Chapter 47: Investigations and Human Scum

"That's right. Besides these farm tools, there's just these pieces of armor." Wang Yu, Emmon, and Vena were all staring at the pile of armor that they had stripped off the goblin corpses.

"This is standard armor issued by Aleisterre for basic infantry. See this? Most people don't value the lives of foot soldiers, so they often cut corners for the abdomen."

Emoon picked up a piece of tattered armor from the pile and showed it to the others. Wang Yu ignored the filth and stench as he ran his hand over the armor. The quality was acceptable, except at the abdomen, where Wang Yu found it easy to poke and dent the armor there.

"Soldiers at the frontline usually get the worst of it. There are so many of them that their lives are worthless. On the other hand, armor in other places is actually better quality because it's not meant for real combat. They have fewer forces, so no one bothers to skimp there. They wouldn't make enough profit doing that," Emmon explained.

"Is that so? You know quite a bit about all this," Wang Yu replied approvingly.

"I had the misfortune of serving on the battlefield before..." Emmon ran his hand over a long scar that stretched from his left eye to his chin.

"Elliot's a bit stingy, but life is significantly better with him than before," Vena interjected. It seemed that the two of them hadn't had the easiest of lives.

Indeed, the skill Vena had shown would have made her a top-tier assassin at the level of an ordinary knight.

Wang Yu, respecting their privacy, refrained from asking further questions. Instead, he picked up another piece of armor from the pile.

This one had several holes and Selwyn's emblem on the left side of the cestplate. He ran his fingers over it and found that the shoulders had been skimped on this time.

Nodding with resignation, he confirmed that all this goblin armor had likely come from the frontlines.

"So these goblins came across the border from the frontlines? I can't believe that..." Wang Yu muttered to himself.

He couldn't fathom how such weak goblins had managed to come across armor, let alone cross the border without being noticed by Aleisterre patrols.

"But those three unique goblins..." Wang Yu thought. It wasn't impossible for them to achieve such a feat if they could remain undetected.

With those three goblins able to evade any observation, it might even be possible for the entire group to hide.

The power of the Lady of the Night, Eunice, merited serious attention.

As Wang Yu pondered the situation, a sharp voice yelled out from behind, "Hurry up! We're going to collect this armor and sell it off! We've been delayed for too long, so it's well past time to set off! This armor should be able to make up for the cost of my poor horses, I hope..."

Elliot, who had been wailing in pain just moments earlier, had already recovered. He was growing anxious upon seeing Wang Yu and the other two warriors eye the armor seriously.

Quite a few horses had been killed by the goblins. Emmon, and perhaps even Wang Yu, might have to help with pulling the carriages.

Horses wouldn't come cheap, especially not high-quality, well-trained ones. Elliot would suffer significant losses from the goblin raid as a result.

At the very least, collecting these pieces of armor to sell back in the capital might help make up for some of his losses.

Emmon scratched his head sheepishly. "Boss, you can skip my pay this time. I'd like to go check on that village the goblins raided..."

Elliot sighed, his tiny frame visibly deflating.

"You soft-hearted orc... Fine. The pay's still yours. Go if you want. And Vena, you're going to do the same, I assume?"

Vena rolled her eyes at him. She didn't respond, but was clearly intending to join Emmon.

"My apologies, honored customer. Emmon wants to check out the situation at the village, so there might be a bit of a delay..." Elliot apologized to Wang Yu with a smile.

"It's fine. I'd like to go have a look myself." Wang Yu waved it off. He had been curious about the situation, though he wouldn't have checked it out if Emmon hadn't decided to do so.

He could gather some intel and hand it over to the Nightblades for analysis when they reached the capital. As for that Lady of the Night, it would be best to leave her to Archbishop Fang. He was no expert, and acting recklessly would be foolish.

Elliot and Wang Yu headed back to the carriage as they waited for Emmon to load up the armor that they had stripped off the goblins.

On the way, the greedy gnome, seemingly having discovered that Wang Yu was quite approachable, couldn't help but start complaining.

"You know, being the boss of this caravan isn't easy at all. Not only are there troubles all around, my two subordinates—well, you've seen them! One completely disregards me, and the other is mostly obedient but stubborn at critical moments. That kind-hearted orc—ugh, he cares more about this kingdom than an Aleisterre farmer himself! Ah, sorry for making you listen to my nonsense again."

