By Zephyria 
Immediately, Corso, who had infused Mana into his sword, bared his teeth and sharpened the blade towards Offnir, who was rushing in.
Kieek!
The sword strike that cut diagonally through the air split Offnir from tail to torso, and Offnir, scattering blood, screamed in pain.
A terrifying reverberation shook the earth. In the blink of an eye, Corso, who had climbed onto Offnir’s forehead, raised his sword. As the tip of the blade forcefully struck down on Offnir’s forehead, the ground cracked and sank from the impact.
Kuuung!
Offnir fell with a final scream.
It was troublesome because it was ridiculously large, but it wasn’t as strong a Fiend as its size suggested, so it wasn’t difficult to deal with if one was determined.
“I… It can’t be… Amazing! To kill that giant Offnir in one go!”
Mirk, who had been craning his neck from my arms to watch the situation, widened his eyes. Around that time, Ardian, who had finished the situation, landed and put me down on the ground. Corso followed neatly, sheathing his sword beside him.
I immediately began investigating Offnir.
Focusing on aspects such as the total body length and the hardness of the epidermis. I entrusted the visual appearance to Ardian, who was good at drawing.
While I was collecting information like that, Mirk, who had disappeared without a sound, reappeared with a bunch of dwarves from his village. Their appearance instantly made the place noisy, and my concentration was briefly disrupted.
“It’s true! Humans killed Offnir!”
“Amazing! The leader is so cool and brave!”
They cheered as they looked at Offnir, who was dead and being dissected, and began to cut off pieces of Offnir’s soft inner tissue and carry them to their village. The pieces were so small that it didn’t matter that they were carrying them away, but I didn’t know why they were taking them, so I asked Mirk, who happened to be approaching.
“What are they doing?”
“Oh, brother. Offnir is a giant snake. And if you grill it, it’s grilled snake! Hehe, we won’t have to worry about our children starving for generations!”
Mirk grinned slyly and envisioned the distant future.
So, it’s treated as emergency food. I doubted it would rot before then, but it was none of my business.
Afterward, Ardian, Corso, and I cut off a part of Offnir, put it in a box, and stored it in the Hyperspace pocket. It was evidence to be submitted along with the investigation report to the Hunter Management Bureau, which had directly requested the assignment from us.
“Today is snake meat festival!”
When Mirk shouted that from my shoulder, the other dwarves who were diligently transporting the meat below responded loudly.
For the rest of the day, we stayed in the Dvergr village, carefully listening to and recording information about the races living in other areas. While tearing apart Offnir’s meat. When the next morning dawned, we finished preparing to leave early, and the Dvergr were busily moving from the morning to see us off.
“Brother! Thank you so much!”
“Humans of Midgard, come again!”
Numerous dwarves, led by Mirk, chattered at my feet. I nodded and turned around, and Ardian held out his hand as if he had been waiting.
“Let’s go back, Ray.”
In response, I simply took his hand instead of answering. It was the minimum contact required to move with Space Transition with Ardian.
Immediately, the Magic Formula was quickly formed, and Space Transition began. In the blink of an eye, we left Yokoko and were in the Imperial territory… specifically, in the street ‘Kardenchio’ in Adelmaide, where the ‘Hunter Management Bureau’ was located.
We immediately entered the lobby of the Hunter Management Bureau building. A broom that was cleaning the floor by shaking itself left and right, even though no one was holding it, passed by us. After the broom passed, we headed to the counter, and the employee who saw us wore a welcoming expression.
“You’ve returned safely, Your Highness and Hunter Raymond. I was a little worried, but I’m glad you seem to be fine.”
“Here are the investigation data. And the evidence.”
“Yes! Thank you for the investigation data.”
The employee politely reached out and received the investigation data and the cloth bag containing the evidence from Ardian.
That was the end of the approval process.
They should have carefully checked whether the investigation was done properly… but it seemed like they couldn’t because the other party was the Crown Prince. Well, if there was a problem, they would call us separately later.
“Ray, aren’t you hungry?”
Ardian, who had been following me closely as I left the Hunter Management Bureau, asked. If you include Corso, who was silently following behind him, there were two goldfish droppings. Just as I turned my eyes back to the front after glancing back, Ardian was right next to me, walking side by side.
