After obtaining their second magic stone (about the size of a grain of sand), McGillis and his group drew the magic stones from the ground and put them in a bag.
Their magic stone hunting was somewhat more efficient.
They gradually advanced towards where the subjugation force had gone.
“There are others who think the same way we do.”
The subjugation force had momentum.
But that was because they were making a fuss as a group.
If they went deeper into the hunting grounds, the encounter rate with medium and large monsters would increase.
Adventurers on the outer edges of the group dealt with them.
The front was a brute force push with numbers and momentum.
The sides and rear were forced to break away from the group.
The adventurers who broke away, their initial excitement gone, felt a sense of urgency as they dealt with the monsters before them.
Should they follow the group (the subjugation force), or secure a safe path back to town here?
McGillis and his group chose the latter.
Hunting in this place where monsters they could handle on their own roamed.
“What should we do?”
Phasis, concerned that magic stone hunting would be disadvantageous with other adventurers watching, asked McGillis.
“Hmm…”
McGillis imagined themselves being attacked by adventurers and monsters while hunting magic stones.
It was a bother.
It was simply a matter of funding their visits to brothels, which didn’t go as planned, and earning pocket money.
“Let’s move on. It’s about time we join the (forced) subjugation.”
“Understood.”
Phasis replied with a hint of relief.
“Is that a medium-sized monster?”
“Probably…”
McGillis and his group moved deeper, maintaining distance from the adventurers and monsters. They took down the occasional attacking small monsters with a single blow. They cautiously dealt with the unfamiliar medium-sized monsters.
“Are they subordinates of the subjugation target?”
The monster clearly differed from other medium-sized ones.
“I wonder…”
For Phasis, McGillis (a monster) and a specimen of a new species (a monster). It was six of one, half a dozen of the other.
The new species was easier to defeat than McGillis. If one were to make a distinction.
“Kuuon, Kuuon!”
A monster that was half reptile and half mammal.
Swords bounced off its elastic skin.
Not by cutting. By striking. They attacked its insides with blunt force.
The monster writhed in pain. When it bowed its head, they brought their swords down as if to split its skull.
“Groar!”
“You’re too big!”
“Another one is coming!”
McGillis and his group frequently encountered monsters that were likely soldiers forming the King’s army, the targets of subjugation.
“To those who went ahead! Ahh— so annoying!”
“Kuuon! Kuuonkuuonkuo—n!”
“Hurry up and bow your head!”
“Ngh! Kuuon!”
This was too much for Phasis.
Defeating them one-on-one was difficult.
While dealing with the monster in front of him, McGillis struck the flank of the monster trying to devour Phasis (precisely with the flat of his blade).
“Phai! Let’s fall back for a bit!”
“Y-yes!”
“Kuuon! Kuuon!?”
They took down one monster.
They injured the remaining monsters and let them go.
But their plan didn’t work on the monsters.
With their possessed magic power and their master’s orders, they were likely told to kill humans. Thus, they attacked McGillis and his group as they retreated.
“We were going to let you go.”
“Groar!”
“You! You!”
They finished off the monster.
They retreated before new enemies entered their attack range.
“Kuuon! Kuuon! Kuuon!”
Monster train.
McGillis and his group, leading the new species of monsters, retreated to where the adventurers were fighting monsters.
“—!!”
The victims, who had been provoked into fighting large monsters by McGillis’s group, saw the giant monsters swinging their clubs and, in the next instant, realizing that an unprecedented swarm of the same species was approaching, their bodies stiffened with double the fear.
“Kuuonkuonguo—n!!”
“—Uooohhh!”
Angrily, with curses, they swung their weapons at the monsters.
The swarm of monsters, despite their throats and forelegs being pierced, did not stop, crashing into adventurers, kicking them away, and crushing them. As the swarm slowed down, the unharmed adventurers attacked.
“Hold on!”
“Goon!!”
“Now’s our chance!”
