Chapter 25
It’s been exactly two months since Rennel joined the Blizzard city adventurer’s guild and the event in Greenhorde forest. Due to the interference of a certain administrator, a large goblin village with at least ten thousand goblins and ruled by a goblin king appeared in the aforementioned forest.
This event led to a large campaign against the goblins which spearheaded by the adventurer’s guild and the army. It was also during this event that Rennel made a name for herself by killing a large number of goblins including a goblin champion, and the goblin king.
Although the campaign lasted only three days if one includes the cleanup, it almost caused a panic in Blizzard city, the nearby towns and villages due to large number of goblins involved.
The presence of the goblin village was obviously terrifying. But what really terrified the citizens though was the fact that it took so long for anyone to discover the existence of said goblin village despite its close proximity to the capital.
It was also for this reason that Rennel’s name becomes known to pretty much everyone in Blizzard city, including the people of the nearby settlements.
The citizens were especially grateful for her part in the defeat of the goblin king and the destruction of the goblin village. Moreover, the event no only propel her to fame but also gave her and her spear ‘nameless’ their titles: Platina and Jade Thorn.
Platina was supposedly the name of a legendary silver-haired female spear-wielding warrior that lived in ancient times. Since Rennel, has silver hair and uses a spear as well, people gave her the title of “Platina.”
As for her spear, it go its name from an adventurer with a well-known sense of humor. The adventurer, after seeing the spear, jokingly said that Rennel’s spear was like the thorn on every monster’s sides. Coupled with its green coloration and shape, it was then named “Jade Thorn.”
Speaking of which, what is our heroine doing right now? Why, she’s completing guild quest, of course.
Although it was in the middle of the winter season where work was supposedly slow, the guild wasn’t actually short of quest. On the contrary, the amount of quest available for the adventurers increases after the appearance of the goblin village.
Afraid that other goblin villages might be hidden somewhere in the region, the people in the castle especially commissioned quests to investigate the nearby forest, mountains, and plains in the region. Moreover, quest to whittle down the number of monsters were very common as well. As such, all adventurers including Rennel were very busy these days despite the season.
****
Somewhere in the northern forest, a young, silver-haired girl was being encircled by a large group of club-wielding monsters called orcs. Orcs were monsters that look like bi-pedal boars. They have mountain-like physiques and are known for their voracious appetites, eating pretty much anything with the exception of their own kinds.
As for the silver-haired girl, who could it be aside from Rennel?
Rennel encountered the orcs while she was investigating the northern forest in the northern part of the Blizzard region (a region named after Blizzard city). Usually, it was the city that took the region name and not the other way around. But due to the circumstances of Blizzard city when it was being built, the region where the city was located was named after it.
The forest was quite large which makes the investigation rather difficult for most adventurers including Rennel. Although Rennel possessed a special ability to detect any life forms within certain kilometers, the size of the forest and the terrains still made the investigation difficult even for her.
It was probably for these reasons that the quest remained untouched for almost a month. Even Rennel was not willing to take the quest until the guild master himself begs her to do the quest.
If not for the fact that Guild Master Tigre had helped her a lot during the last two months, making it difficult for the girl to refuse, Rennel wouldn’t even bothered with the obviously troublesome quest.
Anyway, it took Rennel half a day before finding these orcs that seemed to be part of an even larger community of orcs.
Four large orcs charge at the girl while swinging their clubs wildly. They wanted to encircle the girl, and blocked her escape path using their large bodies before trying to land the killing blows. Unfortunately for these orcs, Rennel was no pushover and had even fought a larger and more powerful monster.
Using her speed which she was very proud of, she was able to escape the encirclement of the orcs. She then started picking the orcs one by one by stabbing them on the throat or head which instantly killed them.
Several minutes later, all orcs lie bleeding and dead on the snowy-covered ground.
Checking the corpses of the orcs, Rennel frowned. Looking at their bodies, Rennel noticed that they were rather skinny. Skinny, as orcs goes, that is.
“They must be from a large community of orcs. And from the looks of it, there’s not enough food for them in their settlement.” Rennel murmured to herself.
“Very few are as dangerous as starving beast and monsters,” Chaos commented.
Rennel’s expression turned solemn after hearing her teacher’s words. Although the orc settlement seemed to be far into the northern forest, they might still attack the nearby human settlements if the orcs are desperate enough.
“Then, teacher… should I destroy their settlement?” Rennel asked feeling rather unsure.
Orcs are known to be man eaters, and would not hesitate to eat any humans that they come across. It was for that reason why the orcs attacked her the moment they laid their eyes on her.
Although orcs are not as sinister as goblins, they were no less dangerous than them. Moreover, it didn’t matter to the orcs if there victim were children, elderly and women. For orcs, all of them were food.
“That would be up to you. Do what you believe is right,” Chaos advised.
‘I understand, teacher.” The girl answered.
Rennel weighs the situation before making her decision. Although orcs were monster that eats people, they rarely attacks human settlement, unlike goblins. Orcs might attack humans that they encountered in their territories or while hunting but they only do so in order to survive.
So annihilating their settlements might be a bit too cruel...
But starving orcs are a different story altogether. Orcs that were desperate because of starvation are known to attack human settlements. If Rennel left them alone they might attack the nearest towns and villages.
“Since it comes to this, I’ll do what I must.”
Rennel hardened her heart. She’s human after all, so she must act for the benefit of her race. Having made her mind, Rennel started searching for the orc settlement. But due to the snow, the terrains, and the sheer size of the forest, it took her about two hours to find what she was looking for.
