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The Venomous Demonic Beast
「We’re retreating」
After learning the possibility of the basilisk appearing, Perry made the decision to withdraw with no hesitation.
He showed fearlessness that was nothing like how he was before when he was laughing loudly as he tried to recruit me.
I see, so this is what the leader of this group was really like. I was impressed.
「Our goal was only to capture the kijin. Subjugating a basilisk was not part of our contract」
「Captain, even if we’re running away, how are we going to do that?」
Perry then looked at me with a serious expression.
「Sora. I’m not going to ask you to bring everyone back, but could you bring back the young ones for me?」
「I don’t mind. I was originally hired to bring you guys here and then back after all. If you like, I could just make several trips to bring everyone back, no?」
「No, doing that will take some time, and the burden it will put on the people remaining in the forest will be huge. It won’t end well for us if we stay at the same place and get locked into a fight with the basilisk. Thanks for your offer, but one trip would be plenty enough」
「Understood」
「Alright, well then, you lot, get ready quickly! Other than your equipment, only carry the minimum amount of food and water you’ll need! Shed your greed and leave the heavy luggage behind. Anyone who’s a hindrance in the middle of the run will be left behind! But don’t worry, master Fedor is a reasonable person. He will still cover your pay in an emergency. No, you might even be rewarded for discovering the basilisk!」
While being reassured by the words of their captain like that, the 『Scythe of the Grim Reaper』 quickly began preparing for their retreat.
Because of his swift decision making, we started to retreat before the basilisk showed its face.
Most of the luggage they brought here was tossed out, but a life is not something that can be brought back once lost. Other than food, they left a lot of herbs and potions here too, so let’s come back later to collect them.
Just like the remains of the deceased, any material that someone throws out during a quest is also considered something that’s free to be looted–But I’ll return those things properly to the 『Scythe of the Grim Reaper』 though. Well, at that time, they probably wouldn’t care even if I took about 10% of the stuff for my compensation.
With that thought in mind, I told the wyvern to fly up in the sky.
There were three humans riding on the wyvern’s back. Two of their young members and their vice captain. By the way, their vice captain was the young man who came back with the news of the blight and the basilisk.
The reason Perry had their vice captain return first was because he needed someone like him to explain the situation in proper detail to their employer, Fedor.
The appearance of the basilisk meant more than just “a massive monster has appeared”.
If the Titis forest is swallowed by the blight, the blessings of nature will also be gone. Herbs, wood, materials from the demonic beasts, everything that supports Ishka’s economy will be lost at once. It will be a major blow.
And the demonic beasts that lost their home from the blight will not just sit there nicely and die in starvation.
In the worst case scenario, they might attack Ishka in great numbers. It could cause a stampede.
In addition, there will be even more serious problems.
The water source of Titis forest, the Kale river. It’s Ishka’s everyday water supply, the backbone of our source of water. What will happen if it got poisoned?
The current situation is a rather serious crisis for Ishka’s survival.
It’s not just Ishka. The demonic beasts from Titis forest and Mount Skim that the city of Ishka kept under control will flood the entire Canaria kingdom like a dam had broken. The kingdom will definitely be in chaos.
Perry had probably thought that far ahead so he decided to return his trusted vice-captain first.
If that’s the case, then I can’t let him down either.
These days, the indigo wyvern is able to fly in various ways as well, it can even hover in the air or do vertical take-offs and landings.
Apparently, a wyvern doesn’t just use its wings to fly, it seems to use mana to support its body to make it float as well. Yeah, the progress it made from its efforts really shows. I knew that this guy was a wyvern that could do it if it tried.
Lunamaria and Ciel said that it was about time we gave it a name, but no good names have come to mind yet.
I had once tried calling it “Daigo” as its nickname since it sounded like “Indigo”, but it stared at me with a sad face. If I had kept calling it Daigo, I might have ended up finding out about its ultimate secret moves first hand.
Since then, I haven’t come up with any names on the fly like that. Lately, I started to think that calling it the “Indigo wyvern” might just be fine.
After we lifted high into the air as I thought about those things, I looked down at the forest below.
From what I could see like this, it didn’t feel like there was anything wrong. Wait, a part of the forest on the north side has turned black. That’s the blight, huh?
If I think about this calmly, it’s only speculation that the blight was caused by the monster called the basilisk. No one has actually seen the basilisk.
In order to give more credibility to the report, I wanted to fly above the blight to confirm it.
But I held off that urge.
The wyvern normally carried one or two people max. Since it’s carrying four people right now, its mobility has been greatly reduced.
I didn’t want to come into contact with the basilisk like this when it could have anti-air attacks such as poison breath.
By my instruction, the wyvern flapped its wings and flew towards Ishka.
I felt like I heard a howl coming from behind as if it was sneering at us.
◆◆◆
After I brought their vice captain and their other members back, I headed back to the Titis forest right away because the vice captain and Fedor were begging me to help the other members of the 『Scythe of the Grim Reaper』.
Even I did not say no to that.
However, because of the risk of being possibly attacked by the basilisk, we couldn’t fly at a low altitude. It’s necessary for us to keep our distance and stay high, but then it becomes hard to see what’s happening on the ground.
After all, the dense sea of trees covered our entire field of vision. No matter how hard I tried to look, it was not possible to locate the people in the 『Scythe of the Grim Reaper』who would be running under the trees.
Thinking about it simply, they should be somewhere on the straight line that goes from their base to Ishka.
However, they are in a forest that doesn’t really have set paths. It’s not easy to just go in a direct straight line to their destination from where they were.
In that case, it’ll probably be a good idea to follow the river that goes downstream, like the path that I always took before.
If the basilisk really exists and it’s chasing the 『Scythe of the Grim Reaper』, that detour could be fatal to them.
「…There’s no use thinking about all this and that, I guess」
I hurried the wyvern and headed to the base they built inside of the forest. I will land there and then head towards Ishka from within the forest. If I run with my kei activated, I’m bound to catch up to someone.
「You stay up high in the air. I’ll call you if I find someone」
The wyvern looked at me with eyes of worry for a second when I gave it that order after I got off the saddle.
However, it most likely noticed the sense of urgency in me so it took off immediately into the sky.
After I saw it fly off, I began my search right away.
From the looks of it, the supplies that were left at this base had not been touched, and the trees and grass around this area were also not rotting. The basilisk did not come here.
I was a little relieved from that. If this location was completely destroyed, the search ahead will be grim.
If this place is safe then the chance that the people of the 『Scythe of the Grim Reaper』 are also safe rises, I thought.
…Until I found a dead body a few minutes after I began my search.
It was laying around at a place not even five minutes from their base.
The corpse’s face was half melted off, and the person’s insides were exposed.
At first I thought this person was eaten, but that wasn’t it.
The red and black liquid that was still melting the body with a strange sizzling sound was probably a deadly poisonous liquid. This person must have died after he was hit by the poisonous liquid directly in the face.
From his wide open eye on the remaining half of his face, I could still see the surprise, despair, and agony that he felt in his last moments.
I wanted to close his eye for him so he could rest in peace, but I stopped myself when I was at the verge of doing so.
From the legends, the basilisk’s poison had killed a knight through the spear that the knight stabbed it with.
It’s not completely safe even if I don’t come into direct contact with the poisonous liquid.
I think it’ll be okay if I shield myself with kei before touching it…But this isn’t the time to make a gamble like that.
After bowing once to the dead, I turned around and started running into the forest.
I don’t know if it’s a basilisk or not, but there’s no doubt that there’s a pretty strong venomous demonic beast loose out there.
I couldn’t stop having a bad feeling about this.