Below them sprawled a massive goblin village. Smoke curled up from a mound of burning wood, and the smell of roasted meat drifted up on the wind, tickling the nose.
“…Rough count,”
Ace murmured, shading his eyes with one hand.
“We’re looking at at least five hundred.”
Rome’s face twisted.
“Damn it… how does a mail delivery job turn into a damn miniature war?”
Sight let out a quiet chuckle and lifted his bottle.
“Told you. Easy jobs don’t exist.”
Ace started laying out a plan with a straight face.
“Alright. For this one, Earp can probably solo it. These aren’t undead, so Mary doesn’t need to risk going down there. We’ll wait until it’s cleared, then you can just heal once.”
Mary flinched like she’d been slapped.
“Excuse me?! Why are you talking like I’m just a healing item?!”
“Hey, hey don’t get dramatic,”
Ace said quickly, trying to smooth it over.
“This quest is actually easy… if you ignore the part where the enemy has five hundred bodies.”
Valda rested her chin on her hand, staring down at the village.
“And what about me? Am I supposed to go fix goblin houses or something?”
“Well… you can fix Mary’s heart first,”
Sight said with a laugh.
Mary’s face went red.
“I don’t need fixing! I’m not broken!!”
Lily lifted a hand and covered one eye in a dramatic pose.
“Hmph… you fools. If you unleash me, the Eye of Chaos will grind this village to dust until nothing remains…”
“No. No. No. Absolutely not Lily is cut,”
Ace snapped immediately.
“She can’t control her mana. If she goes off, the whole village will explode and we’ll lose the hostage!”
“Cut… me…?!”
Lily shrieked. “How dare you insult the dignity of a mage who commands all seven elements!”
Rome let out a long, suffering sigh.
“…Are we sure this is an S-Rank party?”
While Ace and Lily were still arguing, Earp stood perfectly still—his expression tight, serious.
“…Killing on this scale is a grave sin,”
the boy said, voice heavy with genuine anguish.
Ace and Sight exchanged a glance, then immediately teamed up to talk him down.
“Listen, Earp those things kidnapped a human!”
“Yeah,”
Sight added quickly, leaning in like he was delivering a holy argument.
“An innocent that God loves. They’re suffering right now. If we don’t help, that’s even more sinful!”
Earp clenched his fists so hard his knuckles paled.
“…Alright,”
he said at last.
“I’ll try.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he closed his eyes and expanded a detection skill.
In an instant, the air around the goblin village felt like it had been locked inside a cage—pressed down under the sheer weight of his presence. Every enemy was marked in a blink, all targets captured at once.
And before anyone could say another word…
Earp vanished from sight.
Ace blinked rapidly, stunned.
“He just disappeared right in front of us… Are we sure I’m the party leader here?”
Sight stared, still confused.
“Don’t ask me. I’m still drunk.”
In the heart of the goblin village…
Earp’s small figure appeared in the central square without a sound.
The goblins around him snapped their heads toward the intruder, throats ripping open with savage snarls.
GRAAAK!!
They surged forward in a violent wave, weapons raised—
And then, in the very same instant…
…everything seemed to stop.
The flames of the bonfire flickered slower, as if the air had thickened. Shouts dulled, muffled—like someone had pressed a pause button on the world itself.
Only one thing still moved.
Earp.
A small boy in a black hood, twin short blades gripped tight in both hands, slipping between goblins like wind through tall grass.
Shhk— A blade cut one throat.
Shhk— Another.
Every strike landed perfectly on the kill point. No wasted motion. No hesitation.
One wound. One life.
To everyone else, he barely seemed to exist.
But for him, it was as if time had slowed—because his speed had gone beyond what anyone could follow.
Not long after, the slowed world snapped back to normal.
Earp stood in the middle of the village as if he’d never moved at all—without a single drop of sweat.
Around him, goblins dropped—
thump.
thump.
Dozens. Hundreds—almost at the same time, collapsing to the ground without ever understanding what had happened.
Up on the hill, Ace still looked dazed.
“Huh?! Where the hell did Earp go just now?”
Sight kept arguing, deadpan.
“I told you. He’s been gone for a while. Are you blind or something?”
Then—
The sound hit.
The heavy, synchronized impact of hundreds of bodies falling at once.
THUUUUMP!!
Both of them turned—
The village that had been swarming with goblins was now silent, leaving only heaps of corpses piled across the ground.
Ace’s mouth hung open.
Sight slowly lifted his bottle and took a long, calm sip.
“HEY!!”
Ace shouted.
“We didn’t even get to go down there and help, what the hell!!”
“It’s fine,”
Sight said, shoulders slumping.
“…Means I don’t have to waste arrows.”
Five hundred goblins—erased in a blink.
