3 bar menu

Chapter 56

The subjugation request they had received was to wipe out a swarm of lizardmen who were building a village in a wetland.

The difficulty of subjugating a single lizardman is below E-rank, but in a community-level group of about 100 to 200 monsters, it is above D-rank.

The distance to the settlement in the marshland was reasonably far.

A round trip would consume a full three days.

The reward for success was relatively meager, around 20 silver coins (equivalent to 200,000 Japanese Yen), and considering the expenses, it might result in a loss.

However, there was a twist.
The lizardmen’s materials had decent market value, adding up to around 1 to 2 gold coins (equivalent to 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 Japanese Yen) if sold.

Even after accounting for the degradation of weapons, equipment, and consumables, the balance would turn out to be relatively positive.

But that was not considering the risk taken and lives at stake.

So, it’s not entirely unimaginable why one might choose a safer, more lucrative method through dubious thievery, setting up traps for adventurers far inferior to themselves, feigning accidental deaths, and taking their lives along with their entire wealth.

However, they didn’t realize that once they chose the path of setting traps and killing someone, they would have no grounds to complain if they themselves faced a similar fate.

In other words, they had no room to complain about anything that might happen because of Lilith and me.

We left the city and traveled east along the main road for a while before deviating onto a less-traveled path through the Salome grassland.

Passing by the side of the lake, we came to the Coscatca Great Marsh.
A swampy expanse full of mangrove-like trees where walking meant sinking knee-deep in mud.
The swarms of mosquitoes and flies were abnormally numerous, making the atmosphere quite grim.

Leaving that aside, traveling with Liz was quite hard.
I had been holding her hand, but considering how she would sink into the mud up to her hips, we couldn’t move forward properly.

「Let me carry you.」

「Huh… but…」

「Don’t worry about it.」

I ended up reluctantly saying that to Liz.

「… I want to be carried by Lute… no, I want to touch him.」

「Don’t say stupid things.」

Lilith clapped her hands.

「…First, I’ll carry Liz.」

「Hmm?」

「…And then, Lute will carry me while I was carrying Liz.」

Lilith continued, wearing a smirk on her face.

「…I’ll call it the baby turtle on top of the adult turtle…with a grandchild turtle strategy.」

「You look like you’ve said something smart, but that is not smart at all, okay?」

I retorted coolly.

「…」

Lilith’s expression faltered as she was met with my cold response.

At that moment, the leader of the veteran adventurers, the large warrior, spoke,

「It’s getting close to dusk.」

Indeed, the reddish glow around them had intensified, just as the warrior had said.

「Shall we set up camp… right there?」

Can that be called an island that appeared in the middle of a swamp?
I could see a solid piece of land with some grass growing a few dozen meters ahead.

As everyone disembarked on the island, the warrior addressed me,

「Hey, kid? Can you still walk?」

「Yeah, I’m good for now.」

The warrior then pointed to the eldest member, the old monk.

「My old man’s pretty much out of energy, as you can see. Your girls are probably reaching their limit soon too. I want your companion to help with setting up the tent and lighting the fire for the camp.」

The monk was panting, Liz was struggling in the marsh, and while Lilith could manage, there were concerns.

「So, what’s the plan?」

「I want to scout tomorrow’s path. The stretch after this point is the toughest in this marsh. Scouting makes a huge difference.」

「What do you think?」

I shrugged in response to Lilith’s question.

「We can’t do much other than meet the expectations of our client. I’ll be off, so take care of Liz, okay?」

Lilith nodded in agreement.

Around 30 more minutes of travel remained before sunset arrived.
The skies were moving from dusk to a more gloomy evening.
If we didn’t turn back soon, darkness would envelop the surroundings completely.

At that moment, rustling sounds echoed through the trees, followed by splashing sounds in the marsh.
There were probably about ten of them.

「Bad news. Seems like we’ve encountered lizardmen scouts at the worst timing.」

Hearing the warrior’s words, the swordsman tapped my shoulder.

「Hey, kid? Don’t get in the way… keep your hands off.」

Visibility was already poor due to thick foliage, and dusk was gradually turning the surroundings into darkness.
Poor footing in the swamp only complicated things further.

In these worst conditions, a group of lizardmen appeared.