We made it back to Iliasburg without incident. That was a huge relief, since I didn't want to have to deal with random monsters with four little kids tagging along. Would Alice make them disappear too if a fight threatened? Would they try to help? Would they witness me getting sexually assaulted and be traumatized for life? Was that even a worry when it came to monsters? They seemed to have vastly different views about sexuality than humans, which I imagined would only make coexistence challenging. But I guess anytime cultures mix there are going to be challenges. No reason to be fighting all the time.
The cut on dragon girl's side had not just healed, but entirely disappeared, which was a relief to me. It was more than could be said for my own wounds from the previous day, which still throbbed painfully. I guess Angel Halo was the ultimate in nonlethal weaponry. Why I could stab a puppy with this thing and not feel guilt! Maybe that was taking it a bit far.
I'd been counting on my status in Iliasport as the hero who had triumphed over a Heavenly Knight and thus saved the city to enable me to back anyone off if they wanted to do the children harm. But I still feared the people there might be unforgiving and chase us out of town. Which raised the question of what to do with these four. Would I have to bring them along with me on my journey?
Thankfully, it appeared I had misjudged the good people of the city. The monster children apologized in the same city plaza where I had fought Granberia. I'd chosen that place deliberately so that the people would be reminded of what I'd done there and listen to me if I had to face them down. But every single individual seemed forgiving, and some felt more than a little silly for having been scared of these urchins. They even worked out an appropriate punishment for the bandits' bad behavior- honest work. The blacksmith was especially interested in the dragon girl for obvious reasons. It had gone so much better than even my most optimistic assumptions.
Most satisfying was seeing Alice's reaction. She was clearly surprised but trying not to concede too much to me. Still, she seemed impressed. "So the humans here are willing to accept monsters?"
"I'm not sure this would have gone as well in Ilias Village," I said. "But people can surprise you. I think that deep down most people are good, they just let their fears get the better of them. But I can't imagine that even the most fanatical Ilias followers would want to harm little kids."
"You'd be amazed at the brutalities humans are willing to inflict on each other," Alice countered. "You have more faith in the goodness of those cultists than I do."
"Perhaps," I conceded. "The prejudice there runs very deep, and I'm afraid none of the villagers' encounters with monsters have been positive experiences, to put it mildly. It's easy to hate when you've lost people. I imagine my perspective would be very different if someone I loved had been killed or kidnapped by a monster."
I felt a tugging on my sleeve. I looked down to see the dragon girl trying to get my attention. Did she have a name? Somehow it felt dehumanizing to just refer to all these monsters by their species.
"You helped me so much," the still unnamed dragon girl said. "Let me give you this."
She handed me a red gem. It was really something. Just the deepest red I'd ever seen. This thing must have been worth several nights' stay at the Sutherland Inn! Or maybe it could even buy the inn!
"Where did you get this?" I asked. "Was it something you stole from someone?"
"Sorta," she said guiltily. "Some rich people saw me by the hideout and ran away. This gem dropped out of their luggage. I think it's a really valuable treasure."
Alice spoke up. "That thing in such a place… It's too dangerous. I don't want humans to misuse it. Oh well, the blue and the silver aren't here, so I guess there's no issue." Eh?
"Alice, you know what this is? It's not just a gem?"
"Of course," she replied. "Who do you think I am? But… it's probably better if I don't tell you."
Man this woman is stingy with information. And me with my diarrhea of the mouth, the only reason she doesn't know everything about me is because I don't know everything about me. If the gem is potentially dangerous when combined with the other gems she spoke of, maybe I shouldn't get any ideas about selling it. Just hold onto it for safekeeping. Besides, it was really pretty. Was I into jewelry? Hmmm, I don't think so. I hoped not, that could get expensive. No, I never bought any in Ilias Village, so maybe this gem was just special. Besides, it had been given to me as a token of appreciation. It felt like more of a treasure as a result.
"I'd say that was a small step towards making things better, wouldn't you agree?" I asked Alice, smugly.
"Hmph." Was the only reply I got.
"Well then," I said. "I guess we should resume our journey. Be good little monster girls, okay?"
