Jade raised one finger. Axel nodded.

After that, new lights rose at regular intervals. All of Jade’s fingers on one hand were extended, and two of Axel’s fingers were raised. As he waved his two outstretched fingers blankly, laughter erupted inappropriately for the situation.

The seven lights looked like constellations adorning the sky.

All the knights were ready to draw their swords at any moment, and the soldiers were tense, holding spears and arrows. Jade mouthed a call to someone standing far behind.

The person who approached was a mage belonging to the outer guild. He was fidgeting nervously with his magic stone incessantly.

Jade made eye contact and grinned to ease his tension. The mage finally nodded.

Her gaze turned to the sky and her full lips moved. Soon, a small spark shot across the sky, splitting into eight branches.

It was a signal for the entire subjugation team.

As the spark split, Jade and another mage infused mana into their magic stones and threw them into the hole in the floor of the house.

Tok, dolorok, tok. Tak tak. Tak tak tak.

A moment of terrifying silence. But it was only for an instant.

Bang, bang, bang!

Along with the sound of something exploding, a strong vibration was felt underfoot. The vibration was not occurring in just one place, but continued in succession.

And then…

“There must be a lot of them.”

“Fall back.”

The shrieks of monsters echoing underground were sharp.

Jade obediently followed Axel’s words.

However, she imagined dozens of small monsters in the burrow. Creepy creatures crawling up the passage. They would come out clinging together like ants on candy.

But the entrance they were waiting for remained quiet for quite a while.

“Are they not coming this way?”

They must be crowding to the other side. A knight she wasn’t particularly close with muttered hopefully.

But as the mages had chattered earlier, such words shouldn’t be carelessly uttered. In popular novels from the capital, something always happened at moments like these.

There was a sound like rough cloth rubbing against cloth. Sasak, sasak. The sound started from very far away, echoing quietly, and at some point gradually grew louder.

The sound of someone swallowing dryly was heard from behind. Another mage who could no longer contain his anxiety whispered.

“Sh-should we block the entrance?”

Jade shook her head.

“No. It would be troublesome if they break through somewhere else. They need to come out where we want them to.”

Bang!

Just as everyone’s tension peaked, something enormous finally revealed itself, smashing through the house with only pillars barely remaining.

“G-good heavens.”

It was a sight that perfectly matched such an exclamation that wasn’t quite an exclamation.

What appeared, smashing the area around the not-so-large hole as if crushing it, was a monster that looked like a snake. Considering that monsters often resembled humans in appearance, this was certainly a unique specimen. It seemed that such creatures were particularly common in the Kingdom of Jisen.

And I can guarantee that this creature must have occupied most of the vast burrow. Even though not even half of it had emerged, the length of its body was enormous.

The gaze of the monster, angered by the attack on its comfortable home, turned towards them. The knights took up positions at an appropriate distance, and the guild’s mage in charge of rear support retreated far back.

Glancing around to see that no one else was nearby, Jade muttered.

“Why am I always the lucky one in these situations?”

It was a fairly serious voice – albeit nasally.

“There are plenty of other things. You could get an extra slice of cake at a dessert shop, or find another Elyupi root next to the one you pulled out.”

“That’s too trivial. Is that all you can come up with for examples?”

Axel asked glumly, but Jade just shrugged.

“That’s enough for me. I’m a simple person. But well, I shouldn’t expect anything. There were eight places where that monster could have come out, and we just happened to be the ones it picked.”

The two were strangely calm despite the red-eyed monster flicking its tongue. If others had seen them, they would surely have thought they had lost their minds.

“Dessert is easy enough. Is Elyupi root hard to find?”

“Extremely difficult. You might only see it in the Florensio Forest.”

“That’s a shame.”

“What is?”

Axel smirked as he drew his sword. The blade, pulled out silently, gleamed with a sharp edge in the moonlight.

“If it were in the Atanase Forest, I would have pulled some out for you. I don’t have gloves like that mage. Come to think of it, I brought those yellow mushrooms, where did I put them?”

Gloves, he must have seen properly. Somehow, it seemed he had also paid attention to the scene where Rigel gave her gloves, and she had to try hard to suppress the corners of her mouth from rising suddenly.

Jade pretended to glare at him and muttered.

“How are you going to give it to me while pretending not to know in front of others?”