Looking at the place, it was indeed a big settlement. Excluding the ones she had encountered and killed earlier, the settlement has about forty orcs living in it. And looking at their sallow complexion, Rennel knew her guess was right: These orcs are starving.
After observing the orcs for quite some time, Rennel finally entered the settlement…
****
An hour latter…
Rennel stared dazedly at her handiwork. On the snowy ground, large bodies of dead orcs, young and old, female and male were scattered here and there. Their red blood that had been freely flowing for several minutes ago are now frozen completely under the freezing weather.
“Do you regret it?” Chaos asked with an unreadable expression.
Hearing her teacher’s question, Rennel shook her head, “…No, not really. I did what I thought was right. If I didn’t kill them, these starving orcs might attack the settlements near the forest.”
“But… the fact that I didn’t felt that much regret might be the real problem…” A strange smile appears on the girl’s face. She then look at her teacher and asked, “Teacher… am I broken?”
Rennel was feeling very complicated. She just annihilated an entire orc settlement and yet… she’s not feeling much guilt or regret. It was as if she’s been desensitized after killing so many monsters in the past.
Chaos stared back at Rennel for several seconds before speaking, “…Did you just notice it now? You’re already broken before you even left your village. Seeing the fate of the other children in your village had desensitized before we even met.”
The girl’s eyes widened after hearing her teacher’s answer. Thinking about it, her teacher was right. When she hunted and killed her first prey, she actually didn’t feel much guilt back then despite having killed for the first time.
‘Indeed, it was like that…” A wry smile appeared on the girl’s face after she murmured to herself.
“No need to overcomplicate things. The you now is still much better than those hypocrites that tries to always take the moral high ground despite being scums.”
Chaos had travelled to many words and encountered countless people. So what kind of people had it not encountered or seen?
Ordinary people, heroes, emotionless people, naïve, saints, villains, scums and hypocrites – Chaos had seen them all. Moreover, it had seen people broken by their circumstances before so Rennel’s case wasn’t unique at all. Besides, Chaos still prefers people like her compared to hypocrites and scums.
“After destroying this settlement, you had already completed your quest. You should take the orcs’ tusks as evidence and leave. Also, there’s no need to burn the corpses of these monsters. These can be left for the other beasts and monsters. With these many monster corpses, the other monster no longer need to go out of the forest for food.”
Chaos neither blames nor looked down at Rennel for feeling that way. Instead, Chaos instructs the girl the way it always did – making the girl feel much better.
“Yes teacher!” The girl answered, her complexion looking much better.
Rennel followed her teacher’s instructions, and started gathering the tusks. Since the girl only needed to cut the tusks, the work was completed in no time. So after getting all the tusks, Rennel took one last look of the orc settlement before leaving.
After leaving the forest Rennel traveled to the nearest town and stayed at the local inn to rest for the night. Once morning arrive, Rennel quietly left town and travelled towards Blizzard city on foot.
Although she could have taken a carriage to her next destination, the girl still prefers traveling on foot. Maybe she’s just used to it after traveling like that for so long. Aside from that, her running speed was still much faster than that of a horse carriage, especially after her awakening.
If she really wanted to, she could return to Blizzard city in less than an hour. But since she wanted to take her time and enjoy the journey, she didn’t do so.
After half a day of alternating between walking and running, Rennel finally arrived at Blizzard city.
****
Rennel entered the guild while carrying a sack bag filled with the tusks of the orcs and was welcomed by the familiar bustling scene. Observing the place, adventurers are either, chatting, drinking, eating, or looking at the quest board for available jobs.
The girl ignored all of this and walked towards the reception area. As she was walking, many adventurers greeted her. Despite wearing a hooded cloak everyone present still recognized her. Not really surprising as she’s pretty much the only adventurer in the guild with that getup.
Rennel returned the greetings from her fellow adventurers before continuing to the reception area. There she saw Nora, a female receptionist that she’s most familiar with among the receptionists, and spoke to her.
“Hi, Nora. I’m here to report the completion of my quest,” Rennel started.
“Hello, Rennel! Welcome back! I’m glad to see you safe.” Nora returned Rennel’s greetings and welcomed her with enthusiasm.
“I'm happy that you looked for me first but you should report to the guild master instead,” Nora added.
Rennel looked at the receptionist in confusion. Since she’s just going to report the completion of her quest, why did she need to see the guild master?
Seeing her confuse face, Nora giggled and explained everything to the girl, “It was the guild master’s instruction. He instructed us that you should see her once you returned. I think it has something to do with your request after the award ceremony.”
Rennel’s heart skipped a beat after hearing Nora’s explanation. Due to the big role that Rennel played during the goblin extermination quest, the girl was given a medal and a huge amount of gold as reward. But instead of taking the gold, she instead asked for another reward: To investigate what happened to the children that were sold by the adults in her former village.
It was her teacher, Chaos that advised her to do so. Since one of the reasons she registered as an adventurer in the first place was to gather information on the missing children; Chaos thought that it would be better to exchange the gold for another reward.
Chaos figured that Guild Master Tigre had a lot of connection due to his work as the current head of the adventurer’s guild. If they could make use of this connection, they might be able to find the missing children compared to searching for them on their own or hiring investigators using the reward money.
The guild master was understandably surprised when Rennel pushed forward her request. But after hearing the circumstances behind the request, Guild Master Tigre readily agreed.
It has been almost two months since she first forward her request. And from the looks of it, there’s already some result.
Rennel quickly took her leave and with excitedly beating heart, walked to the second floor where the guild master’s office was located.
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To be continued
Previous Chapters: https://read.cash/@beastion
