Chapter 24: Legion

Author: Kurohitsuji
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2086fk/25/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“So that’s why I’m going to the royal castle.”
“You’re going again?”

The moment I try to head for the castle.
Glad grabs me by the back of the collar and dangles me like a cat again.

“What. Let go.”
“You, if you barge into the royal castle with no warning you’ll get arrested.”
“Shut up. It’s fine, they know my face over there.”
“It ain’t fine. Why are you spoiling for a fight.”

Why. You’re asking that.

“…Listen. I get passed around every single time, and next it’s searching for a missing person?”
“I get how you feel, but calm down. I’ll talk to the castle. If you’re going, it’s tomorrow.”
“Tch. Fine.”

When I click my tongue, the adventurers watching from a distance jump.
What is it, honestly.

“You… that ain’t an attitude a girl your age should take.”
“Look, I just remembered, I haven’t had lunch.”
“Then Ouka, here.”

Smiling Liza shoves something into my mouth.
…Nng. Is this apple pie? Ooh, this is good.

“I thought you’d be hungry, so I got it ready.”
“Hahihahohi-hahan.”
“Everyone around is scared, so be a little more ladylike.”
“Gulp. Okaaay.”

“…Oi, see that, she settled.”
“…Ah, like a beast tamer.”
“…Uwah, she looked this way.”
“…Scary, oi, let’s go.”

I can hear you. Rude.

“I mean, adventurers, don’t flinch at one little girl.”
“Shut it, epithet-holder. Your threat level is above a monster’s.”

This person says things with a straight face.

“Liza. I’m very hurt, so seconds on the apple pie.”
“Yes, yes.”

I’m stuffed with apple pie again, in a feeding-animals sort of way.
This is good. The sweet-tart of the apple is just right.
Chomp, chomp.

“…Did we have something.”
“…Ah, I’ve got raisins.”
“…I’ll go buy something.”

Munch, munch. Chomp, chomp.

For a while I just eat whatever people around me give me.
Toward the end there was some kind of stir, but it was delicious, so whatever.

“So. Any work today? If I can’t go to the castle I don’t have anything to do.”
“Hnn? Was there something… wait a moment.”

She flips through the request sheets under the counter and checks inside.

“Let’s see… there’s a subjugation request and a delivery request.”
“A subjugation request? Of what?”
“A goblin pack in a woods along the highway, apparently. Up to seven confirmed.”
“Hmm… shall I go?”

Seven goblins or so, I can probably hunt them as I am now.
If it looks impossible I can fly and run.

“Listen, you. That’s normally a job a party takes, you know?”
“Because if it’s still here this late, that means nobody took it, right?”

And along the highway there’s a lot of traffic, so it’s dangerous.
Better if someone who can go, goes.

“Well, that’s true, but… can I ask you?”
“Aye aye. If it looks impossible I’ll run, that okay?”
“Ah, I’ll leave that call to you.”
“Then I’ll be going.”

Anyway I’ll look from the air. There’s less danger from above.

○○○○○○○○

Flying from the capital is fine, but now then.
Where along the highway is this woods.
I’ve barely left town; I don’t know the roads well.
Hmm. At times like this, asking is best.

“Ring, search for goblins. Can you?”
“—Understood: searching… hit. Deploying map.”

Oh, there it is, there it is. These red dots are the goblins, right.
Wait, but isn’t this over twenty.
The talk was seven.

“—Warning: there is a commanding specimen in the pack.”
“Eh, what’s that.”
“—A higher species, a Goblin Lord. It uses attack magic and enhancement magic.
—Also, the scale has developed into a goblin legion. Withdrawal recommended.”

A legion.
That’s the kind of huge pack the knight order goes all-out to subjugate, right.
Not something an ordinary adventurer can do anything about. A threat on the level of a disaster.
I can’t imagine I can handle something like that alone.

“Uwah, yikes! Better go back and report to Glad first… wait?”

At the edge of my vision, in the direction the red dots on the map are moving, several green dots.

“Hey Ring. The green on the map.”
“—People. Confirmed, it appears to be a peddler’s wagon.”
“…Can they get away?”
“—Negative: insufficient speed. They will be caught.”

