It’s been a few hours since Aria and Lain left.
I was still struggling to create a standby state with the spell, [Illuminate].
They left pretty late in the day, so did they reach the campsite safely?
“Milia, should we start preparing dinner?”
“…Yes, let’s do that.”
Hearing Kili, I realized that it was near dinnertime.
I didn’t think that delaying magic activation, which sounded so easy at first, could be so difficult.
This feeling remained strongly, after I saw Sui and Reno manage to do the same without a hitch.
Like Lain said, they must be geniuses.
On the first day, I didn’t take it seriously because I thought it was meaningless to practice magic now, but Sui and Reno were acquiring new magic like it was nothing.
If I’m the only one who refuses to work on it, I might become the only one left unable to use magic in this village.
Besides, the magic Lain teaches seems like it could be useful for daily life.
It might be worth learning it from him.
Things might gone differently had I met him before I was kicked out, but saying that out loud now would only make me regret it.
“What should we have today, Milia?”
“Let’s see. We have some soup left over from lunch, so why not add some dried meat to it and change its flavor a little?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
Kili adopts my opinion, and today’s dinner was decided upon immediately.
As we begin cooking, Sui and Reno come to help us.
“What should, we do?”
“Kili-nee, Leave managing the fire to me!”
“Really? Thank you, Reno. Then take it over if you would.”
They were both good girls.
Since they always noticed their surroundings and moved accordingly.
They used to always have dark faces, but recently they were able to laugh more and more ever since Lain arrived.
As expected, it’s important to have someone around who’s strong enough to defend themselves.
If we can’t manage our own safety, we can’t do anything.
“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
As we were preparing dinner, we heard something crying outside.
“W-what was that?”
“I don’t know.”
Immediately after, Kili, who had gone to the warehouse outside to pick up ingredients, rushes back into the house with a scary expression.
“K, Kili-nee?”
Kili walks straight towards us, turns the soup over, and puts out the fire.
After hugging us close, she says something outrageous.
“A large black wolf which I’ve never seen before came out of the forest.”
“Eh…!”
“Shh!”
Sui closes Reno’s mouth, which was about to let out a shriek.
We can’t afford to do that now.
“Is that really true?”
“There’s no mistaking it.”
“But, shouldn’t we be fine because of the moat?”
“I’m not sure. Something of that size might be able to jump over it. Though I don’t think it’s noticed our–“
*DON*!
The sound of something colliding with the door could be heard while Kili was talking.
It seems that it could jump over the moat after all.
That’s the direction facing the Demon Forest.
Moreover, it was aware of our presence here.
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“…Let’s go to the girls room. That place is the furthest from the forest.”
“You’re right.”
We decide quickly and head to our bedroom.
***
*DON*! *DON*!
How long has it been since we came here?
This house alone was built by a carpenter from the royal capital, so I want to believe it can handle attacks from monsters.
However, I can’t help but feel the squeaking and creaking from the house getting louder and louder.
“K-, Kili-nee, are we going to be okay?”
“It’s fine. We’re going to be fine.”
*Bang*!
However, our limit came soon.
The door wasn’t completely broken, but its window became distorted.
And from the part which now became see through due to being distorted, a monster began peaking inside.
“Hii!”
The monster looked at us, and laughed.
It had confirmed our existence.
“This room is useless now. Let’s move.”
“U-understood.”
We changed rooms at my suggestion.
But how long will we last, just by changing rooms?
Lain, who was the only one we could count on, had left for the town and would be back in 5 days at the earliest.
(…That reminds me, I heard somewhere that monsters eat less compared to how they look)
I remember hearing something like that long ago.
In fact, the greywolf brought by the young men the other day only killed five other men and left after eating out their innards.
Most of the other corpses were left just as they were.
(Since it’s alone, it might eat just one of us and leave satisfied.)
I push the other three into the room Lain was using.
“M-Milia? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing. I left something in the room before, so could you hide first?”
“Eh? left something…?”
“Listen to me. Go and hide properly.”
Saying that I close the door, and head to the doorway of the house.
If I leave from this door, there is almost no chance of me surviving.
(But if the chances of Kili, Reno, and Sui surviving increase even a little…)
I accept my fate and head out of the house.