The next day, early in the morning.
Rudell and his party were walking along the forest path, having just left Prun Village.
“HAAAAAAAAAH… I’m so sleepy…”
Still struggling to wake up, Leje let out a big yawn.
In contrast, Rudell, Silphier, and Kurt looked as lively as ever.
“Are you guys not sleepy at all?”
“I-I’m used to staying up all night…”
“That just means you’ll have more vulnerable hours if you sleep longer.”
“Isn’t six hours of sleep enough?”
At her question, everyone replied in unison.
Silphier had always been a bit of a workaholic and staying up was her daily routine.
Given that Kurt lived a rough life in the wild as part of the Nord Clan, he naturally had very little sleep, and Rudell wasn’t one to sleep in.
“You know, talking to you guys sometimes makes me feel like I’m the weird one here.”
Hearing the three of them, Leje squinted, looking exasperated, and stretched her body with another yawn.
After walking for a short while through the forest…
“By the way, it’s quieter than I expected.”
You wouldn’t believe monsters had raided the village in packs last night, given how quiet it was in the woods.
Whether the monsters had fully recognized their presence or there was another reason for the calm, they had no idea.
Then, suddenly…
“This is it, everyone, get ready.”
Checking the map while walking through the forest, Rudell stopped and said.
At the same time, Leje and Kurt drew their weapons, and Silphier took out some potions.
Brushing aside the lush bushes in front of them, Rudell and the party moved forward.
What unfolded before them after breaking through the underbrush was a massive ruin bathed in warm sunlight.
“This is… the Old Ruins…”
A ruin roughly the size of a small town.
Once home to countless people, only the fallen debris remained, shrouded in silence.
While everything looked demolished, it was an oddly peaceful scene.
“Rudell, over there.”
“Mm…”
As Rudell gazed at the scene, he turned his head at Leje’s voice.
What caught his eye was a cluster of goblins and orcs forming small settlements throughout the ruins.
The number of them seemed to match the monsters that had attacked the town last night.
“Should we take them all out?”
“It doesn’t seem necessary. There’s nothing to gain by poking the hornet’s nest.”
In response to Leje’s question, Rudell shook his head.
Dealing with monsters wasn’t especially hard.
But at this point, their main objective was finding Eleor.
They weren’t there to clean out monsters.
Moreover, it would undoubtedly take a significant amount of time to clear all the monsters from such a vast ruin.
Rather than wasting time with monster battles, it was wiser to simply ignore them.
“Let’s avoid battles as much as possible; there are more important things to do.”
“Got it.”
“Understood.”
“Yes, yes…!!”
Nodding in agreement with Rudell’s directive,
They shifted their steps toward the labyrinthine ruins.
*
Among the settlements in the ruins was the largest one.
“GROOAH! GWOOOAR!”
“KYAAAAK!! KYYAAAAK!!”
With orcs and goblins inexplicably brawling among themselves, Rudell and his party were observing them from atop a slightly distant building.
“What do you see? Anything interesting?”
“Nothing… just monsters.”
In response to Leje’s inquiry, Kurt shook his head.
An hour had passed since they began searching the ruins.
Yet, they found no trace related to Eleor.
“This is bad… At this rate, it feels like we’re getting nowhere.”
The real problem was the lack of information.
All Rudell and his party knew was that Eleor and the Holy Knights were headed this way.
Naturally, that single piece of information made it difficult to pinpoint their exact location.
“Could it be that they’ve been taken down by the monsters…?”
“Silph… Don’t even joke about that, the Holy Knights wouldn’t fall to those kinds of monsters.”
The Holy Knights of the Holy Kingdom were renowned for their high level of skill.
Regular knights were monsters themselves and could only be fought by dozens of ordinary people working together.
Holy Knights could enhance their abilities even further with blessings and holy magic, making them fundamentally different from average knights.
Could such Holy Knights really fall to a mere horde of orcs and goblins?
That was something hard to accept from a common sense perspective.
“If only we could squeeze some information out of the monsters…”
As Rudell watched the brawling monsters, he let out a short sigh.
The ones originally living there must’ve seen something.
However, attempting to communicate with monsters was not a thought that any sane person would entertain.
For monsters, human beings were valued merely as slaves or food.
As such, any cohabitation between humans and monsters was absolutely impossible.
“If only there was a way to behead one of those bastards and read their thoughts…”
“Hmm…”
At Leje’s exasperated comment, Rudell let out a low groan.
Of course, there were spells that could directly extract information from a living creature’s brain.
But the issue was that such magic fell under the category of dark magic.
Rudell had no intention of using dark magic, so he had no choice but to push that thought deep into the corners of his mind.
While Rudell and his party were briefly watching the scene…
–Rustle.
“…?”
They heard the sound of footsteps behind them.
Rudell and his party turned their heads, and what they saw was…
“K-KYIK!? H-HUMAN!?”
“A goblin?”
It was a rather young-looking goblin.
The goblin was standing awkwardly atop a small ladder that fit its body, wearing a confused expression.
Without a second thought, Leje and Kurt brandished their weapons.
They had to deal with the goblin before it could call for backup, which would surely attract all the nearby monsters.
However…
“I-I’M HUMAN! D-DON’T KILL ME!!”
“Wait a second!”
Seeing the goblin clenching its eyes tight while shouting, Rudell yelled at Kurt and Leje.
At the same moment, Kurt and Leje stopped moving…
“What is it? Why?”
“What’s going on? If you call for help, we’ll be in trouble.”
“…”
Ignoring the confused look on Leje and Kurt’s faces, Rudell approached the goblin.
He lowered his body cautiously and, while watching the goblin slowly open its eyes, he carefully spoke.
“Do you speak the common language?”
“Now that you mention it…”
“You seem a bit more fluent than others.”
With Rudell’s question, Leje and Kurt stepped back a bit, as if having realized something.
Seeing them seemingly put at ease, the goblin carefully asked Rudell.
“I can… speak a little. Not fluently, though.”
“Hmm…”
Compared to other goblins that could only say things like “Goblin, hungry, eat,” this one could hold a decent conversation, albeit awkwardly.
That meant this goblin had a higher intelligence than its kin, which also indicated there was room for negotiation.
“Alright, I won’t kill you. Instead, how about a proposal?”
“A proposal…?”
The goblin looked puzzled at Rudell’s words.
“I think white-clothed people passed by here not long ago. Have you seen them?”
“White-clothed…? I remember! I remember! They were scary so everyone hid!”
“Really!?”
“Hmm…”
“That must be Lady Eleor!!”
As the goblin recalled something after a moment of thought, Rudell and the party’s faces lit up.
While it was secondary to wonder why this goblin could communicate so clearly, they had finally found a breakthrough.
“If you tell me where they went, I won’t kill you, and also…”
Rudell set down his bag and rummaged through it for a moment.
He soon pulled out a small pouch from inside.
“Sniff sniff…!! F-Food smell!”
It was none other than a pouch filled with jerky.
The goblin, sensing the smell, sparkled its eyes with excitement.
Being a monster, it seemed unable to resist food.
“If you guide us properly, I’ll give you the jerky inside this.”
“I understand! Goblin! Promise to keep it! You keep your promise too!”
“Of course.”
Nodding toward the goblin, Rudell stood up, a faint smile on his face, having successfully made a deal.