The little ones enthusiastically assured me that they would. Dragon girl, who seemed to have taken even more of a liking to me than the others, promised that she was going to help the world, like her hero Luka! Awwwwwww. I sure hoped so, a girl growing up to be a powerful dragon and a friend to human and monster alike was an investment in a better future. Even Alice seemed a little moved, or at least that's how I wanted to interpret the thin smile that appeared on her face.
As we left the city, I just couldn't let it go. I was really fishing for some praise from Alice for some reason. "So would you say that was pretty heroic?"
"Idiot," she said. "What would you have done if she turned out to be an adult dragon? Did you really want to die? And what happened to you not needing to be a hero? Don't think that just because all your encounters so far have been monsters who weren't trying to kill you that it will be the norm. One day you're going to challenge a very powerful monster and get eaten for your troubles."
"Okay," I conceded. "But I also saved the city, and from a Heavenly Knight no less! You were so busy demanding to know why I did so well that you never bothered to compliment me on doing well in the first place."
She turned on me, angrily. "Idiot! Idiot Idiot Idiot Idiot! And she's an idiot too! She tries to take over a city, supposedly to keep the city from recruiting heroes to threaten the Monster Lord, but she's so caught up in her addiction to honorable battle that she ended up accomplishing nothing! She could have beheaded you at any point in that fight, a dozen different ways! But no, she had to steadily up the ante instead of just cutting you in half right at the start, because she had to know what you were made of. She needed that more than she needed to complete the stupid mission she supposedly set out on! And you, who says, 'I'm no hero, I just want to see the world, I just want everyone to get along', goes charging into battle just because I criticized your wittle sword skills? If you don't learn to pick your battles, or set priorities, for that matter, you'll be a meal! I should just eat you myself, I'd make it far more pleasant than most of those other monsters!"
"I'm sorry, Alice, please forgive me." I pleaded. "I don't know why, but I just keep on seeking your approval and that's causing me to make bad decisions."
She softened a little. "Luka, don't act based on how others might think of you. You need to do things for the right reasons. Look, maybe it was a good thing to challenge Granberia. If she'd taken the city it might have complicated things and I probably wouldn't have been able to get my Ama Ama Dango. But be more careful in the future. You say you're trying to learn but all you've done since we got to Iliasburg is rush into any situation where you felt people needed help."
"Then you probably won't be happy to hear where we're going next", I said, cringing.
"Oh, don't worry about that," she said. "We have to go to Happiness Village, that's a genuine crisis. Honey supplies are threatened."
I chuckled to myself. She'd probably cheer me on charging a battalion of dragons if there were Ama Ama Dangos in their treasure horde. Did dragons have treasure hordes here?
We journeyed from Iliasburg mostly in uncomfortable silence, commenting only on the weather(still lovely), and food(always a safe subject where Alice was concerned). I'd bought her some choice foods from many of Iliasburg's gourmet shops and she spent much of the walk happily noshing on them and occasionally commenting on their virtues. Despite being a foodie, she didn't really seem to dislike anything, even some of the treats that I judged to be of rather mediocre quality. If it was edible, she at worst sorta liked it. I'd wondered how she planned to sample all these foods if I wasn't around to buy them for her, but figured a pretty lady like her wouldn't have much problem talking men into giving her nice things.
"Do you know why it's called Happiness Village?" she said as we neared our goal.
"Because the people there are so happy?" I guessed.
"You're an idiot," she said. "The name is derived from the nearby Harpy Village."
"Oh, is that why?"
"Being close to the harpy village," she said. "and hearing that they're having a problem, I can take a guess as to what it might be."
I had a pretty good idea as well. I'm pretty sure I mentioned before that a friend of a friend from Ilias Village had been kidnapped by a harpy. Seemed a pretty good chance that harpies were taking all the men, probably to be mates. Harpies weren't known to be particularly vicious, so I considered it unlikely that they were killing or eating the men. But kidnapping and rape were pretty serious crimes on their own. I'd have to put a stop to it if I could and rescue those men. And since Alice was likely to get some honey out of it, perhaps she wouldn't complain this time.
