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Chapter 2 – 3 (part 1)
Beating Them at Their Own Game
First, we made the lookout area for the decoy golems. About 50 meters away from the field, we dug a hole that was 2m wide and 50cm deep. Outside of the hole, on the side closest to the field, we piled up the soil and hardened it, completing the trench-like structure. We made the same thing again on the other side of the trench, about 30m away. We decided to put the carriage about 50m behind the trench, and marked the area on the ground.
“We"re pretty much done getting ready. Let"s make some food before the sun sets.” I said to the three catgirls and started to cook at the designated place.
I cooked some of the stuff we had bought in town along with some dried meat, making a simple soup. I made a lot of soup however, so aside from what we"re eating for dinner I"ll store the rest away inside the Magic Bag, to eat later as a midnight snack. We finished our dinner and half an hour later the sun had set, leaving the area dark.
I set up a magic barrier at the place I had marked off, and moved the carriage over to make it hard to detect. At the same time, I extended the barrier 200 meters outward from the carriage, and set up an alarm that would sound if someone other than the four of us entered.
‘We had expected to take out Dash Boars, but it"s turned into something far more serious‘ I thought to myself as I started to prepare the decoy golems inside the carriage. After applying the finis.h.i.+ng touches, I turned to the catgirls and asked,
“Can you each give me a strand of your hair?”
As I asked, the three of them blushed and replied,
“What are you gonna do with them?”
“You"re not gonna do something weird, are you?”
“It"s Tenma though, so we don"t have to worry, right?”
Just what are they misunderstanding here? They gave a weird reply.
“I need them to create the golems.”
I answered them straight, without any particular emotion in my voice. Hearing this, the three of them gave me one strand of hair each.
I thought I heard them mutter something like ‘too bad" or ‘you shouldn"t hold back" but thought it was just my imagination… at least I wanted to think so.
The golems transformed into the shape of the three girls in a split second, however they were all in their birthday suits.
As you"d expect I was fl.u.s.tered, but it was nothing compared to the three catgirls.
“WHAAAT! TENMA WHAT DID YOU DO!”
“Tenma you lewd, creepy, PERVERT!”
“You perv! …If you wanted to see, we would have shown you it whenever, you know.”
Lilly freaked out sounding very cat like, Nelly was ready to beat me up, while Milly vacant mindedly muttered something. Each of them, super fl.u.s.tered, covered up their respective golems with blankets.
While they did that, I prostrated myself and apologized.
“Sorry! I didn"t mean for this to happen! The times I"ve done this before were all for s.h.i.+romaru golems, so I didn"t realize it would turn out like this!”
While I apologized, I thought about it more carefully and realized that had s.h.i.+romaru been human, he would have been naked too. I decided to not mention it to them.
They dressed the golems in some spare clothes of theirs, while I looked away of course. I didn"t dare to foolishly turn around before they gave me permission to.
They gave me the okay, and I turned around to see six very similar looking faces. More accurately, three of the faces were pretty close, and the other three were slightly differently colored.
“If you look really closely, you"ll see places where there are differences.”
“Well, if it was in the dark and from a distance away, I wouldn"t notice at all.”
“Tenma, you haven"t been using this technology to do weird things, have you?”
With Milly"s question, the others started asking “Have you, Tenma?”
“Please forgive me. I swear I haven"t been using it to do weird stuff!”
I answered, but they smiled strangely.
“Oh~? Tenma you really haven"t thought about ‘using" them like that huh?”
“You"ve only made us into these golems, huh? Have I not heard of you playing pranks on people before?”
“What have you been imagining, I wonder~? You should tell your big sisters.”
Their personalities were crumbling as they drew closer to me. I let out a sigh.
“What are you guys talking about, it"s way too late for you guys to act like big sisters now. And up until now, I"ve been facing away from the golems I made.”
The trio came closer, almost with a glint in their eyes.
“Well then, you just have to try harder next time!”
“It would"ve been fine if you had seen!”
“But it"s exciting isn"t it? It"s the first time we would"ve been seen by a boy!”
For the time being, I ordered the golems that had been idling behind the girls to grab them and hold them back, and then to face the other way.
“So unfair~!”
“You tyrant~!”
“Stingy~! Showing you would"ve been fine!”
They protested loudly but I ignored them and finished the preparations quickly.
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After the golems were all properly dressed, the girls were released. The three were grumbling and complaining, but I paid it no mind.
After that, I sent the golems in pairs to the trenches. The girls had started to argue about which golems would be together, but in the end they settled it with rock paper scissors. I ended up paired with Nelly"s golem, but I didn"t see what the fuss was at all.
