Chapter 4

Before long, a little over a month has passed since Damian's arrival and stay at Batu Village. Throughout this time, it had marked significant changes, both for Damian and for the village. Ever since that day when he had impressed Iris, the older woman had seemingly changed her attitude towards him. She was far more approachable and though still distant and rude at times, was a lot nicer. Eventually, in the following weeks, Iris had gradually warmed up to him and was comfortable enough to reveal a few things about herself.

Perhaps the most surprising thing he learned was that she used to be a ranger herself before losing an eye made her switch to using Dual Blades. Damian had wanted to ask how she lost her eye but refrained from doing so, knowing it may be a sensitive topic. With that being said, the young man was pleasantly surprised that Iris offered to train his archery herself. Instead of taking a backseat to his training, she had opted for a more hands-on approach, such as teaching him positioning, posture, and other key components that make a great ranger. Under her direct guidance, Damian's skills, knowledge, and confidence have improved dramatically.

Damian had wondered what brought on the sudden change. In response to that, Shaw told him that the moment he had risked his life for the sake of the quest, she knew that Damian was serious about this and found it worth the time to invest proper effort in training him. Hearing this was enough to motivate Damian even further to improve and hopefully, make Iris proud.

When it came to the state of the village, things have also improved substantially.

Thanks to the efforts of Damian and the rest, they were able to bring the village back to a stable state, where they didn't have to worry about running out of food, supplies as well as safety. It took them a while but eventually, they gained back enough confidence to begin trading with their neighboring villages once again. It also wasn't long before the Guild took notice of the growth of this small village in the middle of nowhere and in response, begin sending more personnel to attend to this village. The results made the village far more hospitable, which brought its own benefits as well.

Soon, the practically abandoned Guild outpost was rebuilt and properly furnished, which brought back a smile to the normally grumpy Ximena. With these improvements, hunters from all over who are looking for extra work began to visit and some even decide to stay in the village. The additional hands provided by their visitors were of a great boon to the village.

It wasn't perfect and they still had ways to go but after so long, life had been brought back to Batu Village.

…

On that particular day, our group was preparing to depart for a quest.

Standing by the armory and accompanied by Shaw and Sven, Iris waited for Damian to finish donning his new armor set. "Hey rookie, ya ready yet?"

"Just a minute!" he replied from inside the building.

"Well hurry the hell up or else we're leaving without ya!"

They heard the shuffling of armor pieces and hushed cursing before Damian came out of the building, dressed in his new Great Maccao armor. On his back, was an upgraded version of his Iron Bow that was modified to add more power to his shots. "Don't you people have any patience?" he grumbled as he adjusted his cap and gauntlets.

"No can-do rookie," Iris replied.

"Hey!" Anna stopped to greet them as she was walking by. "You guys about to go on a quest?" she asked, holding a basket of herbs under one arm.

"Indeed," Damian answered as he continued to try to adjust his armor. "It's another missing person quest, this time a merchant party that has yet to return since yesterday."

Anna hummed. "I see. Well then, I wish you all good luck and…" She moved closer to Damian and leaned upwards to kiss his cheek. "Stay safe Damian."

The young man flushed and sputtered out his words. "Y-You too Anna."

Anna giggled at his red face before glancing at Iris and the rest. "And you three as well," she said with a smile and small bow before walking away.

By the time she was out of sight, Damian felt a nudge against his shoulder. "Looks like the two of you have made some solid progress," Shaw teased with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"I don't know about that…" he said, awkwardly adjusting his glasses.

Sven scoffed. "Really? It's been about a month now since you two began talking to each other. She likes you and it's obvious you like her back. If that kiss on the cheek wasn't her basically inviting you to get in her pants, I'm not sure what is."

Damian's face flushed even redder. His inner noble wanted to scold the older man for his lack of tact, but he'd rather not speak up against his seniors, especially when the man had been helping improve his physical condition. "A-Anyway, let's just go, yes?"

Sven chuckled, "Sure thing…Iris?" He noticed that the woman had been silent this entire exchange. The man tapped her on her shoulder, and she flinched.

"Huh?"

"You were out of it again. Are you alright?" Shaw asked.

"I'm fine! No problems here at all!" she claimed, though the men noticed a hint of apprehension in her voice. "C'mon, let's not waste any more time."

…

The merchant party had gone missing near one of the regular trade routes the village used. Normally, hunters would have been sent to guard the merchants as they traveled but they were informed that this party opted not to for reasons unknown. The goal of this quest was to simply find and possibly rescue any survivors and to avoid combat until the threat was assessed, nothing more, nothing less.

The first step was to look for any clues for their whereabouts. This led to the group searching around the trade route for any signs of an attack. Along the way, they encountered small packs of Cephalos that they warded off easily, though a few were brave enough to attempt a few sneak attacks on them while their backs were turned to which Damian easily dispatched of them with his bow.

