“What’s wrong, Nfirea-san? Did something happen?”
“Ah, never mind. It’s just that this sturdy fence wasn’t here before…”
“Is that so? But looking at it, there doesn’t seem to be anything special about it at all. To be honest, this kind of defence is a bit shabby for a frontier village, isn’t it? This village is located next to the forest, so they probably use it to stop monsters. It wouldn’t be strange if there was an even stronger fence, right?”
“Eh— What you said may be true… but Carne Village was protected by the Virtuous King of the Forest, they never needed a palisade before…”
They all looked at the village. From what they could see, the village was completely surrounded by the walls, some of them were even fashioned from wood that would break easily.
“How strange indeed… what happened here….”
Even after hearing the young man’s uneasy questions, Ainz still didn’t say anything, because the last time he visited the village it was as the Magic Caster ‘Ainz Ooal Gown’, and right now he was the Adventurer Momon.
Ninya interrupted with a serious face:
“Maybe I’m worrying too much… but I clearly remember the village from the last time I came here, and I noticed two very suspicious differences. One is that even now I don’t see anyone working in the fields and the other one is that some of the wheat has already been harvested.”
Looking towards the direction Ninya was facing, they could clearly see that parts of the wheat fields had already been harvested.
“I see. In that case… what exactly happened here?”
Ainz with an uneasy expression said to everyone:
“…Everyone, please leave this to us. Nabel, please use your flight magic to survey the village.”
After listening to Ainz’s instructions, Nabel activated her concealment magic and disappeared. Following that, Narberal finished chanting her flying magic, then no trace of her was left behind. Everyone waited on the road, when Narberal’s figure suddenly reappeared in the same place and she gave her report:
“…The villagers are moving normally within the village and it doesn’t look like they are under orders or commanded by someone. There’s also another field on the other side of the village where the villagers are currently working at.”
“… Well, looks like I was just too worried.”
“There shouldn’t be any problems then. In that case, we should continue… right?”
Peter looked for Nfirea’s and Ainz’s opinions, who both agreed.
Since the road to the village became narrower and narrower, the group formed a single column and walked to the entrance of the village.
The wheat fields scattered on both sides of the road swayed in the wind and dyed the wheat green. From their point of view, it looked like they were immersed in a green pond.
“Eh?”
The carriage was rattling forward when Lukeluther, who was second in line, suddenly spoke in a puzzled voice and carefully looked at the wheat fields. Even though it wasn’t harvest time yet, the wheat stalks still reached a height of seventy centimeters, making it difficult to look into the sea of wheat.
“What’s wrong?”
Ninya, who was walking behind him, asked with a perplexed voice.
“Eh? Nothing, maybe it’s just my imagination?”
Lukeluther’s head was full of doubts, but he increased his pace and quickly closed the distance between him and Peter.
Ninya also looked in the same direction, confirming there was no movement and then moved forward quickly.
The wheat even grew onto the road to the village, making it look like it had been flooded by the sea. For the sake of creating a path they considered cutting down the wheat, but doing so would surely get them into trouble.
“I really hope that the villagers will properly tend these fields. Leaving it like this would be too wasteful.”
Peter, who was walking in front of them, knocked over many ears of wheat when his thigh armor grazed them. Seeing that, Peter muttered to himself, feeling that something was off about the situation.
His intuition, which had been honed through countless dangerous situations, was warning him. Would green ears of wheat really fall over this easily?
Looking carefully at the fields, Peter realised there was a pair of eyes staring straight into his. There was a small creature that could hide their whole body inside the wheat field. Although he couldn’t make out the facial features that were hidden by the wheat, they were definitely not human.
“What!”
Surprised, Peter wanted to shout a warning to his fellow comrades, but the creature — a demi-human — spoke first: “Could you lay down your arms?”
The short demi-human had already drawn its weapon, no matter how fast Peter could move, his opponent would still be faster.
“Oh-oh, please lay down your weapons. Could you please convey this message to the people behind you? We do not wish to use these bows and arrows to kill you.”
Hearing a soft sound coming from another place, he looked in that direction and discovered a cleverly hidden hole in the fields from which the upper halves of some demi-humans could be seen. They were also using the wheat to camouflage themselves.
Peter could not help feeling hesitant. According to what this creature was saying, it looked like there was room for negotiation.
“… Could you spare our lives?”
“Of course. If you surrender.”
Peter was at a loss.
He had to stand in front of the carriage and ensure that none of the arrows would reach Nfirea on the carriage. He also had to grasp the numbers of the enemy and the composition of their troops.
It was important to confirm his opponent’s objective, but right now he could neither surrender nor reject his opponent’s proposal.
As if they were able to see through Peter’s confusion, two additional demi-humans stood up with a rustling sound.
“…Goblins.”
Ninya whispered.
The demi-humans who just stood up were of the same race as the goblins from yesterday. They raised their bows and arrows, targeting with their sharp eyes.
Should they fight?
Ninya, Lukeluther and Dyne looked at each other, using their expressions to read each other’s intentions.
Compared to humans, goblins were weaker in terms of height, weight, muscle and other physical abilities. Since they had night vision, it would be difficult to fight them in the dark, but if it was under the sun in broad daylight, they wouldn’t be a difficult opponent for the battle-hardened members of the Dark Sword..
Furthermore, there was Ainz as well, so the fight should be as easy as yesterday’s one.
If it was a fight against goblins, Peter was confident he would win, even if he had a hostage to rescue.
But there were other reasons Peter was unable to act decisively.
In simple terms, the goblin in front of him looked well-trained. Compared to the weak and gaunt goblins from yesterday, the goblin in front of him had a good physique, a body with sturdy muscles.
Not only that, the way the goblin was holding its bow was also very good. Yesterday’s goblins looked like children waving sticks around, but the goblin in front of him looked like a soldier familiar with the bow.
And finally, its weapons looked well cared for, comparable to the weapons of the members of the Dark Sword.