Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World Volume 8 E-Book

Kenichi

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 426

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Join Tenma and his friends as they travel to Amur’s hometown, the beastfolk village of Nanao. Tenma thought he could take it easy there, but Amur’s father’s jealousy causes nothing but a myriad of troubles...

Then, when Tenma returns to the royal capital, his hopes for relaxation are dashed once more by conflicts with neighboring countries, the antics of unruly heroines, and unexpected fame. Join Tenma during his tumultuous fifteenth year of life in the action-packed eighth volume of Isekai Tensei: Recruited to Another World!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Chapter 8

Extra Story

Afterword

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Color Images

Table of Contents

Chapter Eight

Part One

I was sitting in the driver’s seat, and Blanca opened the window to call out to me.

“Tenma, we should see the river soon,” he said. “And if we follow it, we’ll come to a place that’s good for camping. It’s a little early, but I think we should pack it in for the day there.”

I looked up at the sky; it was still light out, but there didn’t seem to be anywhere else that would be better to camp, so I decided to follow Blanca’s advice.

“Tenma, it’s over there. Up on that hill.”

“Got it.”

Just as Blanca had said, there was a big hill near the river, so I directed Thunderbolt towards it. Once we reached it, I looked around to see a field with short grass. We’d be able to sense anything approaching us right away. And not only that, but there was a full moon tonight, which would make it even easier.

“There’s fresh water nearby, so this is the perfect camping spot,” I said.

“Yeah. The only drawback is that although it’ll be easy to spot an enemy, there’s not a lot of cover for us,” Blanca answered.

“Save the chitchat for later, you two. Let’s finish getting ready.”

After saying that, Gramps climbed out of the carriage and started looking for a place to build a campfire. A place like this was sure to have remnants from previous campers around, so that’s what he was looking for.

“Master Merlin, I think there’s a spot behind the carriage,” Blanca said.

“Ahh, there it is.”

Blanca was right again; there was a small hole dug in the earth behind where the carriage was parked with wet coals and cinders lying around it.

Amur emerged from the carriage with a big yawn. “Phew... Are we there yet?”

I’d just finished using Detection on our surroundings when she’d come out. Trailing close behind her were Shiromaru and Solomon, who’d also been snoozing.

“You slept way too much, little lady. Go on and wash your face.”

“Nngh...”

Amur’s eyes were only half-open as she turned and went back into the carriage. A few minutes later, she came out looking wide awake without a trace of grogginess on her face.

“There’s still some time until sunset, so let’s look for kindling,” I said. “Oh, and something to eat too.”

Everyone nodded at my suggestion, so we decided to search the area we could see from the carriage. Thunderbolt was nearby, and we had Rocket and the others on standby just in case, so I gave him instructions to send Shiromaru or Solomon in the event anyone got too far from the carriage or anything came too close to it.

“I think I’ll go look down by the river,” I said.

“I’m coming with you,” Amur said.

Gramps and Blanca went to search the fields, but I wanted to go towards the river, which was the most likely place we’d find some food. Since Amur wanted to come along, she followed behind me.

“All right, here we are at the river. And yep, we can still see the carriage.” I confirmed that I could spot the carriage from where we were, but it was a needless worry—we’d only gone about a hundred meters.

I took a quick look at the riverbed and saw driftwood and rocks, so I thought it’d be easy to find things that would be useful, including items that weren’t ingredients.

“Amur, I’m going to look here. You search on the other side.”

“Okay.”

Amur and I split up and we gathered driftwood and smaller rocks. While we did that, I saw fish jumping up out of the water. I didn’t have a fishing pole or a net, so I couldn’t try to catch them that way, but I thought I might manage to get a few with the rocks or Lightning magic. I decided to observe the river for a bit.

“This reminds me of when I first met Namitaro...” I muttered, and just then, something huge approached me from the water. “Don’t tell me I spoke it into existence!”

I regretted saying that a bit as the possibly Namitaro-shaped creature jumped out of the water towards me.

“That’s not Namitaro at all!”

In fact, it was a huge salmon that was easily over two meters long. It leaped out of the water with its mouth open wide, intending to eat me, but thankfully, I’d armed myself with the Guardian Giganto hands in preparation for Namitaro. I caught the salmon with those.

“Got some food!” I cried out. “All right, let’s wrap it up.”

It would have been best to gut it there, but the fish was so huge that it was too much of a pain. Instead, I used the Guardian Giganto hands to break off its head and dispose of it. Deciding I’d gut it a bit later, I put the rest of the fish’s body in my magic bag and then used Detection on the water.

“Hm, another big ping among a bunch of small ones...”

I used Identify and discovered that the fish was called a tyrant salmon, which I assumed was the same type I’d just killed. I figured I’d take the opportunity to catch that one too.

“Now, should I try throwing rocks or shocking it?”

I knew there were techniques like that in my previous world, but I’d never actually tried them. After all, those two methods of fishing were outlawed in Japan. But since those laws didn’t exist in this world, I decided to just take the plunge and give it a try.

“I’ll just shoot some electric currents in the water and... Zap!”

I used Lightning magic in the spot where the salmon was swimming. The electrical current spread a little, and then suddenly, the salmon floated on top of the surface just as I expected. A few dozen smaller fish did the same, but it was too much trouble to collect all of them. I left all the ones smaller than a carp there. They’d come back to life if they were lucky, but if not, they could be food for other fish or birds.

