Suspicious Movements 4
The inn door flew open with a bang, and a wrinkled old man came storming in, trailed by a handful of young men fretting after him. The sudden intrusion made the innkeeper jump to his feet with eyes wide as saucers — but the old man paid him no mind at all and charged straight at us.
More precisely, straight at me, in my armor.
"Oh, good heavens — S-Sir Knight!"
"I'm not a knight."
Whether it was old age or some kind of mental shock, the old man had come looking for an adventurer and latched onto me calling me a knight instead. He hobbled toward me with a cane, his steps still limping, while the village youths hovered anxiously around him in circles — wanting to stop him but not daring to grab him by force, stuck between one option and the other.
In a village this small, a chief held near-absolute authority among the residents, so that much was only natural. And looking at the chief's face, something serious had clearly gone wrong in the village.
Even the viewers could tell a request-shaped quest was about to drop, and the chat flooded with every opinion under the sun. Han Se-ah seemed to share the same expectation — her camera drifted over to the chief's face as naturally as if she were conducting an interview.
The old chief looked ready to drop to his knees and cling to me. The young men supporting him couldn't peel him off, fretting uselessly. Behind and beside me, my party stood ready to hear what he had to say.
The strange standoff between the two groups ended the moment the chief actually dropped to his knees and grabbed my pant leg.
"A request — please accept my request!"
"Elder! These people are just travelers heading west…"
"All of you, shut your mouths!"
His frail, withered frame belied the roar that shook the entire inn. He shoved aside the young men trying to restrain him and latched onto me again. His eyes glittered; foam flecked the corners of his shouting mouth. The grotesque, almost rabid look of him made my fist clench on instinct — and the village youths, quick on the uptake, swarmed back in to haul him away like they were putting him under arrest.
Even as they dragged him off by both arms like a man being collared under a false charge, the old chief kept crying out desperately, veins standing out on his neck, bellowing so that every one of us would hear.
"The residents — the young men — they've disappeared! This is the work of orcs, I'm certain of it! They're coming — they're coming baaack!"
"Elder! Ben and Paul went to the next village for a trade exchange!"
"Aigoo, we're so sorry. He's not usually like this… His son went out on a merchant run and is late coming back, so he's been terribly anxious."
In place of the hauled-off chief, a simple-looking young man with chestnut-brown mop hair bowed his head and explained the situation. In a village this small, the chief's son worked as a traveling merchant, going around on foot to secure supplies — and he was running far later than usual.
The villagers, who had never so much as seen a monster or a wild beast in these parts, seemed perfectly at ease about it — figuring he was just busy with extra work, or maybe he'd hit a jackpot and that was why he was delayed.
But the elderly chief had lived long enough to have weathered orc raiders pouring out of the wastelands, bandit gangs eyeing the village, and wandering monsters that happened to pass nearby. So he was fretting.
"…Hanna. What do you think?"
"Huh? Wh-what, me?!"
After hearing the chief's story and watching the young men hurry out in a cluster, I tossed the question to Han Se-ah. She'd been mid-scroll through the chat and startled hard at the sudden question.
"Yeah. As our party's mage and leader — what do you think? Did the orcs we saw earlier attack people near here, or is it just the old chief's trauma talking?"
"Uh, well, the way I see it…"
Obviously I wasn't asking because I believed in the genius-mage-Hanna myth. I was asking whether the linked quest window currently in progress had changed after hearing the chief's story.
Han Se-ah rolled her eyes naturally as she prepared to answer, propped her chin in a thinking pose, and her fingers resting there twitched and fidgeted as she manipulated a hologram window. She seemed to think she was being subtle — but I already had her stream window open.
"The quest… the quest window… uh, was this originally about those mercenaries?"
A narrow path from Erteta toward Maurice County
A great misfortune seems to have befallen this small village that outsiders rarely visit
Just why do they only attack adventurers and traveling merchants?
"…The way I see it, the chief is probably right. The Merchants' Guild said there hadn't been a single attack on a wagon caravan, right? So it seems like the orcs really are only targeting small-scale merchants and travelers."
Having successfully leveraged both the quest window and the viewer assist, Han Se-ah delivered her opinion, and the party nodded along. If the orcs were only going after groups with low numbers, they were far more likely to show up around a small village like this than on a well-maintained main trade route.
According to the information that amorous Viola had passed along while lightly stroking the back of Lily's hand, no merchant caravans had been attacked — but the number of small-scale traveling merchants who should have come for trade had dropped off sharply compared to usual.