“It’s not my fault, it’s not my fault…”
McGillis joyfully smeared the swarm of monsters onto the adventurers and smiled.
Phasis, muttering apologies to himself that it wasn’t his fault that they were being chased by adventurers “again,” ran alongside McGillis.
“Silver-ranked adventurers! Isn’t there anyone Silver-ranked!?”
A rock-class adventurer shouted.
Blades chipped, weapon power weakened.
Seeing the monster turn its attention to the next adventurer, McGillis and his group fled towards the town.
McGillis had been matching Phasis’s speed.
They were caught up by the adventurers fleeing from the melee behind them.
“You bastards!? You’ve done this more than once!”
“So noisy…”
“It’s not my fault, I didn’t do anything…”
They ran in a circle around McGillis and his group.
To avoid being completely surrounded, McGillis and his group reluctantly decided to continue running towards the town.
“Caw caw.”
McGillis and his group were subjected to a barrage of condemnation.
“It’s not my fault!”
Phasis’s spirit was on the verge of being crushed by guilt.
“It’s your fault you were there! If you hadn’t been, I would have lost them before we reached the town!”
McGillis, feigning ignorance like a child, retorted to the adventurers.
While arguing like this, they led the swarm of monsters all the way to a point where the town gate was clearly visible.
In front of the gate, perhaps alerted to the disturbance, the gatekeepers had contacted the guards who protected the town from external enemies. They formed a square formation with their large shields raised.
“—Ngh!”
The captain of the guard was shouting something.
“?”
No matter what McGillis and his group were told, they couldn’t stop.
Behind them were adventurers and a swarm of monsters.
If they stopped, almost everyone would fall.
They would be attacked from behind (their defenseless backs) by the swarm of monsters.
“Fire—”
The captain of the guard’s voice finally reached them at a comprehensible distance.
They had expected the guard to clear a path.
But the moment countless arrows were fired in an arc, that expectation was shattered into an illusion.
“Gyah—aahhh!”
The adventurers, who had discarded their small and large shields because they would be a burden when fleeing.
They struggled to defend themselves with their personal protection and business tools (main weapons), but it was useless.
“Gah!”
“Phai!! Move your legs! If you stop, you’ll be trampled to death by the ones behind you (adventurers and monsters)!”
Phasis was hit by arrows in his shoulder and arm.
Thanks to McGillis’s short stature, the adventurers behind him acted as a roof, leaving him unharmed.
“Kuuonkuuonkuuon!!”
The swarm behind the adventurers.
With instinctive movements to protect their eyes (blinking, tilting their heads), they remained unharmed by the arrows piercing their eyes.
They attacked the wounded adventurers.
“They’re catching up…”
The group behind them was catching up.
The adventurers behind them were no help in slowing them down.
They wanted to rely on the center, but their will to fight vanished at the screams and carnage behind them.
They were just beings running while shouting.
“Useless—Ugh!”
McGillis swung his weapon at the adventurers behind him.
“Gg?! What are you— Ah—”
Because it was a surprise attack.
The adventurer took the first hit lightly.
He blocked the second attack, but…
Further pushed from behind by an adventurer, his consciousness heightened in slow motion, his face slammed into the approaching ground. Before he could grimace in pain or utter words of complaint to the brat (McGillis) who attacked him, a violent impact from behind plunged him into darkness.
“What are you doing!?”
Phasis, running beside him while injured, asked McGillis in a reproachful tone.
“I used them to slow them down! Phai, you don’t want to die either, do you?”
“Ugh. Well…”
Before he could say “Yes, but…”.
Again, the captain of the guard’s cruel voice (ordering arrows to be fired) was heard from the front.
*Shupapapa!*
The number of arrows decreased?
It seemed they didn’t have enough time to prepare.
“Get out of the way—”
“Eek, it’s not my fault—”
McGillis and his group collided with the guards forming a square formation.
