I Became a Raid Boss-Chapter 118: The Ascension Ritual (9)

The silver blade glinted sharply.

The sword slid smoothly through the hide, as if piercing a pudding with a fork. But the result was far from peaceful.

Sshk.

The monster’s head flew into the air.

The lifeless head spun around, scattering blood in all directions.

“Ah.”

I made a mistake.

The original plan was to cleanly sever the head from the body, but I had been distracted mid-swing and applied too much force.

Now my body was sticky with blood...

I grumbled as I half-heartedly wiped the blood off myself.

“Kana! Don’t say such things so carelessly!”

“Here we go again.”

What nonsense was she going to spout this time? Crossing my arms, I looked at her, waiting for her explanation. Instead, Daeun pulled out a white handkerchief from her pocket and began wiping my cheek.

Rub, rub.

Squish, squish.

“....”

“Heheh... eheh...”

“You are wiping it off, right?”

“Of course I am! And... there, all done!”

The moment she finished speaking, Daeun withdrew her hand from my face. The once pristine white handkerchief was now stained dark red with monster blood.

No amount of washing would likely restore its original color. Not that it mattered; with the miasma contaminating the blood, it wouldn’t be safe to use again anyway. Bringing it into a human village in Ardina would probably get us labeled as terrorists.

“And there we go! Fresh, clean Kana, all finished!”

“Clean? I still feel sticky.”

Though the blood had been wiped away, the unpleasant sticky sensation remained. Naturally, since I hadn’t washed it off with water.

“Kana, you shouldn’t say things like that. There are weird people out there who take even ordinary comments the wrong way.”

“...What’s weird about saying I feel sticky? And what kind of ‘weird’ thoughts are you talking about?”

“...There are some things in this world you’re better off not knowing. I just want you to stay pure and innocent, as you are now. Can’t you understand this older sister’s feelings?”

“Sure. What I understand is that you are one of those weird people.”

“...Kana, what’s that supposed to mean? You don’t know how lucky you are to have not met truly strange people! I’m pretty normal, all things considered!”

“Hm.”

But if she says “all things considered,” doesn’t that mean she knows she’s weird?

If she were really normal, she wouldn’t feel the need to add that qualifier.

Ignoring the self-proclaimed “normal” person, I shook the blood off my sword.

“How many have we taken down?”

“This makes twenty,” Selene answered instead of Daeun, who was still muttering under her breath.

“That’s quite a lot.”

“Shall we take a break? You might be tired.”

“I’m not tired, just bored.”

Repetition breeds boredom, after all. Especially when it’s simple, monotonous work like this.

“Repetitive work, then?”

“Exactly.”

Wait for the monsters to arrive.

When they do, separate their heads from their bodies and send them off to wherever they go.

That’s it.

If stronger monsters filled with dense miasma were coming, I wouldn’t have the luxury of such idle thoughts. But oddly enough, there weren’t any particularly powerful monsters here in the heart of Raxia.

Contrary to my expectations, Raxia’s center wasn’t crawling with absurdly strong monsters like I had imagined. Justina had a simple explanation for that.

“That’s what the barrier was made for. It ensures that the miasma gathered in the center doesn’t spread across the continent.”

The barrier served multiple purposes.

One was to contain the miasma within the central area, preventing it from escaping. Without it, the situation in Raxia would be far worse, Justina explained.

“The source of a monster’s life and strength is miasma. With such weak miasma, there’s no way monsters strong enough to challenge you could exist here.”

“By that logic, shouldn’t there be strong monsters inside the barrier? I haven’t seen any.”

“A farmer must constantly tend to their fields. Any pests that arise must be promptly dealt with.”

Even if a potentially powerful monster were born outside the barrier, it would end up as prey for other monsters.

Unlike other creatures that instinctively avoid miasma, monsters have no such aversion. Ironically, Raxia’s miasma-rich environment stifles their potential rather than allowing it to flourish.

“So, the reason we occasionally see such monsters in Ardina is...”

“It’s because they have no natural predators. A particularly strong monster would devour the others and grow even stronger.”

“That’s enough of that. I’m not interested.”

“...Weren’t you the one who brought it up?”

“Journey, don’t make baseless accusations.”

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“But... you did!”

Daeun pounded her chest in frustration, and I watched her for a moment before tugging on her sleeve.

“Stop it.”

“...!”

Her face lit up with emotion.

