The next day, Levia and the other two were walking through the forest.

They were not there for fun, of course. They had accepted a monster-hunting request from the Adventurers’ Guild. They might have been fighting just yesterday, but like proper working adults, they kept personal matters separate from the job.

As they made their way toward their destination with Ney, the leader, at the front, Levia grumbled under her breath.

“Cerberus in some ruins, hmm. Couldn’t we simply leave it alone? They’re picked clean already, aren’t they?”

“The request came directly from the Adventurers’ Guild. There must be some reason for it. Besides, there’s a large patch of medicinal herbs nearby. It would be a shame if the rookies lost one of their hunting grounds.”

“Charity isn’t really my thing. …Oh, I know. Why don’t we have Liz blow up the whole herb patch with her magic? We can say it was an accident. At least that would make things a little more interesting.”

“Idiot.”

“Absolutely not.”

That said, there was no denying that things were still a little tense. Their retorts were noticeably curt.

Despite the unpleasant atmosphere, none of them had let their guard down.

This forest lay west of Yuke, the royal capital, and was home to low-level monsters such as goblins, orcs, and wolves. Their threat levels were only E or D, the lowest ranks, so E- or D-rank adventurers were perfectly capable of handling them. To three A-rank adventurers, they posed no real threat. Even so, an ambush could still be fatal no matter how weak the attacker.

And this was a forest with poor visibility. If anything, they needed to be even more alert than usual. Levia might have been fooling around with her mouth, but she was keeping a careful watch on their surroundings.

Her clothes were properly suited to the forest as well: a white blouse, a long brown skirt, and a cute straw hat wrapped with a ribbon. Dressed like the very picture of a “forest girl,” she blended neatly into the greenery.

Ney, incidentally, was dressed in metal armor, with a kite shield in her left hand and a broad-bladed broadsword at her waist, looking every bit the heavy warrior. Liz wore the same Red Riding Hood outfit as the day before and carried a hard-looking wooden staff. Neither of them looked particularly capable of blending into a forest. Liz, if anything, looked more likely to attract a wolf.

As they continued forward while keeping watch, Levia suddenly sensed something.

“!”

“Ney. Liz.”

“…Something coming?”

“Okay. I’m ready.”

At Levia’s warning, Ney drew her sword and raised her shield. Liz released magical power outside her body so that she could cast at any moment, beginning to interfere with the spirits in the area.

Ney, the heavily armored warrior, served as the party’s tank and protected the others. Liz attacked with magic from a distance, while Levia moved freely as a skirmisher. Their formation changed depending on the strength and nature of the enemy, but this was the party’s basic combat arrangement.

The bushes rustled, announcing the presence of something inside them. Ney and Liz became more alert, and at last the creature showed itself.

It was perhaps thirty centimeters long. Its soft-looking body was completely covered in brown fur, and its round eyes were opened wide as it stared warily at them—

“Look, a bunny.”

Levia pointed at it with genuine delight. The rabbit took one look at the three of them and hurried away.

The other two A-rank adventurers had just seriously prepared themselves to fight a small animal.

“Ow, ow. Why are you hitting me…?”

“Because you made us think something was coming.”

“I wasted magic because of you.”

They thumped her repeatedly, Ney with her bare hand and Liz with her staff. Apparently it hurt more than a little, because tears were beginning to gather in Levia’s eyes.

“We’re not here to play.”

“She’s right. Read the room.”

“Honestly, what is wrong with you? How many years have you been an adventurer? Learn when it’s appropriate to fool around.”

“And what’s with that outfit anyway? ‘Forest girl’? Are you stupid? Do you have no respect for the forest?”

“If you don’t intend to take this seriously, you can go home.”

Her companions were merciless. Things had already been strained between them, so they took the opportunity to pile on.

Levia, still slightly teary-eyed, argued back.

“Damn it, and here I was trying to be nice… Fine! I’m not telling you anymore. I’m never telling you anything again! Even if I find a squirrel, I’m not telling you!”

