CH 258

Great Forest incident

***---***

The earthquakes were frequent.

However, unlike volcanic earthquakes, they didn't occur hundreds of times a day, but only about two or three times a day with a seismic intensity of less than three.

Nevertheless, everyone seemed to be feeling uneasy because Volzard had had almost no earthquakes until now.

We, the people summoned from Japan, were well aware of the mechanism that caused earthquakes.

Therefore, I felt uneasy imagining what was happening under the ground, such as whether it was a harbinger of a large earthquake or a crustal movement.

On the other hand, everyone in Volzard didn't really know why earthquakes occurred.

That was why they couldn't even imagine what was going on under the ground, and seemed to be feeling a lot of anxiety.

That morning, as usual, as we sat around the breakfast table, we were shaken.

The tableware on the shelf and the windows rattled, and the conversation stopped abruptly.

The seismic intensity was barely 2, but Meisa-chan clung to me as soon as it suddenly came.

I thought about teasing her, but her expression was too serious, so let's stop.

"It's okay, it's settled down now. Don't worry."

When I gently stroked her head, Meisa-chan let out a big sigh, and her tense body seemed to stop trembling.

"Seriously, 'Gura gura'(TN:Shaking), 'Gura gura'(TN:Wobbling), I can't even eat quietly. Kent, what's going on?"

"Hmm ... I don't know. In the country where I lived, various measuring instruments were developed, so it was a system that could immediately tell where the epicenter was and how much it shook. I can estimate the cause of the earthquake, but it is difficult to make a judgment based only on the shaking direction and magnitude."

"Will there be a big disaster?"

"In Japan, a large earthquake occurs once about every few decades, but the topography is different from that of Landshelt, so I don't think it can be used as a reference."

Amanda-san, who normally prided herself on leaving everything to her, seemed worried because she had no experience with it.

Therefore, I shared my knowledge about earthquakes, such as hiding under the table to protect yourself if a big tremor hit, turning off the fire when cooking, and not sleeping near furniture that could topple over, such as a chest of drawers.

"I see, let's take measures little by little from where we can."

"Above all, please prioritize protecting yourself. You can buy new things even if they are broken, but you can't get your life back if you lose it."

I didn't tell them, but until the earthquakes subsided, someone from the Kobold Corps would take turns watching over them.

Meisa-chan went to school, and Amanda-san started preparing to open the store, when Hort who was attached to Beatriche suddenly showed up.

"Wafuu, Goshujin-sama, Klaus wants to talk."

"What does Klaus-san want? Did something happen?"

"Nnh lessee, something didn't arrive."

"It didn't arrive ... ? What is it."

I prepared to go out, called out to Amanda-san, then dived into the shadows and moved with Hort.

Klaus-san was waiting in the guild's office.

"Excuse me ..."

Beatriche walked up to me when I put out a shield of darkness and went into the office.

"Morning, Riche."

"Good morning, Kent-sama."

Augusto-san and Ange-oneechan were also in the office.

"Good morning, Klaus-san."

"Ou, Kent, sorry for calling you."

"No, I didn't have any urgent plans today, so it's okay. So, I heard from Hort that something didn't arrive."

"Ou, no wheat is arriving."

"What is the staple food, isn't it? Was the harvest bad?"

"No, the wheat was good last year, and we have already purchased it."

"Then, is it some other factor?"

"It seems that something strange is happening in the Irosun Great Forest."

Volzard was located on the western edge of the Landshelt Republic.

The border was the mining city of Marburg.

The Irosun Great Forest spread out to the east.

Beyond the Irosun Great Forest was the academic city of Bakkenheim.

To the east was Breichberg, the center of politics and commerce.

It seemed that the wheat that Volzard buys was made in Liebenstein, a breadbasket that spread further east.

"The price of wheat produced in Liebenstein is determined by the market in Breichberg. This is to ensure fair distribution to each city. Of course, there are wheat fields near Volzard, but the scale is too different."

"Is it cheaper to buy even if you add the transportation costs?"

"That's how it is. However, considering the case where the wheat doesn't arrive like this time or the harvest is bad, I'm making the wheat grow."

"But, is it not profitable?"

"In that area, we are compensating for it by issuing subsidies."

"I see ... So, the what you bought via Breichberg didn't arrive because of an incident in the Irosun Great Forest?"

"That's right, to put it simply, it seems that it's becoming like the Devil's Forest."

We escorted Augusto and the others back from Bakkenheim through the Irosun Great Forest, but the only monster we encountered was an Ogre.

