CH 551

「Huh, river fish and sea fish are really different.」

As the large moon rose into the night sky and the gentle moonlight poured down onto the ground, Ranga spoke up happily has he brought a grilled fish from the campfire to his mouth.

The fish they were currently eating was the fish Rei had bought in large amounts back at Emoshion.

However, since they were camping out, it wasn’t possible to cook any fancy dishes, so they simply cooked the fish over an open fire with salt.

That said, as time was frozen inside the Misty Ring, the fish that was stored inside was still as fresh as when they had been caught, so the grilled fish grabbed the hearts of the subjugation force.

After all, many of them were from Gilm, and even those who had come from other places to become adventurers, soldiers, guards, or knights in Gilm had never eaten sea fish before.

Even if they had, it would have been in a preserved form, either dried or salted.

For that reason, the members of the subjugation force, including Ranga, were quite curious about the sea fish as they ate with relish.

「Woah, what’s this disgusting thing? Can you really eat this?」

One of the soldiers shouted out.

In his eyes was some roasted octopus.

It was true that its appearance was quite intense and, for those unfamiliar with it, they couldn’t help but feel astonished.

But……

「What are you talking about? You’ve had no issues eating monsters before. ……Mm, delicious. The more you chew, the deeper the flavour spreads in your mouth. ……Makes me want to drink.」

「For the record, I am not serving alcohol.」

At the words of a solider in his 40’s, Rei replied in a somewhat exasperated voice.

They were camping out right now and all the remaining members of the Bloody Blades were tied up just a little further away.

They might have been hit by Rei’s blood lust and anger, but he still refused to drink in such a situation.

The soldier who complained about wanting alcohol seemed to understand that as he just shrugged his shoulders and bit into the campfire roasted octopus.

「Still, item boxes are really useful, aren’t they? I mean, you can still eat fresh sea fish while camping out.」

「That’s right, that’s right, I really think so too. There are times when I’ve been sent out like this and we’ll occasionally eat something like this on the first day, but by the second dat, it’s just dry bread and dried meat.」

「Hey, don’t make fun of dried meat. Even dried meat can be quite delicious if you cook it in soup, you know? It just depends on your cooking skills……is what I want to say, but we can’t carry cooking utensils around in the first place.」

「That’s true. If we had room for cooking utensils, we might as well just bring more potions.」

They all ate in front of the campfire while conversing with their friends.

Before long, the soldiers finished their meals as they took turns to keep watch over the Bloody Blades and prepare to turn in for the night.

Fortunately for Rei, as he had played the most active role in the day’s events, he was exempted from keeping watch.

That said, Set still kept a vigilant watch of their surroundings as he lay down close to the magic tent that Rei had put up.

Like that, the night passed.

「……Hm?」

Rei suddenly woke up in the middle of the night inside his magic tent.

Turning to the tent’s entrance, he saw Set poking his head inside.

「Gururu~」

「Yeah, I know.」

Replying to Set’s alert cry, he put on clothes, including the Shoes of Sleipnir and the Dragon Robe, before taking his pocket watch out of the Misty Ring to check the time.

It was just past 2am.

Even in Japan, few people would be up at this time, let alone Elgin.

For Rei, who had lived in this world for over a year, this rhythm of life had already been ingrained into his body.

However, something had happened to overturn this rhythm……or rather, Rei knew that something was going to happen. Getting dressed in under a minute, Rei left the tent.

Looking around the tent, it was very quiet in the camp as most people were asleep.

Occasionally, he could hear faint voices talking, but those voice probably belonged to those keeping watch.

Rei and Set started walking over to where the voices were coming from.

Before long, he succeeded in finding three soldiers from the subjugation force.

Just as Rei found them, they also seemed to notice Rei’s approach.

The soldiers immediately brought their spears up but, after seeing Set, they knew who it was and lowered their weapons.

「What are you doing here in the middle of the night? I hope we didn’t startle you.」

「Yeah, you can leave the watch to us and go to sleep.」

「Oh, but you’re welcome to bring any late night snacks.」

As Rei listened to their words, he silently took out a spear from the Misty Ring.

「Eh? Hey, what are you doing……」

Ignoring the soldier’s question, Rei took a few steps forward before throwing the spear.

The spear shot out rapidly, whistling past the face of a soldier, who had frozen up at Rei’s sudden action, before plunging into the bushes.

「Gyagyagyo!?」

A moment later a scream was heard.

The soldier seemed to be in shock as the spear nearly grazed his cheek, but immediately turned around as soon as he heard the scream from behind.

「-!?」

「Enemy attack!」

The other two soldiers, which didn’t have a spear fly past their face, came to their senses much more quickly.

Taking out a whistle from his pocket, one of the soldiers took a deep breath and blew into it.

A high pitched trill echoed out, forcibly waking up the soldiers who had been sleeping in their tents.

The sound seemed to be a signal for attackers as well. The bushes around where Rei had thrown his spear shook violently……and the next moment, several small figures jumped out.

「GURURURURU~!」

Set immediately jumped at the shadows that popped out.

With a swing of his claws, he crushed the head of the enemy that jumped out from the bushes.

「Guya!?」

Another shadow shouted out as it saw its companion lose its head in a single blow, but at the same time, Set swung his claws again, crushing the head of one of the shadows and piercing a second with his beak.

