Chapter 19: Healing All the Sick and Recapturing the Old Village

 

“Ahahaha! You want a drink, Rex?!”

As I was eating in front of the fire, a very excited Elicia-san came up to me and offered me some alcohol.

“Woow, to think the kid Liliella brought along with her could cure everyone’s illnesses in no time, I saw it with my own two eyes and still can’t believe it!”

Having cured Liliella-san’s mother, Mariel-san from Alza, I had been asked by them to cure everyone else in the village with Alza.

At first, the villagers looked at us with distrust and bewilderment for suddenly entering their houses saying we could cure the disease, but when they saw Mariel-san, whom I had already cured, they begged me to save their families.

And then, right after everyone had been cured, Liliella-san’s village’s former village chief suddenly declared a feast.

“This is a celebration for the fact that we have been cured of the disease we have suffered from for years, a celebration to thank the outstanding young man who saved us, and a celebration for Liliella having found a husband!!”

Hang on, you got the last one wrong.

But all my attempts to correct them were in vain, and not only the people who had lived in the same village as Liliella-san, but even the residents of this village joined in, starting a great feast.

“Let’s celebrate and get loud!”

“To think your family would be cured! Good on you!”

“Yeah, thanks! I’m really happy!”

“My son was cured! He can walk on his own again! Hahahahaha!!”

“I never thought the illness would be cured… it’s like I’m dreaming.”

Well, they all seemed overjoyed, and who could blame them for wanting to blow off some steam?

◆ ◆

“Wahahahahaha!”

“Gahahahahaha!”

At first, the feast had been just a normal feast, but as the participants gradually got more and more drunk, it turned into just a normal party.

The children had already gone home, and the people who had been cured were also taken home by their families, who told them not to overdo it.

Only adults remained.

“Can I sit next to you?”

Asked Liliella-san, coming over to me, as I had taken up the role of a bystander a little further away from all the noise so I would not get caught up in any drinking contests or the sort.

“How’s Mariel-san?”

“Auntie took mum home.
Apparently she’s still recovering.”

To tell the truth, the illness had already been completely cured due to Elder Heal’s effectiveness, but I could understand why the families of the people who had been ill would want them to rest.

Besides, their bodies still had to rebuild themselves after having deteriorated due to the illness.

Although, there’s magic for that as well.

“Thank you.”

Liliella-san said gratefully.

“Fufu, I feel like I’m constantly thanking you.”

“No, seriously, don’t worry about it?”

“I can’t do that.
You saved my life, and you saved everyone from my village.”

I didn’t do anything that major though.

“So I have to thank you.”

“No need to thank me.”

She really doesn’t even need to think of repaying the debt for something this small.

“I can’t do that.
I’ll never be able to repay you for what you’ve done.
So I have to repay at least as much as I can.
If I don’t you’ll just keep helping me out and it won’t be equal.”

…Won’t be equal, eh.

There’s so many nice people in this era.

They’re all so nice I would never even have thought such people existed once upon a time.

“What’s up?”

Liliella-san asked, bringing her face close to mine while I was lost in thought.

“Uh, n-nothing.”

Whoa, she’s really close.

“I’ll definitely repay you! You hear me, definitely!”

Ahaha, please don’t overdo it though.

◆ ◆

The next morning, I woke up in the former village chief’s house.

Since Mariel-san’s house was just large enough for Liliella-san to just be able to stay there, the former village chief offered to let me stay there for the night.

“I, Sohn, am deeply moved to have our saviour staying here!”

The former village chief Sohn-san repeated over and over again over breakfast while nodding.

“Here, Rex-san.
It’s nothing fancy, but please have as much as you want.”

The one who prompted me to eat in this fashion was former village chief Sohn-san’s wife.

She was rather thin, and her skin was slightly pale.

She had also been one of the people suffering from Alza, and was one of the people I had cured last night.

“Thank you very much.”

“I really am grateful! Thanks to you, the village’s workers are healthy again! If we can all work, we won’t be a bother to the people of this village!”

“A bother?”

“Yes, we were originally inhabitants of a different village.
Were outsiders to the villagers here.
We are allowed to stay in this village due to their kindness, but since most of us men who were the breadwinners of their families were unable to work due to the illness, we couldn’t really lead a normal life, and many of us are indebted to this village.”

If the breadwinner of a family became unable to work and move due to illness, it really would be bad for the family.

“But thanks to you, Rex-dono, the people who couldn’t move due to their illness became able to work, so we can start working hard to repay our debts, and the people who had been taken care of by their relatives can also work hard to get their own houses.”

“Their own houses?”

