Next morning all three of them reached the village.

  Village elder: So glad you have come adventurers! Thank you so much for coming here!

  Gold: Explain to us what is going on here.

  Village elder: I will I will but first come with us we must honour our guests.

  Elder takes them to his house and presents them with a feast.

  Nico: Wow i finally get to eat!

  Alaric: (They are very generous for a village in trouble.)

  Gold: We are here to hunt the monster not to have a party. Just tell us where we have to look.

  Village elder: I am afraid you will have to wait because that monster only appears at night.

  Gold: If you had mentioned that during your request we would have come here last night.

  Village elder: I am so sorry about that.

  A woman enters the room.

  Woman: Grandfather I have prepared the room for our guests.

  Alaric: (she is beautiful)

  Village elder: Enjoy the feast you all and take rest I have something to look after. My grand daughter will help you with anything you need.

  Elder leaves the room.

  Alaric and Nico start to eat.

  Nico: This is so good! Gold aren't you gonna eat?

  Gold: You there! Come here. What is your name?

  Aya: It's Aya.

  Gold: Tell me about the situation.

  Aya: My grandfather told me to not tell you.

  Gold: But you will.

  Gold takes out his sword and puts it on Aya's neck.

  Alaric: Have you gone crazy!? I won't let you harm a woman!

  Nico: What are you doing Gold?

  Gold: Answer me Aya.

  Gold senses someone coming to the room and puts his sword back.

  Housekeeper: I need some help Aya can you come with me?

  Aya: Yes! Right away.

  Aya goes with the housekeeper.

  Alaric: What if she tells the others about this?

  Gold: She won't.

  Alaric: What do you mean?

  Gold: Because she has no one to tell about it.

  Nico: Huh?

  Gold: To explain it in simple words. The village has been taken over. That wasn't the actual elder of the village.

  Alaric: You serious? But how do you know?

  Nico: Are we trapped here?

  Gold: They are the ones who are trapped. The bandits who took over the village probably thought they could make some money by stealing equipment of High rank adventurers. So they put up a quest that seemed dangerous so that adventurers may come here for that.

  Alaric: Are adventurer equipment worth that much?

  Nico: They are! Especially the ones they find in dungeons the collectors pay heavily for them!

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  Gold: I got to know about collectors recently too from Nico. That's why this idea struck in my mind when the animals in the forest told me that everything is normal around the village. It got confirmed when I put my sword on Aya's neck.

  Alaric: How?

  Gold: Her reaction was too calm like she was used to it and her neck had marks of being strangled. She has been assaulted by these bastards.

  Alaric: My blood is boiling Gold! I can't contain myself!

  Nico: Calm down Alaric!

  Gold: How can we calm down Nico!? How can we let a woman be in danger infront of us! We will slaughter those bastards!

  Nico: (They both are on agreement this time!)

  Alaric: So how are we supposed to do this Gold?

  Gold: We have to play along. They have mixed sleep medicine in the food. You both are going to sleep now.

  Alaric: What are you saying? I feel fine!

  Nico: Oh no!

  Gold: It will take effect in a minute. I will be fine because I haven't eaten anything but I will pretend to fall asleep too.

  Alaric: Alright!

  Alaric and Nico soon fall asleep and Gold starts to pretend sleeping. He hears some footsteps coming closer to the room. The one pretending to be the elder walks in.

  Bandit(elder): So they have finally fallen asleep. To be honest I was scared when this guy pulled out his sword to question that girl. Now that they are in deep sleep i should tie them up.

  The bandit ties all three of them up.

  Bandit(elder): My men will take care of them now. What should I do now? Haha! Let's go play with that girl and her mother.

  Gold:(Just wait you scum!)

  The bandits take all three of them to a Wearhouse and lock them in. Gold opens his eyes and frees himself from the ropes.

  Gold: Now how do I wake these guys up?

  Gold hears a faint noise. He looks around and sees all the men of the village tied to ropes and cloth stuffed in their mouths.

  Gold frees them all.

  Villager: Thank you so much stranger! I am the chief of this village.

  Gold: What happened to the village?

  Villager: Bandits have taken over the village and put all the men of the village in this warehouse. They kept the woman for their fun. Oh my daughter! Is she even alive?

