After a few days of travelling, I arrived in the fog plains.
"Fuck you."
The fog was also heavy. I can't get a visual acuity like the last time I came looking for meteorites. It was just because of the snow that the whole world would look white.
Still, I'm glad I don't have more eyes than I thought.
We just sat back and entrusted ourselves to the wagon.
- Puhinhinhin.
- Phew, Phew.
About five more minutes.
Suddenly the wagon stopped.
"I'm going to take a break from here!"
When Bakerell shouted, people got off the wagon. Then it was lunchtime. We took this and got off.
"Paladin. You've reached the fog plains. I don't know all about the road anyway, so I'm going to have to start searching from now on. You'll need perseverance."
"You're right."
"I'm going to move slowly while I make the map, but let's eat and get started. I'm glad it's not colder than I thought."
The wagon was equipped with simple utensils, so I immediately took them all out and started preparing to eat.
It was not a problem to set fire to Winia in the first place. As we have done so far, we made a simple stew and conducted a field meal.
"This is the fog plain. It's fog, just like I heard. I can't see a single inch ahead."
Elise shakes the stew and says,
"Invisible, like the future of pagans."
"Hehe, that's a funny joke. As you can see, the Saint is very amusing. By the way, Stu... I think the saint of the Temple Army comes to mind."
pagan stew.
"What are you talking about while he's eating?"
Reminiscent of the same thing, Winia said.
"Oops, I'm sorry. Stop being so careless."
"Well, niggers have fun talking."
"Uh-huh, I think people should always have humor. That's the most important thing."
Before I ate stew, I took out the grain and buckets of water that were mounted on the wagon and fed the horses.
"Is that why Cat always enjoys killing jokes?"
"That's it."
Claudie spread my share in a small bowl.
It was cold and the minty stew was hot, so it felt quite delicious. I feel a little warm as it spreads inside my body. No matter how physical you are, you're warming up with a Sasquatch fur coat, but it's been too long outside.
It's hard.
"Cat. But this time we find the villages of those criminals."
"Extermination. If you kill everything and rob the vault, it'll still be worth it."
"Huhuhu, I'm so trustworthy."
Claudie smiled happily and stroked my head. In the first place, this is a search or a subjugation. If you have a pagan minister, of course you have to be quiet.
"Yes, it is right that such evildoers should be shredded."
"... I'm worried I'll find it. Well, I'd like you to leave town first, whether you're a criminal or something."
If it's a normal town, you can just pay and stay, but if it's a town of robbers like that, you can get rid of everything and rest easy.
It will not be too difficult because I have already done it once.
After a decent meal, I talked to Bakerell while brushing. In this way, I intend to search the town while creating a map.
It's the only way to do it right now.
I cleared my seat and boarded the wagon as soon as I heard that I was leaving.
* * *
In that way, we crossed the fog plain in the middle of winter.
There's a way to make a map, but I don't know how far it's going to be valid. In the first place, it's hard to get a watch, so the map itself doesn't make much progress.
At night, I gathered wagons and horses, set fire, and slept in the wagon alternately. Unlike when I went to look for meteorites, I liked the fact that there were no attacks on monsters at night.
There was nothing special about the monsters I encountered from time to time.
An extreme scout that can defeat even if a great demon appears in the first place. You can defeat normal monsters with just one finger.
Of course, the suppressed monsters were immediately dismantled and became the noodles of Minghun Stew. Overall, the problem was a journey that was not particularly difficult.
"What, did you stop?"
Then, the wagon stopped.
"It's not food time... Did you find anything?"
Winia said, and the paladins and priests descended from the carriage that was before her. I went right down and looked around, of course.
On the other side, I saw a similar luminosity.
It is a village.
"Gentlemen, I think I'm finally going to find the town."
I found my first town a few days after I came into the fog plains. Still, I moved around looking for something like a road, and I found a way to find it.
Is that the town of the robbers?
Well, even if there are a hundred robbers gathered together, I won't be the opponent of the Crusaders.
"I'll go in first. We will not be driven out if we state our just purpose."
Barquerel instructed us, and we descended from the wagon and headed for the light. Shortly after, a three-story watchtower came into sight with a wooden log.
The light was shining there.
"Stop! Who are you!"
Soon someone came out from above and shouted with their bow pointed. A watchman in town? Bacquerel stands up as a delegate and shouts loudly.
"We are the Crusaders of the Bronze Heavenly Society on mission!!! Can I go into town?!!"
"Standing, Crusader...? Please wait!"
There's a chance they're pagan, but they don't know it yet. They may be good people.
Because of this, Barquerel asked me not to go into the stables but to enter them politely. Well, if you say no, it's suspicious, so I'm going to insist.
There is no choice but to go in.
Soon, people showed up and cleared the small wooden bookshelves that were erected at the entrance to the village.
"Come in!"
Surprisingly, ask him to come in intensively.
Does quing mean there is no point?
We led the wagon into the village.
- I...
When I went in, the villagers who looked like murderers crawling from the bottom of hell were staring at us with their eyes closed.
Seeing as there are a lot of people in town, did they all come out?
"You, Crusaders...?"
A man in a hunter's outfit approached and said,
"Yes. I'm on a mission. I just want to see the village chief."
"Oh, I'll show you."
The sacred angel armor of Bakerel seemed extremely luxurious compared to the poor villagers. Originally, these people keep their heads down even when they see good looking armor.
