The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 86 – Help the Junior Adventurers

Translator: ranzan

Femm quickly barrelled through the night woods.

「Which way, Emmy?」

「Ah…um..over there!」

Emmy tried to point the way while keeping her head down due to the speed of Moofy.

Femm and Moofy both sped towards the target.

「Ryaaa!」

Shiggy stuck its head out and cried out.

It was probably excited as this was the first time it had gone this fast.

Yureena clung onto my body from behind.

「It’s faster than I thought….」

「It’s a magic wolf.」

「…」

Usually Femm would howl proudly, but it said nothing. It probably was embarrassed that basilisks were allowed to intrude in its territory.

The magic wolves’ forest was massive. Even though they periodically chased magic beasts away, it was impossible to get all of them.

Five basilisks at once was strange and there was no way these adventurers could stop them.

「Over there!」

「Okay.」

Seems that Emmy was getting used to Moofy’s speed. I could see where she was pointing and hear her voice.

I thought she’d be tired after losing some blood, but she looked healthy.

『…I can smell it.』

「Basilisks?」

『The smell of blood and rotten flesh is very strong.』

Perhaps it was the smell of Anton, who had faced the beasts in order for his sisters to flee.

A bit further, and we emerged behind Anton.

His head and arms were completely petrified. His armor was unchanged. In other words, the basilisks had petrified his body.

Around him were the five basilisks. They were bigger than most.

It seemed that it was the best condition we could hope for.

If you were petrified, all you had to do is dispel the curse and you were revived.

「BROTHER!」

Emmy screamed.

She jumped from Moofy and ran to attack the basilisks.

「Moofy!」

「Moo.」

Moofy bit onto Emmy’s collar and stopped her in her tracks.

If she ran in there alone, she was going to die.

「Femm, Yureena, please take care of Anton.」

「Okay.」

「Ruff.」

「Emmy, go and guard Yureena with Moofy.」

「O…okay…She’s helpless while healing, right?」

Honestly, Yureena had no need to be defended by Emmy.

At least with enemies like basilisks. Yureena could take them on herself.

And, both Moofy and Femm were there too.

However, you couldn’t just tell a girl like Emmy to shut up and watch.

Her brother was petrified and in the middle of a bunch of basilisks. You couldn’t let her charge them.

「I’m going to draw all the basilisks away, so go and help carry Anton out when they are away.」

「…but, you’re going to kill them all, right?」

Yureena figured it out.

She and Emmy had to get Anton out of there just in case I couldn’t kill all of them in time.

「Just don’t let your guard down.」

I got off of Femm, and walked to the meandering basilisks.

My knee hurt, but not too much; it just hurt to run.

I couldn’t use any strong magic. I might accidentally hurt Anton too.

Even though he was petrified, he wasn’t completely stone.

He was something like a magically afflicted body that resembled stone. After dozens of years, he would slowly transform into one.

But he wasn’t as hard as stone yet.

A human body was far weaker, but a newly petrified body was also weaker to fire than stone. It would also break easily as well.

If he was broken, it didn’t mean you couldn’t remove the curse, but then it became much harder.

And that would make it really hard for Yureena.

「Okay, what now?」

Even though I got closer, the basilisks didn’t move away from Anton.

It was almost like they were guarding him, and waiting for me to get closer.

「If you don’t move, I’ll make this easy.」

I shot five magical arrows, one for each of them, and when they hit,

CRACK,

Their magical barriers broke.

「Oh?」

Natural basilisks have no magical barriers. In other words, these weren’t wild.

After being attacked, all five of them turned and came to attack me.

Basilisks have a strong poisoned tail and petrifying eyes. And sharp claws and teeth.

They had long and fat legs like a lizard and ultra-strong scales. It gave them good defense.

The closest basilisk took a swipe at me with its leg. And from the side, it’s poisoned tail flew at me.

They were a pretty good group of basilisks.

「Watch out!」

Emmy screamed.

I grabbed its arm with one of my arms and its tail with my other.

As I lifted it up, its poison tail and claws came at me.

Clunk…

And bounced off my magic barrier.

「If you can use a magic barrier, then I’m definitely going to have one, right?」

As I held onto its arm and tail, I shot a magical blade into its body.

It didn’t cry out.

「So…a zombie.」

The basilisk continued to attack without fear.

No screams, no fear, it was completely zombified.

It attempted to bite me and I shot a fireball down its throat…it stopped moving.

The other four started to come at me as well, but I ended them with magic arrows and blades.

「So I guess you were going to kill them all on your own.」

「Awesome…」

Yureena said in a bored voice, while Emmy sounded completely astounded.

While I was fighting the group of basilisks, the girls grabbed Anton and moved him away.

「Can you lift the curse?」

「For a basilisk to have done this, it’s quite a strong petrification spell. A normal healer can’t handle this.」

「…no way…」

Emmy was about to cry.

Yureena smiled at her.

「But, he’ll be okay.」

「Please…you have to…」

「Leave it to me. Ah, Al. Cut up the basilisks, okay?」

「I know already.」

While Yureena was using the curse dispel magic, I cut up the basilisks.

Doing so was an adventurer’s job. No use trying to avoid it.

I would have to have Luka analyze these later.

I’d have to be careful to cut these up correctly so that she could examine them well.

As I did, I said to myself,

「Zombification is suddenly in style around here…」

I had a bad feeling about all of this.

As I cut the basilisks up and put them into my magic bag, Shiggy’s head emerged from my pouch.

「Ryaa!」

「This isn’t food.」

「Ryaa?」

Shiggy already had some meat in its beak.

It was about to eat it when I stopped it.

「This is zombified basilisk meat. If you eat it you’re screwed.」

「ryaaa」

「If you eat zombie meat, your belly’s going to hurt! Remember that!」

「Rya rya!」

It seemed to understand, and responded to me.

It might have been just me thinking that, but I was happy.

As this was going on, Anton opened his eyes.

「Big brooooother!」

「Emmy…what happened?」

Emmy embraced Anton with a hug.

He had just been released from petrification, so his memories were scrambled.

However, it seemed to come back quickly.

He was worried about his little sister Liza too, but I told him not to worry.

「Saving my sister…and then me…what can I do to repay you?」

「We were about to die…thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!」

The two said their thanks to us with tear in their eyes.

Yureena’s face blushed red.

「This was mostly Yureena’s work」

「Al’s the one that killed the basilisks.」

「Yeah, but Luka or Cruz or you could have done that. But only you can restore someone.」

「Well, I guess you’re right.」

「So, you should thank Yureena.」

They both shook their heads.

「I know that we owe Yureena our lives. But we also owe you, Alfred.」

「Thank you for saving me, Liza, and my brother!」

I was embarrassed at being thanked so many times.

So I tried my best to interrupt them and their thanking me.

「Don’t worry! We adventurers help each other.」

「But..」

A holy girl like Yureena was used to being thanked. Even so, she was a blushing over it.

Shiggy watched everything going on and seemed to be very interested.

We returned to their objective, which was to collect the medicinal herbs.

Yureena and I rode Femm while Anton and Emmy rode Moofy.

「Femm, you can take the walk home slowly.」

「Wuff」

「We can also mark your territory as we go home too.」

「Wuff?」

「You know, you can stick your left leg up and pee…」

『I don’t DO THAT.』

If Femm didn’t though, then these magical beasts would return.

Femm was clear that it didn’t mark its territory thought.

Maybe we could get Moofy to do it instead.

And when we were almost home.

RIRIRIRIRIRIRIRIRI…

The ring on my pointer finger on my left hand began to ring.