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Chapter 151 - Vol. 3 - Chapter 16

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Confused, Baric turned his head toward Vek and rightfully to the warrior under him, the dragonwrought who was going berserk was going at him. Barely entering into his defense stance he saw Vek's murderous eyes.

"Fuck, rat aren't you strong? Do you want to check and see how fast I can kill you."

*Roar*

"Leader, it doesn't help the situation if you antagonize the creature."

"Ohh yea? Then go fuck yourself, want to fight this beast? It is all yours."

Nevertheless before the fight could even get bloody from the villagers' crowd a young lady with a flute and a mandolin in hand appeared shouting with a scared voice, trembling all over the place.

"Don't harm him! He is innocent!"

"Hah, another crazy bitch came now? Is it not enough that I have crazy idiots under me?"

"Nooo, I can help you out. I know a song that was designed to pacify dragons! It is a very old one that my grandma used to tell me whenever she would see me down."

Baric who split his attention from Vek going berserk, saw that he began losing, getting outpowered by this dragonwrought, and seeing no way out but to kill, he got ready to ignore Maryden's empty talk and kill Vek.

"Stop it!"

Yet the voice of a woman from where the Fiends were not long ago got to his ears, with white-purple chains wrapping around Vek and pulling him from him just when he slashed his sword into a menacing way.

"What now? Can't I take a break for a moment?"

"Mary starts your song, we'll see if it will calm him down."

The minstrel nodded, and wetting her lips a bit she started playing her flute giving off a pleasing sound that at first didn't show any signs of change in Vek which made Baric scoff at this parlor trick.

"As if some song would calm down this beast."

Maryden didn't stop, and from the slow start of the flute song, it became more rhythmic and alert, before it slowed down again and resumed the alerted rhyme with tunes that had most warriors beat their feet to the song.

Fayrene too felt that this type of song was familiar to her ears, finding similarities to the style of music Johan would perform, which made Fayrene wonder how could there be such strange similarity.

*Roar*

Vek showed signs of calming down, and with the flute song taking five minutes, when she ended the song Vek's Dragonborn form vanished, revealing the small sized kobold that went unconscious on the floor, caught by the chains that transformed into a pillow.

"It worked! Thank you grandma for teaching me this song." mentioned behind her teeth Maryden, happy to see Vek return to his normal state.

"Can someone tell me what just happened to that rat? Why did it attack me for no reason."

Fayrene, whose migraine lessened since taking things slowly, walked toward Vek to check his pulse, and afterwards giving Baric a disgusted look, she simply remarked.

"Maybe my friend didn't like your smell. For all I know. Can you handle the aftermath of the fight? I will retreat to a secluded place for tonight. Let's go Mary."

Saying that, she picked Vek into her hands, using some levitation magic to cheat in picking the kobold up, and moved toward Elder Kylian who when seeing her, directly got to his knees, bowing hard.

"Lady Fayrene, Amphail village will be forever grateful to your support and sacrifices. Immediately I will prepare a place to sleep."

"Raise up Elder, don't do something so silly. Also I will be fine at your place, we can continue our talk from where we left." said Fayrene who helped Elder Kylian on his feet, and with him agreeing to her request, she started walking toward his residence, leaving the villages who had torches lighted up, bowing at her respectfully.

This change from skeptical to respectful and friendly was thanks to them understanding who fought against the menacing Fiends, but another contributor was the quest she cleared.

[You have completed the quest 'Hope of Amphail Village' gaining your promised rewards.]

[To receive the follow up quest talk with Elder Kylian]

.

Apart from the change in treatment the people had with her, she once again leveled up for assisting the village not to get destroyed, having all three, Maryden, Vek and herself level up twice.

"Fayrene, how are you feeling? You look tired." asked Maryden, worried about Fayrene.

"I am tired. Using magic, especially the type I use, can be deadly for the caster. One wrong move, and you can get seriously burnt, so everything I am doing should be balanced or kept in check."

The minstrel heard Fayrene's tired voice, and didn't bother her too much as she stepped inside the Elder's house, placing Vek first on the floor close to the fireplace, while she went into a meditative stance, crossing her legs beginning to clear her mind.

Outside, the villagers started gathering around Elder Kylian, surprised and even shocked to see that everyone was fine with some exception of warriors who got themselves wounded, but not in a lethal state. Even the two leaders Baric and Halric were checking on their warriors started laughing in an happy way.

"By Rebecca's Grace! We have killed all those monsters without having to suffer the loss of anyone. Old Kylian, you have my apologies for doubting you. A shrewd old fox like you, I knew you had some tricks up your sleeves, such as connections." exclaimed Baric, who was looking around the battlefield that was filled with signs of the battle, from the Nekkers to the Fiend's attacks.

Baric and Halric were relieved, but then one of the warriors who circled the walls to check them, came rushing reporting him something that had the leaders look skeptical, but once arriving at the part of the wall that Fayrene fought on, they saw the aftermath of the magician's power.

"Is this the mark of that young lady magic?"

"Baric, I think you should also apologize to that girl. Haven't your Elder taught you that Magicians regardless of their status, should be respected. The art of magic, is not to be trifled." mentioned Halric, planning in his head the process of rebuilding the destroyed wall section, which required dirt filling.

"I will consider it. Maybe at the banquet I will have this chance, I also have to make things clear with those brats, so they don't think I am a despicable person for not picking them up.

"You better do it, you know how big of a help were Rainhud and Renwick for our success those past weeks. Having them angered and not trusting you or even me for the matter is not something we wish for."