Instead, the bandits disguised as Marburg soldiers were more troublesome.

"Are there so many monsters?"

"According to the stores that have been spreading, it seems that sightings of Minotaurs have increased, as well as a herd of more than ten Orcs."

"Is that so ..."

When I was surprised by Klaus-san's story, Reinhardt spoke to me.

[ Kent-sama, this may be related to the cave where Flamme came out. ]

[ Ohh, I see ... ]

[ And, if there were multiple caves ... ]

[ Uee ... That might be a little bad. ]

If there were many places that were almost connected to the southern continent, it couldn't be helped if it became like the Devil's Forest.

"Klaus-san, something comes to mind ..."

"Something comes to mind? What is it."

"Yes, about the Salamander appearing at Bakkenheim, but ..."

I told Klaus-san and the others about the image I saw when I made Flamme my genus and gave him the attributes.

"What's that ... A cave connected to the southern continent ... You, why would you leave such a thing alone!"

"No, I submitted a report to the Headquarters Guild. However, due to the Salamander incident, the relationship with the adventurers of Bakkenheim is not good ... Besides, the location is not Volzard ..."

I had a dispute with Bakkenheim's A-rank adventurer Graciela-san over the subjugation of the Salamander.

"I see ... Certainly, if the story leaks out later, there are people who will complain. Fumu ..."

After hearing the story, Klaus-san folded his arms and began to ponder his thoughts.

"Okay, I understand. Kent, nomination request."

"What's the content and the reward?"

"Transport me to Breichberg, protect me during my stay, and then transport wheat. How about a reward of 500,000 Helts?"

"Umm, what about the cave?"

"We'll see how things go for a while."

"Is it bad for Klaus-san to be the one making the request?"

"It is possible for me to issue a nomination request to Kent for something that is happening in the Irosun Great Forest, but that would mean that I would have to be the one paying."

Klaus-san gave a broad grin.

That meant that the nomination request of 500,000 Helts must be able to pay for itself in some way.

"How many days are you planning to stay in Breichberg?"

"I don't plan on staying long, so it should probably end in a day, or three days at the most."

"From today?"

"No, because a meeting is necessary to arrange for me being away, we'll go tomorrow."

"Understood. I will accept it."

"Okay, I'll call out to you at about the same time as today, so please keep that in mind."

"I understand. Is there anything I should prepare?"

"Let me see ... Not in particular ..."

"Father, may I accompany you?"

"Fumu ... That's right, Augusto, please come with me. Kent, there will be two people for you to pick up ..."

"As for the reward, I don't mind if you leave it as it is."

"Is that so, that helps a lot."

Klaus-san grinned, and Beatriche puffed up her cheeks.

It was like an in-house request, so don't be angry.

But, it's a little cute, so I feel like I want to bother her a little more.

For Klaus-san, it seemed he planned to go to Breichberg and bring back the purchased wheat.

It seemed that he was also aiming to show that he could move himself and transport a large amount of wheat even though the traffic of goods was halted.

"That's not all."

"Do you still have another purpose?"

"This thing ..."

What Klaus-san took out of his desk drawer was a rebar I had brought from Japan that had been cut into pieces of about ten centimeters.

"Selling iron to Breichberg ... Ahh, I see, if it becomes difficult to pass through the Irosun Great Forest, will the price of iron transported from Marburg rise?"

"That's how it is."

In the same way that Volzard was not receiving wheat, Bakkenheim and Breichberg should not be receiving iron from Marburg.

"The iron brought in by Kent has a high purity, so we want to sell it at a price higher than conventional iron, but no matter how high the purity is, if it's too expensive, few people will reach out."

"That's why now is the time to make a sale when transportation costs are skyrocketing, is it? However, if adventurers from Bakkenheim deal with that cave and the Irosun Great Forest returns to normal ..."

"Maa, it won't be so easy. You know how wide it is because you have been through it."

"Now that you say so, that's true."

It was so big that it would take a day and a half by carriage just to travel through it.

If the number of monsters increased throughout the Irosun Great Forest, it would be difficult to reduce them.

"But, isn't it a big minus for the Landshelt Republic as a whole to make it difficult for people and goods to come and go?"

"That's right. However, Kent, if you do something about it ... it's wrong to think like that."

"But, they're not my genus who can reduce monsters from such a wide area ..."

"That's true. If it's not your genus, it will be difficult to solve it all at once. But, Kent, you aren't immortal, are you? It's still a long way off, but what would you do if something similar happened after you died? Who is going to deal with it?"

