Volume 7, Chapter 9 – Warriors of the Desert

“Onee-sama, it’s amazing! It’s yellow everywhere!”

Lu-chan, perched atop a camel, let out a cheer, and I responded with a small nod.

Just as Lu-chan said, a desert of fine, yellow sand—befitting the name Yellow Planet—stretched as far as the eye could see.

When people think of deserts, they usually imagine scorching heat, but the current season is winter. As expected, since it’s winter, it doesn’t seem to be a total blazing hell; as long as it’s daytime, the temperature is manageable, though it is quite dry, which is a relief.

The nights get cold, but not nearly as freezing as the desert we crossed on our way to the Red Sky Empire, so the journey is proceeding smoothly.

We are making our way slowly through the desert on camels provided by Kamil-san.

Our desert crossing party is quite a large group, consisting of five support staff to lead our camels, approximately three hundred Warriors surrounding us as escorts, and about twenty personnel dedicated to support.

It seems like a somewhat excessive force, but apparently, the frequency of monster attacks has been increasing here in Yellow Planet.

They assigned this many people to ensure nothing happened to us.

“Saint-sama, there is a swarm of Yellow-tail Scorpi ahead. We shall go and exterminate them, so please wait here.”

The one who informed me was Nahid-san, the leader of the Warriors guarding us.

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“I see. Thank you. Please be careful.”

“Yes!”

I watched them go, but “Yellow-tail Scorpi” was a name I was hearing for the first time.

“Fiene-sama, the Yellow-tail Scorpi is a scorpion monster that inhabits the Planeta Desert. Because its exoskeleton is the same color as the desert sand, it’s difficult to spot. On top of that, it carries extremely potent poison in its tail, making it a very troublesome monster.”

Sensing my expression, Chris-san provided the explanation.

“I see… Will we be alright without fighting?”

“It shall be fine. This is an elite unit Kamil-dono sent with complete confidence. They must be well accustomed to fighting on sandy terrain, so it would be best for us to watch how they fight.”

“Is that so…”

I hope so.

Just in case, I decided I would be ready to use Antidote Magic and Healing Magic.

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As I thought this, I watched Nahid-san and the others a few dozen meters ahead, and the battle began.

The Warriors led by Nahid-san charged in a perfectly synchronized formation.

The man at the front drew his curved sword, seemingly dodged the strike of a scorpion tail that blended into the sand, and gracefully moved in to cut it down… or so I thought, until he was spectacularly impaled straight through the stomach by that very tail.

“Ah…”

“GOD IS GREATTTTTTT—!”

The impaled man screamed that at the top of his lungs, grabbed hold of the tail, then collapsed, and in that opening, the Warrior beside him cut the scorpion down.

I froze, stunned. I hurriedly looked around.

The same thing was happening all over the place!

Um, what is happening here?

Wait, no! I have to help!

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“Detoxify! Heal!”

Every time a Warrior was stung, I cast Antidote Magic and Healing Magic remotely one after another.

Yes. Surprisingly, I can use them normally even from this distance.

I could feel the magic working, but since I cast it in such a hurry, it didn’t seem quite as effective as usual. I’ll recast it properly once this is over.

While this was happening, the swarm of yellow scorpions was repelled.

Then the Warriors returned from the battle, threw themselves face-down before me, and began reciting their prayer.

“””God is great! God is great! The Saint is the Apostle of God! Gratitude for the Saint’s salvation!”””

I mean, “salvation” is one way to put it, but…

Wasn’t that just a suicide charge?

“Um, God forgives you.”

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“””Oooooh!”””

When I managed to recall the proper etiquette and delivered the line, they began to shed tears.

Wait, what religion is this? Ah, no, I suppose it’s the religion of this country…

“Um, Nahid-san?”

“Yes! What is it, my lady?”

“Is the reason we came with such a large number of people because of… that fighting style?”

“Oh! As expected of Saint-sama. The Yellow-tail Scorpi are dangerous, so our Warriors must fight bravely, staking their lives in battle.”

“Eeeeh.”

“This is… horrible…”

My ears did not miss Shizuku-san muttering that in a tone of complete disgust.