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“Interesting… So the elves have come in contact with outsiders already…that’s sooner than I expected.”

A young girl mumbled to a fly that had flown there from a distance and hovered in place in front of her, almost like they were having a conversation. That fly was around the size of a child’s head, making it look rather offputting, but the girl did not seem bothered by that at all.

She looked like an elementary schooler, with silver hair and red eyes, and was wearing a gothic lolita attire that was pitch black, covering her entire body, something that was very out of place so deep in a forest.

And…she was surrounded by a swarm of countless bugs, which did not seem to bother her in the least.

“Yes…I’ve started getting bored of those inexperienced elves anyway… I really wonder what kind of fighter that Scarlet Lord is, with that blade of dusk that puts Belial into such a bind..”

The girl muttered while striking a pose with her hand stretched out, pointing at the direction where the group she had heard about was located.

Then, a moment later, large six legged mites around the size of a child in the last years of elementary school emerged from the ground ahead of her, their legs making creaky noises as they moved.

Soon there were dozens of them. And then she watched as the swarm dispersed around the forest in front of her…

“…Ah, maybe it would’ve sounded more dignified if I said I shall measure her strength myself? …What, it doesn’t matter? …I guess…”

She suddenly eased her pose and tilted her head, talking to the fly next to her…which seemed to shake its head while skillfully hovering in place. That reaction seemed to disappoint the girl, as she slouched her shoulders and looked down, even though her face remained deadpan.

◇◇◇

The group left the Flowery City Floria and walked north into the forest for around an hour.

“…That should be them.”

Crim scowled with disgust as she looked through her binoculars while hiding in the shadows.

The enemies she saw were most certainly bugs, which resembled a mix of ladybugs with those insidious black demons that often plagued kitchens.

Their flattened round bodies were roughly the size of a kindergarten aged child, firmly held onto the trunks of Harunia trees with their straw-like mouths stuck into them.

Just a dozen of them gathered on one tree would be a disgusting thing to see, so a whole forest infested with them was even worse.

“Crim, I’m sorry, I don’t think I’ll make it…”
“Ah, right… swarms of bugs were never truly thy forte…”

Freya came up to Crim and told her that while trembling, and her face a pale color.

She usually could handle a single insect, but seeing multiple of them wriggling around was too much… That also reminded Crim of a time when they were elementary schoolers, and she went bug hunting with Frey during summer break. At first, they were only trying to catch a rhinoceros beetle, but then got carried away and gathered a whole basket full of the little critters…and when they showed it to Freya, she fainted.

“I mean, I can’t say I appreciate the scenery either…”
“So we just have to exterminate those things, right?”
“I’m once again relieved that I chose to be a ranged fighter…”

Crim assessed the mental state of everyone by the tone of their voices. The only ones who were doing fine were Crim, Frey, and Hinagiku. Then Kasumi and Lycoris were a bit uncomfortable, and Freya was completely repulsed.

Still, this was something they needed to do to progress the quest, and so they reached for their weapons…

“…It seems we’ll have to leave those on the trees for later…there’s others incoming.”

Frey was the first to warn them, prompting Crim and the rest to quickly take a circular formation to keep their guard up in all directions.

At some point, their group had been fully surrounded by bugs… And unlike those on the trees that resembled the awful cockroaches, these resembled mites armed with sharp blades.

They had moved rapidly and silently to quickly surround the group without them noticing, and at a quick glance there were at least fifty of them.

“At least this proves one thing.”
“Yes… There’s someone behind the curtain controlling all of these bugs.”

It was clear that the large six legged bugs were following someone’s orders, as it was far too unlikely that they would have gathered surrounding them like that, *while leaving a clear path out on purpose.*

“Do you think it’s a trap?”
“No, this would be far too obvious to even be a trap to begin with. It’s more like someone is using them to coerce us to move in a certain direction.”

Following Hinagiku’s question, Crim gave her view of the situation.

Creating such an obvious path through the swarm of bugs was something far too obvious to be a trap, and she could not imagine anyone being stupid enough to think that would work.

“It doesn’t look like they’re going to attack us, unless we do something to them first.”

There was only a shrill noise as they rubbed their carapaces together while circling around the group, which Lycoris found odd.

As she had pointed out, the bugs were not attacking… but they were not relaxed either, they seemed to be on high alert, ready to attack if the group made a wrong move.

“Yes, I’d wager they’re merely scouts, sent here to evaluate our strength and their chances of beating us… Or actually…”

Crim looked at the bugs circling around them, and felt like those movements were almost naive, and she attempted to figure out the intentions of whoever had sent them.

Her first instinct told her that the enemy was mainly curious about them…

“That’s not quite right, this is more of a test to see if we’ll prove to be an *entertaining opponent*, or not.”

They seemed to be against a rather self-important opponent, which visibly irked Crim.

“Then what should we do, retreat for now?”
“Hmm… Obviously, the most sensible option would be to leave this place without revealing any information. I’m fully aware of that.”

If they were offered a window to escape, it was best to use it and not show their power more than necessary. And Crim would have done just that back when she had barely started playing this game. But…

“But if we did that…it wouldn’t be very fun, would it?”

Crim said that while raising her hand…and pointing in the direction of the mountains, glaring at the spot she had felt a gaze from, while grinning arrogantly.

Seeing that, Frey let out a sigh and wearily took out his grimoire, knowing he had no other choice but to go along with Crim. Everyone else also did not seem too thrilled about it as they readied their weapons.

But…no one tried to argue back. Even Freya who was pale at the sight of so many bugs nodded with the rest.

Seeing that everyone was following her, Crim took a deep breath before announcing her orders.

“…I command thee as Guild Master of Lua Cheia! We shall unleash but a *measured* display of our might, and lay waste to this place so swiftly and utterly that whosoever watchest us shall recoil in terror!!”
“ “ “Understood!!!” ” ”

Everyone replied in unison when Crim was done giving her order…and immediately went to exterminate the six legged bugs around them…