At the edge of the town, Statiw and Mirajane both frowned as they looked at the overgrown, winding path before them.
"This path looks like an abandoned trail. How could it possibly lead to a village?" he couldn't believe that after asking around, this path was indeed the one the client mentioned, leading to the small village.
She stood beside him, troubled, and said, "Now isn't the time to consider whether this small path leads to a village. It's about whether we should rest in town for the night. If there's no village at the other end of this path, we'll have to sleep in a tent tonight."
"Wait, I'll ask someone else." he turned to look at the town behind him, spotted someone, and immediately ran towards him.
As he approached the person, he realized it was an old man. He immediately bowed and then spoke, "Hello, I have something I'd like to ask you, if I may?"
"Oh? What is it?" The old man looked up, his gaze blurry, and asked him.
"I was just wondering, does that path over there really lead to a village?" he pointed to the entrance of the path where she was standing and asked the old man.
"That path, you mean?" The old man said, suddenly understanding. "That path does indeed lead to a small village, but few people from that village come to town, so it looks like an abandoned path."
"I see, thank you." Having received a definite answer from the old man, he thanked him and immediately returned to her side.
"Well?" she asked.
"This path does lead to that village; it just looks like this because not many people use it," he explained the old man's answer to her, then beckoned to her, and the two of them walked onto the path.
After about an hour, they finally saw the small village at the end of the path. It was then that he sighed, "I finally understand why no one uses this path. It's such a long distance; who would go to town if they didn't have to?"
"No one walks it not because it's far, but because of safety concerns. Unlike us, ordinary people don't have much ability to protect themselves if they encounter wild beasts or magical beasts, so they usually travel in groups of several people to take this path." she looked up at the distant small village, pulled him, and said, "Alright, let's hurry over."
"You seem to know a lot?" he followed her, a little surprised.
"Of course." she walked ahead, saying without turning her head, "The place where Elfman, Lisanna, and I used to live was also a remote small village like this. So, I naturally understand things about such villages."
As they talked, the two entered the small village. All the houses in the village were adobe huts built from a mixture of mud and straw. At this time, the villagers were very surprised to see the two outsiders; their small village rarely saw outsiders throughout the year.
"I feel like some kind of rare animal right now," he said to her, as he followed her, looking at the villagers who were watching and those who were coming to watch.
"This is normal. They usually see people they know too well, so when two people they've never seen before show up, the villagers are naturally curious." she completely ignored the onlookers and walked directly up to a villager who looked to be in her thirties, asking unceremoniously, "Where is the village chief's house?"
"You're looking for the village chief? His house is right there." The villager, hearing her ask for the village chief's house, pointed directly to an adobe hut that was slightly neater than the surrounding houses.
No sooner had the villager pointed out the village chief's residence than the village chief was led out of his house by a small child.
It wasn't until the village chief arrived and the surrounding villagers had completely surrounded the two that she spoke to the village chief: "We are Mages from Fairy Tail. We've come about the strange figures reported to the town from your village, concerning the ruins in another nearby village."
"Oh~, so you've come to deal with that matter." "Come, come, come. Two Mages, you've traveled a long way, please come to my house and rest for a bit." Hearing her purpose, the village chief's face, like old tree bark, now smiled like a blooming chrysanthemum.
At the same time, the surrounding villagers, hearing her purpose, also began to discuss amongst themselves: "These two people just came of age, right? Can they handle it? You know, those dark figures in that village are very terrifying and they even eat people."
"I think it's fine. When I went to town, I heard people say that Mages are very powerful. They can even punch a hole in the sky when they fight."
"You're exaggerating. How could anyone punch a hole in the sky?"
"It's true, I'm not lying. That's what the people in town said at the time..."
Amidst the buzzing discussions of the villagers, the two followed the village chief directly to his house.
"My home is humble, but please make yourselves comfortable if you don't mind." Back home, the village chief sat cross-legged on the earthen bed and happily invited the two to sit down, saying, "Speaking of that abandoned village, it's quite strange. Back then, that village was even smaller than ours, with only about twenty or thirty families. Our two villages were quite close then, and people from both villages often exchanged things."
"But for some reason, one day when people from our village went there to exchange things, they found that many people in that village had died, and the rest had disappeared. When that news came back, it scared us so much that the whole village, old and young, hid in town for many days before daring to return. Later..."
As soon as the two had moved chairs and sat down, the village chief eagerly began to tell them about the ruins, from the past right up to the present.
"So, a few days ago, when the children from your village went exploring those ruins, they found firelight and many dark figures moving around. When they came back and told you about it, you reported it to the town. In reality, you don't actually know what those dark figures are, do you?" he asked the village chief after he had finished his narration and reviewed the content in his mind.
"Ah, that's exactly right," the village chief replied, a little embarrassed, upon hearing his words.
"Since there's firelight, I think there should be people," she said, considering for a moment with her head down, then looked up and asked the village chief, "So, is there still firelight there now?"
"Yes, yes." The village chief affirmed, "These past few days, the young people from our village have been taking turns watching, and they report back at the slightest sign of trouble."
"I see, in that case, it's not just someone passing through temporarily." he thought for a moment and said to her, "Mirajane, let's go check out the situation while it's still light. Also..."
He turned to the village chief and said, "Could you arrange a place for us to rest in the village?"
"You're going now?" The village chief replied cheerfully, "Don't worry about a place to stay; I'll immediately have someone clear a room."
With that, he hopped off the bed and nimbly ran outside to call for someone...