Wang Yu smiled but didn't respond. In truth, he could tell that Vena and Amon did respect their boss, who treated them well and was more than reasonable despite his love of gold. In times like these, everyone had it tough.

After a while, the carriage began to move. It seemed as if Emmon had already loaded all the armor onto the carriage, and they set off once again.

Though they had been delayed, it wasn't too bad. Noticing the hoes and farm tools in the goblins' hands, as well as some of the crests on their clothing, Emmon recognized the village that the goblins must have attacked. It was a small village along the trade route they often traveled, and they could scout it out while on the way. The caravan's speed was noticeably slower after the goblin raid than before. They had lost a few horses for pulling the carriages, slowing the whole procession down.

Fortunately, they were already most of the way toward the capital, and should arrive by the end of the day.

Wang Yu sat in the carriage and continued to ponder the goblins and the Lady of the Night, who had emerged in his mindscape upon contact with that steel spike.

Wang Yu couldn't understand the big picture, but it was clear that he had chanced upon part of a complex Selwyn plan.

After thinking it over for a while without coming to a conclusion, he decided to drop the matter. After all, he wasn't from Aleisterre, and there was no need for him to worry too much about it. He mainly wanted to avoid getting caught up in the chaos in the capital. Everything else was secondary.

The caravan continued for a while before it gradually slowed down as Emmon pulled on the reins. Wang Yu jumped off the carriage and walked over to Emmon.

The large orc stood by the side of the trade route as he looked toward a small village in the dark. The goblin raid had happened in the dead of night; it still wasn't yet dawn. The moonlight was bright, so there was no need for torches.

Wang Yu glanced at the path leading out of the village. A few shocking trails of blood stretched far into the distance, marked by small, bloody footprints.

These had to be left by the goblins. The blood had already dried and appeared a pale reddish-brown in the moonlight. Goblin blood was green, so it was clear just whose blood this was.

The orc had clearly noticed this, too. He picked up his pace as he rushed toward the village, with Wang Yu and Vena following close behind.

The farther in they went, the more horrific the scene became. Messy, scattered bloodstains appeared on the village's small paths. Numerous bodies were strewn across the ground, showing clear signs of having been gnawed on.

Goblins were omnivores that would eat almost anything. They certainly weren't picky when it came to human flesh.

Emmon, Wang Yu, and Vena ran through the village as devastation unfolded all around them. Houses mostly made of earth and wood had been completely destroyed by the goblins' sheer numbers. Some had collapsed, while others had huge holes gouged into them.

The interior of the houses was a mess. Tables lay overturned and broken, with jars and pots shattered on the ground. Large bloodstains and fragments of bloody bones may have been all that remained of the village's former residents.

The orc ran quickly, clearly intent on doing something, but the village was eerily silent. No living soul could be heard at all. The collapsed fences and destroyed homes made it clear that there were no survivors left.

Wang Yu had activated his inner eye at full strength. Ripples were pulsing from him at full strength as he tried to locate any remaining life in the area, but to no avail.

The three of them ran through the desolate village, imagining the despair the villagers must have felt in the face of the goblin horde—a swarm of goblins that had appeared out of nowhere, running faster than the villagers and with numbers too overwhelming to think about.

The village guards likely hadn't even had time to fight back before being completely overrun, and the villagers simply had no means of resisting these small creatures.

With the goblins' keen sense of smell, their attempts to hide would have been futile.

Wang Yu sighed as he thought about goblins screaming wildly, swarming over the villagers, hacking, killing, and feasting on their dead bodies. In the end, it was always the common people who suffered most in times of war.

Why the war in the first place? Wang Yu didn't understand, and neither did he want to. He could do nothing about it; it just made him feel helpless and exasperated.

Some things seemed to remain the same across all worlds.

"Hmm?" Though Wang Yu was still unable to detect any living souls, he noticed something unusual in his ripples—a hazy, distorted fog-like substance.

Within the fog were faint, flickering faces that came and went, young and old alike. They were angry, fierce, and seemingly a little confused.

"Be careful. There's a wraith up ahead!" Wang Yu warned. He was very familiar with wraiths. The powder that wraiths left behind was what he had used to kill Beran's whole gang of bandits.

