73: A pretty girl's request? Gotta grant it, right?

We push through the forest under Shururu's guidance.

Even after drinking a stamina potion, Shururu glided through the woods like a leaf on the wind, but Eva couldn’t keep up, so she slowed just a bit.

That gave Shururu some breathing room, and we ended up chatting.

"How much farther to the village?"

"Just a little more!"

"Eva! You okay!?!"

"W-What? I'm fine!"

Not exactly tough enemies, but that giant frog could be anywhere—splitting up would be reckless.

We push hard, staying close, heading straight for the Lizardman village.

The village’s name is Gourd Marsh Village.

Just to be clear—this isn’t the old wetland near Goldendown. Totally different place. Different distance. Different direction.

Seems like Shurl's dad’s the village chief.

"Right. That big frog monster—Paralyzefrog Baron, was it? So the Baron showed up in bunches and attacked the village?"

"Yeah. The armored warriors held the line, got us lizardfolk with few scales out of there… "

Shurl cuts off mid-sentence.

"Even on the run, there was a Baron. My friend—she prioritized me, the chief’s daughter—got me away… "

He bites his lip, bitter.

"I said I’d fight too. But they said, 'What’s the point of fleeing if you’re not fighting?' and dragged me off anyway…"

"Yeah. Hope they made it out okay."

No bodies looked like survivors along the path back to the village. So I’m hoping they got away somehow.

"Craft! Raidock! Combat sounds are getting close!"

At Jitarou's signal, we shifted from marching formation to battle formation.

Raidock barked the order.

"Listen up! We're breaking through the frog encirclement at one point! Charge into the village! After that, we follow the plan we set during the march!"

"Yesss!!"

"Shurul! The success of this mission depends on your persuasion!"

"Y-yes!"

"Good! Full-speed advance!"

Leifan wasn’t leading this time—Raidock took point, sprinting toward the clamor.

"Spiral Cyclone! Chaotic Dance! Stormwind Slash!"

As soon as we burst into open space, Raidock’s sword techniques exploded. A path cleared before him.

I broke through the trees, and there it was—the settlement.

The village was ringed by a semicircular wooden palisade along the marsh’s edge.

Frogs surrounded it from every side.

The village should’ve been safe, guarded by the palisade and the marsh. But the enemy’s frogs. Giant ones. The marsh isn’t doing jack to stop them.

Some frogs are dumb enough to butt their heads into the log palisade, but most are coming in from the marsh side.

We stick to the plan—head straight for the landward front gate.

Few frogs bother with the palisade or gate, but damn, there are *so many*. Naturally, the main gate’s swarming with them.

“Get out of the way! ‘Ten-Character Slash’! ‘Wolf Charge Collapse’!”

“Covering you! ‘Flash Fang Strike’! ‘Void Void’!”

Raidock turns the frogs gathered at the gate into minced meat. Soral’s bow picks off more. Still—what the hell is this number?!

Baron Frog’s massive. And there are over a hundred of them. The pressure’s insane.

From atop the gate made of stacked logs, a lizardman swung his spear and let out a shriek when he spotted us.

“What?!”

“It’s me! Shururu!”

“Shururu-sama!? Why are you back!?”

“We’re reinforcements! Open the gate!”

“What?! But—those aren’t humans, are they!?”

We formed a defensive line around Shururu at the gate.

Chopping down the advancing barons one after another. Breaking through the gate would be easy—but the main front is on the swamp side. We need to hold this.

“But they’re allies!”

“Y-Yes, but—”

“No time for questions! You see how strong they are right now!”

“B-But how do we know they’re not enemies!?”

“If they wanted to attack this village, they’d have torn through this gate like paper! The fact that they’re guarding it is proof enough, isn’t it!?”

“Ugh…! Got it! Open it! Let the Shururu party in—then close it fast!”

“Nice work, Shururu!”

The wooden gate, battered to near ruin, creaked open just wide enough to squeeze through.

“Alright! Roll in!”

Under Raidock’s command, we tumbled into the village.

Inside, it was worse than I’d imagined.

Everywhere, lizardmen lay gasping, wheezing, rolling in agony.

