NOVEL NEXT Chapter 40: 39. Villagers and Player 1
*Aaaaaaafffff*
It was a good nap, I don't know when most people do but I always feel better after a nap, that's when I can actually sleep. Normally after waking up I would maybe clean up a bit or go online, but as I hadn't finished looking at Divine's Jorney's collections I still decided to go in straight away and see if anything was different.
As soon as I entered I came across something unexpected, on the screen 2 groups were almost facing each other, on one side there were several of my Devotees, fanatics and fanatical devotees, on the other the majority were believers or not. They didn't even have pixelated drawings and were just basic outlines that couldn't even differentiate gender like in the beginning.
The group of believers and non-believers (what will I call them, of course I could call them atheists, but something tells me I shouldn't) had mostly individuals with a red aura, but not the "common" type that appeared on NPCs with heavy crimes as it has been until now. Usually the aura that the judge's eye shows is like a fog or the auras of malevolence that anime characters usually exude. But this one doesn't exude that aura, it looked more like the outline made with a marker or highlighter on top of them, which instead of exuding malevolence exuded something more similar to resentment, but I don't know why I think that.
Anyway, the two groups were at each other's throats and fighting, verbally for now, I could tell by the various types of angry emojis that each side sent to the other, but I could also see that several of the group of believers had several with sadness emojis, which solidified my initial assumption that this group had more to do with resentment than evil or crimes
And who might they be resentful of?
Taking into account what happened a few minutes before and the fact that several NPCs died I think it's fair to say that they resent me, while my devotees etc would be defending me, but I didn't understand what that had to do with the wagon full of bodies of goblins they were pulling behind.
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Gerard, Ivan, the village chief, Sofi and Liem followed right behind Matt who was already almost 3 meters in front of them, as soon as they arrived at the square they saw what was causing so much commotion. In the middle of the square, 2 walls of people had formed. One group, much bigger, in front of the stone altar and the other, much smaller, further forward pulling a cart loaded with goblin bodies.
"Do you really not have an ounce of conscience trying to do this?!!!" Hannah asked irritably to the group carrying the goblins.
"I don't understand why Hannah is so excited, it's just a good solution for everyone." replied the elderly woman who seemed to be the representative of the group.
"To the shadow kingdom with this talk that you don't understand, it's obvious that you just want to cause confusion here with this absurd "idea"!!!"
Voices of agreement rained down from behind Hannah towards the smaller group, but did little to dissuade the group, in fact the refusal seemed to further encourage them to pursue their "absurd idea".
"Stop it!!! What's that going to help anyone here?!" Dan asked with anger and a little sadness.
Before anyone from the other group could say anything, the group in the tavern spoke up.
"What exactly is going on here?" The chief asked with deceptive calm.
Even the newcomers knew that when the village chief was calm in the face of a complicated situation it could only mean that he was concentrating his anger, and when he released that anger not even a knight would come out unscathed even if the chief was old now.
However, this did nothing against the elderly woman at the front of the group.
"Why, our dear host, and the last of our esteemed heroes, have appeared in good time." She said without even a hint of sympathy in her tired voice. "Could you resolve this little disagreement we're having with this group who refuses to let us offer a little thanks to our... God... for the help he's given?"
This woman was called Quiria, probably one of the people who had lost more loved ones recently than most. She was already a 63-year-old woman with grandchildren who she loved almost as much as her children, but that all changed days ago, in the goblin attack on her village, her daughter was one of the first to die in the surprise attack, followed soon after by her husband of her and her son during the defense that I let most of them escape.
Fortunately, she managed to leave with her two granddaughters and the second oldest grandson, although they were a little injured. When they arrived at the village they were hopeful that they would soon be able to recover and return to try to find the eldest, but soon a new attack took place and his grandson was one of the volunteers who fought against the green monster and his mounted goblins, he was the unfortunate one. who had his throat ripped out and eaten by the monstrous goblin.
No home, no husband, no children, a grandson possibly dead and another definitely dead and two granddaughters under the age of ten who depended on a lady over 60 to live in a new place where they knew no one and could only depend of goodwill from others and luck. It's not so surprising why she was angry and I ended up representing the most resentful group of newcomers, whether it was because they had lost someone during the fight, or because of accommodation conditions, or simply because they were the type who liked to see confusion.
This group came up with a plan to take a small revenge on the entity that in their minds was responsible for part of their problems, the "God" who had been helping the village, but did not help their village or their children who died.
The biggest problem was what to do, the overwhelming majority of villagers trusted and felt grateful to him for sending weapons and helping against the goblins. Quiria saw this as a huge exaggeration, he had only given a staff and a beautiful sword in exchange for an entire boar that could have fed 10 to 15 people if it was divided well, and in the fight against the goblins he only helped against the goblin monstrous and some of his larger goblins but those who did most of the work were the villagers and those who died (for her and her group mainly those who died), which wasn't entirely wrong but still wasn't entirely true.
But to them it didn't matter, in their minds if this "God" had helped them against the goblins in their village all their loved ones would still be alive and they wouldn't have to sleep in tents on the ground and eat rationed food. Conveniently forgetting if this were actually true, several could still die in their village, and even more so in the village, or that despite the food being rationed it was more nutritious than plentiful than many of them would normally eat.
However, the question remained, what could they do to affect both this "God" and the villagers who were praising him as a protective and benevolent entity. It was then that a member of their small group (about 20 people at most) suggested using the power that this "God" showed against him and the other villagers, giving him an offering, an offering that no God, not even a newly born evil god, would accept.
Giving rotting goblin bodies as an offering.