Chapter 74

The head female attendants of each team of the Moon Goddess's attendants have significant discretionary power. Since the twelve teams are scattered across the vast Ellipse, it is impossible for them to consult with each other on every matter, so many decisions are left to the judgment of each head female attendant under certain rules.

However, this authority does not mean that they can act as they please with the Hunter Association or individual hunters. Most of their authority is focused on the single goal of saving women.

Despite this significant discretionary power, each team has its own unique characteristics and structure. Some teams are small and elite, while others have many attendants, women, and even subordinate organizations. Some teams, like Agatha's Second Team, focus on saving women, while others are specialized in hunting.

But no matter how different their forms and policies may be, all teams share a strong belief in serving poor regions through hunting and saving women.

The Moon Goddess's attendants, who never deviate from this belief, are treated as "goddesses" in remote areas with few hunters, but they are also called "kidnappers" by those who have lost their wives or daughters, showing their dual nature.

When Agatha's deputy head female attendant, Dawi, was leaving the Ankwa Islands, she brought along a young girl of the peacock bird species with a somewhat troubled expression. Although Dawi was reluctant to leave the Ankwa Islands, where the "King" had appeared and there were signs of a beast's rampage, it was a decision made by the head female attendant. The next plan was to enter the Ankwa Islands with several teams, including the head female attendant's team, and Dawi was heading to the northern Baruk region of Yurifranz, which was assigned to one of those teams.

Agatha's Second Team, led by a white human from Yurifranz, often handled the Mid Continent's racial power zones due to her origin, language, and influence. The northern Baruk region, where they were heading, was in a complex situation. In these racial power zones, many women were victims of illegal slavery and the tyranny of former nobles, and the Second Team had faced the ugliness of these racial issues countless times.

The troubled expression on the girl's face still had a hint of youth. Her ponytail, leather armor, and peacock wings on her arms were all red, and it was clear at a glance that she was from a well-known noble family.

"I am Dawi, the deputy head female attendant."

"...Kundrap Nokul Rwang Fanh."

The shared Gushuti, Nokul, made the two feel a sense of closeness. Sharing the same ancestor and revered spirits easily dispelled the initial wariness between beast and bird species.

When Dawi asked about the situation, Fanh, looking down and staring at a point, began to speak in a soft, broken voice.

When Fanh returned from her studies abroad, she found that her parents and clan had all been purged, and the Rwang family no longer existed. The people around her only pitied her from a distance and did not approach her. While wandering the streets, she heard stories that were enough to make her hate the hunter Cland, who carried three single-handed swords and the large claws of a multicolored rock crab.

The head of the family, Igsidahan, had ordered the murder of his estranged eldest son, Naver's child, and Naver's wife, a bat beast species, appealed directly to the Garuda King for revenge, which was granted. Cland, a hunter who had joined the fray, killed Igsidahan using a despicable method involving poison. Cland then defeated Igsidahan's son, who had challenged him to a duel for the family's honor and his wife. Naver, the heir, had been so drunk that he agreed to sell his wife as a slave to Cland, and Suk, Naver's wife, was coerced into helping Cland under the threat of killing her husband, in exchange for helping with the revenge for her child.

Cland, ostensibly out of kindness, freed Suk from slavery, but this was to exploit a system where divorce occurs when one becomes a slave. In reality, he bound her with exorbitant debt, and Cland ended up getting another man's wife.

Fanh said with regret that the hunter Cland had meddled in the affairs of the Rwang family, which had nothing to do with him, out of a lustful desire for another man's wife. Dawi almost believed the story at first, but her experience of rescuing women in the Mid Continent made her investigate the objective facts.

When she inquired with the Association, the facts turned out to be different. Suk, who had been subjected to daily violence by her husband, sold herself as a slave to uncover the truth about her dead child. She learned that her father-in-law, Igsidahan, had used slaves to incite the murder of her child and confronted Igsidahan during the coronation parade to avenge her child. With the testimony of her son, Naver, the revenge was justified, and Cland helped Suk defeat Igsidahan. Naver, who had been forced to sell his wife as a slave due to his drunkenness, challenged Cland to a duel to reclaim the family's honor and his wife, but was defeated. The remaining members of the Rwang family, led by Kundrap Nokul Rwang Sinchai, were about to attack Cland or Suk, but the Garuda King, who had been monitoring the Rwang family due to the duel agreement, purged them. This was the truth.

Dawi explained the facts to Fanh to free her from her hatred, persistently persuading her, even when Fanh repeatedly denied it. The deep love Fanh had for her parents seemed to resist understanding the truth. To Dawi, who had lost her blood relatives, this blind love was both foolish and pitiful. By the time they arrived in Maranova, it seemed that Fanh had finally accepted the truth.

In Maranova, Fanh was discovered by "Sword Saint of the Curved Blade" Joseph, an old acquaintance of Agatha, and enjoyed a peaceful life. However, one day, Fanh suddenly disappeared from the city. When