After that, he explained the situation.
I was actually the Grand Duchess, who I was hiding myself, that Archduke Kishian had been chasing me all the way here, and so on.
Most of the mercenaries looked confused, but they seemed to understand to some extent.
"I felt like you weren't a commoner. I didn't know you were the Grand Duchess."
Haynes muttered and looked at me.
Hertha then asked me.
"Then you too... Did the Grand Duchess know that Baron Wolfstein was the Grand Duke?"
Hertha's gaze showed a sense of betrayal.
She risked her life to let me escape, but I was able to hide the Grand Duke and take him with me.
It was inexcusable, so just as I was about to apologize, Kishian stepped in first.
"No, it's not. My wife didn't know who I was until now. I was just deceiving and following her."
I guess he didn't like the situation where Hertha was resentful of me.
I had known that the Baron was a Kishian before he came here, but I had made up a lie.
To make me look like a victim who was deceived without knowing anything.
Thanks to this, Hertha's gaze on me disappeared with a hint of resentment.
Instead, Hertha glared at Kishian with a slight disdain.
"Don't you think it's a bit too much? There is a degree of deceiving people, but changing your appearance and following them..."
“Hertha.”
Even though she knew she shouldn't dare to argue with the Grand Duke, Hertha couldn't control her anger and snapped back.
I called Hertha quietly and stopped.
After that, he shook his head and said,
"Stop. I've already apologized for hiding and following her. I didn't do any harm while staying in the mercenary group... Above all, I promised to help with this subjugation."
In fact, I never received an apology.
But if he didn't say this, Hertha would continue to complain about Kishian.
I didn't want to hear that.
Kishian nodded.
"Let's help in the subjugation. I heard that you seem to be struggling a lot."
Hearing that, Haynes replied happily.
"I was struggling. I tried several times, but only two of them were directly encountered by monsters. It was not easy to find it."
Haynes continued with a look of exhaustion.
"As I said before I came here, once you reach the center of the forest, you keep going around the same path. I don't even listen to a compass. Maybe it's because the structure of the forest is a bit unique."
He took out a compass from his pocket and showed it to me.
As I said a moment ago, the needle of the compass was not fixed and was spinning frantically.
After sighing, Haynes continued.
"Even if you are lucky enough to encounter a monster, it is a problem. I ran into him twice, but I couldn't even touch him both times because of the pollution."
A forest that is difficult to find a way through, and a particularly powerful monster.
The moment I heard these two stories, I suddenly remembered what the Duke of Hersen had said.
"Could it be that it is here?"
The Duke said that spatial distortion occurs near the seed that generates monsters.
It was also said that a powerful monster called the Guardian haunted it.
Why is it not similar to the current situation?
"Come to think of it, when I activated the cube, the light pointed east."
It just so happened that the forest here was exactly east of where we were staying.
Just in case, I took out the cube I had brought and reached for my suitcase to check it.
"So, what happens after you finish defeating the monsters?"
Rodrick threw such a question to the group.
No one was silent without answering easily.
Rodrick asked again in the silence. This time, he looked straight at Kishian.
"Let's say you help subjugation. So when it's over, what do you think then? I think the Grand Duchess said she was leaving... Are you taking her with you?"
"That's right."
Seeing Kishian answer firmly. Rodrick's eyes wrinkled clearly.
Kishian added more details in a much calmer tone than before.
"Everything I do in the future depends on my wife's will. If she stays here a little longer, I'll stay with her, and if she does, I'll leave with her."
"..."
"What I am sure of is that we will return to the Grand Siege together at some point."
After hearing Kishian's response, Rodrick fell silent as if he were lost in thought.
He rested his elbows on his knees and his chin rested on his chin, and then opened his mouth with an ominous smile.
"What if I don't want to let her go?"
"Then I have to kill you."
It was an immediate answer.
And of course, the atmosphere around me was chilly.
Since he had openly declared that he would kill the mercenary leader at the place where the mercenary group members gathered, it was even stranger that the atmosphere did not turn cold.
Even if Kishan was the Grand Duke, there would be a calculation on the minds of some people.
Anyway, there are no witnesses, so why don't we kill them now and cover them up? That's the calculation...
'Did you expect the situation to get so bad... We need to divert their attention.'
Judging that, I rummaged through my bag and tried to take out the cube.
I tried to distract attention by telling him that there might be an object here that could be the source of the monsters, so I asked him to take a look.
"Gurrr..."
I didn't have to pay attention.
Suddenly, the ground near us rose out of the ground, and we could hear the monster's cry from beneath it.
Kishian, who was sitting next to me, pulled me into his arms with a swift gesture.
"It's a monster."
He muttered in a calm voice, and at the same time, the monster jumped out from the ground.
It was a mole-like shape with a hard shell.
Long, sharp claws hung from its front paws, and the bark on its back was shiny like an inelastic object.
At first glance, it looked like the sword wouldn't fit, but it was even faster.
"Damage!!"
Seeing the monster rushing at the mercenary nearby, Rodrick shouted.
The mercenaries also moved skillfully to avoid the charging monsters.
Crossbowmen fired at it from either side of the monster.
But.
"It doesn't work at all!"
When the monster curled up, it was completely wrapped in its shell.
As expected, the shell was hard, and every bolt fired was blocked by it and bounced off.
After blocking the attack, he warmed up and charged again.
"He's a filthy, tricky guy to kill, as I've heard. Take out the iron net!"
Rodrick gave them the order, and the mercenaries pulled out the iron nets they had brought with them.
He was trying to stop the movement with that, but Kishian shook his head at Roderick.
"What are you going to do with the net?"
"I don't know what to do. You have to seal the movement and run in together and hit or set it on fire until it dies. This is the standard."
"What is this? The rushing force is strong, so even if we all cling to it, we won't be able to hold on to the net properly."
"No, then what should I do in this situation?"
Ignoring Rodrick's slightly annoyed question, Kishian adjusted his sword.
Then it lunged at the monster.
When he ran to the monster with a blade, it curled up as expected.
Seeing it tightly wrapped in its shell, Rodrik squirmed as if he knew it would.
"If you just poke it. It won't work anyway."
Kishian ignored his words and leaped on top of the monster.
After that, he stabbed his sword in.
"..."
When the crossbow was fired, it was a hard shell that would have thrown it all off.
The mercenaries stiffened in surprise.
But the sword that the Kishian inserted into it penetrated without difficulty.
When I looked closely, I realized that it wasn't just a random stabbing.
His sword cleverly dug into the gaps between the monster's shells.
"Gurrrrr!!"
The monster stretched out and rolled to the ground in pain.
Meanwhile, the Kishian shouted.
"It's now! Attack the belly!"
The only hard thing is the back. The monster's belly had no skin, and the soft flesh was exposed.
The mercenaries did not miss the opportunity to attack the monster's belly.
The monster that had been bothering people for almost a month was easily defeated.
The mercenaries were shy as they sharpened their weapons well.
"I didn't expect it to be caught so easily..."
"It's Prince Lennon. No one can follow him when he catches monsters."
"Wait. Alma's condition is strange, pollution?"
The condition of the female mercenary called Alma was strange.
She was moaning with her head covered.
It was contaminated in a short time.
I hurried over to Alma's forehead and cured the contamination.
After that, I handed it over to other mercenaries to investigate her condition further.
The Kishian asked.
"Are you okay? Where did you get hurt..."
"There is no way. I caught it in the blink of an eye."
"I see. It's a little strange."
"What?"
I treated the pollution as usual, but what's so strange?
I looked at him in wonder.
What came out of his mouth was a question that I had never thought of, completely different from what I had expected.
"Why did the monster appear?"
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