A First Mission Worlds Apart

The inside of the log cabin was fairly spacious.

It seemed to have originally been the home of a woodcutter or hunter, with an earthen-floored kitchen right by the entrance.

Now, though, books and experimental apparatus were piled up there.

There were a lot of books inside the room as well.

Suspicious-looking potions and tools sat on the workbench.

At the back of the room there was a bed and a wardrobe.

The floor was buried under books and instruments. The bed was buried in books as well.

Looking around the cabin, I spoke.

“The bed and kitchen are both buried in books. I don’t know how anyone lived like this.”

“Perhaps because it was an undead that needed neither food nor sleep?”

“I see… So that means it really was alone all this time?”

Liricia spoke while looking around with her finger monocle.

“Hmm, it seems it really was only undead in here… Nothing but books and experimental tools…”

“Does anything look dangerous? Traps or the like?”

“It doesn’t seem so.”

Her silver hair swayed as she peered around.

“Anything I can do to help?”

“The scattered books are stacked on top of each other, so they’re hard to see through.”

“Hmm. In that case, let’s pile them up along the walls.”

“In that case, I’ll tidy up as I check things… Seeing it like this makes me want to clean, too.”

“What’s the point of cleaning an undead’s house?”

Liricia and I tidied up the Hell Lich’s cabin.

After about an hour, the books were stacked along the walls, and the tools were heaped on the workbench in the middle of the room.

“There wasn’t much of high value.”

“There were a lot of fairly new books. There was even the latest popular light novel.”

It turned out to be the currently trending novel, “Demon Reincarnation: Banished From My Country and Massacred, I Became a Demon, Took Revenge, Built a Multi-Species Harem, and Rose to Power!”

Apparently it was quite erotic and violent.

Not something an undead should have needed.

There had been about five expensive books. They seemed to be grimoires.

There were very few valuable tools. The most expensive-looking thing was a small dish made of mithril.

As I stowed things away in my pack, I spoke.

“This might not be its main base.”

“Yes, that seems likely. Most of the belongings are cheap… Perhaps this was more like a vacation home?”

“I can’t imagine a Hell Lich owning this stuff anyway. If there’s a bed and kitchen, then a normal person must have lived here… Unless the person who lived here turned into a Hell Lich…?”

“With only the books and equipment here, I doubt one could become an undead that powerful.”

I looked at the wardrobe.

“I see… Then the clue must be inside that.”

“Please be careful.”

“You too, Liricia.”

First, I opened the bottom drawer.

Inside were worn-out socks, underwear, gloves, and the like.

Nothing of value.

“All right, next is here.”

I swung open the main doors of the wardrobe.

There were no clothes hanging inside.

Instead, a pitch-black darkness stretched on without end.

Liricia stared through her finger monocle in surprise.

“This is… a dungeon!”

“Huh!? Why is there an entrance here of all places!?”

Liricia and I looked at each other.

“What should we do?”

“We are not prepared to delve into a dungeon today. And it is terribly dark. We have already completed today’s assignment; perhaps we should return for now.”

“Good point… Should we report this to the guild?”

“I wonder… The Hell Lich’s treasure is probably inside. Perhaps you could claim that first, and then report it?”

“I see. You really are reliable, Liricia.”

I shut the wardrobe doors.

“Th-Thank you—Eek!”

Liricia’s delighted smile was so cute that I couldn’t help but pat her head.

Taking her hand to help her up, I spoke.

“All right, let’s head back.”

“Yes… Master.”

She laced her fingers with mine and snuggled up against me.

For today, we simply went home like that.

—Well, it was my first job; taking it easy was fine.

On the way back, thanks to Liricia’s earlier search, we didn’t get lost.

Meanwhile—

Elsewhere in the southeastern forest—

Hero Marius swung his sword desperately, his blond hair disheveled and his handsome face twisted into an ugly grimace.

“Why? Why are there so many enemies!?”

He cut down a goblin, but from a nearby thicket a huge boar—a Great Boar—charged at him.

He blocked with his shield and swung his sword again.

He had been fighting non-stop for some time now.

Marius had come to slay a wyvern.

A wyvern was a dragon whose wings and forelegs had fused into one pair of limbs.

Its body length was greater than that of an ordinary house.

They had received word that one had begun nesting, so they had come to prevent it from breeding.

Wyverns raised their young by feeding them the children of other creatures.

That meant the young of species with long childhoods—like humans—were especially likely to be attacked.

Though wyverns could fly, while nesting they hardly moved at all except to gather materials for their nest.

It should have been a simple mission, just like always.

Yet they couldn’t reach the nest.

Goblins, Forest Wolves, Sleep Rabbits, and Great Boars appeared in great numbers from all directions, blocking their path.

The monsters, terrified of the Serâge leaking out of Alec, had fled—and ended up colliding with Marius instead.

“Kh—Justice Slash!”

Marius sent a massive blade of force flying from his sword, cleaving the boar clean in two.

The battle finally ended, but his breathing was ragged. His thin body shook as he gulped down air again and again.

“What in the world is going on? Are they… protecting the wyvern…?”

Marius had the wrong idea.

In recent times, he had been tailing Alec everywhere, just to drag Hero Alec down.

That was why there had been almost no small fry around.

An aged court mage in royal service came over, his robe swaying.

“It seems you are unhurt. We must press on. Things will become troublesome if night falls.”

“I-I know that—what!?”

Again, leaves rustled and the high branches of the trees shook as a monster appeared.

A giant twice the height of a man—a green troll.

It swung its long, whip-like arms and lunged at them.

“Kh! Even a C-rank troll! —Hyaaaah!”

Panting heavily, Marius raised his sword and charged into battle.

Evening in the city.

Marius’s party had been unable to reach the wyvern’s nest because of the sheer number of minor enemies.

They judged that slaying it would be impossible by nightfall, and that camping out would be too dangerous with so many monsters, so they retreated.

Marius’s once-glittering blond hair was filthy with blood and mud.

His footsteps were heavy as he walked down the main street.

His first mission as a hero ended in failure.

“I failed…? No… That’s impossible… It has to be some kind of mistake. I just had bad luck today… Tomorrow. I’ll slay it tomorrow for sure. I’m far more capable than that Alec…”

Marius headed for the most luxurious inn in the city.

The party members seconded from the kingdom exchanged glances, then left without a word.

The city’s women—who usually greeted him with squeals of delight—kept their distance from the dirty and bedraggled Marius, whispering among themselves about his failed mission.