We arrived at the village later in the day. It appeared to be a peaceful beekeeping and farming village. Women were tending to the crops and beehives. Except for the lack of men around, other than a few children, it was quite the contrast to what I'd seen upon entering Iliasburg. There was no sense of threat hanging over the place. People weren't huddled in their homes. And yet it seemed far from a happy place. The women were working hard and there was a sense of sadness all around. Losing husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers and still having to get the work done to survive could not be easy. I admired these women a great deal for their apparent stoicism.
"Oh, a traveler?" one older woman approached us. "You came all the way here but we don't really have anything to entertain a traveler with. Due to a shortage of manpower, we have a shortage of our specialty Happiness Honey too."
Although I was pretty sure I knew what was going on, it seemed best not to assume. "Why do you have a shortage of manpower?" I asked.
The answer came not from her mouth, but from the mouth of a young boy who suddenly screamed. Without further thought, I ran towards the scream as fast as I could, slightly annoyed that my good speed kept on being used to run towards danger instead of away from it. I found the little boy in the claws of a harpy. She didn't seem to be that much older than the boy she was trying to kidnap, probably an adolescent by the looks of her. She was trying to take off with him. His struggles were causing her talons to scratch and cut him, which only made him panic and struggle more.
"Stop! Let the boy go!" I shouted at the harpy, brandishing my sword. To my dismay, it seemed that all the other villagers had run back into their homes. What is this cowardice? That's a little boy!
"Huh?" the harpy looked quizzically at me. "I haven't seen you in this village before. Are you a traveler?"
She sized me up for a moment then released the boy and smiled at me. "Alright, I'll let the boy go. Instead, I'll kidnap you!"
The boy needed no encouragement to get away as quickly as possible. I raised my sword and faced the harpy. "Heehee… you're much nicer than that little boy. I'll take you back to my nest and we can make lots of children. Or we can start making them right here? Be a good boy and make a lot of children with me."
Grrrr… This one was making me angry. Even though I was just charging into battle, I was learning something here. I was learning that a village of harpies was preying on a human village. Of course humans were going to hate monsters if this was going on! Something had to be done, I just wasn't sure what. But more immediate problems had to be dealt with first.
She flew at me with impressive speed, but I was no slowpoke myself and slashed at her. She pulled up just before reaching me, causing me to miss her cleanly. What Alice warned me about rang true. So many ways for different monsters to attack. A flying opponent was going to be difficult.
I tried to locate her again, not easy while searching in three dimensions. She flew by my backside inches away before I could react. I feared the pain of her talons but all I felt were soft feathers. They felt really nice, actually. Is there any part of a monster that isn't either for combat or pleasure? Or was that just the magic? I checked my back to see if maybe the talons had cut me so fast I hadn't felt it right away, but no, she hadn't used them.
I looked around again, trying to catch sight of her, and in a fraction of a second she entered my vision, directly in front of me. Before I could react, she slammed into me, knocking me down. She brandished a wicked looking talon and slashed my pants, ripping them off. I was impressed and relieved at her skill. And also glad that I had the foresight to buy a lot of pairs of pants in Iliasburg.
"No man can resist the baby making hole of a harpy," she said, staring at me with a lewd expression on her face.
She had made a critical error though. Despite the fact that she hadn't knocked Angel Halo out of my hands, she wasn't restraining my arms. I wouldn't have any leverage in my strike, but how much did I need with an enchanted sword that didn't create real wounds anyway? I thrust my sword into her abdomen. She screamed in surprise and pain. Oh I guess it does still hurt? I felt a little bad for that, but again, what was the alternative? At least it wouldn't do her permanent damage.
She flew up in the air, freeing me. "I'll let you off with just that much for today!" she yelled as she flew away.
"What happened?" a woman said, exiting her home.
"The traveler drove the harpy away?" a little girl said, looking out a window. Amazing?"
The villagers started to come out of their houses, gathering around me. Fortunately I'd had the awareness this time to get a new pair of pants out of my backpack, although I'm sure a lot of the village had seen plenty from their homes. Was this going to be an every day thing? I looked among the crowd. I couldn't find a single male over ten years old.
