第４５７堀：裏方の裏方の裏方の仕事 (Part2)
"Ten times. I've dodged and defended against it that many times now."
Raiya answered as he repositioned his spear. I gripped my greatsword tightly, locking my gaze onto the black ogre at the tip of my blade.
"Think you can handle it?"
"Yeah, no problem. I can't hit its vitals, but I just need to wear it down like the old days."
"Grrr..."
Judging by the fact that it was just listening to our exchange without making a move, it seemed to understand its own situation quite well. It couldn't advance, and it couldn't retreat. But, perhaps having steeled its resolve, I could see a flicker of intensity ignite in the black ogre's eyes.
"GUOOOOHHH...!!"
A roar. A voice that declared it would keep moving forward even if it couldn't win. The courage to spur oneself on. This is something only those who have been through countless battles can do. For this brief moment, we shared a mutual understanding.
Come, let us have a warrior's duel.
"Haaah!!"
"Hmph!!"
"Gruaa!!"
Thanks to Yuki, our strength had increased, and there was no way we would lose. However, since we couldn't finish it in one blow, it became a battle of attrition. The black ogre, despite accumulating wounds as time passed, attacked us without the slightest hint of hesitation.
But eventually, its limits were reached, and it finally stopped moving.
"...Gu... Gru..."
The black ogre collapsed to its knees, unable to even lift its arms. Though it was covered in blood and its end was near, it kept its eyes fixed on us, its fighting spirit undiminished.
"You were strong."
I don't know if it could understand my words, but I said it out of respect for the way it lived. Whether it heard me or not, I don't know, but the black ogre’s strength seemed to leave it; it let go of its club and stopped moving entirely.
"...This is likely the cause of the missing adventurers."
"Probably. Someone this strong would be too much for the Adventurer Guild members to handle. Even we had to resort to a war of attrition."
Honestly, it was on the level of one of Yuki's subordinates. This wasn't just an adventurer-level threat; it was the kind of thing that would usually require an entire army to deal with.
"If that's the case, is it safe to assume this guy was a subordinate of Bicks?"
"...It seems so. Its body is starting to fade."
"Huh?"
As I tilted my head at Raiya's words and looked at the black ogre's remains, it was indeed becoming translucent, leaving behind only a magic stone and its club.
"What does this mean?"
"We're under Bicks's control here. If a subordinate monster dies within his dungeon, that's what happens."
"Ah, right. A drop item."
I nodded at Raiya's explanation and collected the magic stone and the club. Then, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
"Hey. If we defeated someone like Steve in a dungeon, would he drop items too?"
"...Probably."
"I wonder what he'd drop."
"Who knows."
It would be a total scam if someone with that much power just dropped a regular goblin's magic stone. As I was pondering such trivial things, Curse, who had stepped back, returned.
"It seems it's over."
"Yeah."
"What about the people who were captured?"
"They were stuffed into bags quite roughly, so some have sprains, but they're mostly fine. As expected of adventurers, I suppose. If they were ordinary people, the ones at the bottom would have been crushed to death after being packed in like that."
"That's a relief."
"It makes it even more likely that it was a subordinate of Bicks. Targeting only adventurers instead of ordinary people. It must have been aiming for those with high DP."
"I suppose so. While I was in the back, I contacted Yuki and looked into the black ogre. It seems to be a subspecies called a Shadow Ogre. Like Kirika, the Dullahan assassin, it excels in stealth and possesses a skill that has a wide-range hypnotic effect."
"So that's why everyone around was sound asleep."
"Normally, the effect of the skill shouldn't be that high, but..."
"It must have been leveling up or something. That's how strong it was."
"Yes. We should consider it lucky that the two adventurers fighting it weren't affected by the skill. Even so, if we hadn't arrived, they would have ended up in the ogre's stomach."
"And the cover-up would have been perfect. Yeah, this guy is definitely the culprit..."
"Likely. Well, we'll report to Yuki and wait here to see if there's a second wave."
It was good exercise for the first time in a while, but I could do without late-night battles. It interferes with my schedule later on. I'm not as young as I used to be, you know...
A job after a long time. The work of the people behind the scenes of Weed—Yuki, the people behind the scenes of Steve's infiltration of the castle, and the people behind the scenes of that, like Mauve and the others.
And just like that, Bicks's source of income was crushed.
Also, I completely forgot, but Volume 5 goes on sale on November 30th!!
At this point, I don't even feel sentimental about it anymore. The main reason is that I'm too busy with Pokémon and G-Generation, though.