Chapter 75

#75 Episode: The Tin Knight and the Land of Deep Green (5)

The Tin Knight’s autonomous combat rights were revoked in just one day. It was a short-lived dream.

“Just follow my remote instructions, alright?”

[‘Tin Knight’ is flustered by losing trainer qualification!]

[‘Tin Knight’ is shocked that his rank has dropped to Adel level!]

“Um, excuse me, Knight. I think I should be the one in shock here….”

[‘Tin Knight’ bravely declares the harsh reality to his apprentice!]

“Indeed, Mr. Tin. You know that attaching the word ‘brave’ makes most statements sound plausible, right?”

[‘Tin Knight’ shrugs!]

“Stop the nonsense and get to work, you fools.”

Dorothea activated magic using the head of the beast boss (or what was presumed to be part of it) that the Tin Knight had retrieved.

The head, which boasted a tremendous size, shrank down until it was only about the size of a baseball, and began to float around.

Dorothea covered one eye with her left hand, cleared her throat, and opened her mouth.

“《Ahem, okay. Looks like the voice transmission is working fine. The vision is decent too.》”

Dorothea’s voice overlapped with the voice emanating from the mini-boss head in the air.

Glancing at the boss head settled on his shoulder, the Tin Knight expressed admiration.

[‘Tin Knight’ praises the zombie drone system!]

[‘Tin Knight’ raises questions about why it needs to balance on his shoulder!]

“《It’s noisy. Just sharing vision and voice is complicated enough, and adding remote control makes it chaotic.》”

After muttering softly, Dorothea lifted her hand from her eye.

At that moment, the head atop the Tin Knight’s shoulder drooped as well.

Dorothea repeatedly urged the Tin Knight with a serious tone.

“Don’t turn it into a mushy corpse. Don’t waste magical power unnecessarily. I’ll check on it periodically. If you mess around, you’ll be in trouble.”

[‘Tin Knight’ emphasizes the autonomy of the field!]

“Should we just skip the hunting and pull some weeds instead?”

[‘Tin Knight’ shifts to respecting the leader’s judgment!]

Realizing that touching Dorothea’s temper any further might result in an outright hunting ban, the Tin Knight hurriedly opted to leave.

Dorothea, watching him with a skeptical eye, shook her head.

Though she used the term “monitoring” to threaten the Tin Knight, she had absolutely no intention of interfering with his every action.

Besides that, Dorothea had plenty of tasks to tend to.

Gathering tree sap, collecting and processing various herbs, grinding animal bones into powder.

Normally, Dorothea would take care of every task herself, but with all the previous catalysts stripped away, she found herself in need of even a cat’s paw.

“Ada, go make some deep cuts in that tree to extract sap.”

“Yes! Is this enough?”

“Sophia, gather some grass just like this one.”

“Understood.”

“Ada, clear away that thorny vine.”

“Yes! I’ll chop it down!”

“Sophia, are you done yet? What do you mean it’s taking more than ten minutes to pull one weed!?”

“I have to carefully collect it with its roots, but it’s a pity I don’t have a brush to dust off the dirt from the roots.”

“Ugh…! Just grab what you need! And Ada, dig into the ground here!”

“Yes, right away!”

“Sophia! Hey! All your acorns are spilling out! Pick them up properly!”

“This is proving to be a more challenging task than I anticipated.”

“Sophia, no, Ada!”

“Ada, over here!”

“Ada. Do that, then do this next!”

“Ada!”

As if she was only borrowing a cat’s paw, yet it felt like only borrowing a ‘cat’s paw,’ but it was unavoidable.

While giving instructions to the two companions, Dorothea had her own assortment of materials to process.

Occasionally monitoring the Tin Knight from afar was a bonus.

Dorothea’s hands, mouth, and head were busy, while Ada was physically occupied, and Sophia didn’t have much to do.

Of course, that didn’t mean Ada complained about the situation. She was a good lion.

In fact, she had almost opened her mouth to grumble but decided to keep quiet when she saw Dorothea threateningly tie Sophia with a rope to use as bait. Probably.

[‘Tin Knight’ announces his return!]

[‘Tin Knight’ boasts about his hunting achievements!]

Around lunchtime, the Tin Knight returned to the base.

One hand bearing an oversized wild boar, the other hand dragging a massive wolf.

Whether Dorothea’s scolding had an effect or not, these were in far better condition than the previous beast corpses.

As Sophia hung upside down watching, she commented.

“By the way, Mr. Tin, did you hunt these animals while they were just sitting there?”

[‘Tin Knight’ reveals that they attacked him first while he was wandering around!]

“Really. Did any of them try to run away or anything?”

[‘Tin Knight’ states that some of his subordinates fled, but none of the bosses did!]

“That’s odd.”

Dorothea interjected with curiosity.

“What’s odd?”

“Well, they’re wild animals, right?”

“So what?”

“Why would they take the risk to fight?”

Before Dorothea could question what that meant, she seemed to realize something.

Ada raised a question mark over her head.

“Is it because they’re monsters?”

“Most creatures considered monsters aren’t too different from regular animals. They may be stronger and possess unique abilities, but their behavioral patterns do not dramatically change.”

Hanging in the air, Sophia eloquently continued.

The sight of the Tin Knight, Dorothea, and Adelheid all looking up to listen was quite bizarre from the side, but no one was there to point it out.

“When thieves look for targets to plunder, why do they aim for civilian homes or small businesses instead of caravans protected by armed mercenaries or knights?”

