Semi-retired Adventurer Lives Leisurely

Chapter 51: Demonic Realms

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It was the day after Cyril and the group returned from their defeat.

 

In a second floor meeting room in the Grandes Church, Adventurers and two of Flowtier’s top leaders were gathered here.

 

Alvare: “Then I will take on the role of leading this meeting.”

 

And Flowtier’s Governor, Sir Alvare begins the meeting.

 

“Yes, thank you, Sir Alvare.” We are joined by the Bishop of the Grandes Church.
Mr.
Castello is responsible for every Adventurer in this area.
He was apparently a Heroic Warrior back in the days, but he’s currently a 60 year old grandpa.
But his body is still very fit and in shape, and he doesn’t look like he lost any of his strength or skills.

 

Lad: “Thank ya, sir.” Gawain: “Hey Lad, watch your manners.” Alvare: “No, he’s right.
We don’t need to be concerned about any formalities at this point.”

 

Gawain wasn’t appreciative of Lad’s attitude, but Sir Alvare raised a hand to halt any further arguments.

 

……..true, we do have bigger concerns at the moment that we need to discuss.

 

Alvare: “Then let’s go ahead and organize the information on hand.
Cyril, Jend, Ferris, and Teo.
Yesterday around noon, the four Adventurers who were on an expedition in the middle region of the Altohern Mountain encountered an unknown foe.
Is this correct?”

 

Jend: “Yes, that is correct.”

 

Although he had a hole busted through his gut, Jend’s answer is straight and clear.

 

He was showing signs of discomfort and pain as he walked up to this meeting room, but he’s currently hiding all of it with great effort.

 

Castello: “And what about the details of the Demonic Creature that you encountered? I already heard the report, but now that you rested a night after the attack, could you recount the details more clearly and calmly?” And Mr.
Castello follows up with his question.

 

Considering the degree of injuries the group sustained, they could have been in a state of panic.
There are instances where Adventurers who barely escaped with their lives mistook a Goblin for an Ogre, and his question wasn’t meant to be condescending.

 

At the very least, Mr.
Castello is hoping that after a good night’s sleep, any exaggerations to the report would be repealed.

 

Teo: “……..I can answer that.
I was in the very back of the group and saw everything clearly.”

Teo raised her hand.
It’s true that out of the four, she has the best eyes to observe situations and has a significant amount of knowledge concerning Demonic Creatures.
There is no one here who will belittle her for being a child, and Teo begins her explanation.

 

Teo: “We encountered four humanoid Demonic Creatures.
They were all twice the height of Ogres, and at a glance from afar, the largest one was at least 8 meters tall.
They each held different weapons made from their magic power – a broadsword, spear, staff, and club.”

 

………..twice the height of Ogres and humanoid.

 

Teo: “Although we could not understand the language, they were clearly communicating verbally to each other.
After they spoke amongst themselves, one retreated to the back, and we engaged with the remaining three.
We judged that the one who retreated was calling for reinforcements, and our group immediately retreated.”

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………a heavy silence falls upon the meeting room.

 

There are many Demonic Creatures who use barks and growls to communicate with one another, but there are not many who are intelligent enough to use actual languages.

 

And with their size, we can narrow it down pretty confidently to one specific group of Demonic Creatures.

 

Alvare: “A Giant….then…”

 

Castello: “If they appeared in the [Corrupted Ice Region], then they must be Frost Giants.
In the past, they have appeared in the top regions of the Altohern Mountain.
…….but that record was at least 80 years ago.”

 

The Governor lets out an exasperated sigh, and Mr.
Castello adds his knowledge to the situation.

 

Upper-Tier, Upper-Class Demonic Creature – the Giant.

 

If we were going by pure physical strength, they are only slightly stronger than Ogres, but they are huge.
They are the embodiment of how size can reflect strength, and they are far more dangerous and should not be underestimated.

 

They say that some unique individuals can be far more intelligent than humans, can use specific war tactics and/or mastered martial arts.
Some carry high magic power and can use higher-tier spells.
They are known to match up toe-to-toe with Dragons when it comes to how powerful and dangerous they are.

 

Alvare: “………and what about their [Demonic Realm]?”

