Apostle of the Gods

33 – Demon Bear and Sheep

As soon as I enter the nest, I cast night vision magic on myself and Rosetta.

「Ooh, great! Thank you! Will is quite deft, aren’t you?」

「I can use magic to a certain extent」

「Wow!」

Rosetta seems impressed.

The night vision magic itself is not a difficult magic to cast.

A mage, who is capable of passing and entering the Academy of Heroes, can easily use it too.

However, because of the loud fuss made by the scions before the duel, everyone knows that I only have one pillar of guardian deity.

That must be why she thinks it’s amazing.

As we move forward while talking, we arrive at the end of the nest in no time.

However, there are no signs of sheep such as bones and wool.

「No bones or wool, does that mean those were eaten too?」

「…that’s not right. Bears don’t eat bones, wool, and hooves」

「I see. What about the dung from before?」

「I wonder if it was dung due to have eaten nuts and vegetables」

Rosetta is a hunter, so she can judge what was eaten just by looking at the dung.

The moment the demon bear went out to infest the fields in the village and eat the vegetables there, it became the target of subjugation even if it isn’t the one that ate the sheep.

In that sense, this is not a useless subjugation.

However, now there is a high possibility that there are other beasts which ate the sheep. So, this request is not complete yet.

After the investigation, Rosetta and I leave the nest.

Arti and Tina are in the process of dismantling the demon bear.

Rosetta and I also help with the dismantling and then report the results of the investigation in the nest.

Tina says strongly after hearing the report.

「We need to exterminate the demon beast that ate the sheep!」

「You’re right. Rosetta, let’s continue the investigation」 I say.

Arti continues to dismantle the demon bear while nodding silently.

Skin the pelt of the demon bear, pull out the claws and fangs, and take out the liver and the magic stone, and the dismantling comes to an end.

Demon bear’s meat tastes bad so it is not suitable for cooking.

「Because the demon bear’s meat has no use, it must be disposed here」

「Shall I burn it?」

「It is a waste to use magic! And digging a hole is too much work, so it might be better to burn it with firewood」

For me, the amount of magic needed to cast fireball to burn the demon bear’s meat is not a large amount of consumption.

It is much easier than collecting firewood. So I try to burn it with magic but,

「Pigi」

「What is it, Fluffy?」

Fluffy flies out from within my clothes, grows huge at once, and engulfs the corpse of the demon bear.

「Fluffy, I didn’t know you could grow this huge. I’m surprised」

As expected of a god-beast I suppose.

「Pigi!」

While joyfully crying out, Fluffy quickly digests the corpse of the demon bear.

At the same time as digestion, it ejects out something of a mixture that looked like water and soil.

This must be Fluffy’s excrement.

Rosetta and I approach the faeces and check the smell and etc.

「This is… soil」

「Yes, it’s soil. It looks like humus」

「Fluffy’s digestion is unusually fast」

「Pigi Pigi!」

After Fluffy digests the demon bear’s corpse, it returns to its original size and jumps onto my shoulder.

「A-As expected of Will-sama’s familiar! It is an impressive slime」

「Rather than saying impressive, what kind of slime is Fluffy?」

Tina and Rosetta are both surprised.

「I think it is a normal slime…」

「No, no, no, that’s not possible. It digested the demon bear in an instant. Just who exactly is it?」

Perhaps because she is surprised, Rosetta is abridging her words.

If it can digest at the current speed, then surely a living demon bear would also be digested in an instant.

In other words, who is this slime who can defeat a huge demon bear in an instant?

That’s what Rosetta must have been trying to say.

「In fact, I don’t know much about the species either」

If I reveal that Fluffy is a god-beast, she would undoubtedly be more confused.

「I see. I guess there are also exceptional slimes like this」

「Pigi」

「I’ll leave the corpse disposal to Fluffy-chan! It will be very easy!」

Rosetta pats Fluffy who is riding on top of my shoulder.

Once we finished processing the corpse, we start moving right away.

We arrived at the demon bear’s nest from the place where the bear was last sighted.

So next, we head to the place where the sheep disappeared.

Here is the villager’s testimony about the sheep.

It seems that an experienced shepherd was grazing fifty sheep with a sheepdog at the field.

And a demon bear appeared there. Naturally, the shepherd fled from there. It is impossible to fight against the demon bear.

As a result, ten sheep were lost from the village property.

I can’t blame the shepherd.

You can say he is an experienced shepherd, just for being able to flee with the sheepdog and forty sheep.

「So this is the grazing land where the sheep were attacked by the demon bear. There sure is a lot of grass here」

This must be the first time the palace-grown Tina is seeing a grazing land.

「The grass is growing because the sheep are no longer brought to graze here after being attacked by the demon bear」

Rosetta explains gently.

Sheep eat a lot of grass. Thus, you can tell that the grazing land has changed much by observing the state of the grass.

「It’s now an all-you-can grow grass. It is hard to follow the traces, but I’ll do my best!」

Rosetta begins examining the surroundings with a serious look.

「Fumu? I found the footprints of the demon bear!」

Rosetta has the divine blessing of the Hunting God, thus her hunting skills seems to be exceedingly high.

「Do you think it is the footprints of the previous demon bear?」

「Yes, I think so. Let’s follow the footprints」

Rosetta starts tracking the footprints.

At the end of the footprint, there should be a trace of the incident of why the previous demon bear could not eat the sheep.