“Don’t need to know.”

“Don’t care.”

Levia became sulky after snapping back at them. It was remarkably childish behavior for a former company president and father. Perhaps spending most of her life being forgiven for things because of her face had something to do with it.

Ignoring her, the other two simply started walking again. Levia seriously considered going home, but she suspected they would get angry at her for that as well. Pouting, she followed after them.

After walking for a while, they caught sight of a building ahead. The trees kept them from seeing the whole thing, but it was clearly in terrible condition.

It was one of the structures known as ruins. Their target—the Cerberus—was presumably somewhere inside.

They would have to be even more cautious from here on. Ney stopped, took a deep breath, and said, “Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

“Okaaay.”

“My? Before that… it seems we have company.”

Levia drew her sword. Its slender, single-edged blade gleamed in the sunlight beneath a guard shaped like a rose. It looked almost like a work of art.

Perhaps Ney and Liz understood that she was serious this time, or perhaps they had sensed the presence themselves. Ney drew her sword again and raised her shield, while Liz began interfering with the spirits.

“H-help us!”

A group of four suddenly came running toward them.

There were two male warriors, one male archer carrying a bow, and one female mage. All four looked to be somewhere under twenty. There were people who were young and strong like Levia and her companions, but these four did not appear to be among them. They were probably D-rank, or C-rank at best.

Seeing how desperate they looked, Ney called out to them.

“What happened?”

“M-monsters! There are monsters everywhere!”

“Way more than normal! There’s no way the four of us can handle them!”

Looking behind the group, they saw monsters appearing one after another amid the sound of countless footsteps. There were two kinds, one large and one small.

More than fifty in all. It did not look like there were quite a hundred, but there were still far too many.

“Humans again! Humans!”

“More food! Women too! Soft!”

The small monsters shouting in hoarse voices were goblins. They were ugly little humanoid creatures about a meter tall, with long noses. They had enough intelligence to wield weapons and speak, but not much beyond that, and rational conversation with them could not be expected. They simply acted according to primitive instinct.

The larger monsters were orcs, broad and tall creatures with pig-like faces. Their intelligence was about the same as a goblin’s, but they were more than twice as strong. They often used that strength to dominate groups of goblins and lead them.

There were eight orcs, and certainly more than fifty goblins.

It was an abnormal number.

Ordinarily, one might encounter one or two orcs in the forest, accompanied by several goblins at most. A D-rank party could easily drive off a group that size, and even an E-rank party could probably win with some difficulty.

This many, however, was impossible for them. Even if they were individually stronger, they would eventually lose to the difference in numbers. Presumably the four adventurers had reached the same conclusion and decided to flee.

Ney, however, looked perfectly calm.

“Hmm. Leave this to us. You four stay back.”

“Wh—! That’s insane! We should work together—”

“Wait! That woman is…”

Their eyes had fallen on the pink-haired girl.

“Lady Levia! Then you must be Poppy Anemone!”

“It really is Lady Levia!”

“She even looks beautiful holding a sword…”

The three men immediately grew excited. Thanks to her looks, there was hardly an adventurer in the royal capital who did not know Levia.

Ney and Liz, on the other hand, were not nearly as famous. Both were attractive women themselves, but unfortunately Levia was in another league. Her beauty overshadowed them so thoroughly that their fame had been overshadowed with it, and the image of Levia as the face of Poppy Anemone had spread instead.

The men’s reaction put Levia in a good mood. Ney and Liz, meanwhile, looked less than pleased, while the female mage directed a jealous stare at her.

Levia’s personality was also well known among adventurers, incidentally, so the men’s interest was strictly of the “nice to look at” variety.

“Well, it cannot be helped. Helping our juniors is the duty of those who came before them. Ney, Liz, let us handle this.”

“You were saying the exact opposite earlier…”

“Leave it. What we need to do hasn’t changed. They’re coming! Get ready!”

