Chapter 253: The Mission Is Over, But The Danger Isn"t
The guild master and the man from the village explained to Albert about the quest we took. After that, I let Celestine open the dome-shaped building she just made and let everyone enters. Once everyone enters, she closed the door.
I also called Kayla to come here. But she can open the dome herself later.
"Alright. All of you need to put on these masks and gloves. And keep your distance in case it"s contagious." I said to everyone.
"You told me that there"s some unknown condition affecting the villagers and the hunters that didn"t return from the mission. What is it?" The guild master asked while still trying to be careful in front of Albert.
"For now, keep your distance from them and don"t touch them. I"ll show you their condition." I said.
"Roy, these people are alive, right? I can see them struggling inside these bags. I think it"s better if you just brought back some of the corpses from that village so you can do some autopsy without being afraid of any side effect to the victims." Albert suggested.
Right! I forgot to do that! Let"s tell them a little lie.
"You"re right. I have brought some corpses from that village. I put them somewhere else. I"ll go grab them in a bit. For now, I"ll get their head out of the bag first. That way, you can ask them question and tell them why we treated them this way. Victoria."
I ordered Victoria to get those Blobbies to open the body bags only on the head area. There"s one child here, so I think I"m too cruel to let a kid be treated this way. But I"m just being careful. I"ll apologize later.
Before the body bags opened, Celestine let me out of the dome and I open a portal directly to that village, sneakily enter that village and trespa.s.s into a house with a lot of corpses, wrap one of them with Blobbies and bring it back to the dome. When Celestine noticed my return, she let me in.
The duration of when I left was so fast that the air inside the dome hasn"t decreased much. The longest time the air I produce can last without needing me to cast a magic and when there are other people is about fifteen minutes. And I just left for about two minutes.
"I"m back. Here"s the corpse." I dropped the corpse on top of a bed made of clay.
"You"re too fast. I had just finished introducing myself and telling them why they are treated this way. So, whose corpse is it?" Albert asked.
"I don"t know. He should be the latest one to die."
"Ah! He"s the first hunter I sent for this mission! A C-rank hunter!" The receptionist girl said.
"I see. From the look of it, he died by stabbing himself in the heart. Now, I will proceed to do the autopsy. It might be a little graphic, so Celestine will build a wall between the surgery room and the four victims I brought back."
"Wait! Before that, you need to explain what happened in that village first." It was Nana who asked me to explains. She"s a senior so I guess she"s right.
"First, that village is surrounded by something invisible. Like an invisible barrier. Am I right?" I asked the four victims.
"Right. None of us able to get outside the village. It seems like something is preventing us to escape from that village. Whenever we tried to pa.s.s it, there is some kind of feeling that makes us think that it"s dangerous to go further. Like an instinct that stopped us from moving forward." Ellen explained.
"Yeah. I"m a summoner so I know that"s the case since I tried to let the monsters from our clan to enter first. We have another summoner in the clan, you know? Then when I tried to pa.s.s it, I can do it just fine." I lied.
I didn"t try to pa.s.s it. I just threw a Blobby to pa.s.s the barrier and transport to that side with portal. And of course, Albert is the only one who knows it since he can detect lies.
"That"s right. We can enter the village just fine. But once we"re inside, I felt that I was attacked by someone and fell unconscious. When I woke up, I can no longer escape from the village. That"s also the case with other villagers and the hunters as well." Ellen explained.
"But I didn"t see anyone that can attack us. And Celes over there is an expert level mage who can detect a presence of anything that has magic. Either they are humans or monsters. She told me that there"s no one other than the villagers nearby. And she said that the barrier is not made of magic. I thought that it will cause problem if I appear in the village, so I sneaked in and grabbed only these people and bring them here."
I used Celestine"s nickname she used for registering as a hunter.
"She"s an expert level mage!? But she"s just an E-rank!" The guild master was shocked when they heard that someone nearby is an expert level.
"Why do you think that I have the king himself as my sponsor? And don"t leak this information to anyone. This is a secret, okay?" I said while putting my index finger in front of my lips.
Everyone nodded. Followed by Albert himself. He nodded not in agreement, but telling me that they didn"t lie.
"Before that, don"t you think these treatments of the victims are too inhumane? They are my sister and my nephew!" The man who gave the quest said.
"So, she"s your sister? That doesn"t matter. We need to know that whatever affecting them is contagious or not. It will be dangerous if a city as big as Ca.s.sau is affected by this. For now, Ellen, can you tell us your symptoms?"
"Hmm… I don"t feel anything weird at all. But because no one can leave the village, the supply of food and water has diminished. But the weird thing is that we can stay alive without needing water, food, or sleep." Ellen said.
"And since all of you are unable to leave the invisible barrier that only monsters cannot pa.s.s, do you think that you have become monsters?"
Hearing my question, everyone is shocked. That"s the obvious reaction to have.
"That is why I need to restraint you and make sure that this is not contagious. I will also need to examine your condition and see if it"s something that can be cured. Ellen, you just need to be patient and wait until I figure out what causes this. And the people from that village needs to explain everything that happened in that village from before the mission as well. Hmm? Seems like she"s here."
As soon as I said that, the earth dome is opened and Kayla entered while carrying my medical kit.
I"m not a doctor yet. I still haven"t received my medical license. But getting a medical kit somehow is an easy feat. Anyone can buy it. Medical license was only necessary to get a job in a big hospital, or anywhere in the city. In the countryside like I did in my past life, there"s no need for a license. As long as you can be called a doctor, everyone will choose to trust you for their health.
…just shows how low people"s intellects are.
"Roy, what do I need to do?" Kayla asked after greeting everyone. She"s serious in helping since Ellen is her friend.
"For now, just watch me doing the autopsy for the corpse. If you see anything odd, tell me. I might have missed it even with my vision. We might be able to cure them from this condition." I said to Kayla. Telling her to be my a.s.sistant.
"Guild master. While he"s at it, we need to discuss what we need to do with that village. We"re lucky that the previous n.o.ble in charge of this area isolated that village and put checkpoints in the main road toward that village. Although he did it out of fear. We need some sample of whatever it is that causes monsters to be unable to get in or out of that village. I will discuss it with the next person in charge to not let up the isolation at the moment. As for the sample… how about I give you a quest for some hunters to do it?" Albert said while I opened up the body of the corpse with Blobbyscalpel.
"But your majesty, who will go there? I think this mission will be too dangerous even for S-rank hunters." The guild master asked.
"Then I will submit a request to Roy"s clan. He can do it. Right, Roy?"
"Hey! I"m busy now!"
"After you"re done with this obviously."
He knows that I can protect my body with Aura. That"s why he thinks that whatever causes this, I won"t get affected as long as I cover my body with Aura and use air magic to breath. I hate it when someone knows me too much and ask me to do too many things.
"You still have one more year of break, right? Do you want me to put this quest on hold until later or you want to finish this as soon as possible?" Albert asked.
"Obviously the faster the better. Put some huge reward for me. By the way guild master, with this my quest is over, right? Did we succeed?"
"Umm…" The guild master doesn"t know what to say. Just say that the quest is completed! It"s just an investigation after all.
"I think it is. Your job is to investigate, right? and you have investigated it enough to tell that village is dangerous. Am I right, guild master?"
"Your majesty is right! From today, your clan will be acknowledged by the guild!" the guild master proclaimed.
Good. That mean, after taking care of this conditions the villagers had, I will have more breaks.
But for now, the content of this corpse"s body is more important. I"ll think about the clan later.