章節 103: The Truth - Part 2
"So, what can our humble village help you with?"
That was the first sentence out of the chief's mouth as Olivia and the rest of the girls reached the man who was standing outside of his home. Why he didn't bring them inside to have an actual meeting, she didn't know. Maybe he preferred this meeting take place out in the open so he had a chance to flee should things go bad. And by things going bad, he probably saw Olivia as that potential problem.
She was a little surprised that he had agreed to just have this meeting. Although, it was probably still the prospect of gaining some favour with Lyrika, Philly or Ameril that made him do so. And besides, it didn't look like he was very busy, given that hardly anything was happening in the village.
As the girls had said he was rather young, almost around their age, maybe a few years older. Upon seeing the hulking mass that was Olivia, he did look a little shocked, but very quickly saved face and went back to impassive.
Olivia was at first surprised and glad that they were talking to someone who didn't care too much about what she was. But as the conversation dragged on, her respect for him fell completely.
This had nothing to do with the information that he was providing them, or with how helpful he was being. It had more to do with the fact that throughout, his gaze bounced between Lyrika, Ameril and Philly and decidedly ended up being on a specific area of their bodies. Pretty sure you can guess which area.
The girls had noticed it too, Lyrika and Ameril even going so far as to partially wrap their arms over their chests a little at his gaze. Philly could hardly care less, not even paying much attention to the conversation anyway.
It was a short while in when Olivia actually had enough and spoke up to the man.
*Ehem* Olivia cleared her throat to get his attention. "Their eyes are up here. You would do well to look there when talking to them."
The man look affronted and vexed at being spoken back to like that. He was a form of nobility, the leader of this village. For someone to talk to him like that, well they deserved to be punished. Thankfully for him though, his brain managed to catch up with his impatience when he realised the one talking to him was the massive monster that could do some serious damage to him. That shut him up very quickly.
"I err…yes…what were we talking about again."
From then on he stopped his lecherous gazes.
And the girls, while not saying anything to the effect, did smile a little at her action, but very quickly got back to the interrogation.
…
"We are looking for information on the new chief that has been going around and forming alliances with the other beast-kin villages. We thought he might have come from here."
The chief's gaze shifted over to Lyrika who had asked the question.
"Come from here? I don't know why you would think that." He shrugged in response to the question. "I have no clue where he came from, but he did visit our village at one point. The chief of our village then was all for the idea and agreed with him immediately. He even went so far as to join up with his group, hoping that his presence with the new chief would put others at ease as they visited more villages."
As Olivia digested the information, she couldn't help but ponder on it. It was possible that the new chief hadn't come from here. Sure this was the only village this far north, but who was to say he came from some unknown village or was an outcast or something? He may not have even had anything to do with the beast-kin villages from this area and came from someone afar like the elven kingdom.
But something didn't quite sit right with her. It was about how the chief before had joined the man as well. It was possible, obviously. He could have headed off and left this man in charge of the village. But she couldn't help but wonder, wouldn't Teagan have realised this?
If the point of his travelling with the new chief was to put others at ease, then surely Teagan, who practically knew all of the other chiefs, would have met him as well. That sounds like something he would have mentioned. It also would have made it easier to figure out where to start in their search for the new chief's origin.
The only explanation she could come up with was that either the chief hadn't met with Teagan when they visited the village for some reason. Or it didn't happen. And again, if it didn't, there were multiple reasons as to why this chief had told them that it did. He could be in on it, was told that it did happen that way or he could just be making stuff up to sound knowledgeable to the girls he clearly is attracted to.
Olivia really hoped it wasn't option three.
"The previous chief sounds like quite a brave man to have joined up like that," Ameril said to keep the man talking. It was clear from how she looked that she didn't actually believe that, but that she hoped it might spurn some more answers from the man.
"He was…I was his, apprentice, so I was going to be the chief eventually. While going into the job so quickly was a shock, I was more than ready to lead this village." He said was a little bit of smugness in his voice.
