Tho days after the prince’s absurdity a left the mansion to hunt the golden birds. The day before my departure, I was called again to Elsa-sama’s room.

「This time you received a difficult mission, but I want you to succeed no matter what. I want to ask that of you, Rinos 」

After being completely entrusted with the mission, I received the 3 pieces of equipment from Elsa-sama. Although, one was given while two were lent.

The heirloom of the Versam family was amongst the lent ones. The so-called「Infinite storage」. Another one was「Farseeing mirror」. This thing is like a telescope, if you put your mana into it, you will be able to see the scenery far ahead, depending on the amount of mana used. With my amount of mana, I might even see a thousand miles ahead.

And the thing that was given to me was the black robe with a hood. It seems to be made from the skin of the Curse Charole that I hunted before. It might be thin, but it’s magical and physical resistance is quite formidable. It seems that Elsa-sama made it to specifically suit the 12-year-old me. Although I probably won’t need that due to the barrier, I’m grateful for her concern about the lowly slave. It’s a rare article given to me by Elsa-sama, I will treasure it.

By the way, as a test, I tried peeking through the farseeing mirror. When I aimed at the house on the other side of the lake, I managed to find a pair of servants doing the deed. Great chance! I channeled more mana and overdid things. One pink caterpillar-like body was slamming into the other. Let’s keep the fact that I screamed “Gyaa!” and fell to the ground a secret.

Let’s not return until I hunted the golden birds. The teacher advised me to save some MP for the duration of the hunt so I ended up lifting the barrier from the mansion, Elsa-sama, marquis Versam and the prince. This arrangement might bring the danger, so Elsa-sama, together with the teacher, relocated into the royal palace into the residence of the marquis Versam until I return. Eril was left to guard the mansion.

I left the mansion and headed to the north gate to climb on the wall, soldiers standing on the wall could see the Runo forest very clearly from there.

I carefully used the mana detection towards the forest. The golden birds have low mana but they tend to move with the flock, so you need to pay attention to the dense clusters of weak responses. I thought of that and tried to implement it, and it worked. It’s about 20km northeast from the river close to the city wall. There is a cluster of mana near the foot of the Runo mountain range. I thought that was a goblin camp at first, but the mana quality is different. Maybe I can find them there, I thought. I got off the wall and entered the forest.

After I entered the forest, I sensed the presence of a person. It’s Eril. So she chased after me.

I thought of avoiding her, but it will be troublesome later, so I decided to wait for her.

「Is it fine to leave the mansion unprotected?」

「It’s all right. Our maids are excellent, you know? In the first place, there is no way something will happen in the mansion」

「Are you sure?」

「Ara, before you came, maids were donning the armor and guarding aunt, you know? That’s why it’s fine. More importantly, golden birds! Let’s hunt a lot and eat them!」

As expected, it’s food……Since I don’t have any choice, let’s take Eril with me.

Bringing Eril with me was a great decision in the end. After all, she cuts every monster coming our way and scares the others. This girl became considerably stronger.

Since I needed to save my MP, the usage of the barriers was limited. There was no opportunity for them to shine after all.

The night has passed, so as the several hours of walking in the forest. We finally reached the (supposedly) golden birds, the place where multiple small reactions gathered.

They are very perceptive so we stopped some distance away to observe. I climbed on the three together with Eril and used the farseeing mirror.

….There they are! The birds with golden beaks and feathers are spread between the trees. Still, the range is too wide. If I try to enclose them in the barrier, I might catch some other monsters by chance. Well then, what should I do….

When I was mulling over that, a single golden bird flew our way. Apparently, it was searching for food. It was vigilantly looking around.

「Golden bird! Hurry, let’s catch it! Hit it with the wind magic and I will finish it」

「Please be quiet. If you scream like that, the flock will notice you」

Mu, Eril puffed her cheeks. Oh, that was kind of cute.

The golden bird approaches without noticing us. Before she became distracted by the food, I swiftly erected the barrier around it. I would have been troubled if it tried to run away only to collide with the barrier and die, so I created the barrier in the shape of a bird.I made the barrier quite thick to isolate the screams. Just like that, we got off from the tree and I lowered the bird into my hand.

