The village of Kukri was facing the worst situation in its history so far.

　For the past few days, there was a heavy atmosphere in this village.
　The cause was a few goblins that had emerged from the forest.

　If these goblins were just goblins, there would have been no problem, but the bad news was that they had turned into zombies.
　In this world, demons and people sometimes turn into zombies when they turn into corpses with grudges and desires left behind.

　Or if a special ability called a necromancer intentionally places a curse on a corpse, the corpse becomes a zombie and becomes a member of the person who placed the curse on it.

　The goblin zombies seemed to be the latter.

　They move as if they were observing us, and if they were noticed, they would let one of them go and the rest would stop them, a controlled move that would indicate that there was a being above them who would go and report back.

　This kind of thing had been happening day in and day out for a while now.
　That's why several soldiers followed them, but only one of the three returned.
　This person said that there were more than a thousand zombies gathered here and that in a few days, they would be coming to this village.

　The report came in two days ago, and soon afterwards, a meeting was held between the representatives of the soldiers and the village representatives.

　It was decided that on the next day we would evacuate with only what we could carry.
　From now on, they were to send out a messenger, and the injured and the elderly were to be put on village and military wagons, and escorted by soldiers and those who could fight, to the nearest town, where they would wait for support from the frontier count.　
　The plan was to make preparations and wait for the early morning of the next day, i.e., the sunrise of today, to begin the evacuation.

　But the unexpected happened.

　The carriage had disappeared. When the villagers went to the garrison, they found it empty.
　The soldiers had taken all the carriages from them. Unfortunately, they had gathered them together with the military ones outside the entrance on the other side of the forest so that the evacuation could begin immediately, and the soldiers were on guard.

　All the villagers were stunned by this, and at the request of the king, the soldiers arranged by the frontier county, who had been sent by the king to use the villagers as bait, all of them had escaped, which was unheard of.
　Moreover, to make matters worse, the voices and murmurs of zombie-like demons can be heard from just behind the forest.
　It was too early, probably deliberately saying a different predicted time, to ensure their own safety.

　Soon Dad makes his decision.

'We need to start evacuating into the garrison immediately! Whoever is able to move, bring in food and provisions from each house. Quickly, the only way to save us all is to barricade ourselves in the city! And send a couple of messages, to a different city than the one the soldiers were headed to!

　My father gives instructions. He doesn't have a title like village chief, but he was the most experienced adventurer in the village and had a party with the king.

　My mom, grandpa and I use magic to build walls and dugouts. Uncle Mark and a few other hunters keep a close eye on the enemy's movements.

　Less than half an hour after we finish evacuating and bringing in food and other supplies, the first team of zombies appears.

　There are about two hundred goblin and orc zombies.

　As they get closer, they shower them with arrows.
　Those that still won't stop will be attacked by those that were warriors or swordsmen.

'Come Temma!'

　My dad called me, and he's on his way.

Hey, Dad!

Temma, you are to fly to the messenger. The soldiers are headed for the city!

　His words elicited a murmur from those around him.
　I'm one of the strongest forces in defense at the moment.

'No, Dad! If I'm out now, my strength will be greatly reduced!

　I said.

'I'm not saying this because it's my child or anything, it's something only Temma can do!

　My father says that if I fly, I should be able to reach the city we were planning to reach in less than half a day. He wanted me to get there before the soldiers and inform them of the current situation and call for help.

　This is what I mean. Everyone around him nodded in agreement.
　Dad took a card out of his pocket and handed it to me.

This is my guild card from when I was an adventurer. If you take this to the guild, they should be able to listen to you.

　With those words, they give me a small amount of water and food.
　I hastily activate my flight magic and fly away. I have the location of the city in my mind since I checked the map yesterday.

　After an hour or so of flying, I saw the fleeing soldiers taking a break. They don't seem to have noticed us.
　There are 25 of them. I feel that this is a small number for the size of the garrison.
　There were some who were drinking alcohol, probably because they were careless.
　However, there was no time to be bothered, so I decided to ignore them for now.

　After about 6 hours, the city came into view.
　Russell City, the second largest city in the Haust frontier county.

　We see a large gate. The gatekeeper notices me and gestures for me to stop.
　However, I shrugged off the gatekeeper's control and flew through the city using my flying magic.
　After that, I immediately sought out the guild I had heard about and jumped in.

''I have an urgent request from Ricardo in Kukri village. Someone please take care of it.

　As soon as I jumped in, people were surprised to see me shouting, and then a guy came up to me and said, "Hey!

"Shut the f*ck up about the kids! You can suck on your mommy's tits instead!

　And then he grabbed at me.
　I was in a hurry and threw the man away with little effort.
　The man who was thrown in the manner of a backhanded toss, knocked to the floor, bounced and rolled to the edge of the wall.　
　At that moment, five guards came scurrying in through the door.

''We've received word that an unauthorized intruder into the city has entered the guild! Be quiet!

　When the guards found me and approached to capture me.

What's going on? It's too loud.

　And a streetwise voice echoed within the guild.
　I looked it up in my appraisal.

His name... is Yuri Philando Forrester.
Age...200.
Race...elves.
Title: Head of the Russell City Guild

HP...14,000.
MP...17500.

