Kajiya de Hajimeru Isekai Slow Life

“Liddy-san…?”

In my surprise, I blurted Liddy-san’s name. It would have been better if I acted like it’s our first meeting but it’s too late for that now.

“Eizou-san!?”

Liddy-san also called out my name with a relatively loud voice. Her almond eyes were so round as she stared at me with wide eyes. I had never seen her have such expression during her stay with us. That only shows the huge shock she’s having.

“Are you two… acquaintance?”

Marius asked without hiding his curiosity. This way of asking doesn’t feel like Marius is on to something though. He is not grinning either.

“Yea-, Yes. I’ve done a work request from her before.”

There was no need to hide it so I answered honestly. Liddy-san’s expression returned back to her normal cool self and she nodded silently in assent to my words but she’s probably a little embarrassed too.

“Oh, I see. Even with such unsociable expression you can’t be underestimated huh.”

“You must be joking…”

Marius spoke with a slight grin. That is obviously a look of someone who just found a new toy. I can barely reply as I tried my best to keep my current position intact.

“Then I guess I don’t need to introduce you to each other. She’s the escort target though. Your mission is to take her safely to the innermost part of the cave.”

“Understood. I will protect her with my life.”

Marius and I had a polite exchange. I’m a little embarrassed because we actually knew each other.

“If it’s Eizou-san who will escort me, I’m more reassured. Well, I’ll be counting on you.”

“Yes, leave it to me.”

Whether or not she knew how embarrassed I was, Liddy-san said that with a smile that made it feel like a flower was blooming.

Even though I myself is a guard, there are soldiers around me too. I heard that there were not many ferocious beasts around here so it was rather easy for us to get to the cave. Even so, I kept a minimum of vigilance so that I can brandish my spear at any time.

Eventually, the forest come to an end and a meadow spreads out. And on the far side, there’s a mountain that doesn’t look very high but the cave is probably at the foot of it. The soldier who was a little ahead of us found the trail where the main army passed by and then we followed that.

Most of the beasts must have gone elsewhere since the army passed through here. Though we have fewer people, none of the beasts dared to attack us. Shortly after, I saw the cave with a gaping wide opening and about ten soldiers gathered in front of it as they guard in the entrance. The others appeared to have already entered the cave.

“Alright, let’s also go inside.”

Of the remaining 10 people, a man who seems to be their commanding officer said that to us. We nodded to show that we agreed. Marius and his bodyguards are staying here, or rather, he is not going to go inside and take command. I’m sure they’ll go inside if a need arises though.

One of the soldiers transferred a fire from the campfire that was burning near the entrance to the torch and light it up. Perhaps because the party earlier had already cleared the area, we did not come across anything even after moving for half an hour.

“Even so, it’s deep huh.”

I muttered inadvertently.

“Yes, it’s pretty deep. We went to the deepest part once yesterday, and it would have taken us about an hour to get there without any obstacles.”

If that’s the case, this cave is a little less than 4 kilometers huh. It’s certainly deep. There is almost no branching and there are torch set up in the right path so I’m relieved to know that we won’t get lost. The only thing that worries me about using torches in a place like this is the oxygen. However, it seems to have been burning for a long time so there must be places where air goes in and out. I don’t feel any wind so I am still a little worried though.

“The longer it is, the easier it is for the stagnant magical power to accumulate. It is said that when the stagnant magical power exceeds a certain level, monsters will spring up, but the details are unknown.”

Liddy-san explained. To put it the other way around, monsters rarely appear unless it is at this level. Though the Black Forest has a lot of magical power, I can understand why monsters rarely grow there. However, though I haven’t heard of one, it might be better to ask Samia if there is a cave there. It would be a problem if monsters suddenly spring up from there one day.

As we went a little further, I heard a muffled metallic sound. In this situation, it must be the sound of battle. It’s hard to tell if it’s still far away or close by because the sound is probably reverberating.

“By the way, you managed to go all the way to innermost part of the cave but you didn’t get rid of it yesterday?”

While we were walking in a hurry, I asked the commanding officer. Well, we are not running because if we do, we won’t be in the best condition once we get there.

“Yes. It is a little strong so we decided to withdraw just in case.”

“I see. So, we are going there today?”

“The monsters won’t stop emerging if we don’t defeat that thing. However, that can’t be done with just the new recruits. The villagers here said that they know how to defeat that thing so that’s the reason why we are bringing them along.”

I don’t want to treat Liddy-san like an object, but this is like we are carrying the necessary explosives deep into the enemy base to blow it up. Well, since it’s like that, we just have to get them all the way there safely. We then speed up towards the sound of the battle, which was getting louder and louder.