Chapter 62: C62: A Slice of Life
I didn't talk with any of the people inside.
They were all looking at me suspiciously, and trying to be too friendly might cause that distrust to grow even further.
After finding a place in the corner to lie down, I took out a paper map from my backpack.
"Damn it." The map was wet.
I had used a pen to cross off a couple of mountains, and the ink had smudged along the paper. Thankfully I was close enough to the destination I was looking for that I didn't need a map too much. I could just memorize the thing before it broke down.
Despite concentrating on memorizing the map, I kept on guard and ready to draw my sword out at a moment's notice.
My thoughts of cautiousness broke when I heard a cough. At first, I didn't think anything of it. But the cough continued getting more robust and rawer.
The source was a young girl; she looked small, thin, and frail. She didn't seem older than two or three years old.
Usually, I might have ignored something like this. After all, I wasn't a doctor. But a village like this was so far away from any town.
Was there anyone who could take care of the young girl? I took out a small healing potion, something an exorcist would use to heal minor wounds.
It was created by using demon corpses as base ingredients. At the same time, potions were relatively expensive for the average human. They were relatively cheap for exorcists—especially small brews like this.
As I got up, every villager had their eyes on me. A couple of them had pitchforks and other weapons for basic protection.
It seemed like they didn't trust outsiders.
"The coughing child," I took out the small potion bottle. "I used to dabble in medicine during my time as a merchant. This is a cold medicine."
The village head frowned but didn't say anything. Another one of the villagers said. "Don't play with us, young man. Your medicine is rather precious, if it does what you say. Why would you give it to us?"
Jeez, why did it have to be so hard to help people? If Agon was here, with his friendly face, I bet everyone would take any potion vial from him.
Judging by how precious these people seemed to consider simple medicine, it felt as if they rarely left their village. They were at least fifty years back technologically and how their houses were built.
"Well, you opened your doors for me. Saving a stranger you knew nothing about from a storm. I want to repay that favor." I looked toward all the men with pitchforks, machetes, and hoes (the tool). "If I'm lying in any way, and if I'm the kind of guy who would poison kids. Then those guys with weapons would no doubt kill me. Why would I do something like that?"
"You're damn right!" Hollered one of the villagers.
The village elder took the potion vial from my hand, and stared at it for a couple of seconds. He approached the kid's mother and whispered some words of assurance. "Don't worry. Your baby will be okay. Our God wouldn't let your daughter die so young."
She nodded and quickly pulled her coughing daughter upright. "Here honey, drink this. It will make everything better."
The little girl drank from the bottle without much question. Everyone's attention was on the pale young girl. The potion's effect was immediate, and the young girl's face gained some color.
The young girl's mother cried and hugged her. The village elder gave me a side glance and sighed. "Thank you, young man. It seems like we were suspicious of you for nothing."
I didn't know if her cold or whatever she had would improve. But this should give her the energy to fight it.
If things got worse, I could try and use my Ord to force her immune system into gear.
While in Perfect Me state, I might be unable to control my body or even my Ord. I could still sense everything. So in a way, it was like muscle memory.
But doing what I did through Perfect Me to someone else was a last resort. Because of that kind of Ord control, I wasn't sure it was humanly possible.
Could I even do that same procedure on myself? I didn't know. But doing it to someone else was even more challenging.
After some murmurs amongst themselves, everyone seemed to drop their caution toward me.
I went and sat back in the corner of the room once more.
I was about to go back and try to memorize the map. When a young girl around my age came and sat next to me. "I knew you weren't a bad guy!"
She took out a book titled 'The Strongest Demon Slayer'. The book had creases around it; its pages had wrinkles, and it looked old enough to belong in a museum. "Have you read this on the outside world?"
"Can't say I have," I answered truthfully. In this world, I didn't read much on anything that wouldn't improve my chances of survival.
"Well, you should sometime. My ancestor, who followed the nameless demon slayer, made the book. Some called this Demon Slayer the Son of God." She explained.
That last part caught my interest.
God was something in this world whose existence was debatable. Many Ultimate Class Demons could be considered Gods in one way or another.
Also, people in a certain place called Avalon Island were trying to create a God. But I didn't have to think about that, as I was too weak to even do anything about it.
Opening the book, she showed me the first page. A demon was standing on all fours, and a man was sitting on the creature's back, using the demon as a chair.
"This is the Devil, the embodiment of evil. The nameless demon slayer forced the evilest creature in the world to bow down…" she continued telling me all kinds of stories.
After a while, the girl told me dozens of different stories. By that time, the storm had somewhat settled down.
Should I set off?
The logical answer was yes. I shouldn't waste any more time here. But at the same time, the little girl still hadn't fully gotten better. Sure, color had returned to her face, but she would still cough now and then.
But despite knowing what the logical answer was. I couldn't just leave a kid to possibly die just because I wanted to go somewhere a couple of hours earlier.
I wasn't a good guy. I was kind of selfish most of the time, but I had a soft spot for kids.
"You aren't going to leave?" Asked the girl suddenly. She no longer seemed so joyful, like when telling me about the adventures of the strongest demon slayer.
"No, not yet," I leaned back and sighed.
"You are a kind man," she smiled. Then she turned and called out. "Father, I want this man to leave!"
Huh? Did I do something wrong? Why was she asking for me to leave all of a sudden?
Her father, who seemed to be the village elder, only stared at her for a couple of seconds before sighing. "Yes, he is a kind man. You can leave now, youngster."
Okay, this was a bit weird.
It was right then that I noticed that the rain had stopped. Did the storm go away after the village elder called me a kind man? Or was it just a coincidence?
Still, I was worried for the younger girl. "I can guide you to a nearby town with a hospita-"
"Young man," the village elder stopped me. "Don't let your kindness blind your eyes. You know another storm will be there for us."
As soon as he said that, everything clicked into place.
I see. Now it made sense why this place seemed to be so old.
Sometimes when humans die, their obsessions can pool together—forming weird phenomenons.
Looking at the people, they all seemed real, as far as I could tell.
Were they already dead? I wanted to ask that. But I decided not to for my own safety.
"Thank you, mister," the young girl who had drunk my potion suddenly said. I didn't even know she could speak before. "But you don't belong here with us."
The village head's daughter pushed the book into my hands. "This is for you. Read it when you have free time."
The village head opened the door, showing a sunny outside. There wasn't a stormy cloud in sight.
"If there had been a kind man like you back then. Maybe we wouldn't have ended up like this," the old village head sighed. He seemed regretful of something. "No matter what you do, don't look back. Or else there won't be anything we can do about it either. You will be stuck here with us until the end of times."
What the fuck had I walked into?
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