It was the second day of our journey to the Labyrinth of Panacea. Even though it was summer, the cool and gentle breezes were making it a perfect day for travel.I was using Nina"s map as a guide, and according to it, a small village was up ahead. We were planning to stay in the village for the night and resume our journey the next day.
The central part of the country didn"t have many human settlements. Many monster races lived in that region which made the journey more dangerous, so it was wise to use any opportunity to rest.
I saw Flare soaring towards the carriage in the sky. She was scouting the area up ahead so her coming towards me probably meant she found something abnormal.
She flapped her wings when she came in front of me and landed on my shoulder.
[How do things look up ahead?] I asked telepathically. We could have conversed normally but since I was driving the carriage, this was more convenient.
[There seems to be a problem. The village looks empty, the villagers seem to have migrated somewhere else,] Flare replied in her usual calm tone.
[But what could have happened to make the whole village migrate somewhere else?] I asked in surprise. It was unusual that the whole village migrated somewhere else.
[I am not sure. A wagon is coming this way and the people on the wagon look like the villagers from that village. Maybe we can ask them,] Flare said.
I just replied with "okay, thanks" and after traveling for roughly half an hour, a wagon came in sight.
When we reached closer, I could see them more clearly. The driver was an old man with white hair and mustache. The horses were having a hard time pulling the wagon so it must be loaded with heavy stuff. They were probably migrating somewhere else too.
"h.e.l.lo there. We are traveling towards the nearby village, how far is it?" I stopped the carriage and asked. Flare could have easily told me how far it was but that was not the point here.
"Nice bird you have got there sonny... But why are you going to the village? I think you should return back to where you came from. That village is haunted," the old man stopped his wagon and replied. Fear could be felt in his voice as he was saying that.
"Haunted?" I asked in confusion.
"Yeah sonny. There is a pond in the nearby woods where sometimes strange creatures appear. A few months ago, three children went missing there. We looked for them everywhere, but we couldn"t find them. And now one after another, eleven children have gone missing. The villagers believe that the pond"s devil ate them. We finally managed to convince the parents of those children and now we are moving to a different location," the old man said.
"I have no idea what may have happened, but it sounds like trouble. Better stay away from it."
"That sounds dangerous. I think we will camp in the plains behind the woods tonight then. Have a safe journey," I said pulling the reins.
"Well, my advice is to stay as far as you can from the place sonny. But if you must go, stay away from the area around the pond," said the old man.
I replied with "Thanks for the advice" and we resumed our journey.
I told everyone that we will be camping for the night too. Arica was booing but I ignored her and kept on driving.
It was evening by the time we arrived at the plains behind the woods. Flare could stay on watch duty which made camping much easier. But we still had to take care of cooking, cleaning, and setting up the tents.
We only had two tents, one for girls and the other one for me. It may sound unfair, but the ultimate line shouldn"t be broken.
"Hope Arica doesn"t sneak in."
After we finished setting up the camps, we had dinner. After dinner, I was the first one to get inside the camp. I was tired from driving the carriage for the whole day, so I fell asleep quickly.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Wake up you big stupid sleepyhead!"
"Huh! where am I?"
I heard someone"s voice and when I opened my eyes, I realized that I wasn"t in the camp. I didn"t have the habit of sleep walking so somebody must have brought me here.
"But Flare was on watch so who could have done that?"
I stood up and created a small fireball in my hand. Since I couldn"t see anyone around, so I asked, "Is anyone there?" in a loud voice.
I was in the middle of the woods and near a pond which is probably the one that the old man warned me about. It was a small pond that had many fallen branches and leaves from the nearby trees floating on it.
"Where the heck are you looking, I am down here."
I heard the voice again, so I looked down as the voice said. And surprisingly there was a tiny girl with b.u.t.terfly like wings wearing a green one-piece gown with white flower-like pattern.
"W-what are you?" I asked in surprise.
"Are you an idiot? Can"t you see I am a fairy?" the tiny girl said looking furious.
"What"s a fairy doing here? How did I end up here in the first place?" I bent down and asked.
"Hmph! how rude. I have been living here for centuries now. I brought you here to give you an opportunity to serve me," the fairy said in an arrogant tone.
"What do you mean! You kidnap me while I was sleeping and tell me that I am being rude. I don"t want any such opportunities, please send me back," I said taking the fairy into my hand since that would make the talk easier.
"W-w-wait. If you help me with this, I will also help you once," the fairy said in a hasty tone.
"Okay, but first tell me how you managed to bring me here," I asked since I still wasn"t sure how she managed to bring me here.
The fairy rubbed her nose with the index finger and said, "Hmph! I just created an illusion to distract that familiar of yours and used Earth Golem to bring you here," in a prideful tone.
I had heard about Earth Golem before, so I wasn"t surprised to hear that. But the illusion magic sounds interesting as it was even able to deceive a divine summon like Flare.
"So, what do you even need my help for?" I asked following her answer.
"There is a group of humans who are causing trouble here. I want you to deal with them," she said looking towards me.
She then looked towards the pond and said, "I have lived here for over a century now. Humans used to wors.h.i.+p me once, but things changed, and they stopped coming. And now, some stupid group of humans have kidnapped the village kids, but the villagers blamed me for that and left the village."
She sounded a little sad when she was saying that. She must have felt lonely and upset since villagers stopped coming towards the woods and even thought that she was the devil.
"Alright, I will help you. I am Nara. What should I call you?" I said. Now that I was here, I couldn"t ignore and leave after hearing her.
"Hha, this great me is called Lucy," the fairy looked towards me and said in a prideful tone.
"Okay Lucy, can you tell me more about the humans you were talking about?" I asked with a smile. Her prideful face looked cute.
She flapped her wings and raised herself to the same level as my face and replied, "I don"t know much but there is a short fat guy who wears black suit. They call him boss. I heard him say things like "collecting sacrifices to summon something"."
Next chapter: Pond"s Devil - Part 1