NOVPUBChapter 303 -302 – Village and It’s Stupid People [ Part 1 ]
30 Minutes Later…
“Slow down, girl.” I said as Sadie efficiently slowed to a smooth stop, “Yep, we’re here.”
Sadie stopped atop the hill’s end as I saw the view in front.
There was a small village beyond the ends of the cliff.
From above, me and my other companions that have just arrived saw everything.
The village was filled with small houses made from wood and even some from solidified mud. At the edges of the village houses, there was a big field.
Big enough for the whole village to fulfill their stomachs. But the fields themselves weren’t good enough for crop as we saw how withered it was.
“Is this the village?” Alice asked, sitting in front of me as I nod.
“It seems so…” I say as my eyes saw a few other things of notice. “Let’s get down.”
We turned around and went by the hill’s side that went down and led towards the village.
The village people were going around doing their daily deeds. Men working on the fields, selling stuff to the others and other handcrafted works while the women mostly took care of the children.
But there were some who worked on small simple shops, did cleaning and washing jobs or were doing housework.
…
“Hey, Julis. You’re asking too much for this fish. Lower your price a bit.” A villager said to the fish seller who shook his head.
“Can’t do that Marc. I gave you the discounted price because you’re my friend. I can’t lower more than that.”
“But 6 pennies for one fish too much. The most I can give you is 4 pennies.” Marc haggled but the seller refused so he increased his price, “Alright, I’ll go as far as 4 and a half, I can’t do more than that or my wife will bea-” Marc suddenly stopped haggling.
“What is it, Marc? What’cha looking at?” Julis asked and turned to look.
He’s eyes slowly widened as he saw a group of armored soldiers coming towards their village.
These villagers lived a simple life without much complications so seeing a horde of elite soldiers suddenly appearing in their village, made both of them start to fear.
“Who are they?” Julis asked before a thought grabbed him in full frontal anxiety, “Did those soldiers come here to pillage us?”
The villagers lived far away from fluent society so seeing such a group coming, the fish seller feared the worse.
“I- I’ll go and tell the chief about this.” Marc said and ran towards the center of the village.
…
As we came close to the village, we saw the villagers that were outside or doing their business quickly go to their house or become extremely silent in their movement.
We saw their nervous and fearful eyes following us as we went inside.
This weren’t the eyes of the guilty but just ignorant, fearful people.
I sent out a soldier to ask them about the recent matters and the guy he was about to talk to, immediately kneeled down in front of the soldier and started to beg.
“Please sir, don’t ruin me. I don’t have much; it’s only this small fish store I have.” The fish seller said as he literally was crying while clutching to the soldier’s legs with plea, “Please don’t rob us.”
“Hey! Let go of my leg.” The soldier said, “I didn’t even say anything, why are you suddenly begging me. Let go of me, you stink of fish!”
‘That guy… We didn’t even speak a work of anger and that guys already begging for us to release him. Is he doing that on purpose to make us look bad?’
A few other soldiers went and quickly stabilized the situation. The fish seller learning of their intention, looked down on the ground in shame then bickered.
“Why didn’t you say so before? I was scared out of my wits seeing you all appearing like executioners.” The fish seller annoying said, “And I even begged you to let me go for nothing at the street.”
Seeing the bad attitude of his, the soldier frowned, “If you want, I could cleanly cut of the remaining reputation as well.”
The fish seller quickly smiled and apologized, “Forgive my tongue, sir. I was only frustrated because of this awful heat.”
Before the fish seller’s words could make us annoyed anymore, we saw an elderly man walking towards us.
The man looked to be in his 80’s and had an old wooden cane with him that he used to slowly walk towards us.
Seeing the old man, the fish seller immediately called him, “Chief”
“Finally someone of position.” I say and get down from Sadie, helping Alice down as well.
The elderly looked at us for a moment before looking at the fish seller, “What did you do, Julis? Don’t try to cause trouble for us again, alright!” The elderly said showing his cane angrily at the guy.
“Me? But I didn’t… nothing.” The fish seller sighed and quieted down.
As I went to the chief, he gave me a small bow of greeting, “Greetings, honorable sir. May I be of help to you in any way?”
“You can,” I ask, “But first, do you know who I am?”
“Uhmm…” There was slight hesitation and he averted his eyes from before saying, “No, I don’t recall the honorable sir.”
“Well, I came here for an important business that needs to be talked about immediately.”
“Please come to my home then.” The elder gestured, “It’s nothing more than a simple place but it will shield you from the blistering heat.”
I raise my hand, “It’s okay. My business actually requires me to be here and it also requires the village folk too.”
“Us?”
“Yes, that’s why I want you to call out all the people there are in the village.”
“All of them…” The elder frowned and hesitated, “But sir… it’s noon so most of the working class people have went into the city for work and aren’t here at this moment.”
“It doesn’t matter. Call out everyone that’s currently in the village.”
Hearing my tough tone, the elder finally nodded and went away to call the others. The fish seller went with him to help.
“What do you think?” I ask Alice who looked at them leaving.
“The fish seller seems okay but the elder… the same mana at the site seems to revolve around him slightly.”
“That means the old guy know him.” I say as Alice nodded.
A few moments later, more than 60 people arrived before us. All of them wearing simple dresses with almost all of them having dirt or holes on their clothes.
“Hey there!” I tell them all, “You may be wondering who am I or why am I calling you out here in this immense heat, right?”
I ask and most of them showed, slight fear and confused looks while a few showed annoyed glances.
“Actually, do you know Screeching Villa east from here. Well, I am the guy that bought that place a few days ago?”
This time most of them showed surprised and recognized looks at the same time. But my eyes focused on the ones that showed fear again.
“Today I come before you because of a crisis my home faces. A few days ago one of my closest men was about to apprehend a criminal group but ended up falling into a trap and is now hospitalized.”
“But through that problem, one of the criminals have revealed that they are from this very same village where I stand.”
“So I ask you all, do you know who they are?”
