Chapter 31 – Haehoo

000

The ‘living forest’ near the city is largely divided into three areas.

The ‘safe zone’ where many adventurers go out after receiving the first request

‘Danger Zone’, the old county where Count Gortian’s mansion remains

And ‘unexplored territory’ where no one has ever explored and does not know what is inside

Occasionally, scholars from the academy or knights from the royal family would send people to investigate this place.

No one has ever returned with news of exactly what exists.

It’s not that no one came back alive.

However, no one came back intact.

A person who is completely out of his mind.

The one whose heart is broken and broken.

A person with a grotesquely distorted body.

Therefore, even in the guild, adventurers were never allowed to set foot in this area.

Rooty Sions’ repeated reminders.

And training staff not to issue referrals related to the area.

What will happen when you go inside.

Most of the adventurers had even stopped paying attention to the living forest itself due to fear they couldn’t even imagine.

Iona knew these things because she had researched them before coming to this city with Talchek.

Also, how dangerous is the situation you are in now.

Look up at the sky.

The sky is so high that you can’t even see the end.

Just, somewhere in the distance, there must be a cliff he fell on.

And beside her herself is a dark-haired woman who has passed out with blood dripping from her head.

How much time has passed

Iona held her head and remembered what had happened before she passed out.

001

While Iona looked away for a moment, Cleon disappeared.

In the end, her tailing of Eustes was done by Iona alone.

Although she had been hoping for Cleon’s ability to conceal her body, she had been told that it was of a high standard.

“…But the momentum is really good. To enter the danger zone at that level.”

Iona quietly observes her party and writes down what she felt in her notebook.

First of all, a formation that surrounds Eustes and guards against enemies on all sides.

Inspector at the front, Ranger at the rear.

Rubera to the left of Eustes, sorceress to the right.

If you say that Eustes is conducting, it sounds good.

In reality, it was a protective formation created to protect Eustes.

It was probably because the words were matched with Ruba in advance.

As they are adventurers seeking money, the higher the reward, the more motivated they become.

If you go along with the adventures like playing house for the sons of nobles, you can get enough money to spend a few months playing.

With that in mind, he was not afraid of any adventure in a dangerous area.

Of course, exploring within the danger zone with their average skills was not highly encouraged.

Even so, there is only one thing they can go inside without fear.

It is the existence of Rubera.

Iona watched her father’s fight, called the Sword Saint, by her side over and over again.

Wild but restrained, violent but sharp.

A combat technique in actual combat that cannot be called “Swordsmanship” That knights train.

It uses everything around it if it can be used without being bound by its form.

Gravel, sand. Tree-like features.

Miscellaneous items such as clothes, jewelry, and capes.

Even allies and sometimes enemies.

But why is Talcheck still being praised as the ‘Sword Saint’?

In the end, it was because his perfectly trained single flash solved everything in the end.

`One sword, one island, one star (一劍一閃一者一成)’

A single sword. One cut. A single human being unites to form a perfect ‘one’.

In this era, except Talcheck, no one has reached.

However, Rubera’s sword also showed an aspect of a state similar to that of Talchek.

The single-edged demon sword comes out of its scabbard at the speed of lightning and cuts the demons that attack it in half.

Even if it’s a monster with a large body that attacks from the front, if it cuts cleanly from the head to the crotch.

Before he can pour out blood, he spreads to the side and knocks his body to the ground.

The adventurers around them also gulped as if they were overwhelmed by the sight.

Soon, he laughed at the fact that it was his colleague and boosted his morale.

“Ha ha! There’s no need for me to step out because it’s just small puppies!”

Only one person.

Standing in the middle of such people, only Eustes is walking comfortably on the road, unaware of the full extent of the situation.

He was enjoying this playhouse-like adventure.

“…What’s the situation now?”

A voice suddenly came from behind Iona.

At the same time, the curtain of black magic lifted and Cleon appeared.

“…Cleon. You…”

Iona tried to question the sudden disappearance, but that’s for now.

The important thing was not to take your eyes off the object you were supposed to watch.

But-

“…You didn’t come in the same form as before.”

As if that was her only complaint, Iona puffed out her cheeks.

“It’s out of town, so there’s no need for that.”

