Chapter 77: Ozak Village
"Eh? Village Chief? Ah, I'm Shiro, and this is Northe and Lina."
I was taken by surprise, and inwardly relieved that I didn't greet the middle-aged man as the village chief first. Then, I hurriedly handed the document I had received from the guild to the woman in front of me. At that moment, I used "Discern" to check her status.
At this age, being a village chief would probably make headlines as "The youngest female mayor in the country" in modern Japan. And "Civilian" is a job class I've never seen before, especially for a village chief in a rural area. Her skills seem more like those of a bureaucrat than a village chief.
"Hmm, intermediate adventurers and a knight, I see. Quite impressive for your age. But only three of you?"
Since adventurer parties can have up to six members, coming with just three might make it seem like they lack reliability or motivation.
"Well, it's been ten days since we requested help, and the guild finally sent us such young ones and a child."
The middle-aged man seems blatantly disappointed. We're just farmers, after all.
"Please, that's quite rude."
"...I'm sorry."
Well, I can't deny that it was rude.
"This is Gazak, in charge of agriculture. Gazak, could you please guide them to the areas with the most damage for now?"
"Of course. I'll send someone to the worst-hit East District right away."
"Thank you. In the meantime, I'll explain the situation to Sir Shiro and his companions."
It seems like a scenario where a middle-aged subordinate serves a younger female boss. After watching the old man leave from the entrance, Mayor Hammet bowed to us.
"Please don't take offense. We've been experiencing these issues for a while, but neither the kingdom's council nor the capital's security forces or the adventurer guild were willing to send help due to preparations for the kingdom's council meeting. Dissatisfaction has been growing among the village's farmers."
So, there were such circumstances.
Mayor Hammet spread out a map on the table, similar to the one on the wall but with various markings.
"I believe you already know, but in our village, we primarily focus on vegetable production for the capital in hilly terrain. However, about a month ago, monsters started appearing frequently in the mountainous area to the east of the village. These marked locations are where incidents occurred or where monsters were spotted."
I see, it's summarized quite clearly. However, there are quite a few of them. While it's true they seem concentrated in the east, there have been sightings all over the village, I'd say.
"Well, why has it spread so much..."
"I understand your concern. We do have a local militia in a village of this size, but since there are very few young men, dealing with regular beasts is one thing, but when it comes to monsters..."
I didn't know that. Recently, the Elzarck Kingdom has been in constant conflict with neighboring countries, and because the capital is prosperous, it seems many young men from villages near the capital leave to become soldiers or start businesses there.
As a result, rural areas are mainly populated by the elderly and children, and the local militias consist mostly of seniors, so it seems dealing with a large number of monsters is difficult.
"Men like Gazak, who were born and raised in the village and continue to support it, are precious. I, too, am a deputy sent here by the capital's personnel department..."
I see, I didn't sense a farmer-like quality in Mr. Hammett, he seems to be in a position like a young bureaucrat from the capital sent to a local government. She's not particularly beautiful, but she seems quick-witted.
However, even after contacting the capital's law enforcement through connections, they were reluctant to send a task force, so they decided to hire adventurers.
In any case, I need to see the situation on-site before I can figure out what to do. Gazak had just returned, so I arranged to have him guide me. The village chief also joined us for the beginning of the journey.
An elderly man named Zebet, who was introduced as the leader of the eastern district, told us that the first reports of damage came from neighboring farmers almost two months ago when the cabbage fields were initially destroyed.
"At first, we thought it might be ordinary rabbits, so we talked about setting traps."
He explained this slowly as he retraced his memory.
"But then, the traps were broken twice, and the damage gradually increased. I set up a sturdy box trap in my own field, but one night, I heard a loud noise, so I went to see with a torch, and there were so many demon rabbits in there, they had already destroyed half of the box!"
The old man spread his hands wide, indicating the size from horn to tail.
At that time, they had no weapons, so they could only drive them away with torches, but the next night, when they gathered the men in the village and waited, over ten demon rabbits appeared in the fields. When the men tried to surround them, they charged toward the encirclement and injured one of the farmers, so they had to ask the village chief for help.
Zebet showed us the horns and fur of the demon rabbits they had killed.
I've never seen demon rabbits before, so it's fortunate that they didn't turn them into magic stones. They do look like rabbits, but they're about the size of a Shiba Inu, and they have horns about the size of a knife, so they would be quite dangerous if they charged. Since I didn't bring a shield, I might want to make one out of ceramic.
Apparently, they dig holes underground and settle in groups.
"There were also demon boars, right?"
The village chief, Hammett, asked from the side.
"That's right, Village Chief. We can't catch those, but I've seen them, and many others have too. There's a big one and several smaller ones. About half a month ago, they raided the newly sprouted black-eyed pea field."
At first, it was just demon rabbits, but now it seems larger demon beasts are coming too.
"Is there a place where the damage is more extensive and can be observed over a wider area?"
"Hmm? A place with a good view, huh... In that case, maybe the lookout tower..."
I asked the old man to lead us to a place where we could overlook the area where the damage was most severe.
Climbing up the steep slope was quite frightening, and going down the lookout tower was even scarier. My legs were trembling, and I hope no one noticed that Nolte and the villagers were watching me from below. It's frustrating that Lina was fine and quickly descended.
"Do you have any information?"
I reported to the skeptical village chief as confidently as possible.
"Yes, we've identified where the nest is, so we're going to go exterminate them now."