Chapter 23: The Exiled Marquise Takes Responsibility 3
Early the next morning, although the villagers who came to get farming tools were surprised to see us, we began our morning preparations.
Although I say preparations, it was really just using Purification Magic to cleanse the dirt from our bodies.
By the way, while “Purification Magic” might sound like some incredible spell…
It’s commonly, or perhaps more accurately, semi-officially known as something like ‘life magic’, and it’s a type of magic widely used by the general public.
Just how common is it? Well, children start using it from as early as around five years old.
Although it’s just magic for cleaning dirt off one’s body or clothes, they say that thanks to this magic, the frequency of falling ill has drastically decreased, so I have nothing but gratitude for the ancient sages.
“So, about what we do now,”
I said after swallowing the bread and bacon I’d bought from the villagers.
Since we’d planned for a day trip this time, we hadn’t prepared any camping gear, so we were having breakfast sitting directly on the ground.
Luckily, it was a grassy area, so it wasn’t uncomfortable.
“Since we don’t really have anything else to do, I think we should go around asking the villagers for eyewitness accounts.”
Even though Erica was just sitting on the ground drinking water from her water flask, her overflowing elegance was dazzling first thing in the morning.
“I also considered following the carriage heading to town, acting as an escort of sorts, but from their perspective, they’d probably be more worried about being followed by an unknown Rank 1 adventurer, so I decided against it.”
Against Bonbos, in the worst-case scenario, you could probably abandon your luggage and get away, but you can’t exactly do that when dealing with humans.
From the villagers’ point of view, being followed by outsiders like us would likely be far more worrying.
“But well, since we took care of the Bonbo swarm, in two or three days, the villagers will probably come to trust that the monsters have been subjugated.”
We can’t consider the request completed just based on that, but at least the village will probably stop continuously submitting requests to the Guild.
Monsters will probably appear again after a while, but that’s a separate issue.
We probably wouldn’t gain their trust, but I figured time would solve the problem itself.
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Including the surrounding fields, it was a large village, but the actual residential area was much smaller.
With a population of about two hundred, it was large for a farming village, but even so, it didn’t take much time to hear from everyone who had actually witnessed the monsters.
It seemed that going to town to sell crops was handled by specific people taking turns, so the number of individuals who had actually seen the monsters was smaller than I’d expected.
Just after the sun passed its zenith, I finished hearing the story from the last person, thanked them, and started walking with Erica towards that tool shed.
“What do you think about the witnesses’ stories?”
“What do you mean, ‘what do I think’?”
Erica responded to my vague question with one of her own.
“Wasn’t there anything, you know, suspicious?”
Murmuring, “Suspicious?” in response to my question, Erica thought for a moment.
“If I had to point something out, I felt they observed them very closely. That’s what struck me as odd.”
Yes, that’s it.
Seeing me nod, Erica continued.
“All the stories from the villagers who were attacked by the monsters clearly indicated they were Bonbos. The descriptions of their features were meticulous, detailed as if they knew about them beforehand.”
Erica stopped walking and looked at me.
“I had assumed that even villagers would possess some basic knowledge about the characteristics of monsters, but is that incorrect?”
I shook my head in response to Erica’s question.
“Normally, unless you’re an adventurer, people wouldn’t know those details. Moreover, observing and remembering specific features while being attacked… I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but it’s certainly rare.”
When requests like this one come into the Adventurers Guild, the monster identification is usually inferred from vague eyewitness accounts.
Something like, ‘If it’s a monkey-like monster in that region, and its fur is this color, then it must be…’.
But this time, the request specified Bonbos from the very beginning, and on top of that, the witness accounts are excessively detailed.
The details are specific and the stories are remarkably similar, almost as if they had conspired and agreed upon them beforehand.
I scratched the back of my neck.
Something doesn’t sit right with me…
Just as I was thinking that, I noticed the sound of small footsteps approaching from behind us.
Wondering what it was, I turned around to see a little girl holding a small wooden doll, staring intently at Erica and me.
The little girl spoke.
“Big sister, are you an adventurer-san?”
Erica and I instinctively met each other’s eyes.