Chapter 5 – Inquiries

Half a day later, Aiden and Lia finally reached the village.

The place was like any common village in the outskirts of a city, with a bit more than twenty houses scattered in less than five hundred meters, a few farmers were attending the growing crops while dozens of cows, pigs, and sheep grazed the surroundings.

Walking to the entrance of the city, the pair stopped to ask for the whereabouts of the village head. Learning of the place from a village girl, the duo went to the house the girl signaled.

Once there, Lia approached the door and knocked twice before retreating. A few seconds after, the door opened.

The one who exited the house was a middle-aged woman, around thirty years old, with a silky black hair, tanned skin due to the constant exposure to the sun and a strong gaze product of years living in the countryside.

Looking carefully at the pair before her, the woman spoke while frowning.

“Are you the ones who accepted the commission about the beast?”

“Yes, we are the ones sent for the town hall.”

Frowning even more after hearing the answer from Aiden, the woman assessed them even more carefully again before looking disappointed with her findings.

“Haaa, okay, you two can come inside. The village head is on the second floor.”

Without bothering due to the obvious lack of courtesy from the woman, Aiden followed her silently. Lia, on the other hand, frowned slightly upon seeing the woman’s behavior.

Walking while paying attention to the pair behind her, the woman spoke again while guiding the group through a set of stairs.

“I thought the ones the town was going to send were a bit… how to say it… more experienced than you two.”

Bothered by the obvious sarcasm in the words of the woman, Lia retorted irked.

“Don’t worry madam, I’m sure my young master and I know better about our capabilities than a random stranger.”

Frowning at Lia's words, the woman snorted briefly before approaching at a door at the end of a corridor and calling softly with an obvious irritated voice.

“Father, the helpers from the town hall are here.”

An instant later, an old but strong voice was heard from behind the door.

“Let them in.”

Opening the door, the woman extended her hand indicating for the pair to go inside before entering and closing the door behind her.

After entering, the woman pointed to a chair for Aiden and Lia to sit before standing behind the old man. Lia, following her example, proceeded to stand behind Aiden while he sat in the chair.

The village head had the appearance of a man in his mid-fifties, his shoulder-length hair was dyed white for the passing of the years. A short beard and well-cared mustache did nothing to hide the multiples wrinkles on his face.

Looking interestedly to the two youngsters before him, the old man stroked his mustache before speaking warmly with a tone of interest.

“I didn’t think that the help the town was going to send was a pair of youngsters.”

Maintaining a calm face, Aiden opened his mouth and spoke respectfully.

“You must not worry, Mr. Village Head, the members of the town hall only sent us here after judging that we can resolve the problem perfectly.”

Hearing Aiden’s words, the village head smiled warmly before presenting himself.

“Hahaha, I hope your words are right, boy. My name is Joe and, as you had seen, I’m the head of this village. The girl behind me is my daughter, Karina. I hope you can forgive her if she said something undue.”

Ignoring the frowning expression in the woman behind Joe, Aiden smiled and said:

“Don’t worry about it, Mr. Joe. Like you said before, my companion and I were sent by the town hall to help you with the problem the village is currently facing. My name is Aiden and she is Lia. I hope you can forgive us if we imposed on you during our stay.”

Seeing the calm expression in Aiden face, the old man nodded lightly and continued the conversation.

“Don’t worry young man, it’s our pleasure help you with everything you need as long as you can take care of the problem we have currently.”

“As long as I can help, then there is no problem.”

Done with the introductions, Aiden put a serious face before addressing the main subject of the conversation.

“Then, for starting, can you tell me about the situation in the village?”

Frowning slightly, the village head spoke with a pensive expression.

“Very well Mr. Aiden. Like you probably were explained, the problem we are experimenting is related to a group of giant boars. Around two weeks ago, a giant wild board destroyed a few of our plantations. In the beginning, we only thought it was a stray beast and didn’t pay too much attention to it. The thing is, after that time, the creature continued creating troubles, coming practically every day and causing damage to our plantations.

When we noticed it, we decided to hunt the beast; after all, though a giant board is a relatively dangerous beast, after a few years living in the surroundings of the forest we learned how to deal with similar situations.

We sent a party formed with the best hunters and the stronger men of the village to subjugate it. The hunt proceeded fairly well. The hunters tracked the beast for two days until they were successful in cornering it.

But when the beast was cornered, the situation unexpectedly took a turn for the worse. Unexpectedly, when the men were preparing to strike the giant boar, a bigger one appeared from the surroundings and attacked our men with the help of the one we had surrounded. Confronted with the two boars, the men fell into chaos and were unable to fight against them. Fortunately, nobody ended dead, but a part of the group is gravely injured and unable to move.”

Hearing the story of the old man, Aiden wore a pondering expression while thinking about the words the old man said. After a few seconds, he raised his face and asked:

“Mr. Joe, is it possible that this village doesn’t have somebody able to manage a giant boar?”

“Of course we have. The leader of the expedition, my son, had the strength of a mid core-forming warrior. The thing is, though my son has the cultivation, at the end of the day, he doesn’t have very much combat experience. Not only it but though the first beast only had a mid core-forming strength, the second beast that attacked had the strength of around the late stage of core forming. When the two attacked together, there wasn’t much my son was able to do.

In reality, my son was one of the most gravely injured of the group. He distracted the stronger beast for himself while the rest of the group escaped.”

Hearing the sorrowful tone of the old man, Aiden frowned slightly before asking:

“Mr. Joe, do you know the exact place where we can find the boars?”

Thinking for a moment, the old man took a map from a drawer before signaling a part of the forest.

“Though I’m not completely sure if they are still here, the last time they were seen was around here.”

Glancing carefully the place signaled in the map, Aiden rose from his seat before speaking.

“Very well, then we will be going. Many thanks for your help Mr. Joe, wait for the news from us.”

Furrowing his brows and looking again at the pair, the old man spoke again.

“Are you sure you don’t need anything more?”

Pausing for a second, Aiden understood the old man’s doubts and signaled the backpack is his back before answering.

“Don’t worry about it, we had all we need.”

Bowing their heads, Aiden and Lia bided farewell before exiting the house. Once outside, the pair headed towards the forest directly, ready to complete the mission.

…

Inside the village head office, the woman, Karina, was furrowing her brows strongly while looking at her father.

“… Father, you truly think that they are capable enough to kill the beats for themselves?”

Thinking deeply, the old man turned toward Karina before speaking.

“Do you think they are not capable of doing it?”

Frowning even harder, Karina thought carefully about the pair of before without remembering any redeeming quality beyond their physicals appearances.

“I don’t know, but I doubt they can do much when even brother was hurt."

Comprehending the meaning in his daughter words, the old man smiled and spoke again this time more seriously.

“Don’t underestimate them. Though I’m not sure about their exact strength, I can assure you that both of them are at least stronger than me. Not just it, but when I mentioned that one of the beasts was at the late stage of core-forming, none of them have any change of the expression.”

Making a surprised expression, Karina could no help but exclaim after hearing her father’s words.

“Stronger than you?! But father! Though your realm is not very high, you are yet an initial stage core-forming warrior! Are you telling they two are at least in the mid stage of core forming?!”

“Yes, and I think that perhaps higher. Barring any unexpected occurrence, I think they two with have not any problem fulfilling the request.”

Sighing reassured, Karina spoke this time more cheerfully.

“Ii it so? I’m glad! I wouldn’t like if those two kids are injured for helping us.”

Hearing his daughter, the old man could not help but laugh while smirking:

“Hahaha, you are such a worrywart like ever!”