We slowly bided our time away inside of the carriage.
“There really are no signs at all of Dash Boars showing up.”
It was fairly obvious now that the Dash Boars wouldn"t be showing up.
Around 2 hours after midnight, the alarm in my head suddenly went off.
“You guys, the enemy has made their move! Be ready to go at any moment now!”
After I warned them, the three who had been lying down sprang into action, and quickly got ready. They equipped themselves with their various weapons of choice. Lilly with her bow, Nelly with dual swords, and Milly with a sword and s.h.i.+eld.
I told s.h.i.+romaru to be on standby, ready to jump out of the bag at any moment, while I took out my own sword.
This sword had the same shape and structure as my previous one but, it was made from the metal that had been growing out of the Zombie Dragon"s shoulder, so it was a “Super Cla.s.s” item and far more valuable. The blade"s sharpness and strength were so far superior to my previous sword, they weren"t even comparable. (The previous sword had only been an “Upper Cla.s.s” item)
“Alright, the enemy has approached within 50 meters, from behind the golems."
The enemies (villagers) ignored the carriage and went straight for the golems. Looks like the magic to disguise the carriage was working and they had no clue.
“I think they"ve shot an arrow, one of the golems crumbled! It"s just about time to start the plan!”
Just as I ordered, the golem struck by the arrow pretended to collapse.
―~――~―――~―――~――~― This chapter was translated by Refulgent for [ FourSlimes . com ―~――~―――~―――~――~―
About 5 minutes after the golem collapsed, the enemy approached the two trenches in pairs. As far as I could tell by using Investigation, there were 40 people located 50m from the trench, with another 30 located 100m away, meaning there were around 38 people left guarding the village.
Just then, the two scouts approaching the golems were captured.
“Now! Stick to the plan, be careful you guys!”
” ” ” You do your best too, Tenma! ” ” ”
I let s.h.i.+romaru out and told him to aim for the enemies in the rear, then let out more golems to escort the catgirls. I myself used Sky Flight, and headed toward the village to capture Banza.
As you"d expect, the thieves (villagers) were now aware that their scheme had been figured out as their scouts had been captured, so they were on guard. They hadn"t noticed that a shadow tried to attack them from behind.
“Don"t harm even a single hair on the girl"s bodies! Their value will plummet!”
“They"re going to be my playthings before that though.”
“Idiot! They"re all of ours!” They spoke crudely.
The thieves underestimated them just because they were young women. To them, the only obstacles were younger guys, namely me.
However, thinking like that was a big mistake. Even though the girls were a C rank party collectively, they were also all C ranks individually.
Furthermore, they were all said to be closer to the B rank side among the rest of the C ranks. It was quite the accomplishment for people who had only been adventurers for two years. It wasn"t rare to stay a C rank for 10 or even 20 years after first registering, the gap between C and B rank was that much of a brick wall to overcome.
The three sisters could also use basic fire, water, earth and fire magic, so they had talked about aiming for a higher rank in the near future.
The three of them really showed their true strength when fighting as a group, instead of when fighting individually. Only when working as a trio could they show the true extent of their abilities. Their own party"s rank was well known among the adventurers and were often compared to other B rank parties.
“Nelly, I"m going to focus on the ones with spears, so you focus on the others. Don"t let them get away.”
“Got it!”
“Milly, intercept any others that come toward me, as I"ll try to cover you as well.”
“Okaa~y”
Lilly instructed the other two. She was the most level-headed of the group, and as she was the pretty much the most mature, she naturally fell into the role of leader.
―~――~―――~―――~――~― This chapter was translated by Refulgent for [ FourSlimes . com ―~――~―――~―――~――~―
Because Nelly was the most nimble and aggressive of the three, she often played the role of attacker.
Milly could be the most laid back of the three, but she was also the most dexterous so she often took up a flexible position fighting between the other two.
These positions were just what they were strongest at however, and they could be called all-rounders otherwise.
Lilly with her bow took aim at the thieves wielding spears and hit one right in the center of his face. Nelly slashed at a thief that appeared just before that, drawing blood. Milly bashed one aside with her s.h.i.+eld to clear some room, while the golems protected their flank.
The careless thieves easily mistook the golems for the real girls.
“s.h.i.+t! We were careless "cause they were girls! Hey, those in the back with the bows, c"mere!”
One of the thieves called out to those hidden behind them, but there was no reply.
“I said GET OVER HERE!”
He screamed at them, but there was still no reply.
Just then, something was thrown, and it rolled slowly towards him. When he got a better look at it, he realized it was one of the people hidden in the back… but it was only their head.
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