I wasn"t able to post this together with the last MaouMuji Chapter because of problems at home. That"s also why I wasn"t able to post a chapter last week.

Anyway, Happy New Year and belated Happy Holidays! (〜￣▽￣)〜

Chapter 29: Total exhaustion! cannot understand that reasoning!

AN: Jiiiiiiiiiiiiーーーーーーーー (´・ω・｀)

TL: kizen
ED: Filip

「*pant*…… *pant*…… N-no more……」

The ranger vanguard finally fell to his knees.

「Boss…… It"s impossible to do more than this…… I can"t go on anymore……」

It wasn"t just him.
The entire party was at the peak of exhaustion.

They could feel numerous gazed pointed at them regardless of whether it was day or night.
Furthermore, they have absolutely no idea of the other party"s whereabouts.
The gaze wasn"t hostile but, it wasn"t friendly either.

The cold gaze that"s being pointed at them has now greatly whittled away their nerves.

An entire day has pa.s.sed since they"ve been in the forest but an encounter that should have happened has never occurred even once.

There should be monsters in here.
Or at least that what their senses were indicating.
However, once they approached a presence at a certain distance, that presence would suddenly disappear.

They would feel a murderous intent pierce through their bodies for an instant then the traces of the monster that should have been close by would completely vanish.

After that, as far as they were concerned, there"s nothing left for them but fear.
Even though they were all skilled A rank adventurers, there was something there that moved so fast, they couldn"t figure out what it was.

They would much rather have it attack them head on instead of this.
There"s no way for them to relieve the tension they"re feeling and that"s wearing down on their souls.

The fear that they felt from that ominous gaze wouldn"t go away so the adventurers could do nothing but keep on walking.

Have they ever had an investigation as rough as this before?
They tried thinking about it but there was no quest that"s as tough and dangerous as this one.

Once the Ranger fell to his knees, his other companions also followed suit in succession.
They all have reached their limits.

「Fine, we"ll camp here for today. We will be taking a long break. I"ll be the first one standing watch. We"ll switch turns every two hours. You guys should rest after you finish eating」

n.o.body uttered a single word about withdrawing.

The lives of many depend on the completion of this task.
That just shows how grave a large scale mana disaster is.
They can"t just shamelessly go home until they determine its origin.

They understand that depending on the result of their investigation, the damage estimations might change so running is not an option.

「ah, It would be nice if we had that meat the dog was eating…… That nice big slice looked so tender……」

「Don"t talk about that. You"ll just make us feel even more miserable…… Just imagine that this clay you"re eating is meat……」

「That"s just stupid……」

Aside from its nutritional value, everything was terrible about the military provisions they were carrying. After washing it down with lukewarm water, they immediately fell into deep sleep.

「Wafuu (Well then, now that we"re full, I guess we should depart soonー)」

「Chuuー (An entire day has already past after all. Those guys are probably considerably far ahead)」

「Nya~n (Their mission is going so smoothly that they"re probably starting to want to go home by now, right~?)」

Late at night, we once again gathered in the courtyard.
After we finished eating the food we gathered as a light midnight snack, we moved using Nafra"s s.p.a.ce magic.

Everything turned white and a fraction of a second later, the scenery before us changed into that of the dark forest.

There, we were greeted by a pair of golden pupils.

「Gau (My king. It"s of great relief that you have safely returned)」

It was Garo, the jet-black demon wolf.
That black fur of hers is making it hard to see her in this dark forest.

To be honest, I almost screamed because I thought she was a ghost but I"ll just keep that to myself.

「Wan (O-oh, if it isn"t Garo. It"s good that you found this place)」

「Gau (My liege"s scent vanished in this area so I figured that we would eventually meet if I wait here)」

What an amazing tracking ability, as expected of a wolf.
It"s kinda scary how stalker-like it is though.

「Wan (Where are the adventurers right now? Since they haven"t entered any battles, they should already be ahead, am I right?)」

I promptly asked Garo how our strategy was going.
However, her reply betrayed my expectations.

「Wafuu!? (Ehhh!? No way, they"re still that far away!?)*」

「Gau (Yes. They"ve become quite exhausted for some reason. They are currently camping at a location further south away from here. At this speed, it would take them 10 days before they reach the waterfall)」

What the heck, it doesn"t seem like they"re even close to reaching this area.

「Wan (U~n, I wonder if this forest is that formidable… I thought that adventurers are supposed to be used to these kinds of environments though)」

I wonder if they"re actually low ranked adventurers.
If that"s the case then they wouldn"t have even reached their current location without our cordial protection.

「Wan (Well, I guess it"s fine to take it slow. We can just take our time doing preparations. We will continue advancing towards the waterfall so I"ll leave it to Garo and the others to continuously escort them. Make sure that they"re even safer this time)」

「Gau! (Certainly! Please leave it to us!)」

Looking at Garo who"s standing at attention, I suddenly had a curious thought.

「Wan (Come to think of it, Garo, have you gotten smaller?)」

If I remember correctly, Garo should have been slightly bigger then me.
However, that has now been reversed.

「Gau (Your Majesty, with all due respect, it"s not that I"ve shrunk but rather it is your majesty who has grown)」

I immediately understood why after hearing Garo"s words.

「Wan (Ahー, I see. It still hasn"t been a month since I was born after all. I guess I still going to grow some more)」

No wonder my body got stuck as I was pa.s.sing through the back door. That would also explain why the bed is starting to creak.
It seems like I"ve grown extremely big without me noticing it.

Hm? That"s a huge1 problem, isn"t it……?

「G-gau (H-how lovely…… The king who"s still growing is bound to get even stronger)」

Un, I"m not happy about that at all so stop saying that in a bashful way.
I don"t feel a "kyun" so I"m sure that I"m not into furries after all.

「B-boss……! The gazes are even stronger than yesterday……!」

「I-I don"t know if it"s just my imagination but why does it seem like their numbers are increasing as well……!?」

「d.a.m.n it! Where are you! Come out! Just come out……!」

「What the h.e.l.l is up with this forest……!!!」

The adventurers became terrified at the increased pressure they were feeling from the gaze. Will they be able to safely reach their destination ahead?

Although they were getting crushed by the fear and anxiety they were feeling, the heroic A rank adventurers continued their journey deeper into the forest.

Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiーーーーーー (´・ω・｀) Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiーーーーーー
Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiーーーーーー (´・ω・｀) Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiーーーーーー
Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiーーーーーー (´・ω・｀) Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiーーーーーー
Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiーーーーーー (´・ω・｀) Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiーーーーーー

TL: If you don"t know, that"s the onomatopoeia for staring in j.a.panese. It"s the accurate depiction of what the adventurers were feeling.