In the forest, a few kilometres from the rural town…
"Do you here that?" one man whispered to the other men in the group, causing the rest of them to grip their rather primitive weapons tightly, turning to their backs where the distant crunching noise originated from.
"It is the monster? But why is it behind us?" Another whispered as a realisation struck him, "Did it… did it go to the town before coming here?!!"
The crunching sound of something stepping on the dried leaves and branches on the ground continued to sound out, getting ever-closer with each step. The tension of the group also continued to rise until the bushes in front of them rustled for a bit.
Suddenly, a human hand popped out of the bush, causing everyone to flinch slightly, but later they calmed down as a second hand came out and pulled the bush apart, allowing for a normal human to pass through and enter their sights.
Max looked at the 6 people in regular clothes, and what could only be called stone tools. Well, the man at the centre did have a steel sword, so he was likely the strongest person in the town in terms of physical combat ability.
"Hello there. Are you the hunting party that set out from the small town in that direction, by any chance?"
The man at the front took a step forward, his hand still on his blade that had long been pulled out of its sheath.
"That would be us. Who might you be."
"I am the high priest of the Church of the Primordial Unity. I have already received permission to spread my religion in the kingdom from the king himself. I can show you the royal decree later on. But first, I need to inform you about a few things."
"Firstly, the beast that has been terrorising your town has been dealt with, by the Primordial Unity, through me. I have its horn with me for proof. However, the more pressing news is that the best had attacked the town and killed a few people by the time I found it. Thus, I think we should be heading back to help with the wounded and reconstruction."
"Oh no!" Exclaimed the man who had the premonition about the beat going to their town.
Meanwhile, Max pulled out the horn he had just cut off the beast and presented it to the swordsman, who accepted it and hit his sword against it a few times, only barely successful in chipping off a bit of material from it.
In fact, Max had also had a hard time removing the horn, which was why he had simply broken the bit of cartilage holding the horn to the bone of the beast's skull.
"We need to get back." The swordsman had a sense of urgency as he handed back the horn to Max and quickly began walking, checking the trees on the way for markings they had made on the way here, to prevent them from getting lost in the forest.
The group and Max followed behind, as Max went into greater detail on what he saw and who died. When he got to the latter aspect, one of the men on the team suddenly stopped walking as tears began streaming from his red eyes.
Apparently, of the five people who were killed, one of them was his wife who was pregnant, and another was his mother. The poor sod was left with nobody since his father had long since passed on.
Max also stopped for a moment and turned to face the mentally unstable man.
He stretched out his hand and patted the man's shoulder, also slightly lowering his density to make him lighter for a few moments.
"You know, the Primordial Unity accepts the souls of all. And when they meet Him, they are asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter heaven or not. 'Have you found joy in your life?' and 'Has your life brought joy to others?' Live your life. Live with the joy of knowing that this joy will bring them happiness."
"Do not be sad for they have passed. Be happy… for they had lived."
And with that, Max turned back and continued walking, ignoring the dishevelled man who seemed to be undergoing an intense internal conflict. If he could make it through that struggle without killing himself, his mentality would undergo a strong change, and Max would rather have him as a follower.
The swordsman looked at the scene with an odd glint in his eyes, however, he did not speak and just continued to walk, hoping that what this priest was saying was either a falsehood, or at the very least, an exaggeration of the death toll.
…
When the group arrived at the village, they were devastated to find that 7 people had died. It had taken Max a day to find the hunting party and another day for them to return successfully. In this period of time, 2 other people who were injured by the beast died to their wounds and infection respectively, raising the death toll from 5 to 7!
Max just sighed as he steeled himself to make full use of this incident to quickly grow his influence on the townspeople and hopefully adopt all the children whose parents were no longer alive.