(The POV is still Royce )

My eyes narrowed for a moment, "what corpse? I don't see anything here at all. HAH! Don't be kidding me!"

"I'm not joking! Foreigners who come here will indirectly be affected by the eye magic of the magicians from this village.” Mai's voice sounded hoarse as well as sad. The two furrowed brows in the middle on this girl's beautiful face made me feel sorry for her.

"Well that's that then. Take me now to where the materials and tools are.” Immediately without thinking, I looked away from the girl, avoiding her sad eyes.

He could be heard sighing. Then he moved his foot back and began to take a step clockwise to the number two.

Before I followed behind him, I did what he told me earlier, which was to apologize. I did as soon as he started walking. He was walking pretty fast, so I had to take a pretty big step when I almost fell behind.

In an area that is densely populated with villagers' homes, the roads we pass on each side are full of various kinds of ornamental plants and fruit and vegetable gardens. At least that's what I saw. I don't know if it's some kind of magic effect too or if it's really real.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he asked for a moment without looking back and continued to move forward.

I flinched, as he spoke as I looked around with great care. Because I thought, it would be easy to find the leaf when I went along to find out even if it was just to observe the plants planted on each side of the road.

“Does this include magic too?” I turned to ask, making sure that what I saw wasn't a trick.

Mai, the tan-skinned girl shook her head, "no. We just cast magic on the place just now.”

My eyes widen, "why?" Curiosity began to boil in the chest.

"There's a reason, but I can't say."

"The corpses of the residents?" I said, after that I thought about my words just now.

However, seeing Mai's reaction showing no signs of anger at all made me feel a little calm and relieved.

But suddenly he stopped walking. Then I looked ahead by walking towards this girl. It turned out that we had arrived at the end of a neat road. Because the rest, the road is cut off with bushes that spread everywhere.

"The end is the forest?" as soon as I saw what was in front of my eyes, the question just came out of my mouth.

Mai nodded, “the plant you are looking for is in this forest. In a house of the forest witch of the Northern village.”

"Then what are you waiting for? Come on in right away!” I was so excited that I prepared to run towards the witch's house.

But the girl with long hair tugged at my shirt, “no! Don't be rash! We have to strategize to enter it.”

"What else now? Hurry up and make that strategy.” I replied easily without thinking about the meaning of my own words.

The girl looked gloomy, "I'm not a strategist," she lowered her head.

“ARGGHHH!” I growled in annoyance.

"OK! I just do it. Now tell me where the path we can take to the house is." I said with annoyance.

Then he picked up some large dry leaves that had fallen from the tree. I don't know what tree it is, I don't know.

After that, he kept the four dry leaves on the ground.

He placed his small palm on top of the four neatly lined leaves. His eyes closed for a moment, his mouth mumbled something, like a magician casting a spell.

"Wait a minute! He's a magician!" I thought then after being surprised by what I just saw from a girl as beautiful as Mai. Because in the slightest I didn't think that he had hereditary blood, I only guessed that he was a weak commoner. Therefore, from the bottom of my heart, I want to protect this girl.

But after seeing everything, that desire faded slowly. He… can definitely take care of himself.

"May!" I shouted at the beautiful witch who was still focused on her activities.

"CK! That's enough! I'll just use my sword to counter all the magic." I said then. "So you don't have to do all this."

The girl's mouth stopped muttering right then and there, her eyes slowly opening. "I won't let you use the power of your sword here." There was nothing strange in his tone, nor did he have an unpleasant expression. But after hearing what he said, my heart hurt.

"Hey! If I don't use the power of my sword, we'll take quite a while. Whereas I desperately need those materials and tools right away, right now!”

"Are you stupid?! If you use that power of yours, then the magic in this village will be destroyed too! And what happened? Evil everywhere will be clearly seen! Even a foreigner like you will definitely not feel at home in this village which is famous for its various benefits and beauty!”

"What's worse? Oh... I know! There will be a lot of human bodies lying everywhere, a bad smell will be smelled, the houses will fall apart without a trace, then ..." I stopped my useless chatter after I saw Mai kept her head down.

"You are right. But maybe it won't be that bad. Sob...." sobs began to be heard from him who bowed sadly.

I sighed, “My parents… they were hit by a magic that caused them to stay still and… they couldn't even move. Then, my future sister-in-law, she's a magician too, said that there must be a leaf and a wand to check who sent this magic. So that he can easily heal my parents and teach the evil wizard a lesson.”

"Why not just use the power of your sword?"

"Can not. The magic is too strong, that's all we can do.”

I lowered my head, I looked closely at the ground I was stepping on.

"OK!" suddenly he rose from his slump and looked at me with certainty, “I will help you. But promise me you won't use the power of your sword here."

A faint smile I showed to this brave girl, “of course. I promise."

Then we continued our journey by entering the thickets that were half a body taller than me.

The smell of grass and dirt in this forest stabbed my nose. But when I saw Mai walking beside me, she was fine. It seemed that he was used to all of this, so the smell that wafted from all angles didn't bother his sense of smell at all.

Once again I took a deep breath. I tried to be calm and unobstructed by this smell.

"Different from the others, huh?" he said later.

I was surprised, "ah yes." I replied simply.

"Of course it's different, because this village is really special."

I smiled at his words. It is true, this village is famous for its natural beauty and diversity which is full of benefits.