Soon enough Scarlett found herself outside in the dark forest again, where Garside stood waiting for them with a lantern in hand. Kat crawled out from the bushes behind Scarlett not long after, standing up and brushing away some dirt from her clothes—an action without much point considering the woman's clothes were already ruined by all the warg blood that had soaked into them—as the butler turned his attention to the two of them.

"I presume there were no major difficulties?" he asked, his eyes shifting from Kat's disheveled appearance to Scarlett's mostly untouched one.

"None whatsoever," Scarlett responded, taking in the clear forest air. She'd have to get used to dealing with places like this dungeon, considering some of the plans she had for the future. "We will leave this village in the morning," she continued, turning to the gray-haired butler.

"If that is your wish, my Lady," Garside said, lowering his head. "Am I to assume you have accomplished all that needed to be done for the night?"

"Yes. There is not much else of interest left around these parts." She'd considered trying to look for the Kilnstone that was supposed to be somewhere in the mountains close to here, but she'd decided to give up on that. With how distances changed and increased in this world compared to the game, there really was no telling how long it might take to find that particular Kilnstone. And it wasn't as if it was a particularly important one. Nor did she even know if she'd be able to make use of it. Considering how regulated the old Zuverian artifacts had been in the cities it might not be a good idea to try and use one without any warning to the right authorities.

She'd have to look into that matter more in the future. There were some Kilnstones that it would be very convenient if she could use as she wished in the future.

She noticed that both Kat and Garside looked at her as if they were expecting her to say more, but she simply waved her hand at them. "I suggest we get moving if we wish for any rest before the night is over."

Garside's mustache quivered slightly as he examined her for a moment, his face still as a mask, before he gave a short nod. "Of course, my Lady. I can lead the way back to the village," he said, then turned around and started walking with the light from his lantern revealing the way.

Scarlett stared at his back for a short while before she too started moving behind him. She was pretty certain Garside had noticed she was acting odd quite a while ago. It would almost be weird if he didn't think so, at this point. But she wasn't sure what he thought of it, or how far she could push her actions when around him.

It genuinely didn't feel like he meant her any harm, or was hostile in any way. He'd been more than amiable to anything she'd asked of him, and if it weren't for the butler she probably couldn't have done at least half of the things she'd done to this point. But she also wasn't a real noble and wasn't used to the kind of games those people and the people around them might play in this world. For all she knew Garside could just be a good actor. It really wouldn't do for her to get exposed or ousted because she put too much trust in the wrong person. But she also couldn't not rely on other people to some extent when she was still new to both this world and the position she'd found herself in.

...For now, she'd keep her eyes open. She would have to deal with this particular problem somehow eventually.

"Are we really just leaving now?" Kat's voice suddenly sounded out from beside her. Scarlett turned to look at the woman, finding the Shielder walking beside her with a questioning expression.

"I believe that is what I said, yes," Scarlett said.

"But what about the villagers?" Kat asked.

"What of them?"

"What was their whole deal?" The Shielder used her arm to move a branch hanging down in front of them to the side. "I still don't understand what they were being all weird about. I was half expecting us to find out they were part of some cult or something."

Scarlett raised a bemused eyebrow at her. "Is that something you have encountered before?"

"Well, no," Kat said. "But I've heard a few stories in the Guild."

Scarlett looked ahead where Garside was walking a couple of meters in front of them. He was consciously choosing a path without much undergrowth in it, it seemed. "You have a colorful imagination," she said after a moment. It wasn't too unrealistic of a guess. There was at least one quest similar to a situation like that in the game. It wasn't the Whistlecreek questline, though. "However, as I said before, I do not think there is much risk of the villagers taking part in any particularly nefarious acts."

"Then what do you think?"

Garside paused, looking back at Kat with what Scarlett was sure was the closest thing she'd ever seen to a glare from him. Kat's eyes widened.

"Ehm, right. Sorry. I meant, what is it that you, uh, believe?"

