Seeker 369

Test

Chapter 369. The Boy And The Villager

After the incident with the lady and the roc bird's egg, we departed from the city of Lahati and headed further north to the city of Zerk.

Having left Lahati after lunch, we traveled along the highway for about a day and a half.

As night fell, just before the city gates closed, we finally arrived safely at our destination.

The culture and atmosphere of the city of Zerk were not much different from the previous cities.

Passing through the city gates, we took a light stroll through the night streets, which were reminiscent of medieval Europe, before settling into an inn to welcome the next morning.

And so, the next morning arrived.

There were still 55 days left until our return to the original world.

As we made our way to the Adventurer's Guild, adventurers seeking quests had gathered in front of the guild as usual.

It was still before the guild opened for business.

For the time being, we decided to wait until it opened.

"Hey, Daichi-kun. I wonder what happened to that kid?"

"He doesn't look like an adventurer, does he?"

"Ku-pii?"

Among the rough adult adventurers, there was a beastman boy who could be considered a child.

He looked about ten years old, around the middle grades of elementary school—a boy from the Wolf Fang tribe.

He had a fluffy silver tail and wolf ears, along with nearly matching silver hair.

His features were well-defined, and any lady who liked younger boys would surely drool at the sight.

The boy was nervously looking around, but eventually made eye contact with us.

To be precise, it was with Kazane.

After a moment of thought, the boy ran over to us.

Standing in front of Kazane, he looked up at her and asked,

"Uh, um. Have you seen my sister? She's an adventurer with a silver tail like mine."

Kazane glanced at me and Yuzuki.

Both of us shook our heads.

Kazane crouched down a bit to meet the boy's gaze and replied gently,

"Are you looking for your sister? Sorry, we haven't seen her."

"I see... Thank you very much."

The boy politely bowed his head and left us.

Hmm... It didn’t seem like he was flirting with Kazane...

Watching the boy from the Wolf Fang tribe walk away, Kazane spoke up.

"I wonder if his sister has gone missing. But he was such a cute kid, so polite—wait, Daichi-kun, what's wrong? You look troubled."

"...Huh? Am I making that face?"

"You are, you are. Did you get jealous because I said that kid was 'cute'?"

Kazane looked at my face with a puzzled expression.

She was too close.

I hurriedly averted my gaze.

"I'm not jealous. There's no way I could be jealous of a kid like that."

"That's a tell-tale sign! You have the same face you make when you're lying."

"Hey, Yuzuki! Stop saying nonsense!"

"It's not nonsense! I know you better than anyone!"

"Come on, it's okay, Daichi-kun. You're the best. But jealous Daichi-kun is cute too~."

"Wh—! Kazane, we're in public!"

"Huh? Are you surprised about that now?"

"Ku-pi, ku-pii♪"

Kazane hugged me as if to cheer me up.

It might just be her maternal instincts kicking in.

While I was happy about being hugged, I was also incredibly embarrassed, to the point where I felt like steam was coming from my face.

Even my familiar flying overhead seemed to be teasing me.

Of course, the surrounding adventurers were giving us the usual curious looks.

Just as we were doing this, another incident suddenly occurred.

A man on horseback rushed up to the Adventurer's Guild.

He looked like a farmer from some village.

The man stopped his horse in front of the guild, dismounted, and hurriedly knocked on the guild's door.

"This is bad! Open up! It’s not just the villagers; even an adventurer has turned into a zombie!"

The man, who seemed to be a villager, banged desperately on the door while pleading.

Even just hearing that, we had no idea what was going on.

However, we could understand part of it.

The adventurers around us began to murmur.

"An adventurer has turned into a zombie...?"

"What does that mean? Did a dark mage kill them and turn them into zombies?"

"But wasn’t there a story that the corpses of adventurers don’t become zombies? Isn’t it revenants that raise the dead adventurers?"

"But I’ve heard it takes a special rare item to create a revenant."

Speculation spread among the adventurers.

We exchanged glances, unsure of what to think.

An adventurer becoming a zombie—I thought of zombie movies, but I had never heard of monsters in this world having such contagious properties.

At that moment, I caught sight of the boy from the Wolf Fang tribe again out of the corner of my eye.

He looked wide-eyed but quickly ran over to the villager.

"Um, mister! Is your village by any chance Midona Village!?"

"Y-yeah, that's right. But what is it, kid? This isn’t the time to be messing around... Huh? That silver tail, could you be related to that female adventurer?"

"…! I knew it! But if that's the case... no way... No way! My sister can't become a zombie…! That’s impossible!"

This time, the boy confronted the villager with a near-hysterical look.

The man looked confused, as if he didn’t know what to do.

I could tell this was a serious situation for them, even if I didn’t know the details.

The surrounding adventurers also looked on in confusion, wondering what to do.

Just then, a woman who seemed to be a guild staff member appeared from a narrow path between the neighboring buildings.

She spoke with the boy and the villager and eventually led them to the back entrance.

The commotion seemed to have settled down for now, leaving the adventurers waiting for the guild to open.

To us, who had only witnessed the situation, it was all a mystery.

From the fragments of information we heard, we could make some guesses, but...

"Does that mean that kid's sister has become a zombie—an undead monster...?"

"That’s what it sounded like. ...Could it really be a revenant?"

Yuzuki picked up on Kazane's words, showing an unusually serious expression.

I recalled the time shortly after we arrived in this world when we had fought against cultists trying to turn a dwarf warrior into a powerful undead monster known as a "revenant."

But unlike turning a regular human into a zombie, there had to be a ritual using a special magical staff called the Revenant Cane to turn an awakened being into a revenant.

"But from what Yusefia said, it sounded like the Revenant Cane is quite a rare item. I doubt it's something you can just find lying around."

"Could it be that Yusefia is in that Midona Village?"

"There's no way. Even if she were, I don't think she would misuse it. Probably."

"Yeah, right."

Yusfir, the dark elf sorceress we met on a different occasion, had been seeking the Revenant Cane, but she didn’t seem to be involved in this matter.

As we were speculating, the Adventurer's Guild finally opened for business.

The front door of the guild swung open, and adventurers poured into the building.

We decided to put the earlier commotion out of our minds for the moment and look for the quests we should take today.

We scanned the quest requests posted on the bulletin board, hoping to find one that would allow us to efficiently complete our mission.

Just then, from the stairs leading to the second floor of the guild, a flustered guild staff woman hurriedly ran down.

She shouted to the adventurers gathered in front of the quest bulletin board,

"Emergency quest request! We are looking for adventurer parties that can undertake a joint raid quest or an S-rank quest! Are there any parties available!?"