Strength...B-
Defensive Power...
Speed...B+
Magic...
Mental capacity...A+.
Growth Potential...B
Luck... A

Skills....8 archery, 8 water magic, 8 wind magic, 7 magic manipulation, 7 sensory enhancement, 6 earth magic, 6 light magic, 6 throwing techniques, 5 night eyes, 5 traps, 5 martial arts, 5 swordsmanship, 5 magic augmentation, 5 concealment, 5 resilience augmentation, 5 resilience, 4 abnormal effect resistance.

The Gift...the blessing of the forest

　He was a man called "The Elf".
　I've never seen an elf before, but that's not the point, I was more interested in the title of guild leader.

''You're the guild leader, Yuri-san!

　He ignored the guards and spoke to them.

'Yes, but... who are you?'

I'm sorry. My name is Temma, son of Ricardo of Kukri. My father asked me to give a message to the guild master.

　I spoke to him with a lie.

'Is this from Mr. Ricardo? Do you have anything in evidence?

　I think it worked. I give him my dad's card.

'I'm sure this belongs to Mr. Ricardo. You're welcome to come in and talk to him.

　The Guild Master tries to lead me to the back, but

'Wait, Guild Master! That man is suspected of trespassing! I'd like you to turn him over to us.

　The guardsmen shouted, but the guild leader

''That's troubling. However, within the guild, a kind of extraterritoriality has been given to him. His presence here means that the guild has the right to take him into custody. I'm under no obligation to hand him over to you.

　I started arguing with him.

　So I said.

'Guild leader, we don't have much time, so please ask here. There is a reason why the guards need to hear it as well.

　I said.

'I understand. And tell us why.

　With the guild leader's permission, I began to tell them about the situation in Kukri village.
　There were about 20 adventurers in the place, except for the guild leader and other staff and the guards who had come to capture them, and all of them were looking at me.

　I told them about the discovery of a group of zombies, the soldiers using the villagers as bait to escape on their own and head for this city, and that my dad and the others were holed up in the garrison, waiting for help.

　In particular, he didn't forget to emphasize the fact that the "soldiers arranged by the Count of the Frontier" on the "king's orders" had escaped by themselves using the villagers as bait.

　The guards who heard the story listened with pale faces at the actions of those who could be said to be their colleagues, broadly speaking.
　The others looked at me with sympathetic eyes and gave the guards a reproachful look.

'That's why I want you to send out your support immediately.

　The head of the guild looked a little difficult as he said, "I don't know.

We will provide support, but we can't get enough people together right away. It will take a day to collect food and other supplies after talking with the mayor, and three to four days at the earliest to reach Kukri.

　I was told.
　I said the first thing that came to my mind in a frustrated tone of voice: "I have about 500,000 Gs.

I've got about 500,000 g's here. Hire as many adventurers as you can with this. Then I want them to leave for Kukri village immediately. I'll leave the discretion of the number of people and the cost of food to you.

　I suggested.

'I understand. I'll accept it as an urgent quest. We won't be getting a commission from the guild this time. Instead, the guild will receive an annoyance fee from the frontier county, so we'll ask you to take a portion of that fee and pay it to the guild. If you're okay with that, please sign this contract.

　He signed a contract with the head of the guild, who immediately replied, "I'll sign a contract with the guild leader, and I'll write with my signature that I'll transfer some of the rights to the nuisance fee to the guild in the reward section.

'Then we'll solicit the rewards in the form of 10,000 g per person, paid afterwards, plus the rights to the materials you beat yourself, plus the possibility of a special reward.

　He immediately stuck it out to me.
　The special reward is probably a request from Russell City to defeat him, so they're going to pretend that he participated in that as well and give him that reward along with it.
　Otherwise, my reward of 10,000 g is delicate, and there is a possibility that top-notch adventurers will not participate.

''Also, guild leader, I have two requests.

What is it?

　I told the guild leader.

'One thing I'd like to do is head to the village right away, so don't get caught if you leave here.

Yeah, why?

　The guild leader looked at the guards.
　The guards thought it would be bad to make the situation even worse.

I'm reporting to my superiors in case of an emergency.

　He straightened up and declared.

'Please?'

　The Guild Master said that to the guards and then turned to me.

So what's the second thing?

　He asked.

'I'm going to cast a spell on those soldiers who have escaped. Tell them to capture them if they are still alive, and if they are dead, please defend them.

　I said with a wry smile.

'...Okay, I'll take care of it. But I don't think you need to defend yourself.

　He looked at me and chuckled lightly as I nodded my head at the words.

"They have disobeyed the king's instructions. They fled against what they were supposed to protect, and they will not escape death. I think they would rather be grateful.

　I said.

　The two of us smiling as we talked about our troubles seemed to make people a little uncomfortable, but it was probably just my imagination.

　Soon after that, I grabbed some water, food, and recovery medicine in my stomach and flew off to Kukuri village.

　I found the soldiers after about five hours of flying, so I applied a strong stun, being careful not to let my consciousness fly, and when I couldn't move, I used my earth magic to take away the freedom of my limbs and left them there.

　I put all the things I had loaded and the weapons I was wearing into my dimension bag and set out for the village again.

　I've heard that in a siege battle, there is a heavenly difference in morale between knowing that help is coming and not knowing that help is coming.

　With that in mind, I kept flying to get to the village as soon as possible.