A group of fully armed centaurs unfolded in front of me. Their numbers were about 60.
Speaking of armed, each of them carried a curved sword attached to the human half's waist, a quiver on the back, and a bow or cavalry spear in hand. They're also equipped with a javelin on the back of their horse halves. I don't think they can reach it by themselves, so it's probably supposed to be used by another member in the group.
[Taichi-dono, are you ready?]
[Yeah, good to go.]
I had prepared as well. For the sake of safety, I wore a helmet with a simple design made of godsilver, and both hands were equipped with godsilver bracers, all of which came from my inventory. It was to protect my head and hands. Other body parts were protected by Orochi leather jackets and trousers.
Drawing the (unnamed) godsilver sword from its scabbard on my waist, I turned the tip to the ground.
[Is it really alright to use metal equipment?]
[No problem. Come at me with the intention to kill.]
[Alright then…]
An unarmored centaur woman at a distance notched an arrow on her bow. Probably the same as before, it's a Kabura arrow. The bow was squeezed sharply, and the tension of the centaurs increased.
Piiii!
At the same time as the signal, three centaur at the forefront of the group charged with brandished spear. The other centaurs spreaded out to the left and right in unison, shooting arrows as they moved.
They're shooting in a volley, but not only it covered my left and right, the arrows were also shot to my back and front. Probably to seal my movement. However, it's a different feeling compared to the orcs who tended to shoot a large number of arrows with impunity.
[Hah!]
I immediately reacted to the arrows by moving forward.
While plunging forward, I swung the godsilver sword in my hand to stave off the incoming arrows from the left and right that were about to hit me. Some still struck me, but didn't manage to penetrate the orochi leather armor. Those that hit the godsilver helmet and braces were simply deflected. However, if this goes on, I would be overwhelmed eventually.
In the meantime, the three spear wielding centaurs attacked from the front, left, and right with only slight differences in attack timing between each other.
I had the first spear's tip crushed with a swing of godsilver sword. Following the momentum, I also crushed the second spear. I dodged the third spear by a hair margin, then I bodied the wielder in retaliation.
I heard some crashing sound, but that much shouldn't kill him. But for the time being, that centaur was eliminated from the competition.
Having weathered the first wave of attack, I relaxed a bit. But hiding behind the first three spearmen were another four centaurs. But they ran around me instead, avoiding a direct clash while throwing something at me. I noticed it from the wind noise coming from their direction.
[Mu.]
The centaurs threw a throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords――Bolas. I cut off two bolas while they're still spinning in midair with the godsilver sword, but the rest, including the one that flew from behind, caught me and entangled my limbs. By the way, they're fairly hefty and caused some actual pain.
[The cords were crafted by twisting together a giant spider's silks. Not even a wyvern can break away from it, you know?]
It seemed that the Charataur was among the four centaurs just now, as I heard his voice. Now that they thought I could no longer move, the archers marched forward with their bows drawn toward me.
[Do you surrender?]
[Not a chance? And you should've shoot already]
Seeing me grinned at his suggestion to surrender, Penelope moved his hand to signal the archer to begin firing. But before they could shoot, I already broke away from the cords that restrained my limbs.
[What? Are you kidding me?]
I could hear someone muttering in disbelief from behind me. But ignoring that, I jumped forward with all my might.
The ground kicked by my extraordinary leg strength exploded and popped, twisting the scenery as I accelerated. Twisting the handle of the nameless godsilver sword, I changed its size into that of a giant sword, I used it as a shield and closed the gap at once.
I saw how the centaurs' faces stiffened seeing their arrows deflected by my great sword. I charged forward nonetheless.
[Gyaa!] [Higii!] [Goha !?] [N, nooo!]
I hit a centaur on the belly with the flatside, then twisted the handle again to revert the godsilver sword size back. Afterward, I made an autumn leaf shaped mark on one of the centaur's back with a slap of my hand, and struck the other nether region with a kick, then slapped the butt of yet another centaur. All of them either fainted or yelled in pain on the ground.
[For those in melee range, ready your sword! Fight back! The others spread out and keep your distance!]
Under Penelope's command, all the centaurs within melee range immediately swung their curved swords at me. The wide curved shape of their sword provided a powerful striking force for swing-down attacks. In other words, each blow was heavy.
However, even steel swords cannot compete with the godsilver sword backed by my awesome physical strength, let alone the centaurs' curved blades.
[Fuhn!]
A flash of light.
The curved blades swinging from all directions were shattered, their shards reflecting the sunlight.
The swordsman idiot that was my father in law kinda forced me to learn his swordsmanship several times. As a result, it's possible for me now to do this kind of trick.
My father-in-law described my swordsmanship as unpleasant and immature, unfitting for the sword I wielded. To see through that, nothing less from someone with level 5+ sword mastery.
[There!]
Changing the sword size into a great sword once more, I kept my momentum and charged ahead, blowing away the surrounding centaurs with the flat of my sword. I made sure to do it gently so that they didn't turn into meat paste. I noticed that the spot where I struck them turned black due to internal bleeding, and most of them were convulsing with only the whites of their eyes visible. At least they're not dead.