“Hmm. I am hungry. I haven’t had breakfast yet.”
“Let’s eat together. Is there anything you want to eat? I’ll buy it for you.”
“Anything?”
“Of course. If it’s something you want to eat, I can even get something that doesn’t exist in the Empire.”
I chuckled softly. It was an exaggeration.
But there was no reason to refuse since he was offering to buy it.
“The Yanggpul Black Cattle I ate a while ago was really delicious. The freshness must be Grade 1. I don’t deal with anything below that.”
Yanggpul Black Cattle is an animal that lives only in certain areas, and its meat is very tender and has a unique flavor. The Valentasia family sent a small amount of Grade 1 Yanggpul Black Cattle as a gift, saying, ‘It’s rare, so you should try it,’ and it was really delicious.
It was that very, very expensive.
One chunk of meat was about the price of a horse, so it wasn’t meat that you could eat carelessly anywhere. Especially for commoners, it was high-end meat that was hard to even taste. But Ardian smiled like a fully bloomed sunflower without any hesitation. It even seemed like he was happy that I was making such a request to him.
“Okay. Let’s go eat that.”
That day, I got to eat meat worth about five horses from the son of the richest family in this empire.
☠
Before I knew it, time had passed, and the mid-term exam period for the second semester had arrived at the academy.
I was planning to attend today after a long time. I hadn’t been attending classes much recently because I had been traveling around for designated requests, but since the mid-term exams were coming up soon, I was planning to visit the school for the time being.
It had been a while since I had met my classmates, as well as my servants, except for Ardian, whom I had been traveling with a lot to solve designated requests.
Herman was using the same dormitory room as me, but since we usually stayed outside when we went out on missions due to requests, it had been a while since I had met him as well, only seeing him last night.
“Aren’t you working too hard on missions these days?”
Herman, who had finished preparing to go to class together in the morning and had gone out into the hallway first, complained to me again.
“You don’t even contact me… you make me worry.”
He had been expressing his disappointment yesterday, so I had fallen asleep while listening, and it seemed like that disappointment was continuing until today.
“What’s wrong with working hard?”
I said, pretending not to see Corso, who had quietly appeared behind us like a ghost and was following us. Herman, who was briefly taken aback by Corso, who had approached without a sound, continued to grumble.
“It’s not a problem, but it’s too hard to see your face.”
“There’s also a saying that no news is good news.”
“You’re so cold, really. Some people want to see you….”
Herman swallowed his words. He mumbled in such a small voice that I might not have heard him. I wondered what it was, and when I turned around, I saw Herman looking sulky.
“What’s the complaint this time?”
“…I guess you think I’m always complaining.”
“It’s good to see you reflecting on yourself.”
Herman groaned. Then, he discovered the Mana Aggregate I was taking out of my pocket and widened his eyes.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a Mana Aggregate.”
A Mana Aggregate that was as hard as obsidian and had a jet-black luster. It was the return gift I was making for Newit, and I had finished it a while ago. And this Aggregate, made with Mana accumulated over a long period of time, contained a protective Magic to protect the holder.
As much time and effort as I had put into it, it would block a powerful Magic of Grade 8 or higher at least once. I had made it hoping that it would be of great help to her when danger struck her someday.
“I can tell it’s an Aggregate just by looking at it… who are you going to give it to?”
Herman tilted his head. Since there had been a ‘culture of giving a Mana Aggregate made by collecting one’s Mana for a long time to a precious person’ since ancient times, he seemed to have noticed that it was a gift.
I checked once more to see if there were any scratches and then wrapped it in silk cloth again as I said.
“Newit.”
Then, Herman’s expression gradually became strange.
“…Newit? Why are you giving it to her?”
“It’s a return gift.”
“A return gift for what?”
“Because I received help with the Elixir last time.”
“…You could have given her something else as a return gift. Why that in particular?”
It was a particularly persistent interference. It was much more practical and intuitive than figuring out the other person’s intentions and choosing a gift that they would prefer, and above all, it was something I could do best, so that’s what I did. If he kept asking why, I had nothing to say.
I glared at Herman and scolded him.
“Isn’t it my business what I choose to give?”
Then, Herman, who had suddenly become quiet, looked at me carefully. He looked somehow uneasy and anxious, which was also strange. I had no idea what this guy was thinking.