I drew the fort on the ground, placed stones around it, and explained the current situation to Mebi and Azur Rise.
「They haven’t entered full frenzy yet, but that’s only a matter of time. There are roughly six hundred to seven hundred of them. Most are gathered on the west side, while the rest are scattered around the area. Judging by their presence, the weaker ones were pushed away. They’ll be easy to kill. We’ll exterminate those」
They were probably scattering processed meat on the west side. I could sense Ladarion and the others gathered there.
「Mebi, attack from the south. Azur Rise, from the north. I’ll break through and enter the fort. I know you want to earn money, but don’t push too far and get caught in Miriel’s sleep magic. If it goes badly, you’ll sleep forever」
You only had to experience it once to understand how vicious it was. If young Mebi got hit by it, she might really sleep forever.
「Understood」
「Roger」
Mebi’s reply was a little unreliable, but they were only weakened goblins, so it should not be too dangerous. Even if she ran out of bullets, she could still fight with a knife.
After confirming everyone’s movements one more time, we began exterminating goblins.
I fired in bursts, splitting the goblins directly ahead. Once they scattered left and right, I changed magazines. Then I switched to single shots and killed them one by one.
Mebi, equipped with a P90, was also killing goblins one by one with single shots, while Azur Rise was shooting them dead with the Desert Eagle.
Mebi was fine, but did Azur Rise really have enough ammunition? The Desert Eagle held six rounds. He only had five spare magazines. That was just thirty-six rounds total. Wasn’t that the wrong tactic? No, maybe it was fine since he was training.
Well, Azur Rise had his own ideas and his own fighting style. It would be presumptuous of me to interfere.
As I shot my way toward the fort, arrows flew in and struck goblins.
「Over here!」
It seemed the one firing arrows was a soldier. So, they had properly brought bows after all.
I killed the goblins before they could die on their own, then leapt through the gate they had opened for me.
「Thank you for the cover. There are still two people outside, so please keep watch」
Saying that, I climbed up onto the wall where Cyrus-san and the others were.
「Sorry for the delay. What’s the situation?」
「Things are heating up nicely. We were just about to send Miriel in」
Cyrus-san looked downward, so I followed his gaze.
Behind the soldiers holding shields stood Miriel, carrying a staff. A staff?
「What’s with that staff?」
「That staff is a magic-support staff used by mages. It was in the castle, so I gave it to Miriel. It’s her reward this time」
Ah, right. Mages could not rely on their own magic power alone, so they used the power stored in magic stones.
「Miriel! Begin!」
The shield-bearing soldiers split left and right, and Miriel began to walk forward.
Charging into a horde of frenzied goblins would normally be madness, but that was not the case here. She seemed to be gradually spreading sleep magic, and the moment they entered within three meters of her, they dropped like their batteries had run out.
「That really is a vicious spell」
If this were a game, it would be the kind of broken nonsense that made you demand a refund.
Without a single goblin touching her, they were put to sleep one after another. After advancing about one hundred meters, she raised her staff and unleashed a wide-area sleep spell.
The goblins collapsed in waves, like ripples spreading across water. It was almost moving to witness. She must have put at least three hundred to sleep.
「Takato, guard the fort. Mariens! After a while, bind the goblins! Be careful, the sleep magic is still lingering!」
With that shout, Cyrus-san jumped down from the wall and ran toward the goblins who had not fallen asleep.
「Takato, I’m going too」
「I am as well」
Kainzel-san, Mishinie, and even Bisha jumped down too. Honestly…
Well, capturing them was the goal this time, and I had planned to stay back in support, so it was fine. But watching everyone rush in first did leave me with mixed feelings.
「Hm? Ladarion isn’t here?」
Judging by the lack of presence, she must have entered Home. Lunch, maybe?
Since I had been told to guard this place, I could not leave, so I retrieved a canned coffee and watched everyone while drinking it.
All the contractors were overflowing with talent, so they exterminated the goblins who escaped the sleep magic one after another, and by a little before three o’clock they had finished off most of them.
「Takato, is it over?」
The giant Ladarion came over. It looked like she had been sleeping.
「Yeah. Mostly. What’s left now is restraining the sleeping goblins. We’ll see if it gets finished before dark」
It looked like they had brought around fifty soldiers, but restraining three hundred goblins would take quite a lot of time. More importantly, were they really going to transport all three hundred to the castle? Cleaning that up would be a nightmare.
「They said the deputy for the acting lord is coming tomorrow」
「The deputy for the acting?」
What kind of nonsense was that?
「Well, I’ll ask Cyrus-san about it. Ladarion, sorry, but head back to Lasagna Village. Once it gets dark, you can return to Home」
There was no reason for exterminators to stay here anymore. It would be better to have them waiting in Lasagna Village in case something happened.
「Understood」
She shrank down once, left the fort, then became a giant again and ran off.
Cyrus-san and the others returned after finishing their work, along with a completely exhausted Miriel.
「Miriel, good work. Go back to Home and rest. I’ll take over from here」
「…Yes. Please…」
She must have been truly exhausted. She obediently followed my words and entered Home.
「Good work, everyone. Take it easy and rest」
They had apparently filled a vinyl pool with water, so I first had them wash off their sweat. Then I handed cold beer to the drinkers and nicely chilled juice to those with a sweet tooth.
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