The Peerless Kobold - Chapter 240
Our target destination this time was a town that is part of Count Schwarck’s territory in the south-central part of Riastize Kingdom which is said to be famous for its livestock industry that raises high-quality cattle, pigs, and chickens for consumption for over a decade.
On our way there, Muriel proudly told us that all of it was thanks to the skills of the biologist Christ Vest, but I was of the belief that seeing is believing.
(If we get to eat good meat, then it’s all good.)
It’s no exaggeration to say that most of us kobolds live for meat.
Of course, the meal with the pasta and winter vegetables several days ago was good, but without meat it wasn’t as filling, so we also roasted the badger meat Blazer brought that night.
So when I heard that the town we were headed to was famous for its livestock, my steps felt lighter, but…
Earlier, a thick fog suddenly appeared which dulled my senses and caused me to stop several times.
“Kuaoruu, oufarua?” (Are we lost?)
My sister who’s currently perched on my head in her fox cub form asked.
Perhaps worried about me, I felt Muriel stir on my back and say, “Nn~, as far as I can see on the compass, we’re going in the right direction, but… it’s strange how we still haven’t left Selcrena forest.”
According to the adventurer’s map that she showed us occasionally, Selcrena was a relatively small forest and half a day should have been enough to traverse it.
But now that we couldn’t see the end in sight, it seems her compass had become unreliable as well.
(And this misty fog seems to contain a bit of magic… I have a bad feeling about this.)
However, we would gain nothing if we stayed here, so I bore Muriel and my sister on my back again and continued walking on all fours under the moonlit forest for a while until my vision cleared and we reached the entrance of an abandoned village which seemed to have been forgotten in the outskirts of the forest.
I heard a cracking sound and looked down to see that I had stepped on a wooden plaque with the village’s name inscribed on it, but it was too damaged to read.
“This is probably Vanberg village…”
Even though I couldn’t pronounce the words due to the limitations of my vocal cords in my wolf form, I could still understand the common language so Muriel continued to talk.
“When I was a child, some random group of bandits attacked this village and about a hundred people died. The surviving villagers moved to another town after that, so this one just fell apart.”
“Kuorufau woan” (That’s not surprising)
Recounting her childhood memories, Muriel’s father, Christ, apparently responded to Count Schwarck’s call for assistance on behalf of her mother who was the Baroness at that time and led a group of vigilantes from Velheim to pursue the wild bandits who were trying to escape into the neighboring territory.
In order to exit Selcrena Forest, it seems we had to pass through the village that had been abandoned for quite some time. After offering a prayer to the spirits that rested there, we proceeded to head to the center of the abandoned village with its rows of run-down buildings cluttering the whole place.
Generally, the central part of a village or town is a wide open space where its residents gather.
Vanberg’s central square appeared just as much, but with the addition of a magnificently built well which is probably supplied by the water veins that run through the forest.
But for some reason, a young female child was sobbing as she crouched beside the well.
(That’s definitely suspicious…)
My sister seemed to feel the same as she stood on all fours and growled menacingly. On the other hand, Muriel did not know how to respond and was at a loss for words.
I tried to ignore the scene with all my might and tried to move on without disturbing the child, but to my annoyance, another presence approached from the side street across from the young girl. That presence turned out to be a fairy-like, black-haired maiden who did not look out of place in her villager’s clothes.
“Good evening, red-haired miss. The moon looks very lovely tonight, don’t you think?”
The woman did not look surprised upon seeing a female mage riding a huge wolf. Instead, she softly smiled and spoke to us in a clear voice while discreetly keeping her eyes on me.
“Uh, umm, who might you be?”
“Hypocritical it may be, I am someone who saves souls.”
After saying that, she held her arm out in a nonchalant manner and a silvery white thread shot out from her palm and pierced the young girl who stopped sobbing and began to scatter a disturbing magic aura!
“Gugeh, giaaaaaaaaah!?”
“Hn, so she was mimicking the young soul she consumed.”
The suffering girl let out an uncharacteristic wail as the village girl pulled back the thread with a quick wave of her arm and pulled out her soul that emitted a pale phosphorescent light. She held it in her arms with a look of affection as its form continued to tremble in an indefinite shape.
“It’s going to be fine now. Just hang on for a little while.”
In front of the gently whispering and smiling woman, the body of the young girl which had been deprived of its soul turned purple and swelled to form distorted human faces on the sores all over her body.
Not long after, the ugly mass of flesh covered in human faces floated into the air and threw an intelligible mass of insults and screeching noises.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
“Uu~, This is bad… Those might be Nightmare variants.”
“Wafi vaoaaih” (This is bad)
Even though Muriel and my sister agreed on that point, that wasn’t the main focus right now.
As if summoned by the creature’s mentally-overloading shrieks, a large number of skeletons crawled out one after another from the partially muddy ground. These are probably the remains of the sacrificed villagers and the travelers who got lost in the forest.
“Kuonh!” (Big brother!)
“Gau, gauooanh” (Tsk, we’re surrounded)
As soon as we tried to find a way to escape, several silver threads shot out from the ground and entangled the skeletons, blocking most, if not all, of their movements.
“H, aooon!!” (This is my chance!!)
“Ukyaaaah!?”
“Kyuuh!?”
Ignoring Muriel’s and my sister’s screams as they clung to me, I channeled all my power into my limbs and sprinted as fast as I could, passing by the skeletons whose movements had been suppressed.
“Gau, garuaou vanfaouu.” (Haah, we don’t need to fight those things.)
If the unfathomably dense magic power I sensed earlier belonged to the woman with the black hair and eyes, I decided that there was no need to help her so I jumped over the wrecked wooden fence and went into the thick fog that led to the forest trail.
……
Meanwhile, after the large silver wolf had fled Vanberg with his companions, the Nightmare, which was sealed off using most of the skeletons, became frustrated and used one of its countless faces to spit out a gigantic black flame towards one of the Seven Plagues, the Devourer of a Million Souls!
