Lord Summoner's Freedom Philosophy: Grimoire of Love

"There are eight goblins forward, one mage, no hobgoblin spotted," Xena reported her sightings to Belle and me.

To pay our debt to the madam, we register ourselves as mercenaries and work as mercenaries on our days off. Unlike the adventurer guild that won't accept any slaves with clear backgrounds, we could register at the mercenary guild without any need of giving them even the tiniest bit of our personal information other than our party's name.

"Belle,"

"Okay~ Twist the fiction and reality, [Blur]. Retract the senses of my enemies, [Lesser Senses]," (Belle)

As a magician capable of using consecutive chanting, Belle used two spells at the same time.

The first spell, [Blur], is an illusion spell that makes the target of the spell confused and couldn't see the position of the caster and their allies.

The second spell, [Lesser Senses], is a dark spell that lower all of the targets' senses by blocking them with dark mana.

"Let's go!"

Xena and I rushed toward the confused goblins without wasting any moment.

As a three-girls party, our party has a decent balance despite consisting of a unique formation. Belle acts as a magician that supports us, Xena that has high agility acts as a scout and wields a knife, and I act as the vanguard with a sword.

"The first one is the magician!" Xena skillfully leap and nimbly passed the other goblins, arriving right in front of the goblin magician, and slits the goblin magician's throat.

"Great as usual, Xena!"

I can't lose to her!

"Kkkiieeee!!" Because of the spell cast by Belle, the goblins are staggering around, losing their balance because of the sudden drop of all of their senses.

*Slash!* *Slash!*

Because of that, it made me capable of killing them rather easily.

In several seconds, the battle ended without our party getting any damage at all.

"Phew! Another damageless quest! Now all we had to do is to find Belle's ingredients for her potions, and we're done! I want to take a hot bath~" (Xena)

"Me too. I want to spend the allowance for food too," I could already imagine the foods that I could buy with the remaining money from the quest reward.

"Alina is as a glutton, as usual, ~ I want to buy some books that I've been eyeing for a while now~" (Belle)

"It's fine, isn't it. I'm enjoying my happiness,"

"You won't get any man if you keep on being a glutton, you know?" (Xena)

"It's fine. It's not like I'm looking for one. No, in the first place, none of us even looking for a man right now,"

Since we're desperately trying to pay back our debt, the thought of having a man didn't cross our thoughts at all. Since all of them will end up discarding us if they knew we have such a big sum of debt towards the madam.

"Well~ it's true, isn't it~" Xena shrugged.

"Anyway, let's go and finish this. Belle, where's the place to harvest the ingredients for the potion?"

"Hm..." Belle takes out a map from her bag.

"It's close to here, it's on the west, right here," Belle pointed out the location on the map and show it to us.

"I see... Let's go then!"

The ingredients Belle needed to make her potion came from a C-ranked man-eating magical plant monster called the Flaahgra. The Flaahgra has a massive form and has a snake-like body, it gains its strength from sunlight and attacks with its branches, and emits poison into the air. It rarely appears, and most people avoid it because of its poison.

But since we have Belle, we don't need to be worried about the poison. Because of that, we're quite experienced in defeating Flaahgra.

"There it is... The remaining parts of it will be pricey as well, seems like we're going to get a big haul today!" (Xena)

"Belle, as usual,"

"Okay~" Belle holds tight to her staff and gathers her mana towards the magic stone on her staff.

"All evil in the air, hear the order of my command, [Control Poison]," (Belle)

Even though the Flaahgra emits poison, the poison actually could affect itself as well, that's why the Flaahgra always closes its mouth when it emits its poison.

"Xena,"

"Okay~" Xena skillfully threw one of her throwing knives imbued with her mana and force open the mouth of the Flaahgra.

*Shiiieeeeee!!!!*

The Flaahgra shrieks because of the damage it received. At the moment it shrieks, the mouth opened slightly bigger, and right at that moment, Belle controls the poison on the air that she had gathered and sent it towards the Flaahgra's mouth.

