After the rather hectic chase throughout Aries Garse, chasing a bunch of imps across town, closing several portals they crept into our world through and eventually following them all the way back to the person who had summoned them for the sake of taking out the competition in a blackjack tournament, Griswold had almost expected things to be more quiet out in the countryside. But as per usual, he was wrong to assume such things, especially during this time of year. For it was just like the summoner of the imps had said, during this period of the year, the veil between worlds got thinner and thinner, up until it reached a certain point where creatures from other realms could cross over more easily. In the case of the imps, they only needed a little push from this side of the veil, which the summoner provided in order to pull them from their hellish world into this one.

As such, it was really not that hard to imagine that the imps, once all was said and done, wished not to return to their own realm and would sooner die than do so. It was for that reason that Griswold had done his best to find them a place where they could live and thrive without having to worry about the threat posed by humans. For if there was one thing he knew, whenever a non-human entity ran into trouble with humanity, humanity won. So for that reason, the further away they were from them, the better it would be from everyone. Because Griswold had seen it quite often, when man collided with nature in their ever-growing drive to expand, often at the cost of nature wherever they encountered it. Destroying whole forests to make sure the people down south had enough wood to burn in their kilns, stoves, furnaces and fireplaces.

And when the place where a forest once stood was then built upon, those same inhabitants felt it odd that a stray bear or a pack of wolves might appear near their house, which would then need to be killed by a hunter or two. The sad part about it was that humanity destroyed their homes, yet when they came back to the place they once dwelled, it was the animals that were then considered violent interlopers that had to pay for the transgressions of humans with their lives. Whether it involved animals, creatures, monsters, it was all the same. If it stood in the way of “progress”, it had to go, because making money would always win out over common sense and decency in the end. And that was why Griswold preferred to stay in the forsaken region, far from the greedy hands of the nobles dwelling far to the south. But for obvious reasons, today was not exactly like other days, as there were more complaints about something being out of the ordinary here.

From what he had managed to gather at the local tavern after reading a piece of paper posted on the notice board outside, there was a farmer who was being plagued by the local youth placing scarecrows out in his fields and moving them around. While that only seemed to bother him so much, it was the fact that they were moving around his property at night that bothered him. Having received his directions from some of the locals, the mage dressed in black made his way over to the property without meeting with the farmer. Before he did, he wanted to get as much information as he possibly could by looking for tracks and checking out these scarecrows. For all he knew, these scarecrows were not placed there by the locals as a prank at all, as it would not be the first time some malevolent being disguised itself in such a manner to prey on some poor farmfolk.

As he prowled the farmland, he could tell that the farmer had already noticed him, which was by all means a good thing. It meant that if he hadn’t yet intervened, he most likely wasn’t planning on it, as no one with ill intent would go snooping and plotting in broad daylight and in plain sight. Therefore, Griswold imagined that the farmer already knew that he had come here as a follow up on the notice that had been posted. Checking up on some of the scarecrows and mostly undressing some of them, it seemed that they were just men of straw, sticks and clothing. As such, they could not have done any of the walking on their own. Letting a deep sigh escape his lips, he brought his hand to his chin as he began stroking his beard a little, thinking to himself as to what he should be doing next. While he would obviously need to talk to the farmer, the only logical course of action would be to wait out the night and see what would happen then.

Having determined already that the scarecrows were really nothing more than just men, or women of straw, as he had no idea what they really meant to represent. But judging by the clothing, he figured they were meant to appear as the farmer himself, thus scaring away any birds that might feed on the seeds or the fully grown product. The idea behind it was rather ingenious, though he wondered just how long it took the average bird to figure out that it was just a stationary thing that wouldn’t move regardless of what they did. Taking note of the birds as they were starting to circle, it seemed that something was somewhat out of the ordinary. Even as another person was making their arrival onto the farmland, the birds were his present focus, and for very good reason it would seem. For shortly after they began to circle, they dove down to attack the guy that was approaching.

