Warning: Disturbing topics mentioned, be ready
Not long after his conversation with Glyea, Zephyr sent a note to Rudeia asking for a favor. It would serve as the hero's payment for the returning ring, and all he had to do was search for any tracks of large-scale monster activity heading towards their town. Kept in the shadow about the true extent of the threat, Rudy marched his companions through the woods, even further than the dungeon of the fiend, and closing in on the church of Hestia deep in the forest.
His lips remained sealed through the trek, and the others dared not say a word either. The tension between Rudy and Roxanne was especially tense, and judging from the glaring looks the healer was passing their warrior, Charlotte and Audrey knew better and refrained from adding more tension to their hooks.
Giving the two some distance, they walked five steps behind them. And since neither seemed entirely up to the task, it fell on them to keep a lookout and ensure they weren't ambushed like last time.
In the meantime, finally gathering his courage, Rudy affixed his gaze to Roxanne. The healer stared right back with a sour look in her eyes.
"Are you upset? I…I'm sorry if I upset you," said the hero, but his words had little effect on Roxanne.
Whetting her glare, she glanced at the others for less than a second. Returning her gaze right after she whistled angrily through her teeth.
"Okio told me why you were in the Greenhorn market!" Glancing back again to make sure nobody else was listening, she hissed at Rudy some more. "You wanted to buy her as a sex slave, and for what? Some sort of practice…?"
Visibly perturbed by the mere thought, Roxanne watched as Rudy's expression contorted with horror. Wide as a hawk, his eyes stared back at the healer in shock, and although his lips quivered to speak, not a word came out of his mouth.
"And then you had the gall to tell me you love me when you wanted to use another person, a human, all things considered, as a practice dummy of sorts!" With a heavy sigh, Roxanne halted in her path, and so did Rudy, along with her. He tried to reach out and touch her shoulder, but with a quick slap, it was sent right back. "Don't touch me now or anytime soon for that matter!"
"Roxanne–"
"Shut up…" Though her words had lost their vigour by the end, her disgust remained and could be felt through her tone like a filthy slime covering the entrails. "Go buy yourself a slave who would listen to you while you confess your love to her while planning to have sex with someone else."
"Is…is everything alright?" Finally cutting through the middle, Charlotte walked up between the two. Placing a hand on their shoulders, she narrowed her eyes and gave them a light squeeze. "What happened? You two have been acting really strange for a while now."
"Why don't you ask your nephew?" Brushing Charlotte's hand off her shoulder, Roxanne began her march forward once more. The others were left behind, but the healer did not care–not right now, for she had plenty to work out internally.
"What was that about?" Turning to her nephew, Charlotte shook him a touch. "The hell happened between you two? What is she talking about?"
"Its–" As a pang of guilt slithered across his heart, Rudy turned away from everyone. "It's nothing, we just had a little fight, that's all."
Resting her hands on her hips, Charlotte squinted and set her gaze on Roxanne walking further ahead.
"What did you two get up to now?" Although an answer never came, as Audrey walked up next to her, something else took the party's attention. Sniffing the air, the fox-girl's eyes were nearly closed, and the way she blindly let her nose guide her stiffened the members to their bones.
Something had caught her attention, and as a rogue, it was her job to find it before it found them. Picking up their pace, the party quickly caught up with Roxanne, and once Charlotte had pulled her to her side, Audrey led the rest of the charge. The healer was, of course, upset at first, but upon realizing what was going on, she remained hushed.
In utter silence, Audrey steered the group away from the main path and led them down a stream of bushes that seemingly went nowhere. That is, until Charlotte caught a hint of something foul in the air as well. And eventually getting closer and closer, the humans of the party picked up the same rancid smell.
Halting the group with one of her hands held towards them, Audrey sifted through a bush to poke her head out and look towards an opening. Narrowing her gaze as her face came on the other end, she hissed to herself at the utter depravity of the sight before her. The ground, soaked blood red, reeked of viscera, and the scattered piles of bodies roasting amidst numerous tents told a horrid story.
"AUGHH!" Pulling her head out of the bush, she tried to cover her mouth to prevent herself from vomiting. But the slightest sight of what she'd noticed last was far too much for her to resist after. "G-god–aughhh!! Wha…gaahhhh~"
"What happened?!" Getting down on her knees, Roxanne rubbed Audrey's back. "What is out there?"
And while the two were busy dealing with the sudden sickness, both Charlotte and Rudiea made the mistake of looking out into the open. Empty except for the pile of bodies, the area was a clearing surrounded by the stumps of many trees. Possibly used by a group of drifters or nomads as a camp.
Hesitantly walking outward, their very core shuddered at the horror that must have befallen the unfortunate group. Left to rot over fires, beheaded, and strung by ropes alongside their laundry. Even worse, the clear difference in the treatment between men and women further seized their hearts in a moment of panic.
Skewered from the rear and sat upright, the women had their heads removed, and the end of the very skewer could be seen protruding from their necks. The men were all castrated, and their half-consumed dicks were lying everywhere. The women were no less fortunate, for their severed heads were cracked open by the flame to roast their brains.
As for the one thing that Charlotte realized but Rudy didn't, was the fact that only the women's ears were bleeding, and the unroasted hair by the ears was sticking together with some strange liquid. Trying to swallow her disgust, for even she wasn't aware that monsters could stoop to such levels, Charlotte kept her lips sealed–for the last thing she wanted was to tell her nephew that whoever had killed these people would not shy away from defiling their bodies even if they were dead.