Chapter 47: Investigation, Scum

"That is correct; aside from these farm tools, we have this armor." Wang Yu stood with Emon and Wenna, staring at the pile of mismatched armor stripped from the goblin corpses at their feet.

"This is the standard-issue armor of the Alestler Empire; it is what the infantry soldiers generally use."

"Look here. Because many places do not value the lives of these low-ranking infantrymen, they usually cut corners on the material around the abdomen."

Emon picked a piece from the heap of scrap to show the others. Wang Yu did not shy away from the filthy, foul-smelling gear, reaching out to touch it.

"Yes, you are right." His fingers traced the plating. The quality was passable, providing the expected protection, but when he pressed against the abdominal section, the metal visibly buckled under his touch. They had indeed skimped on the material.

"Usually, it is only the frontline soldiers who get this treatment. Because their numbers are so vast, the sheer scale makes it so that no one cares about them."

"Conversely, armor supplied elsewhere is scrutinized more carefully because the quantities are smaller and they are not meant for real slaughter on the battlefield. No one cuts corners there; after all, there is little profit to be made in such small batches," Emon explained.

"Is that so? Then this must truly be the armor of frontline soldiers. But you certainly know quite a bit, don't you?" Wang Yu nodded in acknowledgment, then added with a hint of admiration. He had not expected the Orc to be so knowledgeable.

"I had the misfortune of serving on the front lines..." Emon touched a long scar running from his left eye to his chin. His expression remained neutral, suggesting he had made peace with his past.

"Following this fellow Elliot might be a bit stingy, but it is still much better than the life we lived before," Wenna interjected. It seemed their previous lives had been far from easy.

That made sense; the level of skill Wenna displayed placed her among the top-tier assassins of the formal knight class.

Discreetly choosing not to pry into their pasts, Wang Yu pulled another piece from the pile.

Examining the armor, which was riddled with holes, he spotted the Sewentan crest on the left breast. He touched the standard-issue plate, and sure enough, this time the shoulder guards were the ones lacking material.

Sighing at the realization that such things were the same everywhere, Wang Yu confirmed that the gear these goblins carried had come from the front lines.

"So, these goblins all crossed the border from the front? That seems incredible..." Wang Yu muttered to himself.

Setting aside the question of how the front lines could provide such an environment for these weak goblins to scavenge equipment, simply crossing the border without being detected by Alestler patrols was a feat in itself.

"Wait, the uniqueness of those three goblins!" Wang Yu, momentarily confused, suddenly realized that if these goblins remained undetected, they were indeed capable of such complex maneuvers.

If those three could render themselves unobservable, then perhaps the concealment of this large horde was not impossible after all...

That meant the power of the Lady of the Night, Eunice, which had appeared in his mental space, had to be taken seriously.

While Wang Yu pondered, a shrill goblin cry came from behind: "Hurry up! These armors are meant to be sold for money!"

"We have already wasted too much time; finish up and let's go! This armor should be enough to compensate for the loss of my poor horses!"

Elliot, the goblin who had been screaming in pain moments ago, had recovered. Seeing Wang Yu and the others staring at the pile, he grew impatient.

Many horses had been bitten to death by the goblin pack; Emon would likely have to pull the wagon himself, and Wang Yu might even have to lend a hand.

Horses were not cheap, especially well-trained, high-quality ones. Having them killed meant Elliot, the caravan master, had suffered a significant loss.

Collecting the armor to sell back at the capital was a way to mitigate the damage.

Emon scratched his head, a look of embarrassment crossing his scarred face. "Boss, I will forgo my wages this time. I want to go see the village that was raided by the goblins..."

"Sigh..." The small goblin glanced at the awkward, hulking Orc and let out a helpless sigh, his energy deflating.

"Tell me, why is an Orc like you so kind-hearted? Your wages will be paid, go if you must. And you, Wenna, why are you indulging this guy's madness?"

Elliot looked at Wenna, who rolled her eyes at him, though she did not refute him.

"My apologies, honored guest. Emon suddenly wants to take a look. I hope you do not mind the slight delay..." Elliot turned back, offering a fawning apology to Wang Yu.

"It is fine. I would like to see it as well." Wang Yu waved his hand. He was indeed curious about the situation. He hadn't planned on going, but since Emon had brought it up, following along seemed like a reasonable choice.

He could gather intelligence and hand it over to the members of the Night's Blade for analysis upon reaching the capital. As for the Lady of the Night, it was best left to Father Fang; for an outsider like him, playing the hero was foolish.

Elliot and Wang Yu returned to the carriage, waiting for Emon to load the stripped armor.