Three attackers had gone down in an instant, but the enemies didn’t seem frightened as another one emerged from the bushes.

As the moonlight shone down onto the enemies that came out from the bushes, the soldiers finally realised who the attackers were.

「Goblins!? Damn it, what’s going on in a place like this!」

「The Bloody Blades said that they had a magic item that could repel monsters, but for some reason, Goblins had still been wandering in since yesterday. These seems to be the ones……!」

While calling out to fellow soldiers, he thrust his spear out.

The spear pierced the chest of a Goblin that was trying to get to the camp while avoiding Set.

(It certainly is strange. The magic tent has the ability to keep monsters away……but I know it won’t be that effective considering the size of the camp. But even so, why doesn’t the magic item used by the Bloody Blades have any effect?)

While hearing the soldier shout out, Rei took out the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring as he swung it sideways, slicing two Goblins in half.

A thick smell of blood started to spread out.

If it had been during the day, you would have been able to see the flesh, bones, and various organs fall out from the sliced areas.

(Nobody wants to see Goblins guts though.)

Thinking like that, Rei cut down two Goblins that were trying to get past him to the left and right, cutting one down with the blade and stabbing the other with the shaft.

Lifting up the Goblin stuck on the shaft, Rei threw it at another Goblin with all his strength.

『Gugya!』

As he heard the two Goblins scream, Rei turned his eyes back towards the camp.

10 soldiers were heading towards Rei’s location while the other soldiers spread out to other places.

(I see, it’s not just here, they’re approaching the camp from all over. ……That said, quite a few of them have gathered here after the Goblin settlement was destroyed.)

The Goblins seemed to have decided that Rei was a formidable enemy and they tried to get as far away from him as possible while getting closer to the camp. Rei observed the entire camp while moving around and cutting Goblins down.

(No, maybe the Goblins that attacked previously brought more allies with them……is that possible? There are tents and various things here that might attract the Goblins.)

Using the Shoes of Sleipnir, Rei ran several steps into the air before landing back down in the forest.

……Yes, in the forest. In other words, into a group of Goblins.

「Flying Slash!」

Even though it was a group of Goblins, they didn’t seem to have a leader.

There had been a Hobgoblin who had served as a leader, but it had been killed by Everogi earlier.

But that was also why the situation was so troublesome. Since there was no leader, the Goblins were just endless making their way towards the camp without anyone to stop them.

(It’s good that there’s no leader, but in exchange, we have to keep fighting endlessly, huh.)

Furthermore, as it was night time, the Goblins were also a lot more ferocious.

No, it was precisely because they had grown more ferocious at night that they were motivated to attack the camp they had been driven away from earlier in the day.

There was no doubt that the survivors from the previous attack had regrouped to form an even larger group.

「Power Slash!」

Woosh-!

The Power Slash that Rei used with all his strength cut down several thin trees that grew in the surroundings as well as 5 Goblins.

The thick smell of blood that scattered out made the Goblins even more ferocious.

「If it was day time, they all quickly run away……this is troublesome!」

The blade of the Death Scythe struck in all directions under the darkness, ending a Goblin’s life each item.

After a few minutes……all that was left around Rei was the corpses of Goblins and the smell of Goblin blood and body fluids.

「Well, even if they’re more ferocious, they’re still Goblins.」

Muttering to himself, Rei turned to look at Set, who was trampling Goblins some distance away.

Set usually fought alongside Rei, but in this case, he seemed to have reached the decision that it would be more efficient to fight separately.

Each swing of his claws would shatter the head or tear apart the upper body of the Goblins he hit.

Seeing Set fight, Rei headed over to where everyone else was fighting to reinforce them.

「……We’re lucky there were no fatalities.」

When most of the Goblins had been killed, with the remaining escaping, Ranga called out to Rei, who was walking over to him.

「Yeah. It seems there were some injuries……but it was only Goblins in the end.」

Rei gave a slight nod as he replied and stroked Set’s head.

Set seemed to enjoy it as he narrowed his eyes and gave a happy cry.

Seeing the two of them like that, Ranga felt his troubled emotions calm down.

「Anyway, the Goblin attack was repelled and, considering how hard we hit them, I don’t think they will attack again. At least for tonight.」

「I guess so. But still……」

「I know. Just in case, we’re going to keep a tighter watch. There’s no guarantee that none of the Bloody Blades will try to escape in the confusion.」

When the Goblins had attacked, the Bloody Blades, who were all tied up, were naturally targeted as well. Fortunately though, the soldiers keeping watch had managed to repel them.

However, to say none of them thought of escaping at that time……would be impossible.

Rei nodded at Ranga’s decision.

If any of them ran away, he would make them regret ever being born. He had made that declaration, but it still wasn’t hard to see that some of the Bloody Blades were holding onto the slim hope they could escape.

「Well, I’ll leave that to you. It’s well past midnight, so I would like to sleep a little longer. If monsters attack again, I’ll wake up, so I’ll leave everything else to you.」

Ranga nodded back as Rei went back to his tent.

……As an additional note, it seemed that the magic tent’s effect of keeping weak monsters away had worked well as there were no signs of any Goblins being killed nearby.