A mass of goblins rushed toward the three as they prepared to fight. The orcs, slow-moving as their appearance suggested, were still some distance behind them. They lacked the intelligence necessary for coordinated tactics. If prey looked weak, they ate it; if it looked strong, they ran.

“Eat! Humans!”

The first goblin swung down a battered knife, aiming for Ney at the front. Holding her shield close, Ney waited until the last moment before thrusting it forward with force.

“Hah!”

“Gweh?!”

A shield bash.

The sturdy metal shield struck the lead goblin and sent not only it but two or three others flying with it. They crashed into those behind them and fell in a heap, twitching. None of them showed any sign of getting back up. They were probably already dead.

The force was like being hit head-on by a car. Ney was well trained, but it was not the kind of power a human body could produce. Not even a professional wrestler could manage it.

The reason was something called magical power.

This world possessed techniques for manipulating an intangible energy known as magical power. Magical power could broadly be divided into two types, and what Ney had just used was od, the magical power within the body.

Od was a kind of life energy possessed by all living things. Those who learned to use it could gain various benefits, such as increased muscular strength, heightened senses, and faster recovery.

Ney had used it to strengthen her muscles. As evidence that she was using magical power, the surface of her body was glowing faintly. Reinforcing the body this way was one of the most basic techniques for warriors who fought with their own physical strength, but when a highly trained warrior used it—

This was the result.

“A-amazing!”

One of the warriors, who fought in a similar style to Ney, let out an astonished cry. He was fairly well built himself, but his control over magical power was probably still immature. He stared at Ney, who was far beyond his level, with open admiration.

Perhaps frightened by the overwhelming blow, the goblins faltered and came to a stop. Poppy Anemone was not about to let that opening go to waste.

“It’s ready! Wind Cutter, here goes!”

Liz, who had been muttering something under her breath, swung her staff and summoned a rush of wind. The wind became invisible blades that swept indiscriminately through the monsters. They were sharp enough to continue even after cutting through one creature, and half the goblins were sliced apart.

This was magic, a technique using the other form of magical power: mana, the power of spirits.

Mana was the collective term for invisible entities known as spirits that drifted throughout nature. They had no wills of their own and were normally as harmless as air, but would produce certain reactions when interfered with through a person’s od.

Magic was the technique of using those reactions to create a desired phenomenon through the processes of detection, calculation, and construction. It took time to activate, but because a small amount of od could be used to manipulate a large amount of mana, it was extremely efficient in terms of magical-power consumption.

“What power… and she cast it so quickly…”

The female mage stared blankly at Liz’s spell. Its strength, range, and casting speed were all far beyond those of an ordinary mage.

Corpses littered the ground. After a single exchange, fewer than half of the monsters remained. The orcs at the rear were terrified by what they had seen and began trying to flee.

“My, we cannot have that. It is my turn next.”

“…Huh?”

The adventurers looked as though they had no idea what had happened.

Levia had been standing behind Ney.

At some point, however, she had disappeared. By the time anyone noticed, she was in the air above the orcs with the point of her sword driven into the crown of one monster’s head.

She pulled the blade free, kicked off the dead orc with the sole of her foot, and used the recoil to leap sideways and stab another.

The orcs finally noticed her, but it was already too late. Moving faster than the eye could follow, she pierced the hearts of two, then three of them. Those that tried to attack had their blows avoided with almost dancelike movements, after which Levia slipped behind them and cut them down.

In the end, every orc was killed.

Levia landed lightly on the ground. There was not even a trace of blood on her, apart from the bright red drops falling from the tip of her sword.

“B-beautiful…”

The adventurers stared at her in rapture, captivated by the display of skill. Pleased by their reaction, Levia gave them an elegant smile.

“————!”

Zing!

It was the sort of reaction that sound effect would have suited perfectly. The three male adventurers went red and froze in place. Even the female mage who had been glaring at Levia earlier murmured, “Big Sister…” despite plainly being older than Levia herself.