“I’ve never seen salmon in this world before. I’d love to make sashimi from it, but I guess that might be tough.”

I’d come across trout before, but never salmon, so I was looking forward to seeing how it tasted. I really liked salmon sashimi and sushi, so I thought about trying it, but I decided against it because I was afraid of parasites. Freezing the fish would probably make it safe, but I remembered it had to be frozen for two to three days, so I gave up on that idea. Those guidelines were also for normal-sized salmon; since I didn’t know how long it would take for a fish this big to freeze properly and I wasn’t familiar with the parasites of this world, I figured I ought to put safety first.

I quickly gutted the salmon and carp by the river and then decided to return to the carriage. With this catch, we wouldn’t run out of food for several days.

“I used Identify so I know there’s no poison, but how does it taste?” I wondered out loud to myself.

Just then, I saw Amur heading towards me from downstream, carrying a bulging sack of fish over her shoulder. She was absolutely soaked.

“Tenma! I hit the jackpot! All these fish just started flowing towards me!” Amur exclaimed joyfully as she opened the sack, revealing the smaller fish I’d left behind earlier.

“Wow. That’s...great.”

I felt a bit conflicted when I saw the small fish twitching inside the sack, but she was so happy that I just went along with it and chatted with her as we went back to the carriage together.

Once we got there, Rocket, who had been keeping watch from the carriage’s roof, looked like he wanted to say something. I could tell that he knew why Amur had caught those fish so easily. But since he was a sensitive slime, Rocket greeted her with a look of surprise as she excitedly showed off the contents of her sack.

“Wow, you got a lot! Unfortunately, I came up rather empty.”

“Same here. It seems like the small animals and monsters around here know that this area is too dangerous for them.”

Despite what Blanca and Gramps had said, they seemed to have gathered quite a few edible wild plants like wild onions, lily bulbs, dandelions, and wild parsley. Just to be safe, I confirmed with Identify that they were all free of poison.

“I got a big catch too, so let’s make a dish with Amur’s fish and the plants you collected today.”

Amur’s fish were mostly minnow and crucian carp. I filleted the crucian carp, soaked them in water to remove any muddy taste, coated them in flour and spices, and fried them meunière style. Since we had so many minnows, I gutted them, lightly sprinkled them with salt, skewered them on sticks, and grilled them up.

I gave everyone instructions as I continued cooking. “Gramps, make sure you wash the lily bulbs and wild onions well. Blanca and Amur, can you set up two hearths and start the fires? Once they’re ready, heat up some oil in a frying pan on one, and boil some water in a pot on the other.”

There wouldn’t be any meat tonight, so Shiromaru and Solomon might not be satisfied, but I’d give them pieces of salmon and the carp we’d caught today. That would have to be enough.

“There, all done!”

I managed to prepare several dishes within an hour. Although they were simple, Blanca was amazed that they weren’t typical camping foods.

“Oh, and I have a bit of alcohol too. I only made enough for one glass per person, just in case.”

In my mind, I called it sake, but it was actually distilled alcohol cut with plenty of water. Unless you were a total lightweight, you wouldn’t get drunk on it. At the very least, I made sure it was diluted enough so Gramps and Blanca wouldn’t get drunk too easily.

I placed the bottle of alcohol next to the food and both Gramps and Blanca poured themselves some, almost like they were racing each other. I couldn’t blame them, since the dishes in front of them were perfect complements for the alcohol.

They ended up drinking our share of the booze too, and they only ate the richer foods.

“Blanca, you take the first watch tonight. I’ll take a shift after you, and then Gramps and Amur, you can do the third shift, okay?”

Although it was usually common practice to assign the most experienced person the second watch since it was the toughest one, I’d decided to put Blanca first since he’d spent the longest time driving. He deserved the most sleep, after all. The reason I had put Gramps and Amur on the third watch was because she had the least amount of experience.

After I explained those reasons and they agreed, each of us began to prepare for the night. By the way, I’d made several screen dividers for this trip so I could create separate sleeping spaces for the men and Amur. They were just makeshift spaces, of course, and one still had to be careful, but it significantly reduced the mental burden—mainly mine. That was because Amur had a nasty habit of trying to undress in front of me or peep at me while I was changing. I tried to escape to the bathroom whenever that happened, but of course that always happened to be when Gramps or Blanca were using it, so I’d end up trapped. In other words, the screens had already come in clutch several times, making them my newest prized possession.

“I think I’ll hit the hay. How about you two?” Gramps asked.

“I want to stay up a bit longer to ask Blanca something,” I said.

“I’ll come too,” Amur said.

“No, little lady. You need to go to sleep,” Blanca said, scolding her. “You’re not used to camping, so you need to go get settled.”

Amur was about to sit back down with us, but he grabbed her by the scruff and turned her around towards the carriage. She relented, but she looked back several times on the way there hoping someone would stop her. Each time she did that, Blanca just glared at her and urged her to keep walking.

“Well? What do you want to talk to me about, Tenma?” Blanca asked a short while later. “I suppose I can guess, though...” He seemed to have an idea already, which was probably why he’d chased away Amur so harshly.

