The three girls made their way into the woods and hid. Enri covered herself with Ariel's cloak because her dress was completely ruined.
"Who are you? What are you doing near our village?"
"Shhh! Do you want the other soldiers to hear you? We are going to hide until they are gone." Ariel whispered with an index finger in front of her mouth. She is crouching among some bushes, while the Emmot sisters sat on the ground.
"I'm almost out of mana after fighting the two soldiers and healing you (A lie). There's no way we will survive if we are found by their buddies. I'm sure they are searching for their two missing friends right now."
Enri looked at Nemu. "Enri, what happened? What did those bad men do to you?"
"I'm fine now, Nemu. Just stay quiet. I will figure something out. Don't worry."
Enri looked at the rucksack by Ariel's side. "Excuse me, miss? Do you perhaps have some food you could spare? It is past lunch time, and I don't want my little sister to go hungry for too long, if possible."
"Hmm? Oh, I have some dried fruit and jerkies with me, but I barely have enough for myself. I was hoping to trade some herbs for food and money when I reached a village. Now look what happened."
Enri looked down dejected. This stranger saved them from some horrible fates, healed her wounds so she wouldn't die of blood loss or infection, now she's asking her to share what little food she has so her sister wouldn't go hungry for too long?
"Damn, mana exhaustion makes me hungry." Ariel started eating her jerky, created by magic in secret. Nemu looked on with hungry eyes. Ariel looked back while chewing the tough but tasty meat.
"Here, you can have two pieces of my dried fruit, but no more." She tossed Nemu the treats and mumbled, "low on food and mana, with a bunch of herbs I can't sell. What luck I have."
When Nemu was just about to shove the dried fruit pieces into her mouth, she looked at her sister. "Here, Enri, you can have one."
"No Nemu, I'm not hungry…for some reason. I can collect something to eat when it's safe to do so."
Enri really did not feel hungry or tired. In fact, she felt quite energized, almost like she just woke up. 'Could healing spell do that? I've only heard of healing spells used by adventurers that greatly accelerated natural healing. There are rumors that some demihumans can cast healing spells that allows one to grow back a limb.'
"Sniff, sniff. Is that smoke? I didn't hear anyone cast a fire ball."
"No, that's…they are burning the village!"
That means everyone's dead or taken by the knights. Most likely dead. Peasants don't have a lot of value. They don't have special skills, and are not worth ransoming.
"I guess it's safe enough to move around now. If those soldiers are still around, they can't see us through all that smoke, or hear us through all the rucks."
"Yes, you are right. I should find some supply in the woods." Enri replied with a sad voice. She and Nemu are truly alone now. Carne is no more. "What is your name, noble lady?" Using the word "noble" to address her savior feels ironic, as no real noble would have done what she did.
"Name's Ariel. And you are Enri and Nemu, right?"
"Yes, that's right. Thank you for saving us, lady Ariel."
"You're welcome." Said Ariel flatly. 'Lady Ariel ehh? It's got a good ring to it.'
Enri told Nemu to stay with Ariel, so she could look around to collect some fruit. As she navigated the woods, she wondered, 'how did she hear her whisper Nemu's name?"
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Strange lightnings in the distance woke them from their nap. Enri sat up in alert. It is now nighttime.
"Is it going to rain now? I thought today couldn't get worse. If it rains, I want my cloak back." Ariel said with a yawn.
"No, that wasn't lightning. Something's happening. Nemu, stay close to me. Should we check it out, miss Ariel?"
With her enhanced ranger senses, and being a holy magic user herself, Ariel could tell angel summoning magic were being used. There were also other types of offensive magic, creating a light show in the distance. 'If I was alone, I could watch the battle with [Sky Eye]. Oh well, I can guess what would happen to Gazef and his warrior band.'
"Let's wait a bit. I will go out when it's quiet again. You can follow if you want, but don't expose us."
Enri nodded.
Soon enough, a new plume of smoke rose beyond the ruined village. Most of the houses were burned down, their fires died out some time ago. Ariel moved slowly and carefully through the ruins. She reached the source of the diminishing smoke. A pile of burned bodies, not belonging to villagers. They were the warriors of Re-Estize Kingdom. One of the bodies stood out. It wore a badly damaged plate armor and had no head. All the other bodies didn't have metal armor, only chainmail at most. Near the pile of corpses, a sword was stuck in the ground, and a head was mounted on the handle.
'So, this is what the Theocracy would have done to you, Gazef? Kill all witnesses and destroy their bodies so they could not be resurrected, then display your head to fuel the fire.'
"[Detect Magic]."
'Good, no ward trap, but there is something else. Preservation magic? New Worlders can really be creative with magic.'
"Miss Ariel? Is it safe here?" Enri peeked out from behind a broken wall.
"It's fine, they are all gone now…or dead." Ariel pointed at the pile of corpses, "You recognize these people? Were they the village militia?"
"No, we don't have a militia, miss Ariel." Enri approached holding Nemu's hand.
"Really? They are not wearing the same armor as the two soldiers chasing you."
"They are probably the Kingdom's soldiers sent to deal with the knights. I don't think ours is the only village that got pillaged. We have nothing particular worth pillaging."
"Then this must be their leader." Ariel turned towards Gazef's head. "He could be some kind of knight if he was ordered to protect the land. Which means…to solve my money problem…" Ariel seemed to contemplate something, then grabbed the head and removed it from the sword handle.
"What…what are you doing?"
Enri thought Ariel was trying to give the warrior a proper burial, or place the head with the corpses, but she simply set it down on the ground facing up.
'This could be a turning point. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the implications this would bring, but I chose to achieve the highest priest levels for a reason.'
Ariel stepped back a little so Enri could see better, and then cast her spell.
"[Maximize Magic: True Resurrection]."
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Character Build Sheet (so far, subject to change):
Name: Ariel Sanguine
Racial Levels
Doppelganger: 15
Greater Doppelganger: 10
Trickster: 5
Job Levels
Priest: 15
High Priest: 10
Holy Priest: 5
Ranger: 10
Veteran Ranger: 10
Elementalist (Air): 5
Elementalist (Fire): 5
AN:
I made up most of the class levels because I don't care too much about being accurate. Sebas and Mare can have the Striker and Nature's Herald unique classes with only 10 levels in their base classes, but Momonga has 15 levels in Skeleton Mage, so I guess not every base class can go up to 15 levels.