Chapter 59: Preparation Everything went well until we reached the place we were going to use for lunch.
We encountered demons many times until then and Leo-san and Captain-san defeated them straight away.
After the battle, I would cast a minor 『HEAL』, so it was pretty laid back.
But then, the other parties encountered a lot more demons, just like the time in the West Forest.
Incidentally, I felt that the demons here were a lot stronger than the Royal Capital"s Ghosh Forest.
The place where we rested for lunch was a little opening in the middle of the forest.
It seemed that the mercenaries used this place to rest whenever they came to the forest to subjugate demons.
The plan was to meet up with the parties that separated from us here and have lunch.
Director forbad me to cook in public, but most the people here are from the 3rd Knight Order, so it"s fine if I help out right?
I was also supporting them with magic, so I can just blame it on the magic if they ask.
Let"s do that.
Thus, I helped prepare lunch.
"What are you doing?"
"Can"t you see? I"m cooking."
Leo-san approached me when I was making the soup for everyone.
I feel like something like this has happened before.
"Cooking…… You"re the 【Saint】, aren"t you?"
"I am."
I"m a 【Saint】, so what?
He must want to say something, I thought curiously and Leo-san looked like he had mixed feelings. Then, after a while he began talking slowly, "Isn"t a 【Saint】someone who should be treated with respect and waited upon?"
"Is that so? I"ve been like this since before though."
"Since before? Isn"t that strange?"
"Strange?"
As Leo-san said, it was natural for the 【Saint】to be respected and waited upon, given her status in this Kingdom.
I knew this, but I always ignored it.
Because it was easier to be treated like how the 3rd Knight Order treats me.
Leo-san should know this too.
And, cooking was a good change of pace.
I"d been restraining myself since I came to Klaussner as a 【Saint】.
It would be strange if I keep asking to borrow the kitchen in someone else"s castle.
But, I could cook without restraint while on a subjugation mission.
The people around me are all those who I know, after all.
There was no way I could let this chance go.
"It smells great."
"Oh, Hawk-sama."
Captain-san approached us as I stirred the pot while talking to Leo-san.
He was tempted by the smell.
My déjà vu sense was becoming stronger and stronger.
Captain-san looked into the pot while standing opposite to Leo-san.
"Is this the soup you made for us before?"
"Yes. A lot of the knights said this was fine when I asked them what I should make."
"Those guys……"
When I told him that this was the request of the knights, Captain-san put his hand on his head and hung his head down as if he had a headache.
I said it was a request, but it seems that soup made from dried meat and vegetables was a staple for subjugations.
The servants that were with the knights had said so.
"Hey, hey, you"re putting medicinal herbs in?"
"Yes. It increases the flavour and makes it more delicious."
"Ooh, her cooking methods are really unique."
I put oregano and thyme as well as other herbs into the soup as we talked, and Leo-san retorted as I"d expected he would.
This soup increased the amount of HP recovered naturally, but I didn"t talk about the effect.
Captain-san must have known my intentions because he only talked about the taste.
Whether I like it or not, isn"t he complimenting me too much by saying it"s unique?
Now then, the soup was finished and now onto the main dish.
I turned around and saw the knight cooks were cooking some kind of meat.
They seasoned it with an appropriate amount of salt, and grilled it with herbs and b.u.t.ter.
At any rate, what on earth is that meat?
Huh? The mercenaries hunted a hog?
And this always happens?
The mercenaries were wilder than I thought they were.
The food was cooked without a hitch and the servants distributed the cooked meals to the knights.
I confirmed that the food was delicious by listening to the voices around me and breathed out a sigh of relief.
Leo-san was also saying, "Delicious, yummy," while scooping the food into his mouth. Captain-san smiled his sparkling smile and complimented the food.
I"m glad.
Then lunch was finished and we went back to subjugating.
"『AREA PROTECTION』."
The magic circle spread around the area and it was covered in a white haze filled with golden lame.
I casted support magic on the knights before the parties split up again.
The 『AREA PROTECTION』that I"d just casted was an A.O.E skill that raised defence against physical and magic attacks.
The knights were used to seeing this but the mercenaries caused an uproar because this was their first time seeing this.
Leo-san was no exception.
"Wow, amazing. You raised my defence."
"Is this your first time receiving support magic?"
"Yeah. There"s hardly any mages here. Moreover, there"s none who can use A.O.E magic."
"Ooh, I guess that"s true."
"Right?"
Now that he"s said it, that"s true.
Casting A.O.E magic was more difficult than casting individual magic.
