kscans

Chapter 59 - Little One and the Kodoku Curse, Part Three

"Ah, it’s reasonably wide in here."

After passing through the narrow entrance for a while, a cave wide enough for two people to stand side-by-side appeared.

"But this isn’t wide enough for a knight to swing a weapon. Not a spear, let alone a sword."

Prince Marcello grimaced.

Now that he mentioned it, she could see it. The ceiling was just barely high enough for the tallest among them, Dorfen, and it did seem difficult to swing a weapon here.

Leading the trotting Little One and her group, soldiers advanced with a map they had drawn so far, but their expressions were strange.

"Is something wrong?"

At Little One’s curious question, the soldiers tilted their heads.

"Well, usually monsters would start appearing around here."

"If there aren’t any, isn’t that good? Let’s keep going."

"Well... I suppose so."

Ignoring the puzzled soldiers, the Mononoke Squad and the Frontier group pushed forward steadily. Prince Marcello watched them with a fixed gaze and sighed imperceptibly.

"Um... could it be that..."

"Don’t say it."

Casting a cold glance at the soldier whispering to him, the group from Flowers also followed after the Frontier party.

Ahead of them, two spiders scurried kasa kasa. Above them flew Pochiko-san. Bringing up the rear of the group was Tarō-kun. No monster in its right mind would show itself before creatures said to be disaster-class. After the group of humans had passed out of sight, shadows flitted through the cave. The multiple shadows, shaped like large creatures, bowed their heads deeply as if sighing in relief.

"Hohou. It’s gotten quite spacious."

"This area is beyond our maps."

Prince Marcello looked around with a tense expression. The rugged rock face was the same, but the appearance had changed slightly. The remains of what were once living creatures were scattered here and there. And standing before the imposing Little One were several magic stones that exuded a clear sense of wrongness.

"I see? They didn’t even try to hide it. Because there’s no one here who can use magic."

It was a magic circle with the same composition as the one discovered in the Queen’s Forest cave. A painting of magical power, faintly glowing in the darkness. The one in the Queen’s Forest had been cleverly concealed, but this one was left completely exposed. The little girl’s mouth curved into a wicked grin, niiii. She placed both hands on the ground, and golden magic raced across the floor. It zigzagged with a sharp paki paki sound, shattering the magic stones that were likely powering the magic circle to pieces. The fragments tumbled away with a kara kara sound, and the light from the active magic circle vanished.

"Alright, let’s go."

Dorfen hurriedly caught the casually walking Little One and picked her up. His blue eyes wavered with anxiety.

"From here on, you stay with me. ...It’s the same situation as that other cave, isn’t it?"

"Probably."

As the little girl stared intently into the darkness, one, then two, eerie red gleams appeared in the abyss.

"Here they come."

With a faint growl, several wolf-type magical beasts appeared. They bared ferocious fangs, foam frothing from their curled lips, and drool dripped pota pota from their maws. It was the same as what she had seen in the Queen’s Forest.

But something was strange.

While the Flowers group panicked, the Frontier party, accustomed to monsters, assumed a battle stance. In the midst of the tense, explosive atmosphere, the first to strike were a volley of arrows that cut through the air. The arrows, fired in a straight line, struck the magical beasts. The pierced beasts shrieked and suddenly backed away.

The one who shot the arrows was Chihaya.

His eyes shining brightly, he nocked an arrow to the shortbow on his back and drew it taut.

"Growling at Hiro. Who do you think you are? Huh?"

Tilting his head slightly with a faint smile, Chihaya released a tremendous killing intent. The heavy presence pressed down on the air, sweeping through the area like a blizzard in the dead of winter. Caught in the creeping chill, the people saw an illusion of dancing ice crystals.

Is that diamond dust? Nii-ni, you’re like Lord Swan, nyo.

It was a familiar technique from a certain nostalgic anime, but experiencing it for real was seriously scary. And cold.

Then, someone else added to the attack. Romel formed flames in both hands, a thin smile on his face that was no less chilling than Chihaya’s, and stared down the magical beasts. He then casually hurled the flames. Several magical beasts were engulfed in fire and were swiftly cut down by the Knight Order. As if an afterthought, the spiders and honeybees dispatched the beasts the knights missed with wind magic and countless threads. Mugi-ta-kun nonchalantly put up a barrier, protecting the group from the blood and flesh of the shrieking magical beasts. Mi-chan was on healing duty, so she was taking a break.

And so, with exquisite coordination, the pack of magical beasts was routed.

"Well done, Chihaya. If they block our path, we’ll make it a bloodbath. You like festivals too, don’t you, Chihiro?"

Um, isn’t the vector totally different here?

"You two are too in serious mode. What’s up?"

The magical beasts that had lost their will to fight scattered. Romel and the others answered while looking quizzically at the dumbfounded members of the Flowers party.

"What? They were trying to get in Hiro’s way, weren’t they?"

"If we don’t kill them, we can’t get to the Gnomes’ place, can we?"

They too spoke of their slightly mismatched motives as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Ahhh, they’re just that kind of people.

Recklessly charging ahead was supposed to be Little One’s specialty, but it seemed to be contagious.

Wait, wasn’t Romel like that from the start? ...I’ll ask Harold for details later.

Still, there was that strange feeling from before. The magical beasts had been closing in on them, inch by inch, but just before the battle began, they had paused for a moment and flinched.

They were scared of something? What was it?

Romel had said that when frenzied magical beasts encounter a strong enemy, they would, on the contrary, band together and attack. In that case, when would they flinch and flee?

She casually posed the question to Romel, who blinked and put a finger to his lips.

"Now that you mention it. I’ve never heard of such a thing. I wonder why."

It seemed Romel had no idea either.

Prince Marcello stared with wide eyes at the Frontier party, who were casually discussing such pointless matters, as cold sweat trickled down his back.

What in the world? What just happened?

A young child firing arrows with blinding speed. The prince, displaying magic as if to support him. The knights, brandishing their weapons without fear, and the monsters covering Little One from the center. A formation of perfect coordination. The flawless teamwork, with no blind spots, sent a cold shiver down the spines of the Flowers soldiers. In terms of sheer combat training, Flowers was not inferior. However, Frontier’s battle formation, which incorporated magic and counted monsters as part of its strength, was nothing short of breathtaking. In fact, when the prince formed magic in his palm, the knights had cleared a path in its trajectory. That subtle shift, that clearly unconscious movement, made Prince Marcello involuntarily shiver.

The dimension of their combat is different.

While Prince Marcello pondered such lofty concerns, his soldiers were staring at the child who had fired the arrows like lightning.

They had thought bringing a child on an exploration was the height of recklessness, but he turned out to be an unexpected super-weapon. Is this normal in Frontier? If so, what a terrifying country, a cold feeling washed over the soldiers’ stomachs.

As each of them was lost in their own thoughts, Little One nonchalantly muttered.

"Well, what will be, will be. Shall we go?"

The members of the Frontier party nodded vigorously.

It was just a cute moment when Romel and Chihaya fought over who got to hold Little One in Dorfen’s arms.

With a complete lack of tension, the party proceeded deeper into the cave.

Unaware of the multiple red gleams of light seeing them off.