Continuing The Subjugation

“Rebecca, thanks.”

After confirming that the Black Bear had completely stopped breathing, I turned back to Rebecca and spoke.

“Good work to you too, Luca. It’s not that strong for us, but if you think about ordinary people fighting it… surviving would be a miracle.”

“Yeah… imagining people who have no way to fight entering a forest with monsters like that, I can only picture something tragic.”

There were probably far more victims in the forest than we could even imagine.

“Let’s defeat as many strong monsters as we can.”

When I said that, believing it was the only thing we could do, Rebecca nodded with a serious expression.

After transporting the Black Bear to the Divine Domain and returning to the forest, we soon encountered another monster. This time, the creature that appeared before us was surprisingly an Orc.

“…Orcs were monsters that were rarely seen outside of dungeons, right?”

“That should be the case, so there must be an abandoned dungeon somewhere.”

Normally knights, soldiers, or adventurers would patrol the forest regularly, but in this country that clearly wasn’t happening.

If monsters had multiplied inside an abandoned dungeon and were coming out… then we should probably destroy that dungeon too.

“Lady Seremees, do you have a moment?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“I’d like to know the locations of the dungeons around the Imperial Capital. I’m planning to destroy them.”

“Understood. I’ll look for them.”

“Thank you very much.”

I spoke with Lady Seremees without taking my eyes off the Orc, but the Orc seemed cautious and didn’t attack us. Even though this was my first time fighting one, it seemed to be a more cautious monster than I expected.

“Should we attack first?”

“Let’s do that. Orcs have thick fat and physical attacks don’t work well on them, so I’ll try defeating it with magic.”

“Got it. I’ll be ready to support you anytime. If I remember correctly, Orcs can use wind magic, so be careful.”

After briefly coordinating with Rebecca, I quickly closed the distance toward the Orc. When the Orc focused its attention on me, I unleashed several spells in succession filled with magical power.

“Water! Spark!”

Spark was a spell that condensed the power of Thunderball into a single point. When the Orc, now soaked from Water, was struck by the electric shock, its entire body convulsed before collapsing on the spot.

“Wow, that’s impressive. Is it dead?”

“…It might still be alive. I’ll cut off its head just in case.”

With a single slash of my sword across its neck, the Orc’s head and body separated, and it completely stopped breathing.

“Alright, let’s take the Orc to the Divine Domain…”

“Luca, behind you!!”

Just as I was about to approach the Orc, Rebecca shouted while raising her bow, so I almost instinctively drew the sword at my waist and turned around.

Just in time, I managed to blow away the monster that had been attacking me.

“…That was close.”

This time the monster was a Fire Wolf. There seemed to be five of them in the pack, glaring at us while letting out low growls.

“Water Tornado!”

Since they used fire magic, I immediately attacked with a tornado of water. As they weakened from the attack, I drew my sword and jumped into the fight.

“Grrrraaagh!!”

The Fire Wolves bared their fangs and lunged at me, but I avoided their attacks and swung my sword. While I defeated three of them, Rebecca shot arrows into the remaining two, and the five Fire Wolves all collapsed.

“Phew, we got them. Rebecca, thanks. That helped.”

“Yeah. There are a lot of monsters around, so let’s stay alert.”

“Right. I’ll be careful.”

After that, we moved throughout the forest, defeating every monster we encountered except for a weaker type called Small Boars, which we deliberately left alive.

We also headed to destroy one of the dungeons that Lady Seremees had told us about, and by the time we finished, the sun had already begun to set.

“Let’s stop here for today.”

“Yeah. There are still two more dungeons left, and a lot of monsters too…”

“We’ll deal with that starting tomorrow.”

Even if we kept working hard every day, there was a limit to what just the two of us could accomplish. Unless we fixed this country itself, the problem would never truly be solved.

“Let’s butcher as much of the monsters we defeated today as we can in the Divine Domain, pack the meat into our bags, and return to Ivan’s place.”

“Should we also bring some fruit from the forest?”

“Yeah, let’s do that. Alright Rebecca, give me your hand.”

After holding Rebecca’s hand and confirming our surroundings, I activated Divine Domain Interference.