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Seth Chapter 61
🕑 Added 2024-02-02 15:36:15 +0000 UTCIt's been three days since they were on the road, and Seth had gotten used to taking naps in the shaky carriage.
Though, more often than not, he would wake up as his head would hit the roof or one of the crates the carriage driver was carrying.
It was a painful experience and the dirt roads ladened with rocks and holes didn't help.
He had also been learning more about the differences between the territories of nobles. Most cities and forests were ruled by a certain noble family and everything came in their command. It also meant that the conditions of roads and security changed quite often.
While the territory of House Sacria was well maintained with a main road made with cobblestones, the territory they were in right now was completely different.
It was simply a dirt road that was hard to manoeuvre through. Besides it, tall grass rose and Seth could see small, lower levelled monsters hiding in it.
The carriage moved at a snail pace due to the holes in the road.
One more strange thing was that there were no other travellers on the road. No carriages, merchants or people walking to hunt some monsters.
It was just empty.
Unable to sustain his curiosity, he looked at Noah who sat beside him and seemed to be reading a book. Taking several glances at it, it seemed to be a comedy about an overpowered person who didn't want to do anything with being a hero.
“Just ask whatever question you have,” Noah suddenly said, his eyes on the book. “I can feel your eyes on me.”
Seth raised his hand in mock surrender and asked, “Why is the road so empty? I don't see anyone around here. Is it due to the bad quality of roads?”
“Partially, yes.” He nodded his head. “This territory is ruled by a Baron house named Kermite and they haven't properly developed anything in years. Due to the roads, the trade coming isn't a lot since merchants don't want to bother and the territory hardly has any dungeons around. Even the monsters in the nearby grasslands aren't really a threat.”
“What about bandits?” He asked.
In this world, they seem to be the major criminals and bandit bands are a big threat in every region.
Not everyone had combat classes and the bandits usually worked in groups, making them a threat that villages and towns often suffered from.
“There needs to be things for them to steal, right? The region doesn't have anything that would gain their attention and nearby regions are much more prosperous, so it hardly has bandit groups around,” he said and chuckled. “It's kind of ironic that the way to keep bandits away is to not let the economy develop.”
“So, it's mostly just small villages and farmlands with nothing developed.”
“Yes,” he said. “Though, we would be stopping by a small town soon to resupply. From what I know, it's one of the better places in the region and we would be able to get a place to rest. It's called Nasper Town.”
Seth nodded and Noah went back to reading his book.
He kept a look outside for the next hour or so, but nothing changed. It was a peaceful, tranquil ride if one ignored the occasional bumps, much different than hunting monsters and—
“There’s smoke rising from the distance,” the carriage driver yelled and Seth cranked his neck to look outside the window.
Like the driver said, smoke rose from inside the walls of what seemed like a small town. As they got closer, he was able to make out more things and it looked like something was seriously wrong.
“Is the town under attack?” he asked, looking at Rebecca and Noah.
If bandits and monsters weren't around, then who was attacking the town? Maybe a self inflicted accidental fire?
The latter shook his head, “No, I don't think so. There's no screams or shouts. It's just too peaceful.”
“We will be there soon. If it's some sort of an attack, we will handle it.”
The carriage picked up its speed.
The scent of smoke and burning timbre wafted through the air and reached his nostrils as it got closer.
As soon as it stopped, the three of them jumped out of the back and looked up ahead at the town.
Though Seth doubted it could be called a town anymore with its present condition.
The mortared stone walls seemed to be unaffected for the most, aside from small blackened parts and chunks of them falling on trees and crushing the branches.
The wooden gates were still burning, a big hole in the middle of them that gave a good look inside the town which seemed to have gone through a catastrophe.
No building seemed to be standing and the houses had been burned to the ground. The road in the middle was empty and he couldn't hear anything aside from the burning of timble and rustle of wind.
A strange smell mixed with burning timbre hung in the air, sending chills down Seth's back.
“Hey Seth, remember what I told you about bandits not being around and monsters being too weak in the region,” Noah said as Seth turned to look at him. “Seems like I was very wrong. Bandits seem to have a new hobby— grazing down towns into ashes.”
“You think it was bandits?”
“Monsters won't bother to burn the gates and every building in the town. Well, until it's something like an Ignatius Ape. The town must have a curse on it if it managed to attract something like that since they aren't even found in Leolina Kingdom.”
He nodded and looked back towards the carriage driver who was looking around, trying to see if there was anyone else. By the expression on his face, he wanted to turn the carriage around and run.
“Stay here. We will go and investigate what happened. If you see someone, shout for us.”
The carriage driver nodded, “Okay.”
They moved ahead at a brisk pace, looking around.
Taking the long dirt road, Seth looked at each side where black and burned out buildings and houses stood, some smouldering silently and some burning intensely.
