In a Good Mood
I used farsight magic to search for goblins, and when I found one, I moved in.
Of course, even during that, I didn’t neglect keeping watch over Angela’s surroundings.
Making no sound, erasing my presence completely, I closed in, then used teleportation to move behind the goblin.
The goblin, showing no awareness of me at all, overlapped in my mind with enemy soldiers from long ago.
“Routine work.”
I muttered it under my breath.
But the goblin didn’t react to the voice.
Because it was already dead and collapsing to the ground.
“My skills… haven’t dulled.”
Ten years had passed since the war ended.
This was my first real fight in ten years, after hardly fighting at all since then.
A goblin was too weak to be much of a benchmark, but even so, I felt my own movements weren’t bad at all.
After that, I found a slime and a kobold too, and killed them instantly.
“Boooss~ I gathered some medicinal herbs~”
Angela came over carrying some plants.
“Sorry. I’m not knowledgeable in the herb department.”
Honestly, the grass Angela was holding just looked like weeds to me.
“It’s fiiine~ it’s fiiine~ How’d your side go?”
Angela looked at the dead kobold.
“No problems. Less rust than I expected.”
I’d turned thirty, so I thought age might’ve started catching up with me, but apparently not.
“Well, that’s good, isn’t it? Exercise is important. Even I go adventuring once in a while, and I never skip stretching every day.”
Maybe I should start moving my body a little too.
“Well then, I was thinking we should head back soon, but there’s a bear.”
“Huh? Where, where?”
“Over there. About fifty meters, I’d say.”
I pointed toward the woods to the right.
“Ohhh~ you’re right. Good eyes.”
Angela seemed to have spotted it too using farsight magic.
“Instinct. And with that much killing intent coming off it, it’s obvious.”
It had noticed us too.
And it wanted to fight.
“Bears this time of year, huh… Winter just ended, so they’re hungry and sometimes attack people.”
Taking care of things like that was adventurer work too.
“It’s not that large, but it might be better to handle it.”
“If we leave it and go home, it might run into Mary and the others.”
That too, but hunters and woodsmen entered this forest as well.
If something dangerous could be culled, better to cull it.
“Even those girls could probably handle a bear, but they were gathering herbs without posting a lookout.”
“True enough. I’ll tell them about that today, so I think helping them this once is fine. So what’re we doing?”
“We kill it quickly and go home. Follow me.”
“We’re getting closer to a bear… first time for me.”
Mages usually kept their distance.
“As long as I’m here, there’s no problem.”
“So the prince role is being played by Fullface Maskman, huh…”
Maybe I should just take it off…
Thinking that, I walked forward, then stopped.
Because the bear wasn’t fleeing, it was approaching.
A bear wasn’t a monster, just a normal animal, but in terms of danger, it ranked several levels above the weak creatures around here. Its strength and speed were more than ordinary humans could handle.
But bears were also extremely timid creatures. Not just humans, if it came down to it, some would even run from a dog.
So once they recognized a human, they’d normally flee.
“Angela, have there been any attacks in the forest?”
“Hmmm~? Haven’t heard anything. This isn’t a big town, so even someone getting injured would become gossip. So probably not.”
Then maybe someone had fled and only lost their cargo.
“The bear is approaching us. This is a bear that’s learned the taste.”
“Ahhh… one of those cases where nobody reported it to the guild or military.”
Not a woodsman or hunter, then.
Tch… stupid brats?
“Then it definitely needs to be culled.”
A bear that actively attacked people had to be dealt with immediately.
Worst case, it might even come out of the forest.
“You sure?”
“No problem at all.”
We waited, and the bear emerged from the brush.
Then it slowly stood upright.
“It’s huge!”
Normal size.
If anything, it was thin, so not that impressive.
“Do not step in front of me. Under any circumstances.”
“I won’t, I won’t~ Sooo scary…”
Angela could kill a bear too.
But she’d probably never been this close to one.
“Come.”
I didn’t know whether the bear understood, but it raised its claws and swung that thick arm at me.
I casually caught the arm with my right hand.
“Huh?”
Angela let out a dumbfounded sound, but I ignored it and placed my left hand against the bear’s chest.
The bear jerked violently… then collapsed.
“It’s down.”
“Eh…?”
“It’s already dead.”
The bear didn’t twitch at all.
“Already? Wait, what did you do?”
“Magic. An attack spell that destroys only the heart.”
No visible wound at a glance, and it could stop something instantly.
“What the heck… scary… Between this and those throwing knives the other day, Boss, aren’t your attacks way too lethal?”
“That’s the covert division. That’s the battlefield.”
What mattered was how quickly and certainly you killed.
“You should become an adventurer or soldier or something. You might even go down in history.”
Don’t need a statue.
“I have no intention of making money through fighting anymore. If I can scrape by quietly in that shop with you, that’s enough.”
“O-oh… I see. Then I guess it can’t be helped.”
Angela fidgeted with her hands.
“Angela, what do we do with the bear?”
“Bears don’t sell, so we can just leave it.”
It wasn’t inedible, but in a land where plenty of meat was available, nobody bothered.
I’d heard of bear paws and such, but I didn’t know how to cook them, so whatever.
“Then let’s head back.”
“Yep. It’d be bad if our shop went under!”
Angela, cheeks flushed red, started smacking me over and over, so we headed home.
What do you think about this chapter?