"That's true, but ..."

"Both the Bakkenheim guys and the Marburg guys should try to do something on their own first. That's why the adventurers who had a conflict with you will fight hard. That's how the level as a whole is raised little by little. Don't worry about it, if they can't do anything about it, the request will come."

"Understood. Then, when the request comes, I'll be ready to deal with it immediately."

"That's right, that's fine."

I left the guild office in order to prepare for the trip to Breichberg from tomorrow.

The entrance to the Irosun Great Forest was where I headed from the shadows.

There was a guild branch office there, and the staff was checking the presence and rank of the escorts, but it was very crowded.

"Why is it, we have two C-rank adventurers."

"A herd of over ten Orcs has been spotted, so do you still want to go?"

"Geh, ten Orcs ... I've never heard of such a story, it's impossible."

"That's why we're building a caravan. We're going to form a formation and use the adventurers we've gathered to defend ourselves. If you understand, please write down the number and rank of the guards, the number of companions, and your luggage here."

Apparently, it seemed that it was difficult to pass alone, so it seemed that they were forming an impromptu caravan.

[ Reinhardt, is this kind of response good? ]

[ That's right, it's a measure that is taken when a dangerous monster appears, but it hasn't been done recently. ]

Certainly, it wouldn't be so confusing if it was done frequently.

Until now, when going through the Irosun Great Forest, it seemed that one adventurer was the basic form of guarding one carriage, but from the looks of it, each carriage had two escorts, and it seemed that five carriages were advancing in a formation.

In this case, at least ten adventurers would be the escort.

I've heard that a skilled adventurer could take on three Orcs on their own, so they should be able to repel a group of over ten Orcs.

It was a simple calculation, but the number of escorts would be doubled, so naturally adventurers were flocking in search of jobs.

For travelers, the increase in monsters may be nothing but a nuisance, but there were also adventurers who were grateful for the increased work.

Among the adventurers who registered for escort jobs, there were those who looked outright evil, and those who looked unreliable, but from the perspective of others, I was the same.

What could I say, I didn't look like an S-rank at all.

As I was looking at the entrance to the forest, I heard the clanging of bells.

"Let's go! The tail end, are you ready!"

"Anytime is fine!"

The last driver in the line waved their handbell, shouting back loudly.

The caravan of five horse-drawn carriages slowly made its way to the road through the forest, gradually picking up speed.

[ Reinhardt, what is with that bell? ]

[ If the interval in the formation is too wide, or if a monster is found, they will sound it and notify the surrounding carriages. ]

They were moving in a caravan, but the horse-drawn carriages could not run exactly like a self-driving car.

If you kept the so-called inter-vehicle distance, there would be a considerable distance from the beginning to the end.

It seemed that handbells were used as a way to notify the front when something was wrong with the last carriage.

[ Kent-sama, let's go deep into the forest. ]

[ That's right, I wonder if the density of monsters will be higher in the center of the forest here as well? ]

[ Who knows, I don't know, but the possibility is high. ]

The midpoint of the Irosun Great Forest was also the boundary between Bakkenheim and Marburg.

At this point, there were offices for both towns, where items that were prohibited from being taken out or brought in to the city were checked.

Just a month ago, the knights of both cities were in a state of conflict due to the ruse of thieves, but now there was not even a single figure.

There were log cabin offices on both sides of the buffer zone, but they had been completely destroyed.

[ Hey, this is ... ]

[ I guess they were attacked by monsters. ]

When I peeked inside the cabins while hiding in the shadows, I saw Goblins scavenging on the floor.

Blood splattered on the walls, and traces of blood pools were left on the floor.

[ Wasn't this place filled with nearly ten people? ]

[ That's right, but it's also possible that the number of personnel was reduced due to other measures taken before the attack. ]

[ I'd like to think so ... But, this is terrible. ]

I could only pray that everyone who saw us off with a salute on the way back from Bakkenheim did not become a victim.

The village of Slakka, which we moved to next, was attacked by a herd of Minotaurs.

Zudoooooon!

The sturdy log gate creaked from the Minotaur's charge and looked like it would crumble at any moment.

"Hurry up and load up the sandbags! Hurry up or they'll break through!"

"Archers, fire when they draw near, if there is a distance, it will be repelled!"

"Boooooo!"

Twenty Minotaurs in all, one after the other, charged at the gate.

"Mana, oh mana, oh mana that governs the world, gather, gather, gather in my hands and become the wind, dance, dance, dance oh wind, dance, and become a blade! Daaaaaa!"

