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There were a few minutes left until the start of the hunting festival.

With a nervous looking face, Virgo strongly held onto the sword whilst waiting for the festival to start amongst the other participants.

She felt that there were only strong looking people around her and were greatly feeling out of place.

A muscular man was holding a gigantic battleaxe and a weird man, dressed completely in black, was posing with a “fuu”.

There were also a martial artist who was clearly over two metres in height and a random chubby human with a single piece of white loincloth around his crotch.

There were also knights with full plate armours which made one feel that they were strong.

“Now, it is finally nearing the time for the start of Draupnir hunting festival! I would like to dedicate this time to reiterate the rules again! …Is what I would like to say, but the rules are very simple. It is to hunt and hunt and hunt the magical beasts that have been released throughout the capital! That is the one and only rule!

Each magical beast is individually assigned a point corresponding to its strength and the brave warrior who has gained the most amount of points after the time limit of one hour will be crowned the champion!

Oh, yes, excuse me for the late introduction, I am Chiron, who will be reporting live.”

It was a voice amplification arcane magic, or perhaps divine magic.

The voice of a person who called himself the live reporter rang throughout the place. Virgo turned to face towards the commentary box and she found a very gentle looking man sitting there.

Next to the man was a tiger beastkin who looked quite strong.

“This time, we have invited this country’s pride, the strongest man on the continent, the Sword Saint, Friedrich, as a commentator! Sword Saint-san, please enlighten us!”

“Roarrrrrrrr!”

“Common Midgard language is OK.”

To the tiger’s unique joke, the stadium felt some excitement.

It was most probably his way to relieve everyone’s nervousness.

People thought that once one became known as the Sword Saint, he probably would know a way to relieve the nervousness.

“Now then, the time for the curtains to be drawn is finally upon us! Is everyone ready? Now get to your position, and…… STARRRTTTT!”

The reporter’s voice indicating the start of the hunting festival rang. At the same time, some form of arcane magic must have been fired as a loud and explosive round could be heard.

All the participants started running to take the lead and Virgo also ran with all her might so that she would not be left behind.

When she did that, she reached the very front in a flash.

Wait, what? – Although she thought in this way, this was just a matter of course. There was simply too much difference in their levels and statuses.

Could everyone be holding back because they’re being considerate of others? – Thinking along those lines, Virgo looked back as she ran at the very front.

Having said all that, this festival was not a running competition. It was a festival on how many magical beasts could be hunted.

The participants each used their own instincts and experiences to find and run towards spots that magical beasts might gather leading them to scattered in all directions.

And in front of Virgo was a magical beast with the height of over two metres and a face that looked like it was trying to say “I’m strong, you know?”, blocking the way.

Green skin with a well-trained muscle. It was a creature wearing a loincloth.

It was one of the demi-humanoids species called the hobgoblin.

“Gobugobu!”

The hobgoblin was most probably underestimating Virgo who appeared weak.

With a creepy smile, it slowly closed in on Virgo.

On the other hand, Virgo was not confident in her own strength.

Although there was a saying that the frog in the well did not know that an ocean existed, the well that she lived in was filled with nothing but monsters who could scatter that giant ocean into oblivion.

As a consequence, she did not know her own strength.

Even then, the reason she did not falter was that her master had an expectation out of her.

She could not do such a disgraceful thing like run away even after getting gifted a sword.

“Yaaaaaaa!”

Thinking in that way, she charged in with a desperate feeling.

She thrust her sword and pointed it towards the hobgoblin’s chest.

When she did so, the hobgoblin was pierced without the slightest bit of resistance and collapsed onto the ground without even being able to raise its voice.

“Participant number 760, Virgo! 8 points obtained!”

“Eh?”

Due to how easily she won, Virgo became a little befuddled. She then slowly and nervously approached and nudged the hobgoblin’s corpse.

However, she did not get a reaction from it. She noticed that there was not a shred of sign of it resuscitating and that it truly was dead.

Looking at the situation, Virgo finally realised that she had won and thought about what was going on a little.

(Could it be….. The monsters in this hunting festivals are all extremely weak?)

In actuality, it’s not that the monsters are weak but I’m strong – she was still unable to think in this way.

However, she thought that things would work out somehow if the enemies were weak.

Without realising that she was under some weird misunderstanding, she stood up and motivated herself.

If it’s something like this, I can do it! Even if I can’t win, I can still fight to the degree of not embarrassing everyone!

Virgo batted her white wings and danced straight into the air.

The act of flying itself was not excluded by the rule. To fly in the air was also judged as one of the skills.