While they were still staring, the remaining goblins had apparently been cleaned up as well. Ney sheathed her sword and addressed the adventurers.

“That should be all of them. Are any of you hurt?”

“! Ah, n-no! We’re all right!”

“You saved us! Thank you so much!”

The four adventurers bowed repeatedly.

According to them, they were D-rank adventurers who had come to collect a rare flower growing deep in the forest. It was apparently used as an ingredient in medicine for a certain serious illness. They had successfully completed the request, but on their way back they had gone near the ruins and suddenly been attacked by the enormous group of monsters.

“Weren’t you told that a powerful monster had appeared? The Guild should have warned people to stay away.”

“No, we didn’t hear anything.”

“They probably announced it after we left. It took us several nights to find the flower we needed.”

Ney had looked ready to scold them, but their answer satisfied her. The extermination request had only been issued within the last few days, so it was entirely possible that they had not known.

Liz raised another question.

“Hey, you said you went near the ruins, right? Did you see anything there? We’re looking for what’s supposed to be a Cerberus.”

“A Cerberus?! There’s a Cerberus out here?!”

“Apparently. They said it was a huge dog with three heads, so I think Cerberus is a pretty safe guess.”

That description had come from witnesses who had barely escaped alive.

The Guild’s assessment was that the creature was probably a Cerberus, a B-rank monster. A B-rank adventurer could potentially defeat one, but for safety’s sake the request had been given to the A-rank Poppy Anemone.

The adventurers looked surprised when they heard this, but answered anyway.

“We didn’t see it. If we’d run into a Cerberus, we wouldn’t be standing here right now.”

“Fair enough. Thanks.”

“Sorry we couldn’t be more help.”

“Don’t worry about it. More importantly, you should head back as soon as possible. There’s no telling when the Cerberus might show up.”

At Liz’s warning, their faces went pale and they looked around nervously. They had already had enough bad luck for one day, and apparently decided it would be best to follow her advice. After thanking the three again, they headed back toward town.

“A Cerberus, and now a huge number of other monsters as well… I wonder what is happening here.”

Ney folded her arms and spoke with a serious expression.

There was something in the ruins.

That much seemed certain.

What it was, however, they did not know.

“No point standing around thinking about it. Let’s get moving. Come on, Levia too. …Levia?”

Liz gave her a puzzled look.

Come to think of it, Levia had not joined the conversation for some time. Ever since the battle ended, she had been staring fixedly in one direction.

“What’s wrong? Is there something there?”

“No, it isn’t anything particularly serious, but…

“Someone’s been watching us.”

“!?”

Ney and Liz spun around. For a moment, they caught sight of something before it disappeared behind the trees.

Ney spoke with a serious expression.

“…Levia.”

“At the very least, I doubt it was the monster we came for. It was clearly humanoid. Maybe a little shorter than Liz?”

Levia indicated the size with her hands. Liz tilted her head.

“A goblin… would be smaller than that. An orc would be bigger. And obviously it wasn’t a Cerberus.”

“There shouldn’t be any other humanoid monsters in this forest. At least, not according to the Guild’s information.”

“What could it be? Do you think something really is happening here?”

“Hmm… Levia, what did it look like? What kind of monster do you think it was?”

“Hmm. Let me think…”

Levia folded her arms and considered it. A few seconds later, she murmured one thing.

“A kitty, maybe?”

“…Huh?”

The answer was so unexpected that Ney and Liz simply stared.

A giant cat? Was there even such a monster around here? And hadn’t Levia just said it was humanoid? Their expressions seemed to ask all of those questions at once.

“Well, I suppose we’ll find out when we get there. It seemed to be heading toward the ruins anyway. Let us be off.”

“It’s time for a beast hunt!” Levia declared with unusual enthusiasm as she started walking.

Ney and Liz looked at each other, both still confused. Realizing that standing there would not give them an answer, they followed after her.