On the way, the greedy goblin, sensing that Wang Yu was easy to talk to, couldn't help but chatter, complaining incessantly.

"Sigh, you tell me, why is it so hard to be a caravan master? Nothing but trouble. One subordinate looks down on me, and the other is usually obedient but acts stubborn at the most critical moments."

"Just now, you tell me, why is an Orc so kind-hearted? He cares more about this kingdom than an Alestler farmer. Sigh, really, my apologies for making you listen to my drivel." Elliot apologized for his own chatter after finishing his complaint.

Wang Yu smiled without responding. In truth, it was clear that Wenna and Emon respected this boss, who, despite his mercenary nature, did not lose his head when it mattered. In this world, everyone had it tough.

After waiting for a while, the carriage began to move. It seemed Emon had finished loading the armor and set off.

Though it was a delay, it was not significant. Emon had recognized the hoes and farm tools held by the goblins, as well as the crests of noble fiefs on their clothing, identifying them as coming from a small village along the trade route they frequented.

They would investigate as they passed by. The wagon's speed was much slower than before, as the loss of several horses had hampered the entire caravan.

Fortunately, they had made good time over the previous days; they would reach the capital in about a day.

Wang Yu sat in the carriage, still pondering the goblins and the Lady of the Night manifested by the steel spike in his mental space.

He could not grasp the deeper meaning, but it was not hard to guess that this was part of some plan by Sewentan. And the waters ran deep.

After thinking for a long time without reaching a conclusion, he simply stopped. He was not, by nature, a person of Alestler, so he did not need to be overly concerned. He only needed to ensure that the coming chaos in the capital did not spill over onto him; the rest was of little importance.

The caravan traveled for a while before gradually slowing down. As Emon pulled the reins, the entire group came to a complete stop. Wang Yu jumped off the wagon and walked toward Emon.

The hulking Orc was standing by the trade road, looking toward a small village in the dark of night. The goblin raid had occurred in the latter half of the night, and dawn had yet to break. The moonlight was bright enough that torches were unnecessary.

Wang Yu scanned the path leading out of the village. Several shocking trails of blood stretched far into the distance, marked by the bloody prints of small feet.

These were left by the goblins. The blood had dried, appearing as a pale, brownish-red under the moonlight. Goblin blood was green; whose this red blood belonged to was self-evident.

The Orc clearly saw this too and quickened his pace toward the village. Wang Yu and Wenna followed the large Orc as he ran inside.

The further they went, the more harrowing the scene became. Messy, chaotic bloodstains appeared on every path in the village, and a large number of mangled corpses were discarded on the road, covered in bite marks.

Goblins were typical omnivores, eating almost anything, and they were certainly not picky about human flesh.

As they ran deeper into the village, the ruins were fully revealed. The earth and wood structures were meaningless against such a large number of goblins; they had either been forcibly pushed over or gouged with massive holes.

The interiors were a wreck—tables overturned and shattered, jars smashed on the floor. A large pool of blood and some broken, blood-stained bones in the ruins were likely the final traces left by the homeowners.

The Orc ran with urgency, his intentions clear, but the village was deathly silent. There was not a single sound of a living soul. The collapsed fences and destroyed houses all signaled that no one remained alive.

Wang Yu's Inner Eye was fully activated, ripples extending outward to scan for any lingering life, but so far, he had found nothing.

The three of them raced through the silent village. One could imagine the despair of the villagers facing those goblins—a massive horde appearing suddenly, faster than the villagers, and in numbers beyond imagination.

The village guards might have been overwhelmed before they could even counterattack. Against these small creatures that ran faster than humans, even if a single one posed little threat, the villagers could not withstand the sheer volume.

The goblins' keen sense of smell had rendered most hiding spots useless.

Thinking of the scene where the goblins, shrieking in a frenzy, swarmed the villagers, hacking and gnawing at them, Wang Yu sighed. Indeed, no matter the time, it was always the ordinary people who suffered most in war.

And what were the instigators of war seeking? Wang Yu did not understand, nor did he care to. He felt no particular emotion, only a sense of helplessness.

Some things, whether the world changed or not, remained the same in essence. It made no difference which world one was in.

"Hmm?" Wang Yu, still finding no living souls, detected something different in his ripple vision: chaotic, twisted, smoke-like entities knotted together.

Within them were phantom human faces, flickering in and out of the "smoke." The faces were of all ages, yet all shared the same anger, brutality, and a trace of... confusion?

"Be careful, there is a wraith ahead," Wang Yu warned the other two. He was familiar with this; the "Wraith's Wail" that had killed a large group of bandits in the thieves' den was the powder left behind after such a wraith dissipated.

