Chapter 34 : The River Monster Was Too Big!
The Ludley Bridge is to the west of Tiaret.
It’s about two days by carriage.
By the way, it takes about 5 days to reach the royal capital, Lavec, so the bridge is about in the middle.
Well then, it’s time to go.
I left the store to Mira-san and went to the Ludley Bridge by carriage.
It’s cheaper and faster if you rent a horse, you said?
Who do you think I am?
Of course, I can’t ride a horse! XD
♦♦♦
On the night of the second day, when I was about to arrive at the Ludley Bridge, I heard screams.
Uwaaaaaaー!
「W, What happened!?」
I got off the carriage that was trying to turn around because the cabman felt dangerous, and immediately rushed toward the commotion.
I could see the Slane River flowing gently on the right.
Around the river, there were several temporary huts built by the carpenters.
「Monster! There’s a monsterー!」
「It’s in the water! It’s very big!」
Several men were yelling.
I kept running until I finally could see the bridge.
The bridge was built by neatly assembling stones one by one, and it looked very sturdy.
Hooー What a nice build. I’m sure it won’t break so easily.
But….. I was wrong.
ーSplash!
An extraordinarily huge and long tentacle came out of the river.
It stretched high to the sky andー
BOOOMMMMー!
ーfell to the center of the bridge really hard.
As a result, the bridges split into two, and it started to crumble from the center.
「Gaahhhhー!」
「Again!? Aaaahhhー!」
The carpenters were screaming with anger.
U, Uwaa… I feel sorry for the carpenters.
Medit-obasan said the monster had already destroyed the bridge several times.
I wonder how many times it has been destroyed…
If I was those carpenters, I might not be able to bear the pain.
Oops, it’s not the time to feel sympathy.
I need to kill it right here right now since the monster appeared now.
I took my giant hammer from my back and ran to approach the river.
「Oi, monster! Come out! This blunt weapon user, Hanna Falsett, will be your opponent!」
For now, I just shouted from the riverside and see what will happen.
I didn’t think the monster could understand human language, but I could do nothing except scream and wait for it to come out.
As long as the enemy is underwater, I can’t attack it.
Eh? Dive into the river and fight underwater you said?
There’s no way I can do that!
Besides, I can’t swim!
The true identity of the monster was probably Kraken.
It was a huge squid monster that had eight legs and two tentacles.
I wonder if it’s its leg or tentacle that came out of the river.
I don’t know which one, so let’s say that it has ten tentacles.
Anyway, regardless of whether I can swim or not, it’s impossible to fight this monster underwater.
The tentacle that broke the bridge finally sank back into the water.
Is it trying to run away?
Khh! I can’t let it escape!
I picked up a big debris from the destroyed bridge, threw it up andー
「Blunt Weapon Skill :【Stone Bullet】! 」
ーhit it with the hammer.
Splashhhhhー!
The debris hit by the hammer pierced the river vigorously.
I didn’t use【Air Stakes】because it was air, so the power would be drastically decreased underwater.
That’s why I used another long-range skill.
However, it seemed that I missed.
It just scattered the surface of the river violently. The kraken didn’t come up.
I kept waiting until the surface of the river calmed down, but still, I felt zero presence of the kraken.
「Damn it! Our hard work… Our beautiful bridge!」
The carpenters were looking at the ground. Some of them made an angry look, some of them made a regretful look.
I was also frustrated because I let the monster escape.
Now, even if the carpenters built the bridge again, it might be destroyed again by the kraken.
Their morale was getting lower and lower.
「Oi! Just what the heck happened!?」
The person who shouted was a bald man who was about fifty years old.
He was wearing a luxury suit that was embroidered with gold thread.
It looked like he was an aristocrat.
「Huh…? The bridge broken again!? What is the meaning of this!?」
The man’s face was getting red. He glared at the carpenters with anger.
「It’s not broken. It was destroyed by a big monstー」
「Enough with that! I don’t wanna hear such excuses again! If you really can build a sturdy bridge, no matter how big the monster is, it won’t collapse! You guys are all fired! I won’t pay you even a single pel!」
After the aristocrat man talked one-sidedly like that, he quickly left the place without even confirming the situation.
「That f***ing aristocrat said what his as* wanted to say and just walked away!?」
「There was nothing we could do if such a stupid huge monster appeared…」
「Why the heck he always gone when the monster appeared?」
「Yeah. And then he would appear when the monster was gone. I bet he was hiding behind a tree while trembling like a little girl!」
After the aristocrat man disappeared, the carpenters began to talk behind him.
I understood their feelings.
Even though I didn’t know them, I know they were annoyed with him.
It reminded me of the grumpy supervisor when I was building Falma-sama’s church.
Living as a carpenter who used blunt instruments really is tough.
People who use blunt instruments would always be the oppressed.
「By the way… Missy. Who are you?」
「Ohh, the missy who said she’s a blunt weapon user or something」
After the carpenters were chilled a little, their attention was focused on me, a stranger.
「I’m an adventurer from Adventurer Guild in Tiaret. I came to protect the bridge from monster but…..」
「Well, you’re a bit late」
「Y, Yes… I’m sorry」
The bridge that I was supposed to protect was now in a terrible condition.
It would take a while to fix it.
「But still. What a huge monster. I could only see the tentacle, but it was a kraken, right? It’s understandable that the sturdy bridge could be destroyed easily many times then」
「Hm? Ahh, today is the first time the tentacle one appeared. The one that appeared last time was Undine, the water spirit. She appeared and made the bridge full of holes with water cannonballs」
「Eh?」
「Before that, was Kelpie, a horse monster that can run on the water. It ran and slammed its body to the bridge and destroyed it」
「…..What?」
「And before that, was a mermaid. She destroyed the bridge with ultrasonic waves!」
「Ha, Haaaaa!? Wait wait wait!」
What the heck?
This is not the Demon Land!
How could such strong monsters appear one after another in the middle of the kingdom?
And why the heck they were trying to destroy the bridge?
「Umm… Everyone, did you see them with your own eyes?」
「「「Of course!」」」
The carpenters answered simultaneously.
Hmm… They didn’t seem to be lying.
But, is that even possible…?
Wait. I just remember. Isn’t Kraken a monster that should be in the sea?
I’ve never heard of Kraken appearing in the river though.
Hmm…
My intuition as an adventure-story freak whispered that…
There was ‘something’ behind these incidents……
Poor carpenters, it must have been terrible.