That's the target wyvern herd...

Temma, I think this is the only place to keep Jeanne and the others in reserve.

'Yes. If I get any closer, I'm going to get distracted, and more importantly, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to hide.

　I decided to take Grandpa's suggestion and make a hiding place where Jeanne and Aura can hide and be safe.
　We are currently in the middle of our final rest and strategy meeting in the forest about a kilometer away from the rocky mountain where the wyvern swarm is flying.

"I'm going to use some magic, so be on the lookout for the wyvern.

　I told my grandpa and the others, and then I worked my magic in a slightly open area in the forest where I was now.
　The first thing I did was to dig a hole big enough to fit a few people in. The depth is roughly three meters, and the walls of the hole we dug were solidified and a few air holes were extended a little further away.
　The next step was to build the roof, which was covered with an earthen wall (about the same strength as a stone wall) designed to look like a lid, and then lightly hardened with a layer of earth.
　Finally, the air hole was made in the opposite direction to that of the wyvern, and the doorway was covered with a cover made of hardened earth. It looks a bit like a hill, and you can tell at first glance that someone has made it, but few people would realize that there is a space underneath it for people to hide.

'I'm going to have you two wait in here, but I don't want you to use the fire inside, but basically wait in the slarin' I think the only time we'll spend in the hole will be if something unexpected happens and Slarin has to go outside. It's unlikely that the wyvern will notice this hole and try to break it, but if anything happens, run away from the entrance and get the scorpion shaped golem out as soon as possible to get as far away from it as possible.

　A wyvern that has escaped this way might notice this hole and attack it, but then someone else, minus the three idiots, will just have to run to it. Amur and Chris might take a bit of time, so we'd basically have to ask them to stay with the three idiots, but the rest of the team (me, Grandpa, Shiroumaru, and Solomon) would be able to run to them in no time. And if it is the one that ran away after being attacked by us, I don't think it will do anything to stay where it can be seen, or it might just pretend to chase us and run away somewhere else.
　Well, it's a hassle to find them afterwards if they escape, so if they try to escape, I'm going to snipe them with magic without thinking about the material.

　Basically, the plan we decided on is for me and grandpa to use our magic to attack the wyvern flying through the air, while Shiroumaru will be the first to attack the individuals that fall or land on the ground (Shiroumaru's strategy at this time is to aim for a quick breakaway, aiming for a critical point rather than defeating it, so that he can deal with multiple wyverns. ), while Amur and Chris-san escorted the three idiots, the five of us decided to concentrate on attacking the closest individual of the wyvern that Shiroumaru attacked.

The first goal is to eradicate the wyvern's herd, the second is to not cause any deaths or serious injuries... especially the three of them. The only thing left to do is to avoid causing as much damage to the surroundings as possible?

That last one can only be done by Mr. Temma or Lady Merlin, so it's not our business.

　When Chris-san said that, the faces except for me and Grandpa nodded. Indeed, if we wanted to cause damage to the surroundings, we would have to use magic that was quite powerful, so it wouldn't matter to Chris-san, who could only use (or not use) basic magic.

''Well then, now that we've confirmed it, shall we go and hand over the reins to the wyvern crowd?　Jeanne and the others will go inside Slarin and stay in the hole, and Raiden will stay outside the hole and be on the lookout for anything approaching.

　They all nodded at my words and went into their respective weapons or into the hole. Among them, Raiden was the only one who stood tall and didn't move even slightly. If you want to express it in golem-like terms, it would be in a pause, and if you want to say it in biological terms, it would be in sleep.

'I guess we have to walk a bit from here it's a bit of a pain in the ass.

'Well, that can't be helped. If we were to travel in a carriage and get attacked on the way there, it would take us a long time to get into position.

'Just think of it as a preparation exercise. Leon has all the energy in the world for nothing.

"You guys need to keep your mouths shut and your ears open!　The wyvern doesn't always come from just the front!

