Chapter 41

"Huff, huff."

My eyes are fixed on the large boar in the field.

It is digging up and eating the vegetables in the field I cultivated, as if burying its nose in the soil.

It’s gnawing and munching away, enjoying the meal.

That’s only natural.

The vegetables I improved and grew are all delicious.

But among them, it seems to particularly enjoy eating Hatsuka.

Does it like the chewy texture?

I can’t help but be impressed that Valkyrie can eat such tough things so calmly.

"Still, it’s huge for a boar."

Even from a distance, its massive body is hard to miss.

It’s probably about 3 meters long.

It’s a different league from the boars I know.

Moreover, it has two large tusks next to its snout.

If it were to stab someone with those, no one would survive.

"So, what do we do in a situation like this? Is there anyone who can fight that thing?"

"No way. Arrows don’t seem to penetrate it."

"Seriously? What do we do, Brother?"

"Ars, you figure it out."

"Don’t be ridiculous. Shouldn’t we ask a noble to deal with it?"

"No, they won’t come even if we ask. Even if we say the boar is causing damage, it’s only eating Hatsuka. No noble would send their forces for something like that. Besides, there’s probably nothing that can match a boar of that size."

What’s the point if we can’t rely on them when we need to?

But it’s true that so far, the damage is only to the Hatsuka.

If we complain, the nobles probably won’t take us seriously for something as trivial as a poor farmer’s vegetables being eaten.

We have to deal with it ourselves, I guess.

And Brother is just dumping it all on me.

If he admires heroes so much, he should put some effort into monster hunting.

"Well, we have no choice but to figure something out… Let me think about it."

Suppressing the urge to complain, I decided to think about how to deal with the boar.

* * *

"Alright, Valkyrie, let’s do this according to the plan!"

"Quack!"

The giant boars ravaging the field.

I came up with a plan to take care of these creatures that are greedily devouring my precious harvest.

But executing it is quite scary.

I have to get right in front of the boar’s eyes.

It’s not every day you encounter a wild creature nearly 3 meters long.

And it has two sharp tusks as powerful weapons.

If I were to be hit by its charging attack, even a glancing blow would be serious.

My body trembled with fear even as I tried to move forward.

Valkyrie might have sensed my trembling.

She waited patiently until I calmed down.

Feeling her warmth as we touched, the fear gradually subsided.

I took a deep breath and called out to Valkyrie.

Sensing that my fear was under control, Valkyrie began to move in response.

The mother and baby boars, grunting and eating the Hatsuka, were unaware of our approach.

I rode Valkyrie from a distance, gaining speed as we approached.

With each step, Valkyrie’s speed increased.

The scenery around us blurred as we accelerated, eventually reaching top speed.

The air resistance was so strong it felt like hitting a wall.

This was my first time riding Valkyrie at such a speed.

But I managed to hold on, not letting the momentum throw me off.

As we got closer, the boar’s massive body became clearer.

It was indeed huge.

The boar noticed our approach and turned its head.

I squeezed Valkyrie’s body with my thighs and gripped the reins tightly with my left hand, extending my right hand forward.

I synchronized my breathing with Valkyrie’s movements.

Then, I focused the magic I had prepared in my right hand.

"Scatter shot!"

The boar, now on high alert, was about to charge.

As we passed by, I cast the spell from Valkyrie’s back.

From my palm, I launched stones about the size of golf balls.

And not just one, but multiple stones at once.

I shouted "scatter shot," but I didn’t use any incantation.

It was purely an image in my mind.

If I were touching the ground, I could use a spell with a wider area of effect, but since I wasn’t, I could only launch small stones.

Moreover, I was casting the spell while moving on Valkyrie.

It was impossible to aim properly.

That’s why I launched multiple stones at once.

Bang!

The sound echoed.

It seemed the scatter shot hit the boar perfectly.

We quickly passed by it.

"Oooh!"

But the boar, hit by the scatter shot, only staggered for a moment before planting its four feet firmly on the ground and letting out a loud roar.

The roar was filled with anger.

It seemed I only caused it some minor pain, not significant damage.

"Let’s run, Valkyrie."

With a thunderous sound of hooves, all the boars, led by the one I attacked, began to chase us.

With the ground-shaking sound behind us, Valkyrie and I started to flee.

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