15 - Chapter 11: The Three Idiots and the Ominous Scene
Serious-san has started warming up.
After traveling for about two days, the group arrived at the pioneer village. However, what they found there was a mountain of wreckage so miserable that it could be called a ruined village without hesitation. The only thing that denied this was that the building materials that had become debris were brand new.
Larc frowned at the sheer severity of it.
"---This is... worse than I thought."
"It is not the work of bandits. Magic beasts... and quite large ones at that."
"It is not just large, Sensei. A beast like a bear could not do this. This is monster-level."
Later added a supplement while touching a collapsed house, his voice mixed with a sigh, as Geoglyph spoke.
"That is strange."
"What is it, Alan?"
"I smell blood. But it is too little for the size of the village."
At Alan's words, as he looked up at the sky and sniffed the surroundings using his dog-beastman traits, the group suddenly realized. Indeed, the houses had collapsed and everything had been flashily destroyed, but there were few traces of blood.
Though it was called a pioneer village, it was a project involving the Empire, as evidenced by the Imperial soldiers entering and leaving as guards. It was not a small elite force. There should have been a fair number of people, and considering the village's land area, 200 to 300 people should have been mobilized. For having been attacked, the traces of human casualties were certainly few.
"---Hmm. For having eaten people, there are no traces of that either."
"Let us investigate a bit more."
Everyone nodded at the words of the leader, Larc, and each began investigating the village.
"What do you see?"
After a while, the group gathered to state their respective impressions, and Later was the first to raise his hand. As a kemoner, he had been acting together with Alan. These people are honest about their fetishes even at a time like this.
"I will go first. First, the damage was definitely caused by magic beasts, and a pack of them. Considering the size of the wounds, some nearly 30 meters long were mixed in. And then, if we trust Alan-paisen's nose..."
"The smell of lizards, and considering the size---it is a dragon species."
"There is also the possibility of large wyverns. Either way, soldiers mixed with rookies would not have been able to do anything about it."
Larc nodded at the opinions of the two.
"To face that, even for adventurers, I would want multiple Gold-rank parties..."
The next to raise her hand was Marianne. She too, as a yuri-pig, had been investigating while sticking to Mira. As expected, these people do not exercise self-restraint regarding their desires.
"I searched the surroundings, but as I thought, the amount of blood is too little for having been attacked."
"There are no corpses, and I expected leftovers, but I could not find any."
"It is reasonable to think that the residents evacuated."
There were traces of blood. But they were extremely few. One would want to think that while damage occurred, it was not that severe---but considering that no one remained here, they probably could not repel the attack. If so, Geoglyph reasoned that only a few who remained as the rear guard were eaten, and then turned to Alan.
"The problem is where they fled to. How is it with Alan-san's nose?"
"Some time has passed... the center of the village had a strong smell of blood and lizards, so that still remains."
"Then, I will search the outer perimeter of the village for a bit. If even one footprint remains, I can track them. Sensei, Princess, help me out a bit. It is not certain that there are no monsters remaining."
Saying so, Later opened his mouth as he walked toward the outer perimeter of the village accompanied by Geoglyph and Marianne.
"Hey, Sensei, what do you think?"
"What is strange is that the livestock remained. They were dead, but rather than being killed, it was starvation."
"Is that so? If it were a sudden encounter, they would have eaten them to fill their bellies."
"Right, that is what bothered me too."
There were livestock such as chickens and cows that should have been kept. However, as the three said, the cause of death was natural death. If a wild dragon species appeared, they would eat them after the people were gone, even if not first, but they were almost untouched.
If that is the case, even if the culprit is a dragon species, another imagination rears its head.
"...Princess, regarding summoning arts and such, can tamer-like people make dragons obey?"
"It depends on the case, I suppose. If they have magical power on par with a high-ranking Court Mage, they could probably handle a sub-dragon. I think they would struggle. However, if that is the case..."
"It would be conspicuous. I think they would likely already be under the surveillance of a nation. It is not impossible that some are in the wild, but..."
"I cannot imagine such a person would carelessly reveal their hand and do something dangerous..."
"If they did it, it would be a massacre. They cannot leave witnesses. If it were me, I would at least plan it thoroughly."
"Thinking about it that way, the environment of a pioneer village is the best. There would be few eyes around. And then they made a mistake and let them escape...?"
"But what about this lack of blood. With this, it is as if they were seen through from the first move. And the villagers fled before engaging. Only the rear guard remained. That is why the damage itself was small. Ah, then there is also the idea that all the villagers were kidnapped."
"It is starting to sound plausible. Once traces are found, we can narrow it down---oh."
As they exchanged several considerations back and forth, Later stopped at the entrance of the forest and crouched down on the spot.
"I found them."
Beyond that, he found numerous footprints.
To be continued tomorrow.