 

Lad: “Right now, they are under my party’s surveillance, but they are making one.
Fortunately, all of their current efforts are focused there, and they have no signs of descending the mountain any time soon.
We have so far counted a total of nine giants.”

 

Mr.
Lad answers the Governor’s following question.

 

………the Upper-Tier, Middle-Class or higher Demonic Creatures have a clear differentiation from the rest of the group.

 

As a rule, the stronger the Demonic Creature is, they cannot function in regions where the Magic Corruption is too thin.
But a certain number of creatures who hold a specific amount of magic power and higher and able to create a Demonic Realm by creating enough Corrupted Magic in the region, and they are able to expand the [Corrupted Magic Region].

 

This isn’t a weird thing for them to do.

 

Us humans will go into a Corrupted Magic Region and after we clean out the Demonic Creatures from the area, we will then purify the region so humans can live and develop the territory.
So in a sense, it’s not so strange that the Demonic Creatures have the ability to do the opposite.

 

So in other words, it’s that.

 

………the Upper-Tier, Mid-Class Demonic Creatures are not just further pests, but they purposefully invade and take over human territory and are the arch nemeses of humanity.

 

Gawain: “It’s likely that they are on high alert after losing one of their comrades.”

 

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Mr.
Gawain adds his own speculation.

 

Teo said that her party retreated immediately, but the Giants had no intention of letting them escape.
And although during the retreating battle, they all suffered major injuries, they also defeated one of the Giants.

 

I heard about the battle details.

 

Jend, who had the highest amount of defense, covered the rear, and Cyril threw spells at the pursuers.
Teo guided their retreat, and Ferris healed Jend as he received wounds.

 

But even though they retreated efficiently, the 3 Giants continued to pursue the group, and they couldn’t shake the Giants off.
Finally, one of the Giants got through, and came face to face with Cyril, but………..that idiot……she blasted a spell knowing that she was in the radius of the blast and took out the Giant and almost herself.

 

The Giants were surprised and hesitated from the sudden loss, and the group was able to fully retreat after that.

 

……..okay, they were ambushed by a new enemy, and even though they faced Giants, they were able to escape with all their lives and defeat one in the process.

 

Yesterday, I thought they lacked the judgement skills to deal with unexpected situations, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
If they’re able to do this much, I have nothing more to say.

 

Alvare: “But it is quite clear that if the Demonic Realm is completed and the Magic Corruption is deepened, they will use that to bridge the area from the top of the mountain to the foot of the mountain.”

 

Henry: “Sir Governor, would the local military be able to…”

 

Alvare: “I would not say that it is impossible, but I would like to avoid the confrontation if possible.
I am not underestimating our troops’ abilities, but we are talking about an Upper-Tier, Upper-Class Demonic Creature.
That is well beyond our standard enemies, and I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of casualties we will suffer.”

 

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

 

Enemies like that are handled by the Knight Organizations.
The local militaries training exercises, weapons, and battle tactics are not meant for extremely strong Demonic entities.

 

Cyril: “UーUm…so, are we going to be okay? So, I fought the Demonic Creature itself, but it was unbelievably strong.
I’m worried that something bad might happen to the Flowtier City…”

 

Cyril directly confronted the creature and states her concerns.

 

It’s a legitimate concern.
…….though she did take one down with a pretty risky method, but she defeated one nonetheless.

 

……..but to her defense, she probably won’t get a second chance like that.
They’ll probably remember her face, and as soon as any strong magical power gatherings are detected, they’ll start retreating or avoiding that threat.

 

Alvare: “Yes, Cyril, your concerns are valid, but that would have been the case up until one year ago.
If this occurred at that time, we would have been even more panicked than we are today.”

 

The Governor’s attention and sight falls on me.

 

………yeah, that’s what I thought too.

 

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Alvare: “Heroic Warrior, Henry.
I would like to specifically designate you for this Quest.
Will you accept?”

 

Henry: “Before I accept, could we discuss the Quest Rewards first, Sir Governor?” This town is important to me too, but I’m still going to get reimbursed for my troubles.

 

<<<<>>>>

 

ーー follows.

 

All the Adventurers in particular fell silent.

