“Now now, you two. It’s okay.” They’d just spoken what they were feeling. Still, it seemed they were both embarrassed by what they could remember...
I headed over to Leen and found that Linze, Yae, and Hilde were fast asleep just like Elze and Lu were.
Sue, Sakura, and Yumina were standing with Leen. That confused me a little bit. Sakura maybe, but I didn’t take Yumina and Sue for people with alcohol tolerance.
Apparently, Yumina was the one who had put the other three to sleep. She had the Darkness aptitude, so she was capable of casting [Sleep Cloud] as well. Either way, I was glad they were alright.
“Everything okay here?”
“Mhm. The Belfast royal bloodline is rather tolerant when it comes to alcohol, especially its women.”
Huh, the more you know... Kind of a shame, though. Drunk Yumina would have been funny.
“I have the blood of the overlord within me. We resist poison well...” Sakura spoke rather bluntly.
It’s not really poison, though... is it? It was booze.
I had a feeling that if the Xenoahs’ overlord had heard Sakura talking about his blood being a benefit to her, he would’ve burst out into tears of joy. I should’ve made a recording for him.
I cast [Recovery] on the fallen trio and brought them back to their senses.
Then, I went to investigate one of the drinker mushrooms. Lo and behold, I found a one-meter tall mushroom with a gaping stab wound in its side. It kind of resembled an eryngii, as far as shape went. It had little stubby arms and legs, and a creepy face-like structure on its front.
Sure smelled good, though... I assumed it would taste even better after being cooked, but I didn’t quite have the guts. Kohaku, on the other hand, was salivating... Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded letting her eat it if she thought she could stomach it.
“This is unusually large... Drinker mushrooms aren’t normally this big, they’re usually about up to here...” Relisha brought her hand up to about half the size of the mushroom I was looking at. That was definitely strange... I wondered if there actually was an area of concentrated magic around here, after all.
Apparently, elves could brew a delicious booze from these mushrooms, so I put the corpses in [Storage]. In the end, money was king and I was here to rule... even if it felt a little weird... Still, I wondered if I should take payment in booze form or just sell the raw ingredients and get cash... I was in two minds.
“My head feels a little light...” Linze closed her eyes slightly and rubbed her palm against her forehead. I’d already cast [Recovery] on her, so that should’ve healed any hangover she’d have. The spell was no good for motion sickness, but it did wonders for being drunk. She was probably just feeling bad.
According to Yumina, Linze started muttering a lot when she got drunk and said some embarrassing things. Yae just started laughing so hard she rolled around on the floor... and Hilde started trying to lecture a tree. Seemed like I’d missed quite the chaotic gathering.
“Drunk people are scary... Everyone changed all of a sudden and started freaking me out... When my dad drinks, all he does is get happy and sing a lot!” Sue grumbled quietly. I had no idea Duke Ortlinde was such a merry drunk... But I wasn’t exactly a fan of finding out what his singing voice was like.
“Hey Sis, were you okay?”
“M-Me?! I-I was completely fine! Really! Nothing happened!”
Linze turned to Elze and asked a question that caused her sister to spiral into a panic. I got a little red in the face when I remembered what had happened. I didn’t say a thing, though.
It was pretty dark, even though it was daytime... But that was because sometimes the dense canopy of the forest blocked the sunlight, and sometimes it was just blocked out by thick tree trunks. It’d be really hard to navigate our way around the place without my map. That being said, if we did get lost I’d be able to use my magic to get us home without an issue.
“...Hm?”
“Something wrong, Kohaku?” Sue, riding on the white tiger’s back, suddenly perked up with a question.
“Be wary. I smell magical beasts in the area.”
Everyone drew their weapons at Kohaku’s words. Strangely enough, I couldn’t really sense anything.
“...Where abouts?”
“Could the enemy be above, could they?” Yae looked upward, and everyone else followed her gaze. The scattered sunbeams kind of made it hard to make anything out, and I couldn’t really see anything that resembled a monster or magical beast.
