Under the dark sky and drizzling raindrops, the world seemed to have been covered in a layer of gray, decreasing the visibility of ordinary people.
Heavy footsteps resounded amid the pitter-patters of rain as a group of a dozen people marched orderly, treading the water-filled, muddy ground, slowly approaching the village. However, before they could reach it, they heard sorrowful cries.
"Oh, my dear granddaughter, why did you leave us so soon?"
"How can you die before us? How will we old couples go on?"
As they listened to the loud yet mournful cries, Nathan and Angelo exchanged glances, their expressions slightly changing.
"Something must have happened," Nathan said as he rushed forward.
"Nathan, wait!"
Seeing his partner close in on the entrance of the village, Angelo groaned and decided to follow him.
When they reached the village, they found Nathan standing behind a large crowd gathered in front of a small house, mourning and crying.
As the other soldiers arrived, the villagers turned their heads, facing the newcomers with strange and curious looks.
"Um… hello there."
"..."
The isolated villagers eyed the soldiers' raincoats with suspicion, likely wondering if they were bandits planning to pillage an insignificant village like this.
Angelo chuckled nervously. "Uh, hi. We are travelers, we mean no harm, and I have several questions—"
Before he could finish, an elderly man with significant white hair walked up. Despite his old age, his posture remained upright. Following him were a few younger men with farming tools.
Seeing this, some soldiers cautiously raised their guns, but Angelo raised his hand to stop them, giving his men a glare before looking back at the approaching men.
"Hello there. Can I see who is in charge here?"
Confused and paranoid expressions formed on the villagers' faces as they exchanged looks, silently debating whether to trust him.
"Um, it is important. We are friendly."
"Yeah, we mean no harm. It's not like we're gonna rob your entire village and burn it," Marco joked quietly, but Paulo elbowed his rib, causing Marco to wince in pain.
After a moment of silence, the elderly man stepped forward and introduced himself. "I am the chief of this village," he said, still suspicious of the group.
Angelo nodded, accepting the peace offer. He then took off the raincoat that covered his head, revealing his human ears, which surprised the village chief.
"You are human. I didn't expect our kind would roam around these dangerous parts. Are you from some group? A mercenary group?"
"Oh, you can say that. We come from a very faraway land. We're just traveling around these areas and here to gather information about something. We're on an important mission and need a place to rest for the night. We promise not to cause any trouble and will leave at dawn."
The old man studied Angelo and his men for a moment, then nodded. "Very well. You may stay, but keep to yourselves and respect our mourning."
"Thank you," Angelo replied, bowing slightly. "We appreciate your hospitality, and… um…" Angelo paused, glancing at the crowd gathered at the small house. "Old man, tell me slowly, what has happened?"
Another sigh escaped the village chief's lips. He wiped the moist corners of his eyes and bitterly narrated, "My two unfortunate granddaughters, though one of them is adopted, were attacked by a Magic Beast, a Blue Snake, when they were returning home late at night. One of them died from the poison, and we buried her just a few days before you arrived."
As he spoke, the village chief could not help but choke up.
"Well…" Marco's lips parted, but no words came out. He wanted to say something, a joke maybe, or something about killing the magic beast, but consoling a grieving elder was a whole other thing for him.
On the other hand, Angelo had some experience in such matters. He stood up, walked to the elderly man, and patted his shoulder, comforting him. "Old man, please accept our condolences."
Angelo seemed to remember something and asked, "Did you kill that beast? If not, we'll go and kill it tonight, offer it as a sacrifice for your granddaughter."
"Oh, you don't need to do that."
Angelo raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"
"Because we killed it."
Feeling surprised, Angelo guessed they had some strong weapon or a magic artifact that even normal humans like these villagers could use to kill a Magic Beast on their own. If so, what was it?
Repeatedly nodding, the old man managed to squeeze a smile on his wrinkled face. "We villagers beat that snake to death with sticks."
"..."
"..."
"...What?"
"We beat it to death with sticks," he repeated.
"...With sticks?"
"Yes," the chief said with a nod. "It took a lot of us to finish, but we managed. The beast was slower after it had bitten my granddaughter. We were able to surround it and beat it to death."
'...So they're saying it was just a regular ass venomous snake?'
Then, the strange silent atmosphere was cut off when the old man hurriedly added, as if he had suddenly recalled something, "But it was because my granddaughter has swallowed that Blue Snake's gall that she has not woken up yet."
"Snake's gall!?" A furrow appeared on a puzzled Angelo's brow.
"Oh geez," Paulo sighed. "I've heard of this before. It is similar to my hometown in the mountains, where there is a saying that if you get bitten by a venomous snake, eat its gall to detoxify," he explained and tilted his head as if he knew about it a little. However, the twitching corner of his lips betrayed his thoughts.
