Tale of Discovery

Chapter 332: Entry Two ; Tree ; Adventurers

"My apologies, Mr. Vincent, but I am afraid there isn't enough food for five," Emmot says in a nervous tone as he keenly observes my face for my reaction.

Currently, we are in the Emmot family's residence. I am standing in the center of the kitchen, with the head of the family standing in front of me.

His wife is close by, standing beside a stove as she prepares the ingredients needed to cook dinner.

"That's not going to be a problem," I say with a small smile covering my lips, "Back home, we only ate once every three days, and I just so happen to have eaten yesterday."

Naturally, I am aware of how absurd this statement of mine might sound, but that's exactly why I uttered it. Right now, I need to slowly make the residents of this village understand that my power and constitution are far beyond theirs without raising suspicion. One way to do that would be through creating a background for myself that's far from their common sense.

Expectedly, Emmot's eyes widen for a brief moment before he scrunches his brows and asks, "Are you sure you don't want to eat?"

"Absolutely," I directly respond.

The man stares at me for a few more seconds before turning his head to face his wife and nodding his head once.

Hi wife, who has an equally suspecting look on her face, nods back as confirmation.

"Excuse me, Mr. Vincent, but I am curious about how you ended up being separated from your men," the man says as he gestures to me to follow him.

"There isn't much to say," I reply as I follow after him, "While I was being escorted to E-Rantel, the carriage I stayed in came under the attack of a few vicious monsters."

Earlier, I had heard Opilio mention E-Rantel, which I assume is a city, or at the very least, a settlement of much more value in contrast to this village. After all, he did say that soldiers are stationed in it, and went as far as to compare my skills with the soldiers'.

My small gamble pays off, as Emmot nods his head once and asks, "Were your men killed during the battle?"

"None of them had died at the time I escaped," I say while feigning an embarrassed look on my face, "Wait, don't misunderstand! The reason I escaped is not because of cowardice, but the fact that even if I am strong, I have close to no battle experience, so I would've been nothing more than a hindrance if I remained there."

Hearing my words, the expression on Emmot's face softens as he says, "That's good. Do you have a way to contact your men?"

"Unfortunately, I don't. I can only hope they start looking for me and arrive here soon."

"In that case, feel free to stay here for however long it takes. Though..."

His words trail off as he suddenly stops moving and turns around, "The state of the village isn't well, so I hope that you..."

His words trail off once more as if he is fearful of mouthing what comes after. Nevertheless, I have a clear idea of what he is trying to imply.

"You want me to refrain from freeloading?" I wryly inquire.

To this, Emmot doesn't say anything but only looks away, confirming my assumption.

"Don't worry, I will help out the residents in any trouble that might occur if I can."

Having said that, I walk past Emmot, toward a door that leads to a dusty room.

This should be the room that was prepared for Nemu... Although it's a little messier than I was expecting, it's not going to pose much of an issue.

Still, the only facility present in the room is an old worn-out bed. Hopefully, I have something like bedsheets in my inventory to deal with this.

Outside the door, I notice Emmot with a distraught look on his face as he mutters, "Vicious monsters..."

---

As I lay peacefully atop my bed, half-asleep, AI's voice abruptly resounds within my head.

{Entry number two is ready for materialization.}

{Materializing...}

Opening my eyes, I am met with the sight of a glowing golden ball at the center of the room I have been given.

At the center of the strangely calming glow, I notice a small figure.

Huh? Is that...?

As if to confirm my suspicions, the glow abruptly fades, revealing a small snake floating in the air with its beady eyes seemingly focusing on me.

"Aurora?" I mutter dubiously.

How is she here? Do my familiars automatically enter the games with me or something? In that case, where is Tiamat?

She should appear too, no? In fact, the announcement from earlier did state that there are three entries. Assuming that Aurora is the second entry based on what just happened, wouldn't the third entry be Tiamat?

As I am lost in my train of thoughts, Aurora drops to the ground and begins slithering toward me.

The next thing I know, she slithers her way up the bed I am lying on and only stops once she is a few centimeters away from my face.

Gazing at her small head, a smile forms on my lips as I say, "It's been a while. You seem to have been doing well."

Sensing the excitement and joy from her, I realize my own emotions being affected by them.

Anyway, this is quite a joyous discovery. After all, not only will I not be alone in this unfamiliar world, but I will get to spend some time with my two familiars after so long.

Releasing a small sigh, I shift my hand over to Aurora's body and begin rubbing her head with my index finger.

"We've most likely got a long day ahead of us tomorrow, so let's rest," I whisper as I close my eyes.

A few seconds later, I feel something moving against my neck, but I heed it no attention as I already know what it is.

And so, I slowly begin to doze off, with a certain adorable snake wrapped around my neck.

---

"Big brother, big brother," a high-pitched voice resounds within my ears as I feel something trying to push my shoulders.

I gradually open my eyes and directly set my sight upon a cheerful Nemu who is trying her best to shake me awake.

Finding her actions adorable, I subconsciously raise my arm and place it atop her head as I begin to gently rub it.

"Ah, you woke up!" she cries out with a bright smile covering her face, "Come, let's eat breakfast."

Having said that, Nemu grabs my shoulder and begins to pull as hard as she can, but she has nowhere near enough strength to make me budge.

Still, I chuckle for a few seconds before raising my head from the pillow I had found in my inventory last night.

As expected of something from the odd inventory, the pillow is anything but ordinary as it seems to have some enchantments applied to it.

The reason I assume so is that the moment I set my head down upon it, I felt like my mind clear up as a comfortable sensation spread throughout my body.

