The mood around Weiss village had improved over the past few days. Many of the people who were staying in the village had been helping out with building the orphanage in exchange for supplies and labor. Many housewives were happily sent by their husbands to learn the recipes Kazuya was sharing with them while the housewives themselves were happy to spend time with a handsome young man.

With Autumn just around a few weeks away, it was the perfect time for a more s.p.a.cious and comfortable home for the Orphans that have been growing in number. The house of the village elder was too small for them to be staying comfortably after all. 

"Chief! There is a suspicious group of people heading towards the village from the direction of the forest." One of the men serving as a lookout approached Gain.

"Are they a large group of adventurers?" he asked. There weren't any bandits hara.s.sing them because of the number of adventurers that come and go to their village.

"They look like soldiers." He replied.

This caught Julia and Kazuya's attention. They looked at each other as they had talked about the possibility of pursuers. It was their 4th day in the village and with Sodina's return to the capital, these people should have already scouted as much as they could around the forest.

"Soldiers? Are you sure they aren't knights?" he tried to clarify.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"Yes! What should we do?"

"We'll come and greet them. There shouldn't be any problem if they are the duke's people." Gain patted the nervous watchman's shoulder.

"Gain-san, may I have a quick word?" Kazuya called out before they could leave.

"Is there anything you need, Kid?" he raised his voice and caught the attention of the villagers that hadn't been paying attention.

"I have a confession and a small request to make. To be honest, the unconscious person that we brought to this village isn't one of our companions. His true companions were being attacked by a mysterious group of people wearing strange masks. Unfortunately, he was the only survivor after we helped one other person escape." Kazuya's sudden confession confused those who overheard it.

"We didn't deny that he was our companion because we were afraid that there would be pursuers after his life. If he had regained consciousness, we would have had a better understanding of his circ.u.mstances but, I think this would be better handled by officials since I think that this person may be one of those soldiers."

"Is that all that you need?" Gain asked. If he didn't overhear what he did yesterday, he wouldn't have asked this question.

Though he looked highly upon the Eberbach family, he heard that Kazuya looked down upon the n.o.bles in the capital. Gain wasn't currently aware that Kazuya and Elrich had an amicable relations.h.i.+p at the moment. To avoid any misunderstanding, he decided to keep silent about it until he was given a chance.

"No… my real request is that mine and Julie's presence is not mentioned to them." Kazuya's request confused them even further. If what he said was true, then he would be hailed as a hero and even rewarded.

"Why?" Gain had to ask. He understood people so it wasn't that hard to guess what the villagers might think if he didn't ask this now.

"To be completely honest, I've had bad experiences with n.o.bles. Besides, I would much rather stay here for a few more days to help with the orphanage and finish teaching everyone how to make other kinds of food." He smiled.

"That's right chief! He still hasn't finished teaching us making them look like small animals!"

"I want my wife to be able to make it as delicious as he does!"

"He's a nice young man and would rather help us than get rewards! Isn't that a good thing!?"

The villagers offered their support. Kazuya felt relieved and ignored Julia's disdainful stare.

"(Tch! Silver tongue!)" she still felt bitter about being put in her place yesterday so she could only glare at him after he successfully won the people's support.

"Alright fine. Though I trust my judgment, I will ask them why in case they inquire about your whereabouts. Would that be fine?"

"That's no problem. Our conscience is clear. We just want to avoid trouble if necessary. There might be people bearing grudges after we decided to help after all." he confidently replied.

"Great kid!"

"You can stay in the village permanently if you want too!"

"Don't worry about them! You're already considered one of us!"

"Julie-chan, marry me!"

Gain laughed out loud and headed off. He instructed the villagers to keep Kazuya's horse hidden behind the orphanage and instructed them to say that Kazuya and Julia headed back to the forest to clean out the rest of the orcs he reported that have been roaming around the vicinity.

"You two, Come with me." Gale led the two back to her family's place. She rolled the big rug in front of the fireplace and revealed a secret hatch leading to a bas.e.m.e.nt.

"This is…?" Kazuya was surprised. He wasn't aware of such a secret room.

The former village elder's house in his memories was nothing but a pile of burnt ruins that had been left untouched at the corner of Waise village. This place had been avoided since it brought back Gale's memories of the family she had lost not too long before she had met Kazuya.

"A storage s.p.a.ce where we keep the stuff pa.s.sed down from our family. This place should be able to hide you until those soldiers leave." She recovered a lamp near the fireplace and led them down the stairway.

"Huh?" Kazuya couldn't help but look confused after laying his eyes on the stuff that had been piled up in old crates. "These are…"

"They are old books that grandfather entrusted to us before he died. We tried having them appraised in the neighboring city but they didn't offer anything for them since none of them were able to read it."

"These are Bathalan books!" Julia immediately approached the closest crate and browsed through a few of them.

