Chapter 203

RMSBS – Episode 203 . Under their Noses (2)

The Starling Party divided themselves by gender, unpacked their belongings into their respective rooms, before gathering on the first floor to have dinner .

“This is rather nice . ”

“The food is tasty as well . ”

The inn was favorably spoken of . The facilities were quite all right and the meal was rather delicious .

After finishing the meal, they gathered in the men’s room .

“Isn’t it strange that we are the only foreigners to visit in these past few months?”

Romantica voiced the question that was on all of their minds .

The innkeeper said that the Starling Party members were the only foreigners that had visited this territory recently .

However, this was a strange statement .

“Because Count Nordin clearly traded goods with the merchant group of the Kingdom of Divide . ”

This was an indisputable fact that Desir had attained through Ayuls Media .

Other than the Starling Party, the merchant groups of the Kingdom of Divide must have entered this territory .

“It’s still too early to make a hasty conclusion . It may be that the innkeeper simply isn’t aware of any other visitors . ”

The Nordin Territory was not small by any stretch of the imagination . They could not rule out the possibility that the innkeeper was unaware of happenings outside his limited area of expertise .

The next morning, the Starling Party decided to spread out and gather information .

Desir went alone . This was the most convenient option for him .

‘Taking others with me would make it quite tricky to avoid attracting attention . ’

The Starling Party had become the center of attention in the Nordin Territory, a place that rarely encountered foreigners . This posed quite the problem . Since Desir was trying to hide his status as a Royal Guard, attracting unwanted attention could compromise their mission . .

Though it would inhibit their progress, the Starling Party had to act as carefully as possible for the time being . They didn’t have any other choice .

Desir decided that, in order to maintain their cover story of monster suppression, it would be best if he gathered information alone while supposedly gathering supplies . The other party members chose tasks of their own, and they all set out to gather whatever information they could .

‘This is quite serious . ’

Desir had made a huge mistake when he arrived . He assumed it would be easy to find clues on the large-scale merchant groups that supposedly came through .

Desir was busy all morning moving around . He visited a grocery shop and a herbal shop while pretending to buy food .

Even though he went to different places where a lot of people were likely to come and go, he was not able to find any information regarding the merchant group from the Kingdom of Divide .

All he had to work with was the knowledge that the innkeeper had shared inaccurate information . It was too early to tell whether this was a deliberate action, or whether they were truly ignorant of the events happening here .

Desir’s work wasn’t all for naught . He eventually caught wind of another group of foreigners who had visited recently, but it still wasn’t what he was looking for . There wasn’t anyone who had seen any merchant groups transporting or trading a large amount of goods .

If the merchant group of the Kingdom of Divide entered this territory, then it should be impossible for none of the public to be aware of something at that scale . The wagons to move the supplies and the labor forces would have been easily noticed .

However, no one knew anything about it .

“Merchant groups? No . If they came, I would’ve known . I mean, foreigners rarely visit this place . ”

Desir trudged along with a face that dripped with disappointment from not being able to attain any useful information .

As he wallowed in self-pity, a blacksmith’s shop caught his eye . He decided to make it his last stop and see if he could at least get some form of intel he could work with .

There were different kinds of weapons hanging from the walls of the blacksmith’s shop, but the quality of each piece was remarkably high . Pondering for a moment, this assortment and level of wares made sense though, seeing as the city was near the border between two of the most war-prone nations on the continent .

The steady, continuous echoing of hammer strikes suddenly stopped and the owner of the shop appeared . He was a very small, elderly man .

He squinted his eyes and looked up towards Desir .

“I see a new face . ”

“I came here yesterday after receiving a request for monster suppression . ”

Desir automatically gave his pre-prepared answer .

“Monster suppression?”

The old man seemed quite startled .

“I thought the rumor of an unruly monster near the border had reached everywhere, but I guess not everyone is aware . ”

Because the Nordin Territory was next to the border, the rumor of a monster appearing nearby had spread far and wide, especially in this town .

And for that reason, no one had doubted the Starling Party who claimed to have come for the monster suppression .

“Ahhh, you were talking about the monster that appeared near the border . ”

Desir noticed his strange tone and decided to humor the old craftsman .

“The monster by the border? Does that mean there’s another monster around?”

“Well, yes . That’s why I was surprised . I thought you were here to suppress that monster . ”

“What?”

“Haha, it may seem strange to you, but that monster is actually a great help to this territory . ”

A monster that was helpful to humans .

This unique story grabbed Desir’s attention .

