On the other hand, Cassian, although he tried to listen to the explanation, felt that someone was 'looking' at him—or so he thought, since, as always, she wore blindfolds over her eyes. Still, he could feel the intensity of her gaze, especially with her standing right next to him.
"Hey, Lys, what's going on? Why are you staring at me so much? You're staring at me, aren't you? Is it because I uncovered my face?"
"...Why did you do that?"
"Eh, well, it was annoying and interrupting me. Does it bother you? Don't you like seeing it?"
"No... I've always been able to see it... it's just... hmmm."
"Ah!, right, to your eyes a little hair must have been nothing. I really thought it would intimidate you or something. I'm really curious about how you see things. Well, it's not like I could, but why are you staring at me?"
"Hmm,... there's something different."
"Different? Well, yes, I'm wearing local clothes and I tied my hair back."
"That's not it... your mana is different. Hmmm, did you do something else?... With someone?"
"Oh, I started practicing the art with Ling-Ling, although I've been doing it since last night. After we split up, we hunted some beasts. Then I ran into Nari and we fought. She gave me her bracelet and we hunted beasts while she helped me improve my art. She also knew a lot, she even helped me find decent clothes. She's a good girl."
"Nari, who is she?"
"Oh, if you remember the sexy... I mean, Nisha, she's her eldest daughter, and I guess she's also Yefaziel's daughter."
"...I see... that thing you're wearing in your hai—"
"Sir Cassian, Miss Ellys, why are you standing there?"
"Oh, sorry, Ria, I got distracted talking to Lys. Come on, Lys, I'll introduce you to her later if you're curious."
"...Yes."
Engrossed in their conversation, they hadn't noticed that the group led by Eshaan had begun to leave.
However, Valeriane, who had noticed, called out to them. They had been distracted and hadn't heard what it was about, but Cassian assumed they would find out along the way.
..
.
Just as he had thought, while walking toward the outskirts of the village, Eshaan, who seemed like a good guy, calmly explained to him again what the second mission was about: in fact, it was to go to the village cemetery to retrieve an artifact that was there.
Usually, the corpses of the people were cremated in the sacred fire, but monuments or tombstones were made to remember the great achievements in life of that person, and that is where they were directed.
The task had been assigned to another group, but due to what they found and their inability to accomplish it, other groups were created to do so, as these were crucial artifacts, for a later ritual.
The problem was that the town had more than one cemetery: three, to be specific, and all three 'coincidentally' had the same problem and were understaffed, with little room for maneuver.
But thanks to the near-extermination of Naelune and Celestine, they had more leeway and formed several groups. Their group consisted of the seven of them and five others who were also young, including Eshaan, who was their guide, and Nahara, although he had not been able to speak with her.
Of course, it was unusual for all the members to be young, but again, there was a shortage of manpower, especially veterans, and with what they had done, the boss had recognized their strength and believed that just sending them along with young people their own age, who would act more as guides, would be enough.
The problem was what happened when they saw their target to eliminate, which prevented them from obtaining the artifacts from the cemetery, starting with Naelune, who was the first to react.
"Ugh! What are those ugly things? Just looking at them is disgusting, and I thought those spiders were ugly. Is that lump their head? Eww!, what is that thing even... ugh, I feel like throwing up."
"For once, I agree with you, fish woman!"
"Hm? What did you call me?".
"Arg! You're annoying. Well, Luna, be glad that this great me is doing you the honor of—"
"Yeah, that's right. Seeing you say my nickname made me forget a little bit how disgusting that was. Hey, Little angel, don't you have something for the mental contamination I got from seeing that thing... Little angel?"
"Blergh..."
"I'm sorry, Luna, I don't think she can answer you. It seems that seeing that thing affected him a lot...Alright, Lys, let it all out. Hey, Ling-ling, since you're fine, help your brother, he looks pale."
"..." (Y-Yes.)
"Those creatures really are..."
"Disgusting. I understand your reactions if it's the first time you've seen them. When I was a child, I saw one, and that day I cried for hours. I had nightmares for a long time. They're called 'Varnorr aberrations'."
Looking at the targets to be eliminated from a distance, rather than noticing that there was not just one, as the reports said, but rather three, one could see that they were Bizarre creatures.
Although some had certain beast-like characteristics such as scaly tails, hooves, or claws, they were deformed creatures, and many of those features were not in the right places.
They were difficult to describe because they were so strange. One seemed to have four limbs from different creatures; it had no head, but it had a lump on its back that might have been its head, because there was a mouth there, and it had many eyes all over.
