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The Otherworld Conquest Method of a Reincarnated Porter Chapter 122 Part 1

Sacred Baboon

The next morning, I wake up in my tent and gather information while having breakfast with the knights. Just like the post town under construction in the Leancool territory where we stayed yesterday, this place seems to be building the town while asking adventurers to act as guards, but a tiger appeared and caused a large number of casualties. The tiger was too much for the adventurers to handle, and if rumors of the tiger’s appearance spread, the number of immigrants would decrease, so in order to settle the situation quickly, they decided to dispatch the knight order. Details about the tiger are unknown, but it is estimated to be over 60 in rank, and high-level knights seem to have been gathered here. There are about 30 knights in total, but only the 18 high-leveled ones will participate in the tiger extermination. All of them are over level 40, and most of them are elderly knights. In addition, it seems that a skilled magician will also participate. With this many elites, it should be possible to exterminate the tiger. I can focus on being Lunamilia’s shield without participating in the battle. All that’s left is to pray that the tiger is not a superior species.

After a while, Kylian shows up and the knights line up. Next to Kylian stands a woman who seems to be around thirty, who I believe to be a magician. I believe I caught a glimpse of her at dinner yesterday. She is quite the beauty, with dark hair and prominent facial features. She must be rich, as she is holding a staff with a goat’s head design on the tip, and has two magic bags on her waist.

「All right, everyone, gather round. The monk Lunamilia-dono and the porter Sei will be joining us in our exploration today. I’ll have them stand by Ophelia-sama’s side.」

*Whoa, oooh* Cries arise from the knights. With a monk’s sacred magic, they’d have a higher chance of returning alive even if they were to suffer a fatal injury, so I guess their reactions are understandable. As for me, well, I’m just a bonus.

I ask about the plan for today, but it seems that basically, we will just make our ways through the forest in formation. It’s the third day of the exploration, and they haven’t encountered the tiger yet, but it seems that monsters of rank 30 or higher appear every day. Even if it’s not the tiger, you can never let your guard down.

After finishing our preparations, we finally go into the forest with the knights. We assume a triangle formation, with me, Lunamilia, and the female magician named Ophelia protected a little behind the center. Kylian called Ophelia with -sama, so I wonder if she is from a high-ranking noble family. Let’s greet her first to avoid being disrespectful.

「I’m Sei, a porter. If there’s anything I can help you with, please let me know.」

「I’m Lunamilia Tarte Art, a monk. I look forward to working with you.」

「Oh my, how polite of you. Luna-chan and Sei-kun, right? I’m Ophelia Ibaradur. I’ll be in your care if I get hurt. I look forward to working with you.」

Given that she has a family name, she must be of noble birth. However, not only does she not put on airs like nobles do, she seems like a friendly person, so I’m relieved. Even so, she has the air of a composed mature woman, and doesn’t seem nervous at all despite the fact that she is participating in tiger extermination. She’s probably a pretty skilled magic user, so I can’t really bring myself to appraise her, as not only would it be disrespectful, there’s a good chance she’ll notice, which is terrifying. I wonder what level she is. I think she’s in her late twenties. I wonder if she’s married.

Geh?! Ophelia weaves her magical energy and casts an appraisal on Lunamilia, who is standing next to me. Lunamilia doesn’t seem to notice anything. Not good, will it be my turn next? The fact that I’m the eldest son of the Amberlius family, to whom Marianne was supposed to be engaged, would end up getting revealed. Given that not only am I a porter, but also an insignificant character, I don’t think I’ll be appraised, but I wonder what I should do if I am? Would it be disrespectful if I were to repel the appraisal? Nah, I’m neither a citizen of Neurath nor a slave. As an adventurer, I should at least have the right to repel an appraisal… right? What should I do? Please, don’t appraise me.

Contrary to my expectations, Ophelia casts appraisal magic on me. Screw it, sporting a nonchalant look on my face, I repel Ophelia’s appraisal. What?! Ophelia’s appraisal magic, which I should have repelled, envelops me again and attacks me as if penetrating into my body. My level of proficiency in magical energy manipulation is 7. I completely repel Ophelia’s appraisal magic. I continue walking through the forest with a poker face as if nothing has happened, but Ophelia remains silent. Phew, it seems she’s not the kind of immature woman who would make a fuss about disrespect or anything like that. But I need to be careful of this woman. She must have sensed that I’m no ordinary person, and if we get into a battle, there’s a good chance that she’ll look for an opportunity to appraise me again, as I always do.

「Alright, everyone, be on standby where you are. Make sure to watch out for the surrounding area all the time. Auntie, could you please?」

「Yes, very well.」

After walking deeper into the forest for a while, Kylian orders the knights to be on standby where they are. It seems like he’s going to have Ophelia use magic to search for the enemy. Is Ophelia Kylian’s aunt?

Ophelia pokes the ground with her magic staff and starts to channel magical energy into it. It seems like she’s searching for enemies with earth magic. From how it feels, it looks like she’s searching for enemies in a fairly wide area. If I were to appraise her now, where she is so full of openings, I don’t think she’ll be able to repel it, but as expected, that’d be too rude. Hit back when you’re hit is the common law of this world, but not only am I a commoner, right now, she’s carrying out her duty to search for enemies, so I should at least separate the things that I can and can’t do.

「Whew, I’ve found a few monsters, but it looks like there’s a large one about 300 meters ahead in this direction.」

「That, don’t tell me…」

「It appears to be lying on the ground, but unfortunately I can’t tell if it’s the tiger or not. But there’s a possibility it is.」

Tension spreads among the knights. If they were to fight against a tiger with a rank of over 60, there’s no way they would be able to come out of it all unscathed. There’s a chance that someone would die. They can’t rule out the worst possibility either, where they fail to subjugate it and the knight order gets partially destroyed.

At Kylian’s signal, we head in the direction pointed by Ophelia. The knights in the vanguard are equipped with spears, so if they could stab the tiger from all sides well, we might be able to take it down without letting it get close. We carefully proceed through the forest, trying not to make any noise. The quiet footsteps of the knights, who are walking while erasing their sounds, echo through the quietness of the forest, amplifying the tension. There it is, is that a monkey? At the base of a large tree about 50 meters away, a large monkey with four arms and a horn is lying down. It looks like it’s not the tiger. There are seven monkeys on the branches of the large tree, which most likely could not have been detected with earth magic. The four-armed monkey is probably the leader of the troop. The monkeys probably climb up the trees to protect themselves from enemies, but the fact that the boss monkey is resting on the ground means that it’s so strong that it doesn’t need to protect itself. We can’t let our guard down.

「It doesn’t seem to be the tiger, but we’ll annihilate them for the safety of the post town. Get into formation.」

At Kylian’s signal, we get ready for battle. In the center of the bottom of the triangular formation, Kylian is giving direction behind us. When the monkeys notice the knights and start making a fuss, the boss monkey slowly raises its head in annoyance and glares at us. This intimidating presence, it must be a very strong monster. If I were by myself, I definitely would have run away here.

As the knights get into formation, the seven monkeys vigorously jump out toward us, making *gii, gii* cries all the while. They’re fast… those faces, are they sacred baboons? The spear attacks of the knights in the vanguard pierce the bodies of four baboons, but three of them leap far over the knights with their incredible jumping power and come towards us.