'Temma, next time I want to take the north gate route...'

　After receiving my certificate of completion at the east gate, I had just decided to accept the request again, even though I was running out of time, when Amur asked me what I wanted to do next. As for me, I agree with Amur's wish because it's more interesting to drive a different route than to go back the way we came. And Amur is behind me, hugging me again. He seems to have recovered a little bit after resting in the bag. However, it is only a little, and Amur's face is still pale.

"For now, slow down from before, but if you feel uncomfortable, don't hesitate to tell me.
"Yup.
Wow!
Cue!

　One and two of them reply back to my words. Shiroumaru and Solomon were looking a little stressed out from being used as pillows by Amur in the bag, so I'm letting them out to vent with exercise.　

'Okay, we're off!'
Oh.



Shilomar, Solomon, don't stay too far away!　
Oh, Shiroumaru got the rabbit.

　Shiroumaru is happy to be able to run around. He has been moving around a lot since a while ago, chasing and catching hornbills that have escaped. Solomon seems to be finding more prey than Shiroumaru, but he's not very good at catching them, and he hasn't been able to catch any of them since a while ago.

Cue!
Wahhh.

Squeak!

　The horned rabbit that Shiroumaru had just caught was the one that Solomon had found and intercepted. However, since it was after Solomon failed to capture it, Shiroumaru seemed to be saying, "It's your fault for failing," or something like that. Incidentally, the first thing Solomon said was, "That's not fair! And the next voice was, "I'm so frustrated! And so on.
　After that, the flow continued: Solomon found, Solomon failed to capture, Shiroumaru interrupted, Shiroumaru captured successfully, and so on. But after ten times, the flow of events would come to an end.

"Kyu~! Squeak! Kyu~!

　Finally, Solomon had succeeded in his hunt. He was so pleased with his success that he proudly brought his catch to me. However, the catch that Solomon brought had a serious flaw. It was.........

Grog!
Gross!

　Solomon's prey was in such bad shape that my voice and Amur's overlapped. If we were to compare it to a small animal that was hit by a car, it would be like a small animal that was hit by a car.
　In the past, Solomon has tried to catch his prey with his mouth and failed to do so. This may have been an imitation of what Shiroumaru had done with his mouth, but it was not a method that suited Solomon. So Solomon thought it over and came to the conclusion that 'it moves so it can't be caught, so let's make it immobile and then catch it. So Solomon first hit it with his body and then stopped its movement (its breath) and then caught it with his mouth. There is certainly nothing wrong with this method. If there was a mistake, it was in Solomon's failure to take into account the power of his own body hit.

'Solomon, it's great that you came up with this method, but this will only make your meat worse,'

Coo!

　Solomon was very shocked when he heard me say that the meat would go bad.
　The rabbit had bled out of its eyes, mouth, ears and nose, its eyeballs had popped out, and it was vomiting what looked like internal organs (.......) from its mouth, and its stomach had burst. This kind of rabbit meat couldn't possibly be good.
　When Solomon heard my explanation, he became quite depressed, and from then on, he let Shiroumaru know of the prey he had found. His appetite won out over his pride. Incidentally, the horned rabbit that Solomon had caught was later enjoyed by Slarin.

'Temma, take a break. My butt hurts.

　Amur said that his ass was at its limit and appealed to Tanikaze to stop.

"Shiroumar, Solomon, take a break. Come back.

　I called them back from a bit of a distance and sat down on a rock that was nearby. Amur was also sitting next to me. The sun was much lower in the sky, but it looked like we had at least another hour to spare, so I decided that it would be okay to slow down a little bit. I decided to use this time to draw blood from the horn rabbits that Shiroumaru and the others had hunted, and although I couldn't draw much blood from the already dead horn rabbits, I figured the taste of blood wouldn't be too bad sometimes if I ate the meat while it was still fresh, so I put it back in the magic bag in the right place.
　While I was working, Amur, Slarin and the others were sipping on water and what they had bought from the cart.

'Don't eat too much, Amur. You'll feel sick again. Oh, and don't worry, we'll start moving in a little while.

Okay.

