Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (WN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: 7

5-7 . Mistake and Clean-up

Things you get accustomed with are the most dangerous, it's the same for any world .

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Now then, shall I pay a visit to our magician comes midnight?

I'd hate to get attacked by the army of ants when the morning dawn . . . ants are not nocturnal right?

I go inside the wagon alone, and begin to change my clothes . Since Arisa is peeking, I roll up my smelly sweaty shirt into a ball and throw it on her face . Suffer well in that stink .

I'm still wearing a mantle on the outside, but I change into thick trousers and shirt inside, and also knee-high leather boots . Since I will be trekking the mountain, it'd be inconvenient to wear a robe .

"Sniff, sniff, snifff . "

"Arisa, stop it, that's vulgar . "

This is the first time I saw Lulu scolding Arisa . Still, what the heck is this girl doing?　No, I understand when I see it, but I refuse to acknowledge it . . . . Aren't you too much of a pervert to sniff on a smelly shirt?

I take the shirt away from Arisa and give it to Lulu .

"I'm sorry, but please wash this when you're doing laundry . "

"Yes, master . "

"Before that, let me enjoy the teens' scent""Auu . "

I poked her forehead before she finished .

"Love is too painful~ please do the punishing in more sensual way!"

"There are a lot of other girls who cry for being defiled, treat yourself better . "

"Uuu~ I'm a maiden too . "

A maiden wouldn't do such things--- At least publicly .

"At any rate, what are you going to do by changing clothes?"

"I'll do some reconnaissance . "

I'm actually going to the magician's place, but I won't say it .

"I will accompany master . "

And so Liza proposed, but I persuaded her to defend the camp . She insisted that I take Pochi and Tama as bodyguards, but when I said that I'd go back before the sun set, she let me go .

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Truthfully, I won't be going straight to the magician's place right away . I want to enlarge the search area before the next pursuing armies come, so I'm going to retrace the course until the area where the rat cavalries was devastated . I should be able to reach it before the sun set if I run .

After I reach a place invisible from the camp, I run at the level where the ground gouged . In just five minutes, I've reached the place where Arisa massacred the ants with her unique skill .

The ants which pile up on one after another are obstructing the road . I lightly jump over it .

A lot of small animals are gathering, perhaps the monsters' corpses are delicious .

Even so, with this many monsters' corpses, it will interfere with the traffic .

If this was a game then it would disappear in time but reality is troublesome .

. . . Hmm?

. . . Dang .

"'Reality is troublesome', not that!"

I stop my feet, and look back at the mountain of monsters' corpses .

I'm imagining for a bit .

In a highway with scarce traffics, monsters corpses piled up . Corpses which died with no external injury and with only one arrow stuck . Normal person would be interested to know more . And then, the only wagon that has passed this route was ours .

If it's not someone really dumb, they would probably connect the corpses with us .

This is bad .

I change my plan, and indiscriminately stow away the monster corpses in the ants folder inside the Storage . I had thought of dismantling and throw them on the roadsides but I decided to use storage since it'd be too time-consuming .

Since the corpses are not displayed on the radar, I rely on my sight . It was easy to remove the corpses on the open road, but the ones stuck on the thickets a bit away were hard works .

Nevertheless, thanks to me repeating the corpses retrieval with all my effort, the road is cleared from them as far as eyes can see before the sun set .

I'm hiding bloods and traces of battles with suitably long tree branches . They would probably attract attention but it's better than puddle of bloods in plain sight .

Since I see from the radar that Pochi and Tama are departing from the camp to look for me, I finish hiding the bloods with trees from the Storage and return .

This took more time than I thought, so I couldn't do my original goal .

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With Pochi and Tama hanging on my arms on the sides, I walk down the highway in sunset .

I'm hearing chewing sounds of small animals from the bushes on the roadsides . There are probably some pieces from the corpses, I feel sorry for taking away foods for the small animals . And it was unexpectedly hard to keep Pochi and Tama from pushing through to the bushes .

In a place 10 minutes walking distance away from the camp, I catch a monster on the radar .

Let's check the detail .

Gargoyle, level 5 . Plainly speaking, it's a flying stone statue . Noteworthy points are complete immunity to mind attack and night vision . Also, it's hard, since it's a stone statue .

It could be an independent monster or a familiar of the magician . It's probably the latter this time .

Its moving speed is slightly faster than a person .

The gargoyle destination is probably the place where Arisa massacred the large groups of ants right?

"Master~?""What's wrong desu?"

Pochi and Tama pull my hands . I've stopped swinging them on my arms .

"Tama, do you have the throwing stones?"

"Aye . "

Then, I should drop it with a stone .

"I forgot something, let's go back . "

"Yes nano desu~ . ""Aye~ . "

I spin the two like spinning tops while on my arms . Since they demand to do it again, I do it thrice after that .

More, they said but since it'd be troublesome if we can't secure best location to attack the gargoyle, I promise them to do it again once we get back to the camp site .

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The three of us are hiding beside a shelter . Although I said shelter, it's just a rock as high as a grown man .

The gargoyle is flying overhead us .

After a moment pause, I throw two fist-sized stones with both hands . I throw one more a beat later . All three stones hit the target and the gargoyle becomes a mere broken statue .

"Co reco co re . ""Core nano desu~ . "

Is that a core retrieval song? While listening to the mysterious song, I watch over　Tama who's singing with strange intonation and Pochi who's interluding her while both of them retrieving the core .

Just like the ants, low level monsters have small magic core with pale color . The price is most likely cheap too .

"Aye . ", so she says while presenting the core . I put it in my pocket straight into the storage . And then we head back to the camp site .

Needless to say, the two didn't ask what was the [Something] that I forgot .

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Since I don't want to needlessly make Lulu and Mia worry, I only tell the gargoyle thing to Arisa and Liza .

And since the probability that the camp would get attacked when I go toward the magician is high, I decided not to do a late-night visit .

Although, even if I don't go there, I feel like the opponent will come here instead .

The night watch tonight will be in 3 shifts . The first are Liza and Arisa, the second are Pochi and Tama and the last are me, Mia and Lulu . They're alloted according to the potential of enemy search and fighting equally . I'd be glad to have Lulu together with Arisa, but since I wouldn't know what to do with just me and the taciturn girl, I made her join us .

Pochi and Tama take position on the left and right of me who's lying on the sheet . We've been sleeping together since the time in Labyrinth . Although I didn't sleep at all since I was on guard at that time .

"Together~ . ""Nano desu~ . "

"Good night, Pochi, Tama . "

"Aye~ . ""Nighty~ . "

I could hear Arisa grumbling from a distance, but since it's nothing much, I let it off . Lulu and Mia were at loss finding the place to sleep, but by Arisa's suggestion, they will be sleeping beside us . It's a bit crowded but since it's warm, it's nice .

I frantically try to retain my consciousness which was almost taken away by the comfortable warmth . There'll be 3 shifts of night watch, but since it's almost certain that there will be a night attack, I'll be careful not to sleep .

While watching the radar, I'm reading the book from the menu to prevent drowsiness . This is going to be a long night .