Lunois Forest. It is a vast forest located in the northeast of the Kingdom of Juka. It has become a den of demons and is inhabited by many species.
Demons are ranked from S to E according to their strength and magical power, as well as the damage they have caused to the kingdom in the past, and a wide range of demons from A to E inhabit the Lunois Forest. Moreover, many dragons inhabit from the Lunois Mountains in the northernmost part of the forest to the Juka Mountains in the west, and the Lunois Mountains in particular are quite high in altitude, so it is extremely difficult to reach the Principality of Bithos beyond this area. Therefore, although there is trade with the Duchy of Baitos, it takes place only once a year, when a merchant accompanies a messenger to celebrate the New Year.
I am standing in front of such a forest. For some reason, Eril is with me. The day before I left for the forest, he suddenly announced that he would accompany me.
"There is a possibility that we may encounter powerful demons, you know? You need to protect Linos, too, don't you?"
There was much wrangling, but Eryl pushed his way through.
On the morning of the day, he forced me to pull out a horse for the carriage and put me on the back of the horse with him.
"Hold on tight!"
He said this and suddenly started the horse running as fast as he could. In this part of the capital, where noble families live side by side, horses are not ridden at full speed. Exceptions to this rule are made in the case of an urgent early start, so it could be assumed that some kind of emergency had occurred if he did not act quickly. It was fortunate that it happened to be early in the morning and there were no people around. No major disruption was caused.
It takes about five hours on foot from the Bertham house to the forest of Lunois. I left very early in the morning because I was still a child and I thought it would take a long time, but thanks to Eryl's horseback transportation, we arrived there in about 30 minutes. I bit my tongue because I handled the horse too roughly. It is a secret story that I treated it secretly so that Eril would not find it.
"Come on, let's hunt the big one!
"Miss, I'm the one who hunts demons."
"It means that if we meet a demon that Rinos can't beat, we have to help it."
Yes, I'll do my best to avoid that.
I search the forest with my magic detector. Since I am still at a low level, my detection range is still limited, but I can sense that there are quite a few of them near the entrance to the forest. All of them are small in size, so they must be goblins or something.
As they are called "demons", even small and weak ones have magical power. According to a theory, it is this magical power that makes up demons, and the stronger the power, the more powerful the demon becomes.
We enter the forest, being aware of the magical power around us. The deeper we go, the darker it gets and the visibility is poor. I usually leave my wards up, but I'd like to increase the strength of my wards a little.
We carefully move through the forest so as not to get lost. Eryl keeps his eyes on his surroundings. I don't know if I'm lost.
"This is kind of disconcerting. Nothing's coming up. I was expecting a monster attack and a big fight."
How much of a battle freak are you?
Maybe Erile's the reason the demons haven't attacked us. He's a master fighter. The moment they attack they fall prey to Eril's sword. The demons must instinctively know that. It's a pity, since I was planning to just kill the goblins and go home.
As we walk slowly, we feel a great magical power coming from the back of the room. Stopping and looking intently, I see two red lights. Immediately after that,
"Gumooooooooo!"
A huge cow appeared. It was at least 3 meters long and had big horns.
Eril's eyes widen in surprise. Is this creature really that bad?
"They usually live deep in the forest, so why are they coming out so close to the forest entrance? We have to take them down. It's a B-rank demon, so you can't take it! You can't. You're a B-rank demon.
Eryl stands in front of me, drawing his sword. The giant bull is already in a fighting stance, kicking the ground with its paws.
"Ryaaaaah!"
In an instant, Eryl moved. He leaps upward with his sword. His target is Carsshalloray's head.
Gakiiinnn!
There is a sound like the clash of metal. Eryl's sword cuts the neck of Kászároly, but not fatally. Eryl moves away for a moment. At that moment, however, Carsshalloreh moves.
He charges at Eril with his horns at the same speed as Eril.
"You got me!
Eril delivers a lethal thrust right between the eyes of Carsshalloray.
Pow!
There was a sound like something popping. Cars Charolais stops moving. But Eryl's sword also stops short of shattering his brow. This bull's defense is not strong enough to catch a thrust that could shatter my wards!
Run, Linos! You can't do it!"
"Well, before you run away, there's one thing I'd like to try."
I point my left hand at the big bull. And I lock the bull inside the ward.
"You're going to keep Carr's Charolais locked up in the ward and then run away! You're good!"
"Shh! Please be quiet for a minute!"
I carefully manipulate the warding. The big bull tries to charge at me, but I can't move because I'm trapped inside the warding. However, if he continues to attack me, there is a possibility that the warding will be broken. I'd better hurry a bit.
The rampaging bull stops moving. His pupils dilate and his mouth opens wide. After a while the light disappears from the bull's eyes.
"Whew! It seems to have succeeded. It is a little difficult to operate.
"... What the hell did you do?"
"Yes, I've drained the air out of the wards. I thought it would suffocate without air, but I was right. It was hard to maintain a vacuum because it was so big.
"You said you took the air out..."
Eril stands there stunned with his sword in his hand. Next to him, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to take this huge cow home with me.