[V8C20] Who Was It That Said It Was Like Ant Hell… Ah, How Sad…
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the Boundary“Helena! Two more went your way!!”
Deep in the mountains, there was a slightly sunken, open area. There was nothing there that quite counted as a ‘cliff,’ but there was a step about the height of a story in a building.
Otto and the others chased Monsters into this pit, then once they fell in, they’d call out to Helena, who waited in the center of the pit.
Two mantis Monsters, larger than an adult man, fell into the pit.
As they fell, Helena folded her fingers together as if in prayer and closed her eyes.
The expression on the face of the Saint of the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy looked as if she bore the weight of the countless wails and hardships of the children of men on her back. Beautiful tears dropped from her eyes.
“Ah, how sad… I can’t stand bugs on a physiological level, yet I’ve been forced to do this…”
“KYAHAHAHA!! YOU VERMIN! EXPLODE! EXPLODE!”
“I really hate it when the remains go flying everywhere… It’s so disgusting… To imagine the depravity of a child of man who forces such work on a holy Saint… Repent, you fool…”
“DIEDIEDIEDIE!! KYAKKYAKKYA!!”
Helena’s necklace — the Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ — Let out a high-pitched laugh and produced bubbles.
A bubble about the size of a human head engulfed the mantis’ body, then exploded.
Smaller bubbles similarly latched onto the mantis’ joints or other thin body parts, swallowing those parts before exploding. Then, they once again engulfed that part and exploded a second time.
With each ‘Bang! Bang!’ of the explosions, the bug’s remains scattered across the landscape.
Watching that carnage, Otto internally broke into a cold sweat.
(Sheesh, every time I see it I can hardly believe it…)
While Otto’s specialty was his magic sword, he hadn’t used it at all today.
That was because, if he used the mana-imbued magic sword, he would become a target for ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’s bubbles.
Those bubbles have a general tendency to fly towards objects coated in mana.
While humans had their own mana, so they could be a target in theory, when there were Monsters present, those would be the clear priority targets. Monsters had mana on a completely different level from humans, after all.
(…But the bubbles’ reactions are worse than usual, huh.)
This was not Otto’s first time witnessing Helena’s Ancient Magical Artifact.
While he was part of the Protection Office, he’s fought alongside her plenty of times, so he knew a little bit about those bubbles.
Those bubbles should have been reacting a little more strongly to the presence of Monsters.
(The bubbles prioritize attacking things with the most mana… Which means, these Monsters now have reduced or restrained mana reserves?)
These Monsters all had something that looked like a crystal shard embedded somewhere in their bodies.
That must be something that makes it possible for them to be active in areas with low mana density by restraining the Monsters’ strength. The suggestion that Hütter’s class made was correct after all.
(But even with their mana reserves restrained, that doesn’t change the fact that they’re a threat.)
When Otto was still young, he’d been a member of the Extermination Office and fought against Monsters countless times.
Since he was blessed with high mana reserves, he made use of magic swords and cut down Monsters one after another.
“Otto, there’s no need to use a magic sword against Monsters this weak.”
His classmate and master swordsman who said those things to his young self was none other than Klaus Möbius.
That man’s genius was in swordsmanship, not magecraft.
“I’m not a master swordsman like you are, Möbius.”
“But you are a master with the magic sword.”
“Then there’s no issue if I use my magic sword, right?”
“I want you to save it for a strong enemy that my sword can’t pierce. Your magic sword is our trump card.”
He still remembered his thoughts that day: ‘If the genius says so, it must be true!’
Möbius was a swordsman whose talents were said to rival the Sword Saint of Warmberg. Even without the aid of a magic sword, so long as he had his flight magic to give him mobility, he was more than powerful enough.
Meanwhile, Otto just happened to have a little bit of talent with magic swords, so he prided himself on making things work out just by randomly swinging his sword around enough.
(…I’m not young anymore. I can’t swing my sword around so haphazardly these days.)
An extra large mantis closed in on Otto.
Otto parried the mantis’ scythe and twisted his body.
“And there you… go!”