“Are you worried about me, Kana?”

“Yeah.”

How could I not be, when she was pounding her chest like that?

“Journey, you like... big chests, right?”

“...What?”

“If you keep hitting your chest like that, it might cave in and get smaller.”

“W-wait, hold on.”

Daeun took a deep breath.

Then exhaled even faster than she inhaled. After a few rounds of deep breathing, she finally managed to speak, her voice strained with an effort to remain calm—but failing miserably.

“I have so much to say, but first... what do you mean by ‘liking big chests’?”

“...? I meant exactly that. You’re always envying Selene, so I figured you must like them.”

“...Oh, so that’s what you meant? Could you be clearer next time to avoid misunderstandings?”

“Was there something unclear about what I said?”

“Not just unclear—it was completely misleading. Ugh, this is such a mess. Look, Kana wasn’t saying anything weird about polar bears, okay? Leave the poor polar bears alone!”

It was moments like these that made me appreciate my ability to decipher strange comments.

Satisfied with my newfound understanding, I nodded to myself, only to have Daeun redirect her frustration toward me.

“And just so you know, hitting your chest won’t make it smaller.”

“What are you talking about? If anything, it’s lucky if it only gets smaller. Plenty of people die from chest injuries causing their ribcages to collapse.”

“...Do I look like someone stupid enough to hit myself that hard?”

“....”

“Hey, Kana. Answer me.”

“....”

“Hey! Answer!”

“Hm, I wonder who you’re calling.”

When Daeun calls me, she always says my name, like “Kana” or “Kana-ya~.” She does it even when we’re talking face-to-face. It must be a habit of hers.

Anyway, what I’m saying is, if she’s calling someone “hey,” it’s probably not me.

Could she have started addressing Selene informally?

As I played dumb, Daeun suddenly reached out and grabbed my waist.

“Ah.”

My perspective shifted as my feet left the ground, dangling in the air.

“You. Do you think you can just drag people into chaos? You impudent little brat! Accept your punishment...!”

“...It tickles.”

Even though my face was clean, my clothes were still covered in blood. Daeun didn’t seem to care that she was dirtying her own clothes as she tickled, hugged, and rubbed me.

After a while, she finally set me down. Blood smeared across her face, though she didn’t seem to notice. She looked very pleased with herself.

“Phew...”

“I’ll let you off this time since you seem remorseful. Be good from now on.”

“...Does she really seem remorseful?” Selene tilted her head in confusion.

“Of course. Look at Kana’s face—clearly, she’s reflecting.”

“She just looks ticklish... Anyway, Daeun?”

“Yes?”

“Um...”

Selene hesitated to speak, giving me a moment to catch my breath.

Finally, she mustered the courage.

“I thought I’d felt you staring at me sometimes, but it seems you were just envious... If it’s something I could give, I would. But, well... this isn’t something I can share, even if I wanted to.”

“...Selene, why are you joining in too?!”

Daeun let out a wail. I was glad it wasn’t my fault this time and turned my attention to Justina, who was watching us with a bemused expression.

“We should move. It looks like we’ve cleared out the monsters in this area.”

They might come back eventually, but it seemed better to relocate for now.

We were hunting monsters outside the barrier for two reasons.

First, to preemptively eliminate potential threats in case monsters breached the barrier. Second, to harvest enough miasma from the monsters’ corpses to compensate for any shortages.

As I’ve mentioned, it wasn’t particularly difficult. Even if the amount of miasma we gathered was minuscule, it was better than nothing.

By releasing mana to lure monsters and taking them down as they came, we chipped away at the task.

“I agree,” Justina said.

“How much longer do we need to keep doing this?”

“We’ll need to circle the entire barrier.”

“A full circle...?”

“The perimeter of the barrier.”

“...That much?”

The barrier surrounding the demons’ village—or city, or whatever it was—was massive. It wasn’t as vast as the Holy Kingdom’s sacred barrier, but completing a full loop would still take a long time.

And this wasn’t just walking around; it was luring and killing monsters, then moving on to repeat the process...

“...Let’s finish quickly.”

If we didn’t want to spend the night camping outside, we’d have to work fast. Without waiting for Justina’s response, I started walking.

I’d cooperate, but only if we cleaned out the nearby monsters first. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

And as for those two still bickering behind me...

I pretended not to notice, just in case their argument spilled over onto me.