3 bar menu

Beast Tamer Who Got Kicked Out From the Hero’s Party Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31: THE THIRD ULTIMATE SPECIES

「…… GO AWAY AND NEVER COME BACK.」

We heard voices all of a sudden.

We looked around, but there was no one here beside the three of us.

「…… Nyah? Nyah nyah, nyah???　Who’s there?」

「I heard the voices, but I couldn’t see anyone…… Could it be, a ghost or something like that?」

「Nyah! Noo! Anything but ghosts! I don’t even want to think about it!」

「Oh my. Could it be, Kanade? Are you perhaps not all that good with stuff like that? Even though you yourself are of the Cat SPIRIT Tribe?」

「T-That’s because! Ghosts are ghosts! They don’t have bodies! And you cannot beat them down with your fists!」

「You two, please be quiet for now.」

I then braced myself for whatever was going to happen.

Now then, what was going to appear before us?

Was it going to be a ghost, just as Tanya was saying?

Or perhaps……

「LEAVE…… AND NEVER COME BACK.」

With a third warning, particles of light flooded from the surrounding trees.

They drifted through the air regularly, as if each one had a will of its own.

Eventually, they gathered in one place and took the form of a person.

「……………」

As the light gradually cleared, a form of the girl appeared in front of us.

She was short, and with her cute and petite physique, it would not be all that strange if she was to be mistaken for a small child.

But contrary to her child-like appearance, she had a dignified expression and air about her, which was giving her somewhat of a mature vibe.

Her flaxen hair was tied up with a flower ornament, which looked really good on her.

But perhaps her most striking feature…… was her wings.

On the girl’s back, two pairs of light feathers were growing.

「…… The Spirit Tribe……」

Tanya murmured in disbelief.

The Spirit Tribe.

Along with Kanade and Tanya, the three of us opened our mouths agape upon witnessing another member of the Ultimate Species.

The Spirit Tribe are pretty rare, and even rarer among them are the Tree Spirits…… the Dryads.

They are a mild-mannered tribe, but they are also really tough when it comes to people.

In fact, they don’t like people and despise them with a passion.

For the Spirit Tribe, who live in harmony with mountains, forests and nature in general, humans who clear mountains and cut down trees are like natural enemies.

Because of this, those two races have clashed with each other numerous times across the years.

And then…… At one point in time, the Spirit Tribe completely disappeared.

It seems that they hated to get involved with people so much that they decided to go into hiding into the remote regions of the wilderness, where people couldn’t reach them that easily.

That was about two hundred years ago.

Since then, no one has seen the Spirit Tribe..

And yet…… I didn’t expect to meet one of them in a place like this.

I was so surprised that I couldn’t actually say a word.

「Umm…… Hello there.」

「Leave, and never come back.」

「Can we have a word with you for a moment?」

「Leave, and never come back.」

「I’m Rein. These two are Kanade and Tanya. They are my companions.」

「Leave, and never come back.」

「You see, we have come here to take care of some really important business, so…… Are you perhaps the one who set up those illusion wards?」

「Leave, and never come back.」

Well, this isn’t working at all.

Like this, the conversation is not going anywhere anytime soon.

「If you’re not going to leave, then you’re not giving me much of a choice……」

The girl from the Spirit Tribe softly spoke, raising her head.

As she pointed her palm towards us, a surge of light converged in the middle of it.

「…… Then I am going to make you leave. Even if I have to use force.」

「Nyah!?」

「Everyone, we’re falling back! Now!」

「R-Roger that!」

Just like that, we turned back towards the entrance to the forest in a hurry.

***

「S-she doesn’t seem to be following after us……?」

Kanade looks back fearfully.

「Yeah, we’re fine for now. It doesn’t seem that she intended to give chase after us or anything like that.」

「What was that all about?　Trying to attack us completely out of the blue like that!」

「I don’t think I’d want to hear that from you, Tanya, since you’ve opted to burn down the entire forest from the get-go.

「W-What did you say to me?」

「N-Nothing! I didn’t say anything!」

But isn’t that strange?

We haven’t heard anything from Arios and his Party about a Spirit Tribe inhabiting this forest.

Either they were lying to us regarding that subject, or they simply happened to wander around without actually running into her.

…… But if that was the case, then what about us?

…… No.

I don’t think that this is actually a coincidence.

After all, Spirit Tribe are a race of misanthropic Spirits who hate humans with a burning passion and disappeared from the face of the earth about two hundred years ago.

They must have a good reason for appearing in our presence just now.