“I think your guess is probably right. I wanted to ask you about Amur’s family,” I said. “She keeps saying she wants to marry me. Even though it’s an honorary title, she’s still a viscount’s daughter, so it can’t be that simple, right? One wrong move and I could upset her father, Viscount Lobo.”

Personally, I didn’t really care if someone I’d never met before didn’t like me, even if it was an honorary viscount who happened to be Amur’s father. But since I was going on this journey as an official envoy of the royal family, upsetting the viscount could strain relations between them. If he were just an ordinary viscount it probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but he was the leader of the SAR. That meant he was way more powerful than average.

“Honestly, I think my brother-in-law will probably be pretty hostile towards you. He adores Amur, and he hasn’t really let go of her yet. Once he sees her showing you affection, he’ll most likely treat you pretty harshly, so just be prepared for that. But I can say one thing for sure: the SAR will never oppose the royal family.”

I was surprised that Blanca was so blunt, but hearing that the viscount wouldn’t outright oppose me was a relief.

“How can you be so sure of that?” I asked.

“It’s simple. I won’t allow it. If it came down to it, I’d stop my brother-in-law, even if it meant fighting him to the death. There’s no question in my mind as to whether my brother-in-law’s selfishness or the lives of the residents of the SAR are more important. Well...I think his wife would stop him before it ever came to that. She’s stronger than my brother-in-law and he respects her. Besides, although he’s the one who holds the title of viscount, she’s the direct descendant by blood. He married into the family.”

So even if Viscount Lobo were to rebel against the royal family, the people would side with his wife. I thought it was highly unlikely that he’d go against Amur to that extent.

“As for my sister-in-law, she’s more like Amur’s sister than her mother,” Blanca continued. “That’s how similar they are in terms of personality.”

I had a bad feeling when I heard that, but this lady sounded like she had some common sense. I probably didn’t need to worry too much.

“I’m relieved to hear Amur’s mother has common sense. Oh, and there’s another thing I wanted to ask. What kind of person is Amur’s great-grandfather, Grampy Kei?”

When I thought of the stories I’d heard about Grampy Kei, I could only think of the most famous eccentric samurai from the Warring States era in Japan. It was possible he was a fan of that person, but either way, there was a high chance he had also been reincarnated into this world like me.

I was curious how this man from another world who’d been reincarnated here before me had led his life. As far as I’d heard, he hadn’t outright admitted he was from another world, but if there were any commonalities between us or if I could learn from him in any way, I wanted to know. By the way, although Namitaro had also been reincarnated here before me, I didn’t think he had anything to teach me, and I didn’t plan on asking him either.

“Well, to put it simply, he’s the strongest man in SAR’s history. This is just my opinion, but I think he’s probably the strongest beastfolk who ever lived too. Even if there were two, no, three of me, I probably couldn’t beat him at his peak. That’s the kind of man he is.”

I could tell that Blanca was serious just by the look on his face. It didn’t seem like he was exaggerating. There was nothing absolute when it came to battle, and there was always compatibility to consider, so although I didn’t think he was really three times as strong as Blanca, he was probably incredibly strong.

“Okay, I have another question,” I said. “If Grampy Kei and I got into a fight, who do you think would win?”

I knew it was a ridiculous question, but Blanca pondered it seriously with a complicated expression on his face.

“It depends on the situation... If it were a one-on-one fight at close range, I’d give Grampy Kei nine-to-one odds at winning. A long-range fight would probably be seven-to-three in your favor. But again, that’s just my opinion.”

In other words, Blanca thought Grampy Kei was stronger than me. Of course I knew I wasn’t the strongest person in history, but I found his assessment a little hard to believe. I didn’t think he was biased, and I considered Blanca to be a good authority on these matters since he was a powerful person who knew both of us. He had thought about it carefully before answering too. But it was a fact that I had the most talent out of anyone in this world. After all, the gods had personally given my abilities to me, and they had given me so many of them that I was so powerful they were actually worried about it as a result.

Taking that into account, I tried to consider it from a slightly different angle. Physical abilities in this world were definitely bestowed by the gods, but perhaps mine were slightly inferior to Grampy Kei’s simply because I was a human and he was a beastfolk. But I thought talent itself might be enough to surpass that, and in that case, our overall abilities should be pretty close. So, maybe the reason for the difference wasn’t because of this world, but due to our past lives.

If I was right about Grampy Kei being from another world, it was understandable that there would be a gap between us. After all, although I’d been trained by various masters in my previous life, that had been during a time of peace. And if Grampy Kei really had lived during the Warring States era, that was a time when human life hadn’t been valued as much—just like in this world. If he willingly threw himself into battles and conflicts, it wouldn’t be strange if that experience was the invisible factor that made a difference between us.

“Did I offend you?” Blanca asked when he saw me lost in thought.

Once I organized my thoughts, everything seemed to make sense. “No. If that’s what you say, then it must be true,” I said. “But if Grampy Kei is at his peak and I’m still growing, then there’s still a chance for me to beat him, right?”

Maybe it was silly to compare myself to someone from the past, but it was frustrating to think that someone could beat me in Blanca’s imagined scenario.

