118 bodyguard (2/2)

Soon, we saw a cavern with a gaping mouth, and about ten soldiers gathered in front of it, guarding the entrance. The others seemed to have already entered the cave.

Then we'll go inside too.

A man who seemed to be the captain of the remaining ten men said to us. We nodded our heads in agreement. Marius and his bodyguards are staying here, or rather, they are not going to go inside and take command. I'm sure they'll go in if the need arises, though.

One of them moved the fire from the campfire by the entrance to a torch to light it. Perhaps the advance party had cleared the area, but we did not come across anything even after half an hour.

It's so deep.

I muttered to myself.

'Yeah, it's pretty deep. I went to the deepest part once yesterday, and it would have taken me about an hour to get there without any obstacles.

That would make it less than four kilometers. Yes, it is deep. There were very few branches, and the advance party had set up torches on the right side of the path, so we were lucky not to get lost.

The only thing that worries me about using lights in a place like this is oxygen, but it seems to have been burning for a long time, so there must be places where air goes in and out. I don't feel any wind, so I am still worried.

The longer it burns, the more likely it is that stagnant magic will build up. It is said that when the stagnant magic exceeds a certain level, demons will spring up, but the details are not known.

Liddy gave us an explanation. The Kuro Forest has a lot of demonic power, but it's not the only place where demons appear naturally.

I can understand why the Kuro Forest has a lot of magic, but demons rarely appear. However, you might want to ask Samija about the existence of the cave, though I thought she would never say. You don't want them to just pop up out of nowhere one day.

A little further on, we heard a muffled metallic sound. In this situation, it must be the sound of battle. It's hard to tell if it's far away or close because it's probably reverberating.

Speaking of which, we've reached the far end, didn't we finish it yesterday?

I ask the captain as I walk hurriedly. The reason why I don't run is because when I get there, I'm not in the best condition.

”Yeah. Yeah, there's a strong one. We decided to retreat just in case.

”I see. Why are we going today?

The demons won't stop sprouting if we don't defeat it, but the new recruits just can't do it. The villagers here say they know how to defeat it, so we're bringing them along now.

I don't want to treat Liddy-san like an object, but it's like carrying the explosives needed to blow up the enemy base deep into the enemy base. Once that's decided, we just have to get them safely to the back.

We trudged on toward the sound of the battle, which was getting louder and louder.