“Isn’t that dangerous for the thieves?”

“Monsters are the same. No, they are far more meticulous about risk management than greedy humans who recklessly take bold challenges. They avoid strong opponents, don’t engage with unfamiliar ones, and even shy away from weaker opponents if they think they might get injured during the hunt. Even if they succeed in hunting, getting injured in the process would leave them in dire straits.”

However, Sophia added thoughtfully.

“In that sense, Mr. Tin is the worst kind of prey. You’re extremely strong, an unfamiliar opponent whose countermeasures are unknown, and, crucially, there’s nothing to gain from defeating you.”

“That’s true. No food to gain from beating this one.”

Dorothea gazed at the wolf and boar carcasses.

In a situation where there’s no need to pick a fight, it was rather aggressive to initiate combat and prioritize punishing outsiders over self-preservation.

As if trying to confirm something, Dorothea pulled out a small dagger and attempted to skin the wolf, but perhaps it didn’t go as planned, and she frowned.

She then spoke to the Tin Knight.

“Chop this into reasonably sized pieces. Avoid injuring the bones as much as you can.”

“Uh-huh.”

Startled by such a terrifying command that only a witch could give, Ada was taken aback, but the Tin Knight reacted immediately.

[‘Tin Knight’ asks to just handle it!]

The shimmering silver-gray blade flashed, and the wolf’s corpse was swiftly cleaved into pieces.

Not a drop of blood splattered in the vicinity; the skill was truly artistic.

Dorothea approached the thoroughly dissected wolf, indifferently rummaging through its insides.

Then she scrunched her nose.

“What’s this?”

Between the red blood and flesh, green stalk-like things were lodged inside.

Especially around the heart and head, there was an abundance of green.

[‘Tin Knight’ marvels at the parasites, or rather the parasitic plants!]

“Parasites, huh? Certainly, having a host that manipulates them to head towards water or making it easy for birds to eat them has been noted. If this is the plant type, that explains the peculiar behaviors.”

“So that green stalk-like thing controlled the monsters to ambush you, Mr. Tin?”

Ada asked, shivering as she ran her hand down her arm.

Dorothea shook her head.

“I doubt they can give such detailed commands. At most, they can incite fighting spirit or amplify hostility towards outsiders. The reason for creating such an environment is somewhat clear.”

“Is it related to the vision we saw in the past, Mr. Tin and I?”

“Exactly. If native creatures fight fiercely against intruders, the inside will naturally become safe. If these beings were to go outside and cause harm, the state would step in to eradicate them, but since they’re all holed up inside…”

Ada cautiously asked.

“So what do we do? Since we don’t know if we’ll be targeted by this green stalk-like thing, shouldn’t we leave quickly?”

“The only ones showing unusual behavior are the boss-level monsters. The ordinary animals are acting normally. I think it would require spending quite a long time here, or some other conditions, for such infection or parasitism to occur. And even in a hurry, I can purify things with Divine Power, so there’s no need to worry.”

Sophia reassured them like so, but Ada looked particularly uneasy.

Dorothea scratched her head.

“Well, I wasn’t planning to stick around long anyway, so I guess it’s not a huge concern…. But still, we should probably speed things up a bit.”

[‘Tin Knight’ excitedly inquires if this is a time-restricted hunt!]

[‘Tin Knight’ vows to quickly subdue the next boss!]

“While it is time-restricted, it’s a bit different from what you’re thinking.”

[‘Tin Knight’ questions that!]

Dorothea held out her left hand.

The blood from the wolf that had stained Dorothea’s hand floated into the air, mingling with her black magic, and re-entered the wolf’s body.

And then.

The wolf, which had already been killed and dismembered, began to twitch.

Ada’s face went pale, and Sophia opened her eyes wide in shock.

Clatter!

The wolf raised its body.

Leaving the skins and flesh behind on the ground, the skeletal wolf approached Dorothea and bowed its head.

Dorothea did the same with the boar, and it too rose up as nothing but bones.

“Normally, using blood and flesh would be more efficient, but we need that as material.”

[‘Tin Knight’ asks whether he too will be used for monitoring!]

“What clings to you is a special type that enables sensory sharing and direct control. These are just original bodies infused with souls. They don’t even share vision or recognize commands beyond simple tasks.”

[‘Tin Knight’ asks what the purpose of these is!]

“Oh, that.”

Dorothea grinned.

Feeling an ominous sense before her grin, the Tin Knight worried.

With a snap of her fingers, the bone wolf and bone boar dashed into the woods.

“Well then, how about we have a competition to see who can catch more? Ah, don’t worry, they’ve been instructed not to attack first unless provoked, so if it gets urgent, you can just grab something like that.”

[‘Tin Knight’ is horrified!]

[‘Tin Knight’ screams as his prey vanishes!]

[‘Tin Knight’ ignites his fighting spirit, refusing to back down!]

Clang clang!

With the most enthusiastic movement he had shown since entering the forest, the Tin Knight dashed toward the woods.

“Heh heh heh, right. Since it’s this forest, there’s no need to worry about other eyes. If I wreck the place, something will surely come out. Plus, it’ll be fun to give that troublemaker a headache.”

Though she said it casually, Dorothea’s voice was unusually upbeat.

It seemed the last thing was indeed the main focus.

“Well then, let’s get back to our original tasks.”

Seeing Dorothea grinning brightly unlike usual, Adelheid swallowed hard.

She couldn’t help but feel that the title of witch wasn’t given lightly.

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