Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

"...."

"...."

What does what to prevent what?

Blink Blink

Blink Blink

Kairen and Reyan looked at the old woman with a stupid look on their faces while blinking their eyes.

"Pfft."

The old woman chuckled. She looked at the two youths' faces and started to laugh.

"Hahaha! You don't believe it, do you? Well, I don't blame you, no one believes it at first. We first feared telling about this to the outsiders, scared that they would attack the village and steal our lands. There are still people who are afraid of that. But even if we tell them, no one believes so there is really no danger. Hahaha!"

"..."

"..."

The two boys looked at the laughing old woman while blinking their eyes again and again. 

Finally, Reyan opened his mouth and said something that was in both of their minds.

"Do you mean that the ruin we saw was a blessed place or something like that and it protects this land?"

The old woman nodded, then raised her head and looked at the sky once more. 

"That's how we call it. That's how it's been called for years. Our ancestors named it 'sacred domain' after they found out about it and the name didn't change until now."

She let out a sigh and mumbled to herself.

"But I don't know what will happen to our village now that it's destroyed..."

Reyan didn't pay attention to the old woman's mumblings and asked again.

"Your ancestors?"

The old woman answered again with a smile.

"That's right. I've heard from my grandmother that she had heard from her grandmother that her grandmother had said that her grandparents' grandparents' grandparents called this place 'sacred domain' because their grandparents named it like that."

"...."

"...."

So many grandparents.

'Did you have to tell all the details?'

Kairen could get that what she wanted to say was that they have called that place 'sacred domain' for generations and for hundreds of years.

'So it is like a tradition?'

He had heard about a lot of these kinds of traditions back on Earth. Humans were humans no matter which world they lived in so it was natural for these kinds of tales to exist in this place.

The old woman continued to talk. It looked like she wanted to tell more about the ruin and the old times.

"Back then when our ancestors-"

"Mother, can you- Uh?"

However, her words were interrupted by another woman.

The three people in the yard turned towards the source of the sound only to see a middle-aged woman hastily opening the door of the yard. 

The middle-aged woman stopped her words upon seeing Reyan and Kairen in her mother's house.

"Oh, dear. What has happened?"

The old woman's face brightened upon seeing her daughter and her lips curled to a happy smile. 

"...."

Her daughter looked between the two strangers and her mother with a questioning gaze.

The old woman understood the meaning behind her daughter's gaze and started to introduce the two youths.

"These children are hunters. They've saved us by killing a strong monster near this place."

"Ah!"

The middle-aged woman bowed her head politely towards them.

"Thank you so much."

She then hurriedly turned towards her mom without waiting for the two boy's answers.

"Mother, can you come over for a moment? The kid is in fever again, I don't know what to do."

"Ah! My goddess. Yes, let's go."

The old woman got up and walked to the door quickly, followed by her dog. She stopped in front of the door and looked at the two youths that were still blankly looking at her daughter and her.

"It was nice talking to you two. Sorry, I have to go."

"We enjoyed talking to you a lot."

"Thank you so much."

Kairen and Reyan thanked her and also exited the house after the old woman and walked back to the blue door.

"Sacred domain..."

Reyan mumbled that under his lips, deep in thought.

Kairen was also thinking about that.

It was indeed a weird tale. 

Monsters couldn't approach the ruin? Why?

If monsters couldn't approach it then how did that big centipede live near that place?

A thought crossed Kairen's mind.

'Is it because of the centipede that the others couldn't come near it?'

Were the other monsters too afraid of the centipede that they didn't even come close to this place?

'Then, what about the centipede itself?'

How did it live there?

According to the old woman's words, the village must have existed here for a few hundreds of years at least.

Was that monster that old? Could a monster live for so long? 

Why was it living there anyway if it didn't want to attack people?

Why did it come out of the ground after so much time and attack him if it had been living in harmony with a village filled with weak humans for hundreds of years?

First of all, was that really the centipede's presence that prevented other monsters from approaching this place?

The woman definitely said it was because of the ruin.

'The ruin...'

Could some broken tiles and destroyed walls really prevent monsters from approaching them?

How could a mere building hold such power?

'Protect the village from monsters... how absurd!'

It sounded absurd and ridiculous to Kairen.

Labeling a mere pile of dust as sacred and calling it blessed.

It was foolish.

'Well, it is only an old tale so it doesn't matter if it's absurd a little bit.'

Kairen himself didn't know if it was true that the monsters avoided this place or not. It seemed to be true to some extent as this place was peaceful and safe.

He didn't know the reason. He didn't know if it was because of the centipede or something else, but it was hard to accept that a mere ruin had the power to ward off monsters.

"You guys were waiting for me?"

Just when the two of them had finished telling the team leader about their conversation with the old woman, the bearded man came back.

Seeing the group standing in front of the door, he looked at the team leader with confusion.

"Why? You could go in without me."

Team leader Dains smiled at him and said in a shy voice that didn't fit him the slightest.

"Your village is beautiful so we wanted to look around in the meantime. We don't always get the time to enjoy being in such places so..."

Team leader Dains' acting skills were top-notch. 

Kairen had never seen such a person who could act so easily without even thinking much. 

He himself wasn't bad at acting but the team leader was on a whole other level than him.

"Ah, I see."

The team leader moved a little bit and stood right in front of the bearded man while talking, completely blocking his view.

Tap

Once the man's view was blocked by the team leader, Darren walked out of one of the yards and joined the group as if nothing had happened.

They walked into the house after that. 

As the man had said before, he had a small house that was not used by anyone. He said his parents used to live there, but they were both dead now and there was no one else to use this house. 

The man was being more than generous to them. He told them that they could stay there for as long as they wanted. He even wanted to prepare food for them, they could barely persuade him that there was no need to do that and they had food with them.

The team leader entered the house and sat down on the ground after the bearded man went away.

"Could you hear what they were talking about?"

He asked that from Darren, who was sprawled on the ground, staring at the ceiling.

"I didn't get it. They said some bullshit about god's punishment and some sacred something. Then they acted all scared about their village being destroyed and agreed to have a meeting with elders? Something like that."

He yawned after saying those and closed his eyes.

"Team leader, what are we going to do now?"

Asa asked that and plopped down on the floor as soon as she set foot into the house. 

"Rest."

"Rest?"

"Yes."

Team leader Dains leaned against the wall and looked at the others.

"If that place is what they've been calling sacred and regarding it as a protector for their village, some interesting stuff may happen now that it is gone. We'll only have to wait and see what happens."

"OOH!"

Asa let out an OOH and lied down on the floor just like Darren.

"I'm hungry..."

"I'll prepare food."

Rai took out some ready meals from his backpack and proceeded to prepare food.

The others also each chose a place to rest and do whatever they wanted to do.

They spent a few hours eating, relaxing, talking, and enjoying the nice weather and fresh air of the village.

And after a few hours, what the team leader had predicted happened.