「That carriage is amazing!?」
Mishinie stared in shock at Pioneer’s speed, bouncing around like a child.
「It’s worth about five hundred goblins, after all.」
The road leading to the Mirand Pass was more firmly packed than expected, making it very easy to travel. We reached what would serve as our campsite in about forty minutes.
「Do we draw water from the river?」
When I cut the engine, I could faintly hear the sound of flowing water.
「Yeah. We go down to the river from here. Want to take a look?」
「Sure. Let’s check the area a bit.」
I took the mounted 416D from the cargo box and attached two stun grenades to my chest rig.
With my backpack on, I followed Mishinie down toward the river.
「There are goblins around.」
It seemed they noticed us and hid, giving off a faint sense of alertness.
「Oh, that’s nice. Let’s hunt a few. Where are they?」
「Six over there and there. Two over there.」
「Eight, huh. That’ll cover today’s drinking money.」
Do you drink the equivalent of twenty thousand yen worth of alcohol in a day? Just how strong is your liver? I’m honestly jealous.
Mishinie leaped forward without a sound, formed a fireball in her palm, and hurled it into the grass where they were hiding.
…Don’t monsters or elves worry about starting a forest fire or something…?
Being able to release enough heat to instantly kill goblins is terrifying. Magic makes guns look cute by comparison.
In no time at all, all eight goblins were wiped out. I knew Mishinie was strong, but seeing it up close really made me want to stay on her good side.
「Impressive. Shouldn’t you already be a gold-ranked adventurer?」
If that’s silver-ranked, just how monstrous are gold-ranked adventurers? And how absurdly broken must heroes be?
「An elf becoming gold-ranked would just be a hassle.」
That sounded like a racial issue. Better to let that slide. I want no part in that kind of trouble.
「That scared the goblins off, didn’t it?」
If it were just us, they would hide instead of fleeing. Do goblins have the ability to sense magic power?
「That’s a shame. I’ve already hunted all the goblins around Korel Town.」
She had been earning regular rewards, but she really hunted them to extinction? Should I start calling her Genocider Mishinie?
「I’m jealous. Around Lasagna Village, they keep showing up no matter how many we clear out.」
Am I giving off some kind of goblin-attracting scent? Or am I haunted by goblin grudges?
「That’s what I’m jealous of. I wanted to take part in the fight against the Goblin King.」
Honestly, it makes you wonder why I was summoned at all. If they had guided the locals better, they could have dealt with the goblins themselves. I really feel sorry for this world created by that useless goddess. Though the most pitiful one is me, of course.
「I’m going to look around the area a bit.」
I did not come here to hunt goblins. This was a preliminary inspection of the campsite. Better to check everything while it was still light.
We returned to the campsite and began scouting the surroundings.
Well, there was no way I could spot animal tracks or anything like that. Still, I could set traps.
I wrapped ultra-thin wire around the trees and sprayed plenty of fluorescent paint onto a tree about five meters in on the north side of the campsite, the side facing the Margrave Koraus Territory.
「What are you doing?」
「Declaring war on the Roselan, I guess.」
Whether the Roselan would understand it or not did not really matter. If it reached them, fine. If not, that was fine too. This was a battle of wits between humans and Roselan.
Lastly, I scattered about fifty kilograms of processed meat around the campsite.
「What kind of meat is that?」
「Leftovers from breaking down pigs and cattle. Even this much is only about one goblin’s worth.」
The cost performance was excellent.
「No explanation for what you’re doing?」
「I don’t know if it’ll work. So it’s a secret.」
There was a makeshift stove built from gathered stones, so I collected some dry branches, started a fire, and tossed a bit of the meat onto it.
The smell of roasting meat began to spread.
「The goblins are gathering.」
After a while, I could tell goblins were heading our way.
「Are you going to hunt them?」
「No. Just gathering them.」
I could not sense monsters or anything like that. But for some reason, I could tell where goblins were.
I took out my sketchbook and drew a rough map of the area. When they came within about five hundred meters, I marked their positions with dots.
「……The goblins are avoiding this area as they approach.」
It was about three hundred meters to the west.
Looking that way, I saw a rocky area positioned perfectly to overlook us.
「Is something there?」
「I don’t know. But the goblins coming from that direction are clearly avoiding that spot.」
Something that goblins feared was definitely there. Whether it was Roselan or not, I could not say. And I had no idea if the reported number was actually present.
The Margrave Koraus Territory lay to the north. The river was to the east. The rocky area was to the west. The Rydand Earldom was also to the west. Once the caravan entered the campsite, their only escape route would be west. If that was blocked, there would be nowhere to run.
「The number of goblins is increasing. Let’s head back.」
Even if Mishinie was strong, handling this many with just the two of us would be tough. Goblin hunting could wait.
We boarded Pioneer and returned to the Margrave Koraus Territory.
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