Calm down.

Yeah, calm down.

I have to crush those monkeys calmly.

I will have every single one of them disappear from this forest.

-0-

Goblins, sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night.

It’s an emergency.

I want to gather people and weapons as much as possible.

Yeah, we’ll get rid of the monkeys.

I’m done being soft on them.

I want to respect your rules but they have gone too far.

I have no time for rules.

I need your cooperation.

Representative-san, my apologies but please prepare light.

Kirisana, you’ll be in charge of them.

Can you do it?

I will go ahead.

I’ll be alright.

-0-

I went into the forest.

I’m confident with my night vision.

There would be no problem.

I also found traces of a group of monkeys.

There is a spot where there is a trace of commotions. Perhaps that’s a sign of Enderi’s resistance.

If that is the case, that means I’ll catch up soon.

Should I go after them without telling the goblins?

I don’t know what’s waiting for me.

I need more hands.

Ah, darn it.

I should have written a letter addressed to Uncle Beezel before I left the village.

I’m not calm at all.

If the other party sets a trap, I will fall.

……..

So what? I’ll just crush everything.

-0-

The monkeys had moved quite far into the forest.

I thought I would catch up soon but, was I so much of an optimist?

Maa, I’ve finally caught up.

I found a troop of monkeys.

They were gathered at the base of a big tree.

There’s no sign of Enderi.

Where is she?

Is she behind the root of the tree?

But there are so many monkeys here.

There are more than 30 of them.

There should be at least 50 or even 60.

Did they join up with another troop?

Or did they trick the goblins into thinking that there are only 30 of them?

Pretty clever.

I applaud you.

But you’re going to die.

My target is the boss monkey.

If I kill the boss monkey, the troop will lose the one controlling them.

All I have to do after is to hunt them one by one.

It is easy to find out who’s the boss monkey since it was in a conspicuous position.

Judging from its demeanor, there’s no doubt that’s the boss.

I climbed a nearby tree and jumped to the big tree where the monkeys were.

Ah, they have guards on the top of the trees too.

They found me.

All monkeys looked at me at once but that no longer matters.

I drew my sword and slashed it towards the boss.

With my momentum, the boss monkey will be cut in half.

-0-

My sword was stopped.

A spearhead stopped my sword.

The spear even horizontally stopped my sword.

I tried to parry the spear with my sword and cut the boss monkey but the spear bearer didn’t allow it.

It even brought them time.

The monkeys with shields suddenly showed up between me and the boss monkey.

My surprise attack failed.

Should I retreat?

No, I have to mess up this place first.

「Wait wait wait! There’s no need to fight!」

The one that called for a ceasefire was the spear bearer.

What now?

…..

Areh?

The spearbearer is Niz-san?

「It’s been a while, Gol-san.」

Niz-san bowed to me.

Niz-san is the manager of Niz’s Alcomeat in Village Five.

I met her many times since we go there to eat after playing baseball in Village Five.

「I’m not a manager, I’m the assistant manager desu. I’m sorry if the monkeys are making a fuss. Enderi-san is over there desu.」

When I looked at the root of the tree where Niz-san points, I saw Enderi.

She seems to be safe.

Hnn?

Eh?

What’s that?

Enderi is, holding a baby….it looks around 3 months old…

-0-

Niz-san explained the situation.

She said that the monkeys had made friends with a demoness who had come into the forest about a year ago.

Maa, it’s more of a symbiotic relationship. The demoness and the monkeys are living together, supplementing each other’s weak points and not interfering too much with each other.

However, a few months ago, the demoness collapsed.

It seems like she was pregnant before coming to the forest and that time, she gave birth.

The child was born safely but the demoness did not recover and even fell ill.

The monkeys were troubled.

The monkeys did what they could to save the mother and child.

For now, they still can take care of the child.

It could survive with monkey’s milk.

The important thing to do now is to heal the demoness.

For this reason, they sought food from outside the forest.

They thought the demoness got sick because the life in the forest is not suitable for her.

For the monkeys, the biggest difference between living inside and outside the forest is food.

They thought that if she ate the food produced in the field, the demoness would be healed.

That’s the reason why they messed up with the fields of the goblin village.

