When I sleep three hours later than normal, I somehow end up spending three more hours procrastinating… Thanks for reading~
The next day after connecting with Eve, I take the kokuyoku tribe girls with me early in the morning and head towards the village in the south.
Because we have a large number of people, we"re walking without riding the raptor.
Eve and I are walking in the front, and Freya and Setsuna have been positioned in the back.
There"s a chance that survivors of the demon king army are still lurking, so we need to be wary of attacks.
From thinking about our fighting power, this has the best balance.
Our pace is quite fast.
It would be good if we arrive at the village before the sun sets though.
"Thanks for looking after everyone Kearuga." (Eve)
"I was looked after by Miru-jiisan and everyone from that village after all. It"s my thanks for that." (Kearuga)
This is also a tribute to Miru-jii.
I was even given the precious G.o.d bird egg as well.
Just as Miru-jii told me to, I have always been carrying it on my back after making a dedicated backpack for it, and recently the egg has become able to move.
The day it"s born might unexpectedly come soon.
It"s a monster of divinity that will be born with the influence of my mana and mind. Furthermore, it has even received the blessing of the G.o.d bird.
I have no doubt that it will have terrific fighting power.
"Have you ever gone to the village in the south, Eve?" (Kearuga)
"What type of people are they?" (Kearuga)
"They"re called the star rabbit tribe. Just as their name says, they are people who have rabbit ears, and the monsters they use are rabbits. They don"t have any unique abilities, but they all have amazing leg strength and it seems like they"re the *type to use violence without compromising with the opponent." (Eve) (TL Note: I searched up what 武闘派 means, but I"m still not entirely sure. If anyone can check if I"m correct, that would be helpful.)
Rabbit monsters are cute, but contradicting with their outer appearance, many of them are powerful.
Leg strength has a direct connection to attack power and speed.
"I"m relieved we can interact with them. Being turned away would be quite troublesome after all." (Kearuga)
"Don"t worry about that, the star rabbit tribe was originally appointed to a responsible post by the previous generation demon king, but the current demon king gave them cold reception. … Besides, there is also a demon king candidate in the star rabbit tribe, and we made an oath that whether the star rabbit tribe"s demon king candidate or the kokuyoku tribe"s demon king candidate becomes the demon king, the one who becomes the demon king would would save each tribe." (Eve)
I see, since they don"t know which demon king candidate will become the demon king, the current demon king"s regime is afraid of getting revenge taken on them if the next demon king comes from one of the tribes they gave the cold reception to.
However, cooperating together like the kokuyoku tribe and the star rabbit tribe is a good idea.
… It"s good that their interests are clear.
There"s nothing as uncertain as a person"s emotions. When Eve becomes the demon king, if the other party can obtain profit, I can leave these girls that Miru-jii tried to protect with a peace of mind.
"Everyone, let"s hurry. It"s almost time to switch riding. If you"re tired, feel free to tell me and don"t force yourself. I can keep using【Recovery Heal】." (Kearuga)
A voice comes back from the back.
Like this, we continued walking while aiming for the star rabbit tribe.
We take a break to also have lunch.
Leaving Eve and Freya to guard the kokuyoku tribe girls, I enter the forest together with Setsuna. Since I noticed a monster, I"m going to maintain our safety and secure ingredients for lunch.
"You"ve become considerably faster." (Kearuga)
"Nn. Level went up at once after all." (Setsuna)
The other day, we easily won against the demon king"s army with the G.o.d bird"s power. Setsuna, who was in our party at that time, also got that blessing.
Excluding Ellen, who is not a necessary person for battle, we usually form a party as a four, so Setsuna got that blessing in full.
Recently, because I have just been raising her level limit, her level hadn"t caught up, but it"s great that her level rose all the way to her limit in one go with that matter.
The current Setsuna should even be able to not lose against a hero.
"That"s true. However, it seems that your senses haven"t caught up with your rising physical ability because of the sudden level up. Your movements are awkward. Try hunting by yourself to accustomed yourself with your body. You can do it right?" (Kearuga)
"Nn. Leave it to Setsuna. The current Setsuna can easily deal with a monster of that extent." (Setsuna)
Setsuna"s eyes become sharp.
Without landing on the ground, she kicks a tree trunk in the air and continues accelerating.
It"s as if she"s flying at a low alt.i.tude. She"s slipping through the s.p.a.ces between the trees in a zig-zag.
Because of her excess strength when stepping into them, Setsuna"s footprints have distinctly remained on the tree trunks.
Despite being a tanuki, it"s slim, smart, and above all, it seems to know the forest well, so it makes use of shelters well and is skillfully escaping.
It would be difficult for even an elite hunter to catch that.
However, it"s helpless before Setsuna"s current overwhelming speed.
"Good grief, Setsuna is a prodigy. Her sense is good. Let alone growing accustomed to it, in this short amount of time, she has already mastered her current body." (Kearuga)
I doubt I could have followed her with my eyes without using【Jade Eye】.
She would have unfavourable progress if she just left her movements to her status.
It"s a feat that can only be done because of Setsuna"s sense that makes the best use of her speed.
Blood pours out like a water fountain.
Setsuna drains the blood as it is, extracts the internal organs and returns after it"s in an edible state.
