The Raid Team that returned to the Lakeside Hut collapsed from exhaustion.
Isabel and I, who had been the most active, did not feel overly fatigued.
“Am I really allowed to take this stone?”
“Since no one seems to be complaining, I think it should be okay.”
The Magic Stone obtained from the Demon we initially caught was ambiguous to give to a single individual since it was caught together.
Furthermore, Roran’s Raid Team came to help at the expense of their livelihoods, so they had to evenly distribute the sales revenue from the items obtained after the hunt.
Surprisingly, the Ratnia Knights showed no interest in the profits from the raids.
Instead, they seemed prouder of having caught a Demon.
“Catching a Demon is something that will be a talking point for a lifetime.”
“They didn’t even catch it themselves…”
There were many things I could argue about, but I chose not to right now.
“It’s nice that we wrapped everything up well on the first day of the raid.”
“First day?”
“Did you not know? The Raid Team is here for at least a week.”
“The Orc colony was destroyed, though?”
With the help of the Demon and my magic, we had nearly decimated the area where the Orcs had settled.
“It was a small colony for a colony. They were likely a splinter group.”
The number of Orcs we fought was over a hundred.
“How many are usually in a colony?”
“Typically three hundred.”
“Isn’t it a bit too few for the Raid Team?”
“Well, fighting all day is part of the job.”
Perhaps that was true for them, but not for me at all.
Of course, I had never fought all day long.
Training or practice was one thing, but fighting the enemy for an entire day seemed insane.
“This is why the Knights don’t want to join the Raid Team.”
Soldiers who undergo rigorous training every day will fight at any order.
However, Tooler added that knights don’t listen as well as soldiers.
The reason being their superiors don’t follow them.
In other words, if one or two knights team up and hold their ground, ordinary mercenaries would stand no chance.
“Of course, that’s not true for all knights. It happens sometimes. Those who become knights not by skill, but by other means.”
Knighthood is a sort of nobility.
Commoners can become knights by attending military schools.
A way for commoners to rise to nobility.
The class structure used to be much stricter, but it has gradually simplified.
Currently, excluding the emperor and his relatives, the nobility is relatively horizontal.
Counts or marquesses, the titles may vary, but the boundaries between ranks are almost negligible.
Nobility also needs wealth to maintain their status.
Fallen nobility like Catherine is naturally treated as commoners.
By morning, all members of the Raid Team were exhausted and asleep.
Even late at night, Isabel was still awake, inspecting the Magic Stone here and there.
“You shouldn’t eat that.”
“Come on, I wouldn’t eat a stone.”
I felt the desire to hold the Magic Stone and wield its power at least once.
The next morning, I couldn’t understand Aila’s words.
“I’m taking a potion right now.”
“I know. So, you should adapt.”
Aila told me not to use magic for the remainder of the raid period.
“If I don’t use magic, will I be of help?”
“You should practice swordsmanship too.”
Every word she said was correct, making it even more frustrating.
To me, the sword was merely a secondary tool.
I wasn’t skilled at it like Jema or Dahlia.
Moreover, two daggers.
If someone told me to go up against an Orc with those, I would be the first to lose.
“Is it okay if I get torn apart by an Orc?”
“Are you weak enough to get torn apart by an Orc?”
I had never properly fought them, but just watching how the Orcs fought yesterday looked rather foolish.
“Can’t I learn swordsmanship at the Academy?”
“It’s better to have some practical experience beforehand.”
“Then, who will provide rear support?”
“The mercenaries will handle that.”
The mercenaries are Werebeasts from Roran.
Even if they are Werebeasts, they should know combat-related magic or something.
This means that the environment of the Raid Team is the most favorable place to enhance swordsmanship skills, according to Aila.
“Alright. But I will use it in a real emergency.”
“Sure. Good to use it when necessary. If it’s dangerous.”
Gathered in the clearing outside the hut, the Raid Team was brimming with energy.
What got the Ratnia Knights so excited? They answered boisterously.
The mercenaries felt as if they were going on a picnic.
I began to doubt whether these people were actually going monster hunting.
“Today, we will pass through the Kant Forest and then cross over to the Kant Plain.”
The Raid Team had a strange hierarchy despite appearances.
Tools led the meetings indoors, while Isaac took charge outside.
They must have aimed for the utmost consensus between two nations.
They chose to pass straight through the forest rather than circumventing it.
They could go back, but that would take even more time, so crossing through was the quickest route.
Risk factors had nearly vanished in the forest during the day.
The traces of the fierce battles lingered clearly.
“Was my magic this powerful?”
