Exploring The Forest

Liricia and I were walking through the forest.

Tall trees grew thick all around us.

The sunlight filtering through the leaves felt pleasant.

Liricia formed a ring with her thumb and index finger and held it up to her eye.

She looked over the trees and the ground through that finger-made monocle.

“Ah! There it is!”

“You found another one?”

I answered, impressed.

Liricia’s white habit swayed as she ran over to a patch where undergrowth was sprouting.

Then she began gathering the jagged-edged leaves.

Thanks to Liricia’s finger monocle, collecting medicinal herbs went smoothly.

She spotted some mushrooms growing in the shade of a tree.

“These mushrooms are for a different request, but they said we can accept it later, so I’ll pick them up now.”

“Yeah, I’ll leave it to you… but that finger monocle really is amazing.”

“What’s amazing is you, Master… Before I met you, I could only tell whether something was good or bad at best.”

“I see. So that’s another one of your angel powers?”

“It seems so. Now it even shows me the name of things and any active quests involving them. If it’s a weapon, I can see its effects and how much fatigue it causes.”

Looking at me through her finger monocle, Liricia gave me a bright smile.

All I could do was let out a breath of admiration at how incredible her ability was.

“That’s really handy… I wish I’d met you much sooner, Liricia.”

“I feel the same, Master!”

“I could’ve had a much easier time adventuring, and I could’ve poured so much more Serâge (Holy Wave) into you.”

Liricia must have remembered last night, because her cheeks flushed bright red.

“…Yes. Please, give me lots.”

“Yeah. I’ll love you every day and make sure you get all of your angel powers back.”

“Honestly, Master…”

Blushing, Liricia lowered her face, the hem of her habit swaying as she threw herself into my arms. Her ample bosom pressed up against me.

—Man, she was just too cute. Way too cute.

I caught myself thinking about how I couldn’t wait for night to fall.

After that, we advanced deep into the forest without encountering any monsters.

The trees gradually grew denser.

Less sunlight filtered through the canopy, and it grew dim.

Even so, there were still no monsters.

Liricia tilted her head.

“Is it normal to run into so few monsters like this?”

“Well, the Royal Capital is nearby and full of adventurers, so maybe they’ve been hunted down in large numbers.”

“That might be it.”

“But it’s a problem that even the Hell Lich isn’t showing itself…”

I put a hand to my chin and sank into thought.

To be honest, I thought I’d messed up.

I had chosen this target purely because it was easy to defeat.

Hell Liches didn’t move around much, so there were very few clues about where they hid.

I should have thought more carefully about why simply finding its location counted as a D-rank assignment.

Up until now, I had only gone out to exterminate them after they caused major damage and their lairs were pinpointed.

“Yeah, I really screwed up on this one…”

As I grimaced, Liricia looked up at me with her big eyes and asked:

“What kind of monster is it?”

“Hmm, it looks like a skeleton with skin still clinging to it. Its skin can be bluish-black or reddish-brown, and it usually wears a robe. It’s a high-ranking undead born when a mage falls into darkness.”

“It sounds terribly strong… But if it’s an undead with that much darkness power, I might be able to track it down—though it’s a little dangerous.”

“Dangerous?”

“It’s a power I can only use in my angel form…”

“I see. And it’d be bad if anyone saw you like that.”

I looked around us.

There was nothing but thick, overgrown forest—no sign of people.

Liricia also glanced around, her long silver hair swaying.

“But it seems we won’t find it just by walking around like this. Shall I try it?”

“Yeah, do it. Even if people find out you’re an angel, I’ll protect you, Liricia.”

“Thank you…”

Liricia gave a bashful, happy smile.

Then she stepped a little away from me, placed both hands over her chest, and hunched her back slightly.

Whoosh!

With that, beautiful white wings spread wide from Liricia’s back.

White feathers scattered all around us.

Straightening her back, Liricia took a step forward and twisted as she thrust her right hand out in front of her.

“—Darkness Power Detection (Aura Detect).”

White waves of power rippled outward from Liricia as the center.

The white feathers rode those waves, flying out in all directions.

Even when they struck trees and bushes, the feathers simply passed straight through.

—So those feathers didn’t actually have substance… even though I’d felt them earlier.

A quiet moment passed.

Liricia remained frozen with her arms outstretched and her white wings spread wide.

Her large eyes were closed, as if she were probing for something.

—Until suddenly!

All at once, Liricia spun around.

She whirled to look behind her at an angle, dropped her hips, thrust both arms forward, and folded her white wings around herself in a sweeping motion to shield her body.

“—Angel Great Shield Formation (Angelic Circle)!”

In front of her, the fallen feathers leapt from the ground, gathering to form a circle.

A pentagram-shaped magic circle appeared and began to shine with golden light.

The next instant, a black wave of shadow burst through the thicket and shot toward us!

It slammed into the feather-formed magic circle Liricia had created, and light exploded.

BOOOOM!

“Urgh!”

The impact hurled Liricia backward, and she landed hard on her rear, skidding across the ground.

But before she even got up, she peered through her finger monocle, still lying there, at the direction the wave had come from.

Startled, I rushed over to her.

I took hold of Liricia by the shoulders and helped her up.

“What happened, Liricia!?”

“I am so sorry, we have been found—the Hell Lich, without a doubt… Its power is on a completely different level.”

I pointed in the direction the wave had come from.

“It’s in this direction?”

“Yes. It is quite far away—in a cabin deep within the forest. It has a complete grasp of our situation now. We can no longer ambush it—we must use the terrain for cover and raise our magical defenses to the maximum…”

“No, as long as we know where it is, we’re fine.”

“Huh?”

“All right, I’m going on ahead. Liricia, follow after me while watching out for its attacks—make sure you don’t get hit, no matter what.”

“What!? Master!?”

With Liricia’s adorably bewildered voice at my back, I broke into a run.

As long as I knew the location, handling it solo was no problem.