#052. The Hero Party’s Fighting Unit is Too Kind (1)

#052. The Hero Party’s Fighting Unit is Too Kind (1)

The greatest challenge of the Harvest Festival event: the monster wave.

Whether or not the players successfully defend against the monsters, who are drawn to the harvested crops and the vulnerable farmers, hinges on their capabilities.

How much loyalty have they cultivated in adventurers?

How many adventurers have they subjugated through brainwashing?

How many adventurers are willing to forgo profit and participate in the Harvest Festival event?

Everyone in Sodom Village participated.

The initial effects of brainwashing had been enhanced, then further enhanced, nurtured to an absurd degree, so that the specs they could muster were utterly overwhelming. Meaning, they feared the monster wave not at all.

“Look at those b*stards run.”

A bountiful harvest meant not only abundant crops, but also an abundance of Living Socks.

As a result, the monsters who had embarked on a quest for crops were met with desolate rice paddies, devoid of anything harvestable, and Living Socks swarming in the nearby thickets.

Living Socks, as they were called. To modern eyes, they resembled personnel-seeking anti-ankle mine, moving on their own to track their targets and detonate.

You would have to go to the DMZ between South and North Korea to find a higher concentration of mines.

“Squeak…”

“Goo…”

The two-headed giant species caused an uproar, shoving, throwing, and harassing the monsters, but no monster wanted to run through the barren field, stepping on mines, to get nothing.

The monsters cast ominous glances at the boss monster, who not only had the wrong coordinates but also a bad temper.

“I’ve lived a long life, but I’ve never seen monsters stabbing a boss monster in the back before.”

A veteran adventurer from Diego’s party clicked his tongue in amazement.

The tyrant’s end was gruesome.

Even a monstrous body that could regenerate after being cut couldn’t keep up with the rate of injury when slashed a dozen times a second, bleeding profusely until the regeneration speed couldn’t compensate for the damage.

Ankles sliced, knees broken, back shattered, elbows and shoulders destroyed, it was over.

Two hundred or so monsters had already died, but even at a glance, the horde numbered in the tens of thousands.

“If not for Ian, we would have begged Diego to leave this village by now, wouldn’t we?”

“If we hadn’t timed it right, a war would have broken out because of those b*stards charging for the crops.”

“If word had spread that the villages we passed through had been reduced to rubble…”

The nobles won’t take them in before their credibility collapses entirely.

At that point, they couldn’t survive even if they changed their profession to mercenaries.

Just imagine the rumors spreading: “Deserters fleeing their own burning lands!”

It’d be a license revocation, guaranteed, for mercenaries who value loyalty.

The worst possible luck – they wouldn’t even be able to get their foot in the door of the industry.

“Ian saved a lot of people, more than once.”

“A Saint must possess exceptional wisdom, not just a saintly character.”

“I just feel bad for the ones who have to face that horde.”

Where are those monsters, denied their meal, going to go so graciously?

Even the boss monster is leading a legion so hungry, they’d strip the toughest hide clean, leaving nothing but bones in an instant.

Any unfortunate area near Sodom Village will now be struck directly by an unpredicted monster army, and the guild’s capabilities will be put to the test.

How many high-level adventurers does that guild even have?

Anyone as strong as Teresa?

Veterans like Diego?

Masters like Maria?

Even if the guild has strong members, it’s unlikely they’re still in the village.

Villages that didn’t have Ian are now beginning to pay the price.

* * *

Pinky felt a sense of foreboding as she looked at the supply train.

No village near Sodom Village wants to antagonize the nobles, and even less so the hero party.

Therefore, instead of sending even one relief troop to Sodom Village, destined for crisis, they were only thinking of plunging deep into overlapping hunting grounds to steal the spoils.

They were planning to loot with such efficiency that even the post station and supply depot were lacking in supplies.

“Those fools. If they make the same mistake as us, there won’t be enough food even to bring to Sodom Village!”

Pinky was furious about the desolate food situation, but she soon realized that the emptiness of the post station was relatively fortunate.

“M-, Master Pinky! The village…the village is in ruins!”

“Move on to the next village.”

“There’s a commercial village ahead. Wealthy fellows, so the guard level is quite high. They surely must have resisted well!”

The bustling commercial village had broken shop doors and windows, its valuables plundered.

The stone road was littered with gnawed corpses and shattered merchandise.

The guide, a beast-kin, trembled, fearing reprimand.

Pinky asked with a smile.

“Next?”

“T-, the mountain village should be alright. The path there is inherently rough, and…”

The mountain village’s fortress was scattered with charred remains and ashes.

The bones of monsters littered along the road revealed that there had been an overwhelming wave of numbers, making resistance futile.

In any way one could look at it, Sodom Village gave the impression that it was quite intact.

“Next?”