"Mm." The Elven Ranger nodded. With her keen perception, she and Wang Yu sensed it almost simultaneously. They stopped and looked into the distance.

The cloud of smoke hovered in place, faces constantly emerging from it, emitting silent shrieks before shrinking back. Both the Orc and the Elf frowned in discomfort, but Wang Yu remained unaffected.

"How could there be a wraith here? There were none in so many other places we passed," Wang Yu thought to himself. He looked at the Orc and saw his face was ghastly, as if he had realized something terrible.

The villagers they had passed earlier had also died gruesome deaths, yet no wraiths had appeared. Why here?

This wraith simply hovered, its smoke-like body constantly solidifying and drifting apart. Unlike normal wraiths, it was not driven by hatred to slaughter every living thing nearby after death.

It felt strange to Wang Yu, as if it could not find a target for its resentment.

"Let us go; this thing will not lay a hand on us," Eamon said, rising abruptly before striding toward the specter. Wang Yu was taken aback, yet he trusted the stalwart orc’s judgment and followed close behind.

As expected, the wraith made no move to attack them, remaining a flickering, ethereal presence that drifted aimlessly beneath the pale moonlight.

The orc seemed to have fixed his gaze upon a specific direction and broke into a swift run; Wang Yu matched his pace, racing toward the outskirts of the village.

Suddenly, Wang Yu’s ripple-sense detected something: a vast pool of gore and mangled remains, and buried beneath the carnage, a trapdoor made of iron.

"I have visited this village before; there should be an emergency cellar for refuge here..."

The orc’s expression darkened; though he spoke of a sanctuary, he showed no glimmer of hope for any survivors who might still be breathing within.

Stopping before the pile of butchered flesh, Wang Yu stared at the remains as his ripple-sense probed through the iron door.

He saw and heard several people huddled in the spacious cellar below, whispering to one another in hushed, frantic tones.

A young man spoke to the middle-aged man beside him, "Father, it is fortunate that Hake the patrolman sensed the danger and warned us first, or we would never have made it here in time."

"That fool Hake, overflowing with misplaced sympathy, went off to warn the other villagers; I expect those goblins tore him to pieces halfway there."

The middle-aged man replied with chilling indifference, "He sought his own death, so who is there to blame? It was to his credit that he warned us, and we might have let him hide with us, but since he chose to run after the others, he paid for his own life."

"Indeed. When those villagers tried to swarm the entrance after being warned, it was a good thing I jammed the door with an iron bar, or we might not have held them back." The youth nodded.

"I heard the blacksmith’s son was up there too; he had strength enough to bend that iron bar, but his screams were just as loud when the goblins sank their teeth into him."

"Serves him right. If he had forced the door open and let the goblins in, it would have been a disaster," the middle-aged man continued, unmoved.

"True. I heard the villagers crying out in despair when they thought the door was merely stuck; the sound of it made me shudder."

"These goblins are truly terrifying. I only hope the rescue arrives soon; surely the Church of Light will sense the calamity here before long?" the youth asked, his voice trembling with lingering fear.

Wang Yu turned his cold eyes toward Eamon; he finally understood why the orc’s gaze was so frigid. He did not know why this alien warrior cared so deeply for the Alastair Kingdom, but he knew that there were wretched souls here who did not deserve to live.

Facing Eamon, Wang Yu gave a sharp nod; the orc’s face darkened with grim resolve. He understood.

Without a word, Wang Yu and Eamon stepped to either side of the iron door, gripping the handles as their muscles corded and surged with raw power.

"Skreeee!" The iron bar, once a barrier against the desperate, was twisted and snapped like a twig under their combined strength.

"Snap!" The bar shattered, and the trapdoor was ripped wide open, revealing the faces of the family below, frozen in a mixture of terror and confusion. Casting a glance of icy contempt at the human filth, Wang Yu and Eamon turned and walked away.

The youth stared in bewilderment at the open door and the retreating figures of the orc and the man, looking to his father for answers, only to find the middle-aged man wearing an identical mask of confusion.

Suddenly, the youth saw his father’s expression shift into one of absolute horror as he stared at something behind him; he spun around in a panic.

Under the moonlight, a swirling mist coalesced, revealing a cluster of heads twisted in eternal, agonizing spite, dancing in a frenzied blur. The embodiment of wrath surged down through the open iron door.

The door that could not be opened had finally been breached, and the wandering wraiths had found the destination of their vengeance.

(Please leave a comment and add to your library, thank you!)