Tyrant Boar!

In the forest southeast of the Royal Capital.

Negotiations with the White Boar had broken down.

It came charging in with fifty Great Boars in tow. Fallen leaves flew up into the air.

I drew the black single-edged sword from its sheath.

As I readied my sword, I shouted.

“Take care of the small fry, Fenrir!”

“Leave it to me! —Blizzard!”

A white snowstorm raged across the clearing.

The boars pressed close together as they ran.

The boars on the outside fell to the blades of ice, but the boars on the inside did not slow down.

“Me strongest—no effect!”

The pale blue light being emitted from the White Boar compressed inward into its huge body.

“So you learned how to compress it!”

“And then—Heavy Rush!”

Its huge body accelerated. Its entire body—especially its front—was covered in Serâge and hardened like rock.

“But—Justice Slash!”

I stepped in hard and unleashed the holy sword technique as though cleaving down from directly overhead.

Gaan—zaaan!

A heavy shock ran through my hands. It was so hard it did not feel like flesh had been cut.

But the tip of my blade traced a pale blue arc and carved through the White Boar’s huge body.

“Gugaaa!”

Unable to remain standing, the White Boar came crashing into the ground with all its momentum intact.

Its huge body skidded along the ground.

I jumped to the side and avoided the massive body.

But immediately afterward, the Great Boars behind it came charging in like a solid wall.

I could not move into my next action right away. The wolves had no choice but to avoid it too.

—Did it make that reckless charge anticipating this!?

“Tch—Holy Strike.”

I pulled back my sword and then thrust with all my might.

Dogo! The wall was blasted away.

But as if to fill the gap that had opened, a wave of boars surged in from behind. A mad charge that knew no fear of death.

Were they being controlled!?

—Then.

A silver chain wrapped itself around my body.

“Master!”

Liricia pulled me with her flail.

I flew through the air like a fish that had been reeled in and was dragged back to her.

—Those arms looked slender, but she had gotten seriously strong.

Thinking that, I thanked Liricia while being held in her arms.

“You saved me, Liricia.”

“Of course I did, Master!”

As they avoided the boars’ furious charge, the wolves attacked from the sides and from above.

Fenrir too swept them aside with sharp fangs and claws.

Liricia was not only smashing boars with the weighted end of her flail, but also wrapping the chain around their forelegs and sending them tumbling. Wolves bit into the throats of the boars whose balance had been broken.

But there were too many.

Perhaps drawn by the commotion, boars kept appearing one after another from the forest.

Many of them were sturdy, young boars.

—Why were there so many… right! Their natural enemies had disappeared, so they had been exploding in numbers!

At this point, I wanted to wipe them out all at once with a wide-area attack.

Suddenly, I remembered a holy sword technique used by the hero.

A technique whose form I remembered, but which I had never been able to activate.

As I compressed Serâge out to twelve meters, I checked my own senses.

—Now, I felt like I could do it.

I held my sword at my side, poured the compressed Serâge into my arm and blade, and shouted.

“Get clear, wolves! —Ultema Slash!”

Taking one great step forward, I swung in a single motion.

Zuaaan—!

A gigantic slash burst forth horizontally, leaving a shining trail behind it.

The wolves quickly leaped away. Liricia too spread her white wings and danced into the air.

The charging boars could not move immediately, and the roughly forty that remained were cut clean in half.

The hero’s secret technique, said to exist for the purpose of defeating the Demon King.

For some reason I had not been able to use it when I was the hero, but it turned out the key had been compression.

In the clearing in the forest, lit by the fresh morning sunlight.

No boars were moving anymore.

Liricia descended beside me, her white nun’s habit spreading as she landed. Her slender legs were visible all the way to her thighs.

“Amazing, Master! To wield the hero’s secret technique so perfectly! As I thought, you really are the true hero!”

Fenrir too widened his eyes and growled.

“This is truly a holy strike that wipes away evil. Now I understand why the chief adores you. I acknowledge it. You are indeed the true hero.”

“It’s bad timing to praise me for that, but I’m a former hero, former. I’ve got no intention of going back.”

“I know, Master. That is enough. Surely you are someone who drives away evil simply by existing in this world.”

