Katarina finished her story there, with my relaying it to Tristan, and we sat in silence for a long time. Finally Tristan was the first to say something.
'Those bastards... We have to do something.'
I nodded in agreement. I didn't think it was right to allow these monsters to keep living, and creating more children. Who is to say they won't just skip the part of changing them into animals, and just go straight into cannibalism?
The prospect of returning these children back to their parents was also a no go.
So that meant we had to take care of all the villagers and the strange woman. Thankfully there were only about 12 villagers, who most likely didn't know how to fight, but the problem was the woman.
I had a few candidates of what she could be, since she clearly wasn't human.
Either a witch, an evil druid, or a demon. Demon was out of the question, because they were so prideful that they would never live in some squalid swamp and not ask for rewards from the villagers.
A druid was unlikely, because while they could definitely make a potion to change children into animals, why would they only go for children? Why not turn adults into animals too?
Finally we had the last option: a witch.
Witches used the lifeforce stolen from children to extend their own, or the parts of children for their experiments and rituals.
However witches were not easy to deal with. It required a real combat force. Tristan was actually not that powerful in combat. His skills were mostly for trap detection and stealing.
This meant we needed to get to the rest of the group. A witch in this rural village probably didn't have the ingredients to make a powerful sedative. This meant if we could get to the group, we could roughly wake them up with either a spell or by giving them a small cut.
While the three of us were planning our next move a sudden message took me off guard.
[Dungeon Master has issued a new quest!]
[Quest: Save the children from the spell.]
[Reward: 1x Tier 1 Spell.]
I didn't need a quest to tell me to do the right thing, but I was more surprised that I received a quest.
This meant that there was something that not only brought me here, but was also watching me. What did it want from me?
I didn't receive an answer, but I ignored it for now. The presence of a DM wasn't a bad thing necessarily, and the Tier 1 spell would actually be game changing for me.
We soon left the small hideout and made our way back to the inn. By now they probably suspected something, but we had a plan. We would act like we simply went for a walk, oblivious to their plan, and were now returning for the night. While Tristan wasn't powerful enough to kill the witch, he was more than enough to deal with the villagers.
Since their goal was to get him to eat, all he had to do was avoid getting drugged, and I would wake up the group.
Since everyone knew I was blind and deaf, they wouldn't think I could find my way to the room with the mercenaries so they wouldn't even bother watching me, and if it worked we would be able to fight the witch directly after subduing the village.
****
"What do you mean they're gone?!"
"I-It's like we said! We went to the barn and we couldn't find them! We don't know where they went."
"Shit!"
The village chief slammed his fists on the table in the inn. The witch had told him she wanted the boy at all costs. He had seen the boy, and he was indeed incredibly beautiful, however he was guarded by mercenaries. There was also the mysterious man who didn't eat any food yet so he was still a concern.
For all the villagers know he could be someone strong.
The witch had handled the mercenaries, since she gave the villagers some powder to sprinkle on their food, but she warned that it wouldn't last longer than a couple hours.
In that time they needed to kidnap the boy and then she would handle the sleeping mercenaries.
But now the boy was gone.
Angering the witch wasn't something the chief could afford to do.
'All my hard work to keep this village going! The sacrifices I've had to make... All for nothing!'
As the village chief drank a glass of ale a villager ran into the inn.
"Chief!"
"What?!"
"The boy! He- he's back! They said they went for a short walk, and now they're going to go to bed for the night."
"Shit! Quickly everybody go back to acting normal! Remember to come get us when that guy finally eats!"
"Yes chief!"
The men quickly left the inn and only a few people stayed behind to try to get Tristan to eat.
****
'They bought it. They invited me back down for drink... I checked the other room, it's unlocked they're all just in there sleeping, so you should be safe to head in there after a few minutes.'
I smiled and said good night to Tristan. There were a few villagers in the hallway that I knew were keeping an eye on us.
After the door closed I quietly opened my shirt and a small cat jumped down to the floor.
'I don't hear anyone in the hallway. If you open the door I can check to make sure the coast is clear.'
I smiled at the cat, who was now recognized by the system as an ally, walking around the small dot on the map and making my way to the door.
I quietly touched around the door until I found the door knob. Turning it gently, since I couldn't hear, I went as slow as possible to make sure I didn't make any sound.
After I felt something small scurry past me I waited with bated breath. Until finally.
'It's clear! They're all downstairs.'
I opened the door and stepped into the hallway. To my left was the stairs to the bar. I turned to the right, and headed down the hallway two doors.
The first door next to Tristan and my room was Bernardino. He wouldn't be any use in a fight so I left him.
Making my way to the second door I quietly touched the doorknob. Turning it slowly I opened the door and stepped inside. With a quick scan I counted the bodies of the mercenaries sleeping in various places.
I quickly counted the people.
'1. 2. 3. 4 and 5...'
I stopped in place.
'6?'
'Styxas watch out!'
That was the only thought I could read before I felt a force push me to the ground. I struggled the best I could but two hands soon found their way to my throat.
The pressure was immediately applied and I simply thrashed around trying to get it off my throat. I scratched at the hands frantically but whoever it was had to be an adult.
Much stronger than my weak child's body could handle.
As I felt my consciousness slipping, I acted on instinct and in my last desperate attempt I sent out another scan.
Once I got the image in my head I used one of my cantrips.
[Creation: Simple Weapons]
A dagger appeared in my hand, and I drove it into the neck of my assailant.
The fell back off me, and I used that opportunity to roll away. Grabbing my throat and coughing roughly I tried my best to catch my breath.
'Styxas are you alright?!'
*cough cough*
"I'm fine... Did he make a lot of noise?"
