"Are they still there?"

"PFFT—HAHAHA!"

Lu-el’s playful remark earned hysterical laughter from the other four young hunters in the carriage.

"Yes, they are!" Weed exclaimed, both relieved and still terrified at the fate that almost robbed him of his manhood.

"They were neither broken nor cracked!"

"PFFT—HAHAHA!"

Lu-el and Kaori had both witnessed Weed and the other four hunters’ fight against a few cursed dire wolves while defending their carriage.

Since Weed and his party didn’t yet have lovers to receive the blessing of intimacy and grow physically stronger, all they could rely on in battle were their training and dual-wielding swordsmanship—the most traditional teaching of Daifuku Hot Spring Village.

Weed, with his twin swords, bravely fought a cursed dire wolf on his own, only to end up being bitten in the crotch.

Fortunately for Weed, his pants were durable enough that his manhood wasn’t immediately torn apart.

He struck its neck repeatedly, yet even after beheading the cursed dire wolf, its fangs stayed buried, its jaw clenching his rod and balls, with the severed head hanging at his crotch—until he was healed by a Priestess from another party.

"It’s like your first blowjob was from a dire wolf," said one of his friends.

"And that you lost your virginity to a cursed beast," added another, earning another round of hysterical laughter in their group.

"PFFT—HAHAHA!"

Even Kaori and the female Tamer driving their carriage couldn’t hold back their laughter.

"Laugh all you want, but I swear I’ll get a lover before any of you!" Weed shot back at his friends—not that he could say the same to Lu-el, who already had Kaori as his first lover.

Lu-el, on the other hand, could only offer him one thoughtful warning.

"Don’t raise that red flag right now," he said. After all, the caravan was now hunting for a possible Cursed Alpha Dire Wolf.

***

After traveling for half a day, their caravan reached Fumoto Village in the forest at the foot of the eastern mountain range a few minutes before sunset.

Unlike Daifuku Hot Spring Village, which was a mountain fortress with over 10,000 residents, Fumoto Village was relatively small, with just over 1,000 people.

Still, it was a well-fortified outpost surrounded by boulder walls nearly six meters high and guarded by stationed soldiers from the Duchess’s forces.

However, none of those soldiers could be seen guarding the unusually closed gate or patrolling on top of the walls.

Yet despite all the ominous signs that something was wrong, the village’s protective barrier was still intact, as the Priestesses and Mages of the caravan confirmed.

"Then it means the village wasn’t attacked, right?" Lu-el said, peeking from inside the carriage while embracing Kaori from behind, his chin resting on her head.

"You mean the guards and soldiers are just skipping their jobs?" Kaori retorted to Lu-el’s remark—but not to his teasing, as she indulged in his embrace before what everyone could already foresee as another troublesome and possibly dangerous encounter.

***

"We will be checking the situation of the village!" Daichi shouted, giving instructions to all the members of the caravan.

Half of the 24 adventurers and 42 young hunters would stay outside to guard the carriages together with the Tamers and their snow wolves, along with the Alpha and Mystic Snow Wolves, so as not to cause panic among the villagers.

The other half—including Lu-el and Kaori, along with Weed’s party—would go with Daichi, Mikoto, and Manami inside the village.

"Our priority is to find and secure the villagers in case the village is indeed in danger," Daichi continued. "Don’t wander off alone from your group, and look after each other."

Daichi, Mikoto, and Manami approached the gate of the village, followed by 30 individuals divided into 5 groups consisting of 6 people each.

"Don’t you dare become dead weight," Kaori said with her usual rudeness, driven by her tsundere personality.

"She means don’t die, since we won’t be carrying your corpse and slowing ourselves down," Lu-el said, translating what Kaori meant for Weed and his three hunter friends.

Kaori’s next remark, however, didn’t need any translation, as it was blunt and direct.

"Don’t expect Lu-el and me to look after your rod and balls..." she said before turning around and walking away, her face blushing upon realizing the multiple naughty implications of what she said rather than the pun she intended.

"If it’s your rod and balls, then I don’t mind dismantling them up for you," Lu-el added, shifting everyone’s teasing from Kaori toward Weed.

"PFFT—HAHAHA!"

"Don’t assume I’ll die, you bastards!"

***

Mikoto, with her skill as a Priestess, forcibly undid the separate barrier protecting the gate, destroying it in the process.

Manami, on the other hand, invoked a massive blackened rock spike with her earth-based magic, tearing open the metal gates.

Stepping inside the village, their group immediately found what they were expecting—or rather, found no response to the loud commotion they had caused, nor any greeting to their arrival.

No guards, no soldiers, no villagers—just an empty, dimly lit village now that the sun had set and night claimed the sky.

’Just where did everyone go?’

With that thought in their minds, each group split up to investigate the village.

Despite the empty streets, which were illuminated by the faint light of lanterns—a kind of magic item, as Lu-el assumed—he was surprised to see the neat and artistic houses of the village.

Similar to Daifuku Hot Spring Village, Fumoto Village had the fantasy setting of a retro Japanese village. Yet the sense that it had been built by a modern civilization as an imitation of the old times was still there.

However, that alone wasn’t what was bothering Lu-el.

"Kaori..." he mumbled softly to get her attention, yet loud enough for everyone to hear in the eerie silence of their surroundings.

"Did you notice something, Lu-el?" she asked, glancing at him as they walked together, wondering what he could have noticed first that her detection skill—with her enhanced senses—had failed to pick up.

It wasn’t that Lu-el noticed something, but rather, he had a curious question.

"What would happen if a person got cursed?"

[Luvira@Goddess: Good question, my dear Livestreamer.]

[Luvira@Goddess: To make it simple and easy to understand, they either die and become a ghost or rise again as undead.]

[Poru@Ghost: BOO!]

[Poru@Undead: ROAR!]

[Poru@Sage: We thought you two got purified and finally rested in peace—HAHAHA!]

And I just jinxed us, haven’t I? Lu-el thought at the dreadful realization of the village they had stepped into.

Before Kaori could respond, seeing Lu-el’s awkward yet anxious expression, her enhanced senses picked up the presence of multiple individuals approaching their group.

The irregular rhythm of their footsteps, the painful groaning sounds, the rotting scent carried through the air along with the miasma of a curse—all of it led to a single conclusion and a single kind of monster.

Before Lu-el, Weed, and the other hunters could see what was coming, Kaori grabbed Lu-el’s hand and urged them to run back toward the gate.

"We need to go back and seal the gate!" Kaori said, explaining the bare minimum to stop Weed and the others from asking questions.

"So it really turned out like this," Lu-el said. Yet despite his anxious expression, Kaori didn’t fail to notice the faint grin on his face.

"What are you getting excited for?!"

Lu-el didn’t intend to be rude or to take the situation lightly. But he wouldn’t deny that, aside from fantasy adventure stories, he was also a fan of undead apocalypse stories.

"This is the worst! The village has been cursed, and the villagers have all been turned into undead!"