At night, around seven in the evening, they began to head out and patrol the village of Garlun. They checked every single place, not leaving anything unchecked. As they walked past the houses of Garlun, not a single door remained open.
Even the light from inside the houses was very dim. The villagers deliberately made their homes less noticeable so that the creature that had been eating their livestock would not come to their homes.
Only, there was one house that stood out.
"Whose house is that?" Ronan asked while pointing toward a house where light was still visible.
That house was the only one guarded by soldiers. There were more than a dozen soldiers, but not only that—there were also some people dressed in ordinary clothing, yet carrying weapons at their waists.
Just by looking, Crowne already knew whose house that was. "So he has plenty of soldiers and hired men. Then why doesn't he use them to hunt the wolves that have been eating the villagers' livestock?"
Eighty-five percent of this village's population were livestock breeders. Their village chief also ran the same business. With the incident of livestock being eaten or taken away by the creature they suspected to be wolves, it should affect him as well. Those wolves could easily devour his livestock too.
But with the number of soldiers and hired men the village chief possessed, protecting his own livestock was something he could definitely do. The number was sufficient.
"Did he purposely allow the villagers' livestock to be eaten?"
Crowne could not understand why such a thing would be done. Even without doing that, they would still have buyers, and besides, every year the village had to pay taxes. If the village income was low, then the tax set by the kingdom of Everon had to be borne by the village chief.
Clearly, that was not something beneficial for the village chief, unless there was one particular reason.
Crowne shook his head. "No way he's that cunning, right?"
He discarded his suspicion. He and Ronan continued their patrol, circling the village to search for the wolf that had been preying on the villagers' livestock. However, until eleven at night, they found nothing.
Ronan and Crowne stopped at the village square. They sat on a bench under a tree, gazing around with vigilant eyes. Their task was not only to kill the wolf that ate livestock but also to protect themselves from it.
"Do you have any ideas, Sir Crowne?" Ronan asked.
Crowne scratched his head, lost in thought. On Earth, he had once worked as a zoo keeper in the wolf section, but he could not remember what wolves particularly liked. At that time, he had only been a rookie employee.
But there was one thing he was sure of—wolves ate in a very brutal manner. They would leave behind several parts of their prey at the location. They would not drag their food into a hidden place. Wolves were apex predators in the forest.
They were not afraid of their food being stolen, because if anyone dared to do so, they would attack that animal.
"Wolves are pack animals. They rarely hunt alone. It should be easy to find them even in the dark," Crowne muttered.
He scratched his head again. The clues he had were far too few. It was incredibly difficult to draw any conclusion. He was not even sure if the creature eating the villagers' livestock was truly a wolf, because the signs he had found did not match wolf behavior.
"Unless it's a Lone Wolf." Crowne shook his head again. "Lone Wolves don't live in packs, but I think the way they hunt and eat should still be the same." He tilted his head. "Or is it different? I never saw a Lone Wolf at the zoo. It's really hard to conclude."
Crowne was genuinely perplexed. He stood up and looked around, then turned to Ronan and invited him to patrol once more. Perhaps the creature preying on the villagers' livestock could be found. If they managed to find it, there would be no need to guess what kind of creature it was. He would see it directly.
That was what Crowne hoped, but in reality, they found nothing. This made him let out a long sigh.
"Do we have to wait one more night to finish this mission?" he complained.
**
Time passed quickly. Crowne and Ronan had circled the village forty times. Yet, even after patrolling that much, they still found nothing. Let alone encountering the creature devouring the villagers' livestock, they did not even discover a single clue about it.
And dawn was nearly approaching. In just one more hour, the sun would rise. The villagers would be awake, and they would have found nothing.
"If tomorrow is still like this, we won't just be stuck here, but our reputation from the start will be terrible," Crowne muttered.
He would be declared a failure on their very first mission. Of course, they would be branded poorly by the Adventurers' Guild. Especially since the mission they failed to complete was an F-rank mission—the easiest type to complete. Crowne could only sigh heavily.
"Are we going back to the Adventurers' Guild?" Ronan asked.
Crowne shook his head firmly. "No. We must finish this mission," he replied.
This was no longer about the reward, but about his pride. Crowne would be furious at himself if he failed to complete this mission.
"Today, we have to gather more—"
"Aaaarrrgh!"
Suddenly, a scream came from the eastern side of Garlun village. Crowne and Ronan looked at each other. Both of them nodded and immediately ran toward the source of the scream. They had a bad feeling about this.
**
Sure enough, when they arrived, they saw a cow lying on the ground in a gruesome state. Its entire body was almost gone except for bones. Something that had never happened in the previous incidents.
"Is this a different creature?" Crowne muttered.
But the way the creature entered was the same. It had broken through the fence and wreaked havoc in the pen. Only one cow lay in such a horrific condition. Yet the cow's owner had said that yesterday she had still owned two cows.
Which meant that one cow had been taken away by the creature. The same sign as the previous incidents.
"We let our guard down," Crowne said.
Ronan nodded. "True. But when did the creature come into the village? We circled the village countless times." Ronan glanced toward the villagers nearby. They looked disappointed. "Yet we still missed it."
Crowne was also puzzled. He felt he had been very thorough and careful. They should not have been outsmarted, yet the reality was the opposite.
Crowne furrowed his brows. "Could the creature deliberately be looking for gaps in our patrol? If so, that means this creature has intelligence beyond normal animals."
Ronan scratched his head, trying to think as well. "Could it be a Wendigo?"
Crowne instantly turned to him, his eyes widening. "Wendigo?"