Black Iron Magician

We are waiting at the edge of the gate so that we don’t get in the way, but I can feel gazes from people. They are probably looking at Lily in her maid uniform or maybe looking at Gobuo thinking that red-skinned goblin is unusual. It would have been even worse if Nell had been here. She stands out in both good and bad ways.

「Did you think something strange, Deris?」

Still, she has a wild intuition, so she’s hard to handle. At the appointed time, Nell and Chinatsu arrived in their light armor.

「Well, I was thinking that Nell is also beautiful today. Morning.」

「W-What’s that… Morning. Now, let’s go.」

Nell goes ahead while crossing her arms. Hey, I haven’t explained the route we’re going to take yet…

「Chinatsu-chan, good morning!」

「Good morning, Haruna. Say, were you okay?」

「What?」

Did Nell said something to her? Chinatsu greeted Haru and glanced at Lily while looking worried. Lily, on the other hand, seems to haven’t calmed down from her excitement. She’s standing still while chewing her joy.

「Yep, I might be a little worried…」

「Gobu?」

I meaninglessly talked to Gobuo who’s carrying the sword, that we bought yesterday, on his back (the helmet and gauntles are already equipped). I’ve learned recently that Gobuo can be quite healing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours have passed since we left the city. Our moving speed towards the Adelheit Magic Academy is quite fast, so we are already halfway through the route. If we proceed as it is, we will be able to arrive at the academy before evening.

「Um, Deris-san. Why are we going through the animal trail like this? If we move a bit sideways, there is a road that connects the city…」

「Chinatsu, try to think about it. It won’t be training if we go on a normal path, right? It will be training if we go on a path with bad footing and monsters appear occasionally. Look at Haru. She is even carrying Lily on her back.」

I pointed my finger at Haru, who’s running behind.

「Lily-senpai, do you feel uncomfortable?」

「No, I’m fine. Haru-chan has a solid axis while running, so it hardly shakes. Lily feels very comfortable♪」

「…See?」

「…Yes.」

The truth is, I wanted them to play catch ball while running. However, the highway that normal people go through is close, and if I talk about it, Nell will be wanting to join, so I won’t say it. If that happens, I’ll have to deal with Nell after all. If I leave her to Lily, she’d probably try to kill Lily for real.

「――Ara

?」

Suddenly, Nell squinted her eyes and looked to the distance.

「Did you find a monster or something?」

「Yes, there’s a monster, but… it’s attacking a carriage that’s running on the highway. Some of the guards on the horses are fighting back.」

「Are they okay?」

「The opponent is a large griffon, you know? Do you think a few guards can win against a level 4 monster?」

「I guess a few hired mediocre adventurers would have a hard time.」

Normally, a ferocious monster like a griffon does not appear on the safe road that connects the castle town Diana and the Magic Academy. It’s probably a stray griffon that accidentally leaves its habitat or a griffon that wants to revenge its pair that was killed by someone. If it’s the former, it will probably leave after you drive it away lightly, but if it’s the latter, it’s troublesome. It will continue to rampage until it dies. At worst, it will damage the city and surrounding villages.

「Rejoice, disciples! Your boring training has just been interrupted by a guest! Haru, Chinatsu! Leave Lily here and go have some fun!」

「If you fight normally, you will win for sure, so let’s ban the use of magic. However, you are allowed to use magic on the injured people. Now, go!」

「「Understood!」」

Putting Lily on the ground, though she doesn’t want to, Haru and Chinatsu become the wind. As guardians, I and Nell follow them and start the scoring. Depending on the person we rescue, we will get a reward, so there is no reason not to help them.

「Wait, please wait! I’m an indoor person!」

While saying so, Lily is carrying Gobuo on her back and splendidly coming along. With the helmet and sword, I’m sure Gobuo weighs quite a bit. In the meantime, the target griffon and carriage came into view. Uh-oh, it seems that it has caught up with the carriage. The carriage is falling over sideways.

「We found them! There are nine guards, three of them are knocked out and it looks like some of them are injured!」

「That carriage’s wheels are broken. We have to help them quickly…!」

Haru and Chinatsu raise their gears even more. They are going to charge in one go with their fastest speed. After passing through the animal trail, all they have to do is reach the plain and highway that’s ideal for running through. Then, the speed of the two became even faster.

「Kuh! Richard, are you alive!?」

「I’m still alive, but we’ve lost three men, and Hans is badly hurt! This is seriously bad! What the hell is a griffon doing here!?」

「I want to hear that too. Good grief, it was supposed to be a simple job of escorting a lady with her guards!」

「Kururururu…!」

At first glance, it seems that two men who seem to be adventurers are holding out. The person lying behind them is probably their friend. Behind them, the three people who are surrounding the carriage, and the three who are lying down on the ground while creating a blood pool are probably official guards because of their matching equipment. Unfortunately for the last three, it’s probably too late. Maybe they were torn apart by the griffon’s sharp claws, many things are coming out of their abdomens.

「I want to run away, but looking at its bloodshot eyes… It will definitely chase after us.」

「Also, we can’t leave Hans behind. On top of that, we don’t have the money to pay the penalty! I don’t want to be a wanted man at my age, okay?」

「It’s a punishment for being blinded by the high reward―― ugh, that was close!」

The adventurer at the front dodged the griffon’s attack at a paper-thin distance. At a glance, having a conversation like that during a battle seems defenseless. However, when facing a superior monster, there’s a time when you have to distract yourself like that. It can be said that fear is paralyzed by having a conversation with friends. It is the wisdom of an adventurer.

「Please excuse―!」

「―us!」

The moment the adventurer who dodged the attack took a step back, Haru and Chinatsu attacked the griffon. A black staff attacked from above to the top of the head, which is the blind spot of the griffon, and a sword slashed and tore off the wings.

「Guuruu…!?」

Unable to withstand the impact on its head, the griffon’s head is slammed against the ground. Its majestic wings have been cut by Chinatsu, so it can’t fly to the sky no matter how much it flaps. At the sudden event, the adventurers and guards could only stare at the scene in amazement.

「Here I… come!」

Haru strangles the neck of the griffon in the midst of confusion. On the way to this point, Lily had verbally taught her about the locking technique. So she might have been itching to try it out as soon as possible.

「Gu…! …!」

In the meanwhile, the limbs that were about to rampage were also slashed by Chinatsu. A large amount of blood flows from the wound, and the blood that’s supposed to flow to the brain is blocked. Eventually, the griffon stopped moving, and after a while, cheers echoed from the surroundings.