Chapter 38: The Land of Beginnings and Astonishment

“You lot were in quite the pickle back there, huh.”

We had been attacked by a pack of Forest Wolves while making our way towards big bro’s home village.

And just as we were about to get wiped out, this old man suddenly appeared out of nowhere and saved us.

“Hey, did you just ask us whether we’re his acquaintances? How do you know him in the first place anyway!?”

“Me? We’re from the same village.”

He’s from the same village!?

“So, he’s from Zenje!?”

“Yep, that’s right.
Why, did you lot come to see Rex?”

Mina sighed in relief as she heard what the old man said, because we had finally arrived at our destination.

“Sorry, but he left to ‘go on an adventure’ as he put it a while ago.”

“No, we came here because he suggested we do so.”

“To our village? It’s just your ordinary countryside village though?”

“No way! It’s where Rex was born! There’s no way ‘s just some normal village!”

The old man just doesn’t get it.

It’s the village where big bro was born, so ‘course it’s gonna be amazin’.

“Hahaha, because it’s where Rex was born, huh? Well, you have a point.”

Oh, what, he actually does get it.

“Well, you lot took the trouble to come all the way here, so come on, I’ll show you the way.
‘M Kario, by the way.
Nice to meet’cha.”

“I’m Jairo! Nice to meetcha old man!”

“Oy! That’s rude! Sorry about our resident idiot.”

“Hahaha, it’s fine if youngsters are somewhat rude.
See, Rex always spoke weirdly politely ever since he was a kid.”

“Is that so? Oh, right, I’m Mina.”

“I am Norb.”

“Meguri.”

“Well, I’ve put away what I hunted, so let’s get going, shall we?”

“Put away?”

Did he mean the Forest Wolves from earlier?

But ‘put away’ would mean…

“Huh?”

The dead Forest Wolves and normal wolves that had been lying on the ground a bit away had disappeared before I had even noticed.

Where did they disappear to!?

“Let’s go.”

♦ ♦

“The village’s still a bit further, so bear with me.”

Said the old man Kario at the front of our group.

“…”

“What’s up, Meguri?”

Mina seemed to have noticed me acting strangely, because she asked me that.

She might have a foul mouth, but she also has sound judgement, so she’s our party’s de facto leader.

“He’s really strong.”

“Well, yeah, he can use body strengthening magic, and also he’s from Rex’s village.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Eh?”

Had Mina not noticed?

“We know Rex is strong.
But, where do you think he got that strength from?”

“So you’re saying Kario-san might be Rex-san’s master?”

Norb asked, joining the conversation.

As expected of someone who had been taught by the church, he had a good head on his shoulders.

The conclusion he had come to wasn’t the best one out there though.

“Really!?”

“Even Rex wasn’t super-strong the moment he was born.
He must’ve had some amazing teacher.”

“I see, that makes sense.”

If the old man was Rex’s teacher, then we would be able to become as strong as Rex if we managed to get him to teach us.

“Hey hey, old man, didya also receive training from Rex?”

“““!?”””

The idi-… I mean, Jairo suddenly asked something unbelievably rude.

Normally, it’s the other way round, actually, even not normally it’s the other way round; Rex wouldn’t be the old man’s master.

“Idiot, what are you saying!?”

“Oh, well guessed kid! Thanks to Rex teaching me body strengthening magic, I became strong too!”

“““Eeeeeh!?”””

What!? He wasn’t Rex’s master!?

“U-umm, Kario-san, so you’re not Rex-san’s teacher?”

Norb asked.

Kario made a nonplussed face.
Kinda cute.

Then, the next moment, he burst out laughing.

“Hahahahahaha! Me, Rex’s master!? No way!”

It seemed like we were mistaken.

So Rex’s master was someone else?

“Oh look, it’s the village.”

Kario said, pointing ahead of us.

And, what we saw there… robbed us of our speech.

“The hell’s that.”

♦ ♦

We had followed Kario-san to the village of Zenje, the sight of which struck us speechless.