 

Castello: “Yes, I knew we would come to that point.
Even buying back the drops from the Giants would affect our fiscal budget.
This will be a headache for us.
Out of all the Grandes Churches, we are probably at the bottom of the rung.”

 

Alvare: “Yes, I did some research on the market values of such a quest, and I thought I would topple from my desk.
A large financial impact like that would shake our bottom line as well, but still, we need to count our blessings.”

Castello: “Very true.”

 

Mr.
Castello and the Governor discuss this amongst themselves, and in a not-so-subtle-way, throw some side glances my way.

 

Henry: “Hーhey now.
Look, I don’t mind giving you guys a discount, but it can’t be that much.
The whole expedition is going to be costly for me too.”

 

Alvare: “Of course.
Any blatant reductions of the Quest Reward on our part could shake the market in a negative way.
But….for instance, what if we negotiate some benefits with the Flowtier public services? Do you think we could work something out from that perspective?” Henry: “Uーummmm….”

Alvare: “I could make you V.I.P.
pass for our publicly funded Casinos?”

 

Wow, this Governor is pretty clever and sneaky…

 

But out of Adventurers, Jend recovers.

 

Jend: “……EーExcuse me.
Sir Alvare.
But what Quest are you designating to Henry?”

 

Alvare: “Of course, we are speaking of the Giant Extermination Quest.” Jend: “～～don’t be ridiculous! I know Henry’s strength well, but it’s not something that can take down 9 of those monsters!!”

 

Oh, umm….yeah.

 

I don’t blame Jend for thinking that way at all.

 

I haven’t really gone all out during an expedition………..but I did go all out during my fight with Sir Ezeal.

 

But that was just once.
And I lost too, and there are methods I didn’t take during that practice match.

 

………..but it wasn’t like I was going easy on Sir Ezeal either by the way.

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It’s just that during an expedition or a mission, unless you are up against a real threat, you need to leave reserve strength untouched as much as possible.
Some say that you should give it your all in every battle, but that’s if that single battle was all you were doing for that time.
In order to defeat a lot of Demonic Creatures or prepare for unexpected situations, you need to leave as much strength in you as possible.

 

But there is also another problem that we’re not touching.

 

………..if I really went all out with no concern for anything around me, I wouldn’t be able to recover my losses from places like the Flowtier Forest.

 

Alvare: “Total number of Demonic Realms destroyed with a party – 176.
Demonic Realms destroyed by himself – 14.
……..this, this is all Henry’s accomplishments.
And we’re not even talking about Demonic Realms like the shacks the Giants are setting up right now.
We’re talking about fully matured and functioning Demonic Realms.”

 

Henry: “But those also include Upper-Tier, Mid-Class Demonic Realms though.”

 

Maybe around half? The latter, I was trying to earn some money and went to crush some Upper-Tier, Upper-Class areas.

 

Alvare: “And his record is quite impressive, but it is unbelievable that the frontlines would have so many Demonic Realms in the first place.”

 

Henry: “Very true.” Because they keep popping up no matter how many you take out!

 

Castello: “When it’s about conquering Demonic Realms, this is recorded dutifully in the Church records.
………..when I first heard that a Heroic Warrior of this level was coming to our Church, I didn’t believe it at first.”

 

Mr.
Castello lets out an exasperated sigh.

 

………that’s right.
I remember being called out by the Church after I was here for a week.

 

As I reminisced, Cyril opened her mouth.

 

Cyril: “…….IーIs that really true, Henry?”

Henry: “All true.
I won’t say that it wasn’t nothing, but if you want to put it into perspective, Sir Ezeal crushed 500 Demonic Realms alone.”

 

His Adventurer Title, “The Great Hero” is not an exaggeration.

 

And I agree that the head of the Knight Organization shouldn’t keep going headlong into danger every time he sees a Demonic Realm.

 

And for Ageha, she’s not a one versus many combat specialist, so she only has two Demonic Realms she took out by herself.
But she has a higher kill count of the Highest-Tier Demonic Creatures than me.

 

Henry: “Well, yeah, don’t worry, Cyril.”

 

I guess sometimes, you just have to display some confidence for the people around you.

 

Henry: “I won’t say that I can absolutely, 100% guarantee my success……..but Flowtier will be just fine since I’ll be taking care of this.”