“There’s a species in this region called the Whip Monkey. They attack by using their long tails as whips, and often hang from overhead branches as they attack people that pass by.”
“Huh...” I carefully scanned the treeline as Relisha spoke. I didn’t exactly have good memories of monkeys in this world. From the King Ape to the monkey warlord in Eashen, they were just bad news to me.
Nope, still too hard to see up there... Alright, I know.
“[Long Sense].”
I sent my vision up into the trees, which was way easier than looking from the ground.
Monkeys, monkeys... Let’s see here... Nope, no monkeys. I can see a couple squirrels and birds, though.
“Kohaku, where’d you smell it?”
“That way... It’s a faint smell on the wind nearby.”
“Eeeeeek!” The sudden shriek made me drop my [Long Sense].
What happened?!
“Wh-What’s wrong, Sakura?”
“S-Something touched me... I-It touched me...!” Sakura answered Lu and moved her own hands toward her waist... before patting around her butt.
“E-Eeek!!!” Sakura let out another shriek as she flinched, hands retracting from her behind. Her palms were both covered in a bright, sticky fluid. She shook her hand and the bizarre mucous fell to the ground. At a glance it kind of resembled corn syrup, but it had a glossy, rainbow-like color to it.
“I-It’s all sticky... Th-This is horrible... Please help, Grand Duke... It’s horrible...”
Tears began to well in Sakura’s eyes as she tried flicking more of the mucus off her hands. She shambled toward me like a zombie.
“It’s alright, just hold still. Okay? [Clean].”
A dim green light surrounded Sakura from head to toe and rotated itself around her. All the sticky stuff on her hands and behind was cleaned up in an instant.
“Better?”
“Better... Thank you...” Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief and patted herself down just to confirm that it was all gone.
“What happened, exactly?”
“I don’t know... Something touched my butt from below... I-It was creepy...” Sakura shivered in response to Linze’s question. It must have been pretty unpleasant.
Hilde and Yae pointed their blades outward and took a guarded stance.
“Then there is an enemy around here...”
“You are correct, you are. I do not know where it is hiding, but it is here, it is... Leen-dono! Crouch down, please!”
“Huh?”
Leen obeyed Yae’s sudden command and squatted down. The next moment, the ground beneath Leen was disturbed as if by an invisible force.
“Wh—?!”
“It is there, it is!” Yae suddenly charged forward, swinging her blade dangerously close to Leen’s butt. Alas, the blade swept through nothing at all and came out clean.
“Gyuraughugh!”
“Oh?!” What I’d thought was nothing was actually something, and it made a noise! Yae had hit something after all.
It was like a large lizard. It had stretched out a long tongue and wrapped it around Leen’s parasol, which was now on the ground. Luckily, that tongue had been cleanly severed by Yae’s blade.
It had large, strange eyes, a big mouth, and a twisted tail. It kind of looked like a big chameleon. It disappeared suddenly, and I could only just make out its silhouette against the backdrop. It was like a shimmering oil on water.
Wait, it can blend in!
&
nbsp; “It’s a Stealth Lizard! It folds up light with magic and uses it to disguise itself!” Relisha yelled out, and then I understood what was going on. It was the same principle as the [Invisible] spell that Leen and I used.
“You little jerk! Do you just vanish and lick girls’ butts?! What the hell kind of messed up monster are you?!” Elze growled as she brought her fist crashing down in its approximate area. It had vanished, but we could track it now. After all, blood was dripping from where its tongue once was.
“[Boost]!”
“Grahagah!”
Elze channeled all her power into her right fist and sent a mighty gauntlet smashing into the lizard’s body. It was blown away in less than a second and slammed into a tree... Or at least, that was what I guessed. I couldn’t see it. The foliage was noticeably more bloody in a certain area, so I made the assumption. Its camouflage finally dropped, and it began to twitch.
It was a massive creature given it was supposed to be a chameleon... It was about three meters in size. If you unfurled its tail and tongue it would have been even longer.
Once it stopped squirming, Relisha got a little closer to the bloodied area to investigate it properly.