“What the, it’s like a fortress.”

Indeed, the sight that met our eyes was not that of a peaceful rural farming village; Zenje was surrounded by robust walls that could have belonged to a fortress.

“Hahaha, it might be a bit surprising for people visiting for the first time.
Well, I must say we were rather surprised when it was built too!”

“What do you mean!? You didn’t build this?”

Kario-san shook his head in response to my question.

“As if.
There’s no way we’d be able to make something as amazing as this.”

“So then!?”

Kario-san nodded at Jairo’s question.

“Yep, Rex made it overnight one day!”

“Overnight!?”

I accidentally said out loud at the ridiculousness of it.

“This village was attacked by monsters a lot in the past.
Normal animals wouldn’t come near the village, but large monsters don’t just ignore such things.”

““““Oof””””

We were all suddenly reminded of what could have happened back then.

But, but, this time, we had actually thought about our enemies properly before trying to lead them to a human settlement!

And we thought that since it was Rex’s village, there would be strong people all over the place, and we were right!

“Well anyway, everyone in the village was all worried and everything, and Rex went and built that amazing wall in just one night.
We were all amazed!”

“““That’s all you thought!?”””

Weren’t the people of this village a little weird!?

“Ooooh! As expected of him!!”

The idiot said excitedly, but he always did that, so I ignored him.
It wouldn’t do anything for the conversation either.

“Heeey, I’m baaack.
Open up!”

Kario-san shouted, and an unfamiliar old man stuck his head out over the ramparts.

“Oho? Rather early today, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, there was a pack of ‘em close by.
I’ve also brought some acquaintances of Rex with me.”

“Oho, now that’s a rare sight.”

Said the old man looking at us.

“Hoho, what lovely ladies.
The lad works fast, it seems.”

That’s a strange misunderstanding to have.

“Just open the gates already grandpa.”

“Righty-ho.”

The old man cheerfully replied, and the wall opened.

“Wait, it was a door!?”

Apparently a part of the wall had been a large gate all along.

“Come on then.”

Prompted by the old man, who had made his way down to the ground, we entered the village.

And then, we became speechless again at the sight so very different from what we had been expecting.

It was a bit of a let-down.

“It’s an ordinary village.”

That’s right, Zenje was an ordinary village.

It had fields, it had waterways, some unknown big round thing was spinning away merrily, and there was a cluster of small houses.

“It’s an ordinary village.”

“That it is.”

“B-big bro’s hometown is a normal village…”

Zenje was such a normal village that even the Rex-obsessed Jairo wasn’t able to accept it.

“All right, I will go close the gate.”

The gates closed again with a loud grinding sound.

It looked like the old man had closed them manually, but there was no way that was actually the case, right? It was a huge gate, after all.

Also, there weren’t any stairs nor a ladder, so how had he made his way down from up on the ramparts?

“Rex’s house is this way.”

Kario-san said, guiding us to Rex’s house.

We were quite grateful, since we had thought he would only take us to the village itself.

“Flame Inferno!”

“!?”

A field on our right was suddenly covered in flames, dyeing our fields of vision red.

We were actually rather far from the field, but even then, quite a substantial amount of heat managed to reach us.

“Wh-wh-wh-!?”

“Oy! Rex told you to put up a barrier when using magic, didn’t he!”

“Sorry”

Said a little boy, frantically lowering his head in apology.
Wait was he the one who did that just now!?

“Lian! You pay attention to the kids properly!”

“Sorry mister, he did it before I could stop him!”

“Honestly… Sorry ‘bout that.
It’s their first time getting rid of weeds, so they’re a little over-enthusiastic.”

““““They’re getting rid of weeds!?””””

What the hell were they thinking using flames like that for something like getting rid of weeds!?

Wait, what the hell is he, reacting as if that’s normal!?

And the other villagers in the vicinity are laughing it off too!?

“What’s with this villageee!?”

However, we would soon come to realize that that was but an introduction to this village.