TL note: I'm gonna re-TL and re-edit the early chapters. Just in case you didn't notice chapter 1, it was released last week on this site.
In the Avian Village (Part 1)'Hey, wait a minute, wa-wait a minute! Are we seriously flying right now? This is dangerous!!'
Wynn, Leti, and Paul flew through the moonlit sky.
'W-we're not gonna fall right? I could die. I will definitely die if we fall.'
The three of them were surrounded by a thin, translucent membrane resembling a giant soap bubble.
Beneath their feet, the river stretched across the plains like a black sash.
"Ahaha! Isn't this cool, Onii-chan?"
"It's really cool, Leti!"
Unlike Paul, who was flailing around helplessly, the two children laughed mirthfully.
"We have to chase after them without them noticing. Can you do that, Leti?
"Okay."
Leti nodded, and the bubble rose higher into the sky.
"N-no way…"
Paul let out a cry of disbelief.
He didn't know much about magic.
However, he did know that this defied common sense.
Some adventurers could use magic.
Many of them were either former nobles or knights whose lords had fallen in battle.
Commoners didn’t have the opportunity to read magic books, but most adventurers could pay a moderate sum of money to learn how to cast simple spells, like lighting a fire.
That was why Paul had seen magic being used.
Paul had only seen rudimentary spells being used, but he doubted that magic could be cast as simply as Leti made it seem.
"D-did Leti do this? Leti can use magic!?"
"Now that I think about it, how long have you been able to fly like this, Leti?"
"Ummm… Just now?"
Leti tilted her head.
"I was like: 'I wonder if I could fly,' and I did."
"Leti really does have a talent for magic!"
"Eh? But, Leti wants to be a knight, like Onii-chan!"
"I-is this really fine? We're not going to fall, right? Right?!"
"It's fine, it's fine!"
Wynn put both of his hands against the bubble and looked down at the ground.
'He must also be a big shot, huh?'
Cold sweat poured down Paul's back like a waterfall, making his shirt uncomfortably wet.
He kneaded his temples and forced himself to smile.
He could do nothing but smile.
He slowly regained his calm.
The uncomfortable floating feeling didn't go away, but it was silly for him to be the only one panicking.
"…First of all, take care not to be seen."
There was no point in flailing around.
After all, he couldn’t do anything about it; also, when would be the next time he could fly in the sky like this?
That was why he decided to just enjoy it.
After calming down, he looked around.
He was closer to the moon and the clouds than ever before.
He could see bright lights in the distance. That was probably Simurgh.
The river that flowed through Simurgh was glistening in the moonlight. The main road looked like a thick, white line that extended from the gate, through the plains and forests, and off into the distance.
He looked down to see that the ground below them had turned from a grassy plain into a black mass of trees.
'Dang. I’m not gonna stop adventuring if I can experience stuff like this!'
Paul was still an adventurer at heart.
He thirsted for the unknown, and enjoyed the thrill of discovery.
Somewhere in the forest, there was a small spring in a clearing.
There were several wooden structures that appeared to be houses. However, most of them seemed to have burnt down, leaving only charred pillars in their place.
Forest weeds had started to grow in the ruined fields.
It was the very definition of a ghost town.
Strangely, there wasn't a single road leading out of the village.
Only a small stream of water from the fountain flowed away from the village.
A small avian girl slipped through a gap between the pillars, into one of the crumbling houses that had survived the fire. She was careful to avoid catching her wings on the pillars.
It was barely wide enough to be considered a room.
Only a sliver of moonlight slipped through the cracks of the crumbling wall to illuminate the room.
She had been living there for a few days, so her hair and wings were grey from the ashes.
The girl crouched in a corner of the room and bit into the precious cabbage.
She had stolen it from one of the nearby human settlements.
It had been several months since she had ended up alone. At first, she had eaten the food that remained in the fields, but that had quickly run out.
Then she had wandered the forest in search of food.
Nuts, plants, mushrooms, anything.
Due to the longevity of avians, it would be hard to judge her actual age, but she was as young as she looked.
In her limited knowledge, there were few things she could safely eat.
She had heard from the adults that there was a human settlement downstream.
The village might have been remote, but it wasn't isolated.
The adults of her village often flew to the human villages and hid their wings to buy various goods.
That was why she knew that there was food there, where humans lived.
One day, after being unable to find food for several days, she had spread her wings and left the forest.
She had seen a large field, and also a house with chickens, pigs and sheep.
It was food.
She couldn't take the larger animals, but chickens were small enough to carry.
So were the vegetables and eggs.
She knew that she was doing something bad.
She had stealthily crept towards the chicken coop and timidly stuffed two eggs into her pockets.
On her way back, she had seen ripened melons, so she had quickly plucked one.
She ate the eggs raw and smashed the melon into the ground so that she could greedily devour its contents.
The melon's sweetness had filled her mouth, causing tears to flow from her eyes.
From that day, the girl, unable to hold back her appetite, increased the number of trips to that house.
She felt guilty, so she sometimes left behind nuts and mushrooms that she had found in the forest.