“Ha ha ha! That’s right. I know Grampy Kei has hit his prime, but I’ve yet to see yours, Tenma!”

Blanca had burst out laughing so loudly that he had woken up Amur. She leaned out of the carriage window, still half asleep, and launched a spear right at his forehead.

Blanca caught Amur’s spear and calmly stuck it into the ground. “Phew, that was a close one. She’s half asleep and nearly struck me in the forehead! Maybe being in that state improves her accuracy...” Despite his words, Blanca had done all that without breaking a sweat. “It’s about time to change shifts. I’ll leave this to you now, Tenma.”

After Amur had thrown her spear, I had continued talking to Blanca for some time. Now, it was time for my shift. I was only responsible for three hours, so I could easily stay awake for it. In fact, this was better than only getting a couple of hours of sleep and then having to go on watch afterwards.

“My body’s a bit stiff from sitting here for so long. Maybe I’ll get some exercise...” I didn’t want to make too much noise or do anything too strenuous, so I passed the time by doing radio exercises like I had done as a kid in Japan. I also walked in circles around the carriage.

I was just about to start another round of radio exercises when Gramps and Amur woke up. It must have been time for the next shift change already.

“What are you doing, Tenma?”

Gramps didn’t know about radio exercises, so he probably thought I was doing something weird again. But once I showed him how they were supposed to loosen up the body, he asked me to show him how to do them and began participating with me.

Gramps had just finished his radio exercises when Amur, who had still been half asleep, suddenly woke up. It was at that moment that she noticed her spear sticking in the ground right where Blanca had left it.

“Hm? What’s my spear doing here?” she asked, looking confused.

“Tenma, we’re going to head for the village in front of that mountain today. There’s still a lot of time before sunset, but once we get there, all we have to do is camp out,” Blanca said, pointing in the direction of the village.

It had taken more than two weeks to get to where we were, and I was hoping we could find somewhere safe for us to take a break. We were about two-thirds of the way through our journey from Sagan to our destination, and we had already entered the SAR at this point.

The village we were heading to wasn’t very big, but since it was located near the mountains, it had access to a ton of resources. It also had an adventurers guild—unusual for a small village—but it seemed as though most of the adventurers who frequented it were beginners or low-ranking ones. For that reason, the building itself was pretty small comparatively. But since most people traveled to the guild via carriage, it was on a big plot of land.

“That’s the entrance to the village, huh... Hey, Blanca. It looks like there are heavily armored guards standing at the gates. Did you do something?”

“That’s got nothing to do with me! Though, hmm, you’re right. It does look pretty serious. I’ll go talk to ’em and see what they have to say. Stop the carriage near the gates.”

I wondered if perhaps they were being wary of Thunderbolt, so I parked him about a hundred meters from the gates. Once we came to a halt, Blanca got out of the carriage and ran over to the gate, but the guards seemed startled to see him and aimed their weapons at him. However, they must’ve recognized him soon after because they put down their weapons as he got closer.

Blanca bowed his head to them and then seemed to talk to them, pointing over in our direction occasionally. Shortly after, several people who had been standing near the gate ran inside the village and Blanca came back to the carriage.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“It seems like there’s some kinda trouble going on in this village, so the guards are really cautious. And then when they saw this carriage rolling up with a horse that looks like a monster attached to it, well...can you blame ’em for being a little nervous?”

I wondered exactly what kind of troubles were going on, but Blanca said we could still stay here and rest as we’d planned. It must not have been anything too dangerous if he’d made that decision with Amur among us.

“So is it okay to take Thunderbolt inside, then?”

“Yeah,” he said. “As soon as we get through the gates, keep going straight and head for a building with a red roof.”

“Got it.”

I followed Blanca’s directions and urged Thunderbolt onwards. I spotted the building with the red roof right away. It looked like a log cabin and had a sign hanging over the entrance that said “Adventurers Guild.”

“Go ahead and park the carriage over by the stakes in the ground. The mayor and the guildmaster want to talk to you.”

“They’re going to ask us to deal with whatever issues they’re facing, aren’t they?” Gramps asked.

“Sorry...” Blanca said.

“It’s fine,” I said. “I guess they trust us because we’re with you, Blanca?”

Amur had to chime in too. “I’m so sorry about my Blanca here. He’s such a naughty boy. Forgive hi— Ugyaaah!”

“I’m sorry about this, Tenma. And this isn’t about you, little lady, so stop getting carried away! You and I have to ask Tenma for help!”

Amur was messing around while Blanca apologized to us, and as expected, she received a swift bonk on her head. Even though I should’ve been used to the sight by now, it really struck me how she never seemed to learn her lesson.

After their little comedy routine was done, the four of us went inside the guild. There were two men sitting at the largest table inside. Once they noticed us, they immediately stood up and bowed their heads.

“This is the mayor of this town, and next to him is the guildmaster,” Blanca explained.

The mayor was balding but had a sturdy physique. On the other hand, the guildmaster was scrawny and had a pretty unreliable vibe to him. If Blanca hadn’t said anything to me, I would’ve assumed their roles were reversed.

“I’m sorry to cut straight to the point, but could you explain what’s going on?” Blanca then asked. “I heard from the guards at the gate that a large group of monsters was spotted in the mountains?”