Vena nodded. Her keen senses had allowed her to notice it almost as soon as Wang Yu did. The group halted and looked toward the distance.

The fog hovered in place, faces emerging within it. They unleashed silent screams before retreating once more. Both the orc and elf frowned uncomfortably, but Wang Yu felt nothing.

"Why would there be a wraith here? There weren’t any elsewhere in the village." Wang Yu pondered this and glanced at the orc, who had a grim expression, clearly reminded of something unpleasant.

Along the way, they had passed other areas where villagers had died miserably, but no wraiths had gathered by their corpses. Why was one here?

This wraith hovered in place, its fog-like body constantly shifting between a corporeal and an incorporeal state. Unlike normal wraiths, which would be driven to attack any living thing nearby out of hatred, this one seemed lost, as if it couldn't find a target, an outlet, for its hatred.

"Let's go. It won't attack us," Emmon said. He suddenly stood up and walked toward the wraith. Wang Yu was a bit surprised, but trusted the orc's judgment. He quickly followed behind him.

Sure enough, the wraith did nothing to attack them. It continued to float and shift under the moonlight in an unpredictable, ethereal dance.

The orc seemed to have spotted something. He ran quickly in a certain direction. Wang Yu followed behind him. Together, they ran toward a part of the village slightly off the main path.

Suddenly, Wang Yu's ripples picked up something—a large bloodstain, fragments of bodies, and, buried under those remains, a trapdoor with an iron handle.

"I've been to this village before. There should be a cellar that serves as an emergency shelter here..."

The orc's face was grim. Though he mentioned the shelter, he showed no joy at the prospect of finding any survivors.

Standing before the pile of blood and gore, Wang Yu sent his ripples through the trapdoor.

He could see and hear a few people huddled in the sizable underground space, speaking in hushed tones.

A young man was talking to a middle-aged man beside him. "Father, thank goodness Hak realized something was off during his patrol. He warned us in advance, or we wouldn't have made it here in time."

"Hak's too good-hearted. He even tried to warn the villagers of the incoming threat—ha! I bet he got torn apart by those goblins halfway," the middle-aged man replied indifferently. "Well, he asked for it. He did us a favor by warning us. He could have hidden down here with us, but he wanted to warn everyone else. His death is his own fault."

The young man nodded. "Exactly. Those villagers tried to rush here after we blocked the door. Good thing I jammed the iron bar in place, or we wouldn't have been able to hold them off. I heard the blacksmith's son outside, too. He was strong enough to bend the iron bar—but that didn't help when the goblins got him, did it? His screams were particularly loud, too."

"Serves him right. If he had forced open that door and allowed the goblins in, things would have gone very badly," the middle-aged man replied, still indifferent.

"Exactly. I heard those villagers outside thought that the door was just jammed. The sound of their despair was chilling. These goblins really are terrifying. Good thing we got in here early. I just hope we'll be rescued soon. The church of light will hear about the situation soon enough, won't it?"

Wang Yu glanced at Emmon, finally understanding why the orc was glancing at the trapdoor with such malevolence. He didn't fully understand why the orc cared so much about Aleisterre, but he did understand one thing: some people who deserved to die had survived.

Wang Yu nodded at Emmon, whose expression turned even darker. Something unspoken passed between them.

Without a word, Wang Yu and Emmon positioned themselves on either side of the trapdoor. Each of them gripped a handle, their muscles tensing as they pulled.

The iron bar that had been jammed in the door twisted and bent under their combined strength—then finally broke as the trapdoor swung open, revealing the startled and frightened faces of the family below. Wang Yu and Emmon cast a cold glance at the people huddled inside, then turned and walked away.

The young man stared in confusion at the trapdoor that had suddenly opened, and the departing orc and human who barely spared them a glance. He looked at his father, the middle-aged man, who returned his look with equal puzzlement.

Then, the middle-aged man's face suddenly turned terrified as he looked over the young man's shoulder. The young man quickly turned around.

In the moonlight, disembodied faces appeared in a warped cloud of fog, their expressions twisted in deepest hatred. The fog swirled and writhed, and the embodiment of their rage plunged through the trapdoor from above.

The trapdoor jammed with an iron bar had been forced open, and the wraith had finally found its target for vengeance.