[Shoot shoot! Stop thinking we're fighting against a human! Consider fighting him like you would a dragon or something similar!]
[Dragon my arse! Not even a dragon can defeat that many with a single strike!]
Arrows, bolas, spears, and many other weapons flew towards me. I only defended against the spears as the arrows wouldn't hurt me unless it was a very precise shooting, and the bolases could only hinder my movement for a short moment.
The centaurs continued their ranged attacks while rapidly retreating with their horse-like speed. But I could still catch up to them and take them down one by one.
I dealt with the archers by flinging stones at them. They continued shooting while escaping, but instead of shooting at random, they actually still did so in unison.
Their aim was accurate, always targeting a spot where I had no choice but to stop my pursuit and defend against their attack. I'm not worried about the arrows piercing through the orochi leather, but the resulting shock from being hit still stung.
Since the pain could become bothersome, I took my time to properly defend.
But that's it for now. I could've kept this contest to be more drawn out. But I needed to land a decisive strike.
I was moving at about 20% of full power, but the pace increased to about 40%. As I looked at it, the distance between the centaurs and me began to close.
[Stopー! I don't wanna die!] [No more, it's over] [There is no hope there!]
The centaurs finally gave in after my stone throws reduced their number to ten.
=====
[Now then, let's fix you all up.]
I'm planning to heal all the injured centaurs with my AoE heal. Nobody died. Naturally, since I properly adjusted my strength! One of the centaurs I swept away with the flat of my great sword very nearly crossed the river Styx, but I managed to patch him up just in time. Safe.
[There are too many of them.]
[Nah, don't worry. It's no big deal. I have plenty of magic power to spare.]
The centaurs, who were chased by me until the end, were exhausted and had to lay down on the ground with a rough breath. They shot all their arrows, threw all their spears, and finally set up a sword assault at me, but couldn't even hurt me once. It seems that their hearts were broken because of that.
Other Centaur warriors had begun collecting arrows. Metal iron was reasonably expensive and valuable. Some of them looked sadly at the shattered curved blades and cavalry spears. It may have been a weapon they felt attached to. I felt a little bad.
I called out to Penelope, telling him to gather the centaurs who lost their weapons in the contest earlier. I took out curved blades and short swords from my inventory and shoved the weapons to them.
[Consolation prize.]
[Of course.]
[The morning after tomorrow, I will bring all of you to the new world. Get ready with all your luggage and livestock. No need to reduce the number of livestock you'll have to take along with you. I have teleport magic, so the journey itself will only take a moment. That's all. We'll depart in the morning the day after tomorrow, and all of us will arrive in the new world on the same morning.]
[Understood.]
[I'll show up here again once tomorrow afternoon. If you're still lacking some supplies, buy some from Gandil with this money.]
That said, I handed a bag containing about 50 gold coins to Penelope. I thought the supplies I gave them earlier today would at least last until the day after tomorrow, but I don't know how much the centaurs usually eat.
Penelope, receiving my money, broke to his knees and bowed to me. No need to go that far.
[Alright, I guess that's enough setup for time being.]
Marl nodded in agreement.
[That is right. The sun is about to set, so let us head back to the inn.]
We bid farewell to the centaurs and left the refugee camp. Afterward, let's have dinner at the inn, then take a bath and relax. We headed back to the inn while removing the dirts on our clothes with purification magic.
[Ehehe…]
Marl was especially chipper. She kept her distance closer than usual to me all the time, hugging me tightly. Isn't she really sweet? How long has it been since we have some alone time like this?
[You're in a good mood.]
[That is because I'm alone with Taichi-san. It has not been that long ago, but I missed it already. Do you remember? We used to walk along Crossroad's street like this in the past.]
[Yeah. We bought a lot of clothes, window shopping at the boss cat's weapon shop. I made quite a lot of money from subjugating trolls back then, didn't I?]
[That's right. After that, Taichi-san was summoned by the knights…]
Marl's expression flickered a bit.
[If we had not left Crossroad back then, and if Fram's assassination squad did not attack us, I wonder where we would be now?]
[I wonder too… maybe, the same thing would happen regardless. Or maybe we'd still be comfortably journeying together, just the two of us? Who knows. Though I wish we could've gone through the great flooding without attracting attention, as long as we get to live.]
[Ahahah, but Taichi-san is a kindhearted man. I do not think you would be able to ignore the sight of people dying right in front of us. Now that I think about it, I guess the same thing would happen regardless indeed.]
[Well, I don't think I'm such a just man, but if I'm not I would've probably gone to Mount Bus or the Great Forest without tying myself to Karendil kingdom. No, I always wanted to eat rice before, so maybe perhaps going to Miscronia via Gobbel.]
We walked slowly to the inn talking about『What if』. Innumerable possibilities and turning points that may have existed. Neither of us dared to say it, but some of them may have killed me, or Marl might have died.
If by any chance the Karendil Kingdom had assassinated Marl at some point, I might have been the worst Demon King in history by this time.
