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Once I got back to my base, I decided to assess the situation.

My objective this time had been to acquire spices and such, and improve the quality of my diet.

However, whether the Kingdom of Canaan had caught wind of my movements or not, they were clearly trying to keep me in check by artificially creating swarms of magic insects.

Given that they had resorted to such measures, it was only natural to assume that distribution between the frontier town on the southern development line and the northern regions had been cut off, leaving almost no chance of achieving my goal from my current position.

As for the insects themselves, one of the swarms had already been wiped out by poisoned bait, so I could safely assume that particular threat had been removed.

Almost as if to replace it, a person who seemed to be a spirit blade user had arrived from the north.

Right now, I was thinking about how to deal with this, and if I wanted to achieve my original goal, I would have to set this issue aside temporarily and simply wait for distribution on the Canaan side to return to normal.

Unfortunately, there was no way to accurately predict when that would happen, and I had no choice but to admit that this mission had failed.

I did technically have the option of shifting my area of operations northward, but since that was fully under national control, there was nowhere for me to hide—and combined with my massive body, I could hardly perform any stealth actions at all.

That meant my only viable tactic would be hit-and-run attacks, “day trips” so to speak—and with my stealth weakened, they would quickly pin down my position. From the distance to their points of attack, they would also be able to deduce my mobility.

In other words, I would be handing them two crucial pieces of information: my speed and my endurance.

For all these reasons, if I wanted to achieve my original objective, I would have to move a long way either east or west.

(Which left the spirit blade user as the final issue…)

Honestly, with that veteran elf warrior as my point of comparison, I could already see how this would end.

I had no intention of letting my guard down, but when your benchmark was an elf with blatantly broken specs, it was inevitable that you would underestimate the threat level of anyone else.

I would have liked to see the hidden potential of the human race on display—but I myself had once been human.

Knowing all too well what humans were capable of, I couldn’t expect much from the modern Kingdom of Canaan, which showed no sign of two hundred years of evolution and progress while I slept.

“When I calm down and think about it, ignoring them is actually an option.”

My excitement had been a little off, but once I assessed the situation again, lines like that started slipping out of my mouth.

“But the truth is, I still want to take a swing at them at least once.”

I also wanted to gauge the strength of this spirit blade user, supposedly the Kingdom of Canaan’s greatest asset.

I stayed silent for a while.

Then my answer slipped out in a small murmur.

“All right. Let’s do this.”

Once I decided, I would act.

First, I would show myself and let them know what direction I was in.

If they were ready for a fight but wandered around in the wrong area, it would all be for nothing.

They would need time to prepare, so they were unlikely to come charging out right away, and by then the rain should have stopped as well.

Once I gathered my thoughts, I immediately moved to put them into action, first making sure my belongings were arranged so they would not get wet.

Then I stood up and left the temporary base.

Rain fell through the gaps in the thick foliage and beat down on me as I headed east.

I walked instead of running so I could get a better grasp of the surrounding terrain and pick out locations suitable for battle.

With a body this huge, dense stands of trees alone could obstruct my movements and put me at a disadvantage.

I knew the enemy would understand that as well, so I intended to take my own measures to counter it.

Wandering in a slightly zigzagging path toward the town, I spotted several potential battle sites along the way, and finally exposed myself to the guards on the town wall.

One of the soldiers was in the middle of a yawn and kept chatting with his colleague, not noticing me at all.

The first two soldiers who came into view, closest to me, had their backs resting against the wall and didn’t even give the slightest sign of turning my way.

(…You’re getting a bit too relaxed, aren’t you?)

I ended up just standing there in exasperation, when suddenly the sound of metal being struck rang out.

Apparently a lookout in the watchtower had spotted me and was desperately hammering at a metal plate with a mallet.

Once I saw the soldiers on the wall point in my direction, confirming that I had been noticed, I turned my back and walked away.

This time I did nothing else and simply returned to my base.

On the way, I found some prey and took it down.

That settled tonight’s dinner.

For a moment, I considered making a big show of things with smoke and an open-air feast, but even I knew that would be suspicious.

So I behaved myself again, spent the day training in magic, and let it end.

At dawn, when I woke up, I checked the weather—or rather, I didn’t even need to check to know it was still raining.

(It’s not that different from yesterday… no, it’s a little better.)

It would have been best if it had stopped entirely, but the rain was definitely lighter, so it wasn’t bad.

