章 5: Chapter 5: Sill Village

"So, to summarize what you told us: You don't remember how you got in the Emerald Forest and have been living there for the past 3 months, eating nothing but dried meat and river water."

"Yep."

"That rifle from your arm wasn't your Semblance but something you can do anyway?" Esther made the same sword she killed the Alpha Beowulf with appear on her left arm.

"Mmhm!"

"And you somehow managed to kill a resting Alpha Beowulf? Yeah, that part still confuses me." Ivan admitted.

"Mmm. It put up a strong fight and I only won because it got cocky at the end. If it were smart and used other tactics instead of blindly rushing in, I would have died right then and there. I'm even more glad that fight didn't leave any lasting scars." Esther shrugged off the encounter, not at all worried about her dangerous situation.

The group of Hunters worriedly looked at each other. They had been working together for a couple of months so they were relatively rookies and had many encounters with Grimm but a child defeating an Alpha Grimm with no Aura and odd weapons made them worried about her mentality.

'Poor thing. She must have repressed the memory to make sure she doesn't remember it again. Esther probably lost and is only alive through some lucky chance.' Helen thought, shining a light on Esther's made-up story. "That's right. You got really lucky there, Esther. But don't worry us strong Huntresses will protect you from any bad Grimm."

Esther nodded, looking at her surroundings once more.

After saving one of them, Vance from a Beowulf, Esther hitched a ride with them to the nearest town or village. Luckily, they were on their way to one of them so they accepted her as part of their group.

The group of Hunters was making their way to Sill Village, the place where the van originally wanted to go. It housed some supplies basic needs and building materials. The reason being for the emergence of a new village.

Vance, Ivan, Helen, and Melina were contracted to protect the van from bandits and Grimm that may come their way. They had just finished dealing with some criminals before some Beowulves intruded on the party.

'The bandits' negative thoughts, as well as the Hunters, must have attracted the attention of that pack of Grimm. Negative emotions, such as death, anxiety, and fear are a natural beacon for these creatures of darkness. I am so glad to have [Gamer's Mind] to mute out any emotion I exhibit.' Esther thought as she got out of the forest she stayed and into the plains of the land.

And at the middle of the clearing, Esther can see some village construction. "I think I see Sill Village."

"Already? But we just exited the Emerald Forest." Melina commented, squinting her eye at where Esther was staring at. And after a few minutes of driving later, she did see the silhouette of a budding village. 'How does she have such good eye-sight? It took me years to develop mine and she's only 5.'

In truth, Esther used a combination of [Observation Haki] and [Observe] to fully maximize her vision. It worked similarly to Usopp's Kenbushoku Haki.

After an hour or so of traveling, the group of Hunters and Esther arrived at Sill village.

___

Sill Village wasn't anything to write home about. Because it was a budding village, the houses didn't look impressive and some weeds were growing from them. Some farmlands were yielding some crops and the only acceptable house was city hall.

Even so, the people were very eager to work. Most, if not all were seen constructing more houses to live in and tending the farm for agricultural trade and consumption.

That was what Esther was seeing while waiting near Town Hall.

The group of Hunters was discussing with the mayor of Sill Village about the confirmation of materials and the completed mission. They all decided to keep Esther out of the 'adult' conversation and let her play with the other kids.

While the thought was nice, it was also highly irresponsible.

'Who the fuck leaves a kid out in an unknown village?! Why couldn't one of them keep me in check while the rest do that? Don't they have some semblance of responsibility? Some hunters...' Esther merely sighed. With nothing much to do, she left not only to explore but to also teach those rookies about child safety.

While walking around, Esther finally took notice of the shabby clothes she was wearing. It was nothing more than the clothes she had when she first came here, a simple shirt and shorts. Now they stood the test of time with dirt, sweat, and blood-soaked into them that they were rags by now.

'I need to get some better clothes. But to do that, I need money. Doubt I'll get some by killing bandits or Grimm.' As Esther thought more about this, a voice whispered into her ear.

{Break... down.} Esther, surprised, turned to whoever spoke to her and managed to bypass her Haki but saw no one.

"What..." The voice spoke again.

{Overuse... strain... break.} It was a genderless voice that Esther didn't recognize. The voice is coming from a direction so Esther followed the voice.