“This is definitely a Stealth Lizard, but it’s much too large... Just like the Dark Treant, and the drinker mushroom... Just what is going on in this forest?” Apparently, Stealth Lizards were supposed to peak at about one meter. I wondered if the forest was cursed or something.
“I wonder if there actually is a gathering of magic in this area after all... Good grief... It got slimy stuff all over my favorite parasol, too... Don’t touch, Paula. It’s dirty...” Leen sighed quietly as she held her parasol away from Paula. The little bear probably wanted to grab it for her. That was cute.
“We’ll sort it out soon, don’t worry.”
“Thank you, darling!” Leen smiled quietly. Still, I wondered if there was a magical wellspring somewhere. I wondered if we had another situation like Palerius on our hands in this forest. With so many oversized creatures roaming around the place, it was hard to imagine any alternative.
I looked back toward Leen, when suddenly Yae and Hilde were standing by my side.
“...What’s wrong?”
“Something is watching us from ahead, something is.”
“Yeah, there’s something up ahead, I think.”
“Ah, I see. I can sense someone in the trees, too... I thought maybe there was something up there. Probably just a mushroom again.” I wondered what the deal was, though... I assumed it was just a couple of mushrooms since they were just lying in wait, but how would they even climb up there with their stubby little limbs?
“I’ll take down the ones hiding in the trees. You two go on ahead and see if there are any others.”
“Understood.”
“I shall be swift, I shall.” The two of them rushed ahead into the bushes.
Hmm... There are definitely two on the tree... Around the left and around the back... Using full-on magic might be a bit much, so I guess I should just use a special bullet.
“Reload.” The bullets in my waist pouch were swapped into Brunhild’s cylinder, and I lined up my shot.
I fired the bullet and it hit the tree trunk dead center, which caused a spiraling whirlwind to burst out and spin around the tree. It was a weakened version of the [Cyclone Storm] spell that I’d imbued into the bullet.
“Gwah!”
“Gaaah!”
Whoever was hiding up in the trees fell to the ground pretty fast. And then, Kohaku immediately ran toward them.
“E-Eeep!”
“Wait... You...”
It was a couple of people, cowering in Kohaku’s wake. It took a moment to register, but I recognized their clothing. They wore strange masks that covered the lower half of their face, and they had long nails. They were clad in ponchos and had golden bracelets around their wrists and ankles.
“You guys are from the Rivet Tribe, right?” The two men both stared, eyes wide, at my sudden exclamation.
The Rivet tribe. They were a tribe from the Sea of Trees that excelled in poison-laced combat. We’d defeated them during the Pruning and secured the victory of Pam’s tribe.
They were also responsible for growing the massive Wood Golems that had rampaged in Roadmare... I had no idea what those tribesmen were doing around here.
“Hm... Let me guess, then. You guys are responsible for the irregularities in the Treants, aren’t you? What about the other forest creatures, huh? That your doing as well?”
There was a precedent for them being related to creatures exceeding their standard size, after all. I wondered if they’d been brainwashing Treants or somehow making them more aggressive. I wondered if the oversized monsters were their doing, too.
“Touya-dono, we have captured them, we have.”
“We’ve brought them over...” Yae and Hilde had brought over a couple other Rivet tribesmen.
“They’re from the Sea of Trees, then?”
“Who are they?” Relisha and Leen were unfamiliar with them, so they piped up curiously. Sakura didn’t seem all that interested.
I briefly explained what had happened back during the Pruning. When I posed that perhaps the oversized, hostile Treants could be their doing, Relisha nodded.
“We’d heard about the incident in Roadmare, but I never expected those responsible for cultivating such carnage would have made their way to elven territory...” The Rivet Tribe was banished from the Sea of Trees after their foul behavior during the Pruning.
It seemed like the remnants must have roamed around until they came to the forest in the Ryle Kingdom and started a new life here... Pam’s Rauli Tribe had accepted a few remnants who had repented, but a good portion of the tribe had refused and moved on. They were idiots.