“Could you tell me more about it?”

“I assume you have passed the cliff while coming here?”

The blacksmith pointed down with his finger .

“Under the cliff, there is a very strong monster . Basically, there’s a monster beneath this city . ”

A bottomless cliff . Desir thought about the cliff he passed while riding the wagon .

“Out here in the Western Region, monster attacks are a common occurrence . It’s not abnormal for villages to be attacked and people to be killed . Ever since that monster settled down though, the attacks in this province have nearly stopped . ”

“So they’re treating this place as the monster’s territory… ”

“Exactly . No monsters dare to come up here . ”

It was understandable that other monsters were unwilling to approach; if a truly powerful monster had settled here, no other monsters would want to anger it .

However, that alone wasn’t reason enough to warrant the monster’s survival . It was still a threat .

“But that strong monster could be rather dangerous, is that not so?”

“That’s the peculiar thing about it . It never comes up the cliff, ever . If we don’t go down the cliff, where it has set up its nest, then it doesn’t really attack us . That’s why we don’t have a particular need to suppress it . ”

Indeed, there was no need for ordinary people to go down such a dangerous cliff . As long as that was the case, it would be more beneficial to have a symbiotic relationship with the monster, which blocked the invasions of the other monsters, than to suppress it .

“Do you know what kind of monster it is, by any chance?”

“I’m not sure . We know of its existence due to its occasional cry when we pass the cliff, but there’s probably no one who has seen it . Especially since any person that got close enough to do so probably died as a result . ”

“I see . ”

Desir thanked the old man who kindly explained the situation and left the shop .

Before he knew it, the sun was already setting . Desir returned to the inn .

After a moment of waiting in the room, the other party members arrived as well .

When Desir noticed their expressions, which weren’t very bright, he knew that the results of their investigations weren’t great either .

“I’m sorry, brother . ”

“No one has seen any merchant groups . ”

“As if they’ve disappeared into the ground or the sky, I haven’t been able to find any trace of any traders made . ”

All of the members had grim looks on their faces due to their lack of results .

“We’ve only been looking for a single day . Since we don’t have any better ideas for now, let’s just continue investigating while proceeding with the monster suppression . ”

Desir attempted to lift their morale before dismissing them after briefly outlining the monster suppression that they would proceed with the next day .

* * *

The monster that the Starling Party had decided to suppress was known as a Basilisk .

It was most recently seen in the heart of a mountain not too far from the Nordin Territory .

The Starling Party, who had to traverse a steep mountain pass, were quickly able to discover traces of a monster .

There was a long, continuous trail of something enormous that had knocked down numerous trees as it swept through .

‘We found the place . ’

Seeing the trail of dried up bushes and what seemed like the trail of a snake, Desir was confident that they had found the right place .

‘The trail was found right after we moved a little away from the Nordin Territory . ’

The tail-marks had very clearly kept their distance from the human settlements, or more specifically, where the powerful monster had nested . It seemed like the smith’s story had been true .

“Looking at this trail, I think it’s circling around here . It will return on its own, even if we don’t chase after it . ”

Desir’s prediction proved correct . A tumultuous sound soon filled the air as the sound of trees falling down echoed from a place not too far away .

Judging from the sound alone, it wasn’t just one or two monsters approaching .

“The number of monsters approaching here is rapidly increasing . ”

Romantica, who had been busy invoking detection spells, hurriedly delivered this information .

There seemed to be more than ten monsters .

Basilisks were an extremely dangerous monster . They were even intelligent . The danger posed by a whole pack of them increased many-fold more than when they were alone . Their intellect allowed them to communicate like humans would, rather than most other animals that attacked wildly .

“Careful, basilisks emit poison that can petrify a body . You’re a goner if it touches you . ”

Adjest and Pram unsheathed their swords . Desir, Romantica, and Ronde started to arrange spells .

Desir snuck a look at Ronde .

Ronde was struggling to complete his spell properly . To him, this was the first real battle he had encountered . It was normal to be nervous .

Desir nudged Ronde’s trembling shoulder .

“Ronde . ”

“Y-Yes?”

“Don’t be too nervous . ”

The Starling Party took up a circle formation, keeping Ronde in the center with his party members around him . With this simple repositioning, the party was giving Ronde a gentle reminder that he wasn’t alone on the battlefield, that his party members would protect him .

Ronde pulled himself together before nodding .

“All right . ”

And so the battle began .

—-

Chapter brought to you by Jarad B .

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ED: Purplemen101

TLC: N/A

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