Chapter 1184: Hell's Mark

「What’s it like?」

「Well… I heard it was an absolutely awful village. The leaders were corrupt to the core.」

Fran was merely curious about our destination, but Quint replied with a surprising answer.

Are we okay visiting such an awful village?

The plan was to hide there and gather intel, but won’t they simply report us to the authorities?

However, Quint quickly cleared up the confusion. The corrupt leaders had already been eliminated after a commotion involving Neidhart and Dimitris.

The two apparently showed up in the village one day, defeating the previous mayor and his subordinates to liberate Lalar. Villages with corrupt leaders were apparently common in southern and eastern Raydoss, so a majority welcomed the change in leadership.

A new mayor took office after reporting that the former mayor got killed by bandits. Ever since then, they’ve been supporting Neidhart and his group.

The villagers were no fools.

Even if they’ve been indoctrinated by their former leaders, they had little faith in them due to witnessing their corrupt behavior first-hand.

Raydoss is wonderful? Yeah right. What’s so great about a country where our leaders are garbage?

Kranzel is ruled by evil, so we have to conquer them and lead them to happiness? Hah. Then why are we so unhappy under your rule?

Many had similar feelings of distrust toward Raydoss. The villagers may comply in public, but they spoke of their misgivings behind closed doors.

「Lalar’s village was particularly discontent with the nation.」

「Really bad?」

「Yeah.」

The main reason was the village’s location, a place with few magical beasts, so they had little contact with the Red Knights. The Red Knights patrolling the land are both the protectors of the people as well as the face of the country.

The people would feel awe and respect upon seeing them hunt down powerful beasts. This respect is shared with the country as a whole.

But this village hardly saw the Red Knights and the former mayor was utter garbage. As such, it was only natural that they had little loyalty.

Quint and Fran chatted while exchanging information for about an hour.

Then Quint started looking around.

「What’s wrong?」

「Monsters are coming.」

「?」

Seriously? But Fran and I don’t sense… Wait, the ground! It seems Quint’s better than us at sensing vibrations from the ground. Hoken’s anti-monster pheromones probably have no effect on underground monsters, which is why he’s partnered with Quint, someone with the ability to sense such things.

Fran finally noticed as well, and stood up while grabbing me.

These monsters seem really tiny. I’m surprised she managed to notice them.

「…Strange. There’s so many of them.」

「What’s strange?」

「This vibration is definitely from Tunnel Bugs. But there’s way more than normal.」

Tunnel Bugs are apparently insect-like monsters that mainly live underground and form small groups of fewer than ten.

Judging from my senses, there’s definitely close to 50 of them…

「This might be due to the influence of the blackened land. Perhaps they needed to shift their habitat significantly, or are getting desperate for food.」

Maleficent had such a significant impact on the ecosystem?

Come to think of it, he did annihilate a huge region’s worth of plants and animals.

There must be some monsters who lost their food sources as a result. Maybe some even lost their natural predators, and made use of the opening to expand their territory.

If this chain reaction spreads far enough, it could cause major disturbances throughout the entire country.

「Lalar! Hoken! Monsters incoming! Wake up!」

「…! R-Roger!」

「Kuh! Already!?」

The two rubbed their eyes and they got up. It’s only about an hour since they started their nap, which I think is one of the deepest parts of the sleep sequence.

The Tunnel Bug swarm was digging through the ground, which made them pretty slow. That said, they’re coming straight at us.

「How do you beat them?」

「If we had an earth mage, we could simply crush them before they came out of the ground… Otherwise, we have no choice but to intercept them once they surface.」

「Nn?」

「What’s wrong?」

Come to think of it, maybe they were ignorant to Fran’s abilities? I guess she doesn’t look particularly magic-oriented. Judging by her alias, they might think she can only use thunder, fire, and wind magic.

「I can use earth magic.」

「Eh? Really? At a combat practical level…?」

「I can use land magic too.」

「Oh, I see… Can you also sense them?」

「There’s fifty or so in that direction.」

「Yes, that’s right.」

Quint visibly relaxed herself.

『Let’s expand the range a bit so we don’t miss any. Fran, you take the right side, and I’ll take the left.』

（Nn!）

「Gravity Pressure!」

『Ora! Get crushed!』

We invoked a spell that crushes the target with the power of gravity.

Even if there’s way more than normal, they’re still small fry. Our spell eradicated all of them instantly.

The only annoying part is that they pop out of the ground unexpectedly. I bet they’re weaker than goblins in terms of stats.

With the battle having ended before it started, Quint and the others stood dumbfounded. It seems they completely underestimated Fran’s magic skills.

And then, Hoken muttered.

「Maybe we should have stayed asleep?」

「True…」

Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing.

「I’m going back to sleep.」

「Good night.」

Hoken and Lalar tried to get back into their sleeping bags, but it seems they were a bit too eager.

「Another monster incoming. It must have been following the Tunnel Bugs.」

『Yeah, I can sense this one too.』

「Nn. A big one.」

Like I suspected, it seems there’s been non-negligible changes to the ecosystem.