　Chris admonished in a different voice than usual at the usual shouting match between the three idiots. It's true that we're currently heading towards it while containing the entire wyvern herd, but there's no guarantee that there won't be individuals who will suddenly try to join the herd from a different direction. Well, as long as I'm using 'search', the chances of being caught by surprise from the wyvern are pretty low, but it's impossible to say that there aren't individuals with 'concealment' among the wyvern, so there's no better way to proceed while being cautious of your surroundings.

''Ussu!''
Yes!
Yes!

　After hearing the three of them reply, Chris nodded with satisfaction. Of the three of them, Cain still seems to be joking around if he just heard the reply, but it's clear from his expression that he's deliberately trying to act as usual in an attempt to relieve his own tension.

'Temma, I think a few of them have noticed us.

That's right. They haven't made any move towards us yet, but there are a few of them flying around, looking at us and I'm sure all the wyverns will be aware of us. Be careful, everyone.

　Amur and Grandpa noticed the change in the wyvern flying through the air and told everyone (especially the three of them) to brace themselves in the form of a report to me.

'Just around the halfway mark ... if we're going to fight, it's easier to do it around here.

　The area where we are now is a plain, and if we continue on for another hundred meters, the ground will be hard with rocks exposed here and there. If we're going to move around, the hard ground is better, but I didn't want to have the disadvantage of having to pay more attention to the rocks and stones lying under my feet.

''Shall we try to provoke them by launching some light magic into the crowd?''

　Grandpa wanted to fight here if possible, and he was the first to agree with my proposal. The other members agreed, as if me and grandpa would say so, and they readied their weapons to respond at any time.

''Hoho!''

　I fired a fireball into the center of the wyvern crowd. This fireball is only powerful enough to not do much damage even if it hits a wyvern, but it seemed to be enough to provoke it, and all of the wyverns were heading towards us as if they were being fished by the angry wyverns that were hit by the fireball.

'One, two, three....................Twenty-five in all?　Surprisingly, you're here.

Yes..........normally this would be a scene of desperate flight, but with Tenma here, I don't think we're going to lose at all.

Hm!　I'll do my best!

No, I want to get out of here but if you're in danger, you'll make sure you get out of there, Mr. Temma!

'Ha!　There's a lizard coming at me to get me!　They're idiots!

What do you really think?

I want to get out of here now!

Yeah.

　This is how the battle began, and the situation was always in our favor.
　I'm sure you'll be able to find a few of them, but I'm sure you'll be able to find a few of them. There were a few that escaped the spell of my grandfather and I, but as soon as I saw that, I jumped up into the air and cut off the heads of the wyverns. This allowed me to get a skin coating of wyvern for a few of them that were in good condition.
　Some of the wyverns that fell to the ground suffered broken necks or concussions from the impact of the fall and were unable to move. Those that were able to move immediately flapped their wings in an attempt to jump up, but due to large holes in their membranes and their wings being cut off, they were unable to jump up, leaving them almost unprotected from Shiroumaru's attacks.
　Shiroumaru had focused his attacks on the relatively soft neck area, so some of the wyverns' heads fell off from Shiroumaru's blows, and those that didn't received what could be called fatal wounds.
　Amur struck the heads of the individuals that Shiroumaru had shot off with his weapon, smashing them, and slaughtering them one by one without fail.
　Chris kept an eye out for the three of them as he thrust his sword into the wyvern's neck, and the three of them worked together to take on the wyvern.
　Solomon attacked the wyvern from above as it tried to attack the three of them, and then bent down and bit its head off.
　Grandpa followed up on the whole thing and alerted the surrounding area after the first magic, making sure that the rest of the team was out of danger except me.
　I watched everyone and collected the out-of-breath wyvern into my magic bag.

'Oh shit, I'm dying.'
I can't take another step.
"I'm sure I'll suffer from muscle pain tomorrow...

You three are such sluts.
Even Chris is smiling at his knees.