And Cleon answered nonchalantly.

After a moment of silence passes between the two, Cleon sees the group moving across the bush and the corpses of fallen monsters nearby.

“The Marquis Hughes’ subordinates were ‘cleaning’ in this forest beforehand.”

“…A subordinate of the Marquis Hughes? Who is he?”

“Orange hair and green eyes. Ranger. He is a person of special blood.”

Iona broods over her and searches through her own information notebook.

“…There is no information about such a person. Maybe he joined recently.”

“My name is Mikacia Rufenwolf. You better be careful. He’s pretty…”

The moment after Cleon said that.

[KURRaaaaa!]

A loud cry echoed through her ears.

Two people who lift their bodies at the same time and grasp the whole picture.

There is a bear the size of a house.

One of the heads of the danger zone was in a state of confrontation with the party.

“Uh, it’s huge… This is a monster…!”

Although she was Iona, who until now thought she had amassed her knowledge to some extent through her books when it came to several rare creatures.

The bear in front of her own eyes was of a different standard than the other animals.

“What, what is this guy! Hey! You guys! Do something quickly!”

Naturally, the party standing right in front of it also falls into a state of panic.

Considering the level of the boss, fighting in this state was nothing more than an act of suicide.

Unfortunately, the head bear, who saw the swordsman moving his sword slightly,

Just like that, he swung his front paw.

OK. The swordsman collapses on the spot with his upper body ripped off from his lower body.

Silence of the day.

“Hee, hee hee hee!!!”

It was Eustes who rang the voice.

The upper body and lower body of a human who had been alive and well in front of him until just now were separated.

With horror, at that cruel and naked sight, I vomited what was inside.

“Uweeeeek…!”

Ruba didn’t pay attention to such an owner, and focused on repelling the demon’s attack with her hand on the demon’s sword.

“The two of you take the young boy and evacuate. I will block this guy.”

“Oh, hey lady! It’s impossible! Even with your skills, you can defeat the leader…”

“It’s better than having a bunch of luggage.”

If you analyze the situation soberly, it was indeed so.

Apart from the two who were originally adventurers.

What if this idiot, who accidentally fell into a panic, did something unexpected and went outside of his ‘range’.

For example-

Suddenly, with a scream, he drew a sword he couldn’t wield properly and rushed at the bear.

“Ooh, waaaaa!!!”

“Hey, wait!”

The adventurer next to Eustes jumps forward without stopping.

Because he was wearing heavy armor that didn’t fit, his movements were wacky.

He can’t even properly raise the knife he’s holding, so he scrapes the ground.

The problem was that his distance was beyond the length of Rubera’s sword.

The flustered Ruba’s movement slowed down for a moment.

The lifted front paw of the bear strikes at the same speed as lightning.

Everyone there. Even Eustes, who rushed at him.

Like the swordsman earlier, he would be torn to pieces and die.

I thought so.

“Haa!!”

Poo-!!

If only Eustes’ body hadn’t been blown off to the side, all of a sudden.

Ruba and the others too. And even the head bear opened his eyes wide.

What suddenly appeared was a dark-haired woman wearing a light suit.

She did not carry a sword at her waist or in her hand.

“… Shit.”

A woman who quietly kicks Eustes away and then curses at him.

Of course. It was Cleon.

Ruba looks at Cleon and narrows her eyes for a moment.

Black-haired black-eyed. White skin.

“…You, the dark horse-“

“Story later. Hold on, borrow this.”

Saying that, Cleon flew away and picked up the greatsword that Eustes had dropped.

It was light compared to its appearance, but even so, it was impossible to wield without training.

“…What is this, isn’t it a full mithril?”

It was a famous sword at a price that could lightly buy a mansion.

How could such a famous sword be rotted that far?

However, it seems that Cleon, who shows such composure in front of her, is not to her liking.

The head bear roared and rushed at Cleon.

Cleon also looked back at her approach asking him to look at him.

Block the attack with the mithril greatsword held with both hands.

Kang!

A high-pitched sound as her claws collided with metal.

It echoed in the forest again and again.

If it wasn’t for the shock resistance unique to Mithril, it would have broken right away.

Cleon also stuck out his tongue at Eustes’ luck or money, and blocked the beast’s attack several times with her great sword.