“…The riverside village. Sir Ulando, a Royal Knight, was granted the land there, so the private forces are excellent, and they also ferry adventurers to the hunting grounds adjacent to the river using ferries, so in an emergency, they can evacuate over the river.”

In the place where the riverside village had been, there was only the trace of everything being swept away by the current.

The few massive footprints left on the ground or in the shallows indicated that large and medium-sized monsters had crossed the river by wading through it.

The guide burst into tears, clutching Lord Orlando’s shattered helmet.

“What next?”

“Waaah! There’s nothing left. They’re all dead!”

“Would you like to turn back, even now?”

The question came from the adjutant of Pinkie’s direct combat unit, assigned as a dedicated force to the second-string members of the hero party.

“No. I can’t fail to sell our village’s socks for a high price. If I whine to Lonoway, he’ll treat me like a useless failure.”

Lonoway created many demi-humans and bedded many females, but he was ruthless in distancing himself from his failures.

Theresa.

Lonoway, fixated on that insignificant woman, watching Sodom Village as if obsessed – that, too, was unsettling.

Pinkie didn’t want to be abandoned.

To be discarded, pushed aside by a woman who had already been abandoned once, was all the more miserable.

“A monster wave this severe… there’s no way Sodom Village could have survived unscathed!”

Now, it was pure spite.

She wouldn’t be able to rest easy until she saw Sodom Village reduced to ashes.

Only *we* can sell magic socks.

Lonoway should only have *me* as his female.

Even if I am abandoned, Lonoway’s refuge cannot be in Theresa’s arms.

*Cough cough.*

A hazy mana glow, stale mana, an unpleasant smell.

The uniquely harmful environment of a mana disposal facility betrayed its location.

From here on, it was Sodom Village territory.

The road might be fine.

The monsters might have passed down a different path.

The forest might be intact.

If they took a very long detour, it was possible.

She felt a sliver of relief at the sight of the desolate rice paddies.

A wasteland, where nothing remained.

But the moment they reached the village, she was confronted with the truth.

“It was only… only *we* who were ruined…”

Sodom Village stood strong.

As if it had never suffered an invasion.

Even the scars of the previous Sodom Siege seemed erased, replaced by an even sturdier wooden palisade.

“Commander Pinkie… at this rate, a siege is impossible.”

“Break through.”

“What is the objective?”

“Theresa. That woman’s flesh and blood.”

Pinkie steeled herself.

“Today, Theresa and I, one of us will die.”

Just then, smoke billowed from Sodom Village, announcing a festival.

“The heavens themselves are on our side. If they’re lax with their defenses, distracted by the festival, it favors us. At this point, we don’t need to play the long game. We strike right now.”

Thus, clad in magical shoes and socks, the rabbit beastmen descended upon Sodom Village.

* * *

The harvest festival event had concluded without incident, and the village was now in the throes of celebration.

“Fire!”

“An attack!”

“The main gate’s been breached, they say!”

News of the uninvited guests’ assault spread like wildfire through the village.

Sodom Village, already reeling from a previous incident involving an assassin infiltrating the heart of the guild, had implemented strict checkpoints and heightened security, bolstered by the black frog beastmen and guards from the beastmen encampment.

The invaders, who had smashed through the wooden palisade with brute force, were quickly subdued, tripping over the sticky tongues of the black frog beastmen or largely stalled by the village’s resistance.

“What are these guards?!”

“Who are you? More assassins sent from who-knows-where! I was already suffering from festival ear-burn and general craziness, and you came at the perfect time. Do you think?”

“Don’t you lot feel pathetic? Here we are enjoying the festival, while all you can do is stand and watch?”

“Not in the least? We have pure water from the well, our health is great. In fact, now that you mention it…”

Pinky’s night raid crumbled from the very start.

The attack was discovered, and the majority of the squad was contained.

“Captain, we must retreat!”

“Do you still not understand? If we fail to achieve our objective today, we’re as good as *Disposed of*!”

“Grrr…!”

A swarm of adventurers, caught mid-celebration, donned their arms and charged the small, elite group that had breached the square.

The Second Division Fighter of the Hero Party lived up to their name. Pinky, his lieutenant, and a handful of skilled fighter beastmen, cut a swath through the adventurers, felling enemies in droves.

“Now’s our chance. Dust them!”

Fairy Lilac, which had proven so effective against Gomora, was deployed, but the rabbit beastmen evaded it by kicking off debris and walls.

The success stopped there.

Nina’s net arrows and Diego’s thrown nets ensnared the airborne rabbit beastmen.

The lieutenant, evading the same fate at the expense of the other soldiers, was slammed into the ground when the party faced Shoa, who had leapt through a second-story window.

Pinky, now alone, desperately tried to clear a path by repeatedly striking down the adventurers, but he was completely surrounded when Maria, clad in heavy armor, managed to restrain him.

When he faced Teresa and Ian, Pinky was already bound and helpless.