A refreshing breeze struck my face as I rode on the «Flying Carriage», making me squint my eyes.
"I forgot to ask but when did the Goddess look for you, Majou-sama?"
"On the night of the day I explained about it, I received the request from Goddess Lariel. Apparently, she wants my help in solving the problem in her managed territory."
"I didn't know! Teto also wants to meet the goddesses someday!"
Teto had read about the religious myth of the five goddesses together with Selene whom we were raising back then and so she also knew about the gods of this continent.
一一Sun Goddess Lariel 一一Mother Goddess Liliel 一一Oceanus Goddess Luriel 一一Heaven Goddess Leriel 一一Hell Goddess Loriel
The place these five goddesses were in charge of through their respective authorities was this continent.
I had only met a few of them in my dreams but it seemed like Teto was jealous about it.
"I think there’s a church spell called «Goddess’ Advent»......"
It was a magic skill in which a goddess would descend into the body of a caster and perform a miracle. But how much mana it uses for an individual is still unknown since this rite magic was currently only achievable through the joint effort of tens of priests of the church.
Though I thought that it was only a matter of time before I, whose mana is gradually increasing, could do it on my own.
My mana had increased to 300,000 units in these tens of years as I continued to eat the «Mysterious Fruit».
I was now capable of one-way teleportation from the «Empty Wilderness» to anywhere in the premises of the Iska Kingdom, the Gard Beastkin Nation, or any other place I had been to once at any time without any aid as long as the destination was in the central continent.
"So, what has the goddess asked Majou-sama to help out in? What exactly is the problem in her territory?"
"Lariel asked me to cull the monsters in the monsters’ breeding ground when she explained her request to me."
"Monsters’...... breeding ground...?"
The information about Lariel’s request was transmitted into my mind by her.
Monsters’ breeding ground 一一 Concretely speaking, a bunch of monsters had made their breeding place in the location where the mana of the chaotic earth veins was gushing out, and those monsters were stimulated after being exposed to an environment with high mana density.
The revitalized monsters would proliferate and cause a mana disaster called a stampede flood if they were left unchecked.
Sealing the location where the mana of the earth veins was leaking out and eliminating those monsters was her request.
"So the goddess has requested to cull the monsters that have bred upon the ground where the earth vein's mana is leaking out."
This problem has existed for several tens of years apparently and I guess this wasn’t a last-minute reinforcement since the problem had been left unchecked up until now.
"Lots of monsters means lots of mana stones, lots of mana stones!"
After saying that, she gulped back the saliva that was about to spill out of her mouth.
"Hmm, let's do it. Let's enjoy Lovile kingdom’s seafood once we seal the mana leaking point."
"Yes, nanodesu!"
We headed for the border of the Gard Beastkin Nation from the frontier town.
I didn't use teleportation magic to directly move near the border region as there was something I wanted to check on the way.
"There seems to be a bandit hideout here, Majou-sama."
"...... You're right. Let's clear them."
We spotted a cave in a hole on the side of a cliff when we were flying some distance away from the highway to avoid the eyes of people since we were riding the «Flying Carpet».
That cave turned out to be a bandit hideout and there were around 30 of them alongside several captured people upon using «Life-detection» to check the situation out.
"ーー«Sleep»!"
I used the sleep spell that came from the darkness magic branch which induced drowsiness in the target and, with my huge mana, put everyone in the hideout to sleep.
I restrained the bandits after confirming which ones they were and then tossed them into a jail-type box Teto created while binding their hands with a handcuff-like metallic item.
"The ratio of humans is high. And this boss of theirs, he is a former C-rank adventurer, huh?"
"Majou-sama, is there anything wrong with the high human ratio?"
"This is the Beastkin Nation, remember? Beastkin count should be higher among these bandits instead considering the human percentage here."
I lifted the snoring boss of the bandits through «Psychokinesis» and tossed him into the portable jail.
Afterwards, we found the prisoners' room while we were clearing out the goods in the hideout. Girls from the human and beastkin races were clustered there and lying on the ground, sleeping like the dead.
"Damn them. Let's clean and heal them first."
Metal slave collars that are worn on the neck cannot be used by anyone except slave traders certified by the state of the Iska Kingdom or the Gard Beastkin Nation to enforce the law. So I assume the collars on them were illegal since there was no state-certified crest on them.
I was on the mark when I checked them with the appraisal monocle, all the females were illegally abducted.
"......«Area Heal» «Clean»!"
I used healing and cleaning magic to treat them.
The bodies of the sleeping females were only wearing ragged clothes and they had bruise marks and abrasions here and there.
The silver lining was that none of them were sexually assaulted, probably because it hadn't been long since they were kidnapped. Or maybe they were important products for the bandits.
I had seen even more horrible scenes in my 30-year career as an Adventurer. My eyes would tear up whenever I thought of the cruelty those women had to go through.
They must have been scared, it must have been a painful and torturous experience for them.
"It's fine Majou-sama, you saved them."
"...... Teto. Thank you."
We then changed the clothes of the females with the ones I created with «Creation Magic» after the healing and cleaning were done and carried them outside.
"Hey, you bitch! You think you can go unharmed after messing with us, the «Yellow Fang Group»!?"
The bandits in the cell we made at the entrance of the hideout shouted when Teto and I were carrying the girls outside.
It seemed like the boss had quite a decent amount of magic resistance as he was the first one to wake up. He then woke up his comrades and they were now creating a ruckus.
"Anyway, Teto. Look after the girls, we will carry them to town."
"Alright-nanodesu!"
"Don't ignore us, you bitch!"
I created a carriage with a cover through magic, since there were quite a lot of people we had to carry, and laid the girls inside it.
Then I turned to the entrance of the bandit hideout while ignoring the noisy bandits, though they were annoying.
"I'm not quite fond of harming nature but alas, «Gravity»!"
I raised my wand overhead and fired my spell towards the cave after setting up a barrier to limit the damage.
A gravitational field was created.
Fissures ran along the mouth of the bandit hideout when pressure descended over it as if to squash and flatten the whole cliff. Stones began to fall one after another.
The whole cave collapsed in no time under heavy force and was crushed completely from front to back.
"Ah, I forgot to put up a barrier in the sky."
A bird that had been passing through the spell range in the sky fell down and became a stain on the ground from the gravitational force.
This also made the bandits realize that such fate might await them as well.
"I don't have any interest in forgiving fiends like you bandits. I just created a place to bury you lot."
The bandits fainted when I released my mana to intimidate them with the whites of their eyes peeled back and foam coming out of their mouths. Their boss was no different as his teeth were clattering in fear.
"This should be enough to shut you guys up. I need not say what will happen if you annoy us any more than this."
After saying that, I ceased pressuring them with mana and moved to where Teto was.
"Majou-sama, what now?"
"First let's carry them to the nearby town. My mana一"
Well, it was enough to carry them. I planned to tow along the carriage and the cage in which bandits are locked up with dark magic «Psychokinesis»
"Sleep for just a while more. 一ー«Sleep»!"
I gently caressed the girls' heads and piled up sleep spells on them since they were going to be confused if they woke up now. They were no longer confined in the nightmare of being surrounded by bandits.
“You're going to be in a safe place when you wake up”, I whispered ever so gently and confirmed my preparations to carry them to a nearby town.
Then Teto and I flew into the sky alongside the carriage that was carrying the girls and the jail locking the bandits in.
Though we were given strange looks when we entered the vicinity of the town while the guards and adventurers rushed in thinking of us as a new kind of monster.