And that reason, as I thought, it must be……

「The warding…… perhaps?」

「Nyah?」

「Why did that Spirit Tribe show up in front of us at this particular timing?　I mean, forget Kanade and Tanya, but I’m a human. That’s the part that doesn’t seem right to me at all…… but it makes sense if you think that she thought that we were about to break the wards on the entire forest.」

「Yes, that’s right…… She didn’t show up at all when we were traversing the forest, but as soon as we tried to break the wards, she showed up and started threatening us. I think that Rein’s logic is onto something here.」

「So, you’re saying that the girl from the Spirit Tribe is guarding the wards? But wouldn’t that mean…….. Indirectly, that she is protecting the monster in the deepest parts of this forest? The one guarding the Shield of Truth?」

「Yeah, there is also that fact to consider……」

Who would be in trouble if the wards were to be lifted?

The answer here was clearly the monster that would be in the deepest part of the woods.

In order to make his own dwelling place into a robust and impenetrable fortress, it set up the wards across the forest’s premises.

On top of that, it had the Spirit Tribe girl protecting the wards.

It made sense when you think of it that way.

But just because it was making sense, one question still remained: why did she do that?

Sure, the Spirit Tribe hates humans, but that doesn’t mean they are the kind of Tribe that would willingly cooperate with monsters or demons.

After all, demons and monsters trample the very nature with their existence and reap down trees for no reason at all.

In a way, the Spirit Tribe is much more hostile to demons and monsters than it is to humans.

So there is no way that the Spirit Tribe would willingly cooperate with the demons or monsters.

「Could it be that there are some sort of circumstances behind that deal…… Or maybe the demons managed to find some sort of the Spirit Tribe’s weakness that they are exploiting here? Hmm…… No, that cannot be it. It’s way too much of a stretch to assume something like that.」

「Personally, thinking is not my greatest suit.」

「Try a little harder, you stupid cat.」

「S-Stupid cat!?」

「We do not know her true intentions, but it sounds like the Spirit Tribe is definitely involved with the monsters or demons. Then why don’t we just defeat them and be done with it?　It wouldn’t hurt to try. And besides, I know that you really don’t want to fight her.」

「Yeah, that would certainly be the best thing to do, but…… The other side is the Spirit Tribe, you know?」

「But here we have the Cat Spirit Tribe and the Dragon Tribe. So, there is no way that we are going to lose to some Spirit Tribe like that.」

With a proud look in her eyes, Tanya puffed out her chest in an act of self-satisfaction.

As usual, she has great confidence in her own power.

It seems that she doesn’t even think that she will lose at all.

Well, you could say that is typical of Tanya.

「Certainly, if we were forced to battle, we might have a real shot at winning here, but…… No, we really shouldn’t be thinking that way. Besides, we do not know what the Spirit Tribe is really capable of. If things here go really bad, we might not be able to get out of this one with mere light injuries. And putting both of you at risk here is something I would really like to avoid if I could help it.」

「Hey, what the hell? Could it be that you do not trust our power or something like that?」

「No, it’s nothing like that. I’m just genuinely concerned for your safety here.」

「I-Is that so…… Hmm, so you are really worried about us, huh…… O-Oh well. If that’s what you are so concerned about, I guess we really cannot willingly put ourselves in harm’s way, huh?」

「Nyah! Let’s do what Rein suggests!」

「Thanks, you two.」

「But what are we going to do?　Unless we can do something about that Spirit Tribe girl, we won’t be able to reach the deepest part of the forest.」

Tanya was right.

If we do not do something first about the Spirit Tribe girl, there is no way for us to be able to proceed further into the Lost Forest.

There’s also the solution of us simply creating an opening and destroying the wards, but…….

I’d rather refrain from doing this if I could, as it would provoke unnecessary anger from the Spirit Tribe girl for sure.

「Will you let me take care of it?」

「What do you have in mind? Some sort of a plan?」

「No, not really.」

「Nyah?」

「I think I’m going to just try and talk to her again.」

「I don’t think that she was exactly in the mood for chatting, you know?」

「I’m sure that she was just taken aback by the suddenness of the situation and it made her act really defensive, too.　This time, if we can show her that there is no hostility from us and we show her some good faith…… Maybe then she will be willing to talk to us.」

「That’s only something that someone extremely good-natured would ever say.」

「So, you think it’s a bad idea?」

「No. I’m not afraid of that. Actually, I really like that idea~♪」

「It’s just like Rein to suggest something like that, nyah~♪」

Kanade and Tanya chuckled, as if they anticipated that I would opt for something like that in the first place.