Virgo looked for a magical beast from the air and once she chose the nearest magical beast as her target, she accelerated straight to that wolf type magical beast.

Right past the side in a straight line!

She sliced the magical beast in half and flew right back up into the air.

“Participant Virgo, 6 points obtained!”

This time she chose the bird type magical beast in slightly a distance away as her target.

Although there was some distance between her and the magical beast, Virgo currently had a sword which was entrusted to her by Ruphas.

By pouring power into La Pucelle, Virgo was able to fire a white blade-like thing from the tip of the sword, allowing her to shred the bird which was still some distance away.

“Participant Virgo, 7 points obtained!”

Without reducing her speed, this time, she was able to find a pack of goblins.

With the height of around 150 centimetres, there were two ordinary goblins holding onto clubs as well as a rare species of goblin which held a staff and used magic—a goblin magician. Thus there were three enemies in total.

Virgo quickly accelerated and dived into the middle of them, whereby she swung her sword around. With this single swing, she was able to cull two of them.

Towards Virgo who was flying away, the magician fired a fireball at her back. Nevertheless, without even turning around, she was able to avoid the attack by dodging to the side.

She became upside down in the air and released a blade of light from her sword at the magician.

“Participant Virgo, 20 points obtained!”

I can do it, I can win!

After reaching this point, Virgo had finally started thinking for the first time that she could actually be strong.

However, as she thought in that way, the first thing that came to her mind was the appearance of her colleagues.

In her mind was a scenario of what if any one of her colleagues had participated in this hunting festival… for example, what if someone like Libra had participated.

Within Virgo’s mind was a picture of Libra equipped with machine guns and bazookas whilst roaming around a burning grassland and turning the country of Draupnir into a scorched ruin, murdering every magical beast which could be spotted.

Ah, yea it’s impossible. I’m actually just weak.

Although it was merely that the standard of comparison was horrible, she was not able to notice that fact.

In any event, as one of Ruphas-sama’s group member, I have to at least put enough effort in to not embarrass the others.

Thinking along those lines, Virgo flew into the air, unaware that her score had also soared above all the others’ scores.

*

“Participant Virgo, 5 points obtained!”

“Participant Virgo, 9 points obtained!”

“Participant Virgo, 8 points obtained!”

What’s with that girl, she’s hell strong.

As he… the Hero Sei, shivered with such a thought, he was desperately trying to defeat a magical beast.

He knew who the currently peerless young girl called Virgo was already.

It was the cute white-winged girl from the group with weird getups.

Even before the commencement of the festival, her white wings stood out, causing Sei to feel surprised that she was going to participate. Additionally, as she was clearly nervous, Sei was burning with a sense of justice, thinking that he would go rescue her if things were to ever become dangerous for her. It would not be fair to say that there was an ulterior motive. Even Sei was a man.

However, he was too naïve in his thoughts. Or rather, he was too pretentious.

He wondered what the nervousness from before was. Perhaps to camouflage her strength?

It was a common trope in the fantasy genre to have a person who looked weak but was actually strong. However, she was on a very bad end of that. Sei thought that she could even have been stronger than the Sword Saint.

Although in his head, he thought that could not be possible, however, one could not help but think in that way when they looked at her.

Ah, this time she defeated a wyvern.

The pseudo-dragons were apparently weaker than the real dragons, but they were still scary monsters which levelled over 80.

Although it was not relevant to what he was thinking about, Sei was currently level 35. He was at the point where he could easily be one shotted by that young girl.

Or more like, I want to cry because it’s so hard to level up in this world.

Normally, it should be a scenario where I can easily level up quickly… shouldn’t it?

In the light novels that he had previously read in the past, as opposed to everyone else, the main character alone was able to unreasonably level up super quickly and enjoy an easy life using dumb cheats.

“Participant Virgo, 12 points obtained!”

“Participant Bunny Dandy, 3 points obtained!”

“Participant Bikini Muscle, 7 points obtained!”

Participants’ names were announced one after another, causing Sei to start feeling impatient.

Not good. At this rate, I can forget about becoming one of the high ranks. I can see myself ranking near the bottom.

In practice, Sei was barely managing to hang onto what would be considered a high ranking, however, the person himself did not seem to think that way.

Sei swung his sword as if he was possessed, striking down the magical beast with the movement.

Nevertheless, he still had hesitation in snatching someone’s life away. One might ask why he was still dragging such a feeling of hesitation around, however, to pluck another’s life away was still a harsh thing for a formerly Japanese person.

All the more so if the enemy happened to be a cute puppy type magical beast.

Oi stop it, don’t come this way. I actually like puppies a lot.

Don’t wag your tail around. Don’t come towards me using only your hind legs. Don’t follow me from behind.