Liricia looked up at me, her drooping eyes glistening.

Embarrassed by her direct gaze, I looked away.

Then I noticed a somewhat large uribō tearfully huddled beside the White Boar.

Because of its massive size, the White Boar seemed to have taken even the Ultema Slash head-on.

Its half-collapsed body had shifted slightly out of place.

“Dad, wake up, Dad…”

“Boars always only eaten. Me… make… boar… paradise.”

With its white fur stained red with blood, the White Boar rose to its feet. Its severed half was gradually slipping out of alignment.

Letting out a sigh, I raised my sword.

“You’re still saying that… Give up.”

“Me, me! Strongeeest!”

The White Boar shouted and coughed up blood.

At that moment, a pitch-black aura burst out from its body.

Its white fur turned jet black.

“D-Dad!?”

Crying out, the uribō stepped back in confusion.

I shouted at once.

“Get away, Uribō!”

“O-okay!”

The uribō moved its thin legs and backed away.

Floating in the air with her wings spread, Liricia shouted through her monocle.

“Master! It’s S-rank! An S-rank Dark Tyrant Boar!”

“So it evolved at a time like this… in the worst possible direction.”

It was a monster I had never even heard of when I was serving as the hero, one I was seeing for the first time.

Centered on the White Boa—no, the Dark Tyrant Boar—a black aura spread out.

The black aura spread like an infection, enveloping the corpses of the Great Boars. Then one, two, they rose up one after another.

So it had the power to revive the dead as zombies too.

—But.

I was not panicking at all.

If anything, I shrugged in exasperation.

“Liricia, I don’t fully get it, but this means it’s basically become something like a demon now, right?”

“Y-yes… I believe it was swallowed by darkness in accordance with its desires. It has become a savage S-rank monster possessing both the darkness and evil attributes.”

“I see… then we have no choice.”

I took a deep breath and relaxed the strength in my arms.

The compressed Serâge loosened and spread out.

—Twenty-five meters.

The Dark Tyrant Boar, which had been more than ten meters away, entered the range of my dense Serâge.

The black aura and black fur it emitted shattered and vanished.

Unable to withstand the pressure of my Serâge, it bent its forelegs and pressed its face to the ground.

“Guooo—! What, what is this…”

“My power. The power I possess as master of this forest.”

“S-so this is… Gwaaaa!”

The Dark Tyrant Boar made its huge black body tremble and let out a dying scream.

Its pitch-black body crumbled away from the edges into pieces.

The risen Great Boar corpses too collapsed one after another.

And then the Dark Tyrant Boar became a heap of burned-out ash.

When the wind swept through the clearing, the black powder scattered on the wind and disappeared.

All that remained were the corpses of the Great Boars.

As I returned my sword to its sheath, I said in exasperation,

“To think that just to oppose me, it would evolve into something evil of all things. I didn’t even need to cut it down. —Sorry about that, Uribō.”

“It couldn’t be helped… Dad had already been strange for a long time. He was violent toward Mom and my younger brothers and sisters too… um.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

The uribō asked timidly.

“Can I come play in the manor garden again?”

“Yeah, come if you want. Bring those younger brothers and sisters with you.”

“Thank you very much, Alec-sama!”

The white uribō nodded with tearful eyes. From the sound of it, he seemed to be the eldest son.

I thought he might have been going through something painful because of worrying about his family.

I looked at Fenrir nearby and said,

“Fenrir. Don’t lay a hand on the white ones, but keep watch over them.”

“Understood, Lord Alec.”

“All right, then let’s head back.”

As I turned to return to the manor, Liricia spoke.

“What should we do with the boars’ meat?”

“Ah, right… there’s too much to eat, even for us. We’ll sell some of it, and let Kou absorb the rest… Fenrir, will you eat some too?”

“If you are willing to give it, I would like to feed it to my subordinates. They seem to be hungry.”

“Got it. You don’t need the hides separately, right? I’ll divide some up after butchering them.”

“You have my gratitude.”

Then, after putting the boars into the magic bag, we returned to the manor.

Butchering them would be a hassle, so I intended to have Kou do it.

By the time we returned to the manor, the sunlight had already begun to slant.