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In the morning of the next day, I built the lantern to repel demons… together with [Barrier Magic]. Thinking that ‘Barrier Tower’ was a good idea‌, I added them as well.

I had installed ‌eight lanterns in the four corners of my house’s stone tower and my house. But I might ‌install it more extensively, so let’s prepare just in case. I had to prepare for everything!

By the way, the repellent lantern looked like a lantern, but it was possible to actually light it. I don’t use it now, but it’s useful to ‌have light in the forest.

While doing this and that, the lunch was over and Maricle’s team came. Today’s members were Maricle, Rico, and Kuro. By the way, Norn didn’t pick them up. Somehow, Kuro led them here without trouble… beastfolk was amazing.

Leaving that aside, hmm… the previous members had weapons with them, but this time the members were a bit… complicated? That’s what I thought, but they caught two horned rabbits on the way.

One was by Rico’s non-attribute magic ‘arrow’. Kuro chased the other one and killed it on her own.

Anyway, some members who returned to the orphanage were doing D-rank subjugation requests, while others were having a practice match with each other to get used to real battle.

Surprisingly, Kuro was undefeated. At first, her D-rank brother was going easy on her, but even when he fought seriously in the middle, Kuro still won… What a scary cat beastfolk.

Also, it seemed like her battle style was the assassin type. She moved to the opponent’s blind spot with high speed and attacked their limbs and critical points. After making a sizable gap, she stabbed a dagger on their nape. My, this girl was scary.

However, Kuro’s fighting style well complemented her physical ability as a beastfolk. Because her weapon was a dagger, her fighting style was too different to teach to Cain and the boys, so she couldn’t help much. In the end, the D-rank older brothers and sisters would train Cain’s team.

In addition, Maricle’s ability more than equally matched with those older brothers. He mastered the shield skillfully, and his win rate was close to 50%. Maricle sure was working hard.

Ryuu, who had a small body, had trained his foundation. However, he had fought by taking advantage of his speed and pushed in with force. He could be a ‌good opponent in a short match. However, his lack of stamina was noticeable in a long match.

Cain was overjoyed when he received an old short sword. And somehow, he was talented, so he steadily grew stronger. Even if it’s only been a few days, he had made amazing progress.

Boman was… his single blow attack was powerful. But he was useless compared to the others.

For the girls, Triela used a spear. The D-ranked older sister lent her a short spear and taught her a lot of things. She also steadily improved.

In fact, since Triela was to command the girls in the rearguard, she was more suited with medium-range weapons like short spear rather than short-range weapons like short swords. Also, Triela was the best in using a spear when hunting horned rabbits. Seems like she was talented in using spears.

Arle was throwing stones alone. It couldn’t be helped…

And Rico also trained her magic. She could now use the magic ‘arrow’ to shoot her target.

By the way, even if I called it magic ‘arrow’, it’s not like she had to call it ‘this this arrow’ or something like that. She could call it ‘this this bolt’ or ‘that that missile’ as well.

Basically, the caster could activate the skill with any name. What’s important was that they liked it. In other words, this was a ‌loose setting where I could give a magic skill a very cringy name.

Rico seemed to name it ‘Magic Arrow’. That’s acceptable.

“Cain said he got a sword, but what about everyone else? Maricle, you got nothing?”
“No, it’s just Cain. I don’t think other guys can afford to give all of us weapons either. They should prepare a spare weapon too, right?”
“That makes sense…”

The information I received this time was not particularly alarming. They told me that the caravan people who accompanied us to O’Neill would return to the royal capital the next day. The leader of the caravan who was nice to us didn’t speak about me to anyone else.

Triela met him by chance on the merchant’s way back to his inn. He told her ‌he wouldn’t say anything unnecessary that would put me at a disadvantage since my situation seemed to be complicated.

The other caravan guys who were with us didn’t know about me‌, so they did nothing strange and planned to go home with him. I’m ‌relieved, I guess?

Other than that was… the reserve adventurers who stayed in the town doubled up, considering how the controlled demons would rampage after the Master of the Winter got defeated.

I didn’t know how many demons followed the Master of the Winter’s order, but usually, demons which were released under the influence of their leader would grow crazy and attack the nearby town.

Apart from the main force that would fight the Master of the Winter, the rear unit to counter the surrounding demons was moving to the front line base. But if the Master of Winter this time had more demon followers than expected, O’Neill’s surroundings might be full of demons.

And the reserve unit in the town was prepared to deal with such cases… In the worst case, the adventurers under thirteen years old in the town might also be mobilized. That’s why the members who returned to the orphanage and Cain’s team were preparing themselves for the emergency case.

Hmm, it’s like a strange flag had risen… Vector, please do your best. For real.

After hearing such a story, there was no particular topic to talk about anymore. In the end, we went back to talk about Triela’s team training and equipment.

Since Cain got a sword this time, only Boman and Maricle had no weapons. No, Maricle had a dagger with him, but using that as his main weapon made me feel slightly uneasy. Arle? Arle wanted to be an archer. For the time being, she should keep throwing the stones to learn the [Sniper] skill.

However, Triela seemed to aim for spear-user… Hmm, maybe I should prepare equipment for Maricle too. I wouldn’t make anything for Boman and Cain. Boman was… how should I say this? He could just use a club, right? He had strength, and he didn’t need any skill. Huh? That ‌might work.

When I told Maricle about that, he muttered, “That’s ‌plausible…” Maybe he would make it for Boman once he returned.

Leaving that aside, I first tried to make orc leather armor for Kuro.

I gave her a dagger before, but I added two more than her spare weapon. However, these daggers could be used for actual combat. I also made a sling for her.

Considering her fighting style and race characteristics I heard from them, she was more suited to be a scout or a ranger, and sometimes an assassin?

Assassin… What if I assassinate that merchant… No, that’s my last resort. The worst ending I could think of was becoming a criminal and fleeing to another country. But then, I lacked the skills to do that. Just in case, I should train a lot now…

Next was Rico.

Rico was planning to proceed as a mage, so there’s no need to tamper her equipment with unnecessary things. She had the cloak I gave her before. Adding a leather breastplate would be heavy for her. Therefore, leather gloves and shoes should be enough.

I also gave a sling to Rico so ‌she could attack at a long distance when her magic power ran out. If Rico had to use a dagger, then the party was in danger of complete annihilation. I had to prevent that from happening.

The last was Maricle.