Dragon Knight Chronicles ~ From a mere mercenary, rise to success through tactics! A small harem with the princess and the lord's daughter!? I'll also develop my territory! ~ - Chapter 110

Chapter 110   Journey with Charlotte 3

“Don’t let the fire go out.”

I called out to Eclair, who was holding the torch at the front. I had assumed that a simple trip to explore some ruins would be manageable, but that assumption only applied to the surface.

Underground, it was not a place ruled by humans. It was entirely within the domain of monsters.

We advanced through a dark and narrow passage for about two hours, fighting multiple times against monsters like zombies along the way. Eventually, we reached a wide-open area.

A thin ray of light shone through a small gap in the ceiling. As we approached, we saw that the ground was covered with rare medicinal herbs.

“Oh, isn’t this White Herb!?”

Professor Gunter rushed over to the herbs. He quickly began gathering the precious plants, stuffing them into his bag with great urgency.

…But then, a huge shadow appeared beyond him.

“Graaaah!”

“Professor! Get back!”

I grabbed the professor, pulling him back along with his bag. Not only was he a non-combatant, but he was also responsible for the princess’s hygiene and health.

In the dim light, the creature that had roared slowly approached. It was a monster in the form of a giant bear.

“What is this, a mere bear? Leave it to me!”

The queen drew her longsword and began to approach the monster.

“Look out!”

Leaping from behind, Eclair tackled the queen to the side, knocking her down and covering her. In an instant, the monster unleashed a torrent of crimson flames from its mouth. The herbs on the ground where the queen had just stood erupted into a blazing inferno.

“How impudent!”

The queen and Eclair quickly jumped back and regained their footing.

With her longsword thrust forward, the queen charged at the monster. The monster caught the sword with its claws.

Taking advantage of this moment, I shot an arrow from my short bow, aiming for the monster’s neck. At the same time, Pokorina’s magical fireball struck the monster.

“Die!”

Eclair, who had moved behind the monster, drove a poisoned dagger into its spine. The dagger pierced deeply, reaching the monster’s spinal cord.

If it were a human, it would have been an instant death, but this was a giant monster. The creature shook off the two of them, still displaying its resilience, and roared even louder.

“Graaaaaah!”

The cave trembled, and a strange resonating sound pierced our ears. Guided by this sound, figures emerged from the ground — the skeletal remains of fallen adventurers.

These were those who had perished here and had been turned into servants of the monster. The problem was that there were over twenty of them.

…Unfortunately, we were surrounded. I now had to keep an eye on the entire area, not just on the queen.

“Aah!”

A scream from behind — it was Professor Gunter. He had been struck in the left arm by an arrow and was clutching the wound.

…Among the skeletons were some wielding bows and arrows.

If we stayed defensive, we’d only be gradually overwhelmed. We needed to attack from our side.

“Pokorina! Belchi! Take care of the professor!”

“Poko~♪”

While the queen and Eclair kept the bear-like monster at bay, I decided to take down the skeletal adventurers.

“Oh spirits of the wind! Lend me your strength!”

Chanting my magic incantation, I set about dealing with the skeletons.

The fact that my beloved sword was made of mithril silver, which contained magical properties, helped me to swiftly dispatch the skeletal creatures one by one. Any part of the monster’s body touched by the mithril silver blade was consumed by a pale blue holy fire.

“…!?”

By the time I finished chanting my teleportation spell, only about a third of the skeleton monsters remained. Feeling a bit more at ease, I glanced over at the bear monster and saw that the queen and Eclair were still holding their ground.

“Teyah!”

Working together with Pokorina and the others, we dispatched the last of the skeletons. Then, we all turned to face the injured bear monster.

“…Graoo?”

Sensing that the situation was turning against it, the bear monster attempted to retreat deeper into the cave. However, I teleported to cut off its escape route.

“Die!”

The monster hesitated for a moment, startled by my sudden appearance. In that moment, I thrust my beloved sword into its neck.

“Graaah…ooon!”

The bear monster spewed a fountain of blood as it was engulfed in the blue-white flames of my magic. Yet, as expected of such a large creature, it did not die immediately. Instead, it dragged its heavily wounded body deeper into the cave.

“Poko poko!!”

Just as I was about to deliver the final blow to the dying monster, Pokorina stopped me.

“Are you saying we should spare it?”

“Poko~♪”

Pokorina, after all, was also a tanuki monster. Perhaps there was some sense of kinship that we couldn’t understand.

“Alright.”

I decided to entrust the fate of the bear monster to Pokorina.

◇◇◇◇◇

“Professor, are you alright?!”

I rushed over to the professor, who had been wounded by an arrow. Upon inspecting the wound, it seemed the poisoned arrowhead had reached the bone.

From experience, I knew that if left untreated, the flesh would start to rot.

“Professor! Please bear with me!”

I sterilized my knife with the juice of some medicinal herbs. Using the knife, I widened the wound and carefully extracted the arrowhead that had lodged itself in the bone.

“…Gaaaah.”

The professor’s face contorted with pain.

“…Oh pure spirits, please heal my wound!”

The professor, writhing in agony, used magic to heal his arm. Then Eclair applied some medicine to the wound and bound it with cloth.

When I looked around calmly, I noticed that both Eclair and the queen had sustained some injuries as well. My own clothes were soaked with blood and tattered.

This was proof that the battle had been quite a close call for all of us.

“Grao…”

Once everyone’s wounds were tended to, Pokorina returned, leading the bear monster. The creature gestured to show its surrender. Then, it offered a small, suspiciously glowing red treasure chest.

“Oh, what a beautiful thing!”

The queen exclaimed in admiration. When she slowly opened the box, it was filled to the brim with ancient Ishtar platinum coins.

“This is amazing! I’ve never seen platinum coins from an ancient civilization before!”

“I’m glad to hear that, Your Highness. Now, let’s quickly leave this cave.”

If we went any further, no number of lives would be enough. I hurried to lead us to the cave’s exit before the queen could change her mind.

“!?”

…But at that moment, I felt something grab the hem of my trousers.