The Frontier Village
The Empire's territory didn't always expand by subjugating neighboring countries. Though they conquered states like the Duchy of Valtern, for the most part, their expansion came from developing the territories of other races or monster zones. The fundamental difference between humanoids and monsters lies in the existence of females. Common humanoids like elves and dwarves are biologically divided into male and female and reproduce through sexual intercourse. Monsters, however, consist almost entirely of male individuals, and they reproduce by using other species. Anyway, the Empire, having broadened its lands by occupying such places, sent the overcrowded urban poor or volunteers to those lands as settlers. If left unoccupied, monsters would soon breed again, and the land would become desolate, so development was absolutely necessary to maintain it. Consequently, most frontier villages border monster territories, making survival incredibly difficult without their own armed forces or the help of Imperial Knights.
The request they received this time was also from such a frontier village. According to the information forwarded to them, women of the village had been repeatedly disappearing.
"We'll just have to hear the details directly, I suppose?"
Cael's statement made the two women nod in agreement. The place was remote, so they couldn't go by carriage and had to travel on horseback. Both Lucrecia and Eleonoa and Eleonoa, even if their houses had fallen, were members of noble families and naturally knew how to ride. Cael, however, was a commoner and had no such skill. Since the Empire couldn't cover the exorbitant cost of maintaining horses for everyone, the Knight Academy didn't offer riding lessons either. As a result, Cael was riding with Eleonoa. Lucrecia, who sweated profusely by nature, wasn't too fond of riding together.
"Cael-kun~"
Eleonoa's voice, sweetly drawling in his ear and tickling him out of the blue, made Cael unconsciously tense up.
"Just lean on me, alright…? Sitting all stiff and straight like that is bad for your body."
"Ahem… but Eleonoa…"
"Goodness, what's there to be so shy about… Come on, then."
At Eleonoa's words, Cael glanced at Lucrecia. She didn't seem to mind much, just riding her horse and looking around. Cael had no choice but to relax and lean back against Eleonoa's body, or more accurately, against her large chest. Although the stiff feeling against his neck was palpable through the knight's uniform, the strangely soft cushioning effect made him blush involuntarily. Watching this, Eleonoa just couldn't stop teasing him with a sly grin.
They rode like that for a while, soon arriving at a settlement with a flimsy wooden wall—it was so flimsy that calling it a fence was more appropriate. There were ditches dug around the wall to serve as a moat, but they didn't look very deep. It was not a place that looked particularly strong defensively. Naturally, they would be easily exposed to monster attacks.
As they appeared, the people standing on the watchtower behind the wooden wall seemed to become agitated. Soon, poorly armed individuals revealed themselves one by one on top of the wooden wall and looked down at them with nervous faces.
"Wh-who are you!"
An elderly man who seemed to be the oldest among them shouted, clearly fearful of the sudden appearance of people on horseback. In response, Lucrecia urged her horse a little closer and pulled out a single piece of parchment. It bore the information about their request and an official seal guaranteeing their identity.
"We are Imperial Knights, here to help upon your request. Please lower your weapons and open the gate."
"I… I can't read it! If you want us to trust you, dismount and come closer!"
The mention of Imperial Knights softened their tone slightly, but the wariness was still thick. Since such a powerful group as the Imperial Knights existed, naturally, there were those who would impersonate them to attack settlements or commit robbery, so their fear was to be expected. Having experienced this many times before, Lucrecia glanced back at the two behind her. Cael and Eleonoa nodded in agreement, so Lucrecia dismounted and drew closer.
"Oh"}"
As she approached the wooden wall, close enough for the writing and seal on the parchment to be visible to them, the younger village men who got a look at her appearance for the first time couldn't help but gasp. The caution they had shown up until a moment ago had already melted away. The same was true for the old man who had been shouting on their behalf.
"Can you see it now?"
After observing their gazes for a moment, Lucrecia spoke to the old man. Only then did he snap out of it and look intently at the paper.
"Ahem… Open the gate, quickly!"
The old man shouted loudly towards the inside, and soon the wooden gate opened with a creak. Only then did Eleonoa and Cael dismount and follow Lucrecia inside.
Once inside, the first thing they felt was the gaze of the villagers looking down at them from the wooden wall. Cael slowly looked around. With their sunken eyes and shabby clothes, he could tell that although the situation varied from settlement to settlement, this place was not in a very good state regarding food or supplies. Moreover, their eyes held not just wariness, but a strange fear mixed in. Of course, even those men seemed to be swallowing their saliva and showing a faint excitement when looking at his lovers, but Cael just chalked that up to his lovers being too beautiful; if he didn't think that way, he might have to fight against those unclean gazes dozens of times a day, and the women didn't want that either.