Thinking along those lines, Sei was continuing to desperately fight against it. At that moment, he was pulled back to sanity as he heard a shriek from a distance.

“Wh, what?”

Could there be a strong magical beast on that side?

He turned his head to the direction of the shriek as he considered that thought.

Subsequently, Sei froze from what he saw.

In the direction of his eyes…. In the grassland few hundred metres away from him, something big existed.

It was a raging [Dinosaur] big enough that he could clearly see even from such a distance away.

“Ah, an accident! There is an accident! The dinosaur Dinogiganto who has the surrounding forest as its territory has come out and intruded onto the arena! Everyone, please don’t fight with that. That thing is not a target in this hunting festival!”

— What the hell, the dinosaurs exist in this world?!

Sei’s face turned pale as he looked at the raging dinosaur in the distance.

He did not know whether they were categorised as a magical beast or a living creature, however, he could at least see that it was a monster which was clearly incomparable to the magical beasts used for the festival.

After all, the dinosaur was eating the magical beasts of all things.

All the magical beasts were running away from the dinosaur and this even included the pseudo-dragons who had lost the will to fight.

Its appearance of chasing down and devouring those magical beasts was truly a depiction of the predator. It was truly a portrayal of those that stood in the upper echelon of the food pyramid.

The biggest problem at this moment was that it also saw the humanoids as its prey.

Currently, there were no victims amongst the travellers and the adventurers, however, if things continued like this, it was only a matter of time.

If someone did not try and stop the raging monster, it was certain that there would be victims.

And this horrible situation was about to become a reality. A female adventurer believed to be a participant was currently on her bottom, trembling right in front of the dinosaur.

Not good! – Such a thing was obvious to any onlookers. If she was to be left alone, she would definitely be eaten.

“****!”

Sei swore out loud and started running towards the location of the dinosaur.

For some reason, the dog also followed behind him.

The amount of time left until the dinosaur finished eating the current magical beast was at most, a few seconds. In this time period, he had to get to the location and drag the female adventurer, who was on her bottom, out of where she was.

Fight it? Stop joking. Sei knew his own place.

He knew that the best he could do would be to gain enough time and allow others to run away successfully until the warriors who could fight the beast were dispatched.

He knew that as long as he bought enough time, Friedrich and Gants would likely arrive on the scene. When that happened, there would be a chance of winning.

“Oi, hurry up and run! Stand up right now!”

Sei who had somehow managed to reach the place in time grabbed on the woman’s arm to pull her up.

However, the woman did not budge and merely shook her head.

“I, I can’t… my knees are feeling weak and…”

“Tsk, can’t be helped!”

At this point, Sei immediate decided to carry the woman and run away from the place.

Nevertheless, it was a fruitless attempt.

Heavy.

It was not the woman who was heavy, but the armour on her which was heavy.

Additionally, her sword was also heavy.

With so much weight around, it was not possible for him to carry her and run away.

“Oi, leave your armour and sword behind! I can’t carry you around like this?”

“Bu, but these are expensive and… I haven’t even managed returned the loan I made to buy them and…”

“Is this really the time to be saying things like that!?”

Time was of the essence at that moment.

They had to run away from the place before Dinogiganto finished eating the magical beast.

However, it was too late. The dinosaur had already swallowed the magical beast and turned its direction towards them.

Judging that it was already impossible to run away, Sei drew his katana and entered into a combat stance and provoked the dinosaur.

Perhaps his decision to not abandon the woman at this point in time could be attributed to Sei’s manliness.

Although this courageous action was not reciprocated by the woman at all as she quickly chose to leave Sei behind and run away.

“GIGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

The dinosaur roared and started heading towards Sei.

Fast and heavy.

Even though the ground shakes every time it takes a step, what is up with that speed?

Sei held his katana firmly in position and patiently studied the movements of the dinosaur to avoid getting killed.

The thing I have to look out for is its mouth! I have to dodge its bites before anything else.

And if I can somehow manage to hit its feet, running away won’t be impossible.

– Right at that moment, a white shadow came between the dinosaur and Sei.

She swung the sword in her hands and the wind pressure blew the dinosaur away.

The pure white wings battered, creaking an image of a white angel descending in front of him.

Using hindsight, he was able to figure out that she was not an angel but a flugel instead. However, at the time of the event, Sei had without a doubt saw her existence as an angel.

Help? … Exactly help who?

Help the person who had been flying around in the air and wiping out the magical beasts using a “hit and run” tactics?

You must be kidding with me. That girl’s leagues above me. Or more like, she’s probably the strongest amongst all the participants in this festival.