Soon, greeted by the Minotaurs of the Sural tribe, who were very different from the beginning, Cheruth and his party entered the Sural village.

After knowing their mercenary identities and seeing Raphael in the sacrificial robe among them, the attitude of the minotaurs changed a lot. Although they still look like a herd of muscular bullheads, the initial wariness and hostility on the faces of the cows have disappeared and have been replaced by a warm and honest ...... Giggle.

Well, while such a description may seem a bit curious, the fact is that at least Cheruth herself couldn't find a better way to explain the look on the faces of the minotaurs when they looked at them. Normally, people probably don't have a very intuitive way to distinguish the joys, sorrows, and sorrows from a cow's expression, but the bull faces of these minotaurs obviously have some strange mutations because of the human part of their subhuman bloodline, looking at the humanized changes on the faces of those minotaurs, Cheruth thought for a moment that she had gone to the wrong set and came to the world of a 3D animated movie in a certain country.

"Please go this way, honorable priests and guests. ”

The person responsible for leading the way for Chelus and the others was Carl, the leader of the Minotaur squad who had a dignified face at the edge of the village before, but now Karl was smiling innocently, and he couldn't see the strong sense of oppression before.

"The chief is now personally patrolling the outer walls on the other side of the village, and he should be coming to greet you soon after receiving the news of your arrival, so please come with me to the tribal hall for a rest. ”

The Sural tribe built an oasis where the Minotaurs used leather and wood to build many desert tents, which were taller than human houses because of their tall stature.

Behind Carl, Chelus and his party took a curious look at the Minotaur tribe, and they also became the onlookers of the Minotaur tribe. Obviously, compared to the strong Minotaurs who were on guard for unknown reasons on the other side of the tribe's outer walls, the Minotaurs who lived in the tribe were obviously much more enthusiastic.

Most of the minotaurs smiled kindly when they saw Cheruth, and from time to time there were cheers such as "Praise the earth, at last the light sacrifice has come to the tribe", and even a few minotaur children along the way—of course, because of the racial nature of the minotaurs, even the children were tall enough to make a pair of wolf sisters resentful—ran over and gave them a fruit that resembled a coconut on the earth, but was much smaller, as a gift.

This is the real friendly and hospitable Minotaur clan, and while the good feelings of the Sural tribe continue to accumulate in their hearts, Chelus and the others also began to wonder why the originally hospitable Minotaur was so wary of all outsiders on the fence on the periphery of the tribe just now, and even abandoned this tradition of being kind to people and became so cold.

And what made Chelus a little concerned was that it seemed that there were very few adult male minotaurs in the village, and compared to the number of tall houses that lined the surrounding villages, it was obvious that the number of minotaurs that could be seen in the village now did not seem to be too many, could it be that all the adult male minotaurs were standing guard and patrolling the fence outside the village?

"Brother Karl," Cheruth couldn't help but raise her head—well, to be exact, her head was completely raised, after all, the other party was almost twice her height—and asked the Minotaur Squad Leader who was walking ahead, "When we took over the mission, we learned that your tribe has been harassed by demonic beasts recently, so we couldn't spare the manpower to send people to the human towns to find sacrifices to treat the curse on the people...... You were just outside the village, were you just guarding against the attack of the demonic beast?"

"Alas, if it's just a demonic beast, that's fine," Carl's cow smiled and showed a helpless look, "These days, the village has been attacked by a group of sand wolves for several reasons, and even one day a team of human mercenaries attacked us, if it weren't for that, we wouldn't be so wary of outsiders." ”

Carl's voice was naturally low, and the team behind Cheruth was also happily exchanging experiences and sighs because of their curiosity about the alien village and the warmth and friendliness of the Minotaurs, so the only people who heard Carl's words were Cheruth and Grey Wind and Raphael who were closely behind her.

"Human mercenaries?"

Hearing something unexpected, both Cheruth and Raphael repeated with some surprise.

"Brother Carl, are you sure those people are really mercenaries among the humans?" Cheruth thought of what Raphael said about the town of Ruke being attacked by the bandits, "We heard that a human town nearby was attacked by the bandits a few days ago, maybe the humans who attacked you were the bandits?"

"No, the sand bandits you are talking about should be the sand wolf clan that has been attacking us all this time," Karl shook his head, "It is very difficult for humans to survive in this great desert, let alone be bandits, and the only humans you can see here are merchants and mercenaries." ”

"Then, why did those human mercenaries attack the Sural tribe?" Raphael asked suspiciously, although there was some natural single thread, the sacrificial maiden was not a fool who didn't know anything, "I remember that the Minotaur clan has rarely had conflicts and disputes with humans, and this is the trade corridor area from Freeport to the Alliance Royal City of the Lothar Alliance, so human mercenaries should not clash with the orc tribes that live here all year round for no reason, right?"

