Walking in Another World

uld leave that same day.
But will Hikari abandon the idea of going around the food stalls there? If I insist, she’ll obey me in the end, but I know she’s looking forward to it, so I want to stay there for at least one night.

The wagon is moving along smoothly.
There are a few caravans coming along with us, and the adventurers escorting them seem to be doing their job.

But something happens as we approach a village at the half-way point.

“Hey, something’s not right.”

Someone whispers.

We can see the village in front of us, and the place where there should be a gate is broken.

The wagon stops, and a few adventurers run there, while the rest cautiously look around.

I check Map and notice something.

I haven’t been on a horsebus in a while, and being with all these people made me get careless.
I always checked this, but I neglected to this time.

The village isn’t that big, but I’m picking up too few reactions of people.

“Master, I smell blood.”

And from inside the village, I pick up reactions from monsters.
Those are orcs.

Is the village under attack right now?

I hear screams and the sound of metal clashing.

I don’t know the current situation in there, but I see someone exit the village.
That person doesn’t look like an adventurer, I think it’s a villager.

The adventurers get closer and listen.
The villager is pale and trembling, but still musters up the strength to talk.

Some of the adventurers who hear this run back to the merchants, and some disappear into the village.

“What’s the matter, master?”

“We’re going too.
They’re fighting something in there.”

“Hey hey young man, that’s too dangerous.
Let the experts handle this, people like us will just get in the way.”

“Don’t worry, I have a great guard with me.”

I say while patting Hikari’s head, and the other person looks at me with a baffled expression.

But that doesn’t stop me, and Hikari and I jump down from the wagon and run towards the village.

“Hey hey.
Where do you think you’re going?”

An adventurer stops us when we are about to enter the village.

“There’s a battle going on.
It’s dangerous.”

“What are you fighting?”

“…Orcs.”

“How many?”

“I don’t know?”

“Can the people that went in hunt orcs?”

“…If a few of them hit them, yes.”

After hearing this, I don’t say anything else and run in.
I can hear the adventurer yelling behind me, but I can’t stop and listen.

“Hikari, take the right side and save people inside the houses.
If you come across orcs, you can beat them back, but focus on saving the villagers.”

“Got it.
Be careful master.”

We split up.
Hikari should be able to detect when there are people nearby.

My task is to save people on the left side.
I see adventurers and a villager fighting an orc.
Should I take care of this first?

I erase my presence with Presence Concealment and get close.
The three people fighting should be able to see me, but they don’t notice me.
I swing my sword down and slash the orc from the back.
It dies without even knowing what happened to it, and the three people that were fighting it finally snap out of it when they hear the thud of the orc falling.

“T-thank you.
You saved us.”

“I’m looking for survivors.
Lead me to them.”

“A-all right, this way.”

We find and take back surviving villagers.
I end up only taking back seven villagers, but even after adding the ones Hikari saves, we only save twelve.