　The three of them fell to the ground together the moment they put a stop to the last wyvern, probably because they were released from extreme tension. Chris is looking at the three of them and saying harsh things, but just like Amour said, his knees are laughing, and if the three of them weren't here, he would have been the first to sit down on the ground or lie down.
　Naturally, Amour is tired, but not as tired as the three of you or Chris, and although he is breathing hard, he seems to have plenty of energy to spare.

I'm tired even though I've been enjoying myself the most, so I don't blame you for being tired. I can't wait to take a bath and relax.

　Grandpa said that and followed the three of us, but it would be different to say that I was having the most fun since I was actually moving more than the three of them. And if anything, I was probably the one who was having the most fun.

'Hmmm... but Temma used her magic first and took out the wyvern the fastest, so I guess it wasn't easy.

''Right. If you just look at the numbers, Temma-kun has beaten a fifth of all of them, and it's not so much that he was enjoying himself as that he was conserving his strength so that he could move if something happened.　

　I was a little embarrassed when Amour and Chris followed up with me, but fortunately I only had to be seen by my grandpa. Well, because of that grandpa's grin, he seemed to sense that something was wrong with Albert and the others, but I was too tired to move, so I was able to cover it up.

'Well then, let's go get Jeanne and the others... or rather, can the three of you move?'

I can't...
I'm sorry, I can't move.
'I'm sorry, I can't take a step and I don't want to move...'

　So I had no choice but to go and pick up Jeanne and the others on my own. Everyone else can meet up with Jeanne and the others and then pick them up in Raiden's carriage, or maybe we can camp early today in the forest where Jeanne and the others are.
　With that in mind, we headed to the forest where we left Jeanne and the others....

What the hell happened to...

　What I saw was a hideout that had become the site of a tragedy. Around the hill where Jeanne and the others hid, blood and flesh were splattered everywhere, and the smell of blood and organs filled the air, making me reflexively hold my nose.
　In the midst of such a tragic scene, what caught my attention most was Raiden, who was standing comfortably even though he was covered in blood.

''.........So Jeanne and the others are safe!

　Distracted by the scene in front of me, I suddenly remembered Jeanne and the others and was about to rush to the entrance of the hideout, but before I could, Slarin crawled out of the air hole.

'Slarin, are you two safe?'

　As if to answer my question, Slarin opened his mouth wide and made a doorway. The two people who emerged from inside the building did not seem to be injured, but they looked pale, as if they weren't feeling well.

''So, what happened?''

Actually, after Tenma and her friends disappeared, a pack of orcs showed up here," he said, "and I don't know why, but the orcs seemed to notice me and Aura and tried to dig in the dirt. And I don't know why, but the orcs seemed to have noticed me and Aura and tried to dig in the dirt. So we got into a fight with Raiden...

'That's why there's so much blood and flesh splattered about...'

　Perhaps the orc had noticed the scent of Jeanne and Aura. If this was a goblin, he wouldn't have noticed it, but orcs are quite nosy, much like pigs. It would be even more so if it was the scent of a woman.

''Temma-sama, it seems that it wasn't just orcs that showed up here, but ogres too.

　According to Aura's explanation, a little while after the first conflict between Raiden and the orc swarm, they heard the footsteps and voices of two demons that seemed to be ogres this time (as for the voices, they resembled Gulliver, and from that, the two judged them to be ogres).

'So this is how much they're trolling us...'

　If it was just a pack of orcs, Raiden would have defeated them more easily, but when two additional ogres were added, it seems that the damage around them was inevitable. Most likely, since it was unlikely that orcs and ogres would be fighting together, it would actually be a three-way brawl, with Raiden taking on a pack of orcs and two ogres at the same time.
　He didn't need Slarin to be in that fight. Apparently, Slarin went out once to check on them, but he let them out of the hole for a bit, and they were sickened by the smell of blood and guts they smelled in that little while. Probably the smell of blood and guts was stuck in the hole.

'Then I guess we can't spend the day here.

　When I told them that we were going to take a break here today, they objected in unison.

