213 - - a hot-war digest

Horak, who runs the Adventurers' Bureau's sub-branch office at the lake of blood, was very much puzzled.

A former C-rank adventurer, Horak was invited to join the Adventurers' Bureau in Bossalia after his retirement.

When the city collapsed, he helped buy time for the evacuation with his well-maintained sword.

Later, when Horak heard that the miasma had been sealed again, he returned to his beloved city with his family.

This was partly because he had not been able to find a good job in the border town where he had taken refuge.

The city that he had not seen for a long time did not seem to have changed much since that nightmarish day.

The d*mned ants must have had their way with them, but there was no trace of them anywhere.

It was as if time had stood still since the day I escaped.

As Horak nodded his head, Moussin, a former fellow adventurer and current colleague, proudly told us.

"There's this guy who's got some serious magic skills, and he's even fixed up the town."

"That's amazing. But I've never heard of any magic that can do that.

But the state of this town is proof enough. It's heroes all around.

If he really did it, I'd like to see him at least once.

No one knew the details, but it was rumored that through the work of this man, the d*mn ants had been driven out and the streets and houses had been repaired from the ruins.

But while the town was almost back to normal, the surroundings were not so.　

The city was almost back to normal, but not so much around it.

Still, for the sake of his wife and two children, Horak had no choice but to hold on.

Fortunately, due to the shortage of staff, he was able to return to a higher position than the one he had held before.

He is now the head of a sub-branch office.

However, when he went to the site, Horak was speechless at the sheer devastation of the situation.

The lakeside office, which he had worked so hard to build, was in ruins, buried under redwood trees.

The once beautiful landing place was now a shadow of its former self, covered in red mud.

Moreover, the trees were so dense that we could not even get close to it.　

All that remained was a small rest house barely standing on the site of the carriage depot in the foreground.

The first tasks of Horak and Moussin, the deputy warden and demolition supervisor, were to repair the hut and remove the infested thorns.

Somehow they managed to get it into shape, but there were still many problems to be solved.

First of all, the redwoods that surround the lake are spreading rapidly, turning the ground into mud if left unattended.

This is right behind the hut, so we have to do something about it.

The redwood itself is light and easy to work, making it a popular wood for woodworkers.

But the lumberjacks are too scared to come this far.

It is as it should be.

There is a huge water dragon sitting in the lake nearby.

No sane person would think of approaching it.

And now that all the landing places and small boats have disappeared, there is even an infestation of aquatic horses that can't be touched.

Learning in the border town where they had taken refuge that complaining would not change the situation, Horak and the others began to cut down trees with axes in their hands.

But it was amateur work in between jobs.

Besides, the two of them are too shorthanded.

"Hey, Horak! Isn't this too hard?　I don't think this is a job for an employee."　

There's no one else who can do it. Give up and move your hand.

"Huh, maybe it was a mistake coming back."

But you had no other choice.

The three giant men appeared before Hollack and the others, who were exhausted from their hard work.

As soon as they entered the small hut, the man who seemed to be the oldest among them asked them in a friendly manner

Hey, can I cut down that red tree?

"Oh, cut down all you want!"

They did not have a good impression of the Purple-Eyed Tribe, but they accepted the offer gratefully.

The men carrying axes began to cut down the trees in no time.

Soon a pile of logs was formed.

However, when Mussan spoke to them to evaluate the purchase, the men looked at each other and started laughing.

"Oh, I need these for personal use. I have no intention of selling it.

With these words, the men carried the logs downstream to the riverbank near the ford.

It is a problem to take logs back to the town and sell them without permission, but it is not a problem to use them for personal use at the site.

It would be more of a problem if they stop the logging by questioning them.

The Horak and the others looked at each other and decided not to say anything more.

Besides, there was a lot of other work to be done.

Thanks to the steady stream of new adventurers, they were able to hunt the jumping striped clams, but the other monsters remained completely untouched.

Especially the troublesome lake dragon colony needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.

I have tried repeatedly to inform the head office of this situation, but the only response I get is that the matter is still under consideration.

The two of them were getting impatient with the new director, who was famous for his difficult attitude, but then the good news finally arrived.

The hero who saved Bossalia is coming to visit them in person.　

"I was wondering if there was nothing I could do, but I didn't expect to be summoned by a hero.

"Yeah, maybe this will help."

On the long-awaited day, a man not much older than ourselves got out of the carriage.

Then came a lovely little girl of no more than a year, followed by a beautiful woman with long, dazzling ears.

Then a young child about the same age as their son.

"Are you sure that's the one?"

"Ugh, it's a combination of the two, just like the rumors say. ......"

And which one of you is the master magician?

The man at the front has a sword hanging from his arm, so that rules him out.

The women with wands look like them, but they are too young to use their tremendous magic skills.

A pretty little girl with purple eyes approached them, who had fallen silent.

For some reason, she pointed at the insect cage on her waist.

"Hmm?"

"............Well, no way, this bug?"

"Oh, that's impossible."

The name on the list of visitors to the hunting ground was Kurosuke.

And a child was being scolded for some reason.

After that, Hero and his party, accompanied by a group of young men and a strong man with a shield on his back, were accosted by one of those odd-looking purple-eyed men and taken downstream.

After lunch, Horak has a meeting with the coachman, and Moussin comes running into the hut, out of breath.

"Hey, hey, they're doing something strange!

Hollack and the others rushed out to the riverside, and what they witnessed was indescribable.

A large raft was moving upstream.

On either side of the raft, men with oars in their hands were frantically splashing up the water.

When Horak spots the men of the Shigekan tribe among them, he finally realizes the meaning of the trees they have been cutting down.

The raft moves forward at a brisk pace, bobbing on the surface of the red river, perhaps as a result of the men's hard work.　

Just as it looked as if they were going to ride directly into the lake, a girl from the Soukei tribe standing in the center of the raft raised her voice.

Immediately, the men stopped rowing their oars.

Then they turned their backs to the lake and began to move the oars vigorously again.

Immediately the raft began to head back in the direction it had come from.

Horak and Mussan relaxed their shoulders and smiled tiredly as the reckless rafting was halted.

But after watching for a while, the raft came back from downstream again.

When they reached the lake, they simply turned back.

It seems that they are practicing to move the raft to the girl's call.

The other adventurers, who had been watching with bated breath at first, began to yell at the rafts that were just moving back and forth in front of them.

The men, however, did not seem to mind and continued to row the oars in silence.

Their practice lasted all that afternoon.

The next day, Horak and his crew encountered an even more unbelievable sight.