Raid Now then, this story was occurring probably around the time as my party leader whose faint smile was his trademark, Kitsune, just returned to the inn and was cleaning up Niko"s bed-wetting aftermath.
After finishing the E rank request, “Subjugating 3 E rank demonic beast – crazy monkey.”, I stripped off parts of their bodies which were the subjugation proofs. The subjugation proofs were their fists which were their trademark. After cutting off the three pairs of both left and right fists with my sword, I tied them with up a string and then put them inside my waist bag.
Then, after waiting for the acc.u.mulated fatigue from the battle to recover, I decided to head back to the town. After reporting to the guild, I"d receive my reward. Since it was an E rank request, the reward was pretty decent. Kitsune was also doing his best, so I had to properly earn money as he requested.
“… Fuu, is Leila alright, I wonder?… I hope she didn"t eat Niko.”
She was a demon. I didn"t know Kitsune"s thought about this matter, but since he let Niko to be with her, perhaps she wasn"t that dangerous. That eased my worry, albeit only slightly.
Well she didn"t seem like someone who"d ignore Kitsune"s order and did things on her own, but for better or worse, she was faithful to her desire, so I still couldn"t rid of this worry.
“… let"s go back.”
Muttering so, I headed to the town. And then, the moment I was about to take a step forward toward the town. At that very moment,
—I stopped from the chills running down my spine.
Although I just turned around, I ended up turning my head to my rear again. This dreadful feeling was similar like the one I felt from Leila. Right, this feeling was similar to when I spotted “Eater hand” when I went to subjugate “Arachne” with Kitsune and co.. This was the type of threat that although in itself it wasn"t that formidable, but once I made a move on it, I"d be done for.
That"s right, once you touched it, the dam would send tsunami your way, that"s the kind of threat I was feeling at this moment.
And my premonition was right. At the end of my sight, although the seemed smaller than a grain— I could see a large number of monkeys, similarly like the ones I defeated before, were approaching from the distance. It would still take some time for them to reach here, but perhaps in about thirty minutes, that large group would definitely head directly to the city.
“This is…! It"s bad…!”
The moment I opened my eyes in realization of how dangerous this situation was, alarm bell was ringing from the town. Seems like the a.s.signed guards around the town also had noticed the demonic beast horde. Most likely, they"d soon call for support from adventurers within the town as well as adventurers from Grandile Kingdom.
I felt a bit relieved thinking about that. And then I turned my sight toward the demonic beasts horde again.
“…They aren"t just monkeys… there are also wolfs…. goblin, goblin knight… wha, that"s —!”
Calming myself down, I could more or less perceive the demonic beasts within that horde with far sight.
Among them, monkey and wolf types demonic beasts were running as if "running away" from the horde, while the goblins and goblin knights were running as if to ‘chase after" them right behind them.
And behind them all there was an even larger shadow.
I only heard it on later dates, but it was a huge goblin that was the same if not larger than the variant monkey Kitsune fought before.
The huge goblin, which seemingly exceeded 5 meters, although it was running quite a distant away behind the horde, it was heading this way while emitting overwhelming intimidating air that might even freeze the body of those who saw it.
“Goblin… King…!?”
Presumably it was top D ranker, that if it ran wild with its whole strength, power-wise it might even reach demon level, a huge ugly demon.
Which meant, I only heard it on later date, but it was a monster that was stronger than the variant crazy monkey which Kitsune fought. No, specifically speaking, if we included the fact that it possessed low-level intelligent, it might be more accurate to call it half-demon, half-demonic beast.
In any case, however, it was a monster who couldn"t be defeated unless dozens of D rank adventurers were sent to subjugate it, that one was for sure.
“But why… why now …?!”
I murmured so while grinding my teeth, and then I swiftly ran toward the town. First thing first was to meet up with Kitsune. When push came to shove, we could ask Leila to do something about it. Or so I thought.
◇ ◇ ◇
On the other side, Duke Orba was currently slightly irritated with the fact that Reis returned with not a good news.
Although in the report the youth was supposed to be a small fry, he somehow managed to slip away from his bodyguard Reis who although he was a criminal, he possessed solid prowess. Beyond the astonishment, it irritated him more.
Therefore, it wasn"t exactly to vent his frustration, but Duke Orba decided to meet the captive man, the man who entrusted Niko to Kitsune, himself.
“Ha… ha… ha…!”
“Hmm, even after going through so much torture, you"re still unwilling to talk, huh?”
“Ha… Haa… I won"t ever let you touch her…!”
Although the man had been interrogated, he didn"t tell them anything.
Therefore, they decided to torture him. He was beaten up, healed with recovery magic, and then beaten up again. Over and over again. They intended to do that until the man decided to tell them what they wanted to know.
And then, ten days had pa.s.sed since they started torturing the man. Nevertheless he told them neither Niko"s whereabouts nor who Kitsune, whom he entrusted her to, was.
“We"ve long located your precious s.h.i.tty brat"s whereabouts… The problem is … the person you left the brat with.”
“…what?”
However, that wasn"t a problem either. After all, as long as Kitsune didn"t grasp their tail, it was only a matter of time before the Niko was found.
The problem was, either it for the man who entrusted Niko to him or for Duke Orba, the person named Kitsune was simply unpredictable.
In fact, although he was entrusted with Niko, Kitsune didn"t decide to leave the town. Although S ranked criminal was sent to deal with him, Kitsune somehow managed to slip away despite being an H rank adventurer.
“That man … Who is he?”
“… I don"t know, I just came across him by chance while running away.”
