Chapter 37：The Hunter Apprentice plays detective.

I woke up as the Sun was rising in the horizon, it was a beautiful sight but I was in no mood to watch it at all. Yesterday my father had died, killed by an armored monster who threw fireballs.

It happened so suddenly that I couldn't help but think I was dreaming, thinking I would get out of this room and be greeted by his barbed face, then we would have breakfast and he would tell me a tip or two about how to handle a bow or set some kind of trap or maybe tell me some funny story from his past or recent years. After that, we would part ways, but not before making a bet with me on who is going to get the biggest prey...

As I am reminded of his memories, tears start flowing again. Even though I promised myself to not cry any longer, it is just stronger than me. I took a few minutes to recover myself, put my clothes and get out of the room.

Passing by the kitchen, my mom greets me with a smile.

"Good morning, son. The breakfast will be ready soon, please take a sit."

"Good morning mom."

Soon the table is filled with bread, cheese, ham and many other types of food.

I noticed as she put the tableware that there was an extra set, but I said nothing.

We ate in silence and soon we were full.

I gave her a big hug and told her everything was going to be alright.

Because my house was constantly reminding me of my dead father, I tried to distract myself by going out.

I climbed the mountain with my bow, arrows and knife and reached the training ground I used as a kid. I knew that looking for revenge right now would only get me killed, so I decide to train myself instead.

I shot an arrow, hit.

I shot an arrow, miss.

I shot an arrow, hit.

...

...

...

When I noticed, its already afternoon. My stomach was crying for food so I decided to head back.

As I walked down the path, I see a big white rabbit.

I took out my bow, ready and arrow...

.

..

...

Shot!

Hit!

Nice! I got him!

Maybe it was luck, but I wanted to believe this was effect of my training.

I went to him, lift the rabbit and...

Oh, sorry, I mean, her.

It seems like it was a female rabbit.

Well, doesn't really matter.

Like my father taught me, I cut off its head with the knife and drained it's blood by hanging it upside down, to make sure the meat wouldn't taste bad.

Because of my inexperience I end up messing up a LITTLE and my clothes get covered by rabbit blood, but I didn't mind it because as my old man said: "Mistakes are the price of the experience!".

"Father, it seems like this time I won the bet."

I grabbed the rabbit, tied it on my belt and continued down the path.

Today I will ask Bia to make me some rabbit stew.

.

...

I am back to the village.

I saw a tall and muscular guy standing guard by the gate, looking like he was really vigilant but he didn't deceive me, I knew he was actually sleeping while leaning against the wall.

"Hey Josh! Wake up! We are under attack!!"

"Hu!?Wha!? Attack!? Oh! Jack! Please don't scream around me like that! It's bad for my heart!"

"So, how is everything?"

"Oh, nothing new. If not for the brats are running around screaming and crying, I would be sleeping here."

Yeah, sure...

But it seems to me like even after they wrote sleepy head on your shirt you still didn't wake up.

"Of course! Just don't forget to wash your shirt."

"Shouldn't you be the one hearing that? You look awful!"

I waved goodbye and entered the village. A few seconds later I heard Josh screaming out loud.

"Damn brats! I will get you next time!!!"

I went to the village chief's house where I was greeted by his wife.

"Jack!? Are you all right!?"

"I'm fine aunt Rose, this is rabbit blood. Is Bia home?"

"Unfortunately no. That girl went to deliver lunch to her brother and never came back."

"Hmm... I see. Then I will go look for her."

"Thanks Jack, I leave her in your care."

So I headed to Silver's house, in the middle of the village.

Knock, knock, knock.

...

Knock, knock, knock.

...

Hmm. This is odd... Maybe I should enter?

I pulled the door and it was unlocked.

Inside, Silver was sleeping with half his body spread on the table.

I reached to him and shook him a few times.

"Hey Silver! Wake up!"

"Hmm... Jack? Good morning... Are you ok!? Who beat you up!?"

"It's rabbit blood, don't worry. Anyway, I'm looking for Bia, did you see her?"

"Bia? She promised to deliver the lunch to me...but I didn't see her..."

This is odd. Her mother said she came here to deliver food, but her brother didn't saw her...

I looked around and saw a bag of food by the side of the door.

"Hey Silver, isn't this your lunch?"

"Eh? Oh!!! Yeah, it should be..."

"Then it seems like she already came here while you were sleeping."

"Yes, seems likely... all this is feeling strange, I don't remember going to sleep...I feel like I forgot something important..."

"Hmm, OK, I will take a look around the village. Remember to tell me If you remember something."

"No problem. I will stay here and try to organize my memories."

Exiting Silver's house, I met my mother carrying a basket.

"Oh, son, its great to meet you here! Do me a favor, take this basket to the clinic, those hunters need to eat some meat to recover faster and I need to take out the clothes before it gets dark. Bye bye."

As fast as she came, she went away, not giving me a chance to reply.

"...ok mom..."

So I brought the basket to the clinic.

I entered inside and I was greeted by.... no one.

Where is Leticia??

Well, she must have left for a bit...

I entered the ward and greeted the hunters who warmly welcome the meat.

"Hello guys, food is here!"

"Oh! Guys wake up! The food is here!"

"Man, I'm starving, quickly, give me one!"