Blanca had said that, but this was the first I’d heard of it. There was no point in me bringing that up now, so I stayed quiet, but once Blanca noticed Gramps and me staring at him, he bowed his head again. Amur opened her mouth to say something, but Blanca gagged her with his hand.

“I’m sorry. The entire village is in utter chaos right now. There’s been a massive number of goblins spotted nearby.”

“Goblins?” Blanca said with surprise. He was probably panicking and wondering more why goblins were appearing here than why there were so many of them.

It made sense that ordinary villagers would find trouble trying to deal with a large group of goblins. A group of Rank C adventurers and a team of five or six villagers who knew how to handle a sword could probably deal with one or two hundred goblins on their own, though. But this village was near a mountain, which meant there were probably a lot of people here who hunted in the mountains or acted as guards. They should’ve been able to fight a lot better than the average villager.

The guildmaster seemed to sense the doubts we had, so he spoke up in the mayor’s place.

“I know this might seem like we’re making a big deal out of goblins, but this isn’t your run-of-the-mill group of them,” he said. “We’ve confirmed that there are over five hundred of them. But the biggest problem is that there’s a goblin king leading the group. We’ve identified other higher-ranking goblins as well. That makes the degree of difficulty fighting them jump exponentially, so we need a party of Rank B adventurers, at least.”

The mayor had sent a request for help to the village where Viscount Lobo lived, but it would still be several days before backup would arrive. Until then, he wanted us to stay here in the village and assist.

“All right, I understand the situation. But wouldn’t it be faster if we went to slay the goblins ourselves?”

Regardless of whether there were over five hundred of them or not, at the end of the day, they were still goblins. The four of us could easily take them on, including the king. We could drive the entire group to extinction. And even if they ran away, I could just use Detection to sniff them out again.

“That’s true, but who will protect the village in the meantime? Even if you’re able to slay the entire group, if there are survivors and they somehow infiltrate the village, there will definitely be casualties,” the mayor said.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Gramps explained. “Tenma has several dozen golems, and we have Rocket and Shiromaru. We could have the villagers take shelter together just in case and position the golems around them. They’d be perfectly safe that way.”

“Yep, and if I leave Rocket here to command the golems along with Thunderbolt, they can at least buy time until the four of us return,” I added.

“That should be fine. Mayor, Guildmaster, is there any place in this village that can fit all the villagers at once?” Blanca asked.

The mayor and guildmaster looked baffled at how fast the conversation was proceeding. Once Blanca continued explaining things, they looked even more speechless for a moment, but then they said that there was a meeting hall nearby where all the villagers would fit.

“All right, go ahead and evacuate everyone to that location. We’ll get everything ready in the meantime. Once we’re finished, we’ll go right away to slay the goblins,” I said.

And with that, we left the guild and headed for the carriage. Once outside, we saw some villagers whom we hadn’t seen before. They’d come out to try to get a peek at Thunderbolt and Shiromaru.

“I know this is the SAR so I shouldn’t be surprised, but all the people in this village really are beastfolk, huh?” I mused.

“Yeah, they sure are. If we were to go to a larger village or city, it wouldn’t be unusual to see nonbeastfolk, but a tiny place like this would just have residents who have lived here forever and not many others.”

Once the villagers spotted us, they bowed slightly. It seemed that Blanca was known throughout the village, and after he told them what was going on, he let them know they should evacuate to the shelter. He also asked them to tell the other villagers to do the same.

“All right, let’s go over our plan,” I said. “Like I said before, I think we should leave Rocket and Thunderbolt behind in the village. Goldie and Silvie can stay in my dimension bag in the carriage on standby. Everyone else will come with us to slay the goblins. What do you think, everyone?”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Blanca said.

“I agree,” Gramps said.

“It’s fine,” Amur said.

That meant we would stick with the original plan. As for the golems, I took ten large ones, twenty medium, and forty small ones out. I would station most of them around the evacuation center and put the remaining ones around the perimeter of the village. That way, even if some straggler goblins did make it down to the village, the golems outside would see them and hopefully scare them off. And if not, they would definitely avoid the evacuation center due to its tight security.

I registered the golems’ line of command as myself first and then Rocket as second. But since I would be absent in order to deal with the goblins, Rocket was basically first anyway. I wouldn’t have minded giving him first command, but if I did that, it would just take too long when it came time to collect them or add additional orders. That was why I always registered them in this fashion.

Once I explained everything to Rocket, he climbed up on top of the adventurers guild and started to scout out his surroundings. This was the tallest building around, so it was the perfect vantage point for him.

“Looks like the evacuation is almost complete. I’ll station the golems and brief the mayor now, and then we can head out to the forest. Are you all ready?”

“Of course,” Gramps said.

“Yeah!” Blanca said.

“Ready when you are!” Amur said.

Gramps was wearing his usual clothing and wielded his beloved staff. He carried the heaviest weapon out of the group, which was a little funny considering his age, but he still had the strength to twirl it around a few times. Since he also had the ability to use Flying magic, he never fell behind anyone else.

Blanca was wearing his usual light armor and carried a shorter spear than usual to make it easier for him to move around the forest. One of the short swords I had given him hung at his waist. It was emblazoned with the Otori family crest (the version without Namitaro) to let everyone know that he was associated with me. If anyone used my crest without permission, or obtained it and misused it, they could face a severe penalty.

