"What?!"
Shirou's words surprised Ruijerd and Eris.
Neither of them expected him to say something so shocking. For a moment, they couldn't believe it, because Shirou's words had no proof and were too unbelievable.
Shirou didn't want to explain further. He just wanted to catch up with the guys from the Fool Squad.
But just as he was about to move, he suddenly sensed something and quickly pulled Ruijerd and Eris with him, hiding in the shade of the forest trees.
Ruijerd and Eris didn't know why he was doing this, but they followed his lead.
"..."
After a short wait, several rustling figures appeared in the forest. They were all wearing adventurer clothes. They searched the area a few times, but couldn't find anyone. They looked disappointed, said a few words to each other, stomped their feet, and left.
Before they left, they also cleaned up the bodies of the [SuperBlaze] team adventurers, to prevent any traces being left behind.
After watching the adventurers leave, Shirou immediately headed deeper into the forest.
What came into view was a huge snake coiled up.
The snake was pinned to the ground by a sharp greatsword, with various chains wrapped around its body.
Due to the restraints, the magic power in its body was constantly leaking out, unable to live, unable to die.
The magic power of a high-level monster, when released, constantly changed the surrounding environment, eventually causing the mutation of the entire Petrification Forest.
"This..."
Ruijerd and Eris were stunned by what they saw.
Neither of them expected such an unbelievable scene at the deepest part of this forest.
Shirou said calmly, "Ordinary forests may produce monsters, but without a source of magic power, mutations wouldn't keep happening. If a forest is constantly producing new monsters, even causing the forest itself to change, it means there's a source of magic power inside the forest causing everything. That's usually the presence of a monster that's too high level."
As he spoke, Shirou recalled the red dragon that appeared in the Buena Forest.
It was because of the sudden attack of that red dragon that the peaceful Buena Village forest suddenly experienced all sorts of mutations, and monster riots occurred one after another.
Just as the red dragon was the source of the magic mutation in the Buena Forest, the source of the mutation in this Petrification Forest was naturally this big snake.
But unlike the red dragon that accidentally wandered into the Buena Forest, this big snake was obviously deliberately placed here to cause the forest's abnormality.
"Why? Why would they do this?"
Eris and Ruijerd couldn't understand.
Especially Eris.
She had too little understanding of this world and didn't understand why someone would capture a monster here, even causing the entire forest to twist.
"The reason is probably to make passing merchants pay high fees to hire adventurers,"
Shirou said with a calm tone. "According to the guild manager, merchants in Rikarisu Town often issue requests to clear the monsters in the Petrification Forest, to create a safe passage, so that merchant caravans can travel safely, without wasting too much money on hiring bodyguards."
"But this is undoubtedly something that hurts the benefits of the adventurers in Rikarisu Town, so the merchants' requests not only can't be solved, but the adventurers have discovered this way to make money, so they began to go even further."
"Of course, sometimes adventurers from out of town, or new adventurers, don't understand the situation and accidentally accept the task of dealing with the forest monsters. At this time, the adventurers in Rikarisu Town will unite to eliminate these bad people who may damage their benefits."
"Like the [SuperBlaze] team just now. With their strength as a B-rank adventurer team, they wouldn't be in any danger even if they faced B-rank or A-rank monsters. They wouldn't be wiped out. But if the opponent isn't a monster, but adventurers of the same level, or even higher-level adventurers, the situation is completely different."
In essence, this matter was no different from Shirou and the others reporting the adventurers for capturing pets, staging a fake event, and defrauding the client's money.
Adventurers, in order to earn money, don't have enough requests to accept, so they can completely create requests themselves, raising bandits to protect themselves.
Capturing the host's pet and creating monsters in the Petrification Forest. The essence of these two things is the same. They are both creating requests, and making sure they can have requests to complete.
Ordinary people who make the requests will naturally not know how dark things are. In the end, they will only feel that the adventurers are very reliable and have successfully completed the request.
All the darkness can be completely hidden in the shadows, as long as all the adventurers unite.
This is undoubtedly why the adventurers in Rikarisu Town were so exclusive, and why they caused so much trouble for Shirou and the others on their first day.
The reason why the horse-headed man Nokubara contacted Shirou and the others so many times was essentially just to scare away these outsider adventurers.
"This is too much."
After learning the truth, Eris couldn't help but widen her eyes. She never expected that someone would do such ugly things for profit.
Although Eris wasn't exactly a champion of justice, she still couldn't allow such evil things to happen.
"..."
Ruijerd remained silent the whole time.
But Shirou felt that the trident he was holding was being gripped tighter and tighter.
As a champion of justice on his level, Ruijerd obviously wouldn't allow such evil to happen in front of him.
Especially since if they hadn't stopped them earlier, the Fool Squad's followers would have all died.
