Battle In The Valley Of Trials

“Lord Arthur, please be careful!!”

“Oh… it has been a while since I last fought desert monsters, but they are quite formidable… my blood is boiling and my body is itching for battle.”

As they walked through the cave, a rare monster, a giant scorpion known as an Armor Scorpion, lunged at them.

Ordinarily, it should have been a tough fight…

“Amazing… to cut an Armor Scorpion, with skin harder than iron, clean in two…”

“I am still a knight of Britannia, after all. By the way, Lady Miranda, are you perhaps a married woman? Or do you have a fiancé…?”

“No… the matter of succession would become complicated, so I have decided not to take a partner until my older brother has children.”

“I see… what a shame.”

What exactly was he disappointed about…? Arthur thought to himself, mentally retorting as he watched Lancelot’s spirits visibly sink.

“If a sword doesn’t work on a monster like this, how are you supposed to defeat it? Does using some kind of curved sword make it sharper or something?”

“You’re talking about the scimitar my brother used. That sword is only light and easy to handle.”

“In the desert everyone fights in light gear, you see. It’s mainly used for battles between people.”

Miranda answered Arthur’s question with a gentle smile, then stepped forward toward the approaching Armor Scorpion and blew her flute.

“Grrrrruuuuu!!”

“Screeeeee!!”

The ground suddenly heaved upward, and a sandworm surged out and swallowed the two Armor Scorpions whole.

Along with the Armor Scorpions’ dying screams, the cracking, crunching sound of chewing echoed all around.

“How gruesome…”

“Well done, Crimson Arrow. Good girl.”

Even Lancelot, who was used to bloodshed, found himself recoiling a little at the sight; with pieces of Armor Scorpion still sticking from its mouth, the creature stared at them with blank eyes, as if pleading to be praised.

“Oh, you’re really so cute. Ufufu, I knew you could do it—such a good, good girl you are.”

Miranda beamed as she stroked the head of that sandworm, Crimson Arrow, but when she noticed Arthur and Lancelot’s stares, her face turned red and she looked away in embarrassment.

“Well, you see… I just happen to love desert creatures a little more than people… It really is strange, isn’t it…?”

“What’s strange about that? What’s wrong with showing affection to something that adores you? Besides, this one is cute—like a big earthworm.”

“Grrrrruuuuu!?”

“Lord Arthur, isn’t that going a bit too far? It’s dangerous.”

Arthur approached Crimson Arrow without the slightest hesitation. There were two reasons he was not afraid: first, having been exploited so much in his previous life, Arthur felt a fondness for Crimson Arrow, who, unlike humans, showed him genuine loyalty.

Second, Arthur, who had grown up in a sheltered environment, had no aversion to bugs and such; just as small children could touch earthworms without hesitation, Arthur—whose mental age was equally low in that regard—simply did not mind.

“So you understand too, Lord Arthur!! How adorable she is!! Those round little eyes, those sturdy scales!! And when you feed her, she makes the cutest little sounds!!”

“Yeah, she’s great. And Crimson Arrow is a good name too. I kind of want a pet myself now. Can’t you keep a sandworm in Britannia? I was thinking of naming it Excalibur.”

“Lord Arthur… I strongly advise against it… Lady Morgan would be in tears, and sandworms can only survive in the desert.”

As the mood grew more lively, Lancelot calmly interjected with his retort. Incidentally, if Arthur really did keep a sandworm as a pet, Morgan would visit his room less and wear a gloomier expression more often, which would spread rumors of a rift between them and slightly revive the signs foreshadowing his future execution, but Arthur was no god and had no way of imagining that.

“But… It is said that the Holy King never cared about race when dealing with others. You are the same, aren’t you? Lyra also taught me many things when I was afraid of sandworms…”

As Arthur interacted with Crimson Arrow with clear fascination, Miranda answered him with a gentle smile, and Lancelot watched the scene with an almost dazzled look.

Once their conversation had settled down, the three of them continued onward.

“Still, with this much fighting strength, shouldn’t it be easy to get the Fruit of Plenty?”

“No, to be honest, the monsters are not much of a threat. I think you’ll understand once you see what’s ahead…”

With a wry smile at Arthur and Lancelot’s puzzled expressions, Miranda moved on ahead—and what lay before them was…