Not knowing of any instance in which non-predatory birds such as crows, pigeons or ravens might attack humans or other larger targets alone or in groups, Griswold realized that something was quite out of the ordinary, as it was downright strange. For if there was anything he himself took pride in, it was in the amount of knowledge that he had gathered throughout his life in relation to the natural world. Ranging from flowers, plants and trees to wolves, bears and even creatures that were considered monsters by a lot of people such as trolls or wyverns, the black swordsman had never encountered this before. But as the birds attacked, there was something that popped up that Griswold would know anywhere based on the optics alone: Light magic. Based on the amount of less than pleasant run-ins he had had with it over the course of his knightly career with both Lydia and Echo, it was not the kind of magic that one was soon to forget after seeing it in action.

Using blades of light to cut down the birds as they attacked, it was almost as if they realized that this was more than they had bargained forth, and so the remainder that survived regrouped and made their way over to Griswold. A dire mistake. Because for as much as he loved the natural world, which was lot more than he loved human society, if these animals had somehow gotten it into their heads that they were meant to be hostile, that meant that they were a deviation that needed to be culled before others might follow their example. So as they came for him, it took him surprisingly little effort to quite literally punch them out of the sky and to the ground. For one of the many benefits of wielding swords into combat that were almost as heavy as he was, a blade such as the Heart of the Forest for instance which was currently standing around in his room at the Black Bulls base, one tended to become physically strong as a result.

Though not killing them, the birds laying on the ground had received a decent concussion, though they would survive if given the chance. Kneeling down to properly inspect the birds, he used both of the extrasensory abilities he had at his disposal to figure out if something else might be the matter. And as it turned out, he could tell that some kind of strange mana seeped out of the creatures now that they had been beaten, leaving frightened birds in their wake that were trying their best to escape. Picking them up one by one and putting them on the other side of the fence so that they might be able to recuperate and maybe fly out to the nearby stretch of forest, it was then that he turned his attention to the other arrival, which he knew as Jun. When last he had seen him, it was back in the ocean near Hapshass when they had to deal with the point of origin of the serpentine slavers, after which he had never really seen or heard of him again.

“It seems like your arrival was not an overly pleasant one, which begs the question: What is it about you that made those animals angry. That said though, it is good that you are here to provide another set of eyes, for there is something odd going on here.”

As it were, there really wasn’t a whole lot Griswold could tell the guy in relation to what was going on here, as it wasn’t exactly helpful to just toss it out there that there was an invasive kind of mana inside of the birds that likely made them hostile to them. Not because it was an unfounded accusation, but because he really had no idea as to the origin or the purpose, which was something he wished to figure out before he would really put it out there. And since Jun had told him that he was a mercenary, it seemed logical to assume that he had come here not so much to figure things out, but to put an end to the activities around the farm so he could earn his money. This much was shown when he took out the birds by killing them, which was more or less in contrast to how Griswold had gone about them. But at the end of the day, he could not blame the guy for his reaction as it was only natural to respond to violence with violence, especially for a human.

“But yes, I did. It might be something about what Barron said about the veil between this world and other worlds being thinner, though I feel better about taking care of these things personally, especially so when it comes down to the forsaken region. That said, I’m assuming you’re here for the reward?”

Tossing the question out there after having responded to the inquiries on Jun’s part, Griswold did not even know what they’d be getting for handling this particular issue. He had more or less taken on the mission for the sake of seeing things through and making sure another piece of farmland was safe, the price being something he would take care of at the end once it was all said and done. Believing Jun would be aware of what he would be earning as the average mercenary was more interested in making a living for himself rather than actually caring for the people they worked for or with, it was likely for that reason that people had considered Griswold to be a rather strange mercenary as he was simply not built that way. But regardless of what they were truly here for, there was no denying that the two of them would likely be able to get more done together than they would on their own.

As the saying went, he wasn’t going to go and look a gift horse in the mouth, not until they reached a conflict of interest.

1173 (2001)

Ps: Remainder of birds has been incapacitated.

“It is a possibility, though it still does not even begin to cover all of the bases. Crows are not the kind of birds that would attack people, regardless of the situation. They’re generally quite intelligent birds, so they would know better than to lash out at people, whom they consider to be a threat. After all, there is a reason why the “Scarecrow” is shaped like the farmer and not like a cow or a horse.”