　Amur had taken my advice and handed the rest of the several skewers he had in his hand to Slarin. Shiroumar and Solomon didn't complain because it was Slarin who was handed the skewers, but they still seemed to want their own, staring at me. I gave him a look and handed him the skewers and he quickly lined up in front of me. These two animals are very well behaved at times like this.

Let's go then. In another 30 minutes, we'll be at the west gate.

　After the break, Amour's complexion is better than the first. He's still hugging my back, but I'll leave it at that as long as he doesn't do anything weird. Shiroumaru and the others were curled up in their bags, probably intending to take a post-dinner break. I look around before we leave, and the sky is getting much darker, so we might as well hurry up a bit.
　I said no to Amur and let Tanikaze ride a little faster than before. Amur was getting used to the ride, and although it looked painful, he didn't get drunk.

　It's time to see the destination, when a flash of lightning ahead, followed by a violent sound. After the thumping sound, a fire broke out and black smoke rose into the sky.

'Amur, I'm going to fly you down here. Shiroumar, follow with Amur. Solomon went ahead and alerted the others. After that, if people are slow to flee, buy us some time! Never take it easy!

Okay. Shiroumaru, please.
Wow!
Coo!

　Amur jumped down from behind me and began to equip his armor. Solomon flew off as instructed and I made sure Amur got off and let Tanikaze run as fast as he could. The full force Tanikaze was gutting the ground with every step, sending a large amount of dirt up into the grass.

''GANG!''

　I heard Shiroumaru's cries behind me, but I didn't have time to check it out, so I went straight to where the fire was rising. It took about three minutes for me to reach my destination, but during that time I saw several flashes of light. I used 'Search' and 'Appraisal' on the way to explore the area around my destination. Then, the one who was rampaging was an opponent I hadn't expected. Solomon is boldly attacking that opponent, but to say the least, it's quite a bad minute. However, thanks to the fact that Solomon was dealing with him, the artisans who were waiting at that location seemed to be able to evacuate to the inside of the gate. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.

Solomon, get back here now! It's the other guy's fault!　
Coo! Kyu~........

　It was still too much for Solomon to bear, and as soon as I came, he let out a cry. Immediately Solomon reversed and tried to come to me, but he wasn't the one to miss the opportunity.

'Cwow!'

　The moment Solomon turned his back, he was dropped to the ground by his opponent's attack.

'Solomon! d*mn you, Heel! Aqua Heels!

　I managed to catch Solomon before he fell to the ground, and I quickly cast a recovery spell to evacuate him to my bag. Although he was hurt pretty badly, Solomon raised his voice to let me know he was okay.
　However, my relief was short-lived, and this time Tanikaze suddenly stood up on his hind legs and bounced me backwards.

''Nah........''

　Almost at the same time I was sent flying, this time Tanikaze was engulfed in a flash of light. I was sent flying further in the aftermath of the flash and rolled on the ground, and when I looked up from where I stopped, it was just as Tanikaze crashed to the ground.

'Slarin'!'

　I rushed to Tanikaze, but there was no light in Tanikaze's eyes and both of his legs behind him were shattered. Just as I thought my survival was doomed, the door to the back hatch popped open and Slarin crawled out from inside. Slarin was a little weakened, but not as bad as Solomon. I hurriedly picked up Slarin and jumped back from the spot as fast as I could, and lightning(...) struck the spot where I had been a moment ago. I can't dodge the aftermath of the lightning just by jumping back, so I quickly took out an iron spear from my bag and threw it away.
　The spear seemed to have taken the place of a lightning rod, and the path of the lightning was deflected away from me. That gave me time to cast a recovery spell on Slarin and evacuate him to the bag.



　The one that appeared in front of me was a bicorn, a horse-shaped demon with jet-black skin, a physique comparable to a tanikaze, and two horns on its head like a deer. I threw my spear at the bicorn's body, but the bicorn dodged the spear with a nimble movement that didn't match its massive body. That was the signal, and the bicorn began to rush forward. I take out my sword to intercept it and aim at its front legs, but the bicorn easily dodges this as well.
　I've been able to defeat huge monsters until now by using my legs to fight them, but the bicorn is a huge, hard, and fast opponent for the first time. And since they use lightning magic, they have to move around constantly. I didn't feel it so much when I used it myself, but there is no magic as troublesome as this when you turn it against an enemy. Moreover, the bicorn fights with lightning sometimes clothed in its body and horn, so if you're not careful, you're likely to get electrocuted immediately. So far, I haven't received a direct hit from the bicorn's lightning magic, but the aftermath has caused me to receive a little bit of damage. In contrast, my slash hasn't caused much damage to the bicorn's body. Even though the bicorn's skin is just hard, the moment it is attacked, it wears lightning on its body and instantly raises its defense.