The bird desperately struggled to escape. However, with its body unable to move it led to nowhere. I gradually made the barrier thinner, until I was able to hear its cry.

「Kye!! Kieeeee! Kikike!」[¹]

It seems it wanted to alert the rest of the flock. If the flock hears it, it will be bad. I climbed on the tree again and observed the birds. There was no change in the flock. They didn’t notice their comrade’s disappearance yet.

「Ne~e, what do you want to do with this bird? Can I eat it ahead of you? Or did you want it to lead you to the rest of the flock?」

「No, once they run away, I won’t be able to chase them. I have an idea」

I investigate the mana of the golden bird. It’s different from the time it was flying. Apparently, it can convey a signal to the rest of the flock by changing the quality of mana. It that’s true, then if can tell the rest that it is a good place, it is a wonderful place, they should all gather here, right? I thought so and changed the insides of the barrier to be more warm and comfortable place.

Temperature, smell, brightness, sounds, I was changing the different aspects of environment for 3 hours. Finally, the golden bird sang a different tune.

「Piorororororo. Pipirorororororo. Piriririri」

Alright, it relaxed quite a bit. No, isn’t it too relaxed? Anyway, I understood the golden bird’s 「preference」. All that is left is to let the other birds hear it’s cry.

「Lade, I will summon the flock of the golden birds. Please repel the other monsters until I say otherwise. Can I ask you?」

Eril stares at the golden bird in a daze. She seemed to be surprised to see the drooling golden bird with rolled eyes inside my barrier. Eril, who noticed my gaze after a while, put a hand on the sword and got ready. And I adjusted the barrier to let the sound reach the flock.

This situation continued for a few minutes, and finally, a part of the flock moved. It’s probably a scout group, a number of them come our way. They landed near the still-crying bird. At that moment, I confined them in the barrier and adjusted the environment inside to more comfortable one. After a while

「Piorororororo. Pipirorororororo. Piriririri」

they began to sing the same tune. Their numbers were great and the cry was louder. I felt that the majority was heading our way after a while. It’s time for me to work. I repeat the work of capturing them inside the barrier and adjusting the environment. If you know what kind of barrier you want to make, it becomes easy. The work goes easily. Without thinking of a trap, the golden birds approach the relaxed ones, and before they notice, they are already captured. In that way, I captured hundreds of golden birds before I even noticed.

Still, if I destroy the whole flock, their species will be in danger, so I let about 100 of them go. The golden birds, once awakened from the dream, disappeared in a moment. Disappeared with a sparkle. Splendid escape.

And Eril began tasting the golden birds soon after. Cut the neck, drain the blood, pluck the feathers. She finished in a matter of minutes and made me create a barbecue. As I was told, I roasted them properly. There was no seasoning, but it was tasty on its own. Juicy, melting in your mouth, I can eat it again and again. I as well as Eril blissfully devoured a dozen of them. Furthermore, there were some with gold in their beaks. Let’s gratefully accept that gold.

There were plenty of birds inside the barrier, but you can’t put the living beings inside the 「infinite storage」, so I couldn’t use it this time. Thanks to that, I ended up carrying hundreds of golden birds by myself. Their constant crying was annoying, so I made them sleep. While I was doing that Eril made a trip back to procure a wagon, thanks to the wagon I was able to safely bring them back. Although we moved on the scouted road, the round trip through the forest with the rough terrain took us just 8 hours. I admired Eril from the bottom of my heart.

There was a commotion inside the royal palace when I brought a few hundred of the elusive birds back and I was made responsible for safeguarding them until the celebration.

Of course, the party was a huge success, the prince and the marquis boosted they influence greatly.

By the way, half of the gold found in their beaks was given to the Versam family. And Elsa-sama passed it to me without any hesitation. There were 112 pieces. It’s about 100 million in the Japanese yen. Despite being 12 years old slave, I became a millionaire.