Amur wore her usual tiger armor and was armed with a short sword and a machete I’d loaned her. It would be too difficult for her to maneuver with her usual spear in the forest, and all her backup spears were too long, so she wasn’t using one this time.

Finally, I wasn’t wearing my usual armor. Instead, I had the vestlike jacket I’d made in Sagan on over my clothes. At first glance, the vest might’ve seemed less durable, but it was actually tougher than regular armor since it was made with bicorn skin throughout. It was also reinforced with thin mythril plates on the chest and back. There were numerous pockets inside and out where I kept my throwing stars. I also wore pouches on my belt and waist where I stored even more throwing stars and throwing knives. Since I’d be serving as the vanguard this time, I had to be prepared to adapt to any style, but I’d primarily use the throwing weapons and magic. Honestly, I just wanted an excuse to test out the throwing stars and throwing knives in real combat.

“All right, everyone. Let’s go,” I said, and began to give everyone their orders. “You remember your positions, right? Shiromaru and I will circle around to the back of the group. Gramps and Solomon will ambush the goblins from above while Blanca and Amur take them on directly. Gramps’s group will attack first, then Blanca’s. Once your two groups have attacked, the goblins’ leader will either instruct them to run or fight. If they fight, Shiromaru and I will focus on getting rid of the small fries. If they run, we’ll attack the leader, and while we do that, you all work on getting rid of the weaker ones. But keep in mind once the leader is knocked off, most of the small fries will try to run away. We can’t avoid that, but make sure that we don’t let the leader get away, no matter what. Also, Gramps and Solomon—make sure not to accidentally use magic outside of the scope of the battle. It won’t be good if we cause destruction in place of the goblins, after all.”

“Got it,” Gramps said.

“Squee!” Solomon said.

Both of them sounded a little disappointed—maybe they’d hoped they could put on a show during the battle.

I ignored the two of them as we went over final checks, and then Shiromaru and I headed out to the forest before the others. We’d confirmed the location of the goblins back at the guild. They’d told us the goblins were about five kilometers away from the village, but when I checked using Detection, they were actually a kilometer closer than the guild had thought. Not only that, but they’d chopped down a bunch of trees to make a camp. I had a feeling they were planning on making that their base until they attacked the village sometime today or tomorrow.

“Shiromaru, this’ll be a bit of a detour, but let’s go around the mountains and get close to them. If we follow the route we originally planned, we might end up running into goblin scouts.”

“Woof!”

I did as I’d said and we hid in a spot with a good vantage point. I used Detection again, and according to my skill, I saw that the king and the other higher-ranking goblins were stationed in the center of the horde. The farther away from the center of the horde, the weaker the goblins were.

“There,” I muttered, right as Gramps and Solomon came down from the sky. Since this was a forest fight, Gramps was using Wind magic instead of Fire magic. Solomon targeted goblins within the scope of Gramps’s spells, suddenly diving down from the sky to attack them over and over again.

Once the goblins’ attention was fixed on Gramps and Solomon, Blanca and Amur attacked them head-on. The dozens of goblins that had been in their path were torn to pieces in the blink of an eye.

But just when I thought Gramps and the others could finish them off, Blanca and Amur stopped moving. Gramps suddenly found himself surrounded too.

“The leaders made a move,” I commented. “I don’t think that’ll do anything more than buy the goblins time, but oh well. Shiromaru, it’s your turn.”

“Wuff?” Shiromaru had been restless with nothing to do, but now he stood up with a silly look on his face.

I lightly patted him on the back and then pointed to the goblin horde.

“The king is taking a few guards and running. He must be pretty smart if he’s using the other group to try to divert our attention.”

The moment I said that, several high-ranking goblins suddenly appeared from the bushes with the biggest one in front.

“Go say hello, Shiromaru,” I said. “But don’t do it here, do it—”

“Grrr... Graaaaaaaar!”

Shiromaru’s greeting probably could’ve been heard all the way from the village. It startled the goblin king and his guard so much that they nearly fell over. The king actually did end up falling down and started scrambling to run away, but all of them bumped into one another and got tangled up in tree vines in the process. However, the one who had the most damage inflicted by Shiromaru’s howl was definitely me since I had been standing right next to him. My ears were ringing and I was so dizzy I couldn’t even stay on my feet.

“Oof, I can’t walk... Shiromaru, you howled before I could tell you to do it right in front of them and not by me...”

“Awoooo...” Shiromaru flopped down in front of me and showed me his belly. He was apologizing for acting before listening to my full command.

“You’re gonna get punished when we get home, Shiromaru. But not if you manage to slay more goblins than me!”

“Garrrr!”

Once I regained my balance, I told Shiromaru the new rules and then charged towards the king. Shiromaru lost out on a head start since he was still on his back, and he fell behind quite a bit. He made panicked noises as he started to run and try to catch up.

“The first one! And the second!”

I sent my throwing stars flying at the goblins that were still paralyzed on the ground, killing one leader after another. Shiromaru belatedly arrived and attacked with his front legs, slicing them in half with his claws as he went by.

“All right. One more left... Oof!”