The adventurers in Rikarisu Town had done so many ugly things, and the number of foreign adventurers who had been killed by them could be said to be countless.
Among them were many who, like the Fool Squad, were new to the world and had illusions about the future, but were killed for no apparent reason.
Ruijerd couldn't allow such a group of villains to live in this world.
"Let's go back quickly. We can't let the kids get hurt."
For a moment, Ruijerd also realized the urgency of the situation. If the Fool Squad people returned to town now, they would likely be persecuted by the local adventurers in Rikarisu Town.
Shirou wasn't worried. The Fool Squad kids were weak, so they probably wouldn't be targeted too much. And they hadn't touched the core of the Petrification Forest at all and didn't know anything about the conspiracy.
So, Shirou wasn't in a hurry to leave. Instead, he walked towards the giant monster snake in front of him.
"This should be an A-rank monster, the Red Eater Serpent."
Based on his research on monsters, Shirou recognized the monster's identity.
The Red Eater Serpent is a higher-level species of the White Fang Serpent. Even if it can't be determined what the White Fang Serpent consumes to mutate into the Red Eater Serpent, there is a very small chance that it will appear where the White Fang Serpent lives.
Not only does it have a larger body than the White Fang Serpent, but its agility is also much higher.
Its whole body is covered with hard scales that have fire resistance, and its sharp teeth are poisonous. It's an extremely fierce monster.
For such a monster to be so restricted here proves that the strength of the person who did it is definitely above the A-rank adventurer level.
Maybe there is a Saint-level opponent.
But Shirou didn't care.
"Let's kill it first and solve the mutation here."
Shirou drew the magic sword Wind Break from his waist and struck the monster's head directly.
Because the snake was restrained, it couldn't move at all and had no resistance. Or rather, the monster itself had lost the will to live. Shirou's actions instead made it feel liberated.
After Shirou killed the monster, the mutation of the Petrification Forest was almost instantly resolved.
The heavy magic power that filled the surrounding environment gradually dissipated.
"Let's go back."
Shirou said the words to return.
As his words fell, Eris and Ruijerd's bodies tensed up instinctively.
After all, they both realized how dangerous this trip back to Rikarisu Town would be, and what kind of exaggerated crisis they would encounter later.
But no one said they wanted to run away.
Even Eris, now that she had seen so many dead people, understood how heavy the word "justice" was.
...
It was almost dusk when Shirou and the others returned to Rikarisu Town.
They didn't encounter any risks along the way.
They didn't even meet any extra people.
They returned to the adventurer's guild, and under the gaze of a group of adventurers, they came to the guild counter, provided proof of this mission, and completed it.
Of course, Shirou didn't tell the whole story of what happened in the forest.
Most of what Shirou said about the actions of the Rikarisu Town adventurers was just speculation. He had no proof that this was what the adventurers were doing.
And he really didn't need to prove it.
Because the matter had developed to this point, it was no longer a problem that could be solved by reporting it to the adventurer's guild.
"Congratulations on completing the request. Here's the reward."
The clerk gave Shirou the money and adventurer card.
Shirou nodded and silently turned his head.
As a result, he ran into the horse-headed man Nokubara.
His face was very gloomy, even terrifying. He stared firmly at Shirou's face, and at the card that showed he had completed the request, and said:
"You actually completed the request?"
"Yeah, I don't know why that monster was trapped. It was easy to deal with."
"..."
Shirou's overly simple reaction stunned Nokubara and fell into silence.
But he quickly realized from Shirou's expression that the boy in front of him wasn't an ignorant fool. He was acting after knowing everything.
"So you really plan to be enemies with all the adventurers in our town, right?"
"It's not that I want to be enemies with you, but that you've already set your sights on us, haven't you?"
"Because you did things you shouldn't have done."
Nokubara looked at Shirou with a disappointed attitude, and said in frustration, "I told you a long time ago, don't do things you shouldn't do, don't cause trouble you shouldn't cause. Some things won't happen if you don't say them, but once you say them, no one can help you!"
"What do you mean?"
"You're going to die soon. No one can save you!"
"Okay, I'll wait."
Shirou looked at Nokubara's face, his expression unchanged. "If you want to kill me, then come on, but on the condition that I won't kill all of you!"
"Boy, you think you can kill all of us!?"
"Whether you can do it or not isn't about what you say, it's about what you do."
As Shirou spoke, he drew the magic sword Wind Break from his waist.
"Puchi!"
At the same time, all the demon adventurers in the adventurer's guild stood up aggressively, with a menacing look that was even more exaggerated than the last time they fought.
After all, this time it involved everyone's benefits.
And Shirou was going to destroy the interests of all the adventurers in Rikarisu Town for justice.
In this case, there was only one solution.
Either Shirou dies, or the adventurers in Rikarisu Town die!
There is no other choice!
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