“Hey. Take that fool and run away.”

Even so, as if he had some room to spare, he spoke to Ruba.

But Ruba sharpened her eyes and she put her hand on her demon sword once again.

“…No. We’ll defeat this boss here. You and I can do it.”

“I don’t know where the confidence came from, but… I like it.”

In response to her words, Cleon changed his stance in an instant from his defensive stance until now, and stepped forward.

While the bear was taken aback by the sudden counterattack, it possessed animal-specific intuition and agility.

And with his hard leather, which is different from that of humans, he evades fatal wounds from the greatsword rushing towards him.

However, thanks to Mithril, which has excellent cutting power, blood spurts out.

That became the trigger that caused the Witchbeast to lose his temper and go on a rampage.

A leader whose eyes glow red and who radiates magical energy from his entire body.

Seeing such a boss, Cleon clicks his tongue and looks back at Ruba for a moment.

For one second to meet Rubera’s eyes.

The next moment, a bear strike at Cleon.

It was a heavy and fast blow that was incomparable to the previous one.

Orbit is oblique. A sentence of death struck down from the top right to the bottom left.

Cleon blocked it by raising his greatsword and began a contest of strength.

Each Kaga… ! A mithril that sparks and starts to get scratched.

Cleon secretly sticks out his tongue at the beast’s claws, which can leave marks on the world’s hardest and lightest metal.

After all, the attack had already begun.

The sound of hitting the ground.

The next moment, something lightly rides on Cleon’s back and soars into the sky.

It was a black attendant that flew into the sky while spinning around.

With the sun’s debt on his back, a shadow forms on the body of the leader.

For a moment, the Witchbeast couldn’t figure out what had happened.

Just a female ‘prey’ that climbed over her head.

It flew like a swallow and swung the sword.

“Pillars of the Sky”

Squeak-!!

With a sound, the nape of the neck is cut neatly.

A slash created by rotating the body once in mid-air using magical power.

It was possible because Cleon was restricting the leader’s movements.

However, like a demonic beast, this alone is not the end.

Rather, the moment she lifted her body to catch her in the air.

Kwajik…!

A sound similar to cracking the shell of a nut like a walnut was heard near the beast’s heart.

As a beast, it’s sad that when you’re excited, you can only focus on one thing at a time.

It was impossible to prevent the mithril greatsword from being lodged in that heart.

The monster’s blood pouring down from his dead heart wets the ground.

A mithril greatsword that rotates slowly in a clockwise direction while stuck so that it cannot rise again through recovery.

Eventually, when it was pulled out again.

The Witchbeast’s heart was shattered and there was a hole large enough to see the scene behind it.

A bear that is slowly collapsing forward.

Cleon stepped back so as not to be crushed by it, and he paid a moment’s tribute to the life he had slain.

Landing on the ground, returning the demonic sword to the scabbard.

Ruba looked at Cleon for a while.

One moment when she tried to say something to Cleon.

Cleon moves first and checks the safety of Eustes, whom he blew up.

“Hey, isn’t he dead? It’s difficult to die.”

Chin, chin. Slap the cheek a few times and drive the mithril greatsword into the ground.

“Ugh, ugh…”

Eustes drools as his blank eyes come back to life.

The large armor seemed to have done its job, and there seemed to be no major damage from the impact he had blown off.

Eustes met eyes with a woman who was talking to him with her face pressed against him.

“…!”

Eyes wide open.

“Oh. You opened your eyes.”

It was literal, but Cleon probably took it in a different way.

Cleon gets up from his seat and shakes off the dust from the battle.

“The sword was good.”

Saying that, Eustes spoke to Cleon who turned around.

“Kee, wait! You, no, did you save us?”

“Huh…? Ahh. No. What…”

“This, name. Tell me the name. No, I am Eustes Woodnocker. The eldest son of the Woodnocker marquis, and the next head of the family.”

Eustes hurriedly gets up.

Cleon averts his gaze for a moment and expresses that he hates troublesome things.

Finally, he let out a sigh and opened his mouth.

“…Leona.”

“Leo or Yang! How can such a poor body have such powerful power!?”

“…What is he saying now.”

Cleon didn’t know why this fool was doing this.

