kscans

Chapter 318 - Yamata no Orochi

The day after Hayato and his group arrived in the Eastern Country, they immediately began to take action.

First, it was decided that they would defeat the four monsters known as the Four Holy Beasts. However, since Hayato and the others could only spare time in the morning, the plan was to defeat one monster per day, in the morning.

At first, there was talk of splitting up since there were so many people, but that idea was rejected.

After all, the purpose of coming here was to register monsters in the Demon Sealing Picture Book.

Monsters like Genbu and Suzaku felt like named monsters, but Diite had said that these monsters could be registered. Hayato assumed it was because they were so famous that they were treated as a species.

Also, Maris and her group wanted to investigate whether they could be tamed. They knew it was probably impossible, but they were full of motivation, saying they couldn’t give a vague report.

And there was also Diite’s intention in having everyone defeat them together.

"I need to make slight adjustments to the monsters’ strength. But I don’t have enough information because there have been so few battles, and I can get better data by seeing it up close rather than just looking at the information logs, so I’m counting on you."

Incidentally, the reason the Hero Ivan was wandering the world and conquering dungeons was also to serve as a test. Since Ivan had the equivalent fighting power of a whole party by himself, he was perfect for checking combat strength.

Be that as it may, the Demon Lord Lunaria was initially against everyone fighting together.

Word had gotten to her that once this was over, she could invite Benitsuru to the Demon Country. So she was trying to hurry up and finish everything in the Eastern Country.

"The Demon Lord is not idle, so let’s return to the Demon Country quickly. Besides, I have to entertain Benny-chan in the Demon Country. I want to show her my gallant figure making large quantities of Demon Lord’s Cookies."

It was a line with many points to retort, but it was Diite who calmed Lunaria down.

"Now, now, Lunaria-kun. If everyone fights separately, they won’t be able to see how cool the Demon Lord is, will they?"

After a moment of crossing her arms, closing her eyes, and looking at the ceiling, Lunaria slowly nodded.

"There is some truth to that. In order to show them the coolness of the Demon Lord, we should indeed all fight together. Diite-chan, you have said a good thing. I shall present you with a Demon Lord’s Cookie."

She was either simple or easy to handle, to the point that one wondered why Rosalie and the others followed Lunaria.

Just in case, he confirmed with Diite, who said that she hadn't performed any such memory alteration. This meant that Rosalie and the others served Lunaria of their own free will.

After that, once the discussion with everyone was over, Hayato approached Diite.

"You’re good at handling Lunaria-san."

"I suppose this is because I’ve come to understand humans a little. It’s the result of properly thinking about what to say and how to say it to persuade Lunaria-kun."

Diite said this with a happy look.

"I spent about a hundred years learning about humans while wandering through space, but I feel like I’ve come to understand them better in the days since I met you, Hayato-kun. It seems that just having information is not enough. Seeing, hearing, and feeling must be important. It’s thanks to you, Hayato-kun."

Hayato hadn't done anything in particular, but he simply replied, "You’re welcome."

That had happened last night.

And today, they decided to defeat Suzaku on Takamagahara first, and everyone was heading there.

They had defeated it once before, so they thought it would be over quickly. They knew the strategy, and they had prepared advantageous weapons and armor last time, so it would be an easy fight.

However, many of the members were climbing Takamagahara for the first time, and since they couldn't use the transfer device that moved them to the middle of the mountain, they had to climb from the base to the summit.

And in addition to the members who had come to the Eastern Country, Benitsuru and Simon had decided to join them.

"We appreciate it, but are you sure?"

"I told the Princess to wait at the castle, but she wouldn’t listen."

"I thought I’d swing my sword for the first time in a while! Besides, isn’t it wonderful to fight alongside Luna-cchi?"

"Benny-chan is as strong as me, so she’s a definite asset. Also, I’ll show her how cool I am."

Indeed, Hayato knew Benitsuru’s strength.

Due to a misunderstanding on Benitsuru’s part, Hayato had been cornered at the port. Lunaria had saved him at that time, but Benitsuru, though pushed back, had withstood the attack. That alone made her a formidable opponent. After all, Benitsuru had the title of Azuma-ryu Sword Style Master even in the real world.