The poison emitted by the Flaahgra has the powerful effect of paralyzing, but a big dose of it could kill as well. Back then, every time Belle makes the condensed poison enter the Flaahgra's mouth, the Flaahgra will immediately die. But today-

"The poison on the air isn't as many as usual, we need to kill it manually," (Belle)

"Okay! Let's go, Xena!"

"Okay~"

Xena and I rushed towards the Flaahgra and attempt to cut all of its roots. Because of the poison, the Flaahgra remain paralyzed and couldn't resist our attacks, making the battle ends as quickly as the battle with the goblins.

"I love Belle. I'm glad we're friends and partying together..." I muttered as I stare at the corpse of the Flaahgra.

"Geez. What are you saying, Alina," Belle approached the Flaahgra's corpse to take the ingredients needed for her potions.

"Hahaha! You're right. Her support is priceless!" (Xena)

Following suit, Xena and I approached the Flaahgra's corpse and started to dissect the parts that has the value to be sold.

"Eh? This is strange..." Belle suddenly raises her voice.

"What happened?"

"The petals are unblemished, it looks like they are freshly regenerated... It looks like the Flaahgra's petals are getting harvested regularly, but it's impossible, you know~" Belle uttered in confusion.

"Of course. It means that the Flaahgra needs to be tamed if it was to get harvested regularly. Maybe it's just a coincidence, the Flaahgra might battle with other monsters and lose its petals in the fight,"

But if the Flaahgra is really got tamed by whoever it is, then we might be in great danger, aren't we? Just kidding.

Let's not try to jinx it.

"Belle! Alina!" Xena's unusually serious voice sounded.

"W-What is it, Xena?"

"I-I don't know if I'm mistaken or not... But I sensed lots of presence in our surroundings..." (Xena)

"Our... Surroundings...?" I look around the surrounding, and notice that the forest is unusually more quiet than usual. Realizing that, I quickly ready my sword and stick close to Belle.

"Approximate number?"

"I don't know. There are more than fifty of them. But these presences, they are not human..." Xena's face got slightly pale when she uttered those words.

"Can we run?" (Belle)

"We're completely surrounded, but our north side is less guarded than the other sides. If we want to flee, then that direction will do us favor since I felt only two presences from that direction," Xena readied her knife as she report towards me.

"Then we'll head there. Belle, after casting the smokescreen, focus the mana to run," (Alina)

"Okay. Summon the clouds of darkness in the sky and conceal me, [Dark Smoke]," (Belle)

Thick black fog appears from Belle's staff, blocking the view. But we have Xena, she would still be able to see the way even with the black fog surrounding them.

"Belle, ready?"

"Ready," (Belle)

"Let's go!" (Xena)

The three of us ran as fast as we could towards the north with Xena leading the way. After running as fast as we could for a while, Xena finally stated our position.

*Pant!* *Pant!* *Pant!*

"We went past them!" (Xena)

"I felt like my heart is about to burst..." I muttered as I held my chest, feeling my heartbeat that has been furiously beating because of the run and the sense of danger I felt.

"I thought *Pant!* *Pant!* We're going to *Pant!* *Pant!* Die *Pant!* *Pant!*". Belle pants the worst of all of us since she is a magician that has weaker physical abilities than us.

"Hehehe, I bet our customers will pay everything they have to see that exhausted look of you, Belle," (Xena)

"*Pant!* Xena *Pant!* Shut up..." (Belle)

We took a break for a while to catch our breath and recheck our condition.

"I managed to bring all of the Flaahgra's parts I harvested, how about you guys?" I asked Belle and Xena.

"Me too~" (Xena)

"Me too," (Belle)

"Really!? Then today's trip is a great success!" I declared cheerfully.

I seriously thought that they might drop or didn't have the time to pack the harvested parts, and it turns out they didn't! It seems that I'll really be able to buy more luxurious food for today~

!?!?!?!?

"Kyaa!!!" (Belle)

Suddenly, a figure land from above the tree where we rest, and takes custody of Belle.

"H-Hobgoblin...?" Xena muttered the name of the race of the figure that takes custody of Belle.

Not long after, lots of goblins and some hobgoblins surrounded us as well. Looking at the surroundings makes me remember the scene where we got captured by the bandits.

"Are we going to get captured again...? We're going to get captured and live in hell again...?"