He spun around on his heels, putting himself behind the bug’s back. Then, without missing a beat, he slammed his hip into its back, shoving it off of the ledge into the pit.
Below, he heard the sound of bubbles popping as the mantis’ remains flew into the air like fireworks.
(Thank goodness there’s none of those tiny little beetle Monsters here…)
Tiny, fast Monsters could weave between the bubbles and attack Helena directly. He had to assume the reason those sorts of Monsters weren’t present was because they were too small to embed the crystal shards into.
(Meaning the only Monsters that left the Crystal Territory were those bigger than a small animal.)
At that point, he heard Helena scream from the middle of the pit.
Wondering what the matter was, he looked down to find what looked like a giant centipede Monster had fallen into the pit.
It was about as wide across as an adult with their arms spread out to both sides. He couldn’t get a good read on its length, but whatever it was, it was long.
‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ sent forth a hail of bubbles with howling laughter. Those bubbles latched on to the giant centipede at once and popped loudly, but none of the explosions dealt a critical blow.
While that Ancient Magical Artifact was well suited for defeating small-to-medium-sized Monsters, it was a poor match against a large Monster.
It seemed like this was his time to step in. As he moved to a position where he could get the drop on the centipede, Otto thought.
He knew that Helena didn’t do well with large Monsters like this.
That was why he’d been sending the small-to-medium-sized Monsters in her direction for ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam’ to take care of.
It should have been Frederik’s job to deal with the other, larger Monsters.
(Did something happen over where Frederik is…?)
With a sinking feeling in his chest, Otto jumped down onto the centipede’s back, sword in hand.
When Tia stepped outside, she linked up with Oliver and together they flew around the perimeter of the Lange Hamlet.
Their mission was primarily to inspect the Monster-repelling incense burners installed along the village stockade. If the incense burner was completely burnt out, then they would replace it with a new one.
Aside from that, they each also carried portable incense burners dangling from their hands.
Now that Monsters had already started approaching the village perimeter, they brought those around to keep the Monsters at bay.
“Oliver, this incense burner is all burnt out!”
“Got it, I’ll replace it.”
Tia inspected the burners with her good eyes, while Oliver’s deft hands quickly swapped out the incense.
An order was in place that anyone doing patrols around the village would do so in a group of two or more. Ordinarily, they would be hesitant to allow two Apprentices to go together, but they were so shorthanded they decided to have the two of them go without an escort.
While waiting for Oliver to finish replacing the incense, Tia asked him.
“Was Romy okay?”
“Yeah, she was in shock, but she could make it back to her home on her own feet. She looked starving, so I gave her some of the food I was carrying.”
The day before, Romy had said she was wandering around the outside of the village looking for food.
Certainly, she was clearly extremely thin and malnourished.
“Is Romy always that hungry?”
“…No. It was my first time seeing her in a while, so I was surprised to see her so thin.”
Oliver usually spoke proudly and properly, but now his voice sounded a little lethargic.
Whether for better or for worse, this was a strange thing to see from Oliver, who almost always kept the same tone regardless of what was going on around him. That was just how concerned he was for Romy.
“Once this situation calms down a little, I’d like to talk to her and see if there’s any way I can help. If she’s worried she can’t get a job, I’m thinking of suggesting she come work as a servant at the Wedge Tower.”
“Oh really?”
As Tia nodded along, she heard a crashing sound echoing from the mountains.
It was the sound of trees cracking and falling to the ground. A cloud of dust wafted up into the air from around where she heard that sound.
(That’s the area where Frederik was patrolling…)
She saw a silhouette amidst the dust. A tall, thin man with a spear — Frederik.
The spear fell from his hands. Something white was tangled around the spear. Most likely, those were spider webs.
With his spear stolen, Frederik’s body flew into the cloud of dust.
As he was being hidden from sight, a thread emerged from the dust to ensnare Frederik’s leg. Frederik fell from the sky, disappearing beneath the tree canopy.
“Brother!!”
Oliver tightened his grip on his spear and started the incantation for his flight magic.
Tia immediately called out to Oliver.
“Oliver, wait! If you’re going to go help him…”
When he saw what Tia was looking at, Oliver stopped his incantation.