Seemed like a powerful paralysis toxin—couldn’t even breathe right.

“Everyone!?!”

“Shururu-sama! What in the name of the gods is going on!?”

“Explanations later—first, we gotta heal everyone!”

“Heal? There’s no cure for Baron’s paralysis toxin…!”

“Craft! Please!”

“Leave it to me!”

I pull out the test tubes filled with cure potions I’d prepared, tucking three between my fingers on each hand.

Then, using the same flick of the wrist I perfected back in my adventuring days, I toss them one after another at the fallen lizards.

“What are you doing!? Human!”

I ignore the shouting lizardman and let the potion vial fly.

Leifan’s special potion bottle—Feature one: extremely tough, nearly unbreakable.

Feature two: when infused with a specific magic, it shatters after a proportional amount of time.

Right now, the vials I’ve thrown are keyed to break the instant they hit a lizardman.

No need to open each bottle. Cure potions just spray across the lizardmen’s bodies, one after another.

Feature three: when broken by magic, the potion bottle vanishes.

No risk of injury from shattered glass.

"Zee! Zee! Hurts... breathing! Air...!"

The potion bottle flew toward the lizardman writhing on the ground, vanishing just before it hit—shattering midair.

Only the mana potion inside splashed onto the lizardman.

"Zee! Zee! Someone... wait? What? I can breathe! I can breathe!? What the hell is going on!?"

Good! It's working!

I tossed bottle after bottle, healing the fallen lizardmen one after another.

"Did... did you save me?"

"I can breathe!"

"What the hell is going on!?"

I watched as every lizardman in sight stood up. Only then did I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

Probably soldiers guarding the gate—more reptilian than the Shurlu, with thick scales covering most of them, just like you’d expect.

“Humans? Why are you here?”

“Everyone listen! These people came to help us! You see for yourself—they can treat Baron’s paralysis toxin!”

“Oh!”

“But we’re not supposed to touch humans… never…”

“Saying that’ll get us all killed!”

“Ugh…”

“Lady Shurlu! Then what should we do from here…?”

“Raidock-san!”

“Yeah! Listen up, everyone! We’ve got no intention of hurting you! Right now, we don’t have time for explanations! We came to help!”

“T-that’s… really helpful… but…”

“Can you defend this gate all by yourselves!?”

“W-well… I mean…”

“If it weren’t for this paralysis toxin, our warriors wouldn’t be lagging behind some frog or anything!”

The lizardmen grit their teeth, muttering under their breath.

"Then you can rest easy!"

I pull out a massive stash of potions from my spatial storage.

"This is antidote! Enough for everyone!"

"W-what?! You can heal AND prevent it?!"

"Yep! I'm leaving some healing potions and Healing Potions too—should be enough, right?!"

"Th-thanks... but this is a precious thing, isn't it?"

"What's more precious than life?!"

"Craft...?"

Shururu looks up at me.

Relax. I'm not charging you.

"Also, stamina potions. Drink them all and keep them on hand!"

"...Got it! Everyone! This is an emergency! Trust Shururu!"

"Everyone! Thank you!"

"If it weren't for that paralysis toxin, we'd be kicking those frogs' asses!"

"Still, shouldn't we go reinforce the swamp side?"

Raidock cuts through the rising clamor of the lizardmen.

We can't hold back! You stay here and defend this spot! We'll take the swamp side!

"But!"

Even us can’t handle being ambushed from behind! I don’t want to leave my back exposed to you lot!

Like they’d been struck by lightning, the lizards shuddered.

...Got it! I'm trusting you! And I'm asking you to trust us! This gate—your backs—we've got your backs!

Thanks!

Right after Raidock bowed.

From deep within the village, from the side of the marsh, came a low, guttural boom that rattled through my belly.

"Looks bad. Alright! Everyone, move out! This is where it starts!"

"Ooooh!!!"

Raidock leading, we raced through the village.

I was throwing potion bottles at every lizardman I spotted, one after another, while running.

Sorry I'm late.

Was tied up with that other series, the god-themed SHOP (´Д`)

And now, filing my tax return...orz

I'll do my best (´Д`)