probably realized she let out the history nerd in herself.
In any case, eventually, their prayers did come true as a band of mercenaries arrived at the camp. Unfortunately, they were hopelessly outmatched as the bandit’s mage and leader decimated the whole band with ease. Any men were executed for entertainment, while the women were thrown into the cells with the villagers.
At this point, Lorena's floodgates opened up once again as she wailed in pain. It took her a near minute to calm her down again.
“Nobody came anymore after that. The bandits also kept moving and moving around, never staying in one place for too long after those mercenaries attacked,” Lorena recalled with a trembling voice, ready to break into tears once again. “A-And then, about a week ago, a couple of men appeared at the camp. I don’t know who they were, but they began talking to the bandit leader, this-this brute of a beastman. Slavers; one even looked like a rich merchant.”
Beastmen, huh? No wonder she was so wary of us at first. Still, how could she think a cute girl like me was a nasty brigand? … Mhm, bad joke. Let’s keep that to ourselves.
No matter how much she resisted, the lack of good food and the tiring environment she lived in made it impossible for her to break free. The rich-looking slave trader had also brought a guest with them, an equally well-offed merchant, according to Lorena.
Dressed in fine clothing with jewels aplenty, this obese man eyed her and the villagers like a predator, sending chills down her spine when he suddenly approached her. With a single snap, the slave trader had her brought to a nearby tent.
The man had placed fruit and wine on the table, urging the starving Lorena to partake in some of them. Malnourished, she couldn’t resist her body’s demands and pounced on the food like a beast. She ate everything in a mad frenzy, only for the man to suddenly drag her away in the middle of eating and throw her onto his bed. Like a sadistic bastard, Lorena trembled as she recalled his demonlike grin.
She quickly understood what was going on. She tried to resist, but the fat merchant effortlessly kept her pinned down, ready to begin his assault on her. Whether it was to slap her or tie her up, the man indulged in his sadistic pleasures before Lorena was too exhausted from the abuse to struggle. She had given up. By closing her eyes, she had accepted her fate and wanted it over with… only, she couldn’t feel any pain after a few seconds passed.
The man had disappeared.
Confused, the girl suddenly heard a commotion outside the tent. Peeking through it, she saw the the fat man and the bandit leader arguing with each other as some of the slaves were put into cages. The argument was so heated, the slave trader had to intervene. With everything going on, most of the bandits and guards weren’t looking in Lorena’s direction.
Lorena knew at this point she had to go. This was her moment to escape. She wanted to free her parents and villagers but at that very moment, she was overwhelmed by the fear of the man returning. She was almost sexually assaulted, and although it hadn’t happened, the mental damaged had already be inflicted.
Her natural instincts took over and forced her body to sneak out of the camp and run as fast as she could. She didn’t look back, despite knowing her parents were there. She didn’t watch where she was heading, as her brain turned on auto-pilot. Her flight or fight response activated. As long as her adrenaline could keep her going, she would run, and it didn’t matter to where.
“I fell unconscious then and woke up when the sun came. I-I remember everything, hieeeeeee,” Lorena broke down, and this time, it didn’t seem like she could stop it. “I left everybody there! I don’t even know if they’re still there or not.”
She was determined to get back to her village. She didn't know where she was nor in which direction she had to go. All she knew was her village was located right next to a river as the crops they were farming required an immense amount of water to keep alive.
Lorena wasn't used to the woods but she knew the basics on how to survive and forage for food. This was a result of her father bringing her out on trips with the other villagers. This was usually a father-son event but she didn't have any siblings, so her father took her instead.
She managed to create simple fires to stave off the cold night while being able to gather a few berries and fruits to keep herself from starving. Her attempts were small and meager, but it kept her alive.
Eventually, she was attacked by those wolves we saw today. She didn’t know how to hunt, and her body was not in any condition to do so in the first place. She couldn’t do anything but run, run as fast as she could… until her Stamina failed her.
“Once again, thank you so very much for rescuing me. If you hadn’t… then, I would have probably met Goddess Death at this point.” Lorena bit her lips with teary eyes.