They were probably still angry about what had happened to them. The elders of the Rivet tribe were likely still planning their revenge. They’d still be sore about their expulsion from the Sea of Trees, after all.
I’d learned from the captives that there were over a dozen Rivet tribesmen hunting in this very forest.
“Hunting, you say? Hunting what?” Leen sighed. That much was clear. They were probably trying to clear out the elves and claim this place as their own.
“I wonder if they’re trying to create something stronger than the Wood Golems with these animals and the Treants...” Linze was probably correct. They likely intended to drive out the elves from the forest, then breed the Treants to wage war on the Sea of Trees.
“I’m glad we came here, today... If we’d left this way longer, the Sea of Trees might have been in some real trouble.” In a way, we were lucky. The scattered and lost elven villagers would be in trouble... They’d probably have had to take refuge in the Kingdom of Ryle.
I didn’t want to run any risk, so I used [Sleep Cloud] on the captured Rivet tribesmen. That was after getting them to tell me where their tribe was located, though.
We carried on deeper into the forest. I suddenly saw birds fly overhead, cawing in a panic. Something was coming... The ground began to tremble, and the sound of splintering branches rang out as it approached...
It had an enormous crooked mouth etched into its wooden face. Its gnarled roots expanded out like legs, and a thick bed of dead leaves grew upon its top branches. Its dead face was almost twisted into a grin.
It was enormous. It was comparable to the size of a Wood Golem that attacked Roadmare. If this thing launched an attack, then there’d be no elves left to flee.
“Touya! Look out!” Yumina yelled, and I noticed another Treant of similar size coming out. There were... one, two... ten in total. Much more than I expected.
“Touya-dono, can you leave these Treants to us, can you?”
“Yeah, let’s do it!” I opened up a [Gate] and called out a Chevalier. Then, I looked over to Yae and Hilde. Oh crap, those things are getting closer!
I opened up another portal and dropped down Hilde’s Siegrune and Yae’s Schwertleite.
The ground trembled as the two special Frame Gears crashed down into the forest.
“Let us go, Hilde-dono!”
“Very well!” The samurai girl and the female knight leaped into action. I had a feeling that the battle was going to go just fine.
“Hey, Touya! Don’t let them both have all the fun! Bring out Gerhilde!”
“I got it, geez! Don’t rush me!”
Elze ran up to me and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck. In response, I flailed a little bit and called Gerhilde down. Elze let me go and gladly ran toward her mech.
Geez... How rowdy...
“I wish I could go out with Grimgerde, but my Frame Gear isn’t quite suited to this environment...” Leen’s Grimgerde was equipped with heavy weapons. If she went all-out in that bulky thing, the forest would probably get messed up. She’d beat the Treants, but the elves wouldn’t be too happy.
“I want to pilot Ortlinde, too...” Regular Ortlinde would probably be fine, but Ortlinde Overlord would be out of the question. The forest wouldn’t even exist anymore.
I kind of wondered if I’d be okay to accept the reward if it was these three doing all the Treant-bashing... I asked Relisha, and she said it’d be fine. I was glad to have the guildmaster’s personal reassurance...
“Alright, while they do that let’s go after the Rivet tribe.”
“Alright! Shall we get a move on, Touya?” Yumina smiled and tilted her head.
That seemed fine to me. I pulled up my smartphone and employed [Search], since I could identify the Rivet tribesmen easily based on their getup.
In the forest, there were a total of twenty-three tribesmen. Excluding the four we’d already caught, that meant there were nineteen left.
“Locked on... [Paralyze]!”
I could hear a few faint groans of shock and a couple of pattering noises as they fell to the ground. That was that. All we had to do was tie them up and collect them. Although, I wondered if that was all there was to it. We still had more to deal with... Like those Treants.
Hilde’s Siegrune effortlessly blocked one of the monster’s attacks with its shield. The orange shield wasn’t transparent, but it was still composed of Phrasium. I’d developed a special paint that allowed coating of the material.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 12 Page 8