“Ah, well. There are many ways.”

“Send it to Broen Castle through someone.”

“Sorry, but the owner of that item is Jade Brown. I can’t send it to the castle where you live.”

The monster slowly lowered its head, seemingly displeased with their whispering conversation. Its eyeballs glistened as it spotted its prey.

The tip of Axel’s sword pointed towards the ground. The moment Jade’s lips parted slightly, the monster charged.

As she had felt in the forest, Jade could understand Axel’s movements. There was no meaningless part in his actions.

The moment the sword tip went down and up, the moment he put strong force on one foot, the moment he lowered his posture.

It was so fast that there were parts she missed, and she couldn’t grasp it perfectly, but as she became somewhat familiar, she could maximize his power.

When piercing, the explosive force at the end; when slashing down, the hot temperature that could easily split anything; when deflecting, the wind wrapped around it, creating a strong rebound force with minimal effort.

At the same time, she used her own strengths to allow him to focus only on the strongest enemies.

Jade set the small monsters charging at him ablaze so that his sword could maintain the correct trajectory. Of course, to do this, she had to pour in an enormous amount of mana, ignoring the terrible efficiency.

It made her feel sick to her stomach.

“Uurgh.”

“I’ll handle the attacks! Don’t, use, too much, power!”

Instead of responding to his sharp voice filled with strain, Jade defiantly muttered a spell.

This time, the entrance was blocked by a wall of wind. Of course, since she wasn’t confident in wind attribute magic, it was expected to be breached soon, but it would provide a brief moment of respite.

Meanwhile, Axel kicked away the body of a monster impaled on his sword and got angry.

“Jade Broen!”

“Oh, it’s the first time you’ve called my full name. But if you’re that worried, ending it quickly would be best.”

She had never listened to his words. She had only pretended to in the forest.

Jade answered in a completely blocked, dull voice and smiled brightly. Then she rained down fire around them. The small creatures scattered, unable to regain their senses.

Axel furrowed his brow as he cut down the charging monsters.

Right, I expected you wouldn’t listen. When have you ever listened to me?

Jade’s cheeks, which had always been a pleasing flesh color, were now flushed with an unhealthy redness. Anyone could see she didn’t look well. It must be due to the onset of a cold combined with excessive fatigue.

Yet she was still wasting mana like that, so there was no hope.

I need to end this quickly and put her to bed. I’ll confiscate all the letters and make her sleep for a few days.

As if responding to his determination, a white light slowly rose through the flames enveloping his sword. It was still a faint light that no one except Axel could notice.

The blade slashed down through the air.

The knights assigned to the same group as Jade and Axel were having a miserable time.

Not only had the largest monster come out on their side, which was terrible enough, but small monsters kept crawling out of the hole in response to the large one’s thrashing movements.

Benson wiped the sweat flowing above his forehead.

A few years ago, Benson had received a knighthood from the Heylo family for his outstanding service in the subjugation corps, and this time he had come along accompanying Glen Heylo.

He was quite confident in his skills. After all, his swordsmanship was the reason he, a commoner, had received a knighthood in the first place.

But at this moment, he just wanted to see his mother’s warm smile. He missed the warm biscuits she used to bake so much! He felt like shedding a tear at the thought that the last time he ate them might have been the final time.

The one fortunate thing was that the temporary pair considered to be the strongest in the subjugation corps was here.

“Watch out there!”

Along with a voice hoarse from a cold, fireballs poured down hotly. Benson almost dropped his sword in surprise, but the flames hit the monster that had been reaching out its arm.

The monster didn’t die, but it was disoriented and writhing in pain. Taking advantage of that moment, Benson swung his sword. Shuk. He had taken down one by chance.

Looking ahead again, he saw monsters facing off against monsters.

Every time the knight with a back as wide as a door swung his sword down, small monsters were swept away by the powerful force and died. Yet the knight’s strong arms were also holding down the terrifying snake-like monster.

No, he wasn’t just holding it down, but was gradually inflicting effective damage. The bleeding wounds were visibly increasing.

That in itself was remarkable. The monster’s hide was so tough that all the arrows shot by the mercenaries had bounced off, the spear shaft that another knight had tried to stab with had broken, and the wind fragments launched by the guild’s mage had simply scattered.

However, it wasn’t solely due to the knight’s powerful strength.