Since the large shields were slanted, they entered the formation as if climbing a slope. The adventurers behind them also slipped and clung to the edges of the large shields, entering the formation.
“Bringing monsters with you—! I will hear about it later before the mayor and all the guild leaders—! You cowards are in the way! Get out of here so you don’t interfere with the rear support!”
The captain of the guard’s angry shouts almost burst their eardrums.
“Ugh, you’re so noisy?!”
“Please be quiet… Let’s go to the inn? We’ll just get in the way of the guard, so let’s do that, okay?”
McGillis said something unnecessary, and to prevent further provoking the captain of the guard, he covered McGillis’s mouth.
(Phai…! The inn. A brothel would be better♪ Ah! With this commotion, it’s closed… isn’t it? Damn monsters!)
McGillis glared at the swarm of monsters as if he could kill them with his gaze.
As Phasis said, they took refuge at the inn.
“Hold your shields! If you let them through, the precious people in town will die! Even if you don’t have anyone precious! To reach towns other than this one! You need a safe town! You all! We will defend this place to the death!”
“Ooooooooooh!! Ooh! Ooh!”
Encouraged by the captain of the guard, the large shield-bearers of the guard responded with exceptional vigor, voices raised with their comrades, and slammed their large shields against the ill-tempered monsters pushing forward.
In unison, they pushed the swarm of monsters back slightly.
At that slight change.
The guards wielding long weapons behind the large shields thrust with all their might.
“Gu—on!!”
“Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!”
“Die! Just die!”
“Good work, everyone! Skewer them like that!”
“Ooooh!!”
After several hours of advancing and retreating (offense and defense) between the guards and the swarm of monsters, the guards finally skewered the last monster.
“We have achieved victory!”
“Uoooooooooo!”
“We have defended the town!”
“—Ooooooooooo!”
“But! This does not mean our mission is over!”
“—?!”
“Cowards who fled in fear of monsters! Bringing another swarm of monsters with them! Could put our precious town in danger!”
“—!!”
“Prepare your equipment! Take turns standing guard in a square formation and prepare for the next battle! We are the guardians of this town!”
“That’s right! We can’t leave it to the adventurers! We will protect the town!”
The guards took turns defending the town gate.
No one seemed concerned about the fate of the subjugation force.
The adventurers, hearing the captain of the guard’s words, grumbled their displeasure… and stomped off to the tavern to drink.
“Get out of the way!”
“We’re not for your amusement!”
Before they could be subjected to the inhabitants’ criticism, the adventurers, raising their voices, fled to the tavern.
McGillis and his group heard from the inn that the guards had defeated the swarm of monsters.
“Alright! Let’s go to the brothel!”
“B-but we don’t have enough money?! Let’s just stay at the inn quietly today? Let’s really not leave the inn today, okay?”
Phasis desperately tried to stop him.
McGillis, his body heated from the battle, couldn’t be soothed except by women, so he ignored Phasis’s voice and headed for the brothel.
“Ah… Haa…”
In his room, Phasis prayed that McGillis wouldn’t cause any trouble and waited anxiously for dinner, trembling.
After eating dinner, he calmed down and drifted off to sleep.
In the morning, upon waking, he checked to see if McGillis had returned.
“He’s not here…”
He clutched his head, overreacting to the arrival of breakfast.
“Breakfast is served, but? Did something happen?”
“N-no. It’s breakfast, isn’t it. Ah, thank you.”
Phasis received two servings of breakfast from an employee.
Since McGillis never returned, he ate McGillis’s portion of the breakfast.
If he left it, it would be a bother to the inn. He stuffed the breakfast into his stomach, thinking it was McGillis’s fault he didn’t return.
“…I could probably escape now… but no, that’s impossible…”
The gate was guarded and sealed by the guards.
Even climbing the outer wall and descending with a rope would lead to difficult excuses if caught.
Phasis continued to wait by the window for McGillis’s return, eagerly anticipating it.
As if waiting for a lover♪
