The village was still enclosed by the same crude wooden fence, barely sufficient to keep out wild animals.Nothing had changed since Minori's last visit.
His arrival did not go unnoticed.Many villagers watched openly, especially when they saw him help Emmett's eldest daughter carry bundles of weeds.
For the women of the village, whose lives were often monotonous, this was a rare source of lively gossip.
—
Down a narrow dirt path,three figures walked deeper into the village.
"I'm sorry to trouble you again, Village Chief," Minori said politely.
"You need not be so formal, sir," the dark-skinned village chief replied, his speech quick and respectful."The room has been prepared for you. It's the same one you stayed in before."
—
Minori paused slightly at the words.The room was already prepared?
He shifted his gaze to the middle-aged man trailing behind the village chief.
The man wore a shortbow across his back.His right hand swung naturally with his steps—but his left hand, pressed against his hip, remained tense.
Minori could feel the man's nervousness.
The man's gaze occasionally flicked toward the small creature trotting at Minori's heels—a tiny evil hound.
Minori narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
Lachimon.If he remembered correctly, this should be the only villager employed as a hunter.
The bow confirmed it.
Several thoughts passed swiftly through Minori's mind.Feigning casualness, he asked, "Have there been other visitors to the village recently?"
—
The village chief could not have predicted Minori's return.If the room had already been cleaned, it meant someone else must have come.
The village chief nodded."Aye. A few groups of adventurers passed through lately. They spent the night, then hurried on."
"Do you know what brought them here?"Minori's tone remained light, but his eyes sharpened.
"We did not ask, and they did not say," the village chief answered, smiling easily."They are important people. We common folk know better than to pry."
—
Minori smiled slightly in response.
Smart.Ordinary people survived in this harsh world through caution and humility.
Even without detailed information, it wasn't difficult to guess:a remote border village like Kahn, which normally saw no outsiders, suddenly receiving multiple adventurer teams—it likely had something to do with Minori's recent activities in the nearby forest.
Minori soon arrived at his lodgings.
It was indeed the same room.
The interior had been meticulously cleaned—even the cobwebs on the beams overhead were gone.
—
"Ouf!"The small evil hound sniffed about energetically, inspecting every corner.
Minori glanced at it and warned softly,"Don't bark when there are outsiders around."
"Whiiine…"The little hound immediately stopped, shrinking into itself, its ears drooping submissively.
Its intelligence was quite high for a monster.After this period of bonding, it had become even smarter than Minori initially expected.
It was capable of understanding simple commands perfectly.
Satisfied, Minori casually reached into the air—and from his item box, pulled out a goblin corpse, tossing it to the floor.
"Tonight's dinner," he said.
The little evil hound pounced eagerly.
—
Meanwhile, outside—
The village chief and Lachimon made their way back along the dirt path.
The village chief's warm smile faded into a worried frown.
"Has something happened in the forest recently?" he asked quietly.
When no answer came, the chief turned, surprised."You're unusually quiet today, Lachimon."
"It's a demon hound," Lachimon said, his voice trembling slightly.
"What?"
"The creature following that man—it's a demon hound pup."Lachimon's face had gone pale."In terms of adventurer rankings, a mature demon hound carries a difficulty rating of 45."
He inhaled deeply.
"Even if it's just a cub now, a fully grown demon hound is more dangerous than an ogre. And where there's a cub—there's likely a cunning adult nearby."
—
The village chief frowned in confusion."Difficulty rating?"
Lachimon explained briefly:The "difficulty" scale was a standard used by adventurers to measure monster threat levels.For example, an ordinary adult male human was rated around 3.
As the village's hunter, Lachimon had some experience dealing with adventurers and trading in Ye-Rantel, and thus knew such things better than most.
"Village Chief… that man isn't an adventurer," Lachimon said under his breath, glancing toward Minori's house.
"Real adventurers always wear their guild plates openly.And the pure black hair… foreign features…plus a demon hound pup…"
No matter how you looked at it, the man was abnormal—and dangerous.
—
Tap tap tap—
Light footsteps sounded on the path.
Both men instinctively fell silent, turning to see Enri approaching, balancing a wooden tray in her hands.
The village chief quickly masked his worries with a gentle smile."Where are you headed, little Enri?"
"Village Chief, Uncle Lachimon," Enri said, bowing slightly."My mother asked me to bring food to the adventurer… to thank him for helping with the weeds."
On the tray was a simple meal: a bowl of steaming bean soup with diced meat, and a plate of freshly washed nuts.
—
"When did Emmett become so generous?" Lachimon teased with a low whistle.
"Go ahead, Enri," the village chief said warmly.
Enri nodded and hurried off toward Minori's lodging.
Once she had disappeared down the path, Lachimon turned serious again."Village Chief… should we send someone to E-Rantel? Something strange is happening in the forest."
The village chief didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he stared thoughtfully after Enri's retreating figure.
Only after a long silence did he resume walking forward.