''Ik!''

　As I got even closer, I found out that the bicorn's horn was as sharp as a single-edged blade, and with just a graze, the skin was sliced open and the lightning on the horn burned the wound. The attack had left several worm-like wounds on my arm. However, I wasn't just being attacked either. I also attacked the wounds on the bicorn's body, tracing the wounds, making them deeper and deeper.
　It shouldn't have been long since I started fighting the bicorn, but I was feeling quite tired. I hadn't expected fighting through the aftermath of the lightning to be so exhausting.

　I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to find a solution to this problem.

'There's an opening.'
Gluaaaahhhhh!

　It was a dirt-covered Amur and Shiroumaru. For some reason, both seemed to be in a bad mood, and they forcefully hit their bodies as if to ignore the lightning. Amur was straddling Shiroumaru's back, thrusting his spear into the bicorn's flank as Shiroumaru's body hit him. Straddling a wolf and dressed as a tiger, Amur's figure was truly a thing ... a beast princess.

''Gyurolo-lo-loo!

f*ck you!

　While Bicorn was distracted by the attacks of Amur and the others, I tossed my sword, took the halberd out of my bag and slammed it down on Bicorn's head from the top step as if swinging it around. The halberd deviated slightly from the bicorn's head and struck off one horn at the base.
　As the horn flew into the air, the lightning that the bicorn was wearing disappeared.

'This one, stop it!

　I removed my hand from the momentum-hungry halberd, took a new large spear from my bag, and thrust it into the wound on the bicorn's neck.

'Gyro! Gyuroloo...........

　The large body spear severed the trachea and jugular bone from the neck wound and went through to the mane.
　The bicorn opened its mouth to bite me for a moment, but it stopped moving when the big body spear severed the jugular, and after a snarl, it fell down spitting out blood.

'Amur, Shilomar, help................goof!

　The moment I turned around to thank the two of them, I rolled on the ground as Shiroumaru's body hit me for some reason.

''What-oh! Stop!

　Shiroumaru licked my face before I could complain. Moreover, for some reason the inside of Shiroumaru's mouth was covered in dirt, and my face was gradually stained with dirt. In addition, blood was seeping from the cheek area because my face was rubbed with the dirt particles. Shiroumaru seemed somewhat satisfied with the fact that my face was covered with dirt.
　Just when I was about to get really angry at Shiroumaru, his body suddenly floated in the air. Shiroumaru is confused by the suddenness of the situation and his legs are flailing about, but he doesn't seem to be able to escape at all.

'Slarin, that's enough. Let him go.

　Siloumal was restrained by Slarin, who crawled out of the bag. Slarin spat Shiroumar out and turned parts of his body into a whip, preaching? began.
　Slarin's sermons are quite spartan. Every time Shiroumaru tried to say something, he would whip the ground to silence him. It would be quite an unusual sight to see a big wolf hanging its head and slouching its tail in front of a small slime. Well, it's a common sight in our house, but.....

'Squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak ... squeak.

　Free from Slarin's sermon, Shiroumaru came to me and showed his belly while making a pitiful voice. It's the most pathetic voice and expression I've ever seen, and to be honest, it was quite disheartening.
　Perhaps he sensed that I was pulling back because Shiroumar and Slarin would not forgive me, but Shiroumar's voice became even more pathetic, and Slarin began to plead with me to forgive Shiroumar.

'Shiroumar's actions are also the fault of Temma.

　According to Amur, Shiroumaru's behavior was triggered by what happened when I made Tanikaze run. Because of my hasty running of the Tanikaze, Shiroumaru, who was behind me, was attacked by a large amount of dirt. Amur was safe because he quickly covered his face with the head part of his bandit king equipment, but Shiroumaru, who was facing me, was hit in the eye, mouth and nose by a mass of dirt and struggled for a little while. Shiroumaru's mouth was covered in dirt because of what was left of it.