"Alright, let’s finish Haya-cchi’s plans quickly and go to the western country!"

"Benny-chan says a good thing. Let’s finish this quickly and I’ll guide you to the Demon Lord’s Castle. It’s crawling with demons, but it’s a pretty nice place."

"‘Crawling with demons’ is hilarious."

With Lunaria and Benitsuru getting excited like that at the head of the group, Hayato and the others began their ascent of Takamagahara.

At the lower parts of Takamagahara, it was surrounded by trees like a forest, but as they climbed, the trees disappeared and the terrain became more rugged with jagged rocks.

The monsters that appeared changed with the environment, but there were no rare monsters, and they were basically the same as the ones in the western country.

However, the mid-boss-like monster that appeared there was different.

Hayato and the others had deviated from the route to the summit where Suzaku was and were heading there first.

After all, there was another reason they had chosen Takamagahara as their first target besides the ease of defeating Suzaku.

The open-air bath at the mansion was unusable.

The cause was the same as last time. The hot spring source had been blocked again by a giant serpent.

Once defeated, it would be fine for about a week, but since the giant serpent seemed to have appeared again, they had decided to defeat the giant serpent and Suzaku at the same time.

(Suzaku is being treated like an afterthought.)

The disappointment of everyone when the open-air bath was unusable was considerable.

Especially the lamentation of the female members was terrible, on the level of the end of the world. And the male members were also quite looking forward to it, so they were quite motivated.

For that reason, the giant serpent on Takamagahara had earned considerable resentment from the members.

"Um, everyone, I’m sorry. Please wait until I’ve confirmed whether it can be tamed or not, okay...?"

Maris was calming everyone down, who had expressions that looked like they were on the verge of a brawl.

This was a request from the tamer group, but it couldn't be helped. It was a pain to wait for a monster that wouldn't appear for a while after being defeated once. Considering their stay in the Eastern Country, they would only have one or two chances. So, the plan was to be sure to finish the verification this time.

Originally, Hayato had bowed his head to everyone and asked them to cooperate with Maris and Surya as much as possible, so there was no problem there, but the atmosphere was such that they had forgotten that.

"It’s alright, Maris-san. But I can’t say what will happen to that giant serpent after the taming verification is over...!"

"Indeed. I cannot forgive it for stopping a hot spring that may have rejuvenating effects. This time, I will be the one to end the great serpent's life—I am still young, you know!"

"Hayato-san is at a loss for words, so you shouldn't say things like that. Pretty much everyone knows your age. That said, I do want to get in the hot spring. It seems like it would make my skin supple."

The ones who were most motivated were probably the female members of the Genesis Dragon group.

Ren was burning for revenge from last time, and Suien, despite there being no such effect, insisted that the effects in the virtual reality would affect reality. Randa was just going along with them, but she seemed interested in the effects that could be gained from the virtual reality.

"It might be a good idea to have a status-boosting effect the day after entering a hot spring. It would likely be limited to the Eastern Country, but it might attract players that way."

Diite, for her part, seemed to be thinking of various ways to liven up the Eastern Country.

(But still, don't the people of the Eastern Country defeat the giant serpent? I'd think they'd be in trouble if they couldn't use the hot springs.)

Last time, the great serpent was defeated by Gil and the black knights. It was a party composition that was more defensive than offensive, but they still defeated it.

There should be strong members in the Eastern Country, including Simon, so Hayato thought it wouldn't be impossible for them to defeat it.

"Don’t you defeat the giant serpent regularly?"

At Hayato’s question, Simon’s face twisted slightly.

"Well, the truth is that we were busy for a while and couldn’t deal with it, but this time there’s a slightly different reason—hmm? Don’t tell me you haven’t been told, Hayato?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Usually it is a giant serpent, but this time, its superior species is blocking the source. So we were counting on your fighting strength. I thought I had spoken to Lunaria-dono through the Princess..."

"...This is the first I’m hearing of it."

"What...? Princess, you did tell her, didn’t you?"