An elderly woman walked up to me. "Driving off the harpy. You must be really skilled!"
"Oh, thank you." I said sheepishly. "Are you in charge here?"
"I am the village chief's wife," she replied. "Since he has been kidnapped, I am the acting village chief."
Alice looked even more disgusted than usual. "Barricading yourself in a house even as a child is being abducted? Can you really call yourself a chief like that? Actually, not a single person in this village tried to help."
Alice's bluntness may have been spot on, but it still made me uncomfortable. Not that I didn't appreciate it, it needed to be said. I could never have said it. The women all went silent at Alice's words and wouldn't meet our gaze.
"What can weak people like us do?" the elder said ruefully. "Now traveler. We hate to impose, but we have a favor to ask of you."
"Haha," Alice laughed. "Here it comes, HERO. Now they are going to force their problems on you."
The old woman's face flashed with anger and embarrassment, but she continued. "I'm sure you're aware, but there are no men in this village. As you saw earlier, the harpies are kidnapping all of our men."
A younger woman came forward. "The man I married two months ago was kidnapped." Another woman had the same story to tell. Another had lost a teenage son.
"Do you know what they are doing with the kidnapped men?" I asked.
"We don't know," the elder said, shaking her head. "None of them have ever returned. Are they slaves? Eaten for food? We have no idea."
I felt a surge of sympathy for these women. To lose someone is terrible. To have no idea what happened to them, even worse. How did they go on?
"With no men," the elder continued. "This village is doomed to fade away. Please, traveler. Can you root out the harpies, and return peace to our village?"
"Why don't you do it yourselves?" Alice interjected. "What meaning is there to bringing peace if you can't maintain it yourselves? To rely on outsiders while hiding in your homes. How pathetic."
"Alice," I protested. "These are simple villagers. Do you really think they'd have a chance against a village full of monsters? Aren't even weak monsters stronger than most humans?"
Alice had no response to that. I turned back to the elder. "Well then. Where do they take all of the men?"
"It seems like there is a settlement to the east of this village, in the forest.", she replied.
"Are you really going to defeat them?" a woman in the crowd asked.
A small girl seemed more confident. "Hooray for the traveler! I know he can do it!"
Alice wasn't done with them. "Well aren't you all happy. You've persuaded a traveler to fight your battles for you. Just how many travelers have you sent to defeat these harpies?"
That was a good point. I turned back to the elder. "I think she asked a fair question. How many?"
The elder hesitated and looked at the ground. Another woman stepped forward and spoke. "So far seven people have headed off to defeat them. None returned."
Alice was right. I was an idiot. Right after she had dressed me down about situations just like this I was about to go charging into battle again. I hadn't been thinking. I may be good with a sword, but I'm not even as strong as a village of simple farmers and beekeepers. If they couldn't face the harpies, how could I do it all by myself? I would end up just breeding harpies for the rest of my life. Not the worst fate imaginable, but if I was here for a purpose I was pretty sure it wasn't to just create more harpies. There were already plenty of "volunteers" for that job.
"See?" Alice had a triumphant smirk on her face. I'm sure I've never met anyone with such a dazzling array of smirks before. "They didn't bother to mention that part to you. You're too trusting. If you defeat them, they'll be happy. If you fail, they'll just send another traveler to their death. Do you still want to help such a horrible village?"
I was learning some things about myself at this point, some admirable, others questionable. I found that I was getting addicted to helping people. I was getting addicted to the praise. I was conflicted by Alice's desire for the Happiness Honey situation to be resolved and her admonishments to not rush into stupid missions. I thought I was a loner! Why do I care what people think? Why do I care what Alice thinks? And what should I do now? I wasn't sure how to tell the villagers that I wasn't going to charge into a situation that would in all likelihood end my journey and leave my questions unanswered forever. Was that selfish of me? Alice seemed to see me as a simple, unsophisticated person and I'd bought into that. But I was being pulled in many directions now. Maybe it had been easier just living a simple life. Maybe I should have just accepted my role in Ilias Village. People liked me, and I was very, very good at my multiple roles in the village.