Scarlett glanced at the woman—who suddenly looked rather uncomfortable, as if she had just remembered the previous interactions she'd had with the butler—before looking back ahead. "It's all right, Garside. I have already grown accustomed to Miss Breeden's inability to maintain proper manners. I do not expect anything of the sort of her. She is of far too much import to my affairs to concern myself over such inconsequential matters."

His eyes stayed on Kat for a second, then turned to Scarlett. "Very well, my Lady. It is true that a woman of Miss Breeden's ability is indeed rare." With that, he spun around again and kept moving through the forest.

Scarlett's gaze dwelled on him for a moment longer before she spoke again. "As for what I believe," she said, briefly turning her head towards Kat as she responded to the woman's original question. "I believe an adequate explanation for their actions can be derived from much of what we have already observed."

She saw Kat throw a quick look towards Garside before giving a small smile. "Is that right?"

"Indeed."

"Then, mind sharing?"

Scarlett met Kat's eyes. "It is simple. The villagers of Whistlecreek meddled with an artifact they did not have a complete understanding of and were not prepared for the consequences."

"The consequences being the wargs?" Kat stated.

"Exactly," Scarlett said. "They did not expect that their actions would attract the monsters' attention."

Scarlett saw Kat's eyes move down towards the pouch of holding at her hip.

"I'm guessing a certain ring is the artifact they 'meddled' with?"

"A reasonable assumption," Scarlett said.

"Earlier you also said the village's crops were filled with mana," Kat pointed out. "Mana belonging to that ring."

Scarlett nodded. "A closer examination of the fields here will no doubt confirm that. I am sure you can verify that yourself too, if you so wish."

"You're right," Kat said. "I probably can."

A slight frown formed on Scarlett's face as she saw Kat look at her with an amused expression.

...Oh, right. She'd told the woman that she couldn't see mana before. Well, whatever. It wasn't as if Kat actually thought Scarlett had figured all of this out just from observing things. It was doubtful if even Garside would wholly believe that.

"Anyhow," she continued. "It is clear that the mana present in the crops attracted the wargs, who then made their den inside the dungeon whose location I assume you have already realized the village head was well aware of even before we arrived."

Kat grew a thoughtful expression. "So the villagers found this artifact and somehow used it on their fields?"

"Most likely, yes," Scarlett said. "Did you not find the size of this village's harvest odd, when compared to Whistlecreek's size?"

Kat shook her head. "I didn't really think about it."

Well, neither would Scarlett have done if she didn't already know about it from the game. "While it is unlikely to be its true purpose," she continued. "It appears the villagers unwittingly discovered the ring and realized they could infuse their fields with its mana to increase their yields." She didn't know the specifics of the situation, but this much had been made clear in 'Chronicle of Realms'. "I presume the podium and the altar it rested upon serve as a means of recharging the artifact. It must have been quite a surprise to the villagers when the wargs appeared and prevented them from retrieving it anymore."

"Wait." Kat rubbed her temples. "If that's true, then their behavior doesn't make any sense."

"Oh? And why is that?" Scarlett asked.

"Because then they haven't done anything wrong. There's not much reason for them not to ask for help."

The corners of Scarlett's mouth rose. "And risk some duplicitous noble stealing their precious artifact after having dealt with the monsters?"

Kat paused for a moment. "The Guild is always an option."

"And the assigned Shielders would have reported the matter, ensuring that a record of an unknown artifact in this region is created," Scarlett said. "While I do not doubt the Guild's trustworthiness, I cannot say the same for a village of unschooled peasants." God, she never thought she'd use 'peasant' unironically like this in her life. "I am sure you have noticed that Whistlecreek is far from prosperous. I imagine they believed it was better to wait for the wargs to leave than to request aid and risk losing the artifact. After all, if the village head is to be believed the wargs had yet to become a truly dangerous obstacle."

Kat went quiet, a pensive expression on her face. The woman didn't say anything more as they made their way back through the thick forest towards Whistlecreek. When they eventually left the cover of the trees behind and entered the large clearing that the village was nestled in Kat took the opportunity to briefly jog over to the closest field to check if there indeed was mana present in the crops—there was—before returning to them as they walked into the small settlement and towards the manor house where they'd made their stay. When they entered the building Scarlett saw the village head sitting at a table close to the fireplace. The anxiety was clear on his face as he looked up towards them.