When Simon looked at Benitsuru with suspicion, Benitsuru frantically shook her head up and down multiple times.

"I-I did tell her! Luna-cchi, I told you, right!?"

"...What was that again?"

"It was about the giant serpent! I told you yesterday that the giant serpent blocking the hot spring now is its superior species and is dangerous, right!? Don’t tell me you didn’t tell Haya-cchi?"

Lunaria clapped her hands together.

"I certainly heard that yesterday. But the one in danger is the giant serpent who incurred the wrath of the Demon Lord. So I judged that it was not a problem worth mentioning."

At those words, the surroundings went quiet.

Perhaps misunderstanding something, Lunaria got a smug face.

"Luna-cchi, Simon often says that reporting, contacting, and consulting are important, you know?"

"Hmph, Rosalie-chan also says that often. But the Demon Lord is the one who receives reports, not the one who gives them."

"Ahaha, that’s so Luna-cchi, that’s hilarious."

"The Demon Lord also has a sense of humor. Truly invincible."

"Everyone, hold on a minute. Strategy time."

Despite being in the mountains where monsters appeared, they decided to formulate a strategy on the spot.

With the information from Benitsuru and Simon, they had gathered a certain amount of information in advance.

The Eastern Country. A giant serpent. Its superior species.

A monster that most people could predict.

In other words, Yamata no Orochi.

It had eight necks, each with a different attribute. The necks possessed the attributes of earth, water, fire, wind, light, dark, poison, and thunder, and each breathed a breath corresponding to its attribute. Its self-healing ability was high, but a neck that had been defeated once would not regenerate.

So, the basic strategy was to defeat the necks one by one.

There was a system where rare monsters would disappear if left alone for too long, so if they left it, it would eventually be replaced by a normal giant serpent, but this one had just appeared recently, so they didn't have the luxury of waiting for it to be replaced by a giant serpent.

So, they had apparently been counting on the fighting strength of Hayato and his group to defeat it.

"My apologies... this was something I should have told you first, Hayato..."

"Don’t worry about it. I was cooped up in my room doing production activities in the afternoon anyway, so there probably wasn’t a chance to tell me."

It was possible that they could have prepared more if they had known various things in advance, but there was little information on Yamata no Orochi, so it was unclear what kind of countermeasures could be taken. Besides, even if he had heard about it last night, he probably couldn't have done much.

Besides, Hayato carried production materials with him. He could respond on the spot.

And it wasn't all bad.

In some quarters, morale had risen considerably before the battle.

The ones who were excited were the battle maniacs: Ney, Cecil, and Agres. They were fired up, vowing to defeat it.

And the tamer group of Maris and Surya were the same. They were breathing heavily, eager to verify if it could be tamed.

Esha and Rosalie were exasperated. They sighed, wondering why they had to fight a monster that seemed stronger than Suzaku before fighting Suzaku.

Esha in particular was worried about the cooldown of her Destroy skill, so with two consecutive battles, she seemed to be worried about when she should use it.

Most of the other members were quite motivated, but unusually, Noat was also motivated.

"If I can’t get into the hot spring, there’s no point in coming all this way. I am a woman who will do anything to be lazy."

Noat struck a strange pose and said this with a smug face, but Hayato only said, "Oh, okay."

Amidst all this, the one who looked pleased was Diite. And she spoke to Hayato in a small voice.

"I can’t believe Yamata no Orochi has appeared. Actually, I raised the probability of superior species appearing during this event, but to draw it out is just as I’d expect from you."

"Oh, so that’s how it is. To be honest, since a monster called Tiamat appeared on the floating island, I was suspicious that you were doing it on purpose, Diite-chan."

"You fished up Tiamat? I wish I could have been there for that. By the way, that child was a first-time appearance monster. I’m glad it got to see the light of day."

"It’s being defeated over and over again by the Bandit clan now, though."

"...Well, even if it’s defeated, it can still fight, so I think it’s happy."

He didn't understand the subtleties of those emotions, but Hayato imagined that even for a simple AI, it must be hard to be on standby all the time without doing anything.

And so, with their various motives, the battle against Yamata no Orochi began.