The elder responded to Alice. "We don't have a way to fight though. We're powerless."
Alice wasn't cutting her any slack at all. "Even so you've sent seven travelers to their death. Now you're trying to send yet another? For sure the harpies are doing something bad. But you all aren't much better."
All the villagers stared at the ground. I begged Alice with my eyes to please have mercy on them. Could she even begin to imagine what they'd been through? What she'd said had to be said but I didn't think they needed any further help with their self-loathing. I just didn't know if I could tell them I wouldn't help them. But I knew I had to.
Then fate bailed me out. A woman stepped forward. "I'll go. If the traveler will go fight the harpies, I will too!"
Another stepped forward. I recognized her as one who had lost a son. She was in tears. "I've spent the last year imagining my son crying for his mother, and his mother just stayed in this village, waiting for someone else to go and rescue him. Well I'm not going to be scared anymore! I'm going to be the mother I should have been and go find my boy!"
The elder turned to her and protested. "It's too dangerous, Martha!"
But then a small girl came forward. "I'm coming too! It's as the silver haired woman said. While our fathers and brothers have been stolen, we've just hid in our homes. We're cowards."
Now others were coming forward. Soon all of the villagers had agreed to go with me if I chose to go. How could I refuse them now? And maybe, just maybe, we could win. I had to believe that.
Alice meanwhile looked thoughtful. "With harpies, there's always a leader. If you defeat the leader, the rest will fall into chaos. Like that, even weak people may stand a chance."
"Okay," I replied, hopeful now. "That sounds like an actual plan. I'll defeat the leader, and then the villagers can mop up."
"Now here's what we're going to do," I said to the villagers. "Find somewhere safe to wait outside the harpies encampment, or village, or whatever it is."
"Aery", Alice interjected.
"Thank you. Once I defeat the leader, I'll give you all a signal to attack. If I fail to defeat the boss, you all hightail it back to the village. And maybe…. Move on. If this fails I just don't see what other options you have, and you can't just keep sending travelers to fight a whole… aery of harpies. There are still a few sons in this village. Run away with them. The people of Iliasburg are very good people, I saw that when I visited just yesterday. They'll help you. And if you really want to return to your farming life, go to Ilias Village. There are almost no monsters there, you'll have nothing to fear. Maybe you can even do some beekeeping there, start making Happiness Honey again."
"We understand," the elder said. "We should have left long ago, but you just can't imagine what it's like. How could we abandon our loved ones, not knowing what has happened to them? But if it's truly hopeless we'll do it for the sake of our remaining sons."
"Believe it or not, I think I do understand. And I don't blame you. We'll do this together. I can't promise you that this will work, or that you'll find what you want to find, but…. We'll give it our best shot."
As I walked away with Alice, she said, "You still got stuck with the hardest part."
"I'm not sure anyone else can do it," I replied. "And I'm hoping it won't be that impossible. My job is only one opponent. I just have to figure out how to get to her without being overwhelmed."
"I've been thinking about that." Alice said. "Harpies are active during the day and sleep pretty deeply during the night. You might be able to sneak into the village and confront the Harpy Queen without disturbing anyone."
I smiled. "Alice, it sounds suspiciously like you're helping me."
"It's a concession, I'll admit," Alice said. "But you thought this one out a smidge better than you normally do, and while I'm completely against doing things for you I don't mind helping you help yourself. Besides, I want Happiness Honey."
Why did I find her motivations always being about food so endearing? I let the villagers know that we'd attack after nightfall. The women were grabbing weapons where they could, mostly farm implements. I feared for the bloodshed to come. This was war and this was exactly what I'd hoped to not ever see. Harpies' talons vs. pitchforks, machetes, and kitchen knives. Against me they might use pleasure attacks because they'd want me intact, but against these women they'd almost certainly cut them to ribbons, and what the villagers would do to the harpies was going to be equally awful. I had wondered if I'd ever seen war before in my previous life, and now knew that I had not. I really wished there was some other way.
What few boys were in the village had been ordered to stay home under lock and key. They were desperate to join the fight, but they were too valuable to the village to risk. No mother in this village was going to let another woman lose her son.