This village had been a main camp for a splinter faction: goblins who refused to submit to the hobgoblin chieftain, choosing instead to do whatever they pleased. They kidnapped humans and sold them as slave labor—especially women, whose prices skyrocketed if they were pretty.
But…
With Earp’s clean, merciless slaughter—leaving nothing behind—
there wasn’t even a single clue left to follow.
When the smoke from the fires finally died down, the other six members came down into the village to join Earp.
Mary rushed straight to the surviving captives.
“It’s alright,”
she said gently, voice trembling with urgency but warm with certainty.
“I’m here. I’ll heal you…”
Soft white light spilled from her hands.
Several captives broke into tears—relief flooding through them like a wave.
Valda, meanwhile, pulled out a needle and thread.
“Alright come here,”
she called, brisk but caring.
“Anyone with torn clothes, I’ll fix you up first.”
Her fingers moved with practiced ease, like she was repairing her party’s armor between battles.
While that was happening, Ace and Sight split off to search for Elina.
And at last…
they found the young woman who was the true target of the quest.
“Ms. Elina, right?”
Ace asked carefully.
“This… is a letter from Edward.”
He handed it to her with a polite smile.
Elina opened the envelope, glanced inside—
…and her expression changed instantly.
“I told him to wait until the end of the month! Why is he rushing like this?!”
she snapped.
Ace turned and gave Sight a stiff, helpless smile.
Uh-oh…
Sight tried to salvage it.
“Or… maybe Edward’s planning to come see you soon?”
Elina jerked her head back toward them.
“Obviously! We agreed on the end of the month—but look at this!”
She thrust the letter up.
“He says he’s coming this weekend instead! What is that supposed to mean? He’s not giving me any time at all!”
Ace attempted a gentle, diplomatic tone.
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“Well… maybe he just misses you a lot. Maybe he got impatient.”
“Miss me, my ass!”
Elina raised her voice.
“A promise is a promise!”
Ace swallowed. Then he asked the dangerous question anyway.
“Or… do you have another man?”
“Of course I do!”
Elina shot back.
“I’m married!!”
“Huh ?!”
Sight’s mouth fell open.
“Then Edward’s getting his heart broken for real!”
he blurted out.
“Does he even know you’re married?!”
Elina stared at him like he’d asked whether water was wet.
“Of course he knows. Why wouldn’t he?”
Now it was Ace’s turn to panic.
“Wait he knows you’re married and he’s still sending you letters and trying to meet you? Isn’t that… kind of messed up?!”
Elina snapped back immediately.
“Who the hell is trying to hit on me?! That idiot?!”
Sight quickly raised the letter.
“But he sent you a love letter!”
“A love letter my ass!”
Elina barked.
“It’s a debt collection letter!!”
“WHAAAAAT?!”
Ace and Sight shouted so loudly that Mary flinched mid-heal spell on the other side of the village.
Elina let out a violent sigh, then rattled off the explanation in one breath.
“Earlier, my husband got sick. I had to borrow money from Edward because every time I move my goods through the city gate, he’s the guard on duty. But lately the harvest hasn’t been great. Even though my husband recovered, the debt still has to be paid back. I already scheduled it for the end of the month then he sends a letter saying he’s coming to collect this weekend instead! What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”
With that, she whipped her head away and stormed off, furious.
Leaving Ace and Sight standing there, dumbfounded…
in the middle of a goblin village filled with corpses.
“…Huh?!?!?”
Ace’s voice echoed across the camp that had just been wiped clean.
After all the chaos finally settled, the seven of them returned to the guild to report and confirm the quest.
The results left the guild staff nearly speechless.
This S-Rank party had managed to complete a Rank G mail-delivery quest… and, completely unintentionally, clear a Rank S goblin village at the same time.
Later, when they sat around a wooden table in the guild hall to debrief, Lily was the first to bring something up.
“Hey… this time I didn’t do anything.”
The young mage rested her chin on her hand, her voice thick with sulky disappointment.
“My mana is overflowing. It’s practically going to burst out of me… When do I get to step in already?”
Ace, sitting at the head of the table, immediately went quiet. He had no idea how to answer—because honestly, this quest had been, from the beginning…
…just delivering a letter.
Rome leaned back in his chair and flicked his cloak with the elegance of a man who considered “dust” a mortal enemy. Then he spoke in a serious tone—sweetened just slightly, for maximum drama.
“Oh, my darling, don’t worry about it!”
he declared.
“That easy job we’ve been searching for? It’s right here… herb gathering!”
“Huh?”
Valda cut in, genuinely puzzled.
“Didn’t someone already take that quest?”
“Just the other day, I saw a rookie Rank G say he accepted it… and it’s been two days already.”
She thought for a moment.
“Maybe they’re waiting for the roots to draw the toxins out.”