Yeah, option three might have been the case.
"Where is everyone?"
All of them looked over at Philly who had suddenly spoken up. Changing the topic of the conversation so abruptly, the man had to clear his throat before he spoke again.
"Ah, well when the chief joined up, he took all the able-bodied men in this village with him. With the new chief being all about protecting all of the beast-kin and bringing us together, they were all for helping the cause. Even some of the women decided to join as well. They probably joined so they could help with preparing meals and cleaning up after all the men who would be too busy training and helping other villages…Not that women should be doing that sort of thing. They can do all manner of things, of course. It's just that this is what happened here….I think."
The chief ended up waving his hands as he finished to add to not agreeing with what he said. Not that it did him any good.
The guards around him sighed when they heard that, and it was clear that even if they were not showing it on their faces, his likeability dropped to zero for each of the girls. Not that he was anywhere high on the scale to start either.
What he said again made sense. And even if the previous chief had or hadn't left with the village, the men leaving to join the new chief's cause was probably true either way. It did however seem a little off that women also joined up with the new chief. Aside from the women who ended up marrying the man, they hadn't heard of any other women joining from the villages.
She and she was sure Lyrika, Philly and Ameril all hoped that they hadn't ended up meeting a similar fate to what those girls did.
…
They then went on to question him about how they were managing the village with so few people.
He went on to talk about how with so few people, that meant there were fewer mouths to feed. They had enough people managing the farms that no one was starving. There was also apparently no crime here for the same reason, which was the cause behind the lack of guards. The only ones they had seen were the two standing by the chief.
"But what about attacks from bandits or wild animals? With so few guards how would you be able to defend yourself?" was Lyrika's question.
That was definitely something all of them were curious about. If a village like this could manage so well against outside threats, it was possible the same techniques could be used for other villages. That was assuming that what he had to say was something usable.
"Well, we are fairly out of the way compared to the other beast-kin villages. We are a good distance from the human towns and roads, so I hardly see why bandits would bother us. And while there may be few of us, we can handle wild beasts with no issue. Besides, since the new chief gave us his protection, we have nothing to fear. We are well and truly safe."
The frightening thing for Olivia was that it sounded like he truly believed that. Was it just blind faith in this new chief that was the cause? Or was there actually a reason behind him believing the new chief was protecting them?
Given what had happened in Yoban's village, the so-called protection they had from the new chief had scarpered as soon as the fighting started. So, what was the new chief's method of 'protection' here?
Well, there was hardly a problem with asking.
"How is the new chief protecting you when he is so far away from the village?"
"I-I…It is honestly just his word alone that protects us. He also left us with these two fine men to protect our village should something actually happen. But, with his protection, nothing like that will happen anyway."
It almost did sound like blind faith. But with a hint of something else in the mix.
As the chief pointed at the two guards nearby, she almost jumped as she realised the implications of them being the new chief's men. But, as her brain thought more about it, she realised that there was no issue. Like he had said, they were so far out of reach from the other villages, and that it was unlikely they would have been told about Lyrika and her escape from joining him. Besides, even if they were told, they hardly had a picture of her and from the lack of reaction to seeing them, it should be fine. Also, she was sure they could handle them if anything happened.
After saying that, the chief suddenly said that he had to take his leave. He had to go inspect the harvest that was coming in. He told them that he was happy to have met them and that he hoped they could stay a while so that they could talk further. Maybe even over dinner, he had said. He even said they were free to use some of the rooms in his home to sleep in for the night.
'Yuck'
The girls politely and reluctantly agreed about staying a while, but not so much on the dinner or staying the night side of things.
And with that, they saw the man off, and then new they had to get to work, as it was clear that something things were very much wrong in this village.
創作者的想法 
Braderzsz
Braderzsz Hi All, I hope you like the chapter. Just a bit of information gathering form the lecherous chief of the village. But with all they have learnt, they now have more questions than answers. We shall have to see how the search for the truth goes in the next chapter.
Please let me know your thoughts on the chapter.
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