Book 5: Chapter 10

The Aledona Forest is a splendid forest, but since the Great Jiol Forest was too immense, it was called a 「fairly large forest」 by the people.

After the Elements that appeared before were exterminated, the Aledona Forest had temporarily returned to its original state──where bandits and Goblins would more or less appear.

For that reason, the highway that went through the Aledona Forest also became a safe path for a short time when compared to when Elements incident……But in its place, there was this huge outbreak of Goblins.

Although they may be Goblins, they’re life threatening if they attack in groups.

Goblins are famous for having low intelligence, but it wasn’t like they didn’t have any intelligence at all, and they were vicious in exchange for it. There were many that moved on instinct, but they knew that they could obtain various things by attacking mankind. In addition, since they discovered that it was worth risking their lives to steal the things of mankind, they would proactively search for members of mankind. Finally, once members of mankind were discovered by Goblins, they would call for a large amount of companions and attack them……that is how they behaved.

For that reason, together with guard requests in order to pass through the Aledona Forest, the Guild had piles of requests wanting the Goblins themselves to be annihilated coming in. That is why it had turned into a special designated request.

Normally, it was a case where it wouldn’t be strange for chivalric orders to be dispatched, but it seemed that the chivalric order’s thoughtfulness was at work saying that they didn’t want to steal the Adventurers’ work. Of course, if even the Guild was unable to handle it, then there would finally be an emergency dispatch of the chivalric orders.

「As expected, there wouldn’t be any Goblins before entering the forest, huh.」

Standing at the entrance to the Aledona Forest, Kain muttered that.

Since Goblins were dumb, there were also cases where they would sometimes separate from their settlements and leave the forest. But, Goblins like that would probably be defeated as soon as they were discovered by Adventurers who were passing by on a different request.

Now that it had become a special designation request, by accepting this request, defeating a Goblin would add it as an achievement. Since it would become profitable when splitting the rewards if the achievements were high, discovered Goblins should be defeated increasingly fast.

「It’s just a waste of time to be standing in a place like this. Let’s hurry up and go in, okay?」

「Ah, un. That’s fine and all, but, Ys.」

「What is it.」

Kain looked around at the area……and after confirming that there was no one around, he made a troubled-looking face.

「Um, how should I put this. Is this alright? To come here without telling those escorts of yours.」

Remember her escorts──her own knights that wore armor that was red or white and such, Ys went *ahh* and nodded in understanding.

「Just when I was wondering what you would say. It’s a bit late now.」

「W, well. That’s true but.」

Saying “it’s not a problem so let’s go”, Ys started walking.

That’s right, it actually wasn’t a problem. It’s because this time, they were under strict order to not come along.

「……Come on, I’ll leave you behind, you know?」

「Ah, un.」

Kain followed after Ys who walked as the lead.

Normally, being a man, this might be where Kain should insist on going first, but Ys wouldn’t be fine with being protected by Kain. It was probably because she had confidence in her own strength, but things like being a man or a woman……Kain thought that she didn’t obsess over that sort of thing.

Ein also had a similar inclination, and Kain had been told about the unpleasantness of it by her several times up until now.

Since he put that to good use and succeeded in dealing with Ys, Kain felt that he should also properly learn from it. If Ys chose to stand at the lead, it would be proper for Kain to follow-up on her from behind.

Behind Ys, who had drawn the sword on her waist, Kain also drew his own sword──the Hard Sword Tilnok, from its scabbard.

Ys took a peek at it, and then turned her gaze back to the front.

「……Make sure you do not get careless, Kain.」

「I know. Ys, you be careful too.」

It looked like Ys and Kain had similar battle styles, but they were subtly different.

The both of them were similar in that they were the Magic Swordsman type, but when compared to Kain, Ys had a tendency to rely on the number of moves. Roughly speaking, Kain was higher in power, while Ys was higher in speed. Through a mock battle they had done not too long ago, that was the actual feeling that Kain got.

Although they resembled each other, the other possessed what they themselves lacked. Moreover, with the point that it was possible for the both of them to react from short to intermediate range, he felt that they were quite a good duo.