'What's going on? I thought [Gamer's Mind] was protecting me from any mental attacks. Is it a bug? Damn it. This won't solve anything unless it happens.' Esther is mentally prepared for an attack against her in case a fight breaks out.

She continued down the winding path until Esther saw a big watermill. There is a steady stream of water that is pushing the watermill to fuel the building built into it. Esther once again heard the voice, this time louder than before. {Hurry... before I... break.}

"Shit." Esther rushed towards the building, determined to find out what was going on. She opened the door to the building and closed it.

___

(3rd POV)

Upon the completion of the mission, the team of Huntsman exited the mayor's house with stiff expressions. As they stepped onto the dirt road, Vance sighed.

"This sucks."

Helen nodded weakly as well. "Indeed. I didn't think our efforts would reward us with this much."

Helen glanced at Ivan, their team leader. "Was it necessary for you to simply accept it? As Huntsman, we're entitled to a better form of compensation."

Ivan breathed out of his nose. As team leader, the situation affected him deeper than his friends as well as sharing annoyance. "Can't be helped. The mission was ranked D for a reason. Even if we do press for it, it wouldn't look good on us if we were to hassle a poor village with more money."

Melina, covering as vice-leader, nodded. "Reputation is more important than money. Reputation leads to better jobs, and better jobs mean better money."

"And better money means worse risks. Have you seen the missions and the rewards with them? Why haven't the Guild marked them as suicidal already?" Vance moaned.

"Because there are actual competent hunters that are better than you." Melina snapped back.

"You calling me useless?"

"If it weren't for Esther, you would be some poor Grimm's lunch by now!"

As Vance and Melina bickered, Ivan looked around to notice a certain child wasn't nearby.

"Hey, where's Esther?" The two stopped arguing and checked, to also mirror their leader's question.

The team couldn't find the little girl that saved them and immediately went into action.

"Vance, Helen. Head to the East and West side of the village. Melina, head to the rooftop of the mayor's home and give us a bird's eye view. I'll be here for support. Move!" Instantly, all members spread out. Vance and Helen ran off while Melina jumped high above and perched at the top of the building.

Her weapon, a long-scoped rifle, was brought out and Melina scanned the village for signs of Esther. 'There's not many kids with silver hair, nor as dirty as she is. I bet she'll stick out like a sore thumb in this small village.'

While she peered through her lenses, Melina saw a small child with white hair running towards the southwestern part of town. Following her directions, she found a water mill nearby and guessed that's where she was heading.

Meline grabbed her Scroll, a hard-light device that functions as a phone and called her teammates. "Found her. She's heading towards the watermill. South-West. No idea why she's heading there tough."

Ivan, her partner, replied back. "Thanks. Heading there now."

The team rushed over toward the watermill with Vance first entering. The building looked fine at first glance, gears were turning, but the water was barely building at all. But he pushed the matter behind.

Vance searched for Esther in the dark building. The many gears inside would cause severe harm to the unprepared, especially to a child's body.

"Esther! Where are you?!" Vance shouted as he headed deeper, taking care to not get stuck in the many revolving machines inside. Aura can heal most damage but the damages would drain his bank account even deeper.

As he delved deeper, he could hear some odd noises above him. A bit of focusing would give him a sight of Esther in her hands on the machines. Vance hurriedly went to her location.

As he got there, Esther was seen tinkering with the machine with a focused look. Vance quickly scooped up Esther in his arms and stopped her from making a mess of the machine.

"Hey! What the hell?! Don't you know it's dangerous to go into these types of buildings?! You could get seriously hurt, you know?" Vance told the 5-year-old in his arms as he looked at the damage done.

"But I wasn't hurt. I was only helping." Esther replied, not caring about the situation she was in.

"Helping? By doing whatever it is your doing here? Your hands could get stuck and have to be amputated. Do you want to live life without your hands?" Vance let the threat go over her head. When it comes to dealing with unruly children, he had to play a scary act to ensure they didn't do it again.

"As you can see, all 2 hands of mine are fine. Now please let me go."

Vance gave a tired sigh as they exited the watermill, not dropping her in the slightest.

When they left, Esther looked back at the watermill and gave a thumbs-up. The voice from earlier spoke for the last time.

{Thank... you.}

(Sorry for the long hiatus. School was out and I had to devote all of my time to it. I want to make it right so I'll try and push out a chapter every 2-3 days on one of my books.)

(Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year to all. Let's all pray that 2024 is the best of all years.)