  Gold: She is alive I saw her at your house. I am an adventurer here on a fake quest put up by these Bandits. Don't worry I will make them pay for this! I promise!

  Alaric: Count me in too!

  Gold: You woke up!

  Alaric: Ofcourse I did. These weak medicine are nothing to me.

  Gold: Let's go then! Now we know that every man outside this warehouse is a Bandit we can capture them all!

  Alaric: Capture them?

  Gold: Yeah! So we can punish them properly! Haha!

  Alaric: Haha!

  Villager: ( we might need to be protected from them after this!)

  Gold and Alaric go out of the warehouse and attack the bandits.They manage to capture all of them in a few moments. Only the one pretending to be the elder remains.

  Bandit (elder): Now you guys have done it! You don't know who you are messing with! I was a former B rank adventurer. I will show you what it means to mess with me.

  Alaric: Let me take care of him.

  Gold: Sure.

  Bandit ( elder): You think you can take me on alone?

  Alaric: Allow me to explain what you are going to experience. I have the ability to mess with time. Due to which I can stop time for moment.

  Bandit ( elder): you think I will believe that?

  Bandit attacks Alaric. Just as he was about to reach him he finds Alaric standing behind him.

  Bandit (elder): how!?

  Alaric: But stopping time for a moment is not the only thing that I can do. I can also make time move faster for my opponent due to which they are unable to react to my movements. I am to fast for them.

  Bandit (elder): Stop with this bullshit!

  Bandit attacks Alaric again but in a blink of an eye Alaric is able to pull out his sword and block his attack.

  Bandit (elder): That was so fast! Too fast!

  Gold: (He just pulled out his sword normally without much effort. But it seemed fast to him. This guy has some dangerous abilities. How would I have fought against it?)

  Alaric starts to walk towards the bandit.

  Alaric: Did i mention that I am an A rank adventurer?

  The bandit lost his fighting spirit and fell on his knees.

  Gold: Nice work.

  Alaric: Thanks alot. Now what should we do with them?

  Gold: I have a plan.

  Gold with the help of the villagers carry the captured bandits to the forest.

  Bandits: Where are you taking us! Just hand is over to the kindom knights!

  Villagers: Shut up all of you! You deserve the hell Gold is about to give you!

  Gold brings the bandits to a ogre settlement and leaves them there.

  Bandits: Hey don't leave us here!

  Gold and the villagers arrive back to the village.

  Nico: Why did you leave them for ogres?

  Alaric: Ogres are not very intelligent creatures they only move on their instincts and because of that they would eat and mate with anything that moves.

  Nico: So the ogres will mate with those bandits!?

  Alaric: I wouldn't like to imagine it.

  Village Cheif: Thank you adventurers for saving our Village. We are sorry we have nothing to reward you with. But we have prepared a feast for you all.

  Gold: Thanks I was getting hungry.

  Nico: We don't need a reward.

  Alaric: We will have the guild reward us for it.

  Aya: Thanks Gold for everything! From today you are the man i devout myself to.

  Gold: What? Why?

  Aya: Because of what happened I am now unworthy of love. No man will ever take me for his bride. Which is why I will spend the rest of my being faithful to my saviours memory.

  Nico: But it's not your fault!

  Gold thinks for a bit.

  Gold: I will take you as my bride.

  Tears starts to come from the eyes of Aya and the villagers. Nico and Alaric start to cry too.

  Everyone: You mean it Gold!?

  Gold: Yes I do! I will take Aya as my bride. I cannot take her with me right now but i promise that someday I will come back and take her from here. Until then all of you will protect my her for me.

  Villagers: Yes we will!

  Alaric: That's something worth praising! (He is worthy to wear that ring which represents the qualities of a king.)

  Villagers perform the wedding ceremony for Gold and Aya and enjoy the feast for the rest of the night.

  Next morning Gold and his friends are about to leave.

  Gold: We have to leave now.

  Aya hugs Gold. Gold comforts her.

  Aya: See you again! Come back soon! I will wait for you.

  Gold: I will.

  Nico: bye everyone! thank you for the feast.

  Alaric:( I can't wait to find the Divine Rose. Seeing them like this makes me jealous.)

  Gold and his friends leave.