“Yes, it would be rather rude and impertinent to continue relying on their goodwill.
We’re all prepared to live and die in this village.”

Former village chief Sohn-san and his wife made sad faces for a split second.

They must have been sad over the fact that they would never get to go back to their hometown.

The way they looked reminded me of Liliella-san the day before.

“Um, I have a quick question.”

“Yes, what is it?”

◆ ◆

Leaving former village chief Sohn-san’s house, I exited the village, heading towards the Forest of Magic Beasts.

“Rex-san! Where are you going!?”

Liliella-san called out to me.

“I’m just gonna pop into the forest for a bit.”

“Monster subjugation? I’ll help! Wait a minute!”

Saying that, Liliella-san hurried back into Elicia-san’s house, and then came out again with weapon and armour equipped.

“Let us go, then!”

Well isn’t she motivated.

“I mean, it’s not something you can really help out with though.
I’ll just be making a road?”

“Making a road?”

Oh yeah, Liliella-san doesn’t know I made a road through the Forest of Magic Beasts.

“Just watch.”

Once we were close enough to the forest, I confirmed there weren’t any humans in the way with search magic before burning the forest down.

“Flame Inferno!!”

The Hellfire burnt the forest to ashes, and a large road through the forest was created in the blink of an eye.

“I pierce through the forest making a road like this.”

I enlightened Liliella-san about the details of the work I was about to carry out.

“…Huh?”

“It’s rather dangerous, so please don’t go in front of me.
Flame Inferno!!”

I quickly continued making the road through the forest.

“W-what the hell’s thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!?”

As Liliella-san screamed that behind me for some reason, I wondered what the matter was.

◆ ◆

“S-say, how far are you going to go?”

Liliella-san asked from behind me while I single-mindedly continued making the road through the forest.

“It’ll still be a while before I’m done, so it’s fine if you go back.”

She was wasting time just walking around after me.

“I-I can’t do that! This is the Forest of Magic Beasts! I have to protect you so you don’t get hit by a surprise attack while making this road!”

Oops, I didn’t think of that.

I could tell there weren’t any monsters coming closer due to search magic, but as Liliella-san said, caution was necessary.

Mhm, as expected of a B-Rank adventurer.

She reminded me that there were special monsters that couldn’t be detected with search magic.

We had to be on our guards and ready for battle!

“All right! I’ll leave being the rearguard to you then!”

Liliella-san unsheathed her sword and held it in front of her chest like a knight.

“I shall protect you back with this sword!”

“Uh, that’s…”

Having noticed something, I pointed at her sword.

“Eh? What?”

Liliella-san looked at where I was pointing, and then froze.

“It’s broken.”

Yep, her sword had splendidly broken in half.

“O-oh noooooooooooooooo!?”

Now that I think of it, it was already broken when I saved her from the Blade Wolves.

“W-what should I dooooo…”

“Uh, I could lend you my spare sword?”

“R-really!?”

Liliella-san asked me, her face lighting up.

“Yeah, here you go.”

I took out my spare sword from my magic bag and held it out to her.

“T-thank you.
Umm… l-like I said, leave it to me!”

For some reason her voice became shrill, but it was probably just too much enthusiasm.

Anyway, I have to focus on my job now!

◆ ◆

“We’ve arrived!”

Having arrived at our destination, I stopped making the road to take a breather.

“…Eh? But here’s”

Liliella-san became dumbfounded when she saw where the road led to.

“Yep, that’s right.”

“That’s… isn’t this my village!?”

Yes, the place we had arrived at on the road I had made through the forest was the village Liliella-san and the others had once lived in.

Although, since it had been uninhabited for a long time now, it was so run-down it was basically just ruins at this point.

They’d need a lot of work to make people be able to live here again.

“W-why!?”

Does she want to ask me why I know of this place?

“I asked former village chief Sohn-san.
And he said that the village you all used to live in was here.”

“B-but why did you take the trouble to!?”

Dunno, why did I?

It was the only answer I could give when asked why.

“I mean, it’s normal to want to go back to your hometown, isn’t it?”

Yeah, that’s it.
That one works the best.

Everyone was cured, so they would obviously want to go back to their home village.

And luckily, making roads through the forest was a request from the guild, so I would even be paid for doing this!

“Rex-san…”

Liliella-san said, looking at me.

Her eyes were threatening to overflow with tears again.

“I really am…”

And, right as Liliella-san tried to say something.

“Guuoooooooooon!!”

An awesome roar reverberated over the village.

“T-that voice!?”

Liliella-san’s face stiffened in astonishment.

It seemed it was in the vicinity, just as I had thought.

“This voice… is the one from back then!”

Liliella-san’s eyes were filled with anger.

