Burning Soul

They said that the first time they encountered it was when a small party of adventurers went into the depths of the forest and came across a Demonized Boar. By appearance, it looked like a small animal and was a fairly young one, but its strength was nothing that they could have imagined. It was as if they fought with a freaking bear!

After that, they mentioned a few incidents where these creatures would come and destroy their food reserves and take away animals, and as for help, the capital was so far away from where they lived.

All this combined and the men couldn’t leave the village, a small party of 3-4 people couldn’t even get past the main roads as they’d get attacked easily.

After losing too many lives for them, they decided to move out and that is when I appeared.

I was heading to the Capital as a convoy, so I talked about putting up their problem, but the elder suggested that I stay behind to help them keep themselves safe from another ambush while the men went to the capital with a fairly large force!

As for guarantee, I made a contract with them that I would protect them from any harm while they get the aid!

A contract bound to the soul!

For me, this was a necessary thing to be done, I could warn the Plane Guardian later!

Saving the lives that were in danger right in front of me was an immediate task!

Everyone agreed as I signed the contract with Blood Seal! You know what that means right?” She looked at Yvaine who nodded back, “If you break it, the soul of the one who signed the contract will be taken away for good!”

“That’s scary!” Aeneas spoke with a panicked tone.

Merida closed her eyes prominently and took a deep breath and then while nudging her face she exhaled her breath out. Again while blinking her eyes she looked down at the ground with a dejected look.

“Though my sheer strength wasn’t the only thing that could assure the safety of all these people! So, the first thing I did the next morning was I planted some fairly effective traps!

As the men left for the capital, I noticed that the food problem was real! To help that hunting down a few wild boars wasn’t a big deal, and with that little one tracking boars was rather easy!

I hadn’t seen the people in the village so relieved ever since I arrived there! It was like they never got to relax in a while! I was feeling pronounced that they were feeling safe around me.

The kids were following me here and there, which was fun!” She chuckled and stroked her hairs back as she mentioned kids,

“That is a rare sight!” Aeneas looked at her with an astonished expression and received a glare!

“The kids you see... umm, really are something!” Yvaine also blinked eyes and showed a light blush!

“Well, I managed to keep them a good company, this little one got attached to me real quick!

I absolutely adore her.

That night they didn’t have to worry about any ambush! My traps were sufficient! Also, there weren’t many who attacked that night either!"

"Traps?" Aeneas

"Yup, I set up a few Mana Sensing traps that would activate if anyone except villagers walked in, the traps would activate and imprison whoever it was!

As all traps were intact the next day, I advised I’ll be the only one to go on the hunt! There was no need for anyone else to come to join me!

Though Carena kept nagging about coming together!

I had no choice but to take her with me!

We had a fun time, she showed me a few places around that she wanted to visit but couldn’t, she felt secure with me being around. The hunt that could have taken no less than an hour took well over 3 hours and it was already mid-day!

We returned with good compensation and a fairly large wild boar.

It surely would last a while was what we had in our mind! And the kid was kind of proud as I made it seem like she hunted it for her! Her expression when she thought she took down that boar, I could never get enough of it!

We thought of showing off her kill while we entered the village, but we didn’t expect everyone to be roaming around!

It was as if they were looking for something or rather someone!

After asking I found that some kids were missing! Maybe they went to the forest to play but in such times!

Ever since I set those traps it was safe in a certain area but the forest was far off from safe!

And it was dangerous for them to just roam around in the forest! As the traps weren’t off, I knew that it wasn’t something that monsters would do!

But in the forest, there was no telling from where one would appear!

I decided to take Carena with me as that was the safest thing I could think of! Using elemental tracking nad her senses I was able to see their footsteps and track them easily.

Assuring the villagers, I handed them the meat and left in search of them. It was taking awfully long to follow them, for over an hour I kept following and still couldn’t find anyone!

I feared the worst but Carena told me that they would play in an open space in the forest before all this happened! So, naturally, we headed that way. It was a bit deeper in the forest than I had initially thought.

After a while, I could see an open space in the distance.” Her expression changed as she spoke.

“Don’t tell me!” Theo had a difficult expression as well.

“I found one there!

In a state, I don’t want you to even imagine!”