At the tower above the gate, the adventurer who finished chanting loudly swung their arm down, and the charging Minotaur's chest was slashed and blood splashed.

"Boooo ..."

The Minotaur fell to its knees, but another Minotaur ran past it and rushed at the gate.

"Archers ... fire!"

More than a dozen archers shot their arrows at once, but the Minotaur curled up its upper body, bowed its head low, and plunged into the gate without slowing down.

Zugaaaaaan!

The bolt that closed the gate cracked, and the gate moved inward slightly.

"It's dangerous! We can't hold on like this! Stop their rush!"

"I'm doing so without being told! We don't have enough staff!"

"Sandbags! Bring me more! Earth-attribute magicians, if you're here, harden them!"

Even while soldiers and adventurers were running around inside the gate, the Minotaurs prepared themselves and rushed forward.

[ Kent-sama, they will be destroyed at this rate. ]

[ Yup, let's stop them a bit. ]

"Booooooo!"

I unfolded a shield of darkness in front of the Minotaur, who charged with a roar.

There was a loud thud, but the shield of darkness didn't flinch and stopped the Minotaur.

When I shot it in the head with light-attribute attack magic from the shadow space, the Minotaur stopped moving and collapsed.

[ Rinhardt, collect it. ]

[ Roger that, what about the rest? ]

[ Yup, I'll beat them quickly. ]

I stopped the Minotaurs trying to charge with a shield of darkness, shot them dead, and had Reinhardt collect them.

I finished the wounded Minotaur and left it alone.

It took less than 20 minutes to finish tidying everything up with assembly line work.

"Hey, what's going on. The Minotaurs are disappearing!"

"Is there a dangerous monster we can't even see."

The Minotaurs had been dealt with, but if things continued like this, other monsters would come.

[ Zeta, Eta, Thetha, can you get rid of the monsters in the area? ]

[ Leave it to me, Nushi-dono. ]

[ Let's make this area our territory. ]

[ I will finish it soon. ]

[ Yup, please. ]

Zeta-tachi jumped out of the shadow space while happily wagging their tails.

"Woooooon!"

"Woon, woon, woon, woooooon!"

Zeta-tachi scattered around the village and started howling all at once, causing the soldiers and adventurers to turn pale and stop moving.

It seemed that Zeta-tachi were going round and round around Slakka, repeatedly roaring as the moved away little by little.

"It's no good ... It's over, Gigawolves are rallying their allies."

"How many are there, five? Ten? We can't win."

"What are you saying, if we don't protect the city, who will. Stand up, stand up and fight!"

The adventurers misunderstood Zeta-tachi's roars as an attack and fell to their knees with a look of despair.

[ Kent-sama, can you explain it to them? ]

[ Hmm ... I'll be troubled if their sense of danger disappears, so I'll leave it as it is. ]

[ It nyant be helped, nya ... Nero will also mark it, nya. ](TN:Took a bit to figure out what the first bit was, 'しょうがにゃいにゃぁ' (shiyouganyainyaa), turns out it was shouganai wa (It can't be helped), just nya-ified.)

It was rare for Nero to move on his own, but wasn't that just because he wanted to pee?

Maa, most monsters wouldn't come near if a Storm Cat marked the area.

[ Reinhardt, would Nero's marking be effective around Volzard? ]

[ It would probably be effective, but there are people who will be in trouble if monsters don't come. ]

Monsters were dangerous creatures, but you could get magic stones and materials from them.

For Minotaurs, horns were traded at a high price as a material for magic tools.

[ Completely eliminate the monsters from around Volzard, monopolize the materials ... ha, that's not good. ]

[ That's right. Everything is better in moderation. ]

After stroking Zeta-tachi who returned after claiming the territory and Nero who had finished marking, I continued my reconnaissance of the Irosun Great Forest.

The five carriages advancing in formation would slow down and stop when they discovered a monster, forming a dense mass.

Starting from a single line, they were crowded in a row, two, one, two, and when they had time, they gathered all the passengers in the carriage in the center.

In the case of lone Orcs and Ogres, most of the cases were dealt with by the adventurers at the front.

This was because the adventurers guarding the front and rear of the formation were assigned skilled people.

Even if they could defeat monsters, they couldn't finish processing their corpses.

Because they couldn't afford to dig holes, burn corpses, and bury them.

Once they've removed the magic stones and horns, the best they could do was push them away from the road.

Abandoned corpses were swarmed by Goblins and Kobolds, and large monsters gathered to target them, creating a negative cycle.