The Former Child Prodigy Accepts It — Into The Depths Of The Great Forest

When I ran over after hearing the scream, a lone man was slumped against a tree with his back pressed to it. Blood was pouring from wounds all over his body, and he was breathing in ragged gasps.

Five large wolves had surrounded the man.

The man was dressed in leather armor and held a broadsword in his hand. Judging by that, he was probably a warrior—an adventurer.

But it was obvious that he was already on the verge of collapse. His hips had sunk to the ground, and the hand holding the sword hung limply down toward the earth. He showed no sign of moving the sword in his hand.

Even if I saved him, he would probably die.

Even so—

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing!?”

I shouted at the top of my lungs and put my hand on the hilt of my dagger.

At the very least, I ought to make the effort to grant that man, standing at death’s door, a little bit of peace.

Reacting to my voice, the wolves turned around.

“Your words probably won’t get through to them anyway—but disappear.”

Just as expected, words did not get through.

Growling low, the wolves glared at me with murderous eyes. They started trying to surround me, as if deciding how they would carve up this newly appeared enemy.

Not that I intended to wait for them.

“Magic Arrow.”

With a single blow from me, one wolf was blown away.

Panic threw the wolves’ movements into disorder.

“Magic Arrow, Magic Arrow.”

I fired two more in succession, and together with the first, a total of three wolves were blown away.

The remaining two leaped at me—

“Too slow.”

I dodged their fangs, and at the instant we crossed paths, I slashed them with my dagger. The two wolves scattered blood as they hit the ground and stopped moving.

Was that the end of it…?

Well, they were only wolves. A student Sword Saint could handle this much with ease.

I approached the man.

“Relax, I took care of the wolves.”

“…Huh… five Hellhounds…? B-by yourself? Impossible…”

Hellhounds? Those were pretty powerful monsters… no, no, that could not be right. If they really were monsters like that, there was no way I could have beaten them. Surely this man was just too badly shaken by his injuries and had gotten confused.

…There was no point correcting a dying man about that, though.

“Sorry, but from what I can see, you’re not going to make it.”

“…I know that myself… ugh!”

The man coughed blood from his mouth.

“…Even so, thank you. Thanks to you saving me, I can calm down a little before I die—and I can also make one request.”

“A request?”

“I’m sorry, but… I want you… to deliver this…”

Saying that, the man took out a fist-sized crystal stained red and placed it on the ground.

“I want you… to deliver this… to Varnir-sama at the Black Dragon’s Fang hideout in the Great Forest…”

“…Varnir? Who is that?”

“It’s… fine… if you ask someone at the hideout, they’ll tell you right away…”

The man’s gaze dropped to the red crystal on the ground.

“I’m a member of Black Dragon’s Fang… and on Varnir-sama’s orders… I came to soak this crystal in the spring over there… but I was attacked by Hellhounds on the way back… and apparently this is needed right now…”

“I see.”

It did not really seem like the sort of thing one ought to entrust to a complete stranger like me, but this man did not have much time left. I was probably the only one he could cling to.

If that was the case—

“I accept.”

I picked up the crystal.

“Thank you… Varnir-sama will pay the reward… It’s Black Dragon’s Fang, so there’ll be no mistake about that, so rest easy…”

After saying that, the man lost all strength, as if he had burned through the very last of his life.

Good grief… People in organizations really do have it rough. Even in their final dying moments, they still worry about the organization and their work.

But that—

I would not laugh at it.

I could not understand it, and I would never make that choice myself.

But I wanted to respect it.

Just as there were people like me, there were also people who would keep trying for the sake of their comrades and their organization right up until the moment they died. That was surely their pride, and their stubborn resolve.

That prayer—to pass on the baton that they themselves had been forced to stop carrying—

“I’ll see it through.”

With those words, I started walking toward the Black Dragon’s Fang hideout.

For these past two months, the rise in miasma within the Great Forest had shown no sign of stopping. The dense miasma gave birth to monsters one after another.

With a wet, bubbling distortion of the air, a goblin appeared—

With a wet, bubbling distortion of the air, a lizardman appeared—

With a wet, bubbling distortion of the air, an orc appeared.

Monsters were being spewed out one after another. Even so, the miasma did not lessen. It kept rising without end. And as a result—

At last, the forest’s miasma reached a critical point.

Monsters began overflowing in droves. Countless monsters were being born.

Phonic, who had been hunting monsters in the Great Forest, had also begun to notice the anomaly.

(…The number of monsters today is far too abnormal!)

No matter how many he cut down, no matter how many he slew, more monsters kept springing forth. There was only one word that came to Phonic’s mind for what this was.

“…Captain Phonic! Th-this is!?”

Fatigue was heavy on the face of the squad member. He had probably realized it too, what was about to happen from here on. His expression was filled with despair.

“…Yeah.”

Phonic nodded—and cut down the ogre before him.

He still could not even catch a single breath. From far beyond his line of sight, countless monsters were charging forward one after another.

An endless outbreak of monsters—

“It’s a stampede.”