He Who Hunts Demons Chapter 27: 27-Crop Stealing Demon

Read chapter 27 of He Who Hunts Demons by A_Random_Turtle on NovelPedia.

The itchy feeling crawling up and down my nape, constantly reminding me that there was a gap in my memories made it hard for me to concentrate on Veva explaining the details of my first—or, rather—our team’s first mission. But I tried my very best to set my head straight and pay attention. Considering I wasn’t the most proficient in teamwork, I wasn’t about to become even more of a liability by losing focus and jeopardizing everything. After all, one mistake against a demon and there was no coming back. “So a crop stealing demon,” said Abel from beside me. He was dressed in almost the same wear as mine, which was not surprising; a white shirt, brown pants, and a brown waistcoat. The only difference between both of us was that I wore a newsie cap and had round glasses. His brother, Sammie, on the other hand, wore a jacket. “Don’t you think this sort of mission is too easy? The demon is what? Grade 9 or 10? Elmer hunted a ghoul alone as a human, and that’s a grade 5 demon. He’s a Transcendent now. We’re all Transcendents. I just think that would be throwing our resources to the trash.” Abel continued. Veva narrowed her eyes on him, obviously displeased. “Don’t look down on demons,” she said, her tone calm but bearing a silent harshness behind it. Abel pressed his lips together and sighed. “My apologies.” Despite the fact that I wasn’t particularly appreciative of Abel using me as a basis to prove his point, regardless of his praises, I kind of agreed with him. Our mission came from a request that had been made a day ago by farmers from the village, Eldermire, just bordering Ur. They had reported a constant waking up to their crops being destroyed for the past week, and despite their several attempts to catch the culprit in act, they had all met failure. So, as expected, they came to the conclusion that it was a demon. After all, the only time they were unable to keep guard was during the night, and that was because demons lurked at night, which made ruling out their fellow humans or animals out of the equation. Which brought about the scale Abel had used in figuring out the range of the demon’s grade. A higher graded demon like a Ghoul wouldn’t bother itself with destroying the crops of the farmers. It would simply wipe them all out. The fact that the monster was playing what I tagged a childish game, it was fairly obvious that it was of not only a lesser intelligence, but violence and action. And that thought process brought a question spiralling to the front of my mind. “I’ve been wondering,” I began, dragging everyone’s attention my way. “Why has the church not taken measures to prevent demons from attacking the nearby villages?” Veva opened her mouth to explain, then she paused and glanced at Sammie instead. “Do the honors,” she said. Sammie blinked his daze away and turned to me as I turned to him. “Contrary to the popular belief that the major cities are protected by the blessings of the Great Ancient One because the cathedrals are located there, they are actually protected by illusion barriers which prevent most low sequence demons from noticing them,” Sammie explained. “Sadly, the illusion barriers only stretch so far and some towns and villages are not blessed with the same protection the cities have.” An illusion barrier that protects the cities… I muttered to myself as my mind flew back to the spell Bel had used in the Dreamscape to protect us from the roaming monsters. Then my thoughts shifted to why the church was actively lying to the masses about how they actually kept the demons out. I stared at Sammie, urging him for an explanation with my eyes alone. When he remained silent, I decided to articulate my thoughts; but before I could say a word, he shook his head. “Some details are privy to the higher up,” he said. “We the bottom-feeders have no clue.” I turned to Veva next, and she only stared back at me without so much as uttering a single word. I assumed she didn’t have that information either. Or maybe she did