"W-Welcome back!" he almost shouted. "D-Did it go well?"

Scarlett walked over to the same table as him and sat down in the chair at its head. "Quite," she said as she leaned back in the chair. They hadn't actually been gone for too long, and she hadn't done much personally, but it still felt nice to relax being in a place like that. "The monster threat has been taken care of and will bother you no more," she said, gesturing towards Kat. "As you can see, it was a considerable task. Your village can consider itself fortunate that we were present to resolve the issue."

The village head's eyes turned towards Kat and widened when he saw her appearance. It seemed he hadn't noticed it at first. "W-Was it really that dangerous?" he asked, his eyes locked onto the bloodied Shielder. Kat herself didn't say anything as she leaned against the wall closest to the door, while Garside had apparently taken it on himself to go over to the fireplace and feed some more wood to the fire.

Good man. It was a bit chilly in here.

"That it was," Scarlett eventually said in response to the village head's words. "It would only have been a matter of time before the monsters stopped being content with solely taking your crops and began taking people instead."

She wasn't lying. While the occasional warg would have been a problem for the villagers on and off for a year or so ever since they first used the [Mark of the Gale], the monsters making their den in the old dungeon should have been a relatively recent event. And from how it'd looked down there, Scarlett assumed the wargs hadn't actually been eating the stolen crops. As such, it made sense that a pack of that size would eventually start going after people when they'd hunted everything else in the area out of existence. If she were to guess, that's probably the thought process behind how it happened in the game.

"B-But you can't know that. They didn't bother us that much before," the head said, looking back at her.

She curled her lips at him, oddly enough feeling a little bit of glee at seeing his face ashen. "Was it not you who said they had only been intermittently harassing you for a few weeks? That is not much time to determine the future behavior of such a dangerous monster."

He stared at her for a while, seemingly unsure as to what to say. "A-Ah, yo—"

"Well," she interrupted him. "It is no longer relevant in any event. Just know that you no longer have anything to fear, and that we will be departing in the morning. There is no need for any rewards or other such signs of gratitude, as I doubt you have anything of worth to give."

It seemed to take him a moment to digest her words, but a look of relief did come across his face at her mention of them leaving.

"Ah," he began, hesitatingly looking between Kat and her. "But you said you removed the monsters in their den. Does that mean you explored all of it?"

"We did, yes."

"Ah...Then, did you maybe find something special down there?" he asked.

Scarlett eyed him for a moment, slowly tapping her finger against the wooden table. "We did not," she eventually said. She practically saw his pupils dilate at the reply.

"A-Are you sure?" he continued. "There are some objects that have gone missing in the village lately and we thought the monsters might have taken them."

She almost wanted to scoff at the barefaced lie. She wasn't even sure if he genuinely thought there was a chance of her buying that, or if this was just his desperation speaking. She simply shook her head. "There was nothing of a recoverable nature remaining," she said, once again gesturing towards Kat. "Unfortunately, Miss Breeden was forced to employ rather extreme measures to properly deal with the monsters. As such, there is a high likelihood that whatever personal possessions it is that went missing were lost to the flames." She wasn't about to give away the artifact she'd spent this much time getting her hands on.

The village head's expression sank at her words. But she wasn't about to let guilt affect her decision. The ring wasn't really the villagers' to begin with anyway. In the game they'd even willingly give it to the player if you completed the quest after getting the companion that it was related to. It's not like they'd starve just because they didn't have it.

Probably.

If both she and the village was still around in a few years she might try and make it up to them, but till then they were on their own.

"Do you have something to say?" she asked the village head.

He was quiet for a while, every now and then looking like he was about to say something, before nervously looking towards Kat leaning against the wall, and Garside who had now placed himself behind Scarlett. "N-No, of course not," he eventually said with an awkward smile. "You've already helped us more than we could ever ask, ehm, my Lady."

