“Aaaaah!”

Ow! My head!

Where am I…?

Ouch! My arm! And my leg too!

What the hell happened?! I'm covered in bandages… Oh, I remember now. I… holy, I fought against a pack of wolves to save a girl. And now I'm in a bed, with a roof, finally, above my head and a small table with bread and water next to me. Both my arms and my right leg were wrapped with bandages.

So… I did it? How? My memory is kind of blurry…

Oh god, I shouldn't have done it, it was really crazy. I know people who could have taken care of that easily, but was likely to die back then. Even with my… sigh, well, I guess I was luckier than I thought.

I could feel my right arm and leg pretty bad, but the rest of my body was fine, excluding a strong headache.

Lucky my ass! And I have a weird feeling on my wounds… it’s pleasant, but… it’s like my energy is drained. Ouch… my… head…

“Aaaaah!”

Ow! My head!

Where am I…?

Ouch! My… wait, I have a feeling of déjà-vu… oh, yeah, I’m in a house now.

That’s the second time I wake up, I think. Surely, I was brought back to the village after I managed to save the girl from the pack of wolves.

How did I do that again? It’s not the first beast I hunt on my own, but 4 at the same time… I guess I’m even luckier than I thought. Haha, in the end, an arm and leg is a small price to pay for saving a…

Wait.

It doesn’t hurt.

It doesn’t hurt at all!

I tore away the bandage covering my arm and… nothing. It was perfectly fine.

Same for my leg.

Holy… either they have a really good doctor with miraculous medicine, or I slept for a really long time…

*Knock knock*

Someone knocked at the door, and, after waiting a few seconds, opened it.

It was the village girl I save! She was wearing a long white dress and was carrying a basket garnished with a towel and some fruit. Stepping into the room, she looked up and spot me.

Then, for some reason, she blushed.

Fuck! I'm only wearing my boxer! I didn't realize but I'm almost completely naked.

“Kilo ui no!”

What?

She spluttered some incomprehensible words and left the room.

As expected, I still can't understand them… She really reminds me of Noami, long hair and wide green eye. Even though her nose might be a bit smaller.

Sigh, I wonder what she's doing right now. There's no way she's also on a Quest like me, right?

…

Right?

…

Well, first thing first, I should probably put on the cloth they have prepared next to the bed.

Wearing some simple pants and a sort of white shirt with no sleeve -it emphasizes my skinny arm but, meh, what can I do…- I finally came out of the house and joined the girl, even though she looks about my age, I can’t picture myself calling her a woman. I would like to know her name but I risk to have some communication issue…

Also, the book was with the clothes they disposed on a chair near the bed. I checked its content, to see if something changed, and yes, it has changed, but not in a way I had expected.

Struggle#00

Objective: Become the hero of the forest village

Sub-objective: Save Laura - Cure the Cursed People - Pull out the Silver Dagger

There even more things to do know. Apparently, it has taken into account that I saved the girl, but I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with the rest. Do I have to do it? Where are those cursed people anyway? And why wasn’t those shown from the start?

I have a bad feeling about this Quest Book, or whatever its name is.

As I was following the girl, we arrived in what seemed to be the centre of the village, where a bunch of old people were gathered. She immediately went to one of them, who was holding a tall cane with a with some sort of green fabric wrapped at its peak.

It's surely the chief of the village, it would be too much of a coincidence if not.

The girl signed me to approach, and so I did.

Standing next to her, I witnessed the both of them starting to talk to each other, and obviously, I couldn't understand a thing. It was surely about me, but other than that…

Sigh… what should I do, it’s not like I have a translation device or something like that. It would be nice to have a talent for foreign language. I think there was someone like that back in the camp, but we never met any foreigners, so we never get to see it in action.

I think it was a kid named Marco, he told all he had to do was to concentrate and everything said was understood, even if it wasn’t in English, the only language he learned.

“…are you really sure we can’t make a party for…”

What the fuck?!

It worked?

Yes, it worked! I can understand them! I tried the technique while thinking about it, and it fucking worked!

I learned they were planning to throw a party for me, but for some reason, they can’t. Hum… I wonder if I can do the same to talk to them.

“Don’t worry about me.”

As I pronounced those words, both of them suddenly directed their wide in my direction. Di-did I say something bad?

“You can speak our tongue, stranger?”

“Oh? Well, you can say that…”

“Oh dear, my apology for this rude treatment then, I am Klao, the chef of this humble village, and I believe you’ve already met my daughter.”

“Sorry for my late introduction, my name is Laura. Thank you so much for what you did in the forest.”

"Yes, my daughter told me everything. You have our gratitude. I don't know what would have happened to us without Laura."

“Oh… don’t worry, I… I was at the right place at the right time, that’s all. I’m… I was lost in the forest… so…”

Man, I’m really a bad liar.

“Yes, I remember you from a few days ago. I am deeply sorry for our behaviour, we had a bad experience with a stranger recently, so we are quite suspicious of anyone trying to come to our village.”

“’A bad experience.’”

“Well…”

“Father, I think we should show him.”

“Yes, you are right.”

The mystery is thickening! Laura guided me through the village, to the huge wooden building I saw on the first day: a barn.

Inside, there were no animals. Instead, people were laid down in bed rows. All of them, without exception, were extremely pale, and I could hear some painful groan from here and there.

Shit, it all starts to make sense.

The fact that Laura is the only young people around, the fact that she was risking her life going out alone in the forest, and the violent reaction a few days ago.

With a tear in her eyes, Laura spoke again, her eyes fixed on the inside of the barn.

“Two weeks ago, a strange man came, and without any reason, he planted a silver dagger in our village well, and left immediately after. Many people tried to pull it out, but no one succeeded. Then, the next day… *sob* they all became sick… and… some even…”

“That’s okay, I don’t need to know more…”

I put a hand on her shoulder, and tried to comfort her. Without a warning, she hugged me and started to cry. Sigh… she really seems desperate.

I… I was starting to think this whole thing was a sort of game, but this is… this is more than I thought.