Not Sure, Another World Reincarnation
Chapter 41: So That Thing Was Always There

After transforming the ox monster into a dreadful state, I returned back to the village and a banquet was held.

Stop! Leave me alone! Unfortunately, my wishes weren’t heard and I was caught up in the banquet. They kept insisting that there would be nothing to talk about if the person with the leading role wasn’t there. But I was sure that they would’ve been fine, regardless. Well, the food was good.

The adventurers from the village kept shooting glances at me, but I ignored them with all my might. If Norn wasn’t there, I probably would have been surrounded already. She’s definitely my goddess. I really love her. Roberto and the adventurers were telling the villagers of how the ox monster was defeated. But every time the cheers rose, gazes would concentrate upon me so I couldn’t really relax. At least let me enjoy the food in peace…….

I managed to escape back to the inn when the opportunity presented itself, and after a while, a guild staff brought over a letter. The contents were regarding what had happened this time, and when I return back to Harula, I was suppose to show it to the guild master. It seems it was written so that I wouldn’t get punished. So I was really thankful for that.

Anyways, the next day I decided to return to Harula. Since it had become quite uncomfortable due to yesterday’s incident. After I finished buying the remainder seafood at the market in the morning, I decided to sneak out of the village.

Villager A spotted me on the way, but I ignored the attempts of conversation and promptly ran away. However, after I exited the village and had been walking for a while, Roberto caught up to me and gave me a ride on his carriage. There was a fork on the road to Harula which led to the fief capital, so it seems he wanted to take me up to there as thanks for yesterday. Well, it made things easier so I was grateful for that……

After parting with Roberto at the fork, I slowly continued on foot to Harula. I think I should arrive in 3-4 days on foot? As expected, spending three weeks inside the forest when the trip only took about three day was a bit much. But it couldn’t be helped. Yep, it couldn’t be helped. I had to do my daily routine.

Thus, I continued on like that and I finally saw the southern forest of Halura to my left. I felt nostalgic. I was out for more than a month after all.

As I was thinking over how long it has been since I was last here, two adventurer-looking people came scrambling out of the forest a little ahead. They looked rather flustered, and distressed? But before I could give it any more thought, an ogre came crashing through the trees.

Eh, an ogre? Why? Isn’t this quite bad? Should I help them? Ahh, but this wouldn’t be an emergency situation like helping merchants or ordinary people, it would be considered stealing the prey of other adventurers. Since it’s not something I should interfere with, should I just ignore it? I didn’t want to attract attention for no reason, so I guess I should go with ignoring? But as I was making up my mind, my eyes met with an adventurer that had fallen to the ground.

“H-Help!”

Roger. Aim knife, activate rifling barrel, 400 speed. And fire. It landed right on the head. And penetrated handle-deep. But it didn’t fall. Huh? Was it not strong enough?

The ogre stopped and slowly looked over, then our eyes met. But just as I was thinking this was bad, the ogre suddenly collapsed. I was a little surprised that I managed to beat it.

When I was fighting the ox monster the other day, I forgot and just used 800 speed without activating rifling barrel. So I thought I would test it out now. I thought I had failed, but I guess using 400 speed was okay? Rather, with a knife that size penetrating the head, it would be impossible to stay alive anyways. I walked towards the people I had just saved.

“You all alright?” “Y-Yeah, you saved us.” “Um, can I keep this ogre?” “……Yeah, no problem. I wasn’t able to do anything.”

“Hey, but we also fought it too, right? Don’t we also get our share too?” “If that’s what you think, you can try to negotiate for it. I’m not going to complain. She just saved us. So I’m not going to ask for something so shameless.” “…….Well, I guess you have a point. I’m also fine then, take my share too.”

Hmmm, if you can rub it, it’s fine to divide it separately … Well, let’s get it if you can get everything. After storing away the ogre I started questioning them.

“What was an ogre doing in such a place?” “Huh? Oh, you don’t know? About a week ago there were sightings of ogres. Then, soon after, several casualties occurred. But no one died.”

“That’s why a guild-ordered subjugation party was formed. According to the scouting done beforehand, there was only about 20 ogres, so two C rank parties and five D rank parties were formed. There might have been a few injuries, but the combat force should’ve been more than enough. It was supposed to be fairly manageable.”

“Right, that’s how it should have been. But when we actually entered the forest, it wasn’t just a group of ogres. It was a group led by an ogre lord.”

Ogre lord…….

So aside from ogres, the group was being led by a ruler class so their strength would have jumped quite a bit. Like how the goblin king was for goblins and ogre lord was for ogres. Or like any other higher-ranking individual that would correspond to the type. It seems that a group with such advanced commanding individuals is given a support effect by their skills to the subordinate individuals, and each ability value is corrected.

“Grrrr……..”

Hm? I wasn’t sure why, but Norn had been acting up since a while ago. What’s wrong?

“So what happened?”

“…….We were fine for a while when we entered the forest. We only encountered one or two ogres, so we could beat them normally when we surrounded them. But after defeating about five of them. We encountered a group led by the lord. And we were overwhelmed. The C ranks fought hard but the D ranks were quickly scattered and had to escape. Us too.”

“The rest are probably still fighting in the woods. They’re surrounded so they likely can’t escape…….” “I see……but where did the ogre lord suddenly appear from?” “Apparently, it came from the forest towards the west. Some villages along the way have been attacked. ”

From the forest towards the west….. wait, the forest towards the west? So the forest where I was living in? There was such an opponent in that forest……hm? I feel like I’ve thought the same thing before in the past. And for some reason Norn seems agitated, something was off.

…………Ah, maybe.

“Norn, when we first met, weren’t you injured? Was it perhaps because of?” “Grrrrrr!”

Bingo, looks like I was right.

The thing that injured Norn at that time was probably the ogre lord that was in the forest right now. Upon hearing that, I now feel like getting revenge for Norn……