Neighboring Village (Part 2)

After turning all of the bandits to the guards in the village, the man in full armor showed me to his place. His name was Jackson, and he called himself a "Mithril Adventurer," whatever that meant.

As we walked there, he told me a little bit about the problems that the village had been facing the past few months.

Apparently, this was the settlement closest to the End Forest, so not many people managed to explore or adventure in these parts, much less live here.

The Lord, who was meant to be the one taking care of the territory, didn't like to spend his time in such a remote area, so he was never there.

Lately, they had been having trouble with goblins trying to raid the village. The residents asked the King and the Lord for help, but being in such a remote area made it almost impossible for the backup to arrive on time.

That's why the people in the village had to resort to hiring adventurers to protect them. "Adventurer" was an actual job in this world. These were people who would go to a place called the "Adventurer's Guild" and register themselves.

Once they got their permits and ranks, they were able to take on requests posted on these guilds' boards.

The closest town with an adventurer's guild was 5 days away from the village. The residents had to keep scouts around the edge of the forest at all times so that in case of an emergency, they could have enough time to go ask for help.

'So, at minimum, they get the help they asked for 10 days later… that's pretty bad…' I thought as I listened to Jackson.

Seemed like my thoughts were clearly reflected on my face because as soon as I started pondering, Jackson intervened:

"This village doesn't make a lot of money, so the villagers keep a general fund for hiring adventurers. Even then, the pay is usually not worth it for any adventurer to go on a trip for weeks to one of the most dangerous areas in the world, y' know?" He explained.

He also told me that while the King was a benevolent person who truly tried his best to help his subjects, mobilizing the knights required the Knight Commander's permission.

Of course, the Commander refused to send help since it would be a waste to have his knights fight "mere goblins." I could feel like poor Jackson had gone through this before…

I asked him why he took on the quest, and seemed like he spent some time living here when he was a rookie adventurer that needed training.

"The monsters that leave the edge of the forest are usually the weakest ones. This place used to be a haven for adventurers under training… In a way, I feel indebted to this little village, so I want to protect it." he said.

The reality was that Jackson was pretty much the mayor of the village. Since the Lord who owned the territory hadn't shown up in years, most people just depended on Jackson whenever they had problems.

'Hmmm, these people have it rough here… Jackson basically said, "If the royal knights aren't coming, then I'm doing it myself." Granted, he did bring around 12 other adventurers with him, but that's just being smart.'

I kept pondering about their situation and trying to come up with a way to help the villagers when Jackson interrupted my train of thought.

"By the way, kid… What the hell are you?"

"Wh-what…?"

"I inspected you as soon as you arrived here with the bandits. I won't pry too much into your personal details, but I had to make sure I could trust you…Although…" He leaned towards me and lowered the volume of his voice.

"You should probably learn "Inspect Block." There aren't many people used to seeing the status of a demi-god, and some people could even try to hurt you because of it."

'A what!? A demi-god!? Isn't that basically the son of a god? Oh!…' I started panicking inside my head while trying to keep my cool.

"Now, now, calm down. I promise I won't say anything. I mean, I wouldn't want to be on Phelena's bad side, ahahaha!" said Jackson with a hearty laugh.

Somehow, it made me feel at ease. 'Maybe I can trust this guy…'

__________

I spent the night at Jackson's place. Well, he didn't own it, but he was staying there.

The woman who owned the house prepared a bed for me and everything, which was the first time I actually slept on a soft bed in this world.

Even though it wasn't really that soft, it was way better than the wooden box I used in mine. Jackson told me that the inn wasn't big enough to hold all the adventurers guarding the town, so the residents rented their homes to them.

The next morning, I was treated to breakfast by the nice lady along with Jackson. She served me a slice of white bread with a slice of ham on top.

I was actually impressed by how good the bread was. I gave her my thanks and began gathering my stuff.

As I picked my "bo" and got ready to leave, Jackson stopped me and gave me a map of the whole Sephyr Kingdom.

"See, here is the capital. These 3 stars are the big towns, and the 5 dots are small villages or settlements like this one," said Jackson as he pointed at all the different spots on the map.

I noticed that there were some symbols written on the map that I couldn't understand what they meant. When I asked Jackson, he told me that it was the name of the towns.

That's when I realized… I did not know how to read this language!

I hadn't thought about it before, but I had just now realized that I was communicating with all these people in a completely different language that I never spoke before.

I assumed that Phelena gave me the ability to understand and speak it, but the only book I had was the one she gave me, and it was written in English, so, of course, I didn't know about this. 'I'll probably need to learn eventually…'

After I was ready to leave, I left the nice lady's house and was stopped once again by Jackson.

"Wait, kid!" He yelled as he ran up to catch up to me.

"Here, your reward for the bandits." Jackson pulled out a bag filled with silver coins, and my eyes widened in surprise.

"Umm, are you sure? This seems like a lot…"

"Yeah! You might not know this, but that bandit gang is actually wanted all over the country. That's why they were hiding in the forest and targeting this settlement."

The pouch had 30 silver coins, which apparently, was too little payment for an entire gang of bandits, but unfortunately, they couldn't pay me more.

I didn't really ask for the money, so I wasn't bothered by it.

I gave the lady half of the silver coins as payment for letting me stay and feeding me, and the rest I spent on something that I didn't have back in my forest house… bread!

I placed all my bread rolls on a mantle, pulled the corners, and tied them to make a little bag. Then I hung it on the tip of my "bo" to make my trip a bit more comfortable.

Jackson also gave me a really nice cloak as payment for turning in the bandits since the temperature outside was getting colder by the day. The cloak was a little big for me, but he told me, "You'll grow into it."

He said that once winter arrived, the number of monsters that attacked the settlement would decrease exponentially.

Most monsters seemed to hide or hibernate in caves during winter, so he and the other adventurers used that time to either hunt them down in their caves or just help the villagers gather firewood.

"We'll be here all winter. If you need anything, don't hesitate to visit again!" he yelled as he waved goodbye to me.

While I was peacefully walking back home with Yoru by my side, who had been hiding in my shadow the entire time, I thought about what I could do for the people in that village.

I mean, they were basically my neighbors, and goblins were truly nasty creatures. Jackson said that goblins would always do their best not to kill any women that they captured since they could use them to breed even more goblins.

But the torment and torture that they went through was enough to destroy them mentally. Most of the girls that made it alive out of those situations would either take their own lives or go to a temple and confine themselves.

That conversation made me sick to my stomach. I know I'm mentally an adult, but Jackson didn't know that.

'He should think better about what to say to a 12-year-old…Seriously…' I thought.

However, he did inspect me when I got to the village, so he probably thought I was some sort of special case, which wasn't wrong, but it wasn't the type of attention I wanted to attract.