“Liliella-san about the thing that voice belongs to…”

“Yes, it’s That thing, the one that attacked our village and made mum and everyone sick! That monster stole our village from us!!”

Simultaneously with Liliella-san’s statement in a voice full of anger, a monster appeared from the forest.

“That’s… A Venom Rex!”

Venom Rexes were, as the name suggested, extremely venomous, dinosaur-type monsters.

Unlike the four-legged lizard-type monsters, they could run on two legs with frightening speed, but their venomous attacks caused the most deaths among warriors attacking them.

They couldn’t fly like dragons could, but you needed either a high-levelled monk’s cure magic or a high-rank poison cure potion to get rid of their venom.

It was an extremely troublesome monster, because if the antidote was applied too late, the person would contract Alza, like Mariel-san and the others had.

“To think it was still here!”

Liliella-san rushed towards the venom Rex, sword at the ready.

“Liliella-san!?”

“Leave me alone!”

What does she mean ‘Leave me alone!’, rushing into battle like that without even a countermeasure for the venom is really reckless!

“I’ll cast poison resistance magic on you, so please wait a second!”

But deafened by rage, Liliella-san ignored me and started attacking the Venom Rex.

“Guooo!!”

The Venom Rex seemed to grin and swung its claws dripping venom.

“As if I’d let you hit!”

Liliella-san dodged the venomous claws, springing in close to the Venom Rex.

“Don’t!”

Venom Rexes don’t only have venomous claws!

“Gaou!”

The Venom Rex stabbed its tail bearing a bee-like stinger that had just popped out with a click towards Liliella-san.

“Oh n-!?”

Liliella-san’s face was filled with panic.

“Gaaaooooooo!!”

“Shut, up!!”

I kicked the stinger that was just about to run through Liliella-san as hard as I could.

The Venom Rex’s stinger broke with a clunk.

“Gao!?”

“Antipoison!”

I hurriedly cast poison resistance magic on Liliella-san, then turned back to the Venom Rex.

“I just cast poison resistance magic on you.”

“T-thank you…”

“Guauuu…”

Cautious of me due to my intrusion, the Venom Rex backed away a little.

Although, like this, Liliella-san would just repeat that reckless attack.

I had to properly tell her how this thing fought.

“Are you paying attention!? This is how you defeat a Venom Rex!”

First, I broke its two front legs’ claws by kicking them.

“Bigyaaaa!!”

“Venom Rexes have venom in their fangs, their forelegs’ claws, and in a hidden stinger in their tails! So, you have to break those before fighting one!”

Then, I threw rocks lying on the ground at the Venom Rex’s fangs, breaking them all.

“Gagyaaaaaa!?”

“Also, since Venom Rexes are two-legged monsters, if you break one of their legs, they won’t be able to walk!”

Saying that, I punched its legs and arms as hard as I could, breaking them.

I then punched them a couple more times, just to make sure.

“Bogyaaaaa!?”

“Now, you can either attack it with a spear or something with long reach, or attack it from a distance one-sidedly with magic or a bow, and put an end to it like that! This is the general Venom Rex defeating method!”

I looked at Liliella-san, having finished the explanation while having punched the Venom Rex enough times for it to be unable to make a single movement.

“See, it’s quite easy if you fight with a cool head, isn’t it?”

“That’s not easy at all!? Everything you did was amazingly difficult!?”

Huh? I did show her the easiest method though.

The easiest way to fight monsters that use venom as their weapon is to disable that venom.

“Anyway, go on ahead and kill it.”

“Uuuuhhh…”

Liliella-san was bewildered by me telling her to kill it all of a sudden.

“Didn’t you work so hard for this day?”

“…!”

She stared at the Venom Rex for a short while, but then, as if having made up her mind, she stabbed her sword into its neck.

“Guboaaaaaaaa!?”

“Ugh… I don’t feel like I’m taking revenge at all…”

The Venom Rex writhed about, unable to endure the pain, but since it had already received a lot of damage, it couldn’t make any large movements.

Unable to inflict a fatal wound with such a slender sword, Liliella-san stabbed it in the head a couple more times.

Hmm, perhaps I should’ve prepared an axe or something of the like.

Then, a while later, the Venom Rex finally stopped moving.

“Haa, haa, haa…”

“Good job.”

I congratulated Liliella-san, who was breathing heavily from having defeated the Venom Rex.

“Haa, haa… thank you.”

And lastly, she thanked me in a small voice.

“No worries.
Now then, let’s get back to the village and tell everyone!”

◆ ◆

“W-what the hell’s thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!?”

Having been brought over by us, everyone from the village stared at the dead Venom Rex in the middle of the village dumbfoundedly.

