Shirou was definitely interested in the sacred beast the beast girl spoke of, but when he wanted to get more information from her, the girl hesitated and couldn't say anything.
Shirou realized that the matter of the sacred beast might be some kind of secret within the beast race, and he, as an outsider, shouldn't pry into it.
So, he took a step back and started asking about the children's situation.
"Why were you all caught and brought here?"
"Meow?"
Shirou asked the cat-eared girl. He chose her because she was clearly the bravest among all the children there.
He made this judgment because she was the only one among the seven who didn't have any traces of crying on her face. But on the other hand, she had bruises and marks from broken bones on her body.
After hearing Shirou's question, the cat-eared girl hesitated and said, "We were playing in the forest, and then we were suddenly caught by strange men, meow!"
"..."
Shirou had tried his best to get used to the girl's special way of talking.
He naturally ignored it and replied, "So, you're all saying that you were forcibly taken here?"
Shirou's words made all of the beast race children nod.
This further confirmed to Shirou that these smuggling groups deserved to die.
If he didn't know that Ruijerd was definitely decisive enough, he might have even gone over to help finish them off.
While Shirou was talking with the children, Ruijerd came in from outside. He had completely shaved off his newly grown hair, and the ruby on his forehead was also covered up.
But even so, Ruijerd's overly fierce appearance still frightened many of the beast race children.
Shirou tried his best to calm them down and talked to Ruijerd.
"Is it over? Did you find any other people who were caught?"
"No."
"Nothing?"
"Yes, I didn't sense any human traces."
Hearing Ruijerd's words, Shirou realized that the sacred beast probably wasn't human, but he couldn't think of what else it could be. So, he first had Ruijerd take care of the children while he searched for the sacred beast's whereabouts.
When he went outside, Shirou realized how skilled Ruijerd was.
There were bodies everywhere around the house.
Everyone had been killed with a single blow to the heart and throat.
Even Shirou admired Ruijerd's skill in killing people. Shirou himself was really not as good as him. Perhaps only Servant Emiya could compare to him, or even surpass him.
After all, Servant Emiya had probably killed more people than Ruijerd could in several lifetimes.
Because he was worried that the smell of the bodies would attract monsters, Shirou asked Ruijerd to move the children out as soon as possible, while he sped up his search for the sacred beast.
But even after Shirou searched the entire house, he still couldn't find the sacred beast.
He began to wonder if such a thing really existed, or if it was just a lie told by the children.
Moreover, things in this world named after holy gods were often not simple things, such as the Sword God, the North God, the Water God, the Mining God, and even that annoying Hitogami.
In short, if the sacred beast really existed, it would be hard to imagine that such a powerful being would be kidnapped by a group of smugglers.
The child probably got it wrong.
Just as Shirou was thinking this, when he passed a room, he suddenly felt a clear flow of magic power from the wall of the room.
After investigating, he found that there was indeed a hidden compartment in the wall.
After figuring out how to break through it, Shirou found a magic circle emitting a faint light. In the center of the magic circle, a large animal chained with iron chains was lying on the floor.
Although the light was dim, Shirou could roughly make out the animal's features. It seemed to be a white dog that was big. It was hard to tell what breed.
Facing such a creature that appeared to be completely normal, Shirou didn't dare to underestimate it at all, because it was actually bound by both a magic circle and iron chains, which was even stricter control than for Ruijerd of the Superd tribe. This was enough to show how much the smugglers valued it.
Could this thing be the sacred beast?
While Shirou hesitated, the white dog was looking at him with a suspicious gaze. It didn't make any extra movements, neither wagging its tail nor barking, but just listlessly lying on the ground.
"Are you too hungry to move?"
Looking at the white dog's appearance, Shirou thought about letting it out, but found that the magic circle's protection was very strong, and ordinary people couldn't get close at all.
Shirou was very happy about this.
Because he found that this magic circle was actually a self-charging structure, relying on internal circulation to build a semi-permanent one without external magic stone supplements!
If he could figure out this magic circle, Shirou might be able to create a self-charging barrier that didn't need magic stone supplements!
This was practically a great stroke of luck for him to create a real sword sheath, Avalon!
He originally thought he would have to go to the headquarters of the adventurer's guild to find clues, but he didn't expect to find something similar in the Milis Holy Country.
Come to think of it, the Milis Holy Country was the capital of priests, and priests were best at using various barrier magic, so naturally there would be research on self-charging magic circles.
Without thinking too much, Shirou simply lay down next to the magic circle and began to observe it on the spot.