[We have arrived.]
As we talked and walked, the inn's front door was finally upon us. The lamp of the magic tool emits a clean white light like a fluorescent lamp.
[We have all the time in the world. Tonight it will be only the two of us.]
[Indeed, only the two of us.]
We had dinner as soon as we arrived at the inn.
The menu was similar to Chinese food. There are many stir-fried dishes that use a lot of oil, elaborate stewed dishes and steamed dishes, and they are voluminous and gutsy.
[It is delicious, but a bit too heavy.]
[True. I'm fine with it, but I guess it's slightly too much for Marl.]
[I know right? But, I mean, people here tend to serve food in large quantities at once…]
[Ah, I get what you mean.]
It probably had something to do with their culture. I recalled that a neighboring country in my original world also had the same culture. It's such a strange coincidence that the food was also similar.
I'm a big eater, but it's still a lot even for me. It tasted good, but if there's too much it will make me sick if I have to eat it everyday. Anyways, the best hit for me was the snake meat soup. It contained refreshing condiments and was surprisingly delicious. Above all, the texture of the meat was not bad. Like, it's soft, but it had this elasticity that couldn't be bitten through easily. I liked this kind of meat.
Ee? Repulsed by snake meat? I ate Yamata no Orochi's meat before, didn't I? I still couldn't handle eating insects, but bee larvae were also quite delicious. Maybe I can stomach anything by now.
Marl seemed to like the steamed buns with seafood. It's like a large size of seafood dumplings. It seemed that seafood in this Gandil, which was far from the sea, was made by moisturizing dried food. It seems that the leftover water was also used to knead the dough. So that's it.
Although I came to the place where seafood was common, it was good to be able to enjoy the gourmet food. Sometimes such heavy and luxurious dishes are not bad.
[Hey… today, how about not using magic, and take it slowly…?]
We finished our meal and returned to our room. Marl suddenly interjected when we were having a relaxed bath together. It's kind of strange.
It's indeed been a while since the last time there's only the two of us, thus why I was perplexed by her suggestion. After all, for as long as I remember, Marl was a beast in bed.
As for me, I actually prefer slow and steady play, so I agreed to Marl's suggestion without a second thought. I was actually quite excited about it.
But strangely, Marl who was usually proactive was suspiciously quiet. Yet she was so much sweeter than usual. I couldn't help but to notice the difference.
Marl desperately hugged me while calling my name with a sweet voice. Against such temptation, my reasoning collapsed completely like thin paper.
I'm just a man after all.
[Uehihi…]
The next morning, Marl drooled on my arm with a sloppy smile dreaming only she herself and God may know. Oy you little buster, my arm is way too amazing for that, you know? Oh?
Well, I can always purify it later. Life magic is truly convenient. Now that I think about it, the traces of our tryst last night are also still around.
Anyway, what should we do today?
There were places in the city that I hadn't seen yet, so it's good to buy souvenirs as tourists. I have to go see the centaurs in the afternoon. I had to talk a little about what would happen after I took them to my territory.
Right, let's procure materials for building houses. Building materials from Karendil to Gobbel may have stopped at Gandil and were in bad stock. So we may be able to buy it cheaply.
Let's get started after watching Marl's sleeping face some more. Apparently she's having a nice dream.
[Uehihi… Taichi-san, look at our baby]
Marl sleep talk dropped a massive bomb of realization at me.
『Ah, I just remembered that there is something I need to do at the Adventurers guild. I should be going now. I don't think it will take hours.』
『Yes, I have!』
『Indeed, only the two of us.』
『Hey… today, how about not using magic, and take it slowly…?』
An electric current runs through my mind, and all the slight discomfort I felt connected. Well, was that the case? The eyes met perfectly with Marl who opened his eyes with a click.
[Marl-san.]
[Yes.]
[Yesterday, you went to undo the contraceptive magic, didn't you?]
[…]
[Didn't you?]
[…yes.]
Marl admitted it with a stern look on her face. Now what is this little one planning to do?
[Are you angry?]
[I'm angry. Very angry.]
[I, I am sorry. I, well, I just want Taichi-san――]
I forcibly closed Marl's lips, interrupting the idiot's words. Marl shook her head to resist, but perhaps realizing the futility, she stopped resisting.
[I'm angry because you kept such an important matter a secret, you dummy.]
[But, but… Both Fram and Kusuha have bigger breasts than me, while Melchina and Deborah spoil Taichi-san better than I could… ah…]
[You, how do I say it, you're like a cat that cannot climb down from a tall tree? It's…it is hard to put into words!]
Hugging Maru who was crying her eyes out, we rolled around on a wide bed. What's with this dummy and cute creature? I've made various plans myself, and now I'm more anxious and feel like a fool.
[Alright, I've decided now.]
I took out the paper and pen from the storage, wrote "Please do not call me until the afternoon" and stuck it on the entrance door, and immediately closed the door and locked it.
What am I going to do from now on? Don't ask me anything wild. Got it?
Wolf, I'm about to use my inner wolf. Gaoーooo.