“We’re finally here……!!”
While Viktor and the others were fighting the Crawler swarm.
The party led by Sage Eris had at last reached the Sariel Great Forest.
From their departure point in Alfado, it had been roughly two weeks by carriage.
No large towns along the way — just an unbroken stretch of empty road, a harsh journey with nothing to offer.
“Carriages won’t do from here. Everyone, shoulder your packs!”
The narrow path leading to what had once been a frontier settlement.
On the map it was drawn as a proper road, however thin — in reality it was barely a game trail.
Eris judged that no carriage could get through and decided they’d carry their supplies on foot.
She’d anticipated this and already had several dedicated porters traveling with them.
“……What a pain.”
Chili was one of those porters — a young woman hired on to carry loads.
She muttered complaints under her breath but kept strapping on pack after pack.
And despite being the smallest of the porters in the group, she ended up carrying the most.
“Never gets old watching that.”
Sarmat watched her hoist the heavy rucksack — packed with food and water — with ease, and nodded with satisfaction.
She’d been introduced through an acquaintance in the merchant world, and she’d turned out to be a better find than expected.
One girl doing the work of three ordinary porters.
“I’m being paid well for it.”
“Haha, fair enough. Keep it up.”
He gave her a pat on the shoulder.
Chili’s face made her displeasure obvious.
“……Right, probably shouldn’t be patting young women on the shoulder.”
“That’s not the issue.”
“Then we’re fine.”
With that, Sarmat moved back to the head of the group.
Once he was well out of earshot, Chili let out a weary sigh.
Her irritation had nothing to do with being touched.
The problem was that Sarmat had noticed her at all — that she’d left an impression.
“A porter doesn’t fit me.”
Her true identity was an operative sent by the Ashcat.
Normally she’d have infiltrated the group in a far less conspicuous role.
But there hadn’t been enough preparation time, and porter was the only opening available.
To make a visibly slight girl working as a porter even remotely plausible, she’d had to lean on the slightly conspicuous detail of being a body-reinforcement magic user.
“……But it won’t interfere with the mission.”
Over the two weeks on the road, there had been several monster encounters.
Through those, Chili had formed a rough picture of the group’s combat strength.
First — Sage Eris, her primary concern. Surprisingly underwhelming.
She handled high-tier magic without difficulty, but in Chili’s assessment her combat experience was thin.
A researcher by nature, probably not someone who’d spent much time actually fighting.
Next, the adventurers Eris had hired. Also not a threat to Chili.
She’d assembled what looked like quality talent, but no one who stood out as genuinely dangerous.
Taking them all on at once would be bothersome, but picking them off one by one would be easy enough.
If she caught them in the middle of a monster attack, she was confident she could have the whole group neutralized in a few minutes.
Last — Sarmat. Unexpectedly, he was the most troublesome of all.
He’d apparently been away from adventuring for nearly ten years, but his edge hadn’t dulled much that Chili could see.
Watching him scatter a pack of wolves that attacked them — one swing of that massive hammer, no survivors — had been genuinely impressive.
On top of that, his merchant’s instincts gave him good intuitions.
If she made her move, he’d have to be the first one taken out of action.
“……Stop!”
About an hour into the forest, heading toward the old frontier settlement.
Eris, who had been walking at the front, suddenly brought the group to a halt.
Had she sensed something dangerous?
The group went quiet and tense.
Chili shifted her awareness to the knife tucked inside her clothes.
“There’s something — churning magical energy. What on earth is this……!”
“Are you alright!?”
Eris went pale and looked close to collapsing.
Sarmat, who was nearby, caught her.
Cradled in his arms, she murmured like someone talking in their sleep.
“So many……I can’t make sense of it……!”
“Sage — stay with me!”
Sarmat called to her urgently, but she was slow to come back to herself.
——This is trouble. If they turn back here, the mission is over.
Chili watched what was happening at the front of the group and tried to think her way through it.
Coming this far with nothing to show would be a serious problem for her position.
She needed at the very least to confirm whether Viktor was alive or dead.
——Risk exposure, but should I use magic on Eris?
The moment that thought began to take shape.
Something like a tremor reached them from the distance.
“What is that……? Someone climb a tree and have a look!”
“I’ll go.”
Chili scrambled up quickly and looked in the direction the sound had come from.
Far in the distance, something black was churning.
She stared hard.
It was an uncountable number of insects.
——Crawlers!
Chili grasped immediately what was happening — and then something happened that she hadn’t anticipated.
“What——? Something’s eating them!?”
Something silver had begun rolling over the Crawler swarm.
The sight was so bizarre she had to question her own eyes, but there was no mistaking it.
The swarm — an almost incomprehensible number of insects — was being consumed by something unknown.
“……This forest is insane.”
Chili — Ashcat operative. The woman known by a blood-soaked name.
It was the first time in her life she had regretted taking a job.