“Oh, Adventurers! Welcome. Please, come inside.”
When we arrived at a residence that seemed to be the Village Chief’s house, an elderly man came out and welcomed us.
He introduced himself as the village chief.
Upon entering the chief’s home, it seemed we had arrived just after dinner, as the scent of stew lingered in the living room.
Come to think of it, we hadn’t eaten dinner yet either.
As I wondered if there was any place to get a meal in this village, the chief asked a woman, who appeared to be his wife, to prepare dinner for four more people.
The wife, already moving before being told by the chief, quickly headed to the kitchen.
I initially refused, but the chief insisted, saying it would be a shame not to offer hospitality to guests who had traveled so far. So I accepted his kindness.
In return, Miina and Elen offered to help the chief’s wife, so I sent them to assist her.
The wife gratefully accepted their offer, assigning them tasks like chopping vegetables.
Meanwhile, Seraphina was the one looking apologETIC and embarrassed.
“I-I’m so sorry, Douglas-sama. I’m not skilled at household chores…”
Seraphina said this, shrinking herself down.
I had pictured Seraphina as an all-capable lady, but this was an unexpected royal pitfall.
Honestly, the Wentworth Royal Family’s logic is baffling: preparing their daughter, who is intended to marry the Hero, for marital duties by night but not for household chores. It should be the other way around.
Still, it wasn’t a matter worth dwelling on.
I placed my hands on Seraphina’s head and spoke to the dejected girl.
“Don’t worry about it. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.”
“Ugh… Thank you for your kind words, Douglas-sama. I’m sorry for being so useless…”
Seraphina replied, looking extremely out of place.
So, while dinner was being prepared, I assigned Seraphina the role of listening to the chief’s story with me.
I sat down with her in the living room and listened to the chief.
The general gist of his story matched what I had heard from Lawrence at the Adventurer’s Guild.
However, when he spoke of the villagers who were killed, his tone and choice of words were filled with hatred and helplessness.
“Adventurer, please, I beg you, kill that hateful Wyvern! Please…!”
With that, the chief bowed deeply to me.
The villagers killed by the Wyvern must have been his close neighbors.
While from an outsider’s perspective, it might seem like mere competition for survival, for him, they were objects of resentment and hatred.
Understanding his feelings, I replied to the chief.
“Understood. I promise we will do everything we can. By the way, Chief, do you know where this Wyvern lives?”
“No, I’m sorry. It only comes from the northern mountains and returns in the same direction…”
“I see. Not knowing the location of its lair makes things a bit troublesome. What should we do…”
At that moment, Seraphina interjected.
“Douglas-sama, if we get close to the lair, I believe my detection magic can pinpoint its location. The downside is that it’s not capable of searching a very wide area…”
“No, that will still be very helpful. What’s the range of your detection magic?”
“About three hundred meters around.”
“I see. If that’s the case, we might be able to find it by systematically searching likely areas in the northern mountains.”
Just then, Miina’s voice came from the kitchen.
“Douglas, do you think there’s a chance that Miina can track it by following the bloodstains from when the Wyvern killed and carried off our livestock? I hope the rain hasn’t washed them away completely.”
“Oh, really? That gives us a much better chance.”
Frankly, this quest might be more about finding the Wyvern’s location than defeating it.
If we waited here in the village, it might attack again, but we don’t know when that would be.
It might never attack again, which would also be problematic.
I hoped we could manage to find the Wyvern’s lair using our party’s skills – Seraphina’s detection magic and Miina’s tracking abilities…
However, my plans were about to be unexpectedly shattered.
At that moment, from somewhere in the distance, we heard the panicked cries of livestock – cows, pigs, and others.
Curious, I stepped outside the chief’s house with Seraphina and the chief. Soon, a voice carried from afar.
“It’s a Wyvern! A Wyvern has appeared! Everyone, hide in your homes!”
“Adventurer, that’s Matthew the villager’s voice!”
As the chief informed me, Miina and Elen also rushed out from the chief’s house a moment later.
“Perfect timing, Douglas.”
“We were right to come today, no matter what.”
“Douglas-sama is loved by destiny.”
The girls said in unison, gathering around me.
I smiled faintly and replied.
“I don’t know if you can call this being loved, but it’s certainly convenient. Let’s use [Maiden’s Blessing].”
Gripping the Holy Axe Lombardia, I activated my skill.
Then, I embraced Miina, Elen, and Seraphina one by one, exchanging kisses.
In my arms, my wives began to glow, transforming into figures clad in somewhat divine and courageous combat attire.
Then, with the astonished village chief looking on, we dashed towards the direction of the commotion.
***
We ran towards the source of the cries and soon arrived at what seemed to be the scene.
In the middle of the pastoral landscape, a giant shadow loomed over an exposed livestock pen.
The beast, with its green scales, resembled a bipedal dragon without forelimbs.
Its body was far larger than that of a cow or horse, comparable in heft even to a rhinoceros or hippopotamus.
Its long tail ended in a sharp, poisonous barb, which was a distinctive feature.
That monster was the Wyvern.
We stopped at a short distance from the livestock pen.
The Wyvern noticed our presence, tilted its head, and glared at us.
“Seraphina. The green dragon I saw in my precognitive dream, that wasn’t it, was it?”
“No, it wasn’t. Besides, the battle in the dream was inside a cave. A cave behind a waterfall, deep in an eerie forest.”
“Okay. But either way, we still have to defeat that one. Seraphina, Miina, Elen, please take care of it yourselves.”
“Yes, we’ll give it a try!”
“Understood, nya!”
“Roger that, Douglas!”
As I gave my wives instructions, the three girls, now in their divine forms, stepped forward and confronted the Wyvern clinging to the livestock pen.
I stood behind them, arms crossed, observing the battle.
One of the objectives of defeating this Wyvern was to ascertain the extent of the [Maiden’s Blessing] effect.
Normally, a Wyvern is a formidable foe that even Elen and Seraphina, as C Rank Adventurers, would struggle to defeat together.
Miina, under normal circumstances, would be completely out of her league, or even a hindrance.
Therefore, the Wyvern was an optimal opponent to gauge how much the [Maiden’s Blessing] had strengthened the three of them.
As I watched, the battle began to shift.
Seraphina started chanting a spell, and almost simultaneously, the Wyvern let out a mighty roar and soared into the sky.
