Kays Translations

Chapter 276: Seeds of Anxiety

“Cheers!”

In the chapel, the thirteen knights were drinking celebratory wine. The other seven were receiving treatment in a separate room due to their injuries.

Priest Arjan, delighted by the report of defeating the five giant orcs, offered wine he had set aside for rituals. It was wine of a quality suitable for distribution to rural churches, in limited quantity and somewhat sour, but still a special drink of victory.

The knights each shared their tales of valor, listened to by Priest Arjan, the village chief, and Karin, all nodding happily.

They had only defeated the vanguard; they didn’t know the fate of the orc settlement. Nevertheless, the main force of the Fourth Knight Order should arrive in time.

The worst of the crisis had passed!

The knights regained their confidence. No matter what enemies appeared, they would fight courageously. The hero, Leonard, lived in each of their hearts.

The priest and village chief rejoiced in the safety of the village, thinking in the back of their minds that the knight order would no longer demand Leonard’s sword.

Karin wore a lonely smile, her heart finally at ease.

Each of them enjoyed the brief moment of peace. However, it was truly a fleeting moment. An elderly man with a demonic look barged into the chapel with such force that he seemed ready to break down the door.

“Where are the corpses!?”

He shouted. By the way, since the scabbard he had thrown before the battle had been crushed by the giant orc, his sword was now bare. He looked like a complete bandit.

“C-Corpses?”

Arjan and the others were perplexed. They didn’t understand the sudden mention of corpses. Lutz and Josel, who were standing behind, not only did nothing to stop Gerhardt but also directed stern expressions at Arjan and the others.

“Now, now, please calm down. We’ll prepare wine for everyone shortly…”

“You want to be killed!?”

“Eep!”

Thanks to the unexpected intruder, the atmosphere became awkward. The knights glared at Gerhardt, who in turn shot back with sharp eyes.

Then Lutz intervened.

“Gerhardt-san, it seems like we’re threatening everyone here.”

There was no other way to interpret it, and now all eyes turned to Lutz.

“We left the orc corpses alone because the village might be destroyed. That’s what I’m saying.”

“What do you mean, what can corpses do?”

Karin, who had regained her composure, frowned and asked.

Gerhardt and the others explained the identity of the enemy as something like a parasitic plant and how fungal hyphae were densely intertwined with the orc’s muscles. The inside of the chapel fell silent in horror. The sound of holding one’s breath seemed unnaturally loud.

“Well, the fungus probably doesn’t spread indiscriminately. Otherwise, there should have been giant ants, flies, or rats the size of wild dogs in that place. It’s probably limited to organisms of a certain size and intelligence.”

“Human beings are not exempt from that, right?”

Arjan asked with a trembling voice, and Gerhardt nodded deeply.

“Now tell me. What did you do with the bodies of the three orcs that Leonard defeated?”

In cases where adventurers defeat monsters, they typically leave them alone, as scavengers like stray dogs or crows will eat the corpses. However, in this case, the battlefield was within the village, so leaving them alone was not an option. There was no report of corpses being piled up in the village center, for example.

The village chief answered on behalf of the villagers.
“We pulled them with cows and threw them into the forest…”

“Hmm, do you often go near that forest?”

To rebuild the destroyed village, a large amount of timber would be necessary, and there would also be a need to feed the livestock. There was a fear that villagers entering the forest might get infected.

“The timber is usually taken from the forest on the opposite side. We threw away the corpses because monsters might come out, so we usually stay away.”

“Do villagers never enter that forest?”

Gerhardt asked again, noticing the village chief’s somewhat awkward demeanor.

“…Young people occasionally go in.”

“Why, for a rendezvous?”

“I’m ashamed to say, but it’s because hitting the orc corpses with sticks has become a trend among the young people.”

The village was destroyed, the hero Leonard was dead, and no one knew what would happen next. It seemed that by hitting the orc corpses, they were trying to dispel their anxieties and frustrations. After damaging the corpses, they boldly proclaimed that they weren’t afraid anymore, and that they could defeat them anytime.

Keith was troubled by this trivial self-satisfaction. Their anxieties were so great that he wondered if it was all right to dismiss them as mere self-satisfaction. And why were they afraid? Perhaps it was because they felt unreliable. They may have thought that when the next giant orc appeared, there would be no one to rely on.

Holding Leonard’s sword, hitting the orc corpses to boost their morale, it was all because of the unseeable anxiety.

“Village chief, please go check on the villagers immediately. See if anyone is complaining of ill health or if anyone hasn’t returned home.”

The village chief nodded palely and rushed out of the chapel, followed by Arjan.

The victorious mood in the chapel suddenly turned heavy. Amidst everyone’s silence, Keith was the only one persistently asking about the ecology of Zombie Ants and the orc corpses.

He wanted to know who killed Leonard and about the enemies they would face in the future. Gerhardt reluctantly answered his questions.

After about thirty minutes, the village chief and Arjan returned, out of breath.

“No one complained of ill health. There’s an elderly person who’s bedridden due to illness, but that was before the orc attack, so it’s unrelated.”

“Hmm, and everyone was able to converse?”

“We confirmed that as well. There also doesn’t seem to be any stiffness in the jaws. But…”

“What?”

“Three young men couldn’t be found. They might have just gone somewhere by chance…”

The village chief voiced his wish, but no one affirmed it.

The five giant orcs had approached very close. They might have abandoned the village and fled. Right now, even that seemed preferable.

In any case, they had to confirm the orcs’ corpses and burn them. Gerhardt gripped his bare sword and stood up.

“Lutz, Josel, and I will head to the forest. The rest of you, wait here.”

“If that’s the case, then I…”

Keith started to rise, but Gerhardt stopped him with his hand.

“You lot stay and protect the village. It wouldn’t be a joke if the village were attacked while the knights are away.”

“But…”

“Let’s go, Lutz, Josel.”

Ignoring Keith’s attempt to protest, Gerhardt left the chapel. Josel followed, while Lutz bowed slightly to Keith and the others before hurrying to catch up with Gerhardt’s back.

“You’re quite considerate, aren’t you?”
On the way, Lutz asked Gerhardt.

Keith and the others, who had steeled themselves, would be an asset in battle, Gerhardt knew. So, there must have been another reason for leaving them behind.

“Hmm,” Gerhardt hummed before answering.

“Perhaps we might have to kill the parasitized villagers.”

“Shouldn’t that be something we experience as knights?” Josel suggested.

It’s part of the fate of those who fight; coddling them wouldn’t do them any favors.

“Their mental state doesn’t matter. The problem is how the villagers will feel. No matter how unavoidable it is, if we kill villagers, there will always be lingering resentment as if we killed their own.”

Both the village and the knight order were about to be reborn. Gerhardt wanted to avoid creating a rift between the two parties that should be cooperating as much as possible.

“Each drifter has their own job, right?”

Gerhardt said with his characteristic carefree smile, and Lutz and Josel nodded simultaneously.

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