I wanted to hope it would stop before the fighting started, but there was nothing I could do about that, so all I could do was leave it to fate.

I headed west to hunt and secure breakfast.

I left my pack at the temporary base, so I was careful not to stray too far as I moved.

I managed to spot a rabbit, but unfortunately it darted back into its burrow.

The rain really did have a big impact.

A little while later, I felt I had gone too far from the base, so I shifted my course to the southeast.

I focused on moving in a roughly circular pattern around the temporary base as my center.

Along the way, I discovered several more potential battle sites, but they were a bit too deep in the forest, so I doubted I would have any chance to use them.

After wandering in search of prey for some time, I came upon a patch of terrain I recognized.

(Ah, this is the place I saw when I came back from the town. So I’ve already made half a loop.)

With the sun hidden, I had no sense of the time, which probably made it feel like I had been roaming in search of prey for quite a while.

“I’ll give up on breakfast,” I muttered, and was about to head back to the temporary base when a human voice reached my ears.

I instinctively activated my camouflage ability and glared in the direction the voice had come from.

Using my telescopic vision to identify the source, I picked out a lone man.

(…Light equipment. Very alert to his surroundings. Is he searching for something? No, he’s following a trail… I’d thought their response was faster than expected, but it seems they’ve sent a scout ahead to find my position.)

That, however, made the earlier voice I’d heard more concerning.

The one I could see was a man.

But the voice had sounded like a woman’s.

(Is the main force behind him, or…?)

The distance left many details unclear, but since they had come all this way, I might as well give them some hospitality.

If the scout was following my traces, I could subtly guide him in the direction I wanted.

There was still a bit of distance to the point I had picked out beforehand.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained—so I left clear tracks and led him to a slightly open area with a small mound of rubble.

The trees were a little sparser here, and I had judged that I could expand the battlefield with my raw strength if needed.

I climbed over the rubble mound and dispelled my camouflage behind it.

If I crouched, I could just manage to keep my whole body hidden, so I waited patiently for the scout to approach.

Standing there in the rain, I eventually felt someone arrive.

He probably muttered, “So this is as far as it goes,” under his breath and came to a stop.

Once he crossed over the rubble and the tracks suddenly ended, his level of alertness rose sharply.

It seemed he had no intention of going any farther, so it was time for the reveal.

The moment he saw me suddenly appear on top of the rubble mound, he shouted and bolted back the way he had come.

I couldn’t help but be impressed by how cleanly he chose to run—when a smoke screen went up. Unfortunately for him, the rain weakened it, and by the time I got closer, it was practically gone.

Still, the faint acrid smell was more than enough for me to guess its intended purpose, and the fact that it had failed to take effect was something I had to call good luck.

(Whatever the reason—weather or the man’s mistake—they do have a plan to deal with me. Which means I should assume this won’t end with a simple scouting mission, but lead into a real fight.)

I crushed the little sphere still leaking a trace of smoke underfoot, then stood with the rubble mound at my back and stared toward the direction the man had fled.

There were four of them—one of whom I recognized.

He led the way straight toward me.

If there was one puzzling point, it was the complete lack of that spirit blade pressure.

(So this is just a stalling action until the real one arrives.)

From what I could see, the greatsword-wielding captain was there, and the earlier scout now held a longsword.

Those two were the vanguard, with a mage and a priest acting as combat medic in the rear—a balanced party composition.

(…They’re level one or two at best.)

They were far too young to be facing me.

I looked at the two women—a priest in clerical garb and a mage in a shoulder-baring dress robe—and muttered that impression to myself.

It was clear they were only meant to buy time until the real threat arrived.

To greet the approaching party, I also started walking toward them.

They showed every sign of bracing to receive my charge, but I simply closed the distance with confident strides.

When we came close enough that I could read their expressions clearly, I noticed the young priest in the rear slip a tiny smile onto her face.

I stopped.

A faint current in the air—sound vanishing from one side with unnatural completeness.

And from high behind me, I clearly felt that pressure.

“Grah!”

I whipped around with a backfist.

I made no effort to hold back, but the blow cut through empty air as something shot past me at high speed with the wind.

I heard a click of the tongue, followed by the sound of a landing.

In front of me I saw an arm ending in a severed wrist—and a right hand spinning through the air.

My mouth opened on reflex, and just before a scream could burst out, something inside me went click as the switch flipped.