Chapter 169

It seems that, I had woken up a few minutes after Satou-kun substituted in for me .

There was a violent and thunderous roar and a torrent of light .

The shaking ground was the worst thing to wake up to and having woken up, I was captivated by the battle unfolding in front of me .

Due to the battle just now, every time I moved my body, my muscles would scream in pain and I couldn’t move, but even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to join in .

「Holy Sword—-『Divine Punishment』」

From Satou-kun’s sword that he held above his head came a large pillar of light, blinding my eyes .

From that pillar of light, I felt a terrible power that had been compressed .

After leaving the castle, we had made remarkable progress in our levels due to our respective trainings and experiences in battle .

Even so, we couldn’t reach Satou-kun .

Perhaps it was characteristic of the hero occupation, but when we take one step forward, he takes ten or even twenty .

He had collapsed just now, but that was also because he was fighting while protecting Ueno-san and I .

And, Satou-kun grew stronger as he fought .

That’s why, with a bit of unreasonableness, I had Satou-kun recover .

「Haaaaaa!!!!」

After the pillar of light swung downwards, the monsters were all annihilated .

It would be correct to say that this holy sword skill did not kill, but annihilated .

That was an overwhelming difference in power .

Seeing Satou-kun who swung his sword downwards, I seem to have seen the back of Commander Saran who opened up a path of retreat for us at the Continent Dungeon .

This didn’t change my admiration for Asahina-kun, but I think that everyone, regardless of gender, admired Satou-kun .

「O–i!」

The monsters were exterminated by Satou-kun’s skill, and just when I thought that the forest had returned to its previous calmness, Nanase-kun’s voice resounded .

I was relieved by that voice of his that didn’t sound any different from normal .

Nanase-kun was with Zeal-san, so I didn’t think that they would be defeated by the monsters, but even so .

Nanase-kun could get along well with anyone, and he was someone who would even call out to me who was in the corner of the classroom, so if he died, I would be extremely sad .

「Nanase-kun, Zeal-san! Are you ok?」

The originally quiet Ueno-san raised her voice .

Judging from their appearance, the two people had no injuries, and we were relieved .

And just as Satou-kun was about to ask them what happened on their side, before he could do so, Nanase-kun shouted as if in a panic .

「We’re not injured! Rather than that, hurry up and get away from this place!」

Zeal-san picked up Ueno-san who couldn’t move, and Nanase-kun and Satou-kun who looked as if he had no idea what was going on supported me who was completely exhausted with their shoulders .

I wonder if something happened .

「Zeal-san said that, there was a possibility that the lord of this forest would react to Tsukasa’s attack just now . It seems that it was a monster that the previous hero avoided as well! It would be better to escape before he notices us . 」

My jaw dropped at the explanation that was given as we were running .

When I looked beside me, Satou-kun too had the same look on his face .

「The lord of the forest?? There’s such a thing?」

「Yes, that’s why we’re rushing . 」

And, when we were a hundred meters away from the place that we just in, the ground suddenly shook and we collapsed onto the ground .

「Is it an earthquake?」

「No, it’s the voice of a monster . It’s the lord of the forest I just mentioned . 」

Zeal-san said this in a lowered voice .

According to him, it seems that the lord of the forest could shake the ground with a shout, and when he moved, there would be…cracks on the ground .

Nonetheless, it seems that he heard about it from Kurou-san, so it was highly credible .

「…it seems that it is not chasing after us . I should’ve told you about the lord of the forest before we came into the forest . I’m sorry . 」

After traveling a bit further, Zeal-san came to a halt, put Ueno-san on top of a rock, and performed first aid on her injured foot .

It wasn’t an injury that would have any after-effects on her after it healed, but it seems that it was hard for her to walk .

「For now, let’s make meeting up with Asahina-kun and the others our highest priority . We need Hosoyama-san to treat Ueno-san’s leg . 」

Satou-kun said this, but how were we supposed to meet up with them .

This forest was quite dense, and because we moved around, we didn’t even know where we currently were .

No matter where we looked, there were nothing but trees .

「Naa, everyone, look at this!」

Just as everyone was troubled, Ueno-san, who was sitting on top of a rick, pointed to a tree .

「Ahh! This is… . 」

–

「Asahina-kun, Waki-kun, Hosoyama-san . It’s great that everyone’s ok . 」

The place where all eight people gathered at once again, was the slightly open area that we had split up .

When we arrived at that place, Asahina-kun and the others were already there, and had arranged the fruit that they had gathered, waiting for us .

The three people were all uninjured, and even if there were any, they would be tiny scratches, probably from the tree branches .

Everyone took out the food they found, and everything was distributed equally .

It seems that Hosoyama-san knew what was edible and what wasn’t, and had already tasted them for poison .

As a result, because both Zeal-san’s group and mine were caught up in a battle relatively early, we didn’t have as much as Asahina-kun and the others .

Catching fish in the river was extremely difficult, and fun .

Asahina-kun spoke as we ate .

「Even so, you guys did well to get here . You guys didn’t make any marks, did you? There are monsters within the forest as well, so we couldn’t burn smoke signals either, and I thought that the three of us might have to make camp tonight . 」

Perhaps Asahina-kun was also glad we met back up, as he was more talkative than usual .

Ah, this fish, it tasted like sea bream and was delicious .

Even though it looked just like a carp .

We had seasoned the grilled fish with a bit of salt that we had on hand, but it was often said that hunger was the best seasoning .

I listened carefully as I tore through the fish .

Deciding our next plan of action was mostly done by Asahina-kun and Satou-kun .

Zeal-san would sometimes say a few words, but usually, he would not interject and would go along with our plan .

I had also become accustomed to hearing Asahina-kun speak, even though I rarely saw him talk in the classroom .

Perhaps it was unconscious, but Asahina-kun’s tone of voice was a bit similar to Oda-kun’s .

Which one of them was copying the other?

Or did they influence each other .