CH 47

The next morning, a pompous looking man came while I was practicing ‘charging arrow’. He was riding a gaudily decorated horse and there were an entourage of about 30 armed adventurers following him. Juno and Margo were also there. This man must be a noble or something since he looked so pompous. 

According to Juno’s gestures and his drawing on the ground, these people were going to the dungeon in the forest to conduct an investigation. 

So? What’s that got to do with me?

“○×△◆～！▼●■×～！”

The nobleman was saying something. 

Oh please no Sir. I’m just a lowly commoner. Things like monsters should be dealt with by strong people like all of you, instead of someone from a humble background like me. 

I told Juno ‘no’ but Juno shook his head in response. He looked ghastly pale. 

I guess that means I can’t say ‘no’ here?

Though I didn’t want to, I said ‘yes’ and the nobleman nodded his head, looking satisfied with my answer. 

But if things are about to go south, I’m going to run, okay?

I donned on my gear and went along with this pompous man’s entourage. As for Ash, I felt bad for leaving him behind but I had to leave him here. I chained his collar to a post and let him loose in the garden. I made sure to prepare him with enough water and food. Rocinante (my horse) and the chickens too, I also prepared enough food and water for them.

“Papa needs to go to work now. Be a good boy, okay?”

“Woof!”

Being the good boy he was, Ash sat up straight as he saw me off.

And so, I left my house.

◇◇◇

It was safe to say we were obliterated before we even reached the dungeon. If you want me to tell you what had happened, well… We were surrounded by 3 cockatrices and 4 hellhounds. 

One hellhound had come to my house before and if you went deeper into the woods, of course you were bound to be swarmed by them. If there was only one, it was very possible to defeat it. But facing 7 of them at the same time was a bit of a stretch to say the least. 

The nobleman said something that seemed like “CHARGEEEEE!!” but everyone was scattering everywhere instead. Some of the adventurers died from being poisoned, petrified or even burned to crisp. 

When I glanced at him, I saw the nobleman was also escorted to safety by his follower.

I gave paruna antidote to Margo and Juno and activated ‘fortress’ to become their shield. I received the hellhound’s flame attack straight on. I was barely able to drink dual potion (medium) and hit one of the hellhound with donur poison arrow, bringing one down. 

The three of us managed to escape, shoulder to shoulder. 

『Individual Name: Keigo Okuda has acquired Fire Resistance level 2.』

When we arrived at my house, the three of us were laughing so hard at how ridiculous all of us were. Hopefully the nobleman would learn from this experience and could restrain himself from being unreasonable in the future.

I heated the water to clean ourselves from dirt and tended the wound with potion. I set Ash free from his chain, allowing him to play around in the garden. 

We decided to have a drink and a meal in order to reward ourselves for our service.