But after observing for a while, Shirou disappointedly found that even this magic circle was still not a truly self-charging one. Its source of magic power was actually a lantern in the room on the second floor, with a magic crystal in the center of the lantern.
Although the magic crystal had several times more magic capacity than a magic stone, it was still not true self-charging magic after all.
However, Shirou didn't come away empty-handed.
With this magic crystal, as long as Shirou had the conditions, he could completely replace the magic stone in Avalon with the magic crystal, and that would allow Avalon, which had already lost its magic power, to continue working.
By the way, when Shirou took away the magic crystal, the magic circle that trapped the white dog also disappeared on the spot.
"Woof...!"
The white dog seemed to be very smart.
Seeing Shirou unlock the magic circle, it immediately realized that the young man in front of him was not against it, and its original wary look suddenly disappeared.
However, because it was bound by iron chains, it couldn't stand up at all.
"Reinforcement magic, reverse engineering."
Shirou had not been without research into reinforcement magic in recent years.
He found that as long as he operated the reinforcement magic in reverse, it could play a weakening effect. Although this thing was difficult to use in actual combat, it would have special effects at times like this.
Under the effect of weakening magic, the iron chain around the dog's neck suddenly became very fragile, and it fell off with a gentle pull.
After the iron chain was untied, the dog immediately became a little more energetic. It excitedly pounced on Shirou's side, constantly rubbing against the latter's leg, as if it was trying to ingratiate itself.
"This..."
Seeing the dog's behavior, Shirou increasingly suspected that this was not some kind of sacred beast.
If it was just an ordinary pet, he should just return it to its original owner, right?
Just as Shirou was thinking this, suddenly his mind's eye gave him an extremely dangerous feeling.
"You bastard! What are you doing to the sacred beast!"
"!!!"
At the moment a sound came, with the help of his mind's eye, Shirou instinctively dodged to the right and dodged an arrow flying from a distance.
The arrow was sharp and revealed its sharp edge. If Shirou didn't have the mind's eye to rely on, he would have been pierced by the arrow in an instant!
Shirou was undoubtedly very nervous about this attack that threatened his life. He thought that there were still smugglers who had escaped, and immediately pulled out the Wind Break from his waist, but he quickly realized that he seemed to be mistaken.
What appeared in front of him was not a human, but a middle-aged beast person with chocolate-colored skin, animal-like ears, and a tail similar to a tiger's.
It looked strangely similar to Ghislaine.
However, although they were similar, there were also many obvious differences.
The most important thing was that this was a man.
"A beast race person?"
Shirou quickly realized that this should be a beast race person who came to rescue people.
Although this was a good thing, the problem was that the timing was too bad.
Shirou and the others had just rescued the beast race children and didn't have time to deal with the scene yet when they encountered the beast race rescue team. This could easily lead the latter to mistakenly believe that they were members of the kidnappers.
Moreover, this beast race man launched an attack without asking questions, which was too lacking in logic!
Most importantly, was all of this a little too coincidental?
While countless thoughts were forming in Shirou's mind, and he realized that he might have fallen into some kind of trap, the beast race man in the distance had already gathered his team and began to attack.
"Woo-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh!"
He first opened his mouth and made an overwhelming sound. It wasn't just a simple roar, but almost a kind of ultrasonic ability that would directly impact a person's eardrums and brain.
The moment Shirou heard this sound, he even felt like he was about to fall into a state of weightlessness.
Fortunately, his Sword Saint-level body was strong enough to barely support him and prevent him from falling down.
Seeing Shirou stand in place, the beast race man in the distance increasingly suspected that he was some powerful enemy and brought many beast race men to surround him.
Faced with this situation, Shirou knew that he had no possibility of holding back. He could only pull out the magic sword Wind Break, turn the blade, and launch a counterattack with the back of the sword.
Since he knew that he might have fallen into some kind of plot, Shirou realized that the beast race people were not villains, but were just deceived by someone.
If he killed the beast race people now, it would be the same as forming a deadly feud with the beast race.
That would be completely following the wishes of the person behind the plot.
Shirou couldn't do such a stupid thing.
But he also couldn't just surrender here.
In that case, there was only one thing to do, and that was to fight!
"You people were the ones who messed with me first, so don't complain later."
The moment Shirou's long sword was drawn, a terrifying aura suddenly erupted.
Before the beast race man could even react, he saw an amazing sword light rushing towards him like a moon arc.
And in an instant, all of the beast race men fell to the ground.
The beast race man could hardly believe this scene, but it wasn't like he hadn't seen similar scenes before. Or rather, long, long ago, he had once witnessed a similar ability in a human.
That person's name was Gal Farion!
According to the human race, he had another name, Sword God!
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