Rome lifted a hand and waved it lightly, wearing a soft smile that somehow still carried absolute confidence.
“You never know~! Maybe they need more herbs than that.”
He leaned forward slightly. “I’ve been hearing these things are crazy popular lately…”
He stood.
“So I’ll go confirm it at the counter right now. Tomorrow morning, we’ll head out together. Okaaay~?”
No one objected. On paper, it looked like a relaxing job—nothing that could possibly go wrong.
But Lily still puffed her cheeks in mild irritation.
Because what she truly wanted wasn’t picking leaves.
It was the glorious, long-awaited chance to unleash the catastrophic magic she’d been saving up.
“Then let’s go gather herbs,”
Earp said brightly, eyes glittering like a kid who’d just been promised a new toy.
“That kind of work I’m happy to do it.”
But the adventurers from other parties sitting nearby heard something very different.
What they understood was:
“I can’t wait to go out there and start chopping heads.”
The guild hall’s atmosphere sagged for a moment.
Other adventurers slowly turned their faces away, shaking their heads as they muttered under their breath—
“That kid… he’s really too dangerous.”
After everyone split up to prepare, Valda turned and headed back to Eirik’s shop again—this time with a lingering question she couldn’t shake.
“Eirik…”
she asked plainly, hands on her hips.
“So last night—did you go check on that Rank G kid or not?”
Eirik looked mildly annoyed, but he answered anyway.
“Yeah. I did. But I didn’t see him,”
he said with a click of his tongue.
“All I found were the herbs he’d already gathered and left at the roots like he was supposed to. If you ask me, he probably gritted his teeth and came back to rent a room in town. Otherwise he wouldn’t have abandoned work like that.”
Valda nodded slowly.
“I see…”
She kept her doubts to herself—and left the shop without asking anything more.
The next morning, all seven of them met at the south city gate, ready to head out and gather herbs—just like Rome had confirmed the day before.
The mood was still bright, but Ace scratched his head lightly. He couldn’t help wondering—
“Hey… if this herb is really that popular, why isn’t anyone else rushing out to collect it?”
Normally, the southern forest was deep and overgrown. No villages. No civilians. And it was packed with high-level beasts.
That was why the guards at this gate were especially strict.
But when they stepped into the woods…
…the edge of the forest was unnervingly silent.
Everyone split up and started gathering herbs, following Valda’s instructions.
“Listen carefully,”
Valda said.
“This herb is poisonous. You cannot use it directly. You have to leave it at the roots for a full three days so the tree can naturally absorb the toxins… Understand?”
Mary raised her hand a little.
“Uh… it’ll probably be fine for me,”
she said politely.
“My body has a fully developed poison resistance skill.”
Earp smiled faintly, spinning a knife in his hand.
“I’ll be fine too,”
he added calmly.
“For me… drinking poison isn’t any different from having a cup of hot cocoa before bed.”
Valda let out a long sigh.
Ace quietly pinched the bridge of his nose.
His party…
…was truly full of absolute weirdos.
While everyone was bending down and standing back up again, gathering herbs the way Valda instructed…
Sight was the only one who didn’t seem very focused on the job.
He stood still for a while, listening—ears practically tilted toward the forest itself—then slowly turned his head, scanning the trees.
“…Weird,”
he muttered.
“Why aren’t there any bugs?”
Ace, who caught that, lifted his head.
“Huh? Isn’t that good luck? No bugs to bother us and we don’t have to worry about getting bitten.”
Sight gave a small shake of his head.
“No, it’s not like that. This southern forest used to be crawling with monster insects,”
he said quietly.
“Even I used to come out here a lot to practice archery. I’d use those things as targets.”
He paused, frown deepening.
“But now… there isn’t a single one.”
Rome lifted a hand to his lips in an exaggerated, theatrical gesture.
“Oh my… that gives me chills,”
he said dramatically.
“It’s like the forest got purified in some kind of ritual.”
“Or,”
Ace cut in immediately, grinning as he teased,
“you’re just so drunk the bugs don’t want to come near you because you reek of booze.”
He chuckled to himself, then leaned into it.
“Be honest, Sight. You just need to pee, don’t you? That’s why you’re trying to sneak off and find a spot.”
Sight clenched his jaw but didn’t answer.
He simply grabbed his bow, slung it over his shoulder, and walked silently deeper into the woods.
“H-Hey! I’m kidding!”
Ace called after him, the grin starting to falter.
“…Don’t tell me that was actually true?”
Ace muttered to himself.
Time passed.
The six of them finished gathering the required number of herbs. Only the final step remained—placing them at the base of a tree so the toxins could be absorbed naturally.
“Alright done,”
Mary said, brushing her hands off with a relieved smile.
But then—
Footsteps sounded from deeper inside the forest.
