Chapter 25 : Omen

After Philia gathered the corpses of the Ragnos in one place, I, along with Pomera, took out the Ragnos’ eyes from their sockets as the proof of subjugation.

We… were surrounded by numerous around one metre long white arms growing from the ground which were made by Philia with her 《Dream Sand》.

Those arms quickly gouged the Ragnos’ eye quickly and precisely.

Though it should be a job for Pomera and I, we finally succumbed under Philia’s enthusiasm.

「Lookie-lookie, Philia is so amazing right!? Now praise me! Praise me!」

Philia was flapping her arms up and down with a proud look on her face.

… Honestly, it was so amazing, but I absolutely couldn’t let her show this in public.

Honestly, the part where the arms grew from our surroundings such as plants looked like it came straight out from a horror movie.

Even Pomera’s face was pale as she looked at those flocks of arms.

「Nevertheless… for the same number of Ragnos as the one which Philia annihilated before to come out again is strange indeed. It feels like we’re just destroying a small part of the crowd…」

Pomera was grumbling toward me while doing her job of taking out the eyes from the Ragno corpses.

「Is this scale of monster parade truly strange?」

Pomera nodded at me.

「Normally… it never happens so close to the city like this. I mean, normally, as long as nothing drastic happens, two active A-rank adventurers are enough to keep the city safe.」

「When you’re talking about about A-rank adventurers…」

Alfred and Rosemonde, huh.

Even though Alfred was a traveling adventurer, I heard that Manarak has several A-rank adventurers. In addition, all of them are active adventurers. Plus, I heard that they had an S-rank adventurer too.

According to Pomera, an outbreak that couldn’t be handled by A-rank adventurers like this one should never happen.

That’s why the criminals who wield power beyond human comprehension such as Notes were feared as 《JinMaRyuu》.

I mean, I imagine that if one city only has a handful of A-rank adventurers, then humanity would certainly be doomed if something like Zorophilia was suddenly found strolling right in front of their city’s gate.

「But, even Rosemonde-san was having a hard time fighting against the Ragnos…」

Rosemonde had used a lot of mana when she attacked me one-sidedly before. She was also wounded due to the last magic she used on me which ended up damaging her too due to her poor control. Thus, she was hardly in perfect condition to fight Ragnos in her current state. But, even with that, it doesn’t seem that she could handle sixty Ragnos at the same time either.

「That’s why… this situation is clearly abnormal. I mean, a 《Monster Parade》 of this scale only happens once in a while and no more than one. And yet this scale of 《Monster Parade》 has actually happened in several places around Manarak. No matter how you think about it, this situation is clearly abnormal.」

「The staff of the guild had reminded us about this abnormal situation too…」

That might be the main reason for their generous reward, they also realized this abnormal situation.

Maybe this magic city Manarak was more dangerous than I expected.

「Yes, Pomera remembers that too, but… looking at the situation in the guild, Pomera thinks that they had long since been preparing countermeasures against the rapid increase of the Ragno population. Since Manarak has many excellent adventurers, they can also thin out the Ragnos’ numbers with extermination commissions. And despite all of that effort, they have yet to find a solution… meaning that the number of exterminated Ragno is far less than the number of their growing population.」

Does that mean that no matter how enthusiastic the adventurer is to finish their commission, the monsters are… multiplying even faster?

Was that even possible? If that’s the truth, this world should’ve already been conquered by Ragno.

I got a bad feeling about this.

「Maybe we should be more careful. We should be more careful about taking a commission with good reward without thinking too deeply about it. I mean, this one doesn’t seem to be a big deal for us but….」

「No, I think Kanata-san is the last person to have to to worry about that even if this incident caused the entire population of Manarak to migrate to another city.」

… Even though I was just telling the truth, for some reason, Pomera just retorted lightly while staring in wonder at my face.

Seeing that, I drank the water from my water pouch with a wry smile on my face.

That moment, Pomera’s body twitched, and she rose on her feet immediately.

「K-KANATA-SAN! SOMETHING IS COMING IN OUR DIRECTION! IT’S A PACK OF MONSTERS… THERE’S ALSO A HUMAN FOR SOME REASON! THAT PERSON MIGHT BE ESCAPING FROM THOSE MONSTERS!」

「Calm down Pomera-san. Don’t panic, those monster might be just pack of Ragno.」

Well, even if it turned out to be a different monster, it shouldn’t be a big deal.

「THERE’S SOMEONE ESCAPING FROM THOSE MONSTER KANATA-SAN! AND PHILIA HAS YET TO CANCEL THOSE!」

Pomera was pointing toward the many arms made by Philia.

I ended up having a coughing fit upon hearing her flustered remark.

I threw my water pouch to the ground as I turned around to look at Philia.

「P-PHILIA-CHAN! ERASE THOSE ARMS AT ONCE! PLEASE! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY SITUATION! AT THIS RATE WE CAN’T MAKE AN EXCUSE FOR YOUR ABILITY!」

Though Philia looked confused for a moment, she replied happily with 「Oka~y!」 , and canceled her ability.

The Ragno corpses that were still lifted in the air fell with a thud as the arms turned into particles of light.

I heaved a sigh as soon as those arms vanished.

And then, I found out that the one who ran from the depths of the forest was none other than the person who escaped from us before, Rosemonde.

The person in question was covered in wounds, but there was a crack on her gauntlet.

It seems she fought monsters again after she escaped from us.

「YOU GUUUUUUUUYS! HEEEEEEEEEEELP! YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THEM!」

Upon a closer look I saw a pack of Ragnos behind Rosemonde who was asking for help with a pale, exhausted face.

Behind her were three giant ragnos, around two metres long.

W-was that a new Ragno species?

「That woman… look at how fast she come back for help while bringing along monsters behind her after running away from us …」

Pomera spoke while looking at Rosemonde.

I heard that intentionally dumping a pack of monsters to another adventurer was a heavy crime, but in this situation, I guess Rosemonde was simply desperate and had no way out.