Cannon Fodder To Villainess

🏮65. The Hidden Village

Amber stood still while listening carefully to the wind.

Duke Dreyfus looked back at her. "Come along! Keep up," Duke Dreyfus said in a commanding tone of voice while he rode Oberon into the village.

Amber glared at his back while she followed after him, leaving bloody footprints behind.

In front of her, was a tall stone fence that was twice as high as she was tall. Ivy clung onto the outside of it and in the center of the fence was a high stone archway. In both edges of the fence there was a grate where water from a river flowed in the left side and flowed out the right side.

As Amber passed beneath the archway, she felt an odd peace settled over her chaotic mind. Amber blinked her eyes as she took in such vibrant colors. The air itself seemed to glisten in the light. The air seemed fresher, as if it were from a different place, a long forgotten time. Although she could tell that the buildings must be ancient, they stood proudly intact, lined up on both sides of the wide gravel pathway through the center of the village.

Around all of the small stone homes, were bright green laws made of moss and tiny purple flowers. Behind each of the stone homes, was a raised garden bed full of overgrown herbs and vegetables. Behind those plots of raised gardens, were fruit trees. The fruit trees were planted along the river every so often, which curled around the town like a giant horse shoe. The path through the center of the town led to a large circle of gravel at the end.

In the center of that gravel circle, there was a large white stone, two story building, with a large fountain right in front of it. The entire lower half of the building was open with large archways and thick columns all the way around. On the right side of that building, there was a stone stairway that looked like it had been carved directly into the building. The stairs curved around the side and up to the flat roof where there was another building much like the other homes, but a bit larger, with a roof garden situated around it.

"What is this place?" Amber said in an awed whisper.

"Hmm? Oh this? The empire quietly squashed an attempted uprising many years ago and this is what's left of it. This little village isn't known by the Baron in charge of the Shadow Forest, so I use it as my base whenever I'm in the area," he said flippantly. "It's said that the previous owners of this village were mages, alchemists, and mystics. They put a spell on this village to preserve it right after it was built. I'm not sure if I believe any of that, but you have to admit that it's in excellent shape," Duke Dreyfus said while roughly slapping a stone pillar as he passed by.

Amber followed the duke past an old stone statue. There were carvings of many, three tailed little foxes around the perimeter, but in the center there was an empty space. She reached out, trailing her fingers along the edge of the stature, feeling a strange pain in her heart and longing. How could an old and broken statue affect her so strongly? She felt an odd sense of belonging while walking around that old and abandoned village. More so than she'd ever felt in her previous life.

"Yes, high quality craftsmanship," Duke Dreyfus said while roughly climbing off of Oberon's back and stomping onto the stone floor. The heavy fall of his footsteps mixed in with the whinny of Oberon, when Duke Dreyfus roughly slapped the ordra on his backside.

Ordra's were proud creatures and Oberon was no exception. His orange eyes glittered with fury from having his butt slapped by such an ill mannered buffoon. He could no longer swallow his pride, nor push down his indignation. He promptly extended the numerous finger length spikes that he normally kept closely secured down along the sides of his long tail. They sprang forward, making his tail look like an ancient object of torture. He wrapped his tail around the Duke's legs as fast as a whip strike; digging the spikes into his flesh. Then, with the spikes embedded into the duke's legs, Oberon lifted the duke up off his feet and into the air. Once the duke was as high up as Oberon's tail would allow, Oberon promptly flung the duke off into the river, along the edge of the town. Then he blew out a puff of air and stuck up his nose, while flicking his tail to clean off the Duke's blood.

Oberon let out a satisfied whinny and lowered his spikes once more. Prancing around to Amber's side, he started to rub his face against her cheek, and then her hand, while rustling his big bat-like wings in an attempt to appear cute.

Amber chuckled while petting Oberon. "Good boy, you did well," she said while stealthily pulling out a large bottle of refined mana water and holding it to the ordra's lips.

It curiously sniffed the object in her hand, then its bright orange eyes widened. Then it took the edge of the bottle in its teeth and tipped the contents into its mouth. It quickly guzzled the entire bottle and then lowered the bottle back to Amber's hand. Amber took the empty bottle back and returned it to her space storage bag. Oberon purred once more, rubbing his face against her, and curling his tail protectively around her side in a strange sort of hug.

Alina peeked out from the top of Amber's pocket with fear in her eyes as she stared at the ordra.

After just a moment, Duke Dreyfus appeared in the clearing once more, but he was sitting in the branches of a tree. This tree had pulled itself out of the dirt and was walking on its roots; as if they were legs. The tree was like any other tree, except that it glowed with the same shade of green that glowed from Duke Dreyfus's palm. It was the same shade of green as his emerald colored eyes, which were also currently glowing.