The fire had been recent, but why was everything so empty? Where were the bodies? Maybe under the rubble?
“Let's part ways and look around. Whoever had been responsible for it might still be around,” Noah said, looking in the sky. It seemed to be afternoon going by the position of the sun. “Give a call if you found something alive”
“Okay!’
Both of them nodded and Seth went left, towards what looked like a more prosperous area as a few buildings that hadn't burned to the ground were taller than others.
Ashes hit him in the face as he walked and he covered his face with a cloth that he always carried to wipe off blood from the monsters. It was clean, so there were no problems.
He went inside one of the half burnt houses, looking for what was left. There was no furniture standing. Most houses seemed to have nothing left, everything was burned to a crisp.
After searching around in the house, he found two corpses smouldering on a bed on an upper floor, their faces disfigured and as he looked at them, he felt his stomach becoming queasy.
He turned back, deciding to check on other things.
There were no signs of any battle in the house. There was no blood and if not for finding the corpses, he would have assumed the house was simply abandoned.
It seemed like whoever had killed the residents had been
swift.
He passed by each house like that, checking each floor, room and even cellar, but everything was either burning or had burned. There were similar burnt and disfigured bodies in each house. They seemed to have been killed in a similar way with someone, maybe a mage, using a fire spell on their faces.
He found grains and rice stacked away in containers, but no one had ransacked them.
It was strange.
“If it was bandits, why did they leave out food behind? And even if there was simply a monster who had burnt the whole town down, how had it managed to kill every corpse the same way. No one had even tried to resist or run. Were they not able to?”
Several possibilities passed by his mind. He rejected the idea of any monster being responsible for it. The only reason a monster would have to do this was because of hunger and he didn't see any half eaten corpses.
The whole thing was too meticulously done for a monster anyway.
It must have a bandit group led by a mage? Or was it something completely different? He couldn't say anything when it was a fantasy world.
Reality can easily be very different than what he was expecting.
He moved ahead, took one last look at the houses and decided to return towards the maid road where they had parted ways.
He saw Rebecca standing there. Her face was pale and she seemed to have thrown up as she held her stomach.
“Are you okay?” He asked, hurrying towards her.
“Yes, I saw corpses. Badly burnt by their faces. Not a single person was alive. There were even… children.”
She lowered her head, her eyes losing their usual gleam and looking soulless.
“I found similar things. It can't be a monster,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Then, what? A bandit group like Noah said?” she asked.
“No,” a voice called out and both of them turned their heads to see Noah walking towards them, a scowl on his face. It seemed like he had seen similar things, but looked much better than the both of them. “I found gold, grains and other valuable things around. There was even an enchanted sword that would fetch a good price, but whoever had done it wasn't interested in any of it. They simply burnt people and houses down, and left.”
“Who do you think did it then and for what?”
Seth asked, frowning and taking another look around. He had seen quite a lot of death since getting to this world, but this was something else.
“I can take a guess, but truth isn't reached by guessing. It would be much easier if someone survived.”
“I didn't find anyone alive,” Rebecca said.
“I didn't either, but there's no way whoever did it managed to kill everyone. Someone must have either fled or hid. Let me try something.”
Noah said and turned back, looking towards the whole town. Squinting his eyes, he put his hand forward and Seth felt mana fluctuating before a red pulse of mana covered the whole town for a few seconds.
Seth felt a tingling on his skin until the spell ended.
“What was that?” he asked.
“A detection spell,” Noah replied. “I used it to see if I could find any living beings in a certain radius.”
“Did you find anyone?”
Rebecca asked, looking at him with hope in her eyes.
“I think so,” he said, agreeing. I felt something on the west side of the town. I think I saw a church there. It's either some animal, a monster or a human who survived.”
“Let's go then.”
Seth said and they immediately headed towards the west side. The town was small, so after a few turns, they found themselves in front of a church.
It was one of the taller buildings in town, half burnt with blackened walls around.
He touched one and it crumbled, revealing the interior of the church. He nodded back towards Noah and moved inside, looking everywhere.
Benches were on top of the wooden floor and it seemed like an ordinary church aside from the destruction that had happened here.
There were no corpses here and on the altar, a book seemed to be kept. He walked towards it and picked it up, checking its content only to find that it talked about one of the gods the church belonged to.
Her name was Mirina, the goddess of water.
As he put the book down, Rebecca yelled, “I found a human!”
Her voice came from a room left to the benches. He and Noah ran and saw Rebecca standing in front of a woman who laid on the floor.
Compared to everyone else in the town, no part of her was harmed and she was wearing a robe. A priestess maybe?
She had blonde hair and pale skin, looking like she was barely in her early 20s and could easily pass as a teenager. The good thing was that she was still breathing.
“She's not waking up,” she said, looking back at both of them.
Comments
Nicole Hicks
A little Sleeping Beauty anyone?