More than that, I didn’t want to show Iona who was watching this scene in the bush any more as ‘Leona’.

“I’d like to invite you to dinner as a thank you…”

“Hah? No, it’s okay. Yes. I just happened to find it while passing by. So, be careful from now on. If you die, you’ll be in trouble.”

Cleon said that in a quick tone and went into the bush.

Eustace moves to pursue it, but Ruba stops it.

“… Bocchan. Even if you’re a lifesaver, approaching a woman who doesn’t like to reveal herself is not the behavior of a gentleman.”

“Kuh… No… Good. But I’ll definitely find it when I go back to the city. Even if I prepare a request…”

Eustes, who seems to have caught fire in a strange part.

And Ruba looked in the direction where Cleon had disappeared for a while.

“So… So. What are we going to do now? That swordsman is dead too…”

“Umm… Let’s go back to the city for now.”

If Ruba nodded at the words of the wizard and the ranger, Eustes would get angry.

“What!? I haven’t even had an adventure like this yet, what are you talking about!”

“…Mister. If we do not retrieve the bodies of the dead adventurers and deliver them to the city…”

“If you just bury something like that here, it will rot on its own, so what are you doing…”

The adventurers frowned at Eustes’ words.

They were obviously willing to sacrifice their lives for money, but even so, ignoring the rules among adventurers didn’t feel very good.

“Hey boy. You and your father don’t seem to know much about this city. There are rules for survival in this guild.”

“Haha…? To whom now…”

Eustes frowns at his cheeky attitude.

But the adventurers talk as if they don’t care.

“If we go any further than this, we’ll go back. With the dead guy’s body there.”

“Then you don’t have to pay. But I hope you don’t ask us for work again.”

“…Keuuh… I see… I see. Today… I’m going to withdraw from this point…”

The moment after Eustes had said that while letting go of his resentment.

With a terrifying sensation, Lubera noticed something flying toward her and raised her sword to block it.

“Kuu…!?”

And I knew right away what it was.

Tree trunk… It moved like the tentacle of something alive and rushed at it, without wrapping Rubera’s demonic sword.

“Hey!”

The ranger tried to cut it off with a dagger, but it was his dagger that broke instead.

The next moment I looked at it in disbelief.

Rubera’s demonic sword was pulled with tremendous force.

Rubera also tried to keep her feet on the ground with tenacity not to lose the sword, but in the end it was Rubera who was dragged away.

“Hey!”

Other adventurers try to follow him. Eustes stops.

“Hey, hey! Let’s run away in the meantime!”

“What are you talking about! You’re an attendant!”

Looking at Eustes’ completely terrified expression, the adventurer argues as if he is dumbfounded.

Eustes points to the dead adventurer’s corpse.

“That guy’s job is that! Didn’t you guys say you’re going back with the body of a colleague!”

Certainly, if she pursues her like this and the rest of her humans are also annihilated, her words her will be gone.

The adventurers lowered their heads in anger and carried the corpses of their dead comrades.

It was to leave the place with Eustes.

002

“Kuh…!”

It wasn’t just them who were in dire straits.

Iona, caught by her neck and body by a tree trunk that suddenly flew by.

Cleon, too, blocks the stalk that flew into him through Galatea.

Conversely, the tree trunk clinging to Galatea tries to pull it away.

“Flare Spike!”

Cleon quickly chanted fire-attribute magic and tried to burn the stem tied to Iona and Galatea.

Unlike Galatea’s stem, which was holding onto itself and limited its movement to some extent.

The tree trunk holding Iona moves faster than her fire magic and drags Iona along.

Cleon runs through the forest following Iona at full speed.

Eventually, the end of the cliff.

Watching Iona fall by her tree trunk down that endless stream, she stopped her legs hastily.

“Shit…!”

Cleon looked down, but it wasn’t a height he could throw himself at, even jokingly.

If she borrowed flight magic from Lyla, she could descend, but that didn’t have the speed to follow her.

Plus, unexplored territory where you don’t know what might be down there.

Proper exploration required preparation.

She has no choice but to turn her magic power her and send chlorine through the imprint.

“Lyla! Come to the coordinates I’m talking about!”

There was more urgency than ever in his voice.