บท 13: She is Surprised
"The women and children inside here are fine, but many of the men have broken bones and torn limbs." The village chief answered. He was a rather muscular old man sporting a large scar down his nose, as if someone tried to draw on him with a dagger.
Robin nodded and turned to the group of men on horses behind her. "Are any among you healers!? If so, please come to the front. If you have enough mana, please begin healing the villagers. The rest, please search through the ruins of the village for injured people."
A few men came forward, and began treating the injured, while the rest started sorting through the debris left by the collapsed houses that had been smashed apart to collapse by the orcs.
"So much hard work to build-but now it's so easily destroyed..." She sighed to herself. Wasn't that the way of things? Building up was always harder than tearing down. Now the village itself was almost completely wrecked.
Then Robin turned back to her horse. To tell the truth, when the horse had sensed that orcs were around, it had become quite skittish. When it saw the orcs, it was very afraid, and she could see the whites of its eyes.
So, the main reason why she jumped off her horse at that time was that it would not have gone farther, even if she had whipped it. At that time, Christian had grabbed ahold of the reins to keep it from running away. Because of this, it was still standing nearby, even though it was clearly badly frightened.
She checked her blade for blood, but found it was just as pristine as when she had pulled it out earlier, and so she sheathed it, and proceeded to pacify the horse, petting its nose and neck while muttering soothing sounds to it. She had learned this from one of the war re-enactment men she had talked to. Christian watched her with a growing sense of admiration.
'So this is what a Hero is, huh?' He thought to himself. "You were so quick back there, that I was quite surprised. Usually it takes a full team of seven men an hour just to take down one Orc, yet you managed to take down over ten in less than a minute."
Robin glanced at Christian, considering his statement. "Was it really that impressive? Their armor and movements were so slow, even a child would easily be able to outpace them. I don't see what's there to make a fuss over."
Christian shook his head, looking down at the corpses. "The big deal is that an orc's hide is tough to the point where weapons that aren't steel-made would quickly wear down and perhaps even shatter. And that with no visible blood-drawing wound in sight. Their hides are so strong that they can rival steel plating. Yet you..."
He glanced pointedly at Robin. "...Slashed through them as if they were paper dolls. And you still say that it is not something to take note of?"
Robin turned her eyes elsewhere. There was no need to look at her like she was some kind of monster. It was obviously the work of the sword in her hand.
"If you say so...Ah look, it's a tree!" She said, trying to steer the conversation away.
"Robin, there's trees all over the place." Christian replied, already knowing he would get nothing out of the Hero that the Hero was not willing to reveal.
"But those are all broken, and pushed over." Robin pointed out. "Moreover, it's in the way of the Orcs. Would they allow a mere tree to stand in their way?"
"Then perhaps it was simply their neglect in their haste to kill off the village?"
"Then there would still be fresh scars on the wood, or broken branches from when they passed by, but there aren't. While it could still be a case of neglect on their end, maybe they didn't touch it because of some other reason."
Robin drew closer to examine the tree. 'It's a very good tree with lots of leaves...' She noted. 'And, are those some kind of cherry? I'll need to ask the village head about what kind of tree this is.'
"When the soldiers from the capital arrive, we'll need to search the surrounding area for any signs of Demon settlements." Christian said.
"Mmn." Robin replied.
"Excuse me, but...you're the Hero, right?" The village chief asked.
"I am." Robin replied.
"What are you going to do with these orc corpses?" he asked.
Robin looked at the dead bodies, then she realized that this was the first time she had ever killed something. Her face paled. As the Hero, she would probably need to do this on a regular basis. She turned her head so that she couldn't see them anymore.
"They're valuable, right?" She asked.
"Yes. A single orc corpse can range anywhere from a silver to a small gold coin, depending on the size of their magic stone." The village chief replied.
"Then, take them, sell them, and use the money from them to help rebuild the village and support the families of the disabled or dead." She replied turning her back to the chief.
"But Hero! What about you? You are the one who killed all of them after all! By all rights these should belong to you!" The somewhat muscular village chief was shocked.
"And? What does it matter that I've killed them? Can killing them rebuild the village? Can killing them replace a shattered limb with a sound one? You are right. Those orc corpses belong to me. And now I'm doing what I want with them." She replied, her back still to the chief.
Only Christian, who could see the Hero's face, would know why he said that. The truth was, that the Hero was suddenly feeling violently ill, and was trying to keep her stomach from emptying.
It was more likely that the Hero wanted nothing to do with the orc corpses.
He smiled wryly to himself. This Hero... At first he had thought that this young man was too calm for something like this to be his first time killing others. But it turns out that Christian was almost fooled. Even soldiers experienced sudden nausea upon their first battle. It turns out that the Hero was not too different after all.
"Then, I will thank you in advance on behalf of the entire village." The chief bowed deeply.
"Ah, yes, that reminds me. What kind of tree is this?" Robin asked, trying to think of something else. "I noticed there are fruits on it. Is it some kind of cherry tree?"
The village elder shook his head. "Um..no. That is not a cherry tree, but a peppercorn tree."
After about three seconds, what the elder said got through to her. Surprised, she exclaimed.
"WHAT!?"
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