The magic that Kain specialized in was the Light Element and Life Element, while Ys was in the Darkness Element.

Users of the Darkness Element were currently quite rare, and with Kain being unable to find a mentor for it, it was a magic that he had difficulty learning.

That is why when Ys was around, he was able to see the basics of Darkness Magic, and that helped him out.

In truth, he wanted to at least read a book on Darkness Magic or something, but due to the dramatic decrease in those that worshipped the God of Darkness Dagulas, there were almost no books on it that existed.

When Kain had asked if she had any ideas on some sort of book like that to Ys, she was exasperated, telling him to search for one himself. It was such sound reasoning, that the fact that he couldn’t say anything back had now become a good memory.

After saying “sorry about that”, and asked Ys to play a mentor role for him, she completely shut him down with a single phrase of 「No way」.

「……Goblins, huh.」

「Nn?」

Hearing Ys quitely mutter that, Kain reflexively asked that in return.

However, Ys didn’t answer him.

「A race that Demon King Shuklous created……was that what they were.」

「That’s right.」

The Demon King Shuklous had thrown the Shutaia Continent into chaos in the past, and had perished at the hands of the Hero Ryuuya. As told in the Hero legend, as he was on the verge of vanishing, he announced the existence of the Great Demon King Gramfia that reigned in the Dark Continent.

The most troublesome remembrance of that Demon King Shuklous was the Goblins.

「So, what about them?」

「……No, it’s nothing. More importantly, have you noticed?」

「Nn? Yeah, they’re here. Is it just the two?」

Hearing Ys’s words, Kain searched for presences in the vicinity and checked on them.

There was one in the left and right thickets each. He could tell that they were waiting on them.

「Do you think they are from different settlements?」

「Well, they probably are. I don’t think that they’re smart enough to split up and cooperate.」

「I see. Then, can I take the one on the right?」

「I leave it to you.」

After saying that, Kain turned to the right and Ys turned to the left, and they held their palms out.

「Attack Light.」

「Attack Dark.」

With the Attack Light that Kain fired hitting the right Goblin and the Attack Dark that Ys fired hitting the left Goblin, they annihilated the Goblins in a single attack.

With this, the Goblins became unable to call for companions.

「Ah, but. Would have been better purposely let them call them out?」

「Ara, you sure do have great confidence in yourself. Since I am a coward, I would like to do a preemptive strike on the settlement though……If you’d like to do that, shall we split into two groups?」

「Sorry. I apologize so stop it.」

Seeing Kain lower his head right away, Ys answered with “I forgive you” while grinning.

「Now then, for the time being, how about we go crush one settlement?」

「Eh, can you tell the location?」

「Eh?」

Hearing Kain’s words, Ys turned a flabbergasted face towards him.

After Kain thought “I saw a rare expression from her……”, that face of hers quickly changed into a look of amazement.

「……What might they be teaching you all in that Adventurer’s School of yours?」

After breathing a deep sigh, Ys placed both of her hands on her waist.

Looking at Kain just like that, she lightly glared at him.

「Listen, Kain. Do you know why stray Goblins come out?」

「Erーm……If I remember correctly, it’s because the Goblin forgot the way back to their settlements.」

「And the reason for that is?」

Being asked that, Kain was at a loss for words, and thought for a bit.

「……Because they’re stupid?」

「Exactly.」

That’s right, Goblins are dumb. That is why they are unable to remember the paths they went through.

In truth, the Goblins of the Dark Continent weren’t that dumb, but the intelligence of the Goblins of the Shutaia Continent was astonishingly low. That is why it was a common occurrence for Goblins that came searching for prey to become lost just like that.

「Now then, those Goblins……do you think they are capable of doing complex movements that wouldn’t leave their own traces behind?」

「……I don’t……Wait, ahh, is that how it is?」

「That’s how it is.」

Seeing Kain nod, Ys also replied with a nod.

Goblins are dumb. Therefore, even though they went to search for prey, as long as nothing great happened, they would just go straight ahead.

「If we go in the same direction that the Goblin came, the Goblin’s settlement will be there……that is what you mean, isn’t it.」

「There is a high probability of it.」