Harem Sync: Divine Edition-Chapter 33: A survivor from the mansion

Haru and the group had to sit down with the innkeeper to properly discuss what was happening.

"Well, if you resolve this, I’ll let you stay at this inn whenever you want, without charging anything..."

"If you don’t have money, it’s no good," Haru said bluntly, crossing his arms.

The innkeeper seemed somewhat offended but continued. Haru sighed and changed the subject.

"Tell me more about the monsters that were coming. When? Where did they start?"

The man straightened his posture, clearly relieved to have something concrete to talk about.

"Northern forest. They always came from there, any time of day or night, but it’s gotten much worse in the last few months. Before it was rare, like... maybe once a year? But now..." he paused, looking around as if afraid of being overheard, "...now they come every week. We only have three days until the next attack, given the pattern they’ve been following."

Kira frowned. "And why do you think it’s in three days?"

"Because it’s always like this. They come, we defend ourselves as best we can, some die, and then they stop for a few days. Then they come back. It’s too predictable to be a coincidence."

Haru absorbed that, processing it quickly.

"Three days..." she murmured, then looked at the group. "This will delay the trip to the empire. See why I wanted to set sail already? I don’t want to be punished by Baron Valtherion for arriving late."

The innkeeper froze when he heard that name. "B-Baron Valtherion? Don’t t-tell me you work for him!"

Isabela sighed, knowing what was coming. "We’ll sort this out. I have some powers from the academy because I’m the baron’s daughter, so don’t worry..."

The man’s eyes widened. "You are... you are Isabela Valtherion!?"

Yukihime tugged at Haru’s sleeve, confused. "Dad, who is Isabela Valtherion?"

Haru looked at Isabela. "Ask your mother."

The innkeeper wouldn’t stop talking now, too excited. "Isabela Valtherion has a daughter?! And she was married?! I thought that..."

"SHUT UP!" everyone, except Yukihime, shouted at the same time, even Kira who didn’t quite understand why he was shouting.

The man shut his mouth immediately, red with embarrassment.

"Continue," Haru ordered, returning to the important matter.

"A-Ah, yes... well, thank God Vandris arrived to save the village when the attacks started to become frequent. He put up protections, hired guards, and... well, that’s the only reason we’ve endured until now."

"But is that all you know? Nobody knows exactly where they come from?"

"All we know is that they always come from the northern forest. Always... that’s why nobody goes there."

Haru raised an eyebrow, thinking: "Probably this type’s IQ is a 3..."

He stood up from his chair. "Let’s go to Vandris’s mansion."

The innkeeper’s eyes widened again. "You already know where to start?! But it’s in the northern forest where they come from!"

"You," Haru pointed to the innkeeper and the guards, "take care of Yukihime. We’ll be back in a few hours at the most."

"Bye, Dad!" said Yukihime, waving.

Haru smiled at her and then went outside without waiting for a reply, looked at the destroyed mansion on the hilltop in the distance, then looked to the side where the carriage horses were still tied.

...

Isabela and Kira mounted a horse together, Isabela in front controlling the reins while Kira stayed behind holding her waist. Haru looked at the other horse, thought he knew how it worked because he’d seen it in movies and games, and mounted as well.

The journey was... difficult for Haru.

Kira and Isabela arrived at the mansion first and stood watching Haru come down the road, still about fifty meters away.

"Why is he riding like that?" Kira asked, genuinely confused.

Haru wasn’t sitting on the horse. He was standing on top of it, knees slightly bent to maintain balance, holding the reins with both hands as if he were surfing on an unstable board.

When he finally arrived and dismounted, he straightened his spine with a groan of relief, audible cracking sounds.

"Let’s go," he said, acting as if nothing had happened.

Kira didn’t let it go. "Hey! Aren’t you going to explain why you were standing on a horse?!"

Isabela had also been genuinely curious. "Is this one of those things you gamers do?"

Haru looked at the two of them as if they’d asked the most obvious question in the world. "Did you want me to sit on that thing and break the balls? Sitting on a horse is for women or fantasy movies!"

"What’s a movie?" Kira asked.

"Movies are... they’re for gamers. You’re not ready to understand."

Kira shook her head, giving up on the subject. "And how did you know we had to come here to the mansion?"

Haru started walking towards the ruins while explaining. "The detail the innkeeper mentioned: ’Thank the Gods Vandris arrived to save the village when the attacks started becoming frequent.’"

"So what?" Isabela didn’t see the problem.

"I don’t know what you understood, but I understood it like this: Before Vandris arrived in the village, attacks were rare. After Vandris started ’protecting’ the village, the attacks began happening every week."

Isabela almost stopped walking. "Wait... are you saying that..."

Haru continued, "It’s too much of a coincidence that the Collector showed up to save everyone when the village became more dangerous."

"That doesn’t make sense," Kira interrupted, "if he was clearing out the monsters, the attacks should have decreased, not increased."

Haru smiled slightly. "Exactly."

Kira stopped suddenly, her fox ears perking up. She began sniffing the air, focused.

They arrived in front of the Vandris mansion, or what was left of it. The entire structure had collapsed in the middle, walls cracked and burned by the airship’s explosion, the roof completely destroyed leaving only exposed beams pointing to the sky like broken ribs. Debris scattered everywhere, burnt furniture, twisted pieces of metal that had been part of the airship, dark stains on the floor that could be blood or oil or both. The smell of ash still heavy in the air mixed with something rotting organic matter.

Kira suddenly ran towards a pile of debris in the left corner of the mansion, focused on something only she could sense.

A figure emerged from behind the rubble, startled, running in the opposite direction trying to escape.

Kira sped up, giving chase.

Isabela’s hand was already on fire. "Have they arrived?"

Haru watched the figure fleeing and thought quickly. "Kira! Don’t kill yet! We need answers!"