Leaving her to let her emotions run wild, the three of us created a telepathic link to talk amongst us. We had to talk about our next steps. [“So, what do you guys think? I say we help her.”]
[“I also think we should at least help her back to her village. We do not know where we are and this might be a good chance for us to get some directions while doing some good,”] Saori remarked. [“… However, just to make sure, Hestia. You are not intending to hunt down those bandits, right?”]
I would lie if I didn’t think about it. As a fellow girl, I couldn’t exactly let this go unpunished. This fat pig thought it was right for him to force himself on somebody just ‘cause of the situation? Sure, it didn’t happen in the end, but causing somebody such psychological trauma was unforgivable in my book.
I was being a bit emotional here, but I also didn’t think leaving such scum around was smart. I honestly wanted to go to those bandits and turn them into ash, right about now. Let them feel the consequences of being absolute scum and igniting the wrath of a female.
However…
[“No, of course not. I heard the stuff about the mercenaries,”] I responded. [“I’m pretty sure I’m stronger than your average person, but I’ve already experienced once what it feels like to run into something recklessly without proper information. I’m not gonna do it, again.”]
During the rescue mission to find and save the lost lizardmen, I accidentally stumbled on one of the snake heads of the [Vellestra Leviathan] and nearly died in the process. It was the first A rank monster I’ve ever met, and the power difference was clear to behold. I had no chance of winning; zero.
This wasn't paranoia here; it was being cautious and valuing my life. Maybe the bandits had an ace in their sleeves? Lorena did mention a mage and a hulking bandit leader. I didn’t know what the standard of power was. No power scaling tier list was around to help me understand it better.
Yes, I had the lizardmen as references, but that was such a small sample size. I promised Saori I would give her an idol concert, and my priority was my music career. That promise was more important to me than to go on a vigilante mission just to avenge Lorena. I sympathized with her but I had to look out for my friends, foremost.
[“Thank goodness, you are learning,”] Saori said with relief. [“You should know about the whole concept of villeins, right? As I said, a lord valued their serfs like belongings. They are their source of income and a fief lord’s duty as a vassal was to defend the land and make it profitable. They should have some knights and soldiers responsible for all of this. Leave it to the professionals, Hestia.”]
[“Yeah, yeah, I know. I won’t jump into something without a plan, I promise.”] I waved her concern away. [“Still, considering how long this lord is taking… Anyways, what is your answer, Tasianna?”]
Tasianna turned towards me and gave me a small bow, [“… I will do as you command. Your wish is my duty, Lady Hestia.”]
Oh goodness…
Yep, Tasianna was zero interested in Lorena’s problem. At least, she was willing to help just ‘cause I said so. She was so hot-headed and impulsive before Saori’s speech but now she was ice-cold, brrrr.
With that decided, Saori told Lorena we would accept her request to bring her back to the village. She was elated to hear this, promising to repay us when with the village chief’s help.
After that was done, Saori kinda forced Lorena to wear one of her new clothes, as she found the rags she wore dreadful. This little dressing event lasted until both Saori and Tasianna finally finished choosing out their new outfits.
We then went to sleep and woke up the next morning. Knowing Lorena was in a hurry, Saori carried her piggyback style as she was too slow to keep up with our speed. It only took our party a few hours to finally find a river and then the village after Lorena gave us directions.
Although the river was sparkling blue, it still felt it was a level below the majesty the Belzac forest had. As murky and dirty as the swamp was, it was an impeccable vista. Natural beauty.
However, every location had its charm, right? The Belzac swamp had its view and a feral beauty due to the monsters and wild plants. On the other hand, this place drew my eyes ‘cause of the crops the field was growing.
Is that a rice plant?
AbyssRaven
I already have a bunch of the artwork already done, so here is another bite. I already showed you guys how Hestia should look, now this is "adventurer grab Hestia!" Saori's and Tasianna's artwork will come in the next two chapters, so please anticipate and fanboy/fangirl.
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Thank you for reading this chapter.