"Okay, stop nagging me, you really resemble that annoying old man."

"Obviously old Kylian taught me a lot of things and how to deal with people of different statuses."

The two leaders then returned back in the village and ordered some warriors to start filling the marks Fayrene left, and with the other warriors they dismissed them, allowing a large part of them to sleep, while they themselves went on the wooden platform and stood on watch.

.

.

When morning came, Fayrene had a better chance of connecting with the Amphail villagers and the other villages people, while inside a larger building like a stable all the warriors were around a table eating, a banquet of sorts held to honor the raven-haired lady along with her companions.

This meeting went rather fast, having the warriors resume back to their scouting job, looking out for any signs of monsters, while inside the building at the table, Baric, Halric, Draevyn, Rainhud, Renwick, Elder Kylian and Fayrene's group were currently talking with each other.

First on the list of things that were discussed, was Baric apologizing to Fayrene which was something she wasn't expecting, making her see this middle-aged man with different eyes, next was him giving his apologies to the two archers which were taken slightly colder.

"I know you will hate me, but when you will ever get the responsibilities of leading soldiers and people, you will find to understand my choice, until then, young pups know that nothing is personal in wars."

"Lady Fayrene, once again I am taking this chance to apologize for my snobbish words."

"Your apology is accepted, don't worry. Let's discuss how to find the source of those monsters."

"What do you mean? Is there a source? We thought they were just monsters that went berserk trying to find food." replied Halric and Baric in a similar way, questioning their own beliefs about the monster attacks.

"I have my doubts and my instincts tell me this isn't a natural reaction. You've seen the first beasts, they acted like rabid beasts not caring about their lives at all. Similarly, the Nekkers and Fiends, didn't care much about their lives, only having a goal in mind, to kill."

"Nekkers? Fiends?" asked the villagers around the table.

"This is how those monsters are called, Nekkers is the smaller one, while the Fiend is the elk monster. I don't have more information."

The guys kept quiet as Fayrene spoke her mind and what she thought about the entire situation since she watched the beasts and monsters and after having some time to herself, she came with some ideas, and with the leaders asking her for more information which she lacked, after some long minutes, the two archers came out with a bold idea.

"Lady Fayrene, we can try to get deeper in the forest and check if what you think goes inside the forest actually is real."

She glanced at the two archers and even at the young warrior who was on board to go inside tje forest to check, and shaking her head calmly.

"It is too dangerous, I don't want to have on my conscience the fact I endangered or even killed innocent people."

"We can do it, Lady Fayrene! Please trust us."

"No, as I said, it is too dangerous."

Then the boys insisted again, as if they tried to act macho with her, not caring about the dangers, scoffing at the thought of death, which made her raise her voice for once.

"No! Do you not understand the meaning of no? If you plan to commit suicide do it another way. Do you even understand what it means if someone is capable of controlling those monsters? It will be capable of killing you without even getting consumed."

"... Lady, how can we know what lurks inside the forest if we don't check? We can talk here, until the night, but then more monsters will come, and more people will suffer."

"Young miss, if those lads want to offer their assistance. They are capable boys that never skipped a day in training themselves, you saw it yourself."

"I want more time to think about all possibilities."

The villagers soon ended their talk at that point, resuming their activities, while Fayrene began using some of her magic to assist in clearing out the damage she did at the walls, aweing the simple peasant warriors with her display of magic.

Night came rather fast, and the villagers were working tirelessly to reinforce that part of the wall damaged by Fayrene, thinking the monsters will once again attack, but once the night was in it's full glory, no monster or beast tried the walls or gates of Amphail giving the first signs of hope to the villagers who looked at Fayrene as if she was their Saint.

"The monsters didn't attack today, hah. Still, boys be focused, they might have another strategy." ordered Halric to the warriors who breathed relieved knowing they wouldn't have to risk their lives.

On another Fayrene and her group spent some time with the villagers with Maryden playing her mandolin for the gathered public in a quiet manner, to be as careful as possible in case she would attract the monsters, and while the fire lighting the village burned on specific intervals, Fayrene relaxed looking at the stars on the sky, and the full moon that seemed to be in hand's reach.

And while she was absent minded, she heard the ringing sound of the system's notification which spooked her a bit.

[Ding!]

[You have received a letter for user Mathias]

'A message from Mat? Didn't he say he will be absent for about one month?'

She had all sorts of thoughts and immediately went to check on her friend list where she only had Mathias in her list, where she saw he was still offline, with the time he didn't appear since he departed.

'I was wrong.'

She got excited to read what Mathias words were for her, and her loneliness cleared out a bit, feeling much better than before.

[My dear Fay

I hope you are well and that you didn't get lonely yet. It is really awkward right now writing you this letter as I am sitting so close to you, but I have to share some of my thoughts with you.

This letter is to tell you Merry Christmas, as in my land's tradition, and it should arrive in your hands by the time one week passes from my departure.

You shouldn't worry about me and know I am safe, recharging my energy and getting prepared to storm over the Saharan and it will be the time where you will see that silly side of mine, reckless and even moronic at times. Nothing should disturb you since I told Edwin to continue working on the building, giving him the OK sign to continue.

Once again, I hope you understand my decision, and that you aren't upset with me.

I love you so dearly. Be well.

Yours truly, Master Tailor, who can barely sew his socks and undies, Mathias.]

Ending reading the letter she received from Mathias, it made the raven-haired girl to release a pure smile on her face, chuckling a bit with some tears on her eyes that she cleared, while telling herself.

'I will take care of myself, darling. What about you, are you okay?'

***

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