There was a hint of jealousy on Karl's face.

"Those human mercenaries, like the sand bandits and the monsters who have been attacking our sand wolf clan for days, have gone mad with the mad curse. ”

Isn't it said that someone in the Minotaur tribe has been cursed, how can it become that the enemies who attacked the Minotaur tribe have been cursed?

Cheruth subconsciously looked at Raphael and found that the latter was also at a loss, apparently hearing of this curse for the first time.

"Could it be that the curse you mentioned in the mission is also this mad curse?"

"That's right, because of this curse, the combat manpower in our tribe has been greatly reduced, and we don't even have the strength to send people to the nearby town to ask for the help of the human Light Sacrifice, so we have to urgently issue a mission on the mercenary union to praise the earth, although you seem to have only invited one sacrifice, but at least your support is timely. ”

Justly?Chelsea frowned, they had taken the boat from Arrant to Freeport and had come all the way with the mentality of going out to play, and although there was no delay, she did not think that their actions could be called timely.

Moreover, the mission itself was completely different from what they imagined, leading the healers to help a village that was constantly attacked by monsters and bandits, even if the mission itself did not include combat, the danger factor was not to the extent that ordinary academy students could use it as an ordinary holiday trial mission. But the strange thing is that when the mercenary union took over this task, the mission description did not say that the Sural tribe was in such a dangerous situation, and the mercenary union had no reason to cheat on the entrusted task, so it was the Sural tribe that concealed the truth when issuing the commission? That doesn't make sense, concealing the truth to reduce the difficulty of the mission commission is not the slightest benefit for these minotaurs, if it is a group of soft-footed shrimp characters who are entrusted to help them in distress, then it is the Sural tribe itself that suffers in the end.

Later, the team members, except for Cheruth, were immersed in the pleasant atmosphere of seeing the alien customs and the end of the mission. But here, Cheruth's face was completely gloomy, and she instinctively felt that the so-called student trial task that she and others were waiting for seemed to be ...... Something went very uninterestingly.

Just when Cheruth was silent because of the worry in her heart, Raphael on the other side directly took over the conversation, compared to the current situation of the Minotaur clan, the sacrificial girl was more interested in the so-called mad curse.

"Mr. Karl just said that because that kind of mad curse has made the monsters, sand bandits and human mercenaries crazy, so they will continue to attack you, that is, will the creatures under the mad curse go berserk and completely lose their minds?"

Hearing the priest's question, Carl looked a little apologetic.

"I don't know much about the details of this curse, and the fact that the attackers are attacking our village because they have been cursed by the madness is what the chief and several elders told us...... You might as well meet the chieftain and ask them later, I'm ashamed to let me fight those crazy guys, but I don't understand magic or curses or anything. ”

Soon the group came to the center of the village, where a large wooden pillar was erected on a circular stone altar, carved with some strange and incomprehensible patterns, and at the four corners of the wooden pillar, six torches were burning, which seemed to be the altar of the tribe.

Not far from the altar, there was a tall tent hut that was much larger than the minotaur dwellings I'd seen before.

"This is the tribal hall, please come into the house and rest for a while, the chief and the elders will be back soon. ”

With that, Carl pushed open the door to the tribal hall and ushered the group into the hall.

The group, with the exception of Cheruth and Raphael, all made a new appearance on the reception chairs on both sides of the lobby, because it was a specially customized chair for tall minotaurs, so for these petite girls, it would not seem cramped for two people to sit on the same chair.

"Wow, sure enough, the bull-headed people are so tall, taller than Xiaotian~"

"In the Phoenix Country, I have heard that there are all kinds of strange races in the desert in the southwest of the continent, and it is really eye-opening. ”

After taking their seats, because the Minotaur chieftain had not yet returned, everyone sat there very relaxed and chatted, exchanging feelings and experiences in the village of Sural along the way.

Only Nanoha, who was sitting next to Cheruth, sensed that something was wrong with the wolf girl, and couldn't help but speak with some confusion.

"What's the matter, Cheruth, her face doesn't seem to be very good, is she not feeling well?"

Hearing Nanoha's words, except for Raphael and Grey Wind, who knew some inside information on the road, the rest of the people also looked at Cheruth.

"Cheruth-chan?"

Cheruth raised her head, looked at the friends who were still in the dark and didn't know that this mission had changed a little, and there was no nervousness at all, she pursed her lips and slowly spoke.

“...... Although it is a bit sudden, please be mentally prepared for the following, I am afraid that this mission will not be as easy and simple as we imagined. ”

"What's wrong with Cheruth, is there anything wrong?" Zhiyo asked a little strangely, "Didn't we already find a sacrifice for Sural?

Cheruth smiled helplessly.

"Theoretically, though...... I don't know why, but the description of the mission we learned from the mercenary guild seems to be quite different from the actual situation......"