Taming The Villainesses novel Chapter 296

(EP-296.2) #5

296 – Fall #5

“Should we take the initiative and defeat them first?”

Though my skills had grown significantly compared to before, I still lacked experience. So, I didn’t have the wisdom to judge what was the best choice to make in any given situation.

In that sense, Stella was a woman with a lot of experience who could fill in for my lack of judgment. There was probably no other woman I knew who had as much experience dealing with monsters as Stella.

“Well, usually in cases like this, it’s better not to touch them rashly. It’s like poking a hornet’s nest for no reason.”

Following her wisdom, we ignored the monsters circling us and continued forward. At our current pace, it would take about a week to reach the eastern citadel.

That, of course, assuming we walked 24 hours non-stop without any interruptions.

But things rarely go that smoothly.

━Keheng-!

“Theo-kun, there’s one left over there!”

“Air Bullet!”

━Kerhung!

The wolf monsters that had been circling us stopped observing at some point and started attacking.

Individually, they weren’t that strong, but there were many of them.

“This one’s the last!”

━Keek!

After we took down the pack of wolves and had a moment to catch our breath, Stella wiped the sweat and blood from her forehead with her sleeve and said.

“Hu, this seems endless. What do you think about going after the master, like we did with Dordor?”

Shhhk.

Stella pulled an arrow from the body of a wolf. Looking closer, I noticed that her once full quiver now held only a handful of arrows.

If we kept fighting like this, we’d run out of arrows soon, which would make things more complicated.

“The master...”

I thought carefully.

It did seem more logical to go after the leader rather than keep fending off these monsters passively.

The problem was figuring out where the master was.

Unlike Dordor, who had sensed our strong presence and sought us out first, this Kubilai of the eastern forest didn’t reveal itself at all.

“It’s a cautious one. It might be waiting for us to wear ourselves out before showing up. There are plenty of beasts and monsters that hunt that way.”

“I see...”

Sending its minions to drain our strength before showing itself—it was quite clever for a monster.

“Theo-kun, you have that interrogation magic, the strange one. Can’t you use it on the wolves?”

Was she talking about the Mero Mero Beam?

“I’ve tried, but it doesn’t work on non-humanoid creatures. It takes a lot of time to modify mind-control magic, so for now....”

It would’ve been better to find Professor Balan. If she were here, communicating with these monsters would be a breeze.

Of course, she was nowhere to be found when we needed her...

I would be deducting 5 points from her vacation score!

In the end, we couldn’t figure out where the master of the eastern forest was. Nevertheless, time passed and we soon welcomed the first night in the eastern forest.

Luckily, we found a beast den nearby. It had originally been occupied by some spiders, but after driving them out, the place was now ours.