'No! Thankfully you guys fell pretty quietly, but you gotta hurry!'
I stood up and made my way to the captain of the Black Bulls. Creating another dagger I gave the captain a superficial cut on his forearm.
Instantly I felt him grab me by the throat.
"URGH!"
After a moment of confusion the captain let me go before patting me on the shoulders for a moment. Then, as if remembering, he stopped and a thought entered my mind.
'Mr. Serrano! What is going on?'
Catching my breath again I explained the situation quietly. After he realized why I was whispering he told me he would wake up the others. He helped me sit on the bed and after a while I began to feel the movements of several people.
I had used my scan to find that all the mercenaries were awake and quietly preparing their things. I also was able to see that the person I had killed was not moving.
'We will go with Tristan to deal with this. You stay here. We'll come get you when it's done.'
I nodded, and in response the mercenaries slowly left the room. After that I was back to my dark empty world. As I was beginning to feel anxious I felt a soft touch on the back of my hand and forearm.
'It's okay. I'm still here.'
Sighing a little I tried to take my mind off the situation. It was only a matter of time before everything was resolved. So I began to talk to Katarina.
"How old are you?"
'I turn 13 this year.'
"Oh, so do I, though I don't know when my birthday is."
'Haha, you don't know when your birthday is?'
I couldn't tell her I was from another world so I played it off as though I just forgot. Though she continued to tease me for being forgetful.
After that we spoke about different things. What she liked to do, what she wanted to do in the future, and such. However we eventually started being more realistic.
'I... I don't know what I am going to do after this to be honest. We don't have anywhere to go...'
I didn't know how to respond so I sat quietly with her for a while. Then I thought of something.
"You could come with me?"
'Why would you want me to come with you?'
I shrugged. We were laying down now.
"I don't know, I just think that it might be fun, but it'll probably be dangerous so I if you didn't want to."
I said this as a throw away comment, since I knew that realistically people had to consider their circumstances, since I only asked because that how I met a lot of companions in the game.
However Katarina soon became silent.
'I must have given her something to think about. I'll leave her to it.'
I hoped that Katarina knew I was being serious. While I don't know how much she would enjoy it, if she wanted to follow me I wouldn't decline. I liked her company and I thought she was pretty strong for being able to handle all this.
We were sitting in silence for a long time, and at some point we had both fallen asleep.
I woke up to someone shaking me lightly. I turned my head and scanned who it was.
'Hey kid, it's me. We finally handled the witch. Thankfully no one was hurt too bad. We are gonna set up a guard rotation, but you are okay to go back to the room to sleep.'
I groggily rubbed my eyes, even though I wouldn't be able to see anyways, and nodded. I tried to sit up but found that my arm had something heavy on it.
"What's on me?"
There was some silence.
'Haha... Well... You know that we beat the witch right?'
"Yeah?"
'Well... the kids were all turned back to normal.'
However I still didn't understand what he was trying to say.
'Kid... Who did you fall asleep with?'
"Kata-"
That was when I stopped talking and used another scan. This time paying attention to what was next to me. There I saw the outline of a young girl sleeping quietly.
I turned to Tristan with a confused look on my face.
'Haha! Don't look at me. She can stay in my bed tonight. I'll go sleep in one of the villager's houses... But I hope you don't think of anything dirty. You're only 12.'
I quickly tried punching his shoulder but my fist hit the air. Although I couldn't hear I knew Tristan was laughing loudly since I felt Katarina begin stirring.
After a moment of her moving around and feeling her body turned back to normal she finally said something.
'I'm back!'
I felt her pounce towards me and hug me tightly. I could faintly feel her shoulders rising and falling indicating she was sobbing. That paired with the growing wetness on my shirt I knew it was best to stay quiet. I hugged her back and we stayed like that for a while.
Eventually she started to get limp in my arms so I quickly pushed her away a little and told her we should sleep in my room. Where there wasn't a dead body.
She led me there and I laid down exhausted in my own bed. She laid on the other bed and soon we both fell asleep.
****
*spits*
"These sick fucks."
The Black Bulls were currently on the ground floor of the inn, staring at the various bodies strewn around. When they had been woken up by the young boy who was travelling with them they quickly came down the stairs with the weapons drawn.
Tristan, the boy's guard, immediately took advantage of the sudden commotion and drove a dagger into the neck of one of the four villagers at the table with him.
The Black Bulls quickly sprinted down the stairs and with their coordinated attack they dealt with the villagers quickly. They then heard the rest of the details from Tristan, and they moved out to deal with the rest of the villagers.
They killed them all and quickly made their way to the swamp. There, they met the witch and fought her in her lab.
It was a long fight, but it wasn't particularly hard. The witch was thankfully inexperienced at combat, since she was young and only focused on her rejuvenation rituals, so she was 'relatively' easy to deal with.
Then they came back to the village. They expected to see a bunch of children running around but the truth was not as kind.
Instead when they came back they went to the barn but they didn't find children who were happy to be back to their normal selves.
"O-oink! O-oh it-it hurts!"
"B-baaah. B-bad!"
They walked in but most of the children were some hybrid between human and animal. The whole group had pained and uncomfortable expressions on their faces.
"We... Can't let them keep living like this."
Slowly everyone nodded.
After they were done they walked into the inn with somber expressions. They sat at a table together, and Tristan came by with six glasses. Taking a large bottle of ale from behind the counter he walked to the table and slowly poured everyone a glass.
Once he set down the bottle they all quickly downed their drinks.
After all six glasses were emptied Tristan let out a long sigh and looked at everyone in the eyes one by one.
"We never tell Styxas about what we saw... We say the children were killed by the villagers."
One by one they all slowly nodded.