She'd said she hadn't noticed anything when she wasn't thinking about it, but listening to our conversation made her realize her transaction fee revenue had fallen off strangely, and she'd started sorting through her papers right then and there.
"Hearing it put that way, Miss Hanna does seem to be right."
"I think so too. If the orcs are only targeting weak, small groups of people, they'd go after residents of a little village like this rather than a city. Just like wandering monsters go after a village's livestock instead of wild animals — going for easy prey is in their nature."
Irene and Lily each added a word of agreement to Han Se-ah's explanation. Grace and Katie, who hadn't spoken, gave small nods that didn't particularly disagree either.
"Um, excuse me…"
"Hm?"
The one who quietly called out to us was the innkeeper, who had been hovering wordlessly behind the counter this whole time. He edged closer as if he had something to say, then squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head deep, looking thoroughly ashamed of himself.
"I-if you think there are orcs around… would you maybe take a look around the village? I don't have a lot of money saved up, but, well — I also run the grocery store in this village… I've got adventurer rations and such, so I can give you money and those…"
Apparently the chief's son wasn't the only one missing from the village.
The chief's son had taken the village's only wagon and was making the rounds of the neighboring villages — but he was about three days later than usual. And the son of the village's only inn-and-grocery, along with a young hunter friend of his, had set out for Erteta and never come back.
No matter how he turned it over, the only conclusion he could reach was that they'd been hit by orcs. I glanced at the party. While everyone was reading each other's faces, Irene swallowed hard and took a step forward.
"I… I'd like to help, but…"
Her gaze was locked on a small wooden carving that had been hidden behind the innkeeper's stout frame until he stepped closer to us.
…In other words, a goddess statue and a religious symbol.
This stout innkeeper was apparently quite a devout believer — the Goddess Church's symbol hung prominently behind the counter, and looking closer, something like a rosary was wound around his plump wrist. Our candidate saint, who already found it hard to turn away from an ordinary citizen's suffering, was never going to be able to refuse the innkeeper's request.
"Th-thank you so much, Sister!"
"Um, even if that's my opinion…"
"If Big Sis is fine with it, then sure!"
And Han Se-ah wasn't nearly brave enough to refuse a request from a natural-born 5★ healer, either.
Scouting the area around the village wasn't particularly hard. Just like when I'd searched for the missing girl near Grace's village, all I had to do was run around like hell. And today, Lily — not as fast as me, but still fleet-footed — had joined us as well.
Having two Upper-grade adventurers out on a mere orc search was a luxurious setup, so ability wasn't going to be the problem. The problem, if anything, was my foul mood over Han Se-ah's sneaky camera work.
"In that case, Roland and Grace can…"
"No. If we want this done fast, four of us should go out. Me, Lily, Grace, and Katie — we split up in all four directions and look for tracks."
"Is that okay?"
"The fact that the orcs haven't attacked the village means their numbers are small. And since I already killed dozens of wolves, this area should be relatively safe."
"Is that so? …Well, if Roland says so."
I shut down Han Se-ah's attempt to naturally pair me with Grace again and pushed my own plan through.
Grace, upgraded from 3★ to 4★, had improved detection skills — she'd sense the orcs before they noticed her and be able to run. Lily was the same 4★, but she'd spent years grinding through the Tower with me, and as an Upper-grade adventurer she wasn't about to get taken down by orcs.
The only one I was somewhat worried about was Katie, who had 4★-level talent but not enough experience — so I'd pair Irene with her.
"I'll take the most dangerous direction — north. Lily takes west, Grace takes east, and Katie and Irene take south. Let's search."
"Grace Unnie is an archer — is she okay on her own?"
"Hanna? You do know that Unnie here has trained in ranger techniques, right? And east is the direction we came from, so searching for tracks shouldn't be particularly dangerous."
"Ah, right."
"'Ah, right'? You little—"
"Aww, Unnie, I'm sorry. I was just worried… So then, what about me?"
Having gone from trying to back Grace up to effectively dismissing her, Han Se-ah took a light knuckle to the head. She let the chat's "industry reward" jokes wash past, then tilted her head and asked me.
"You're coming with me. The north is the most likely place for tracks, so I'm planning to go a bit farther out. If there's a shaman among them, Hanna should be able to notice."
"……Huh?"
Of course, that was really about the quest window and the minimap… but I was planning to haul her around like luggage at a ridiculous speed.
The way her cheeks flushed, I had a pretty good idea what she was imagining — but the conversation was about to go in a completely different direction from whatever she had in mind.