It's a world like that.
We immediately asked the villagers to hand out the wagon with a few pennies. You have to spend money on anything to get it right. I'm going to stay here for about a day anyway, but there's nothing good to save.
After leaving the wagon, I headed to the chief's house as a group.
"You're the chief. What is the name of the town?"
"It's Gurtus Village... What are the Crusaders doing...?"
Barquerel spoke to the chief as the representative.
The point of the story was that. We are crusaders from the Church. Currently, cursed pagans are hiding in this fog plain. I need to investigate, so I need you to cooperate.
It is not a request for villagers who are merely socialites to refuse during the day.
If some knickers come and tell them to, all they have to do is follow the laws of the world. At least they are crusaders, so I ask you politely.
"Of course, if you cooperate, I will reward you in my own way. I'm going to search the town for a while. I'm doing this to exterminate evil pagans, so I want you to give me permission."
"That's... that's what you do. If that's the case, we should cooperate."
The chief was a talkative man.
Of course, if I didn't cooperate, I would have started a compulsory investigation with this douche bag. As I came into town, there is no choice but to not investigate.
"Make three of you to investigate the town. Now that the Chief has given me this permission, I should behave with the utmost respect."
As Bakerell instructed skillfully, the paladins and priests came out.
"Saint, we will also conduct an investigation."
"Wait, Elise. Claudie, Winia. Can you start with Ellie and the three of you? I'll join you in a minute."
"Yes... I will. Come on, nigger."
Then let's all get out of here. Me and Barquerel at the Chief's house. And only the chief remained. I asked for permission to speak to Bakerell first. After he nodded, I opened my mouth.
"Uh-huh, Chief. Do you have accommodation in this town?"
"No one else... but there's an empty building for those of you who came to stay."
"Glad to hear that."
Fortunately, I think I can stay.
To be honest, I don't know whether these are good people or the deputies of pagans. I don't think there's anything I can do if I let you investigate like this. I didn't know that in the first place.
Even if you're trafficking in human beings, if you don't have the people who kidnapped you right now, there's no evidence.
Suddenly, the pagans won't come.
Of course, suspicion alone does not allow people to be interrogated and tortured. This is ridiculous, and it is done by pagan bastards and criminals.
We never do such evil things.
Because the bastards who do that are the evil ones who have to be corrupted to establish the justice of this world.
If there is no proof, I just move on.
It is the same for me, and for the Crusaders.
As long as there is no definitive proof, these are merely residents who need to be protected from the threat of paganism.
"Hmm, by the way, Chief."
So I decided to ask a few simple questions.
"As I explained, there are pagans who commit trafficking nearby. There was even a village there that had a patriarch. Do you know anything about that? Some kind of rumor that some suspicious people have come... or that the villagers have all been exterminated."
I held the table with both hands and said with my face to the chief.
"Well, well..."
The old chief noticed that he seemed to be frightened by my question. Let's start by introducing ourselves.
"Uh-huh, you're late for the introduction. I am Paladin Kim Kat, a Saint of the Bronze Society. Like I said, we're investigating the pagans hiding in the fog plains."
"Par, Paladin..."
When he heard that he was a paladin, he opened his eyes wide.
That was the impression given to the general public by the title of Paladin. Amazing, or frightening. The latter would certainly have been a deeply sinful man.
"Bourne Paladin knew that the pagans had been playing Tahri for a long time. Enough for a professional trafficker to play the plate."
"..."
"Do you know anything? It's a town like this, but I don't want to interact with nearby villages. Then I think I can hear as many rumors as I can."
Even though the fog plain is this shitty space, there must still be some interaction between the town and the village.
They live here, so there will be maps.
Then you will surely know the news about the nearby villages, and there is a good chance that the pagans have come once as far as this shithole.
There are no pagans who are using this area as a base for professional human trafficking to just surround nearby villages.
Therefore, the village chief is most likely to know about that information.
"It's true that there are interactions with other villages, but... pagans, I don't know about that. This is not such a big town. Just herbs and specialties. It's a small farming and hunting village... It has nothing to do with that."
The chief, who seemed scared, said he didn't know the answer.
"Oh, right? Then maybe the villagers nearby were massacred, or one of the villages disappeared. Didn't you hear that rumor?"
"I've never heard such scary rumors..."
"Uh-huh, I don't know."
I looked into the chief's eyes as he laughed.
- I'm shaking.
I wanted to know if one village was destroyed, but I don't know. It's suspicious, but as far as I'm concerned, there may not be a network of contacts between the town and the village.
Then you may not know it.
Those who live here will never be able to stick together on a village-byvillage basis.
"Well, I get it. No, I don't doubt the chief or this town. It's just an investigation, so you don't have to be so nervous. Just be careful. There's a lot of pagans and criminals nearby."
"..."
Let us not say that I have slaughtered.
"Still, I believe there will be a map as close as the people who live here. I'll tell you straight away. Sell the map."
"... I get it."
The chief nods.
After talking about it, I got a map and went outside. I immediately found Claudie, Winia and Elise, and I conducted an investigation with them.
Residents were cooperative.
I didn't find anything suspicious either.
Then there is nothing we can do separately. Immediately after the investigation, we bought supplies for a fair price and got a vacant house to rest.
Well, I want a map.