The goblin subjugation quest was a complete success. And it couldn’t be any other way.

But there was a little fly in the ointment. I am talking about the way I blew the demon up.

Yes, it was done perfectly well, one shot – one kill. Buuut…

“Hey, you overgrown bastard… Was that actually worth blowing away half of the damned village?!” Elina showed at the devastation left after the single gunshot.

The reason she was mad at me is that everything that was 20 meters away from the place I fired from was either sent flying away, or was turned into debris and scattered nearby. Though far from 'half of the damned village', it was just ONE shot at less than a third of my power. So, if we scale it up...

“I… Well… I thought it was going to be a tough fight and…”

“And so you started with the biggest one, right?” Elina’s expression hardened as her arm showed at the remnants of a house.

“Imagine if there were still people in the village. Or, even worse, if we were fighting that son of a in a town!” (E)

“Eli, enough. I agree that it was too much, but there art magic shields, and breaking them always was our problem.” Kasumi shook Elina’s shoulder and glanced at me, telling me with her eyes that I better tell something too.

“I get it that I was wrong, but…

Magic…?”

“What is it?” The girls stared at me while I pondered.

[Magic… If that demon had a shield, it would’ve been a pain in the back, and there is no guarantee there won’t be one the next time. And the shield is magic.

Magic shield, magic.

Magic shield. Magic.

Magic versus the magic shield?]

“What if we employ a mage? Shouldn’t it help us against magic shields? And also magic is supposed to be more precise in its devastating power than my guns. How does that sound?” I looked at Elina and Kasumi.

Their faces immediately conveyed their opinion. Or, rather, their thoughts: ‘Ah, she’s going to find yet another woman’. I cautiously shifted eyes to Bretagne.

Her expression was the same, but unlike the well-known wives of mine, her thoughts were conveyed only because of radio transmission. Something along the lines of ‘burn the heretic, kill the mutant’, et cetera.

Now completely overtaken by fear for my life, I timidly glanced at Lusa.

The elf tilted her head in response, completely oblivious of what was going on and why everyone was so agitated.

“L-let’s think this through…?”

‘-10 Bond’

“I… I can explain my thinking process, and…’

‘-10 Bond’

[!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

“Y-yeah, that was a stupid idea… He-he-he… Let’s do it the old way: smash and dash…”

‘+1 Bond’

I looked back at Elina and Kasumi. The next moment the announcement voice rang in the back of my head.

[-50 favorability with Elina

-50 favorability with Kasumi]

Meanwhile, a few hundred meters away from there.

A grey-skinned woman with horns on her head watched the weird charade unfolding in the village.

Not only that youngling demon screwed up so badly that he disregarded everything taught, he also managed to die on her, leaving all the explanations on her shoulders.

The humans possessed a new and powerful magic and its effects on the magic defenses of the demonkind were not something she would want to test out on her own hide.

However, there was something more urgent than watching the mortals fooling around. She sensed something behind her. And the presence she felt was so dreadful that she dared not show that she felt it.

If only she had the time to relay her findings to her kinsmen…

“Go ahead.” The presence responded calmly.

The demon woman shivered in horror, following the presence’s permission (order?). She murmured every her finding with long-range communication magic, stuttering at every word.

While she was doing it, the presence sat by her side, joining in observing the foolish mortals.

Only when she was done the presence spoke: “However foolish they are, it is entertaining enough to watch them scampering through their lives. And watching how meaningless it all was after they die. Ufu-fu~.” The figure by her side was that of a tiny girl, a fox spirit with but one tail. An easy prey, but in few cases left unguarded by their older, horrifyingly strong kin. This situation was not supposed to be bad. If not for one thing...

“T-tuly… Y-y-yogh Mawefty if rifght…” The demon uttered, through biting her tongue and stammering.

The presence was right here.

The being that could disregard everything but the heavens.

“Go. Let them kill you. I wonder how fighting against a mage would change their minds~.”

“A-af y-you c-com-mand…” The demon immediately flew out of her hiding, and headed straight towards the village. The opposite way from the demon lands.