I was checking the progress of Shiromaru’s attacks, and I was about to kill another one when I leaped back. The spot where I had just been standing had been struck by a large club, and there was a gaping hole in the earth.

The culprit had been the goblin king. He was clearly different from the others because he regained his balance faster than them.

“Guess that’s why you’re the king. But still...”

The king yanked his club out of the ground and was about to swing it again, but I was faster. I pulled out my sword and cut off his arm that had held the club, and my returning blow lopped off his head while I was at it.

“There, all done.”

Our biggest target had been the goblin king, and since we’d already defeated his other high-ranking cronies, this horde was about to collapse. Even if we missed some stragglers, the remaining ones wouldn’t be strong enough to form another horde.

“Shiromaru, you killed three, huh?”

“Woof!”

“Then it’s a tie,” I said. “Too bad for you.”

“Wuff?” He seemed to say, “But why?” but the rule had been that if I lost, he could avoid punishment. A tie wasn’t a loss, so that meant that he hadn’t escaped his fate.

“Awwoooooo!!!” Shiromaru just realized the same thing and then charged off into the forest. I had a feeling he was heading towards the group of goblins by Gramps and the others so he could kill some more of them.

I collected the bodies of the king and the others and then hurried to rejoin the rest of my group. I found a seemingly devastated Shiromaru there, three people looking satisfied from rampaging, and Solomon. There were scattered piles of goblin corpses all around.

Amur trotted over to me, pointing at Shiromaru. “Tenma, why’s Shiromaru so depressed?”

I explained the circumstances to them all. Gramps and Blanca said they felt sorry for Shiromaru, but Amur and Solomon laughed at him.

“Awoo? Awoo...?” Shiromaru glared at them, but all of a sudden, he seemed to notice something and went running off again.

He came back a while later, dragging along the body of a goblin who had vines wrapped around it. That put him one above me in the tally, but the fact that he’d wrapped the body up in vines and had used them to drag it over showed that not even Shiromaru wanted a dirty goblin in his mouth.

“Hm, so that noise was Shiromaru? I was startled and thought another monster had appeared, but it seemed the goblins were even more surprised than us. They were really scared,” Blanca told me with amusement. After that, he began recounting their battle.

“I want to hear about your battle too, Tenma, but maybe we should gather up the bodies first. If we just leave them here, they’ll attract other monsters,” Gramps pointed out.

“Let’s get to work!”

Heeding Gramps’s suggestion, Amur immediately sprang into action and started collecting the bodies. We all chuckled dryly at her and decided to join in, but as expected, there were just too many of them. I brought out some golems to help.

However, many of the goblins’ bodies had been dismembered, so it was a huge hassle to collect them all. I decided to focus on collecting only the torsos and ears instead. The torsos contained the magic cores—the only usable material—and these parts would be used as proof that we had slain them. Then, we dug a hole and tossed the rest into it. That alone made things a lot easier and allowed the work to go faster.

“I think it’s time to burn it.”

“Go ahead,” Gramps said.

After we had finished collecting what we needed, I used Fire magic to burn the goblin parts in the hole. Once they’d been reduced to ashes, we carefully covered it all with dirt so that there would be no sparks reignited, and we wet the surrounding area with Water magic, just in case. We did this to prevent a forest fire from occurring from anything smoldering in the hole.

We had nothing else left to do, so we decided to go back to the village. But we never could’ve expected what occurred on the way home.

“Survivors, huh?”

That’s right—we ran into a group of goblins that had survived. I noticed them first and immediately took them out in seconds with my throwing stars. There had been ten of them in all, which meant I’d now topped Shiromaru’s number and he would have to kill ten more of them to beat me.

Naturally, he was now in a state of shock and started frantically sniffing all around. When I used Detection again, there were no more goblins, so it seemed this really was the final group.

I kept telling him there were no more goblins after that, but he just wouldn’t stop looking. In the end, I took pity on him and said that the last group was an overtime score and I wouldn’t count it. Only then did he finally stop looking.

Part Two

“Are you sure about this, Tenma?” Blanca asked. He was talking about the cores of the goblins who had attacked the village.

After we returned, we went straight to the mayor and the guildmaster. We reported that we’d eradicated the goblins and that there was no more danger. The villagers were thrilled and threw a banquet in our honor.

“They gave us so much food that the goblin cores are nothing in comparison. Just thinking about how much Shiromaru and the others ate alone—I’d never be able to repay them for that,” I said. “Anyway, they wouldn’t accept the king or the higher-ranking goblin cores, so it’s not like we’re walking away with nothing.”

“Yeah, I guess you have a point. Who knows how many portions the little lady had, for that matter.” Blanca sighed when he recalled Amur gorging herself.

Shiromaru, Solomon, and Amur had eaten close to half of the food the villagers prepared for us alone.

The villagers had watched them with warm smiles on their faces, but Blanca and I had just been irritated. Gramps had been doing something obnoxious in a different way—he’d had drinking contests with the villagers and drank them all under the table. Well, I had made the people who’d collapsed drink water and had cast Recovery magic on them, so luckily none of them had gotten alcohol poisoning, but one wrong move and something disastrous could’ve happened.

As a result, we decided to punish Shiromaru and Solomon by making them keep watch around the carriage for monsters, and Gramps and Amur took shifts driving the carriage for the rest of the day. It might not have sounded like a very big punishment, but Blanca and I at least wanted to do something in response.