“N-not only did you make a road through the forest, you also put that hateful monster in this state…”

Former village chief Sohn-san muttered, his mouth hanging wide open.

“Liliella-san splendidly defeated the monster that once caused you all to suffer!”

“Eh? No, that’s wrong, I didn’t… defeat it.”

Liliella-san tried to be modest, but since she was the one that killed it, she was the one that defeated it, so there was no problem!

“And now Liliella-san will help rebuild the village from the reward for having defeated the monster!”

““““Eeeh!? Is that true, Liliella!?””””

The villagers all crowded around Liliella-san, who looked over at me as if she wanted to say something.

“And since Liliella-san’s goal was to cure everyone and retake the village, her earnings from the monster’s materials will also go into rebuilding the village, right?”

“…Like I said, I only killed it.”

Liliella-san facepalmed with a sigh.

Uh-oh, have we been found out?

If I had defeated it and given them the money to rebuild the village, it would just be charity from a stranger who had no reason to do so, but since Liliella-san, who had wanted to retake the village had defeated the monster, there was nothing strange about her using the money to rebuild the village!

“I don’t even know how grateful I should be towards you.”

Ahhahha, you were the one who defeated this monster, Liliella-san, so there’s no need to thank me.

“But, even if the village is restored, we won’t be able to maintain it.”

Said former village chief Sohn-san with a sad expression.

“I appreciate what you two did, but even if we rebuild the village, it’ll still be surrounded by the Forest of Magic Beasts.
It’ll just be swallowed up by the forest again soon, and frightful monsters like this one will appear again, forcing us to abandon the village again.”

At the bitter words of former village chief Sohn-san, all the villagers who had been rejoicing about being able to return to their beloved hometown became saddened.

But it would all be okay, because I had also thought of that.

“I have a proposal, which is that once you’ve rebuilt the village, you could make it into a stopover town?”

“A stopover town?”

Former village chief Sohn-san asked me, his eyes round.

“Yes.
The adventurers’ guild is currently heading an initiative to connect various villages and towns with each other with roads through the forest.
But the Forest of Magic Beasts is large, so merchants and travellers currently have to camp outside in large clearings.”

I looked at the villagers.

“But camping is not only physically, but also mentally exhausting.
So, if there was a town in the forest with inns where they could rest without having to worry, everyone would stop by here instead of camping outside.”

That was the suggestion I had thought up.

“B-but what should we do about the trees!? We don’t have enough money to issue a logging request at the guild!”

Former village chief Sohn-san said, convinced that it would be impossible.

“It’ll be fine.
If there was a place where you could rest in safety inside this dangerous forest, the country and the adventurers’ guild would definitely invest into logging in the area to protect an important relay point.
Also, protecting a location that is already somewhat built-up will be way easier on the budget than building a new relay point from the ground up.”

Well, rebuilding this village would have to be the utmost priority, and consultations with the adventurers’ guild were still necessary for it turning into a relay point.

The money would probably come from the rewards Liliella-san got for defeating the Venom Rex.

But if anything, Mirisha-san, who had been really enthusiastic about building roads through the Forest of Magic Beasts, would probably also happily support this.

“So how about it, everyone, do you want to live in your newly-reborn old hometown?”

“…I do.”

At first the villagers were silent, then voices came from here and there, gradually becoming more and more in number, until voices of support sprang forth from everywhere.

“Me too! I want to live here again too!”

“I too, I want to tell my dead mum that I’m home!”

“Me too.
I’ve wanted to come back here before I died.
There’s no way I’ll abandon this village again!!”

“Hear hear!”

“Let’s live here again!”

Yeah, they’ll be fine.

“That’s good, isn’t it, Liliella-san?”

I congratulated Liliella-san who was standing next to me.

“…”

But the corners of Liliella-san’s mouth looked as if they had been dragged downwards by an invisible force, and she didn’t make a single movement.

Huh? Is she angry?

She did want to go back to her hometown, didn’t she!?

“…”

She silently turned towards me.

“Liliella-san?”

“T-…”

“T-?”

“Thank youuuu!!”

All of a sudden, Liliella-san burst out in tears and hugged me.

“Eeh!? This again!?”

Hey hey, she’s doing this again!?.

“Ooh! Liliella hugged Rex-dono!”

“Good on you! Push him down!”

“Hahahahaha!”

“Hehe!”

Hey, everyone, please stop!

“Ara ara, I wonder if I’ll be a grandma soon?”

Hey, Mariel-san!? Please stop your daughter!?

“Really… thank youuuuuu!!”

In the end, I had to hug Liliella-san until she went to sleep from crying too much again.