…I think the Goddess hates me.
Every single time, why is the timing this bad.

“…Haa. Ring, I’ll make time until the peddler train can evacuate.”
“—Understood: estimated complete in about thirty minutes.
—Sakura-Drive Ready.”

“Ignition”

Trailing sakura-pink mana-light, I change course.
I go through the sky, aiming at the goblins.
Driving them off is impossible, but buying time should be fine.

“I see them. Is the Goblin Lord that big one?”
“—Affirmative: the commanding specimen.”

Ahead in my vision, a monster with a huge frame, though not as much as an ogre.
A large club in its hand, running with a terrific expression.
The source of the black mana-light wrapping the goblins is that one, huh.
And they have bows. If attack magic is coming too, better to come down and run than fly.

Now then. I just practiced fighting a group.
I’ll hold them with everything I have.

“Shall we dance, you monsters.”

I max-accelerate the verniers. I drop altitude and fly parallel to the ground.
Midway I switch from verniers to rounds and fire as we pass.
I put two into the Goblin Lord’s chest and switch back to verniers at once to kill speed.
Uwah, that did nothing. What kind of muscle is that.

After landing I run at once.
That one is tough. I’ll just mess them up, anyway.
I kick the earth and leap. From above I fire mana rounds and smash ordinary goblins’ heads.
All right. These I can do in one shot.

I change direction in the air with boosters and put rounds into another.
But that mana round is batted away with a sword.
I immediately put in the next round, finish it, and revise my understanding.
Enhancement magic, what a pain. They’re goblins, and each one is strong.

The Goblin Lord brings a giant club down. But it’s slow.
I accelerate and leap, and the goblin below gets caught and crushed lengthwise.
So it’s strong too, this huge thing.
Not as much as an ogre, but if it catches me I die.

I sharpen my nerves. I cycle mana through my whole body.
I pour in everything I have, and I accelerate.
Faster. Faster still.

I run so fast the pale crimson doesn’t even have time to fade.

I shoot.
I run and shoot.
I hit and shoot and leap.
I accelerate and kick away and shoot.
I turn. I kick away. I accelerate, and shoot.
Re-accelerate with verniers, shoot, hit and shoot and dodge.

I laugh.

Black hair crossing the edge of my vision.
Pale crimson dyes the world.
I punch through. I rain rounds. I spray.
My pulse jumps, pulled along by the string of gunshots.

Four arrows loosed at me. I read the lines, spin, and slip them.
I kick the earth and run. I take booster acceleration and leap.
I drive through spinning like a bullet and shoot through every goblin around me.
I land in that momentum and slide along the ground, black hair streaming.
Where I stretch both hands and take aim: the huge thing’s knee.
I put two in together, and the body stops for an instant.
I accelerate, go around behind, and fire a string at the back.
Unable to take the impact, the Goblin Lord puts a knee to the ground.

At once I wrap myself in sakura-pink mana-light and slide into the Goblin Lord’s space.
Using boosters I kick the jaw up with both feet and spray the body as it arches.
Eight rounds, all hits.
I dodge a last-ditch attack with boosters, land, and re-accelerate at once.
A giant eyeball. I put left and right muzzles to a living thing’s weak point.

“Drop dead, you huge thing.”

Point-blank continuous fire.
I think it screamed enough to shake my eardrums, and the Goblin Lord falls on its back as it is.

I check around by eye. I don’t see anything moving anymore.

“Ring. Mana readings?”
“—No hostile readings in the vicinity.”

I hear the report and return the handguns to the holster.
Among dancing leaves, the pale crimson mixes in and is gone.

While I’m still in the afterglow of combat, I pull back from myself a little.
Laughing while I let the handguns rip is pretty, you know.

But I don’t know. Before I got to scared, I ended up thinking it was fun.
I hate pain, and I hate fighting for no reason.
But once it starts, I can’t put the brakes on.

Still. I meant to buy time and I ran pretty wild.
Glad’s going to be mad at me again.
Uuh… I hate that I’ve gotten used to being dangled lately.

Anyway, while I snap off canines from the goblins for subjugation proof, I think about how to make my excuse.