"Good," she said and signaled towards the door. "Then you may leave. We will need rest before departing tomorrow."

The village head hesitated for a moment, but he soon stood up and began walking towards the door. After he'd left, Scarlett turned to look at the butler behind her. "Garside, find Dickens and ensure he is aware of our departure so that there are no delays tomorrow."

Garside gave her a bow. "Of course, my Lady," he said, and soon after he too had exited the building.

Scarlett turned to look at the air above the table.

[Quest completed: Howls amongst the creeks]

{Skill points awarded: 3}

The quest completion message had appeared right after the village head had left. Although it was odd. She was pretty certain this was the first quest she'd completed that actually had the same quest name as in 'Chronicle of Realms'. Why was that? Was it because this was the first time she'd actually done the same quest as in the game? Many of the other quests she'd completed up to this point hadn't been actual quests in the game, but rather dungeons or something similar. When she took care of the Grey Dog Gang she hadn't done it at Evelyne's request like you did in the game, and the demon in the Isolated Hollow was actually related to a quest you could get by reading some random book in Ambercrest. So this would technically be the first real quest she'd done from the game, even though she did sort of force her way into it.

It didn't seem to give her anything different when it came to rewards though. But it was interesting, at least.

"Why'd you lie earlier?"

Scarlett was brought out of her thinking by Kat asking a question. She turned to look at the Shielder, who had now moved over and was leaning against the fireplace with her arms crossed.

"About the artifact," Kat continued. "I'm guessing it's because you want it. But are you just going to take it like that?"

Scarlett observed the woman for a moment, then took the ring out from the pouch of holding and held it up in front of her. The bone-white ring almost seemed alive when she moved it around between her fingers, feeling both cold to the touch, and...energetic? It was an odd sensation, not quite something she could describe with words. It was pleasing, though. She almost wanted to try it on. But she decided against it. It'd only give her a slight boost to HP and stamina—however that translated to this world—as well as some frost resistance. Nothing to call home about. And if she tried the companion would know later on when she gave it to him. In the game it had just been a throwaway line on the companion's end, with them being slightly annoyed by it, but it wasn't really something she wanted to risk in her current situation. The ring's true potential could only be brought out by the companion anyhow.

"The villagers of Whistlecreek have nearly as little right to take this ring as I have," Scarlett said, looking up towards Kat. "So I do not believe there is anything wrong with me taking it instead. My aim is to return it to its rightful owner, after all."

The Shielder looked at her with a slightly surprised expression. "That place was old. I doubt they're still alive."

"The original owner might not be," Scarlett said and put the ring back in her pouch. "But the current owner is."

"Care to share who they are?" Kat asked.

"Perhaps in the future."

"Thought so."

Silence fell upon the room for a moment, before Kat spoke again. "What about the village? They were the ones who found it, and they seemed to make good use of it. Is it really that wrong to let them have it?"

"Is that truly something you should say after seeing those wargs?" Scarlett asked. "What I said before was no lie. If we had not come here the villagers would have been the next victims."

"Yeah, but we took care of the wargs."

"Momentarily. But it would only be a matter of time until the ring's mana attracted more monsters. Allowing it to remain in their possession would only bring calamity upon them." Scarlett didn't actually know if that was true, she honestly suspected it wasn't considering leaving the ring with the villagers was an option in the game, but it wasn't too unreasonable of an assumption to make.

Kat had turned silent at her words.

"...Do you object to my actions?" Scarlett eventually asked.

The Shielder looked at her for a moment, then shook her head. "No. I think I get it."

"Good." Scarlett nodded her head. "Then I think it best if you get clean yourself and get to rest. I want us to return to Freybrook as soon as possible."

Kat gave her a small smile. "Alright. I'll go ahead and do that," she said, before walking off and into one of the smaller rooms at the other end of the room. Scarlett followed the woman with her eyes then turned her attention to the fireplace that now had a lively fire in it.

Now it was time to return. And the Light Fest in the capital wasn't far off. Soon things would actually get started.