As compensation, they didn’t touch the wild vegetables and fruits around the goblin village but….things did not go according to what they thought.

They fed the demoness with food from the outside but she was not healed, her health even deteriorated.

In addition, the newly born child got sick too.

The troubled monkeys can only ask the monkey apostle for help.

Though the monkey apostle tried to help, unfortunately, he doesn’t know what to do.

From there, the monkey god asked the serpent god for help and the serpent god sent an oracle to its apostle, Niz-san.

That’s the reason why Niz-san is here.

Eh?

Niz-san is the apostle of the serpent god?

「I danced for the gods in Village Five festivals a few times and I’m sure you already saw the statue of the serpent god in my store, right?」

I thought you only like snakes.

「Kuh, it looks like I need to focus more on public relations.」

So, why did they kidnap Enderi?

As for me, that’s the thing I want to know most.

「Didn’t I already say? The child’s health is deteriorating.」

Enderi is not a master of healing magic, is she?

「They brough her to be a mother figure desu.」

Mother figure….

I looked at Enderi who’s holding the child.

The child seemed to be in a good mood.

…..areh?

Why does it look like it’s okay?

「Because I healed it. Before leaving for this place, I asked village chief for some leaves.」

As she was saying so, she showed me some leaves of the world tree.

「The mother is safe too. However, since she has been ill for a long time, she has to sleep.」

I see.

「I apologize for causing trouble to the goblin village and for kidnapping Enderi-san. I wonder how can we settle this matter?」

Maa, I think the matter will be over as long as they promise not to mess up with the fields to the goblin village but you should talk to the representative of the goblins to be sure.

Enderi’s case aside, it’s not a good thing to harvest their field without permission.

「You’re right. Then, at dawn, I’ll go there to talk.」

Please.

Ah, we have to stop Kirisana and the goblins who are already on their way here.

Haa.

-0-

Noon.

At the goblin village, a meeting between Niz-san and the goblin village representative was held.

The demoness accompanied Niz and was holding her child in her arms.

The demoness is the wife of a noble who was involved in the rebellion a year ago.

She escaped just before the rebels took over their territory.

However, since she escaped into the forest, she lived there without being informed about what’s happening with the rebellion on their territory and she even gave birth alone.

Did you escape alone in the forest?

She had a few servants but they got separated on the way.

So that’s how she ended there.

It’s amazing that she was able to continue living with the monkeys after that.

「The monkeys will bring me food while I cook for them…」

I see.

Enderi, Kirisana, and I told her what we knew about the situation of the south continent and left her to decide what she wanted to do.

We don’t know if her husband is still alive until we investigate.

Let’s just wait for Uncle Beezel to arrive and we’ll surely find out.

-0-

The discussion between Niz-san and the representative of the goblins is over.

In the future, the monkeys will be able to get crops from the field as long as they help harvest.

The goblins did not ask for their punishment given this uproar.

「Since they are taking care of a baby, it can’t be helped.」

You guys are too kind.

And they have to apologize to Baron Gima….

We’ll have to wait until Uncle Beezel arrives too.

Alright, let’s throw this whole thing aside.

However, Niz-san’s spearmanship is superb.

Please teach me next time.

「It will be better if you have Pirika-san teach you.」

Areh?

Pirika-san can use spear?

「To deal with a spearman, it would be best if you know how to use spear yourself.」

So, Pirika-san is also practicing spear, she’s amazing.

Speaking of which, I heard that Pirika-san played a good match against Uncle Demon King at last year’s martial arts tournament.

Umu.

I’ll do my best too.

When I decided that, Kirisana came over.

It seems like there’s something she wants to ask Niz-san and not me.

「Is there a reason why Enderi was the one who was taken away and not me?」

「Eh? Ehto…..No. Maybe they chose randomly.」

Niz said so and smiled.

However, I saw it.

Before answering, she glanced at Kirisana’s chest.

Both Enderi and Kirisana are wearing pants but their chests are firmly emphasized.

Given the chest size, Enderi is surely a more motherly figure…..cough cough.

Let’s stop thinking about it.

Yeah, it’s just a coincidence.

They just chose randomly.

I’m sure of it.