Sight emerged from the darkness between the trees, his face unusually tense.
“We’ve got a problem…”
His voice dropped so low that everyone seemed to forget how to breathe for a moment.
Ace reacted instantly, the moment he saw Sight’s expression.
“What happened?”
“If you go deeper, there’s a swamp,”
Sight said, wiping sweat from his brow.
“A lizard tribe has settled there.”
Ace frowned.
“Lizards? We run into those all the time. That’s not exactly weird.”
Sight shook his head.
“It’s not just ‘often.’”
His eyes hardened.
“There are thousands of them.”
“…What?!”
Ace blurted, voice cracking.
“Thousands?!”
“Eww lizards by the thousands…”
Rome shuddered dramatically, flicking at his cloak as if the very thought had dirtied it.
“Just picturing it is disgusting~”
As the tension started to coil—
Lily’s grin spread wide, her eyes sparkling.
“Heh. Heh. Heh…”
she laughed softly, like a villain rehearsing.
“Then the time has come… for me to unleash the Eye of Chaos! HAH! HAH! HAH!!”
“There’s no such thing!”
Ace snapped back immediately.
“That stupid Eye whatever doesn’t exist!”
“It does too!”
Lily shouted, utterly possessed by her own lore.
“If the manga says it’s real, then it’s real!!”
Ace let out a long sigh.
“Ugh… whatever. Let’s go take a look first.”
He rubbed his forehead, forcing himself back into leader mode.
“We don’t know what’s going on yet, but we won’t know the truth if we don’t go in. And we still have time.”
“Sure,”
Valda replied with a bright smile.
“Shouldn’t hurt.”
Then she suddenly whipped her head toward Sight.
“By the way… why are your pant legs completely covered in mud like that?”
“Uh… well… I”
Sight didn’t even get to finish his excuse.
CRASH!!
The sound of a hammer slamming down thundered through the clearing. Sight staggered and went sprawling, nearly collapsing into a heap.
“Take your pants off.”
Valda smiled sweetly—eyes gleaming with something feral.
“H… Huh?! Wait, what?!” Sight squeaked. “Not in front of everyone!”
“Now!!”
Before anyone could say a word, Sight was forced to remove his pants—
and Valda immediately cast a perfect restoration spell Regenerator.
The fabric repaired itself flawlessly, returning to pristine condition like it had just come fresh off a store shelf.
Rome clapped, tinkling like a fancy ornament.
“Oh my… spotless. Like it came straight out of a luxury mall~”
“Enough,”
Ace said, shaking his head in exhausted disbelief.
“Let’s go.”
And with that, all seven of them headed deeper into the forest…
to investigate the lizard nest Sight had found.
What lay before them was exactly what Sight had described.
Thousands of lizards packed together—crammed into the swamp and spilling into the surrounding forest. The ground almost trembled from the rhythmic sound of their synchronized breathing.
But the strangest part wasn’t the sheer number.
It was this—
There was no camp. No sign of nesting. No trace of burrows, shelter, or any attempt at settling down.
They weren’t
“moving in.”
They looked like a wild herd that had been forced into gathering here—suddenly, unnaturally.
“This is…”
Valda frowned, narrowing her eyes toward the swamp below.
Then her eyes widened.
“No way… That guy. The Rank G adventurer I saw the other day!”
Nearby, several humans had been tied up and piled together at the edge of the woods.
The sight instantly tightened the air.
They were exhausted—so drained they barely had the strength left to call for help.
“Lizards don’t normally take prisoners,”
Valda murmured, confusion lacing her voice.
“Right,”
Sight agreed, brows knitting.
“They mostly eat insects. But now…”
His gaze swept across the swamp—so unnervingly quiet.
“…I’m not surprised anymore why all the bugs disappeared.”
“And they’re keeping humans locked up,”
Ace added, voice turning grim.
“That only means one thing… they’re stockpiling food. Because their main food source is gone.”
“So what do we do?”
Sight asked Ace, turning to him.
Before Ace could answer, Mary raised a small hand.
“Um…”
she said cautiously.
“The guild has issued lizard extermination quests before, right? If I remember correctly… the coordinates listed on that quest were… this exact place.”
Every head snapped toward her.
Mary immediately grabbed her own head with both hands, as if realizing she’d just said something she wasn’t supposed to say again.
“Huh? Then that means”
Ace’s face darkened.
“And lizards don’t usually form huge packs in the first place,”
Valda added quickly.
“But this…”
she swallowed.
“Thousands of them. This is clearly unnatural.”
Sight stared down at the lizard horde below, their eyes glowing a sickly green in the dark water.
“…That’s what I don’t get.”
His voice lowered.
“…Unless…”
A gust of wind slid through the trees—
as if something was hiding in the shadows, watching…