"And, there"s no mage who can cast magic on this many people."
"Huh? Really?"
"Yeah. The range and effect duration increases as the magic skill increases, but, well, it"s hard to get there."
Captain-san made a side comment, "Well done!"
I have a feeling that Head Magician-sama had said something like that before.
I completely forgot about it.
If Head Magician-sama was here, then he would smile at me while getting angry.
And, what happens after that would be frightening.
I remembered what had happened before and a shiver ran down my spine.
Dangerous. That was a close call.
The preparations were done after the support magic was casted and we split into numerous parties again and entered the forest.
We encountered more demons as we got deeper into the forest.
The knights were still doing alright even though the demons were stronger than the ones in the West Forest.
They defeated the demons one after another with their wonderful coordination.
As for me? I was casting 『HEAL』like always.
It wasn"t because of the activation requirements that I wasn"t using the 【Saint】technique.
I had talked it over with Captain-san and he had told me to save it.
That"s right, it"s not because I"m embarra.s.sed or anything, okay?
"Huh?"
"What"s wrong?"
"No, I think this is the first time I"ve seen that demon."
"Because they don"t appear near the Royal Capital. It has poison."
The mercenary, who was at the vanguard, signalled for us to stop so we did.
I was curious about what had happened so I looked at the front through the gaps between the knights and saw a demon I"d never seen before.
The demon looked like a carnivorous plant probably because this was a herb production area.
A huge sundew was moving in a windy motion and it was disgusting.
Luckily, it didn"t move from its location unlike other demons I"ve seen before.
If it moved around the area, then it would definitely be really disgusting.
Captain-san said it has poison, but I wonder if someone will get an abnormal status.
I thought and the battle began.
I saw the knights fight and the round-leaved sundew bent its stalk backward while adding force and sprung forward.
In addition, it hurled a ball-like water drop at the tip of the leaf towards the knights.
Most of the people were able to avoid the attack, but I could hear a sizzling sound as if meat was being burnt from those who couldn"t.
The water drops seem to be venom.
I was the only one who was surprised by the sound of meat burning, the others continued to fight like usual.
The people who had received the attack also said, "It"s poison," and the mages who were with them casted abnormal status cure.
Magic"s amazing after all.
The abnormal status was cured in no time.
The battle, itself, was quickly finished and we moved on after casting 『HEAL』.
The type of demon that was allocated to the area changed from where we were fighting earlier and the sundew demon appeared often.
It seemed that the sundew didn"t always fling venom.
I always poised myself in a position where it was alright for people with abnormal status to show up, but my magic wasn"t required.
However, it was correct to a.s.sume that it was dangerous to let your guard down.
The sundew sprang greatly many times.
I released magic into the area at once and I prepared to cure abnormal statuses.
"『AREA PURIFICATION』."
I didn"t know how many people had an abnormal status, so I tried A.O.E magic because it was troublesome.
My timing was perfect because the abnormal status was cured at the same time people got it.
The knights were surprised because it went so well.
Before I went on my job search, I played online games with several people.
In the game, I partied with several people and subjugated monsters like right now and they taught me something.
Look at the monster"s behaviour and prepare your magic beforehand.
In the game, monsters always took a certain action before they casted a skill that would cause abnormal status.
If I observe the monsters, then I could see what attack would come next and what abnormal status they would cause.
However, it took some time to cast the magic which healed abnormal statuses.
If I had to cast the skill which could cure abnormal status immediately after the attack, then I had to cast the magic in advance in conjunction with the monster"s movements.
The people I played with wanted the status to be lifted immediately, so before long, it became a habit for me to cast magic while matching the monster"s movements.
The party would complain if I was slow to cure them, so they were a little Spartan.
Because of that, I started preparing 『AREA PURIFICATION』to match with the demon"s movements.
A.O.E spells required me to release my magic around the area, and it took time to activate the skill.
"Wow! Amazing!"
"You"re really great. Did Dreves-dono also teach you this?"
"Yes…… He did. Thank you very much."
Leo-san raised a voice of admiration at me for being able to immediately cure the abnormal statuses from the demon"s actions.
Captain-san also complimented me, but I wasn"t taught this from Head Magician-sama.
However, Captain-san wouldn"t understand if I said I had learnt this from a game, so I just told him that Head Magician-sama taught me.
Head Magician-sama hadn"t taught me this yet, but he might teach it to me someday.
He seemed like someone who liked efficiency, after all.
And thus, we headed to the place we planned to and today"s subjugation ended without any incidents.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: Sam