At least if they had been a little slower to get into the grass, they might have been able to notice the Blood Wolf's presence first.

　Thinking about that, Wraith struggles to move his feet. Although he's running as much as possible towards the place where Raffy was, it's obvious that if he foolishly goes straight ahead, he'll be caught up soon.

　The only way to escape is to use the trees to get away from them, since their speed is inferior.

''With that said, how many of them are there, dammit.......!

　The number of bloodwolves Raffy was dealing with was considerable. Wraith himself didn't think that was all of them, but he wanted to complain about it.

　Every time I see the fangs and claws that I keep avoiding in the nick of time, a chill goes down my spine.

''Wanna use it........!

　Wraith reaches into his bag as he runs and touches his hand to the potion that repels demons. There's a limited number of them, but I can't say that about the situation. At this rate, he'll run out of energy and get eaten first.

　Wraith squeezes the potion while checking the distance between him and the Blood Wolf with his buttocks. Then he timed it and threw it at her.

　The bottle containing the potion cracks with a clink in front of Bloodwolf's eyes, emitting a unique odor.

　It succeeded as intended, and the Wraith's expression relaxed for a moment.

　But--

"...why are you just following us?

　Contrary to Wraith's expectations, the Bloodwolf has continued to run without fear. It didn't even show any pretense of being averse to the smell.

　It's supposed to be very effective against beast-type demons, but the result is that it's ineffective.

　However, as long as the Blood Wolf doesn't stop, Wraith doesn't have time to rest either. The Wraith regained its momentarily slackened attention and started the escape drama again.

　However, there's no way to continue running away in the dark. Wraiths think about whether there is a way to scatter it somehow.

'The fact that the potion to repel demons doesn't work means that my sense of smell is paralyzed...?　If that's the case....

　The potion contains only substances that would appeal to the sense of smell. Then it would be natural to assume that the Blood Wolf's sense of smell is paralyzed for some reason. If that was the case, there was still a way to get away with it.

　Wraith puts his hand in the bag again and finds what he wants.

'If the nose doesn't work, how about this one!

　Wraith said and blasted the contents of the bottle behind him. What shot out into the air was a red liquid.
　As it was, the liquid hit the Bloodwolves directly in their faces.

　Then, the Bloodwolves suddenly stopped moving. They shook their faces from side to side in an annoying manner and tried to get rid of the liquid on their faces. However, their reddened vision never recovered.

It's my characteristic dye, a mixture of kola nut and hackleweed. You won't be able to see that quickly. And therefore...

　The juice of kola seed contains dyeing properties. When it is kneaded with the highly absorbent hackleweed to form a liquid, it becomes a powerful dye.

　Wraith throws the empty bottle containing the dye with all the force he can muster in the exact opposite direction from himself. When it hit the ground directly, naturally, a loud sound of breaking glass was heard.

　The Blood Wolves, who couldn't see anything, reacted sensitively to the sharp sound. They all ran in the direction of the sound at once.

''--If you can't use your nose, you should do something about your vision and hearing.

　If the Blood Wolves' sense of smell was normal, the Wraith's location would have been easily discovered by now. Well, in that case, we were able to get away with it when we threw the potion to repel demons. Anyway, we should be happy that we survived the threat to our lives now.

　Thanks to the dye, we can buy ourselves some time.

''I'm tired of the quicksand...''

　Wraith sighed while leaving the scene.

　Although Wraith has good stamina, he had been running for a long time and was quite tired. He really wanted to rest his body a little if possible.

''Yes.''

　Wraith clapped his hands with a pop as if to say he had an odd idea.
　Then he scurried around and approached one of the trees.

'Yup.'

　Wraith climbed the tree without hesitation and reached the top of the thick branches in no time.

'Huh ... you can rest here.

　Since he had lived in the forest, he had several experiences of climbing trees. On top of a tree, he wouldn't have to worry about encountering demons like he had just done.

　Comparatively speaking, you can rest your body in peace.

''I wonder if Raffy is safe.......''

　He leans his body against the trunk of the tree and mutters to himself. In terms of time, it wouldn't be surprising if Raffy's side of the battle was over by now.

''In a little while, let's go find her.

　Wraith exhales deeply and tries to recover his strength.

　-- A sudden vibration struck his body.



　* * * *.



Hmm, the sudden appearance of a demon...

　A man squints with interest at the information that has come up in the report. He is the current head of one of the four great noble families in this country.

　His name is Wills Redium. He is one of the many people who sought the elixir of the Wraith.

　However, the person himself adamantly refused to purchase the elixir, so in the end, we were only able to meet face to face.

　Nevertheless, what is troubling Virus right now is not in regards to the Wraith.

　It's about the matter of a demon appearing in the forest near the royal capital just recently. Even though the damage has only just begun to be reported, the number of injured people is moderate.

　Perhaps that's why there are so many demons.

''Utterly, at this time when the royal family is in turmoil, another troublesome case...''

　A virus that sighs in distress. Normally, this kind of case is usually referred to the royal family for confirmation on how to deal with it.

　However, the current royal family is busy with something. That's why they left it to the virus that was available to them to deal with this case. It is not desirable for the virus to cause any more damage.

''However.........''

　If this sudden appearance of a demon was just a group of low grade demons, then fine. Other D- and C-level demons, such as the reported Bloodwolf, would be easy to deal with.

　But one of the reports was that a party of B-level adventurers had been killed, and that's what you'd call veteran territory when it comes to B-level adventurers. They don't get beaten up that easily.

''At the very least, I should consider them to be at least A+.

　A+ means stronger than an A-class demon and weaker than an S-class demon. Recently, the A+ demons that appeared outside the kingdom were defeated by five A-class adventurers.

　If five of them could defeat it, it seemed like they could manage it, but two of them died. Even if the five A-class adventurers, who were overwhelmingly strong, challenged him, there were still deaths.

''Send out a request for nomination.......or worse, I'll head for it.

　Wills decides to send a request to some of the A- and S-classes. If it is still difficult to get rid of the demons, he considers going out himself as one of the means to do so.

　Normally, he doesn't do any fighting at all, but Virus can fight. His abilities are second to none, even for an S-class fighter.

　Because of my position, I don't get many opportunities to show off my abilities. Nevertheless, I never missed a chance to train.

Well, let's get on with it.

　Wills set to work writing up a request for nomination.

　-- not knowing that some alchemist was in the woods right now.