Another was all twisted, had three legs, one slightly tangled at the thigh, and its feet pointed in different directions; its abdomen curved twisted and was inverted backward, and so was its neck. It was difficult to understand what was the front or back of that creature.
And the last one was obese, with a lot of fat, with limbs that looked like birds', they were short, giving a strange appearance, not to mention a gigantic mouth on its stomach.
They were three creatures difficult to describe with any logic, common sense, or to relate them to anything.
The only constant in some of them was that it seemed that a small plant was growing somewhere on their bodies, like a sprout growing upright on the bodies of these creatures.
In fact, if you looked closely, at some point the roots seemed to have ceased to be a plant and become something fleshy like thick veins.
The sight of all this made these creatures very unbearable to look at for most of the group;…Ellys was even vomiting while Cassian gently patted her on the back.
"More than that, the situation is worse than we knew. There isn't just one, there are three. Hmm, if it's like this on the other sides, it could be complicated. We have the saviors, but they don't. Hmm... but I think the other teams' compositions are sufficient. At first it seemed strange that no Senior came with us, but now it seems like the best option. Yes, as I thought, the leader is very wise. Perhaps he foresaw this."
Eshaan began to speak as he looked at the creatures with a cryptic gaze. He thought it would be impossible if it weren't for the fact that they had the destined saviors in their group.
"Don't you ever get tired of praising your father?"
"Ah!, Nahara!, I'm sorry, I was thinking out loud. Although your father is in one of the other groups, he is one of our best warriors, so you don't have to worry."
"What nonsense are you talking now? That's beside the point. What do we do now? Are you like the leader... or maybe the leader of our 'saviors' thinks differently? Do you think they are capable?".
"Miss Nahara, if you still feel you have something to say, please don't hesitate to express it. I've noticed your gaze on me, and I think we need to come to an agreement before we begin."
Veleriane had noticed. Ever since Nahara joined the group, she had been staring at her the entire way. She thought it might have something to do with what happened that morning and decided it would be best to settle their differences before starting.
In fact, when Nahara heard this, she looked her straight in the eye with a frown; she looked ready to pounce on her.
"Fine, since you brought it up, I'll say it! This morning I... hmph!"
"Wait!, Nahara, you can't do that. They are our destined saviors."
Eshaan, who had known her for a long time, foresaw the danger. From behind, he stepped forward, grabbed her, and gagged her before she recklessly said something inappropriate.
He seemed to have quite a bit of strength, because even though she struggled, she couldn't break free.
"Hmhphmhm!!."
"Excuse her, she's not a bad girl, it's just that she can be too frank at times, and her way of thinking has always been a little..."
"Yes, but I don't think you should cover her mouth. She probably just wants to apologize to Ria, just when I thought she finally would."
At that moment, Cassian stepped forward. He knew exactly what Nahara wanted to do: at some point during the hunt, she had said she wanted to make peace with Veleriane, and he thought that was what was about to happen now.
"Huh? Really? I thought she..."
"Nah, she said she doesn't have a problem with us anymore, right, Nari?"
"Hmph... phew, you're nosy, Eshaan. Like Cassy said, I wanted to apologize to Veleriane."
"Huh? You apologize? Because of your sarcasm, I thought that..."
"Sarcasm? What sarcasm? And let go of me, busybody as always. Well, I really wanted to apologize... Ahem, putting aside what happened this morning, I didn't like you guys, especially when I found out who you were. I didn't like the idea of entrusting the fate of our town to strangers."
"Wait! Nahara..."
"Be quiet, Eshaan, let me finish. Ahem... where was I? Yes, but after spending time with Cassy, I realized that I was being very closed-minded. Prophecy and all that aside, I am grateful that you are helping and accompanying the town during this difficult time. In fact, just for what they've done, I'm deeply grateful to them."
"No way! Nahara actually apologized. Is the end of the world coming? No, wait... if the end of our village is coming, this is not a good sign, it's a bad omen."
"I told you to shut up!... And earlier I was asking them if they agreed with you making the decisions, since they don't seem to know about the aberrants and don't seem very prepared."
"Even being considerate, I think I'm going to die today... Yes, I'm definitely going to die... Well, not yet. I still have to get to the day when... wait, Nahara, where's your bracelet?"
"Damn it, stop yelling, those things can hear us.... Marcus, did they move?"
"No, they didn't detect us. The savior's artifact is very good, but because you suddenly shouted, my heart almost jumped out of my chest!"
"Marcus, Diona, Rowen, listen ,Nahara's bracelet is gone!."
"Huh?!" (x3)