“Clearing out the monsters in Minaura doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to defeat all of them.”
Siva said.
“It’s impossible to get rid of the thick miasma surrounding Minaura in the first place.”
He pointed out that eradicating monsters was impossible when all factors couldn’t be taken into account.
If that was the case, then how could we finish clearing out the monsters residing in Minaura?
“That’s why we need to kill the head of the monsters that’s lurking somewhere around Minaura. In a nutshell, as long as we kill the boss, it will guarantee this town another year of peace or so. When we defeat the strongest monster that periodically arises, another one is born, and we just have to defeat it again, and so on. In other words, it’s just like a continuous cycle. Simple, isn’t it?”
I wouldn’t say that killing monsters was meaningless, but Siva was telling me that unless I killed the head of the monsters that was lurking somewhere in this town, there would be no end to this process.
Minaura was, as the legend said, a “cursed town” without a doubt.
The density of miasma in the air that surrounded this town was much higher than in other places, and if one didn’t make regular preparations like this, the monsters would surely attack other villages and towns, eating through the scarred walls that were supposed to isolate them.
However, the way to deal with this had already been established, and according to Siva, killing their leader seemed to do the job.
And then…
“One last piece of friendly advice. Don’t think that your common sense and general knowledge will work here, let alone think that once you cut their heads off, they’ll be dead. They don’t call that damn noblewoman the Grim Reaper for nothing, do you understand?”
The noblewoman he must be talking about was probably the “Warrior Princess,” Viera Islebark.
It’s a place where one can literally feel death right beside them.
And as soon as we stepped into Minaura, Siva said his farewell, and we parted ways.
* * * * *
“—This place is terrible…”
Looking around at the streets of Minaura, I chuckled to myself.
Ruins that looked as if they’d been burnt to a crisp stood in rows all over the place, and in some places, there were even traces of blood.
And without a care in the world, the atmosphere gradually felt heavier as I walked around the town.
However, even though it was isolated from the outside by a high wall, the entrance area was still densely populated with people.
“It’s more like a battlefield than a town.”
What seemed to be ashes and gravel were being blown around, and as if to follow, a peculiar smell that I didn’t like very much— the smell of burnt flesh —tickled my nostrils.
“…An adventurer, huh? How reckless of you to come alone.”
I stopped to examine the surroundings of Minaura, and a voice of contempt emerged from somewhere.
Perhaps it’s due to my young appearance that contributes to this feeling, but I heard a voice say, “Sometimes there are idiots like you who come here confusing the meaning of the words brave and courageous,” and I was sure I wasn’t mistaken.
I looked around to see where the voice was coming from— and found it.
A middle-aged man, leaning against a wall a short distance away, stretching out his leg, which was wrapped in bandages and being patched up, appeared in my field of vision.
He was probably a little older than my father.
The man stared at me in spite and, perhaps consumed by the pain, he looked at me with an expression of anguish on his face, yet directing his feelings of disbelief at me.
“A knight, huh?”
From the man’s appearance, I determined his identity straightforwardly.
“I’ll take your advice at heart. It’s advice from a knight of the kingdom, after all.”
Surely, it was helpful advice from someone with much more combat experience than me, so I thought it was worth keeping in mind.
But no matter who talked to me, I didn’t plan on changing what I intended to be in the future.
A certain “Star Slayer” once told himself—
As long as he kept on longing for it, he would be able to reach it one day.
He was talking about such a ridiculous theory as if it were a matter of fact.
And I, a reckless human being, adored such a person.
I had no doubt in my mind that this was the only way to become strong because I only had an extremely biased understanding of what it meant to be one.
I had no choice but to do this in order to reach the goal I had set for myself, so I concluded that it was inevitable.
***
Reaper Scans
***
Therefore, I took my eyes off the man who had spoken to me and tried to move forward again.
“…I don’t know what brought you to this place, but…”
I guess one piece of advice wasn’t enough.
The wounded knight tried to add a few more words, but for some reason, he shut his mouth before he could finish.
Just immediately after I wondered what was wrong…
A deep, dark, black being covered me.
It was a shadow.
A big, big shadow.
“Tch…! If that son of a bitch reacted, then that means you’re a magician…!!! H-Hey! Get the hell out of here, reckless kid!!!”
A sound of a tongue clicking, and then an angry voice.
If I had to say, this might’ve been my baptism from the cursed town called Minaura.
The shadow that covered me was even bigger than the ogre I faced two years ago.
I realized that my legs were moving to jump back half-reflexively.
Soon after I did, the place where I just was, was pierced by something sharp— A massive claw.
“…A-Are you kidding me?”
And suddenly, the battle began.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the sheer relentlessness of it all.
I looked up and saw a huge monster with wings sprouting from its back.
The blow from its front leg easily shattered the ground.
If I hadn’t been able to move reflexively, it wasn’t difficult to imagine what would have happened to me.
The difference in size was clearly evident.
I wouldn’t win against it in normal circumstances, so in a split second, I thought of what to do next. And then…
“What the hell are you doing?! Get out of here, you fucking brat!! Are you trying to get that monster out of Minaura?!”
The screaming rage shook my eardrums again.
“That monster son of a bitch is a mutant that reacts to magicians!!! Just run to the rear quickly!!!”
A mutant species that reacts to magic users.
I’d never heard such a thing from Lilea and her fellow adventurers.
But I suddenly remembered Siva’s words, who told me to throw away my common sense.
…I now understood exactly what he meant.
If such a monster— a monster more than ten times my size —were to head for my village…
It was easy to imagine that I would regret ending up in such a situation, so—
“—I… understand.”
I seized the opportunity to follow the knight’s words.
As a matter of fact, the monster in front of me showed no reaction at all to the knight, who was screaming his lungs out, wounded in the leg and unable to move.
It was focused only on me, with its cat-like eyes squeezed tightly together.
And so I assumed his words were true.
“But… isn’t this wall too massive to begin with?!”
While letting out whiny words, I opened my hands, both of which were unarmed, not even holding the sword that I carried at my waist—
『 Sword: Creation 』
Immediately after one chant, a particle of light emerged and consolidated in the air.
A pair of daggers formed, finally resting in my hands.
—If I was planning to escape, I’d have to blind it first.
In the midst of the frustration, I had to be a level-headed person who would correctly recognize the most optimal course of action.
Slaying him would be painstaking. However, if only to pierce through his defenses…
“Make sure to— eat this!!!”
I ran, and after showing the behavior of trying to escape for just a moment— I turned my body around and flipped in the air over again.
Using even the momentum of my movement, I threw the dagger in my hand to the right, then to the left, in that order.
And so the daggers flung in the air, aiming not too far from the eyes of the monster, but the hard sound of a clank made me realize that I had been blocked.
I have no idea what it was.
But just before piercing its eyeballs, the dagger was repelled by some kind of invisible barrier.
“…Things don’t always work out your way, do they?”
Its intent to kill became even stronger as a result of the trickery.
The enemy had wings, and I didn’t even know what kind of ability it had, let alone what kind of monster it was to begin with.
As one would expect, this was definitely not a good situation, and I needed to retreat.
I concluded so and smiled bitterly while praising the “cursed town” as it was.
——
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