Even though she was young, she knew not to be seen when doing something bad.
That was why—
"Foound them!"intentional elongation
When she saw a human boy's smiling face peek out from behind the pillar, the cabbage she was nibbling on fell from her mouth, and she broke into tears.
"How terrible."
They had chased the Avian girl to the hidden village of the Avians.
It had clearly been attacked.
Judging by the vegetation encroaching upon the village, it had probably been about half a year since the village had been ruined.
The crops had all withered, and there were rotten fruits laying uneaten.
「みーつけた！」
"Foound them!"
As Paul surveyed the ruined village, Wynn called out.
Paul ran over to the half-ruined house where Leti stood and peeked in through the gap between the pillars.
"In here?"
Leti nodded.
The gap was barely wide enough to let a child's body through.
"Hey Wynn. What's it like inside? Who's in there?"
"It's just a single girl!"
"I can't come in. Can you bring her out?"
"Sure."
Paul deciding that carelessly moving the pillars might cause them to collapse, and he waited for Wynn to come out.
"Alright."
Wynn crawled out from the gap.
"Hey, it's alright now, please come out."
The girl crawled out after Wynn.
Her clothes were ragged from being caught on tree branches. Her unkempt hair and wings were dirty.
Even a child from the slums would have been cleaner.
However, that thought soon left his mind.
'Oh, it really is an avian!'
Paul was elated to see an avian, something that he had only known through stories and rumors.
They were beings on the same level as High Elves, and in some places, they were idolized.
The girl, a semi-mythical avian, was hugging a half-eaten cabbage preciously and sobbing as Wynn and Leti stood around her.
"Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
She looked to be the same age as Leti, so he patted her head.
Paul let out a sigh.
It just wouldn't feel right to question such a young girl about the thefts.
Rather, he was shocked at her living conditions.
However, there was something he had to ask.
"So, could you tell us what happened?"
Paul drew closer to the girl, trying to ask her about her circumstances.
The girl backed away from him with a frightened squeal.
Paul scratched his head.
"Hmm… Let's talk in a calmer place. Leti, can you fly us to Laura's house?"
"I think I can."
"Then, we'll talk more there. Also, I would like to do something about this girl's clothes. Then—"
"There's something coming!"
Wynn interrupted Paul.
Wynn held the wooden sword that normally hung on his waist with both hands.
Paul noticed what Wynn was referring to.
The air felt colder, more menacing.
With their backs to the ruined house, Wynn and Paul stepped forward to protect the two girls.
'What did we get ourselves into!?'
At that thought, something jumped out of the rustling bushes.
"Hah, hah, hah, eek…"
The avian girl let out a feeble cry in between short breaths.
"It's fine. Onii-chan will beat it!"
Leti comforted the girl.
Wynn stood between the monster and the two girls.
"Wynn, you can't do it. Let me do it!."
The monster was a bit larger than a child. It had dark skin and a horn on its forehead.
It wore primitive clothes and held a rusty sword.
It was the fiend known as a goblin.
Goblins reproduced quickly, and lived in groups centered around a Goblin Lord.
Due to their high reproductive rates and the fact that many groups settled near human villages, goblins caused a lot of damage to humans.
They were not particularly strong, as indicated by their size, and pretty much every adventurer would be able to defeat a single goblin.
That included Paul.
"Uoooooooo!"
Paul swung his sword with a shout.
The goblin leapt backwards.
The goblin eyed Paul and the children while staying outside of Paul's range.
"Haaaaaah!"
Paul swung his sword sideways.
Their swords smashed against each other. The goblin stumbled backwards from the force of Paul's blow.
Paul was not yet a full-fledged adventurer, so his swordsmanship was still rough.
He used his full strength for every blow. However, Paul's crude swordsmanship slowly wore down the goblin's stamina.
Even monsters were made of flesh and blood.
Paul's sword began to actually hit the goblin
The bleeding goblin's movements slowly became duller.
'Okay, now to finish it off!'
Judging that it was at its limit, Paul prepared to make the finishing blow.
"Uoooooo!"
With a shout, he swung his sword — through thin air.
"What!?"
The goblin leapt to the side. Enduring its wounds, it ran past Paul.
"Shoot!"
He hadn't realized that he had ended up straying quite far away from the house.
He had been so focused on chasing after the goblin and showering it with attacks that he had forgotten to stay close to the house.
The goblin ran with the last of its strength.
It sprinted straight for Leti and the Avian girl.
It aimed for easier prey, two helpless-looking girls.
Paul couldn't run after it in time, due to the recoil from his slash.
"Shit!"
The goblin was only a few meters away from the girls.
The goblin raised its rusty sword as it leapt at them.
Suddenly, the goblin let out a loud shriek.
He had finally seen Wynn in front of the girls, with his wooden sword pointed upwards.
Just as the goblin leapt at the girls, Wynn stabbed at the goblin's throat from the side.
The goblin tumbled over the ground.
Paul then ran over and finished it off by slashing its unprotected stomach.