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(Ship grounding——— … No, shipwrecking, I think it's called, this...)
Takashi looked back at Duma's big ship from the sandy beach while thinking about this. Excella did the same, looking at the ship she had just entrusted her life to and said.
"For a while, I wondered what would happen to us."
"Totally!"
After a long night, Duma's ship had washed up on a shore somewhere. Aina, next to the exhausted Takashi, had no spare energy to take a nap due to seasickness and anxiety.
"It looks like we drifted westward for a good distance, right?"
(As if it were someone else's problem!)
Takashi furrows his brow at Aina's nonchalant attitude. This kind of attitude, even though it was her fault that they had drifted to this unknown place.
(If she hadn't kicked out Duma in the first place, we would have been able to return to the imperial capital by ship!)
It was irritating, but saying such a thing to Aina, who had an unyielding spirit, would surely lead to a fight. Takashi was tired and didn't want to argue. Takashi held back and kept his mouth shut.
Because there were ruts from horse-drawn carts, Takashi wondered if there might be people living nearby.
After a while, they could see the rural landscapes of the countryside spreading out along the banks of a large river.
(Those are rice fields!)
Are they perhaps cultivating rice? It reminded Takashi of Japan, and he felt a little nostalgic.
"It seems that this is the village of Leaven. I heard they grow a lot of grain, and mochi is their specialty."
"Eeh! Mochi, huh!"
It seemed more and more Japanese. Takashi was thinking that he would like to eat mochi again for the first time in a long time when he saw Excella standing motionless with a changed expression on her face.
"Hm? What's wrong, Excella?"
"Th-That is…!"
Takashi looked at the other end of Excella's trembling finger and his eyes widened. People from the village were lying collapsed all over the place.
"Th-This is!?"
Even from a distance, it was obvious that they were not asleep. While Takashi was looking at it with high alert, Aina ran up to the fallen man, placed her hand on his neck, and then shook her head.
"…He's dead."
A chill ran down Takashi's spine. Within his field of view, tens of people were collapsed. P-Perhaps, all of these people, were dead…!
"H-Horrible…!"
Excella choked up when he said that.
"What the hell happened to this village?"
"I'll look into it more thoroughly!"
Aina said and trotted toward the public square. Takashi and Excella enter a private minka house with an open door, being very careful. The person inside was also lying on the floor, not breathing.
"There is no sign of injury in them! Everyone looks as if they were quietly asleep…"
"A-AH…"
They certainly looked as if they were quietly asleep. However, the face of those lying on their backs was etched with fear, as if they had seen a monster or something.
The door opened with a creaking "gigi" sound, and Takashi's body trembled. Aina walked up to him.
"D-DON'T scare me like that!"
"All of them, it's been two days since they passed away! No external injuries. They look like they've been sapped of their life force."
Suddenly, Aina turned her sharp eyes on Takashi.
"Hey you, what's your analysis?"
"Eh–! Analysis?"
Takashi becomes nervous at being told such a thing out of the blue. Aina again showed her disbelief in her face.
"'All of them, choked to death on mochi'——— you're not thinking about something like that, are you?"
"I'm NOT thinking that!! How can the village specialty kill everyone in the village!!?"
Aina turned away with a frown.
(What's the matter with you? Geez! Why are you being such a combative brat!?)
Ever since Aina revealed herself, she had been in this kind of attitude toward Takashi. Next to the irritated Takashi, Excella slapped her own thigh with a "hata" sound.
"'Sapped of their life force' ——— Perhaps it is a drain-type fiend?"
"That's right! I think so, too. I saw a town destroyed in the same way when I was on my way to the imperial capital territory."
"That was Cove Town, wasn't it?"
"Yes. Probably, the same drain-type fiend attacked Cove Town and the village of Leaven. It's siphoning off life force to nourish itself!"
"Is THERE such a type of fiend!?…!"
Takashi muttered to himself, recalling the web novels and games he had read in the past. Drain-type, was it? Are ghosts or undead those types?
In this regard, it was not surprising that Aina had suspected the immortal fleet.
"Anyway, let's get out of this village before dark."
"T-That's right! It's eerie…"
"Do you have any suggestions?"
"If this is the village of Leaven, I have heard that Lord Zhaviest's base is nearby."
"Zhaviest?"
"One of the world saviors. The bearers of Heavenly Power!"
The might that the goddess had prepared to replace Takashi, the "Heavenly Sword" and the "Heavenly Power." Takashi recalled that it was one of the two, and he prepared himself. He was worried that he might be a belligerent and dangerous person like Tartanin or Marguerite.
"W-What kind of a chap is he?"
"He's a priest who uses advanced high-level healing magic!"
"A priest… huh?"
Hearing this, he felt a little relieved. Excella's tense face also relaxed.
"A healer as well as a monk? He sounds like a kind person! Doesn't he?"
"I've only seen him once, but he gave the impression of having a gentle demeanor! A lot more decent than someone LIKE Tartanin! He was even accompanied by children without living relatives from Cove Town, you know."
Takashi suddenly remembers his teacher at the orphanage. The teachers were kind to the young Takashi, who had no parents.
(There are no bad people who like children, right?)
They didn't want to stay in a dangerous place like this, anyway. Both Takashi and Excella nodded in agreement to Aina's suggestion.