'Who knows who came up with the idea of eating snake gall for detoxification? It's too absurd. Even snakes themselves could potentially die from their own venom. So, how could snake gall detoxify anyone? If that was really the case, after humans got bitten by a snake, they would kill it right away no matter what and eat its gall. If that happened, this practice would have caused snakes to go extinct ages ago.'
Apparently, the old man seemed to see through Paulo's thoughts and choked up even more as he added, "I also know that it's a folk remedy, but at that time, my granddaughter was at death's door, and her entire body had turned blue…"
Before he could finish his sentence, the old man broke into tears, recalling something.
Angelo, Nathan, Paulo, and Marco looked at each other before a sigh escaped their lips in unison.
If things really came to that point, everyone would grasp at the last straw to save the victim. It was just human nature and it was understandable.
"Old man, how about I take a look?" Looking at the sobbing old man, Angelo could not help but suggest.
"Well…" Looking at Angelo's young face, the village chief hesitated.
"Don't worry, old man, this guy is quite awesome," Nathan candidly added. "Don't let his young age fool you, he's my superior. If I weren't a few years older than him, he would be addressing me as 'brother,' and I would be saluting him every time I saw him."
"Uh…" The corner of the old man's eyes twitched as the wrinkles on his brow creased together into a furrow.
But after a moment, he took a closer look at Nathan, who was exuding a sense of righteousness, and picked up the smoking pipe, sighing. "You folks finally found shelter in our village for the night, and now you're still troubling yourselves… haaa…"
Saying so, the old man took a step and headed toward the bedroom within the small house.
The bedroom was not big, probably around twenty square meters. Besides a table and a chair, there was a large bed, and lying on the bed was a girl.
She was not very old, but still an adult probably around eighteen or nineteen years old. She looked quite clean, and she had the type of beauty that grew more appealing the longer one looked at her.
The most surprising part about her was the cat-like ears on her head. However, a hint of pain was visible on her pale face, as if she was enduring something.
"Yo, Nathan, it's a cat girl, like you always wanted," Marco cheekily said, prompting Nathan to roll his eyes.
"Shut the fuck up, Marco."
"This is my unfortunate granddaughter, adopted though, who has been unconscious for three days," the old man said, glancing back at Angelo and the three other soldiers while the rest were outside. "Gentlemen, if there's any way, please help me. Even if it costs me my old bones, I'm willing to pay," he pleaded.
"Stop, stop, stop. There's no need for this…" Angelo said, lifting the bowing old man and tactfully pulling him aside.
At this point, if anyone could find a solution, it could only be the team's medic.
When they entered the bedroom, Nathan heard a beeping noise, which came from the mana-detecting device on his wrist. Checking it, he was surprised by the reading.
[MEUs: 312]
"She has mana."
Looking at the pale young girl lying on the bed, Nathan was momentarily captivated by her beauty but quickly shook his head and refocused.
Despite lacking mana himself and not being able to sense it like most inhabitants in this world, he could tell that her body was surrounded by Magical Energy, and this colorful and mystical power seemed to be desperately trying to heal her.
'According to my studies with this new mana research, people with mana can resist most disease, poison or other negative effects on the body. No wonder she has survived for three days, the mana is slowing the venom down. But with her mana so depleted, she might not last much longer.'
Thinking of this, Nathan stepped forward and pulled out a vial from his pocket, a vial he had always kept close to himself.
It was a Mana Potion.
While it looked like an ordinary Mana Potion, this vial was, in fact, created through the scientific research of ordinary humans!
Through painstaking research, the old fogies at the newly established "Mana Research Institute" and the Science Department had managed to extract mana from the air to produce it.
This one vial could replenish the mana required by individuals with mana for a short period of time. Except, this excellent potion was highly toxic to non-magical beings.
At this moment, Nathan had concluded that the girl before him possessed mana. Otherwise he would not have taken out the Mana Potion.
In the slums where these people lived, they couldn't afford even the cheapest Mana Potion, which is enough to solve their problem.
'If I replenish her mana, it might push back the venom and possibly rid her of it.'
————————————————————
Watching Nathan tend to the unconscious girl, Angelo turned to the Village Chief, who looked increasingly worried.
"Don't worry, old man. My friend here has a PhD and is a graduate from medical school."
"What?"
"Ah, sorry, you didn't know that."
Deciding to forget what he meant, the village chief had something in mind, "...Young sir, while I do appreciate your help in healing my granddaughter, I had another request."
"Sure, go ahead."
The Village Chief hesitated before speaking, "Well… there's been news that the border security of this kingdom has suddenly weakened, which resulted in a number of magic beasts entering our lands. We lost a few villagers to these beasts a week ago in the mountains."
"So you want me and my team to kill them?" Angelo asked.
"Y-Yeah, but I swear I will pay—"
"No need for payment. Just provide us with the information and shelter, and that's enough."
"I… understand."