'Well, the smell of this place might attract other demons to show up. Then you two will go to Raiden to pick everyone up. Me and Slarin shall clean up the place a bit.

　If we leave it alone like this, it might cause a plague or a swarm of undead. Besides, if you've reduced them to mincemeat (since the main attack methods Raiden uses are stomping, body slamming and magic attacks... and magic attacks include body slamming while their bodies are covered in lightning), you can't get materials such as meat, but you can get the magic nucleus. So we're going to secure it as we clean it up.

'Can we just bury the trash in the hole and cover the perimeter with soil that was heaped on top of the lid at the end?

　We only need to put the rough meat and bones into the hole, as the bugs and other things should decompose any pieces of meat and blood that become too small.
　I had the golem help me with the work, so I could finish it almost as soon as everyone arrived. Everyone (especially the three idiots) had heard from Jeanne and Aura that they couldn't rest in this place anymore, and they wanted to head to another potential location right away. According to Rion, a small village exists a few hours' walk from here, and Raiden would not take more than two hours, so they all unanimously decided to go to that village.


''Hmmm.......we've finally arrived. It's a good thing we got there before it got totally dark. My whole body is buzzing.

　Chris, who is next to me, is looking at the village and stretching and relaxing his body. I heard that the operator's seat, which has the highest vibration after the battle, was really tough and his body became stiff.
　We were able to take turns riding in the driver's seat from that forest to this village, but the three idiots didn't have the energy to sit in the driver's seat, so the first half of the ride was Amur and Grandpa, and the second half was me and Chris, so we held Raiden's gag. Incidentally, Jeanne and Aura were also exposed to the smell, so we decided it was not safe for them to sit on the coach, and let them stay in the carriage to take care of the three of us. The three of them are still down in the carriage.

Chris-san, let's go and explain the situation to the people in the village first. It would be better for Leon and the others to go there, but it's impossible for them to do so with their condition.

　Since the three of them are unusable, it would be better for Chris-san (Kingsguard), whose official status is the second highest of the three, and me, who has been made the leader of this group, to go explain. Incidentally, the official status of this group is: Albert, a legitimate son of a duke, Leon, a legitimate son of a frontier count, Cain, a legitimate son of a marquis, Chris-san, a Kingsguard, Amur, a Viscountess, Grandpa, a wise man and former nobleman, me, a commoner and adventurer, Jeanne, a slave, and Aura, a slave, the former Viscountess. It would be. As a side note, if Jeanne is freed from slavery, if someone who doesn't know anything about it hears it, it might be that Jeanne, the 'former Viscountess', has a higher status than me. That's how humble my official title is.
　Sure enough, when I was led to the village chief by the villagers, I was treated as a bonus by Chris-san throughout. Some villagers even stared at me and Chris, who looks beautiful, but they thought they were staring at me so that I wouldn't be noticed, but Chris and I could see that it was obvious. In fact, it was more difficult to pretend not to notice.

　The way I was treated, however, changed drastically after Rion's arrival. I had told the village chief that I wasn't feeling well, but Leon suggested that it would be better to greet him in person, so I went to greet him before it got completely dark. That's when Rion introduced me in detail, and my identity quickly spread throughout the village, thanks to the surprised village chief and the villagers who had been eavesdropping on me from behind the scenes. It's a good idea to have a strategy to spread the word that he's a close friend of mine, as he's been known to have had a falling out with me in the past, but the chiefs seemed to think it was a warning for treating me lightly. The villagers who were staring at me, by the way, did not appear in front of me or even in my sight until we left the village. When I expanded the scope of my "search" to investigate, I found a group of people camped out at a distance from the village, so I assume they evacuated as soon as they found out who I was.

　Chris, who was the only one other than me who knew how to treat me in this matter, noticed that there was no sign of the villagers who had been staring at me anywhere and realized why, and seemed to be enjoying himself until he left the village. When Rion saw that, he asked, "Was there a good man in the village? He asked, and was stared at as usual.