Of course, no treats I'll lock you in a bag for a month, of course, so you can't escape. Be prepared for that.

Wow?

　When Shiroumaru heard my words, he didn't seem to understand what was being said for a moment, and when he understood my words, he was quite flustered. Incidentally, Solomon, who was sneaking a look at me from his bag, was also pale and trembling at the punishment that might be imposed on Shiroumaru, even though he was not a party to it.

''By the way, I was also a victim.......I'll have you take responsibility!

　As I was washing my own face and Shiroumaru with the water I had magically produced, Amur thrust his arms out to the sky and declared.

'Yeah, my bad I'll make you something tasty later.
No.

Of course I'm going to scrub your armor clean, too.
No.

'Oh, yes! I'll split the bicorn ingredients, too. Besides, we're having a horse meat casserole tonight.
Is it possible that you're playing a trick on me?

...What are you talking about?
'If you've turned a girl into a wounded object, there's only one thing to take! "Kekko
'Heel! Aqua Heels! Antidote! Cure! ....Yes, the wound is gone.

　I gave Amour two recovery spells and a detoxification and disinfection treatment just in case, before he started to say ominous words. Originally, Amour's wounds were such that you had to look closely to see them, so even with just the first heel, the wounds had disappeared nicely.

''........tch.

　Amur turned his face away from me and gave a small cluck of his tongue. If I had to marry a woman in the first place, with a wound like that, I wonder how many wives I'd have by now... Even if it's legal in this country, it's more uncomfortable for me.
　Ignoring Amour, who was mumbling something to himself and thinking, I went to retrieve the fallen Tanikaze. Tanikaze's entire body was covered in soot, and even its shattered hind legs were almost melted in places. No matter how you look at it, it would have to undergo significant repairs. As I was collecting the body of Tanikaze and the shattered pieces, the bicorn suddenly stood up behind me.

'No way!

　I quickly readied my big body spear as soon as I could, but the punchline was that Slarin was actually just trying to carry it. Slarin apologized for startling me, but he didn't stop the movement itself. What they're doing is draining the bicorn of its blood.
　The bicorn didn't seem to be completely out of it's depth yet, and the edges of its eyes and mouth were moving slightly. Slarin saw that and decided to drain the bicorn's blood before its quality went down. By the way, the blood of a bicorn is not worth much. The parts that have value are almost the same as the unicorn's, but unlike the unicorn's horn, the bicorn's two symbolic horns are not medicinal. Instead, it can be used as a weapon and is said to be as hard as or harder than mithril as far as strength is concerned.
　When the bloodletting was finished, Slarin brought the bicorn to me. The bicorn was properly placed in the magic bag, so this time it was completely dead. And thanks to Slarin, the bloodletting was perfect.
　I could have left as it was, but I didn't think it would be a good idea to leave the materials on fire, so I used the water magic method to spray water from my hands like a fire truck hose to put out the fire.

'Let's go! Everyone get rid of him!

　When the fire was almost finished, people finally came out of the west gate. At the head of the group are five adventurers.
　However, the bicorn has already been exterminated, and the fire has reached a level where there is no problem waiting for the fire to be naturally extinguished as it is. In the first place, it's unlikely that just someone who is obviously a newcomer would be able to deal with that bicorn. Nine out of ten, they would be killed instantly and that would be the end of it.

''It's over. The only thing left to do is to clean up the dregs of cinders here.

　I called out to the armed artisans. The masters seemed skeptical when they heard those words, but when I took the bicorn out of my bag, they finally believed me and disarmed it. Everyone had a smile on their faces, but not the adventurers. To my surprise, they were all half-crying. Perhaps they were so happy, the adventurers were hugging each other and rejoicing. When you look closely, you can see that all five of them are young dwarves. Could they be relatives of the workers?

