73. A Beautiful Girl’s Request Is A Must To Fulfill, Isn’t It?

We plunge into the forest guided by Shururu.

Shururu glides through the forest smoothly thanks to the Stamina Potion, but Eva can’t keep up, so we have to slow down a bit.

Thanks to that, Shururu had some breathing room, and we could hear various stories.

“How much farther to the village?”

“Just a little bit more!”

“Eva! Are you okay!?”

“I-I’m managing!”

They’re not particularly strong enemies, but it’s dangerous to split up when we need to know where that giant frog is lurking.

We head towards the Lizardman village at full speed to avoid getting separated.

The destination is called Hyoutan Swamp Village.

Just to be clear, it’s a different place from the swamp near the old Golden Dawn. Different distance, different location.

Shururu’s father is the village chief.

“I see. So, it got attacked by that giant frog monster, Paralyze Baron Frog, and the village was overrun by them?”

“Yeah. The scale warriors defended us and helped the few Lizardmen with fewer scales escape, but…”

Shururu cuts off there.

“There was a baron even during our escape, and one of my comrades who was escaping with me prioritized saving me, the village chief daughter…”

She clenches her lips, looking frustrated.

“I offered to fight too, but they said if I did, they wouldn’t understand why we were evacuating in the first place and forced me to escape…”

“I see. I hope they manage to escape safely.”

We didn’t see any bodies on the way back to the village, so I want to believe they managed to escape somehow.

“Craft! Raidoc! Combat sounds ahead!”

At Jitaro’s signal, we transition from a moving formation to a combat formation.

Raidoc issues orders.

“Listen up! We break through the frog blockade and dive into the village! Then we proceed according to the plan we’ve decided on the way!”

“””Yeah!!!”””

“Shururu! The plan changes depending on your persuasion!”

“Y-Yes!”

“Alright! Full speed ahead!”

It’s Raidoc, not Leafan, who takes the lead and rushes towards the direction of the commotion.

“[Spiral Whirlwind]! [Chaotic Dance]! [Blizzard Slashes]!”

As soon as we burst into the open space, Raidoc’s sword skills explode. A path opens before him.

Once we clear the forest, we indeed settle.

The village gets surrounded by a semi-circular wooden fence by the swamp edge.

The village gets surrounded by frogs from all directions.

Normally, the village would be safe with the fence and the swamp as defense, but the opponents are frogs. Giant ones, at that. The swamp isn’t serving its defensive purpose.

While some foolish frogs are trying to poke through the log fence, most seem to be entering from the side facing the village’s swamp.

As planned, we aim for the front gate on the land side.

There aren’t many frogs fixated on the fence or gate, but there are just an incredible number of frogs. There’s a massive crowd of frogs thrashing about in front of the main gate.

“Out of the way! [Cross Slash]! [Wolf Breaker]!”

“I’ll cover you! [Flash Fang Assault]! [Void Collapse]!”

Raidoc turns the frogs gathered in front of the gate into minced meat, and Soral’s bow further reduces their numbers. But there are just so many frogs!

Baron Frog is quite large. And there are over a hundred of them. The pressure they exert is no joke.

A Lizardman wielding a spear atop the gate made of stacked logs notices us and lets out a voice akin to a scream.

“What’s that!?”

“It’s me! It’s Shururu!”

“Shururu-sama!? Why have you returned!?”

“We’re reinforcements! Let us in!”

“W-What!? Are… are those humans!?”

We build a defensive formation around Shururu at the gate.

We tear through the approaching Barons one by one. It’s easy to break the gate. But the main battlefield is on the swamp side. We need to preserve this area.

“However!”

“No time to argue! You see their strength!”

“B-But!”

“We must treat everyone before explaining!”

“Treat them? With a cure for Baron’s paralysis poison!?”

“Craft! Please!”

“Leave it to me!”

I pull out vials containing Cure Potions from my spatial storage and hold them between my fingers. Three in each hand.

Then, using the knife-throwing technique I honed during my adventurer days, I toss them at the fallen Lizardmen one after another.

“What are you doing!? Human!”

Ignoring the shouting Lizardman, I have a trick for the thrown potion vials.

A unique feature of Leafan’s special potion vials: extremely hard and difficult to break.

Feature number two: when a certain magic is applied, the vial will break after a proportional amount of time.

The potion vials I threw were imbued with magic to break. They would hit the Lizardmen.

In other words, there’s no need to open the vials manually; the Cure Potions are sprinkled onto the Lizardmen’s bodies one after another.

Feature number three: magic-broken vials disappear.

There’s no risk of injury from the broken shards of vials.

“Huff… huff… can’t… breathe… air!”

Just as a potion vial is about to hit the gasping Lizardman and shatter upon contact, it disappears.

Only the Mana Potion inside splashes onto the Lizardman.

“Huff… huff… someone… heh? Huh? Can… can breathe!? What’s happening!?”

Good! It’s working!

I continue to throw potion vials one after another, treating the fallen Lizardmen.

“Th-Thank you for this?”

“I can breathe!”

“What’s going on!?”

I sigh as I see all the Lizardmen in my field of vision getting up.

Unlike Shururu, who seems to be the soldier guarding the gate, many Lizardmen have a more reptilian appearance, with impressive scales covering them.

“Human? Why are you here?”

“Listen, everyone! These people have come to help us! They can cure the Baron’s paralysis poison, as you can see!”

“Oh!”

“But still, we were told never to come into contact with humans…”

“We’ll be wiped out if we keep saying that!”

“Ugh!”

“Shururu-sama! What should we do from now on…?”

“Raidoc!”

“Yeah! Listen up, everyone! These people have no intention of harming us! There’s no time to explain now! They’ve come to help!”

“T-That’s… appreciated, but…”

“Can you defend this gate alone!?”

“T-That’s…”

“If it weren’t for the paralysis poison, we warriors wouldn’t be delayed by frogs like these…”

The Lizardmen grit their teeth.

“Then rest assured!”

I take out a large amount of potions from my spatial storage.

“These are antidotes! Enough for everyone!”

“W-What!? Not only can they treat us, but they also have prevention!?”

“Yeah! I’ve also brought healing potions and cure potions! Will this be enough!?”

“Th-That’s enough. But, aren’t these precious items?”

“There’s nothing more valuable than life, right!?”

“Craft-san…”

Shururu looks up at me.

Don’t worry. I’m not asking for any gold.

“And here are Stamina Potions. Make sure everyone drinks them!”

“…Understood! Everyone! This is an emergency! Let’s trust Shururu-sama!”

“Thank you, everyone!”

“If it weren’t for that frog!”

“Shouldn’t we go support the swamp side instead?”

Raidoc addresses the agitated Lizardmen.

“No! You must defend this place! We’ll go to the village’s swamp side!”

“But!”

“We warriors don’t want to be ambushed from behind! We want to entrust our backs to you!”

As if struck by lightning, the Lizardmen tremble.

“…Understood! Let’s trust them! And let them trust us! We’ll defend this gate and their backs!”

“Thank you!”

Just as Raidoc finishes his thanks,

a deep, rumbling sound echoes from the depths of the village, from the swamp side.

“That sounds bad. Alright! Let’s go, everyone! The real battle begins now!”

“””Yeah!!!”””

With Raidoc at the lead, we dash through the village.

While running, I toss potion vials at Lizardmen I spot.