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The bothersome days are over. Ruti and I can finally move around freely. So to take back the days that we spent resting from work, we went near the edge of the Great Woods for a breath of fresh air.

「And this makes it five. It’s going really smooth today.」
「We’re going at a great pace. Nonetheless, we’re seeing quite a lot of prey even though we haven’t entered the woods.」

Comparing it to our harvest when we entered the woods, it’s nothing special. But the fact that there’s this much prey even though we’re outside the woods is a bit odd.

「Well, it’s better for us so isn’t that good? 」

Without thinking about it too much, I finished letting them bleed out and was about to start skinning one to eat after setting up camp when…

Ooooo!!
I heard something roaring in the distance.

「What was that…」
「I’m a bit curious about it. Let’s go and see.」

After saying so, Ruti had spread her wings and took off. I hurriedly chased after her.
And after flying towards where we heard the roar was coming from, I saw some things fighting.

「!! Ruti, that!」
「Let’s help them!」

What we saw there were several trolls and two people surrounded by them.

Judging that we can’t take our time, I stayed in the air, shooting wind breaths right through the trolls’ heads while avoiding them with a barrel roll. Ruti does a sideslip landing while launching water arrows to exterminate the trolls.
As expected, the trolls are really weak…

After checking if we missed some, I landed near the two people.

「Are you okay?」
「Y-yeah, we’re fine. Thanks for the help.」

Of the two, the human guy answered me. The other one seems to be a beastkin girl. She has cat ears… I want to touch them.¹

「Thank you very much. I really thought we were already goners…」
「Again, thanks for saving us. I’m Cain, nice to meet you.」
「I’m Firu. Nice to meet you.」
「I’m Natsuki.」
「I’m Rutimo. You can call me Ruti.」

After introducing ourselves, we tried asking them what happened.

「So recently, there were a lot of trolls exterminated, right? It’s really weird since you don’t really see much of them in these parts, so an investigation request was made. We took it and followed their trail but…」

The troll extermination was probably the one we did the other day. So that really was a weird thing…

「After investigating the forest, we ran into some trolls while we were heading back. Really, you really saved us there.」
「Don’t mention it. By the way, how did it go? If it’s okay, can I ask what the results are?」

「Oh, sure. From the looks of it, they probably are running away from something. Only, we don’t know what they’re running away from.」²

「In the forest, there were traces of a big battle of some sort. Based on what we saw, it doesn’t seem to be from some kind of magic beast and the battle seemed to be of a considerably large scale… In the meantime, we should report this first.」

「So yeah, after this we’re going to go home and report it. As thanks for saving us, let us treat you two to some food sometime.」
「Then I guess we need to find a really expensive place.」

Saying that with a smile, Cain replied, Please no, with a strained laugh as they head back to town.

「Should we hunt a bit more before setting up camp?… Ruti?」

I found it weird that Ruti isn’t saying anything so I looked at her and saw her trembling while staring at the ground.
Worried about her, I peeked at her face from below and strangely, she was sweating out a lot.

「Ruti? Are you feeling bad again?」
「… Natsuki. Do you remember before when we were messing around under the pretense of training?」³

「Yeah, I remember? That was when we were more or less two days away from leaving the woods, we had a lot of fun and just shot out some magic and my breath all over the place, right? 」
「Do you remember where it was?」
「Where? Let’s see… yeah, from here it’s just straight in that… Wait…」

Wait a minute. I’m having a bad feeling about this. Didn’t they say that they saw traces of a battle or something…

「Uhhh, in other words… eh? Does that mean…?」
「It’s just a hunch, but what scared the trolls away is…」
「「……」」

For some reason, both of us can’t stop sweating now. That’s weird, I wonder why.⁴ Being stuck in this awkward mood, in the end, we decided to stop hunting and set up camp.

「Next!」

The next day, we immediately went back to town and took every single troll related request.

At first, we thought of getting rid of the trolls without taking the requests but decided against it after noticing it would give the townspeople a peace of mind from seeing the requests completed. But completing the requests would mean getting the reward too… It’s like we’re swindling them for the money, it’s really not good for my mind but there’s nothing we can do.

So with this and that, we went all over the place and by the time the sun had completely set, we had finished all the requests.

「Hey, good work.」

After reporting to the guild, we were laying flat on the table when the Union Chief called out to us.

「I’m really glad that the two of you accepted those requests. Usually they wouldn’t get done this fast, you see.」

Ugh… Well, yeah, I know it’s natural that this happens but… awkward… Still, I don’t have the courage to say the truth. Ughh…

「As thanks for finishing them up in one day, I’ll bump up your rewards just a bit. Treat yourselves to some good food.」
「Thank you very much…」

Stop it! Our life is already down to zero!
Completely filled with guilt, we scurried our way out of the guild.

By the way, the fact that Ruti and I get twitchy every time we hear the word ‘troll’ for a while after that is our little secret.

1. Fire: Mofu mofu~
2. Silva: Yea, I think I know what’s going on… the part of the forest that Natsuki turned into a winterland?
   Fire: So all of this was singlehandedly caused by Natsuki. Not only did she make a winter wonderland, but also disrupted the ecosystem. Good job~ kek
3. Silva: Mhm… mhm… I remember it all too well
   Fire: I also remember it quite well. Keyword, “messing around” lol
4. Silva: Oh you know…
   Fire: She’s trying to shrug it off