"What happened there?"
I saw five people standing in front of Alice. Curious about what was going on there, I immediately rushed off.
Up there, I heard what they were arguing about. They were the ones who forced Alice to show her house. They kept grabbing Alice's hand and forcing her to lead the way to her house.
"Not! I wouldn't go there even if I knew my own house."
Seeing Alice struggling, I immediately grabbed her arm. She and they responded with surprise upon noticing my presence.
"What happened?" I asked in a heavy tone, like a brave man. "What did you do to her?"
"Anton..." Alice quickly hid behind me. "Help me! They want to take the gold bars I keep in my house."
"Oh..."
Gold? Does she have a gold bar in her house?
I wanted to turn to Alice, asking if those were really in her house or not, but since I was here to protect her, I only focused on the people who were bothering her.
"Oy, Boy, you don't interfere!"
He does look like an old man in his 40s, but I don't like it when he calls me a "boy". It felt like he underestimated me.
"Why can't I interfere in my friend's business? Will that affect my role here?" I said in an arrogant tone, looking at him with a smile.
"She is your friend? Does the little girl seem to be your friend? Hahaha..."
Somehow he laughed at Alice.
"She is just an overly honest girl. She even told us where the gold bars we were looking for were when we wanted to rob them. She said those were in her house, in her honesty. That makes it easy for us. So we don't have to work to earn money. We just need to take the gold bars on her house. We, bandits, are very happy to hear a gold bar exists. Hahaha. So don't interfere, Boy!"
I found out what the man meant. He and them, who came to Alice, were the bandits around this place. From the rumors I got, they often roam this village to rob the villagers' property and make trouble. And coincidentally, while they were wandering around this place, they met Alice. Then, they rob Alice, and Alice accidentally says that there are gold bars in her house. That's why they forced Alice to tell her house's location so that they could get Alice's gold bars.
"You have a strange friend, Boy. Or could you be friends with her because she has gold bars in her house? You must want them, too, right? You're so bad. What a pity for this girl to be friends with a cunning person like you," He continued.
I couldn't help but smile as he continued to speak. That's because all his words are just bullshit, which means nothing.
Honestly, I just found out that Alice has gold bars in her house. I need those because the money on my character has run out due to the death penalty. So, I need money right now. Even so, I still see and view her as a human. I can't take her gold bars even if I need money right now. Alice was my first friend in this game world. So, I still see her as my friend, not as a tool of great value to me.
I'm not a bad person.
"You talk too much, Old Man," I responded.
"What did you say? Am I an old man? Do you call me old man? You're disrespectful to adults, Boy."
Look at him! He didn't even want to be called an old man, but strangely, he was very brave to call me a "boy". Is this what you call being selfish?
"Well, you are an old man. Why are you offended by yourself?"
He got angry when I told him that. Maybe because I underestimated him, he was angry.
"God damn it!"
He screamed and wanted to attack me with his fists. But luckily, because there was his friend was within reach of my hand, I grabbed his friend's hand and made him a shield for me. That's why he hit his friend's face, not mine.
"Oops. It seems you have hit your friend." I saw his friend's condition, then turned his body towards me. "Hey, your friend fainted. Your punch has knocked him out. You are so cruel to your friend, Old Man."
I can't be violent here. I don't want to get bad achievements from fighting an NPC. So, I use this method to avoid violence from him. Well, even if it's a loser's way of making someone a shield, it's fine.
"God damn it...!"
He wanted to hit me, but I quickly made his friend my shield. That makes it void of hitting me. He became hesitant to hit me.
"What's wrong?" I asked, turning my head over his friend's right shoulder to take a look.
"Let go of my subordinate, you impudent. You're a coward, using my friend's body to dodge my punches. If you are a man, fight me!"
"I am a coward and a man, you say? Shouldn't that be you? Why do you call me a coward when you can't beat your friend? Also, aren't you calling me a boy?"
It is not bound to be categorized as a coward. I just wanted to tell him that and see his reaction. So, hitting your friend is not a brave act. It is a wrong action, which should not be done if your friend has not wronged you.
"You're an asshole..."
He was annoyed, and it could be seen from the look on his face, which was getting more and more wrinkled. I think he wants to hit me.
"Hey..."
He signaled to his friend. It seemed that he needed the help of his friends to beat me. But luckily, I realized that and acted quickly. I threw this friend I was holding at him and picked up his other friend. In the end, he hit his other friend's face instead of me.
Hahaha, this is fun. He hit his friend again. Hahaha.
***
"Alice, please hold this!"
I told Alice to hold the old man's friend's body. Then, I slapped the old man's cheek with his friend's right hand. I made his friend my puppet to slap him, and it managed to knock him down.
"Did he faint?" I asked, seeing him lying there.
I didn't expect him to faint from just one slap. I think he is strong, according to what he did to the villagers and Alice, snatching other people's belongings. Even his friends, whom I used as shields, were weak too, fainting from being hit by him.
"Good grief..."
In the end, Alice decided to call a security guard to imprison them. They were arrested for their trouble. They will be imprisoned for a very long time. Alice was very happy because she managed to catch the criminals and keep her village safe. She earned praise from several villagers. She has become the center of attention of the villagers nowadays. That's good for her. And I... I almost forgot the reason why I'm here.
"Hey, Alice!"
"Yes?"