"Meat? We got meat??"

"Thanks little Jack, you are a lifesaver!"

"Hey, as I entered I noticed Leticia was gone, any idea where she is?"

"Why? Are you changing targets just before the wedding?"

"Hey Jack, I will tell Bia!"

"Heheh, no, I am actually looking for Bia, I thought I could ask Leticia if she saw her."

"Then you are out of luck, some hours ago Bia came here and asked Leticia to came with her to solve a problem."

"Hmm. Any idea where they went?"

"No, Bia was really vague about what was the problem..."

"Who knows...ask Josh if he saw her, maybe Leticia greeted him while going out?"

"I will try. Thanks for the help."

As I left the ward I could still hear someone shouting.

"Good luck! And don't forget to take a bath!!!"

Back to Josh... T_T

"Hey Josh! Have you seem Leticia?"

"!? What? Leticia is here!? Where!?"

"No, no, I am asking if you saw her this afternoon."

"Oh, Jack! It's you again! You still didn't take that bath?"

"Neither did you, now answer my question."

"Hmm....no, not today."

"What about Bia?"

"Noup, I didn't saw her as well..."

Damn...

I lost the trail again...

What now?

I leaned against the wall and started to think about what I discovered...

It seems she left house at noon, then she went to her brother's house, some time later she went to the clinic and asked for Leticia's help. They should be in a hurry as they didn't even talk to Josh as they left the village...

Something smells odd here...

No, I'm not talking about the rabbit blood...

I must be something missing...

"Jack! Here you are!"

"Silver? Did you remember something?"

"Yeah, I think I did. My memory's a little vague but I think I met someone this morning, he wanted to talk about something with the head of the village, since I was in charge I invited him to my home...then...then..."

"A stranger? How did he look? What did you talk about?"

"Hmm... Give me a minute..."

As Silver was doing his best to remember, a group of children appears coming down the road.

"The Dead Knight is so cool!"

"When I grow up I want to wear a helmet just like that!"

"Yeah! The whole armor was cool! I wonder why he took half of it off."

"I think he was showing off his muscles to aunt Leticia and Bia."

"Ehh? Why would he do that?"

"Older brother told me that that's how a man get women."

"Why would he want to get her?"

"Hmm.....dunno..."

Did I just hear one of them saying Bia??

"Hey kids! You said you met Bia?"

"Yeah, in the river bank!"

"Mr. Dead Knight was there as well!"

"We played a lot!"

"Mr. Dead Knight threw us really high!"

"I felt like I was flying!"

"Then we fell on the water."

"It was really fun!"

The kids talked one on top of the other, making all information confusing, but I still tried my best was able to make sense of all this confusion and got what I needed.

"So, what happened to Bia? what about Leticia?"

"Aunt Leticia was there too."

"Sister Bia and Aunt Leticia joined the fight."

"Aunt Leticia screamed really loud when Mr. Dead Knight threw her."

"I never though those big boobs could fly so high!"

"We fought a lot but in the end Mr. Dead Knight won."

"But it was really fun!"

They fought? This "Mr. Dead Knight" won?

"What are you talking about? So, where is Bia and Leticia?"

"Where? Dunno."

"Yeah, yeah, we dunno."

"Mr. Dead Knight said they had some adult matters to resolve and took them to the mountain."

My face went completely pale.

Adult matter? Took them to the mountain?

My heart started beating non stop, I wanted to follow them right away but I needed more information to know where to search.

"So, how did you meet this Mr. Dead Knight?"

"We met him in the morning!"

"He was dead in the middle of the trail."

"We pocked him with wood sticks."

"Then the stick made some odd sound."

"So we tried beating other parts."

"And we made music."

"Then we used rocks."

"But he got angry and screamed on us."

"So we ran away!"

Huh???? What?? In the morning? So he was with you all day??? This is making no sense! Let's at least ask how he looked like...

"Hmm, so how did he look like?"

"Big!"

"Strong!"

"He had a cool armor!"

"The armor covered his whole body!"

"I want an armor like that when I grow up."

"Me too! Me too!"

At this moment, Silver comes from behind and says:

"I think this is the guy! I don't remember his face because he his helmet was covering it. He had a full body armor. Oh! I finally remembered! He came to talk about the incident of yesterday. When he started talking, I remembered the stories the hunter told me and panicked...it seems like I blanked out..."

Then every piece fell on it's place in my head.

It seems like this Mr. Dead Knight is the Armored Monsters. He came in the morning, talked to Silver and Silver fainted. Bia should have saw her brother fainted as she entered the house so she ran to Leticia to ask for help, but they were ambushed by the Armored Monster and taken out of the village. I dont know why he passed by the river, but it seems like a fight broke out and he won. Then he ignored the kids and took both Bia and Leticia with him to his cave to do some adult matters...

"Damn Armored Monster! Not only you kill my father, now you came to rob my future wife!"

I pass the rabbit to Silver and shout while running up the mountain.

"Bia and Leticia are in danger! They were captured by the Armored Monster! I will try to rescue them before they enter the cave. If I don't come back, wait your father come back and tell everything to him. Don't follow me!"

"...What about the rabbit!?"

"I don't care! Eat it if you want to!"

"But I don't know how to cook!"

I almost tripped over.

"Then ask your mom!!!!"