"Good job," Iris told him, giving him a pat on the shoulder. Damian smiled brightly in response.

Sometime later, they stumbled upon their first sign.

"Scram!" Shaw yelled out as he attempted to scare off the pack of Genprey. The bird wyverns stopped and hissed but upon seeing the rest of the hunters, they quickly scattered. Shaw huffed in approval before approaching their first clue. "Oh damn…."

Sven stopped beside him and groaned at the sight before them. "Yikes, that does not look good."

When Damian got closer, his eyes shot wide open, and he visibly recoiled in disgust. "I think I'm going to puke…"

Lying there in front of them was a desiccated human corpse, half-devoured and partially covered by sand. The clothes on the body were torn apart, likely by those scavenging Genprey and the remaining parts of the corpse were unidentifiable. Beside him, Iris seemingly unfazed by the sight leaned down to examine the corpse, going so far as to touch the body.

"Judging from the state and temperature of this body…I'd say this poor bloke's been dead for about a day now. It lines up with the time of the merchant's party disappearance."

"…What should we do about the body?" Damian asked hesitantly.

"We leave it obviously," Iris stated, wiping her hands clean. "What, you'd like to volunteer to bring this rotting corpse back to the village?"

"Never mind, forget I asked…"

Shaw turned towards Iris, "Should we just head back? I have a feeling the rest of the merchants didn't survive either." Hearing this, Damian glanced at Iris, wondering what her response would be.

"Let's keep searching. If there are survivors, they shouldn't have wandered far." She looked around the area before spotting something in the distance. "Look, there's a rocky stretch of land. If I wanted to escape the creatures living in the sand, I'd go there."

Later as they wandered through the rock-filled area, they came across what looked like a cave in the distance. Not knowing what to expect, the hunters kept their hands close to their weapons as they approached the cave.

"If it's a Wyvern, we run," Iris whispered as they arrived at the cave entrance. The interior was dark, making them wary. She unsheathed her Dual Blades and cautiously entered, with Shaw, Sven, and Damian following closely. The latter unfurled his bow and readied an arrow.

Suddenly, they heard the shuffling of feet. Immediately, the hunters raised their weapons. "Show yerselves!" she announced loudly.

They heard gasps, followed by panicked whimpering, and crying. "Wait, wait, wait!"

At the sound of voices, the hunters lowered their weapons. They heard some more noise before suddenly, a torch was lit up, revealing a person standing in front of them. The person, a man dressed in ragged clothing looked at them in a mixture of confusion and relief.

"Are you people hunters?"

Iris glanced at her group before sheathing her blades, "Yes we are. And I assume ya must be part of the missing merchant party?"

They saw the man visibly sigh in relief. "Oh, thank the gods! You've come to save us all!"

Iris cocked her head to the side. "Us?"

The man grinned and turned around, using his torch to light up the rest of the cave, revealing more people. Including the man, Damian counted four people, three men and one woman all looking worse for the wear as they hunkered down on the ground.

"Is this all?" Shaw asked.

The man nodded sadly. "Unfortunately. There were seven of us but three were killed when we were attacked and the rest of us managed to flee to this cave for safety. Had you come any later, we might have become lunch to a pack of monsters!"

Iris narrowed her one eye at him. "Why didn't you hire hunters to guard ya? Ya know how dangerous traveling in the desert is."

"Well…It's a little complicated but it's not like we're defenseless." He looked back and pointed a thumb at a lightly armored woman leaning against the cave walls. "She's one of the mercenaries we hired who unfortunately wasn't able to do her job properly," he explained with a scowl.

The woman, in turn, flipped him off. "Fuck you. And by the way, the reason he hired us instead of hunters is that they were trading drugs."

The man sent a warning glare her way.

Iris sighed. "You were a fool to not hire hunters, instead ya resorted to untrained mercenaries?"

"Bitch, what did you just call me?" The woman was ready to give the huntress a piece of her mind, but Shaw quickly stepped in between them.

"It's not wise to challenge a hunter miss," he warned.

She scoffed. "Who gives a shit? Do you think I'd just let her insult me like that? Insult my comrades…my partner?" She clenched her fists tightly, her voice trembling. "That demon...killed my partner. My one and only. Now I'll never see him again…" She sent one last scowl at her employer before slumping off towards the corner of the cave and sitting down, hugging her knees.

"What happened exactly?" Iris asked the man.

"We were attacked by a monster…"

"What kind?"

He lowered his gaze. "…A Diablos," he answered a hint of fear in his voice. He didn't notice Iris open her mouth a bit before closing it. The man then felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Iris looking at him with an intense gaze.

"What did it look like?"