"Come with me!" I pulled her arm away from the villagers' attention.
As we arrived outside the forest, Alice forced her hands off me. She immediately asked, "Are you going to pervert me because I'm the center of people's attention?"
I could only stare at her blankly when I heard that.
"Or… you want to force me to tell you where my gold bars are? I wouldn't tell you that, even if I believed you," She continued.
She is too honest. That's why many people hate and take advantage of her.
"Stop! Stop thinking weird things! I just wanted to take you somewhere."
"You pervert." She covered her body with both hands as if I wanted to do something bad to her. "I know I'm beautiful and the center of attention, but I don't like being forced. If you can seduce me like a prince, maybe I can think about accepting you."
She had even pictured something bad in her head. It looked so disgusting, even if she blushed at her own words.
I got goosebumps hearing that, disgusted by everything she said.
"Yes, you are beautiful, but you are so stupid! Come with me!"
I had to force her not to stop here. I pulled her arm gently but forced her to come with me.
"NO! Please, anyone help me! I want to be raped by this bad guy! Help me!"
"SHUT UP!"
"Okay."
***
We arrived in front of the Jajaro ruins entrance after a harrowing journey. Upon arriving there, Alice asked, "Isn't this the ruins of Jajaro, the place that was hit by a drought? Why did you bring me here?"
"You are right. This place was hit by a catastrophic drought thousands of years ago. But do you know why that happened?" I respond.
"Why?"
"You will find the answer in there. Come with me!"
At this moment, I let go of her arm. I let her follow me.
As we arrived at this long dark hallway, while my Inner Eye passive skill was active, Alice pointed towards the end of this hallway.
"Why?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Behind that door is a forbidden place. We can't go there! We can't go any further than this hallway."
"Forbidden place? What do you mean?"
"I only heard this rumor from people's stories. They say that there is a grave for a very dangerous monster. If you go there, that monster will wake up. You will be stuck there forever until its kills you."
"..." I could only hear her and glanced at the end of the hallway several times.
"It had the body of a human but was three times as big, had the head of a bull, had fur and horns and carried a large flanged mace. They call it the Minotaur monster."
Alice was very serious about that. Her face did not look away from the direction of the end of this hallway. She didn't look at me while discussing it when she knew I was listening.
"Oh, I see. So there is a forbidden place. Nobody can go there, right?"
"That's right. No one should go there. It's very dangerous in there."
Me and maybe some of the players have been there, but I don't want to tell her that. So, I just focused on what I found in this hallway and showed those to Alice.
I burned the wood I had brought to serve as a light for this place. The tool that was successfully used as a torch managed to illuminate this place. Alice and I were able to see the walls in this hallway. The two of us walked down this hallway and looked at the walls.
However, when we arrived at the first picture, Alice was confused.
"I didn't see anything there."
"Really?" I asked and was shocked. "You don't see any pictures there?"
"Really. Isn't that just a wall?"
I'm curious about what happened. Alice couldn't lie. She wasn't born to be a liar. So, I decided to go to the next picture.
"How about this? Did you see this?" I tapped my finger against this wall several times.
"I didn't see anything. It's just a wall, isn't it?"
I grabbed her hand after she said that. Then, I made her palm feel this wall.
"You saw that?"
"I didn't see any pictures, but somehow I suddenly felt bad."
"What do you mean?"
"When you forced my hand to touch this wall, I suddenly felt sad and wanted to cry. A cry for help, a cruel feeling that always wants to kill, and a sudden wave of sand I can feel."
It was a picture of the time when people and animals fled from the monsters and before the sand buried them.
"In other words, you can't see it, but you can feel it, right? That's good."
I don't understand why she couldn't see the picture on the wall, but having she could feel it was something good for me.
"Then..."
I kept telling her to feel the walls in this hallway, and she sensed what was there. It continued until we came to the last wall in this long hallway.
"What do you feel?" I asked curiously.
"This... Veronica?" She looked at me and said Veronica's name. "I could feel Veronica's presence there. But... she is crying and needs help. I can describe the feeling clearly. She wanted to save them but couldn't. In the end, she burst into tears of regret and tried to hold on. Also, she apologized for not being able to fight a man in front of her. Sorry, I'm sorry. I can't because I'm not strong enough. Forgive me! That's what she said in her mind."
Alice suddenly burst into tears while describing the situation. Her tears fell down her cheeks without her noticing.
After she told me that, she wiped her tears and asked, "Actually, what is this? Why am I crying? Why is Veronica fighting for them, the inhabitants of this place? Why can I describe what happened there?"
She was filled with questions in her mind. Maybe she was very curious about what was going on.
"That's the reason I brought you here. I want to show all of this to you."
"Anton, what exactly happened?"
"I don't know. But for now, the feeling you describe is the same as the pictures in this hallway. That feeling of yours has explained everything."
"So this place..."
"Ah, a disaster has come to this place by bringing the Minotaur and monsters to kill them. And Veronica... she came here to fight the Minotaur and the monsters. But sadly, she was unable to fight a man wearing a crow mask. That's what happened to this place."
"But why is Veronica there? Didn't that incident happen thousands of years ago?"
"That's what we have to find out, why Veronica could be there."
We are both confused by all of this. But one thing I can find out is that Veronica existed in that era. Even if this sounds absurd, I would still conclude that Veronica has lived thousands of years as a knight.