"Kearuga-sama, Setsuna properly hunted it." (Setsuna)
"Yeah, you"re a good girl." (Kearuga)
Because Setsuna looks at me with a greedy look, I stroke her.
She must have been lonely because I kept looking after Eve.
"Setsuna, I"ll say this just in case, I think you"re important as well. I don"t intend on neglecting you." (Kearuga)
Certainly, I have been taking care of Eve recently.
However…
"You aren"t my lover like Eve, but you"re my important property (toy). You"re the most convenient and easiest to use, and I like you. It"s impossible for me to part with you, so don"t worry about it." (Kearuga)
I trust Setsuna more than anyone else, and Setsuna has the power to live up to that.
As a woman and as a weapon, either way, Setsuna is supreme.
"Kearuga-sama, glad. You want Setsuna. That"s relieving." (Setsuna)
Setsuna blushes, and shakes her wolf tail.
It seems she was more jealous of Eve than I had thought.
She deserves to be valued highly for not saying her complaints until now and not expressing that jealousy. I need to give a reward for my cute property (toy). I"ll give her plenty of love as her master.
"We haven"t done our daily routine this morning, so I"ll love you here." (Kearuga)
When I whisper that into her ear, Setsuna"s body trembles.
It seems Setsuna"s switch has been flipped.
"Happy, Setsuna was always enduring." (Setsuna)
"We don"t have much time. I won"t be doing any foreplay for you." (Kearuga)
Setsuna nods.
And then, she places the tanuki monster on the ground, presses her hands against a large tree and pushes out her bottom.
"No foreplay is needed. By just thinking that Kearuga-sama loves Setsuna, Setsuna has become hot." (Setsuna)
Hou, it seems everything has been prepared.
And then, as intensely as I can, I gave love to Setsuna.
After giving love to Setsuna, I【Purified】the tanuki monster and made tanuki soup.
The tanuki soup I served for lunch was greatly received by the kokuyoku tribe girls too.
However, I feel regret that I did something wasteful yesterday.
"I guess it was a mistake to have Freya burn them all." (Kearuga)
Yesterday, we gathered the demon corpses – which were all stripped of their possessions – and monster corpses in one place, and then turned them into ashes with Freya"s magic.
To tell the truth, as far as I saw with【Jade Eye】, there were many among the monsters that attacked the kokuyoku tribe"s village that possessed adaptable genetics.
Even if we were poisoned, if it"s not an instant death, I can cure it, but Whether【Recovery Heal】will make it in time is doubtful.
"As usual, Kearuga-sama"s cooking is delicious." (Freya)
"Kearuga, seconds." (Eve)
"Me too!" (Ellen)
Whether they understand my regret or not, everyone requests seconds like always.
I wryly smile and give them large servings. The kokuyoku tribe girls timidly requested seconds as well. It"s a good thing they have the energy to eat.
I should stop regretting. Things that were already burned can"t be helped. My judgement of safety first shouldn"t have been wrong.
We finish lunch, and once again start aiming for the star rabbit tribe"s village.
When we arrive at the star rabbit tribe"s village, the security guys rush up to us.
We explain our situation, and because they let us through while smiling, it was a let-down.
The kokuyoku tribe girls were accepted without any problem, and they were given a house.
As compensation for them being taken in, I pa.s.s them valuable things among the items at hand on the demon king army that I had the raptor carry, and they become all the more delighted, promising us that they would politely treat the girls.
And then, to answer their request for wanting to hear what happened to the kokuyoku tribe"s village, Eve and I are being guided to a different location to the kokuyoku tribe girls.
"There are quite a lot of various demons in this village." (Kearuga)
"… Isn"t that bad? It"s like asking to be killed." (Kearuga)
While I talk in a small voice with Eve, the rabbit tribe security supervisor man who is guiding me turns around.
"There is no need to worry. This village is hard to attack, and is a location that"s easy to protect. We have plenty of fighting power, and we have repelled the demon king army many times… above all, it is not worth it for the demon king army. Small amounts of people from various tribes have gathered in this village, so just by making this fall, there"s no way they can eradicate the hostile tribes. On the contrary, it creates several hostile tribes in one go."
He"s saying that full of confidence, but it"s clearly strange.
By looking at this village from the demon king army"s standpoint, I would conclude that it"s a location where hostile tribes have a cultural exchange and share information. I would destroy that sort of place from the start.
However, it seems that it"s true that they have plenty of fighting power.
It also seems like they have the ability to gather information. They knew about the demon king army"s attack on the kokuyoku tribe"s village.
Before we explained our situation, they said we did well escaping from the demon king army"s troops.
After that, I checked to see if I was being tailed, and I immediately found people.
… Also, when I said we annihilated one group of the demon king"s army when the village was attacked, they thought it was a joke at the start, but after I continued denying them, their faces turned serious and decided to send a scout to the kokuyoku tribe"s village.
They are not being complacent about peace. They have accurate judgement.
It"s increasingly becoming more suspicious; would those sorts of people say such optimistic things? It feels like they"re hiding something.
And now, the person we will talk to is apparently the chief of this village, so we were pa.s.sed into the most splendid residence in this village.
Even from just interacting with the security people since I came to this village, the existence of a leader that possesses deep feelings yet is shrewd appeared and disappeared.
They might help up out to defeat the demon king depending on our conversation.
While thinking that, I started concentrating my mind.