“… guess so, I"ve thoroughly investigated everyone who has connection with you, after all. Had you obediently handed over that brat, you wouldn"t have to suffer in a place like this you know?”
Perhaps due to frustration, Duke Orba"s words became slightly rougher, but on the other side, the man was starting to get anxious about what kind of person the person he"d entrusted his precious daughter to.
What if he was someone who love to abuse his daughter. What if he was a pervert who"d l.u.s.t after his daughter.
It might be already too late, but such thoughts started swarming his mind. Perhaps, he might have left his daughter to a very outrageous person. Or so he thought.
“However, given the fact that they still haven"t left this town… that means at the very least they still have some business in this town. And then, given the fact that they are sheltering that brat…. I guess, most likely their objective is you.”
“!?”
Duke Orba had thought about the best way to break that man, Kitsune.
A simple yet effective method… “hostage”. The one Duke Orba wanted wasn"t the father, but the daughter, Niko. That was why he didn"t care about the full of wounds man in front of him, even if the man died.
“That"s why, will you act as a bait for a while? Not that you have the right to refuse though."
Joining his hands together, Duke Orba requested so in smile. Age-wise he was already in his latter half of the thirty, but his speech and conduct was like that of a youngster. Child-like innocent madness could be felt from it.
“… kuh…!"
The man who had neither the ability to refuse nor to resist could only hang his head in frustration. Seeing that, Duke Orba lifted the edge of his mouth as if finding it funny.
And then, right at that moment—
“Lord Orba! Urgent report!”
“Huh? What"s it?”
“About 2 kilometers in the north, a huge group of demonic beast have appeared! The number is approximately 300! And among them, there is a goblin king!”
“What…the…!!”
— A sudden crisis appeared.
◇ ◇ ◇
Uproar broke out inside the town.
After noticing the sudden appearance of the demonic beasts horde, adventurers and knights promptly headed to the town entrance to build up defense lines, their gazes are focused on the demonic beasts horde.
There were about twenty adventurers gathered. The highest rank among them was D rank which there was only one person, the rests were mostly E rank and F rank.
By the way, Kitsune wasn"t among them. After cleaning up Niko"s bed-wetting aftermath, he was casually relaxing in the inn.
“… isn"t it kinda noisy outside ♪?”
“You"re right … has a demon appeared or something, I wonder?”
“I"m right here, you know?”
“I mean a demon that"s not you… like the demon lord or something?”
“Since it"s you we"re talking about, Kitsune-kun, I think the likelihood is pretty high ♪”
“If it is really the case, that"s simply the worst, let"s just holed up inside the room.”
In a sense, rather than the approaching danger, they were imagining about the danger that was way more impossible to actually occur instead.
Leila, the hero, and then the apostle, perhaps because he"d been continuously faced with such barrage of bizzare cheaters, his sense of danger had gone fairly numb.
Perhaps, even if the current Kitsune was informed that a Goblin King was currently approaching the town—
“Kitsune! Terrible news! A horde of demonic beasts is approaching the town! Moreover there"s even a goblins king among them!”
“Oh, are goblins delicious?”
“Well, so-so I think … But, they come with quant.i.ty, so they may be a good choice when you are very hungry or something ♪”
—he"d only give that kind of response. Trisha, who just barged into the room, had her eyes opened wide in bewilderment.
As for Niko, perhaps finding Goblin King"s name sounded amazing, her eyes were shining brightly, but that reaction was still different from the one Trisha expected.
“Umm, you see …. It"s a goblin king, you know?”
“Say, Rishe-chan.”
She wanted them to be more surprised, Trisha even for some reason said the Goblin King for the second time in a polite manner.
However, Kitsune turned his gaze toward Trisha while faintly smiling. Being stared at, Trisha was somewhat stirred, but even while pouting, she still answered back to him.
“…what"s it?”
“Who"s the one in front of me?”
“… "Red Night (Leila)"”
“See?”
“Don"t "see" me.”
Even while saying so, Trisha was also somewhat convinced. Given the fact that they lived together with an S rank demon, the threat of a top D rank magical beast, goblin king, lost most of its impact to actually make them terrified.
However, that didn"t change the fact that this half-demon half-demonic beast had status that was somewhat higher than Kitsune"s, and was unmistakenly capable of putting up a good fight against a lower rank C rank demon.
“…anyway, currently adventurers and knights in this town are putting up defenses to hold the horde. What should we do?”
“What should we do?”
“What should we do?”
“…eh…”
When Trisha asked Kitsune, he pa.s.sed the question to Leila. Receiving the question from Kitsune, Leila then pa.s.sed it to Niko while in smile. And then, as the last one receiving the question, perhaps never expecting that one coming, Niko stiffened.
And then, perhaps finding her reaction exactly as they expected, Kitsune and Leila started to giggle. Staring at the two making fun of a child, Trisha made an astounded expression.
“Ahaha, let"s see… I wonder what to do— Ah!”
“What"s it, Kitsune-kun?”
“There"s a high possibility that Duke Orba is currently in frantic to deal with the Goblin King, right? So don"t you think it"s a good chance to take back Niko-chan"s father?”
Kitsune thought so. Taking advantage to the hectic situation, they"d take back Niko"s father. Right now was the perfect chance to do that.
“While we"re at it, let"s take something that can be turned to money from there.”
“I think that"s what you usually call as robbery, you know?”
While smiling faintly, Kitsune decided to raid Duke Orba"s house. Looks like he decided to put the goblin king matter aside for the time being.