"Luka," Alice said. "Why do you care about these strangers? Do you have self esteem issues or something? People give you just a little praise and you'll run off to slay dragons for them."
"Is that why you almost never praise me?" I asked.
"I praise your cooking," she protested.
"I get it though. I'm not likely to run off and challenge a Heavenly Knight like Granberia to a cook off. Do you think she'd accept a challenge like that?" I asked, only half jokingly.
"Who even knows with her? She's so hypercompetitive I wouldn't put it past her, but she really prefers contests that involve violence."
"So you know her?" I asked.
Alice seemed to realize that for the first time she might be saying too much, so she answered my question with a question. With a teasing smirk, she said, "Why, are you interested in her?"
I hadn't really thought of it that way, but something about her chivalrous spirit intrigued me. Rolling around on the ground with her hadn't hurt either. How in the world did she keep her hands that soft? What kind of moisturizing cream must she be using? Wait, I'm not going to ask her for beauty tips, am I? Who am I, exactly?
I stammered, "I… I.. think she's… interesting. Beauty and brawn in one ultra feminine package."
Alice's eyebrows went up. "Feminine? Granberia? Seriously?"
"Her hands are so soft! How does she do it!?"
"Ugh," she scoffed. "You disgust me."
She changed the subject. "Humans are selfish and will trample the weak if it benefits them. Putting their desires above all else, they're happy to oppress others." She watched as the women prepared for the night's attack. "Even if they're dirty and weak, they don't look too bad when united. Humans are really strange."
"Sorry, Alice," I said. "Except for you, every monster I've met has tried to attack me because they thought I was weak."
"Yes, that's true," she conceded. "So does that mean you don't regard what I did to you at the inn to be an attack?"
"No, why would I think that?"
"For starters, you screamed, thinking I was going to eat you," she pointed out.
"Yes, but once I clued into what you were really doing I enjoyed it. I never thanked you for that."
"I'm glad," she said. "We monsters get used to the idea that if we want something from a man we have to take it by force. It's not a moral way to live, but that damn cult makes it difficult for us to find willing males, and we have to survive and procreate."
"In fairness, it's not just the Ilias faith," I said. "We also can't trust you monsters. You make us helpless and then don't always limit yourselves to just violating us. I really want humans and monsters to get along, but if that's ever going to be possible, monsters have to show some restraint. To monsters' credit, I haven't encountered anyone yet who tried to kill me. But some did threaten to take me away and force me to be their mate, and that's not okay. This shouldn't be rocket science. Monsters want something from men and plenty of men are willing to give it to them. Don't be fooled by the whole Ilias cult thing. So many aren't really devout and others are happy to be hypocrites. If men weren't afraid that monsters might eat them or kidnap them, monsters would never go hungry or have trouble procreating."
Alice looked thoughtful. "I'm going to ignore you're reference to whatever that was towards the end because I'm sure I don't care, but that was…. A good analysis. Maybe there's hope for you yet."
We were silent for a few moments as we watched the women giving each other pointers on how to use their makeshift weapons. "Maybe I should go help them." I said to Alice.
"Good idea. But first, maybe I do want to know what that reference was. Rock science?"
"No, rocket science. It's a way of saying something isn't too complicated, because rockets are very complicated. I think. I've never built one before."
"And a rocket is…" Alice prodded.
"Something that goes up into space, to go explore other worlds, like the Moon, other planets, that sort of thing."
Alice's face was frozen in shock. "Humans have accomplished this? Where?"
"I don't know," I said. "I definitely used to live in a very advanced society, but I know of no place on this continent or Sentora that's like that. Do you?"
Alice thought for a moment. "I don't know much beyond what's in the Travelers Guide, but I can't imagine I would have missed rockets being shot off into space. I'm sure I can imagine ways something like that could be used to hit Hellgondo directly, and I doubt humans wouldn't already have used them if they had them. Now I'm really interested. Where the hell are you from, exactly?"
"You'll find out as soon as I do, Alice." I waved to her and went to give the villagers a crash course in fighting.