"You can read them?" Gale cast a surprised gaze at Julia.

"I can't but, those places where you showed some of these did not know what they missed. These can be sold for a lot to collectors or scholars. Why haven't you tried to sell them at the capital? It isn't too far away from here." Julia curiously asked.

"Because we ended up not needing the money. The adventurers helped with the village's survival since we were near the goblin forest."

"That was the right decision. The capital would have been a dangerous place if you carried these books around." Kazuya flipped through the books. "Some of these books are far more precious than what you can imagine. Especially the spell books."

""You can read it!?"" the two girls looked at him with shock.

It was one thing that this otherworlder could already speak their common tongue without the help of magic, or any of the traditional translating rings that heroes were known to wear but, how could he learn about one of the lost languages from another world?

"Is it really that surprising?" He shrugged off their surprise. "More importantly… These books are worth a lot to those who understood what they were. It would have made you walking targets if you had shown them off at the capital."

Once again, this discovery greatly confused Kazuya. He was already aware that there might have been differences and inconsistencies to what he was familiar with because of the different actions he was bound to take, but this was something that would have had an enormous impact on his previous journey if he had known about it.

"(Did Gale abandon these things after Gain had died?)" he thought.

"How many spellbooks are there?" Julia excitedly glanced at the other crates that were also filled with books.

"Spellbooks, skill books, history books, there are various types mixed together. Since we're going to be here for a while. I might as well categorize them." he instructed the two to help him with the other crates.

-

Meanwhile, Gain and some of the villagers waited as the unit led by Zwei had entered their village.

"It has been a while, Zwei-sama. To what does this humble village owe the presence of your company?" Gain politely welcomed Zwei and his men.

"Unfortunately, we are quite pressed for time so I won't be able to stay for long." He said as he got off his horse. "Sodinsama was attacked while she was on her way back to the capital."

Gain's eyes opened wide in shock. This was not a simple matter. He immediately thought that if Kazuya had anything to do with it, Gain would have no choice but to surrender him.

Who didn't know how Elrich had treasured his daughter after losing his wife to childbirth?

 "And your reason for coming to our village is…?"

"We tried to search for any remnants of the a.s.sailants in the forest. Though we were able to locate where the attacked happened, even the bodies of our people seemed to have already been cleared out. To top it off, we need to search for a pair who was last seen to have been roaming around in the forest. That's the reason why I'm here." Zwei lightly explained.

"A pair of people?" Gain immediately knew who they were.

"A young man and a young woman. Though they were unrelated to the attack, Sodinsama had expressed her concerns because she had taken one of the horses they were using to travel in her escape. They might have encountered the attackers while exploring and may lead us to those people's trail."

Gain immediately breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't the only one, the villagers who heard Zwei's explanation made them feel guilty about doubting Kazuya's words. He was indeed a hero that should have been commended but he had not shown any hesitation in giving up any rewards that he might have received.

Zwei noticed the people's strange reaction and relief after hearing the story. Though he wanted to ask, he had remained silent and waited to hear what they wanted to say.

"Well… I don't know about a young man and woman but… there were three travelers that arrived at this village a few days ago. It was made up of a young man, a young woman, and an injured man." Gain replied.

"An injured man?" This immediately caught Zwei's attention. He had already given up hope of finding any survivors after seeing the place where Sodina was attacked, devoid of all traces.

"Yes. They asked if there was any healer in this small village but all we could offer them was a place to stay and some a.s.sistance from the adventurers who were staying here. They reported the presence of gray orcs in the forest and said that they rescued the injured person that was with them."

"Where are they now!?" He was surprised that there had actually been a survivor! This was a miracle! If the ident.i.ties of the attackers were who he had a.s.sumed, they would have never left a survivor. What's more was that from what they found, the forest was clear of any traces. Not many people would have been capable of doing that.

"The young pair had left the injured man in our care together with the some of the spoils they had gotten from the orcs to use as tools for the village." Gain turned to the crowd behind him that dispersed to reveal a wooden cart that was carrying a bandaged man who had been unconscious.

"Sir!" one of the members sent from their fortress immediately reacted. "He is one of the trainees that went with the young miss!"

"Take a look at him immediately!" Zwei ordered.

Under Gale and Kazuya's care for the past few days, the trainee's condition was no longer life-threatening. Though he had gained some scars, it wouldn't be long until he regained consciousness. Unfortunately for those who had worked hard to heal him, they wouldn't get the chance to get any information out of him since Zwei and his men had already recognized the trainee as one of their own.

"I'm glad… I would have brought my daughter shame if it turns out that I asked her to use her healing skills on someone who had tried to lay hands on the young lady Eberbach." Gian breathed a sigh of relief.

"Your village has the duke's grat.i.tude. I may not be able to tell you much of the details but you were able to greatly help us by caring for this man." Zwei showed a smile at them for the first time.

-