Chapter - 22 The Broken Village
Next day
After they ate breakfast, they went to the Adventurers' Guild for more E-Rank quest missions.
Lira looked confident after the goblin mission.
They arrived at the Adventurers' Guild and went to the quest board.
They started looking for green-colored quest missions.
Each quest paper had its own color, showing which rank the quest belonged to.
Then Lucien saw another goblin quest mission, but this time the mission required them to go to a village and investigate goblin footprints to find where they were coming from.
After that, they had to kill them all.
The main reason was because goblins were destroying the farms and sometimes attacking the village and taking girls.
"How about this?" Lucien asked.
Aren, Seris, and Lira looked at the quest mission.
After a moment, Aren replied, "Okay," while looking at the quest paper.
Seris and Lira nodded.
After they verified the quest with Fiora, she wrote the detailed information in the record book.
"This quest mission is going to be difficult," she continued. "If you find any difficulty during the mission, you should leave and report back to us."
"Okay," said Aren. Then he continued, "And don't worry about us."
"Then let's go for this mission," said Lucien.
After they left the Adventurers' Guild, Fiora looked worried.
"Why are you worried about them so much?" asked the receptionist sitting next to her.
She was a young woman with orange hair and light orange eyes.
"Well, after all, they are the youngest adventurers in this guild, and I think those kids don't have parents," said Fiora.
The other receptionist didn't say anything at first.
"No parents?" she said quietly.
"I wonder how they are living until now," Fiora thought.
After that, Lucien and the others informed the inn owner about the mission.
"Take care," the inn owner said.
After leaving the inn, they went to an old sword shop.
The shop was near the inn.
They bought two iron swords from the shop.
After preparing everything for the mission, they left for the village.
The village was near the Solaris Holy Empire, but not very close.
Many hours later,
they finally reached the entrance of the village.
The village was surrounded by a wooden fence, and its condition looked very poor.
Lucien and the others went to the entrance gate, where two men were guarding it.
After they showed the quest paper, the guards looked at it and became happy.
"So… you guys have come," one of them said.
They allowed them to enter the village.
But inside, the village looked even worse.
"We are always defending our village from goblins. Because of them, our village has become like this," said one of the guards.
Lucien looked around.
The houses were broken and poorly built. Some roofs had holes. The ground was dry and cracked. Children with thin bodies watched them silently from behind their mothers.
The air felt heavy, filled with fear and worry.
Seris lowered her eyes.
Lira clenched her fists.
Even Aren stopped smiling.
After asking for directions, they were taken to the village chief's house, a slightly larger hut in the center of the village.
An old man with white hair and a tired face welcomed them. He was the village chief.
"Thank you for coming," the chief said politely. "Please… help us."
Lucien nodded.
"First, we need information. When did the first attacks start?"
The chief sighed.
"About two weeks ago. At night. They come from the forest side."
"Goblins?" Aren asked.
"Yes," the chief replied. "Small groups at first. But recently, their numbers have increased."
Lucien looked at his teammates.
"We will investigate the area before sunset."
After investigating the village surroundings, they found no clues.
Then they checked the front gate entrance.
From there, they started seeing goblin footprints.
"Only the front gate…" Lucien said softly.
Then he smiled.
This event was similar to the main story, but in the original story Aren never repaired or fixed the village.
But Lucien had different plans.
He looked around.
Aren and the others were still searching for more goblin footprints.
"Well, I'm going to meet the village chief," said Lucien.
Seris replied, "Okay… and take care."
Lucien nodded.
When Lucien was walking toward the chief's house, he heard voices.
Villagers were talking with the chief.
"They are only four kids," one villager said. "Can they really protect us?"
Other villagers also shouted at the chief.
"We have no choice," the chief said. "We have to put our faith in those kids."
Lucien listened from a distance, hiding beside the wall of a house.
After hearing the chief's words, the villagers slowly fell silent.
Little by little, they left.
When all the villagers had gone, the chief was about to enter his house.
Lucien stepped forward and stopped him.
"I have something to discuss with you, sir," he said.
The village chief looked at Lucien in surprise but nodded.
They went inside the house.
The house was in very bad condition — broken wood, damaged doors, cracked windows, and even the floor was worn.
"What do you want to discuss?" the old village chief asked.
Lucien replied,
"First, the village condition is very bad."
The old man lowered his head and listened.
"And one more thing. Do goblins always come from the front?" Lucien asked.
The chief looked at him.
"Yes. Many times they attack the village from the front gate."
"As expected," Lucien thought.
The old man continued,
"…and sometimes they attack from the sides."
"That's why the fence walls are damaged," Lucien thought inwardly.
"The fence walls are in very bad condition. That's why we need to repair them," said Lucien.
"Repair?" the old man said. "We can repair them, but right now we don't have enough strength. Many villagers are injured from defending the village."
"Don't worry about that," Lucien said. "We will help you."
Then he asked,
"When was the last time the goblins attacked the village?"
The old man looked surprised again. He hadn't expected that.
Then he lowered his head and thanked Lucien.
After thinking for a moment, Lucien said,
"The day before yesterday."
"Yes," the old man replied. "Now I think the goblins will attack again the day after tomorrow."
"This information is also the same as the main story," Lucien thought inwardly.
After that, he left the chief's house.
Lucien looked around the village again.
"There are many things I need to do," he thought while looking at the broken village.
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END OF CHAPTER 22
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