At this moment, I hear the door of the house being roughly knocked as a hoarse and anxious voice says, "Emmot, are you awake? We need your help!"

Curious about what's going on, I spread my senses around me to check on everyone in the house before spreading it even further to 'see' what's going on outside.

Shortly, my senses come across something that's troubling quite a number of the villagers.

A short distance away from here, near the forest that I ran into the trio from yesterday, there are a few villagers crowded together. Close to the villagers is a fallen tree, which oddly appears to have been crushed.

Speaking of crushed, there appears to be a few small bodies under the tree. Kids? No, this feels a little different...

What's going on?

Intrigued, I quickly get out of the bed, pat Nemu's head a few times, and make my way out of the house.

As I get closer to the crowd, a certain voice belonging to that of a young man reaches my ears, "I don't know! It just suddenly broke!"

"How could it suddenly break on its own?!" rebukes a much older-sounding voice.

"Then... then... it was the snake! Yes, there was a snake there! It must be what broke the tree!" responds the younger-sounding voice hurriedly.

"Huh?! A snake? Do you take me, your father, for an idiot?"

The moment I heard the younger voice mention a snake, the image of a certain small snake appears in my mind as I focus my senses on the culprit, which is currently coiled around my upper arm.

Releasing a sigh of exasperation, I hasten my steps and shortly reach the crowd.

Expectedly, quite a few of those present look over at me with curiosity apparent in their eyes.

Ignoring the villagers, I examine the broken tree and the two bodies underneath it.

Goblins.

There is no mistaking it. These disgusting-looking bodies are extremely similar to the bodies of the monsters I slew yesterday.

At this moment, the sound of a bell ringing reverberates in the air as a wave of anxiety spreads through the crowd.

"Why did the bell get ringed? It's not time for lunch yet, is it?"

"Something is wrong."

Listening to their conversations, I get a little curious as I use my senses to check on our surroundings.

Even after having done so, I don't notice anything out of the norm. Could it be that the villagers just overthought this?

Suddenly, the bell rings again as the villagers unanimously agree to head over to the center of the village.

Having nothing better to do, I follow along after them while continuing to use my senses to check on the situation.

Shortly, we reach the center of the village. There, I find Enri and Nemu standing beside each other while holding each other's hands. In front of them, Emmot and his wife are speaking to an old yet muscular man.

"Are you sure this information is correct?" asks Emmot in an uncertain tone as he gazes at the man in front of him.

"Of course," responds the man, "Just a scant while ago, we received a message from Latimon that stated this."

"But still... only a party of copper rank adventurers venturing into the forest?"

"There is nothing we can do about it," responds the man while shaking his head, "The least we can do is support them before they head inside."

"Oh, it's big brother!" Nemu, who spotted me walking over, exclaims excitedly.

Hearing her words, everyone nearby shifts their focus over to me, resulting in a stiff smile forming on my lips as I make my way to Emmot's side.

"Good morning, Mr. Emmot (Emmot-san)," I greet casually, "Do you mind telling me what's going on?"

"Oh, yes, good morning, Mr. Vincent," Emmot responds, "It's nothing much. Just a few adventurers will be coming over to this village before heading into the forest."

"Why?" I question curiously.

"You experienced it yesterday didn't you? Those goblins... They're not supposed to reach the outer section of the forest. It has been that way for a long time now."

"So, something is amiss?" I utter, "And these 'adventurers' are going to investigating this case?"

"Yes, that's correct. This time, they're merely supposed to scout out the forest, but the problem is that the group coming is just copper ranked."

Despite having no clear idea of what the ranks are and what they signify, I can understand that the group is most likely inexperienced to handle this matter, which is what's bothering Emmot.

"If you're worried for their safety, how about I accompany them?" I suggest with a smile.

My objective for doing so is simple. Since the fellows coming over are 'adventurers', I can assume that they have more knowledge compared to the villagers, even if they're low ranked or whatever.

Why wait to gather information when I can do so in one go? If it comes down to it, I can torture the information out of the group and kill them off before laying the blame on 'monsters lurking in the forest'.

This way, my relationship with the village will remain undisturbed while I will accomplish a part of my objective - gathering information.

And so, just as I begin to consider the questions that I will be 'asking' the group, I sense a wagon approaching the village in the distance.

Curious, I turn my head to gaze at the wagon in the distance, only to be slightly startled by the sight of a few kids whose age doesn't seem to be any older than fifteen excitedly sitting in the wagon.

Upon closer inspection, I notice that each one of them is equipped with different types of equipment. The only guy in the group has a shortsword in his hand as he points the tip at the sky and proclaims something.

As for the rest, there are three girls. One of them has a tall hat on her head that resembles that of a witch's. The staff beside her only serves to further affirm this impression. For a brief moment, her image overlaps with that of a certain golden-haired girl back in the Rift.

Shaking such thoughts aside, I look over at the other two 'adventurers'.

To the left of the 'witch' is another girl with long black hair tied into a ponytail. Unlike the rest, she doesn't appear to be wielding any equipment other than a weak-looking armor covering her torso.

Still, out of all of them, the one that stands out the most is a young girl with blond hair. As for the reason she stands out the most... well, she is wearing a white robe atop blue garments, and atop her head is a white hat with blue streaks.

In her hands, is a long staff with an exquisite golden artifact at the top. At the center of the artifact is a blue gem that's glowing so lightly that it's barely visible.

"This girl..." I mutter subconsciously.

Yeah, I am not feeling it wrong.

She is giving off the same holy vibe my angels back in the Rift did, albeit a much weaker version.