The place where the lake had been, along with surrounding trees, had all been entirely blown away, leaving a wide expanse barren.
“Did they prohibit my magic because of this?”
“Ririan, even Jema who used Magic Stones couldn’t do this. In terms of power, you are much more overwhelming.”
Upon passing through the forest, something was wriggling beyond the horizon, alongside the vast plain stretched out.
“Wow, there are so many this year, too.”
“What is that?”
“Orcs and other monsters.”
Monsters I didn’t even know the names of were clustering from far away.
I wondered if it was even possible for just fifteen people to take down all those monsters.
“Surely it would be better to use magic, right?”
“Hmm. With your magic, Ririan, you could wipe out that horde of monsters in one go. But you can’t.”
The monsters would regroup and move in large numbers again at the right moment.
Aila warned that if the power of my magic became known, I would be summoned every time.
Yet still, I thought about wanting to aim at that horde of monsters and use large area magic just once.
“What’s the plan?”
“We’ll push back the surrounding monsters, and that’s when you can join in one at a time to help.”
The knight order had one more member than us.
The armored knights would attract the monsters’ attention first, followed by the mercenaries attacking in a simple plan.
I pulled out my daggers and held one in each hand.
“Alright, knights, charge!”
At Isaac’s command, the knights began to run in unison.
We followed behind the knights, ready to dive into battle at any moment.
The moment the knights clashed with the monsters, I witnessed an unbelievable sight.
It wasn’t vastly different from the plan.
I had doubts about whether the people who couldn’t even exert their strength while capturing a Demon yesterday were the same.
The Demon was just overwhelmingly strong.
The knights dispatched the monsters as if they were fighting straw dummies.
The small monsters charging with shabby weapons were easily cut down as they collided with the knights’ swords.
However, medium-sized monsters like the Orcs didn’t fall as easily.
As the medium-sized monsters fought well against the knights, they were brutally slaughtered once the mercenaries joined in.
“Everyone’s really strong.”
“Stop daydreaming, move, Ririan!”
Isabel shouted next to me.
A few small monsters charged at me.
With a notably shorter weapon than the others, I must have looked easy to deal with.
I thrust the dagger in my right hand forward, stabbing a small monster in the abdomen.
The monster hit in an unarmored area rolled on the ground, only to be trampled by the feet of humans and monsters.
Even just falling to the ground from a mistake was risking one’s life.
The number of monsters overwhelmingly surpassed that of the Raid Team.
That meant even a medium-sized monster could attack me at any time.
Clang!
When I received the Orc’s weapon with my dagger, I was pushed back several meters.
I was indeed far too weak in the current state.
“If strength doesn’t work, then I’ll rely on speed.”
It had been a while since my daggers advised me.
I jumped toward a medium-sized monster.
It raised its club, preparing to strike at me.
“Take that!”
I threw one of the daggers in my hand into its eyes.
With both hands on the club, it couldn’t defend itself and lost both eyes.
Pulling the mana thread attached to the dagger, it returned to my hand.
I was told not to use magic, but I wasn’t forbidden from using mana.
A dagger with a mana thread attached has a free range of attack.
Especially a dagger made of Demon material had considerable cutting power.
I stepped on the head of the medium-sized monster and looked around.
The knights were fiercely unleashing much more powerful attacks by coating their weapons with mana.
The mercenaries had regular weapons, but the magic used in conjunction was no joke.
Watching that made my desire to use magic soar.
I wanted to drop just one bolt of lightning and see how it felt to electrocute that one.
There was a large monster surrounded by other monsters.
It was still far enough away that I couldn’t get close.
A body at least three to four times bigger than the medium-sized monsters.
I wondered what it would feel like to drop lightning on that creature.
“Isabel!”
“What?”
As soon as I called her, Isabel was right by my side.
“Shall we try to take that thing down?”
“It’s huge.”
“Should be fun, right?”
“It’s okay to slice it up, right?”
Isabel and I exchanged glances and leaped in simultaneously.
The distance to the large monster was about two to three hundred meters.
We couldn’t close the distance in one go, so we proceeded while gradually clearing out the nearby monsters.
“Ah, no! Formation!”
A frantic voice came from behind, but was soon drowned out by the noise of battle.
Arriving in front of the large monster after clearing out the surrounding Orcs.
It looked much more imposing than it did from afar.
A massive bull with great horns.
Flames were like manes, flickering around its neck.
Its enormous size made even the nearby Orcs look like small children.
“I’ll take the left.”
“Then I’ll take the right.”
To approach the large monster, we needed to handle the surrounding Orcs first.
Isabel and I split up and began dealing with the Orcs.