Cael and his party were soon led to the house of the old man who had shouted at them—the village chief. As the chief, his house was located right in the very center of the village and was slightly bigger than the others. Upon entering, the chief's wife brought them something to drink.
"This is water made from herbs that grow nearby."
The old man chuckled and offered it. Now that it was confirmed they were Imperial Knights, the old man's tone became formal. Although most of the knights were commoners, there were fallen nobles among them as well, and their martial prowess, their position, and various other factors made it hard for commoners to think of them lightly.
"Hmm…"
They each picked up the wooden cups and took a sip. It was an odd-tasting water with a musty smell and a bitter aftertaste. After taking a single sip, none of them touched it again.
"The information we received was simply that monsters had kidnapped the village women."
Cael asked the chief as the leader of the group.
"Hmm… That's right. One went missing about a month ago, and since then, over ten have disappeared up to today."
The old man sighed and began to speak. To summarize his story, it went like this. The disappearances started about a month ago. It began with a woodcutter's daughter following her father into the nearby woods to find him. At first, everyone felt it couldn't be helped since she had put herself in danger by going into the woods. But things changed from the next case. Women disappeared in the middle of the night or vanished when they all went to work in the fields together. No matter how many night watchmen they set up, it was useless. They only managed to stop the disappearances by locking all the women in one house. But they couldn't live like that forever, so they requested help from the Imperial Knights, which is how Cael and his party came to be here.
"First, please guide us to the house where someone disappeared."
The old man soon led them to one of the shabby central houses. It was the home of a widow who had settled there with her husband, but her husband had died of illness first, leaving her to live alone. Because of this, even though she disappeared from within the village, it went unnoticed for a long time.
"Is there anything else you need help with, Sir Knights?"
"No. We'll look around here for a bit."
At Lucrecia's words, the chief nodded and left the house. Once he was gone, the three of them sat on the lone chairs standing desolately in the empty house.
"What do you think, Junior?"
At Lucrecia's question, Cael let out a soft hum before speaking.
"It's a bit hard to say it's monsters for certain. When we first took the request, I naturally thought monsters had kidnapped them…"
Monsters' most convenient method for reproduction was kidnapping human women, whose individual combat power was nearly non-existent.
"…But the villagers haven't seen hide nor hair of any monsters, and the women kept disappearing."
"But the disappearances stopped after they were locked in one place, didn't they?"
"We need to look around a bit more. I thought this would be easy…"
"Alright, alright! Then let's start by searching this house from top to bottom!"
At Eleonoa's prompting, they all stood up from their seats.
Cael first looked in the attic. Although it varies by monster, most of them dislike light and prefer the dark, so if a monster was hiding, it might be here. But the attic only smelled of musty dust, with no sign of anything else.
Coming down from the attic with nothing to show, Cael headed towards the kitchen. He saw a tuft of blonde hair poking out over what looked like a dining table.
"Lucrecia?"
Cael called out to the owner of the blonde hair as he approached the table. She was squatting with one knee on the floor, staring at something.
"Did you find something?"
"Yes, Junior. It looks like monster fluid…"
Lucrecia pointed at the wooden floor. A small lump of yellowish liquid was lying there.
"Hmm… What is it?"
Just as Cael started to move closer, Lucrecia reached out and swiped the liquid with her finger. She was wearing white gloves, so it wasn't bare skin, but Cael flinched at the sight of her touching such clearly dirty substance without hesitation. Lucrecia looked at the sticky liquid dripping from her finger, turning it this way and that, before bringing it close to her nose and sniffing it.
"It smells similar to the tea we drank earlier."
"Tea?"
At her words, Cael gave a slight shudder, recalling the strange-tasting tea he had drunk earlier. It was a taste he never wanted to have again. The village chief had been sipping it happily, though…
"Lucrecia, now we've…"
Cael was about to say that was enough when Lucrecia stuck her tongue out slightly. At that moment, Cael felt his cock stiffen slightly without knowing why. It was just a normal act of sticking out her tongue, but the way that tongue was slowly approaching the liquid on her finger was strangely alluring. The yellowish tint and the peculiar viscosity made Cael feel a strange sensation for no reason.
'Why… why am I…'
While Cael was confronting the doubts rising within him, Lucrecia licked her finger with her tongue. Her soft, pink tongue pressed against her firm finger, sweeping away the yellowish fluid on the white glove.
"Ugh…"
Lucrecia made a slight face before spitting it out. Cael stared blankly at the scene.
"Junior?"
"Ah… Ah? Lucrecia?"
"Let's go see Eleonoa. I'm pretty sure it's a monster, a goblin or something of a small build."
With that, Lucrecia stood up and left the kitchen to find Eleonoa, who was still searching elsewhere. After staring at the yellow liquid on the floor for a while, Cael finally snapped out of it and hurriedly followed behind Lucrecia.