　I told my master why I was here and that I had killed the bicorn and extinguished the fire, and then I went to report to the guild. My master was quite grateful to me. Apparently, those adventurers were the craftsmen's relatives, just as I thought they were. I heard that he originally had them help him move the lumber, but when they were unlucky enough to come back, he forced them to bring them back as a fighting force to get rid of the bicorn. I guess they wanted to help the cat, but that's too miserable a story to tell. They might be weaker than the craftsmen here.

Temma!

　When I entered the guild, my grandfather was the first to run up to me. Behind him were the 'Sword of Dawn' and Aguri and the others, all of whom were armed.

''Grandpa, you're here.''

As I was taking my time in the carriage, I felt something bad. I came to the guild for the time being, but I wondered if there was something I didn't need to worry about.

'Well, we'll talk about that later, but first I have to report to the Guildmaster.　

　The guild had gathered a group of adventurers who seemed to have been called in to exterminate the bicorn and were ready to leave immediately. However, since the bicorn had already been exterminated, it would only be a waste of time to say so. Besides, just in case we killed a high-ranking demon in the vicinity of the city, we are supposed to report to the guild, so we have to meet the guild master anyway.

''Huh? It's over! Seriously?

　The guildmaster was in the middle of a meeting with his staff when I went to report, and at first the guildmaster almost turned me away evilly, but one of the staff noticed me and stopped me in a hurry. Later, when I reported about the bicorn and produced the bicorn's horn as evidence, the guildmasters were surprised to hear me shout out loud. The adventurers reacted to their voices and the guild was in an uproar.

''Well then, we can go back now.

'Oh, oh, good job ... buying the material ...'

I don't have any plans to sell them at the moment. It's a valuable material, and I'll probably use it all myself.

　I greeted the stunned guildmaster and told him once and for all that I wouldn't be selling the bicorn while I was at it. It's not every day that a demon of this class is defeated, and the guild would be very proud if they could stock it. For that reason, they would offer a considerable amount of money to the adventurers who defeated them to buy them. The guild would be rewarded with the achievement of handling a high-ranking demon, and the adventurers would be rewarded with a large amount of money and honor.
　But that's only if you're an ordinary adventurer and guild. For people like me who also produce their own goods, a bicorn is a treasure trove. You can make equipment, you can make medicines, and you can eat them. And of course, you can eat it too.
　Honestly, I was more excited than I was when I defeated the earth dragon. Back then, most of the things I could come up with were materials for equipment, but this time, I could enjoy a lot of things as ingredients.

''Well then, shall we go home?''

　I decided to go back to the carriage, calling out to Grandpa and Amur who were talking to each other. And for some reason, 'Sword of Dawn' and Aguri followed behind us.

''The Djinn and the others are probably aiming for the horse meat spill, but what about Aguri?''

Isn't that a little harsh for our good intentions?
We're going to help you take it apart, and we're going to help you...

'I want horse meat. So I'm going to go help.
'So do I. I'd like to see the bicorn as well.......................and Jin and Garratt don't have to come. Me and Mr. Menace will be there to help.

Yeah, please.

　Leena easily dismissed Jin and Garratt as unnecessary. Hearing my words, Menace nodded, and the two of them moved away from Jin and the others. Jin and Garratt, who were watching them, were in a panic.

''It's a lie! I'll help you, so let me eat horse meat!

　They all bowed their heads together. Menace and Leena looked at the two of them with dumbfounded eyes. The people on the street were looking at such 'Sword of Dawn' while pointing at it.
　It's a good thing that you're able to have a good time with them.

I'm not sure if I'm aiming for a spillover, either. It's not so easy to see a bicorn, even if you want to see it, because it's not something you can easily see and taste.

　Aguri was honest about his reasons for following me, and also suggested that he would take out his own subordinate, the Grappler Ape, as an asset to the demolition effort. Honestly, they're going to be more useful than the djinn. It's unclear how useful Ape and the others will be in the war effort, but without a doubt, Aguri's knowledge will be useful. Especially when it comes to demons, he will have as much or more knowledge than Grandpa.

''Certainly, I'm grateful that Aguri is helping me. Then let's get going.

Aha!

　
　Well, let's just say that they've become that much more casual in their relationship............I don't really care what they think of me.
　Well, I guess we have enough men to take it all apart although there were a couple of them working for me.