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“I can see it. That’s the centaur village. There’s no mistake.”

Kaineko, who had become an actual cat after using the transformation potion, said as he walked ahead. Following his line of sight, there was an open space ahead, where demihumans with horse-like lower bodies could be seen. After several tens of minutes, Sei and the others finally arrived at their destination. Their gaits were obviously tired.

This was only natural. Castor was leading them at first, bringing them the wrong way and entering the wrong village several times. When the number of mistakes reached double digits, they realized that if they left it to Castor, they wouldn’t reach their destination even after nightfall. Therefore, Kaineko replaced Castor to take the lead.

“Oh, so these are centaurs, the sages of the forest?”

Cruz, who appeared to be a grasshopper monstrous humanoid next to Sei, said joyfully and ran over. Among the humanoids, only elves were friendly to centaurs and had respect for them. However, he was currently a grasshopper monstrous humanoid. In Sei’s eyes, it just looked like a monster trying to invade the centaur village.

“Grrr.”

“Let’s go.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. The two of you, please wait here. No, seriously.”

The weird creatures, Friedrich and the female knight, were trying to advance. Forget the grasshopper monstrous humanoid, these were true monsters. If they were to approach, it would cause unnecessary terror. Hopefully, they could stop Cruz and just wait here.

Then, Jean, who was transformed into a centaur, went forward to approach the village. The centaurs turned to look at Sei and the others with gazes that were not exactly friendly.

Was it forbidden for anyone other than a centaur to enter?

An old centaur came before Sei and said, “Are you Leon’s subordinates? What do you want?”

These words gave them a great sense of incongruity. It seemed that the centaur had mistaken them to be Leon’s demihuman subordinates, but then why was he hostile?

Since Leon and Sagittarius were allies, these centaurs should be subordinates of Leon as well. In any case, it would be difficult to converse if the other party was so hostile. Therefore, they needed to clear up the misunderstanding first.

“Wait. We just arrived here today to avoid human discrimination. We don’t know what it means to be Leon’s subordinates.”

When Jean recited the speech that was prepared beforehand, the old centaur’s eyes visibly became calmer. At the same time, the hostility vanished from the gazes of the surrounding centaurs, who were now just looking to observe the situation. It still wasn’t really comfortable, but at least it was better than being stared at with hostility.

“Oh, is that so? My apologies. We’ve been rather nervous lately.”

“What’s happening? I’ve heard that demihumans are following Leon-san. If so, isn’t it okay for us to do so as well? Well, it seems like things are a bit different from what we heard.”

Jean casually questioned the old centaur who had softened his attitude. It was his strong point to be able to brazenly do something which others would normally be cautious about. The old centaur growled at Jean’s inquiries, but he couldn’t respond strongly after their initial threatening attitude.

“Ah, hmm. Is that what you heard outside? Certainly, you could say that centaurs are currently part of his group.”

“What a weird way of putting things.”

“Well, yeah…”

The old centaur scratched his cheek as if troubled, wondering if he should tell the truth. However, he seemed to have concluded that it was not a problem to speak. Perhaps, he was less vigilant since Jean was also a centaur. In that case, the disguise was a great success.

“We…or rather—Our chief, Sagittarius-sama, originally didn’t think it was a good idea to ally with Leon. He rejected the invitation.”

Everyone reacted when they heard Sagittarius’ name, but they quickly calmed their expressions. The purpose of their current visit was to investigate why Sagittarius was cooperating with Leon. It was really lucky to hear about it so suddenly.

“But Leon’s followers threatened Sagittarius-sama that they would destroy this village if he didn’t cooperate. It’s really regrettable…I hate my own powerlessness. If it was just Sagittarius-sama alone, he wouldn’t have accepted such an idiotic invitation. However, because of us, he was forced to cooperate reluctantly.”

“Hey, why don’t you just leave here and run away?”

The old centaur clenched his fists with heartfelt hatred. But Gants had some doubts concerning this. If they knew that they were hostages and they really hated Leon, why didn’t they run away? In that case, Sagittarius would be free. However, the old centaur shook his head at those words.

“If we could do that, we would have done so already. But it’s not possible. In order to prevent this, Leon has assigned supervisors in this forest to watch us.”

“Supervisors?”

“Yes, and they would become our executioners if Leon gives the order. What hateful people they are.”

As the old centaur spoke, he glanced around. After confirming that there was nobody watching, he returned his gaze to Sei and the others.

“In any case, let’s go over to my house. The entrance is no place to talk.”

The old centaur said this and entered the village with Sei and the others following behind. However, the combination creatures, such as Friedrich and the female knight, were left to watch outside. There would be a big fuss if they were to come along.

After entering the village, the first thing that everyone noticed was its simplicity. The centaur village consisted of simple wooden houses. There were no other buildings except what was absolutely necessary. Even inside the house, the place didn’t seem well-ventilated.

It was like a stable. Was this really acceptable for the sages of the forest?

The centaurs seemed to be interested in what was happening, but none of them approached. Instead, they would look away whenever their eyes met. Unable to understand this, Sei spoke softly to the grasshopper monstrous humanoid next to him.