Though that bit of trivia was known to most who ventured out into the poorer regions of the world, he could actually imagine how the youth of the noble region, primarily those from the royal capital themselves might not be aware of this much. They had that kind of sheltered upbringing which left out these little details that were quite important to the average farmer, and more or less common knowledge to all commoners and peasants. Not really knowing where Jun came from or what his upbringing had been like, Griswold could only fill in these gaps in his knowledge through means of speculation. Though he knew that he could always ask, back when he was still a mercenary himself, he knew that it was not all that common for both rogues and mercenaries to really disclose a lot of information about themselves, lest it bite them in the ass later down the line. So it seemed best not to pry, at least not yet.

“I can’t be sure if this veil he talked about is actually what he believed it to be, as I don’t think there is really a thin layer between the world of the living and the dead. That said though, I do believe that there may very well be other worlds around our own that we can normally not get to or even know about. But as you probably know well, demons are not from this world, and seeing as how they have to be from somewhere, there is merit to believing other planes of existence are in fact out there.”

This was honestly something Griswold had been mulling over ever since the festival where he had heard Barron speak in his usual mad-man tone. As someone who was tasked with fighting a particularly powerful demon, had seen what demonic influence on the earthly plane could cause when he witnessed his first actual vampire and a werewolf at another point in time, he could no longer cling to his former beliefs. Because believe it or not, prior to it all, he had believed in neither werewolves, vampires nor demons, and the latter had actually been active and violent for some time. Even while everyone around him believed in them, Griswold had held firm to his beliefs that the ”demons” had just been really powerful mages using transformation magic to cause widespread panic. But that belief no longer existed in him. Having seen the havoc they could cause first hand by visiting a prison where one of them had been quite active at making a mess, there was no escaping reality anymore.

“As for the farmer, I don’t see any point in checking in with him just yet. He is at the very least aware of the fact that we’re here, even before the commotion. The fact that he has not wandered out himself yet means he’s either afraid of us, does not want to get in the way of the investigation, or simply believes we’ve got it handled. I’m fine with any combination of those, as it means I can do my work in peace.”

Turning to the direction of the nearby forest for a bit after he finished answering the question, he looked on again to see how much this place had grown since he had been here a year ago, and how the forest had shrunk. While it was nice to see a farmer doing well, it saddened him that the surrounding nature had to suffer for it, though he imagined that was what many considered to be the price of progress. Since the farmer was in fact aware of them being here, Griswold did not feel the need to go out of his way to greet him if he could not be arsed to go through the effort of leaving his home to have a chat with the people that were supposedly here to fix his problems. As things were however, there were two mages on this farmland that were at the very least capable enough of handling themselves, and not altogether stupid either. So if it were to come down to neither of them having the know-how as to how to the root of the problem and essentially unfuck it, that was when the farmer would get to make his appearance.

“I for one am going to, as you put it, hang out here for the remainder of the night. If what you’re saying has any merit, it is possible that someone is using magical means to bring these inanimate objects to life and cause trouble. If it were to be the same thing that possessed these crows, it is either caused by someone on the farm, or close to the farm, meaning the only way to go about it is to stick around and keep our eyes open.”

Having more or less ignored the whole topic of money up until now, it was not like Griswold hadn’t considered it. And truth be told, it made sense for a mercenary to need money after doing a job, as they did not earn any wages like your average magic knight did at the end of the month. It was something he knew quite well based on his own experiences, even though he had been terrible at it. Most of the time, his jobs just ended with him accepting a homecooked meal and a warm bed for the night instead, heading back out in the morning while being not a single coin richer. But that was what he was like when dealing with many of the commoners he helped, especially the peasants that often had nothing to give. This farmer in particular however seemed like he had things in order, so he wouldn’t mind taking some of that for himself after the job was done, which was exactly what he thought to himself when he turned to face Jun again.

“That is, if you want to get some more money in your pocket.”

1081 (3082)

[Exit into next stage]