Volume 4 Chapter 2 (2/2)

The Byakko was a long-serving warrior and deserved a certain level of respect.

Upon hearing me, Aura grew smaller.

In response, Byakko spoke.

”I don't mind. I have to stay in this place overflowing with holy life energy and eat these fruits to recover anyway. This is the least I can do to thank these girls who raised these very valuable recovery items.”

He said so and joyfully laughed, kakaka!

”Are you sure?”

”Yeah. This place is quite comfortable and the apples are more delicious than anything so I don't really mind.”

”Alright, then, until you've fully recovered, please stay here.”

”You don't have to request it; be more overbearing. You are my true master, after all.”

In exchange for pledging his allegiance to me, he had one condition: to not be asked about his master before [Steel].

Even though it was already his former master, making him divulge his former master's secrets went against his sense of loyalty. If I were to forego his pride, I better be ready for the consequences.

I accepted that condition, thinking if I were to gain the loyalty of man like him, that condition was tolerable.

”Aura, inform me beforehand of things like this. Byakko didn't mind but there may be instances where the other party would be offended.”

”Forgive me, master.”

”Don't get angry at her, now. I'm the one that suggested it. She even refused at first but I insisted. It pains me to see my benefactor being blamed for my imprudence. She did well; she's a good monster.”

At that, I smiled.

”Okay. Aura, I'm sorry I had it wrong. It seems you accomplished your role fully.”

”I am not worthy of such praise.”

Aura and I looked at each other's eyes and smiled.

It was great that she did not harbor ill will toward me.

Byakko watched us be like that and spoke.

”To further repay the girl that helped me so much, let me offer an advice to you. It's about Wight who has been reborn. Do not be overconfident; he is not the strongest monster ever. If you make a mistake on the way you use him, he will pointlessly die. If he and I were to fight again one on one and I have completely recovered, I can surely win.”

”Really? Even against his speed, strength, and powerful special abilities? He doesn't seem to have any weaknesses.”

Byakko laughed, kakaka, before he continued on.

”That great man has often visited me to wish me better health but during those times, I noticed something. It's that he uses considerably large amounts of power just to hold [Berserk] down. While he's doing that, his overall strength is dipping down to maybe a rank lower. His special ability would also be completely unusable in that state. Like that, I as well as that girl there can defeat him.”

”And if he releases [Berserk]?”

”That's fine too. There's a time limit on how long he can release [Berserk] before being unable to turn back. That time limit isn't particularly long but during it, he becomes nothing but a mindless brute devoid of intelligence and reason. If one is able to parry and avoid his onslaught, dealing with him is easy. And when the time limit for [Berserk] comes, he would be exhausted and easy to defeat. I and that girl can deploy this tactic. Perhaps other top-tier A rank monsters too. If faced with a dilemma, with his personality, he might choose to rather continue using [Berserk] and become unable to turn back all so that he can fulfill his role.”

What Byakko said was quite right.

That being said, even if his strength falls a rank lower, he would still be comparable to an S rank monster. I doubted that there were going to be many enemies that could keep up with him and the ones that could do so when he's in [Berserk] mode would be even fewer.

”I'll keep it in mind. I'll stop relying on him too much. I'll make his primary role be as a tactician. But if the enemy chooses to push with just numbers, that might be a good time for [Berserk] to shine.”

”I approve. Losing such an honorable man would be a big blow so do take care.”

As soon as he finished talking, he circled around, lied down and began to sleep.

Nevertheless, as expected from a long-serving warrior; he's very reliable. He was a great addition to our forces not only for his fighting prowess, but also for making up for our lack of experience.

I planned to assign him to more important tasks after he has fully recovered from his injuries. In place of the watchtiger, I intended to post the new golems Rorono currently had under development. If those were lightweight, high-speed type golems, they wouldn't fall behind even against first-class adventurers.

”By the way, what do you do with the apple thieves?”

”Kill them and bury their corpses. When Wight comes to check on me, he uses his Enhanced Resurrection and turns them into undead. The high leveled adventurers become undead with high intelligence which always pleases Wight.”

…It seems that these two really got along.

Also, even without my knowledge, it seems my fighting force has been growing little by little.

◇

And so, it was finally time for our real task for today.

Aura guided me and we arrived at a location with many trees that had fascinating fruits.

And yet those fruits were not apples but peaches.

Prior to these ones, peaches too were gone from this world. However, there existed overly similar fruits called Pinal (ピナル). It seems Pinals were grown in an isolated village founded by the elves that were former monsters of a Demon Lord.

”Is this the new fruit?”

”Yes! And they've ripened a little bit more now.”

”…….won't these trees become like the First Tree?”

”That tree's special. It's the very first tree to grown in this city so it became spoiled like that. As expected, I can spoil only one tree like that but even so, I've got a lot of love to give to the others.”

I then plucked out a peach.

They had ripened well. A sweet smell also drifted from it.

The apples' refreshing aroma was good but the peaches' strong, concentrated aroma was superb too.

I took out the knife I got from Rorono, peeled the fruit, and sliced it in half, and gave the other half to Aura.

She smiled as she received it.

”I feel bad for Kuina and Rorono but let's taste this before them.”

”Okay, master!”

We bit into the peaches.

In my mouth, fruit juices overflowed. My brain seemed like it would melt with the peach's soft texture and sweet juices.

”So delicious!”

”Yeah. It's really sweet and delicious.”

Just like with the apple, this would probably become one of our special products.

Originally, every single legend I knew that involved peaches presented them to give longer life. Perhaps these peaches somehow exhibited similar effects.

”You did great, Aura. Not surprisingly, eating just apples would make one grow tired of it. But with these, more humans would flock to Avalon.”

”I hope that happens.”

”Yeah, right? But it seems I can never have too much DP. When I have enough, I want to add another floor, increase the B rank monsters I have, and other various interesting things.”

Afterwards, we plucked some peaches to give Kuina and Rorono as our souvenirs and then headed home.

This new specialty product would surely play a big role.

I then decided that I would meet with Wight the following day.

I wanted to get an understanding of my new undead fighting forces like the former apple thieves. Also, as his superior, I would like to comfort my broken-hearted subordinate.

Most of all, I needed to meet with Wight to get advice on our measures against the humans.