Chapter 12: What Happened Here?

On the third day of their journey, they reached a small town called Ruwen. The place was quiet, too quiet that travelers might think of it as a ghost town. This situation immediately made Orion frowned.

Most of the houses were poorly made, that with just a weak gust of wind, the houses would fall over. The few people Orion saw were poorly dressed and so thin, this only showed how unfavorable their living condition is. His frown deepened at the negative thought that passed through his mind.

They stopped in front of a stone house which was by far the largest infrastructure in the place. A stout and fat man welcomed them with a big smile. He was dressed much well than the other people in the town so Orion assumed that he must be the town's mayor.

They were ushered inside the house into a well-spaced living room that was intended for receiving guests. The servants of the house promptly served them with a generous amount of pastries and tea.

"Welcome to Ruwen your highness, we apologize for the poor reception. You see we are a bit short on resources right now because of the disturbance happening on the Emerald Forest. We are very thankful that your highness personally came to solve the problem." The town's mayor smiled stiffly.

"How long has been this going on?" Orion asked.

"It's been going on for a month now at first the situation was not as worst as it was. We have requested the capital for assistance but it was not enough especially the last days. The animals would suddenly go wild and attack the town's people. This place can hardly be called a town anymore," he earnestly explained.

The last month has been tough on them. The town's people were not able to produce enough crops for food supply since wild animals would continuously trample their plants. Houses were destroyed and rebuilt again that the people decided to use wood rather than bricks. Even other towns have ceased their trade with them because of the worsening situation.

Water for drinking has also been limited since no one can really go to the spring and bring back water for fear of being attacked since the well suddenly dried up for unknown reasons. Some of the town's inhabitants have also moved to the capital already for safety purposes.

"Don't worry we will do what we can in order to solve the problem and make sure that you will all be safe," Orion promised which made the mayor sigh in relief. Although he didn't expect the heir of Archellia to personally come, he was still thankful and full of admiration for the prince.

"We will leave some of the warriors we have with us to keep this town safe until we solve the trouble at the southern border," General Rohan added.

"Thank you! Thank you so much, your highness, general." The mayor was almost teary-eyed as he profusely thanked Orion and General Rohan.

After a generous dinner, they were escorted to their rooms for the night. Orion spent half of the night staring at the ceiling in deep thoughts. Traveling for only three days has opened his eyes to many things. There really are things that a person of his status should see with his own eyes to better help his people and his kingdom. the more they traveled, the more he was affirmed that his decision was correct.

Orion woke up early the next day only to be stunned at the situation before his eyes. The warriors assigned to patrol the area were laid down on the courtyard being attended to by a physician and by Karina.

"What happened here?" he asked in a stunned voice.

"Just before the sun rose one of the warriors came back badly wounded and reported that a monster attacked them during their patrol. General Rohan went there to assess the situation," one of the people gathered there explained to the prince.

"Your highness, it is better for you to return inside the house for now," Apollo held the prince's shoulder in an attempt to usher him back towards the house but Orion angrily swatted the latter's hand.

"It was already wrong of you not to wake me up and inform me of what happened and now you want me to get back there and sit pretty, are you mocking me?" Orion angrily threw a vicious look at Apollo.

"I apologize, your highness." Apollo stepped away from Orion and did not dare to refute the prince's words. He silently watched the prince approach Karina and offer help in bandaging the wounded warriors. While doing work, he also took the chance to converse with the ones who were not badly injured.

Half a day has passed when General Rohan returned with a grave face. The situation was serious. What they encountered in the forest was nothing like what he had seen before. It was an animal but its body was entirely black and it was at the level comparable to a Steel body-level warrior. At first glance, it looks like a shadow but it is not easy to inflict wounds to it.

It's easy for him to fight something of that level but the problem was that there were not only one of those creatures. They fought at least fifteen of them and even though the general was already at the Saint-level it was still not easy for him to defeat fifteen creatures of the Steelbody-level. It took them almost four hours to eliminate the enemy.

Inside the house, Orion together with Apollo and Arthur waited for the general to report what exactly happened. After issuing some instructions to the rest of the uninjured warriors, General Rohan joined the prince in the living room.

"We manage to eliminate the creatures that caused this incident but we are not yet sure if they are the only ones. I already let the other warriors with higher power level to patrol the area for additional safety," he explained.

"What caused all of this?" Orion asked through gritted teeth.

"It was a creature of pure black, it looked like a shadow but its body is harder than a rock and they were in groups. It was the first time I saw creatures like those," General Rohan leaned on his chair and took a deep breath. "I think this is related to the situation on the southern border. I've sent a message to Captain Rom who was in charge of overseeing the southern border on the day we departed from the capital and I haven't receive a reply yet. I fear that something might have happened there," he added.

"We need to make haste then. If we continue to be idle here we might not have a southern border to save," Orion decided. They needed to move fast for he fears that the situation has already escalated.

"Let the warriors rest first and we also need to restock our supply, after that we will set out again." Rohan stood up and attended to the things they must prepare before they continue moving south.