Noticing that Karna had regained consciousness, Belhard asked.

"How is it? Do you think you can continue your journey?"

"Yes, I'm fine. As long as we don't do anything reckless like this time."

"Okay, let's go around the world clockwise."

The group regained their strength with Karna's healing magic, and Belhard announced, purposely so that they could be heard on the radio, as they headed east.

"They're coming this way, prepare to release the monsters from their cages. Let's start with the wights and black dogs."

Trasteria gave orders to the shinobi.

Finally, the journey proper had begun, and Trasteria was fired up. The shinobi sprayed calming gas on the monsters and released them onto the road. Then Trasteria and the others quickly left the scene.

"We've released the monsters onto the road."

Trasteria's voice could be heard faintly from around Belhard's collar.

"A monster might appear, so be prepared for battle at any time!"

Belhard was fired up as well. After all, it was the first time for all three of them to fight a monster.

As they continued along the road that stretched from the western edge of Bilderna, the smell of decay and animal life became stronger just before the village of Suwari. Soon, a black dog the size of a calf appeared from the bushes. Its eyes reflected the light and glowed red, its fangs bared in hostility. Behind it, two undead appeared, blocking the road.

"Those are... monsters..."

Elliot was shocked and a little frightened as he encountered a monster for the first time in his life.

Belhard, shield and lance at the ready, shouted loudly to encourage his party.

"Elliot, you learned swordsmanship from Ralph, right? Show us the power of a hero! Your first opponent will be the Black Dog. Karna and I will hold off the other two. We can do it!"

The word hero inspired the frightened Elliot.

A hero is someone who is "brave". What good is it for someone who is about to defeat the Demon King to be scared of a dog monster or a undead monster?

Belhard readied his shield and charged at the monsters. He knocked back the slowly approaching wight with his shield and aimed for its head with his long-reaching lance.

"I'll take on the other wight!"

Karna, who has a good affinity with undead monsters, also mustered his courage and used purification magic to stop the wight's movement, and tried to slam the mace with the sacred stone into its head.

Seeing the two fighting, Elliot shouted as he put all his strength into his trembling body and ran towards the Black Dog. He then jumped up and swung his knight sword at Black Dog's head, but the agile Black Dog dodged it. Black Dog dodged to the left, opened its mouth wide, and tried to jump at Elliot with both hands clawed, but Elliot didn't run away and instead plunged his sword into the throat of Black Dog's wide-open mouth. Then, before Black Dog could retreat, he took another step forward and slashed his sword, decapitating it. With its head cut off, Black Dog collapsed on the spot, powerless. Elliot had only ever killed livestock, and this was his first time killing a monster. With some blood on his cheek, he struggled to get his breathing back.

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"Well done, Elliot. Are you hurt?"

Belhard praised him after destroying the wight's head and killing it with a single blow.

"This is what fighting a monster is like..."

Elliot's heart was still beating so fast that he stood there in a daze, his knight sword at the ready.

"Was it your first time fighting a monster?"

Elliot nodded without even looking at Belhardo.

"It was my first time too. Karna seemed used to fighting."

"No, not at all. I was completely absorbed in it. But I was able to muster up the courage. Is that because we had a hero?"

The presence of a hero also inspired the other members.

"Maybe so. It was my first time defeating a monster, too, but I managed to handle it somehow."

Elliot was able to defeat the Black Dog without flinching because he had Belhardo and Karna.

"...Wow, that wasn't easy. Much easier than Dad..." Finally regaining his composure, Elliot looked at the two with a smile. "Let's continue our journey."

The sense of accomplishment and confidence he felt from defeating a monster for the first time filled Elliot's ego.

"Phew, it seems you were okay," Trasteria said, relieved over the radio. "I'll be assigning more and more monsters to you, so be careful."

"Okay."

Belhard said, answering Elliot and Trasteria.

The group decided to proceed to the nearby village of Suwari for now. It was still early in the day. However, monsters appeared one after another, as if to block the heroes and his party. Most of them were a combination of relatively weak black dogs and wights. But it was enough to get them used to fighting. Seeing is believing, and seeing is believing. Elliot felt the words Ralph told him deeply.

After the third battle, Elliot muttered.

"I've never seen any monsters before, so maybe this is the Demon King's influence..."

"You're right, that may be so." Belhard, who knew the situation, agreed with Elliot's opinion. "By the way, are we going to stop by Suwari Village?"

Elliot thought for a moment, then shook his head and muttered.

"No, I've already made a decision. I won't be stopping by."

Beldhard was unmarried and didn't have any children, but he felt a sense of fatherhood. Ralph had asked him to do this, and he felt that he had to protect this child because of his inner strength.

As they got closer to Suwari Village, the monsters stopped appearing.

Beldhard speculated that this was probably to prevent monsters from accidentally entering the village.

"Now that I think about it, neither Karna nor Elliot say any kind of spell or magic name when they use magic."

"Oh, that's it. At first, I said it to sound cool, but my master, Clare-sensei, told me to get used to chanting without knowing what kind of attack the opponent will use."

"That's true. Clare-sensei is really smart."

Karna, who had been listening to this, gripped the mace he was holding tightly.

The group tried to pass by Suwari Village, looking to the left. At that moment, two arrows flew past Elliot, who was walking in the lead, and pierced the trunk of a tree to his right.