In Search of the Ancient Ones (III)

"Well, if you don't want to open the door, we'll have to do it the hard way. I will count to 10, if you don't agree I will take the necessary actions. Again I would beg you if we could do this peacefully-] at that moment my speech was interrupted because the door suddenly opened.

From inside a person with a shovel rushed towards me with the intention of hitting me in the head. I thought something like that might happen, so I had my glove activated in case of emergency. Thanks to the power of my thumb I simply stepped aside and let the attack go straight on hitting the ground, at which point I took the opportunity to grab for his weapon and give him a shove.

"Augh!"

The gentleman fell back a few steps losing his balance to fall down sitting in the middle of the living room of his house.

"Perfect, come in my lady" I said making a cordial gesture.

"May we come in? In that case, excuse me~"

Maria happily walked in and the first thing she did was to sit on a strange chair and take off her shoes.

I followed her and closed the door behind me.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" shouted the person.

Ignoring him I started to look around. Inspecting in detail I can see that this man has the appearance of being a native from the area, probably about 50 years old, maybe even older. He is wearing clothes made of animal skin, both his jacket and pants appear to be leather, on his head he has a cap made of bird feathers. His clothing sure isn't the typical city dress I'm used to.

In the interior of his home he has some handmade paintings with something that I can't make out what it is.

"Interesting..."

"Hey, don't ignore me!"

"Now you know how it feels" I replied with a slightly mocking tone. "Well, I told you we just want to talk. You didn't have to get violent"

"..." he just looked at me furiously without saying a word.

I finished walking around the place and stopped, leaning my back against the wall near where Maria was resting.

"Anyway, we're looking for information about a guy riding a hippogriff. Do you know anything?"

"What the hell are you talking about!? Get the hell out of my house!"

"I thought so. Do you think he's lying Maria?"

"Doesn't look like it. Hey mister, you wouldn't happen to have anything to eat, would you?"

"Leave right now!"

"Calm down, once we confirm our doubts we'll leave. However, I doubt very much that you know about elemental spirits"

"... elemental spirits?"

"Wow, so you do know about them?"

"I don't know anything about that... although it reminds me of our creator gods"

"Gods? That has nothing to do with what we're looking for"

"It may be this people's way of calling them Asriel. In different religions and cultures they refer to the same concept with different names, the important thing is that the final message or ideology is the same"

"Good point Maria, as clever as always"

That mention deserves a pat on her head.

"Hehehehe~"

"You heard the lady, start talking"

"Why would people like you want to know about our ancient traditions?"

"Because that could be the key to returning the world to normal"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I want to believe that we'll be able to get to the root of this whole thing, why the invaders showed up"

"You... plan to get rid of those monsters?"

"That's what we intend to do, we would greatly appreciate your cooperation in that"

After hearing my words the man calmed down. I decided to put the sarcasm aside for a moment as I saw that he seemed willing to help us.

He took a seat and let out a sigh.

"So what exactly is it that you're looking for?"

"I guess you know about the day of the Apocalypse, right? We are both on a journey to contact beings who can give us an answer to the reason for all these events. An acquaintance of ours went ahead of us and we tried to track him down, we have an assumption that he must have passed this way, do you have any idea?"

"I don't know anything about it"

"I see. Anyway, would you mind telling us in regards your traditions? It might give us a clue"

"Why should I?"

"Would you do it for a pretty face like hers?" I said looking towards her making a sign.

"Huh?... ah, sure! Ahem. Please, would you do it for me~?"

The sir looked away immediately. That was super effective!

"... if I do that, will you guys go away and leave me alone?" he exclaimed with apparent embarrassment.

"Of course, we promise"

"Promise~"

"I hope you keep their word. Well, it all started..."