He didn't know why but he felt compelled to answer her. "I-It was different compared to other Diablos. It was far more aggressive, bigger, and looked like it had only one horn and-" Suddenly, Iris took a step back. Her body began to tremble and her hands clenched at her sides. Both Shaw and Sven saw this and immediately knew what was about to happen.

"Iris, I don't think-" Sven began but was promptly interrupted.

"Ya heard him, right?"

"Well yes we did but-"

"Then I shouldn't be wasting any more time." She turned around and began to walk out of the cave. Shaw quickly moved to intercept her.

"What do you think you're doing?"

She glared at him. "Isn't it obvious? I'm going after it."

"When we're in the middle of something else? I don't think so." Shaw was a tall and large man, and most hunters wouldn't dare try to mess with him, but Iris, having known him and Sven for a long time, did not fear him at the slightest.

"Get out of my way Shaw."

"How are you even going to find it anyway in this vast desert?"

"I said get out of my way."

"Iris, stand down." Sven joined Shaw, moving to block her from exiting the cave on her own.

"Traitor!"

"Damn it, look behind you, Iris! Can't you see the situation we're in?" Shaw pointed out. "And don't even think for a second that I'll just back down cause you're our friend."

"And neither will I," Sven added firmly as they readied themselves for a potential fight. They were ready to fight tooth and nail if it meant keeping her from doing something foolish.

It was an intense staredown and after what felt like minutes of silence, eventually, Iris backed down. "Fine."

Meanwhile, Damian had stood there, silently watching the entire exchange unfold.

…

When they got back to the village, they headed immediately to the Guild counter to report their findings.

"Success?" Ximena asked them. Ever since the outpost had been restored and the village became more active, Ximena had not been as grumpy or as cold as she was before. She was still snarky around hunters but overall, her demeanor had become a lot more pleasant and in-line with what receptionists were expected to be.

"Yes and no," Shaw said. "We found the missing merchants, though three members of their group had died."

"Hmm?"

"Unfortunately, we found that they were transporting drugs."

"Oh…I guess I'll contact the Guild to have them send over some Knights to arrest them as soon as they recover. Anything else?"

Shaw hesitated before speaking again, "We know what monster attacked the merchant party. It was a Diablos, a particularly powerful one apparently with one horn and amped-up aggression."

"Woah, that does sound concerning. I'll make sure to inform the Guild about that too."

Suddenly, Iris slammed both her palms on the counter. "Give me permission to hunt it down. Now."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

She slammed her hands down again. "Huh? Why the hell not?"

Ximena, seemingly unfazed by Iris merely reached down and grabbed a large book, opening it for them to see. "As you can see here, by Guild law, unsanctioned hunts are forbidden and-"

"Fuck the laws. Just let me hunt down that thing!"

Ximena frowned. "I'm sorry but once again, unsanctioned hunts are a severe breach in Guild law, and you could get arrested for breaking them."

"Who the hell cares? I told you, let me hunt that damn thing? If you're not going to give me permission, then maybe I'll just go on ahead myself!"

Immediately, Ximena shot up from her seat. "Ms. Thorne, I must ask you to stand down, or else I will contact the Guild and have you arrested," she said firmly, not willing to back down.

"Ya ain't got the nerve."

Ximena met her challenge head-on. "Try me."

The two women stared challengingly at each other for a solid minute before eventually, Iris huffed and turned away.

Shaw attempted to reach out to her but was coldly rebuffed. "Fuck off." She glared at Sven too. "You as well. Both of you, fuck off." She stomped off towards her hut and promptly shut the door.

At the same time, Anna approached them. "Hey! You guys are back!" She saw Iris stomp away towards her hut before slamming the door shut. "Is Ms. Thorne alright?" she asked, rather concerned.

In response, Shaw let out a dry chuckle. "Eh, she'll get over it. C'mon Sven, let's go get a drink."

Sven sighed. "Alright." He glanced at Damian. "See you tomorrow rookie," he said as he followed Shaw towards the canteen area. It wasn't long before they disappeared from Damian's view.

Just then, he felt a tug on his arm. He looked to his side to see Anna holding onto him. "Hey, do you mind if I showed you something?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Sure, what do you have in mind?"

She smiled coyly. "It's a surprise," she said and tugged him towards the direction of her house.

Hours later, as Damian laid on the bed with an exhausted but ultimately satisfied Anna against his bare chest, he wondered what sort of personal problems his three seniors were facing. He wasn't one to dive into someone's personal history, but he couldn't just ignore the exchanges he had witnessed. Iris especially, her demeanor had been so different, and frankly, it scared him a little. Still, he remembered how he had felt as if he were invisible during those times as if he hadn't existed.

Drifting off to sleep, he began to wonder if he was merely just a spectator in someone else's story.

…