“I hope they reflect on their behavior today.”

“Even a little bit would— Whoa!”

The moment Blanca was about to agree with me, the carriage suddenly charged forward. Thanks to various modifications, we wouldn’t feel any vibrations or shocks under normal circumstances, so this was unusual.

“Did something happen?”

“Gramps, Amur!” I called out. “What happened?”

The moment I opened the window and tried to ask further, I was struck speechless.

Amur grumbled. “Grr, I can’t catch up with Shiromaru.”

“Not even Thunderbolt can when he’s pulling the carriage.”

Those two idiots had started to race Shiromaru. Even though we were on flat ground, if we kept going at this speed, even this carriage would lose a wheel.

“Let’s see if we can catch up once we get down this hill!” Amur said.

“All right, let’s go!” Gramps agreed.

“Hey!”

“Whoa!”

Blanca and I both sprang into action at once, grabbing both of them by the collars. They knew they’d been caught and suddenly slammed the brakes on Thunderbolt. And as a result...

“Nooooo!”

“Whooooa!”

The two of them were flung out of the carriage and landed on the ground in front of it. Meanwhile, Blanca and I both slammed into the window.

“Ugh...”

“Ouch...”

Blanca and I both held our heads from the impact, but it seemed like Gramps and Amur had suffered way more damage. They were both writhing on the ground, holding their faces.

“Blanca?”

“Thanks.”

After I cast Recovery magic on my face, I did the same for Blanca. We got off easily with bruises and nosebleeds, so a light healing spell was enough to do the trick.

“Now, do the two of you have anything to say for yourselves?! Especially you, Gramps. You should know better than to push the limits of this carriage!” I yelled.

Blanca scolded Amur in return. “Little lady, this time you’ve gone way too far! Don’t you know the meaning of the word shame?! Why can’t you ever learn your lesson?!”

Gramps and Amur sat formally on the ground in front of Blanca and me while we lectured them. They both knew better than to talk back, so they quietly took it all. Amur’s legs went numb halfway through the lecture and she wasn’t able to concentrate, but she still managed to tough it out through the end.

“I can’t walk... Eep! Shiromaru, stop! Solomon, knock it off!”

Amur’s legs were asleep, so she couldn’t walk. She used her spear as a cane and hobbled back to the carriage little by little, but Shiromaru and Solomon thought she was playing a game and kept poking their noses against her legs. Since she couldn’t fight back against them like she usually did, they got carried away, and she fell several times.

“Phew... I still got it in me!” Gramps said triumphantly. With Amur in such a sorry state, he was beating her back to the carriage.

“Shiromaru, Solomon! Gramps says he wants to play with you! And he’ll give you snacks too!” I called.

“Wh-What are you saying, Tenma?! H-Hey, get away from me! Nooooooo!”

I knew that Gramps’s legs were also numb and that he was barely able to stand. The reason he wasn’t hobbling like Amur was because he’d secretly used magic on himself. He’d thought Recovery magic would be too easy to spot, so he had used Flying magic instead. He had made himself float a little bit above the ground and was casually using his cane to move himself along.

“Gramps, you never learn. You might as well have just used Recovery magic at this point.”

“I feel bad about what I did, so call these two off!”

There was no point in staying here forever, so I called Shiromaru and Solomon back with some treats. I then cast Recovery magic on Gramps’s and Amur’s legs.

“This time, as punishment, you two will have to drive and keep watch all night until we get to Viscount Lobo’s city,” I said.

We still had a week until we got there, so they were facing quite harsh consequences for their actions.

Back in his days as an adventurer, Gramps would’ve done this many times, but since he had to support Amur, it would be a lot more trouble. It went without saying that she lacked experience.

“I’m sorry...” the two of them said in unison while they trudged to the driver’s seat.

Shiromaru and Solomon started moving towards the front of the carriage again, but I told them to slow down and come to me if Gramps and Amur tried to make them race again. I didn’t think Shiromaru would do it on purpose after seeing them get in trouble, but it was possible that he would speed up naturally due to his competitive spirit. I wanted to say something just in case.

Three days after that happened, the carriage suddenly stopped again. They’d been driving safely this whole time, so I figured something must’ve really happened this time.

“What’s the matter, Gramps?”

“There’s a group of armed men heading towards us,” he said. “They’re still far ahead, so they probably haven’t spotted us yet.”

Gramps had formed a telescope-like shape with his right hand and placed it over one of his eyes to look in this distance. I’d never seen that magic used before, but I figured it was probably a spell for seeing far away.

I used Detection and saw there was a group of about fifty people roughly three kilometers away. I used Identify on one of them and discovered the person was a regular beastfolk soldier who belonged to the city we were heading to.

“I see something else... By the way, teach me that spell!”

Since I was keeping my abilities of Identify and Detection a secret, the telescope magic Gramps had used seemed to be a perfect cover for it. Plus, the fact that he could see targets with his own eyes was an advantage over Detection. I thought it would be a good idea if he taught me how to do it, if it was easy enough. Still, I thought Gramps probably knew I could use Detection and Identify, or at least something similar. He was called a sage, and although magic like that existed in this world, it was very rare.