“Cruz-san, could it be that centaurs…”

“Yes, they’re very timid…or rather, they’re very vigilant. I don’t think they particularly hate us, but for now, they would probably just observe us from some distance.”

Although there would be some differences between individuals, the basic personality of the entire race seemed to be fixed to some extent. In that case, Jean would seem like a really strange centaur to them. This was because Jean was a man who was at the opposite end of being timid. Rather than being brave, he was simply reckless. He seemed to have forgotten for some reasons until recently, but when he went into the Black-Winged Royal Tomb, he had to be saved by Aries from the Level 100 golem that he challenged.

Then, would they have realized that he was not really a centaur?

Now that he thought about it, they should have given the role of centaur to someone other than Jean.

“Well then, come in.”

They entered the old centaur’s house, which was truly a stable. The rooms were separated by simple partitions. There seemed to be piles of straw inside them. It was a wonder how he could live like this, but a closer inspection revealed some furniture and other items at the corner of the house. Apparently, he wasn’t completely like a horse.

“Now then…I want to ask this first. You’re not the races you appear to be, right?”

After entering the house. the first words of the old centaur struck the core of the issue. Everyone was shocked and turned to look at each other. Who was the one who made a suspicious move that betrayed them? As Sei thought this, the old centaur continued.

“The first person that I thought was suspicious was him. Even though he certainly moved like a centaur, I can’t feel any caution from him.”

As expected, the old centaur pointed to Jean. Sei’s concern was right on the mark. As expected, he wasn’t suitable to play the role of a centaur. However, this alone wouldn’t be conclusive.

“After finding it strange, I listened carefully. The footsteps and the movements don’t match. They’re more like those of bipedal creatures. That’s why I thought that maybe it’s magic or some sort of disguise.”

I see, it’s our footsteps.

Sei was convinced and impressed at the same time. It might be possible to discern their identities from their footsteps, but when Jean was walking, they were all walking together as well. In other words, he was listening to Jean’s footsteps while there were other people’s footsteps in the mix. Wasn’t this really amazing?

It seemed that centaurs have pretty good hearing. In that case, it was pointless to whisper softly. If he thought about it, his previous conversation with Cruz was really bad. It was practically revealing that he wasn’t familiar with centaurs, even though there was a centaur in his party. As he thought this, he glanced at the old centaur, who merely smiled.

Oh, I’ve been found out.

Convinced, he hung his head down.

“So what will you do if that’s the case? Will you report us?”

“No, if I wanted to, I’d have done so at the entrance.”

The old centaur laughed cheerfully at Jean’s question. Certainly, it would be better for him to raise his voice at the entrance instead of inviting them to a place where he couldn’t escape. Since he didn’t do that, he shouldn’t be hostile to them and wouldn’t hand them over to other demihumans.

“From here on, it’s just my speculation. You guys are probably humanoids, right? As for your purpose…Are you here to investigate the war potential of the demihumans?”

“What a surprise. As expected of the sage of the forest…To think that we’ve been compromised to this degree. As you’ve guessed, we’re indeed humanoids. However, our purpose here is different.”

“A humanoid who would call me a sage of the forest…Are you an elf? You have a rather strange appearance.”

As the brain of this party, Cruz also played the role of a negotiator in such situations. However, because his current appearance was that of a grasshopper monstrous humanoid, such an intellectual tone did not match his appearance, making the situation rather strange.

In fact, Sei felt strange too. If he looked like this, he would be more suited to be the one yelling, “Such an evil organization! Unforgivable!”

“Our objective is to investigate why Sagittarius is cooperating with Leon. We concluded that the answer is in this village, so we came here in disguise.”

The objective that Cruz mentioned had essentially been accomplished. What the old centaur said at the entrance was exactly what they wanted to know. Sagittarius had to cooperate with Leon because the centaur village was being held hostage.

And there were those who were monitoring the village. In other words, if they were defeated, the centaurs could escape and Sagittarius would be free to act. In that case, should they regroup with Ruphas first or should they free the centaurs by themselves?

It wouldn’t normally be possible for them. However, Castor, one of Tyrannical Twelve Stars, was currently here. And so was Virgo, even if she wasn’t as good as him. There was also Friedrich, the strongest Sword Saint of the humanoids. In other words, they had sufficient combat power.

“What!? Is that true?”

“Yes. Our objective has been achieved. All that remains is to free all of you from here.”

When Cruz said so, the old centaur grabbed his hand.

“In that case, please let us cooperate with you! We can’t continue to let Sagittarius-sama be bound because of us!”

“Of course.”

Things went more smoothly than expected. Cruz was smiling broadly. On the other hand, Sei’s expression was not good. Everything was indeed going well, almost too well. But based on his experience, when something was going well, there would be some reaction behind the scenes.

Of course, there was no reason for him to think so. It was just a ridiculous jinx…but somehow, it just felt unpleasant. However, the problem was that a bad feeling at such times was usually quite accurate.

Sei was convinced of this when a young centaur rushed into the house.

Ah, as expected, something bad had happened.