Chapter 15: The Forest Road and Wolf Extermination

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Author: 十一屋　翠 (Juuichiya Sui)

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“Ugh, so annoying.”

I followed Ivan-san’s advice for a while, ignoring the monsters and regularly withdrawing outside the forest, but it became really tedious.

I mean, the Trap Plants and Killer Plants were certainly annoying as well, but deliberately leaving the forest only to enter it again was way too inefficient.

Also, Mirisha-san had said that I should do things based on what I could do and what would be convenient.

And if we were talking about things I could do!

“It would be dangerous if all the monsters around here attacked, and this way is easier too.”

I confirmed there weren’t any people nearby with search magic, but just in case, I still raised my voice and shouted, asking them to evacuate.

“I’ll be burning all the trees around here in a minute! If there’s anyone close by, please evacuate!”

Alright, warning over, time to burn the forest!

“Flame Inferno!!”

I released hellfire magic straight towards the forest.

And, a blink of an eye later, the Trap Plants and Killer Plants had all burned to nothing.

And in front of me was a road seven meters wide and a hundred long.

Yeah, this should do it. If it were too long, I might accidentally incinerate people who had inadvertently wandered into range after I had used detection magic.

“And if I go on like this, I won’t get attacked by the surrounding monsters!”

Also, it’s convenient for people coming through here afterwards, since they won’t be attacked by monsters either!

“Now then, back to the original objective, let’s search for Forest Wolves!”

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“There they are.”

Walking along while burning down the forest, I heard the howls of wolves far away.

“Where are they?”

I rose up into the air with flight magic and surveyed the whole forest.

“Ah, there’s a village over there…”

I found a village to the north-west, on the other side of the forest from Hexi.

Then, I saw small dots moving towards the forest from the village.

And, the small dots were being followed by slightly bigger dots.

“The small ones are the Forest Wolves and the big ones the adventurers guarding the village?”

Having found the forest wolves, I flew between the Forest Wolves and the forest and landed.

Wary of me due to my sudden appearance, the Forest Wolves slowed down, but the one leading them howled and sped up even more.

“So that’s the pack’s leader, huh.”

I decided to go for the pack’s leader first.

If I defeated it, the rest would lose all their organization.

I pulled out my sword and swung it at the Forest Wolf.

It jumped at me, trying to bite me, but it was way too slow for me and my body-strengthening-magic-strengthened muscles.

“Hah!”

With that yell and a swing of my sword, the Forest Wolves’ pack’s leader had been beheaded.

The request was B-Rank, but Forest Wolves themselves were actually C-Rank monsters, so they weren’t that strong.

They were just really annoying since they always ran back into the forest.

“Uooon!?”

The other Forest Wolves were upset that their leader had been killed.

Some of them tried to run away, leaving their comrades behind.

“You won’t get away!”

I attacked all the fleeing Forest Wolves with magic.

“Spark Mist!!”

“Gyan!?”

I used Spark Mist, which released a wide-area weak mist of lightning, paralysing the Forest Wolves.

“And now to just finish them off.”

Since this was a subjugation request, I had to make sure their shapes remained.

I couldn’t make the same mistake as with the demon earlier.

“Heeey!”

As I was putting an end to the Forest Wolves, people who I assumed were adventurers arrived.

They were probably the people I had seen chasing the Forest Wolves earlier.

“Y-you defeated them!?”

They must’ve been chasing the wolves frantically.

All the adventurers were out of breath.

Well, their opponents were wolves, after all.

Chasing after them fully equipped would do that to a person.

“Yes, they just happened to be heading my way, so I wiped them out with magic.”

“Y-you’re amazing. To be able to defeat this many Forest Wolves…”

“Nono, it’s nothing that impressive.”

“Since you were so close to the forest, are you perhaps a B-Rank adventurer!?”

“Yes, although I only just became B-Rank though.”

“No, that’s still amazing! You look young, so it is impressive!”

It’s kind of embarrassing to be praised so much.

“Ah, but, I didn’t get in the way of your jobs, did I?”

They were chasing the Forest Wolves.

So, they might have been people who had received a request from the town to subjugate the Forest Wolves.

“Ah, don’t worry about that. Our request was to keep the Forest Wolves away from the farms. The clients also understand we can’t follow them into the forest.”

“Is that so.”

Thank goodness, it seems like I didn’t snipe their request.

“Then, we’ll be going back to report to the client that the Forest Wolves were defeated. The villagers will be relieved. Ah, don’t worry, we won’t take credit for it.”

Having said that, they returned towards the village.

What friendly people.

“Then, I guess I’ll also get going.”

◆ ◆

“W-what is thiiiiiiiiiis!!”

My name is Mirisha.

I’m the Hexi adventurers’ guild’s guild chief’s assistant.

We were worried about the Forest of Magic Beasts expanding continuously.

Adventurers earned a living exploring dangerous places, but an expanding Danger Zone was a problem that came before that.

In fact, a few hundred years ago, there had been a town that had been swallowed by the forest, and the townspeople had had no choice but to flee.

And then, we were visited by a turning point.

He was Rex-san, a B-Rank adventurer who had recently come to the town.

He had easily burnt down a part of the forest with high-grade flame magic.

We would have had to hire tens of adventurers working for who knows how many days to achieve the same result.

Naturally, we took up contact with him, and made a request for him to stop the forest’s expansion.

Luckily, he had a good personality, and promptly accepted our request.

And, since a report that he had burnt down some forest immediately came in from him, one of my subordinates went to check it, but then immediately came back to me in a panic, asking me to go see as well.

I’m also a busy person though.

But when I arrived at where the subordinate had brought me, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“There’s a road in the forest?”

Yes, a road. It was a road wide enough for a carriage to drive along it.

It’s so wide that two smaller carriages could go along side-by-side!?

“Who…!”

But I didn’t even have to think about it.

Only he was capable of doing something like that.

“Rex-san, do you have a moment!”

I asked him, having hurried back to the town and looked for him.

I asked him whether it had been he who had made the road in the forest.

“Yes, I thought adventurers entering the forest could get further in in safety like that.”

He affirmed matter-of-factly.

Perhaps it would have been better if he had been offended.

I’m a little worried for the child’s future.

But, while I was worrying about him, a plan sprang forth in my mind.

A plan that would normally mean consulting with my superiors and the country.

However, I was still the woman who had risen to guild chief’s assistant in the shortest time ever.

I had no choice but to expend time on this opportunity.

I just had to avoid him going away while the old men were holding their useless meetings.

“Rex-san, about that request to burn down the outskirts of the forest, if you don’t mind postponing it, I have a job I’d like to ask you to do. Erm, see, here and here on the map… Yes, naturally the rewards will be separate…”

That was the moment the large trade route crossing through the Forest of Magic Beasts that allowed the coming-and-going between nearby villages and neighbouring countries, known as the ‘Rex Road’, was born.

Yaaay, now it’ll be easier to go visit my family!

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