Kuro placed a hand on Mil’s shoulder. “Is this a friend of yours, Mil?”
“Well... She’s the Demon King’s daughter. I had a bit of a run-in with her while I was in her castle.”
“The Demon King’s daughter?!” Kuro stared at Mary with wide eyes.
“You’re from the beastkin village, aren’t you? Then you’d best listen up.” Mary swept her hair back then puffed out her chest proudly. “I’m Mary Garland, daughter of the mighty Alvin Garland.”
Ugh... Her boobs really are much bigger than mine.
Kuro sat down on the ground. “I hope I wasn’t rude. They call me Kuro. Nice to meet you.”
“Oh and, I’m Mil Arphilia, Holy Princess of the—”
Mary cut her off before she could finish. “I know who you are.”
“Ah, yeah.” Mil laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of her head. “I couldn’t remember whether I ever introduced myself.”
“Um... Thanks,” Mary said.
“Huh? For what?”
“For the water! You’ve given me something, and demonkin always repay their debts. So I have to make it up to you now, don’t I?”
Mil found it cute how Mary avoided her gaze as she spoke.
“Ugh... Mil... Water...”
“Whoops. Are you all right, Yulia?!” Kuro hurried to her.
They’d completely forgotten about Yulia.
“I see you’ve...found some companions,” Mary said.
“Yep! The girl on the ground is Yulia. Her magic’s something special!”
Kuro was dragging Yulia into the boulder’s shadow.
“B-Be more gentle...” Yulia groaned.
“Something special...?” Mary said. “That’s awfully vague. Anyway...I take it your journey’s going well?”
“It sure is. But wait, what are you doing here, Mary?”
“Don’t call me by my first name. I was just running an errand. Now why don’t you explain what you’re all doing here?”
“We came to fetch garuda eggs for a guild quest. They’re gonna make them into food for us.”
“Garuda eggs?! You’re here for the garuda’s eggs too?!”
“What? That’s why you’re here, Mary?”
“I said stop calling me that.”
Mil took firm hold of Mary’s hand. “Let’s look for it together!”
“Why would we do that?”
“Well, if we’re both egg hunting, we might as well help each other look. Oh, and we were just about to have lunch. Why not join us?”
Mary frowned in response, but her stomach brooked no argument.
A short distance away, Kuro had taken a pot out of their dimensional bag and was already preparing food.
“F-Fine. It’ll be my way of thanking you for saving me.”
“You’d think it was you who’d saved us,” Kuro said.
“You be quiet,” Mary shot back, scowling.
“Great!” Mil said. “Let’s all eat together. We’ve got enough ingredients to make soup for everyone.”
Mil noticed Mary gulp in response to the word “soup.”
Once they’d all rested and had some food, they went back to climbing the mountain, and eventually they came to a precipice with a stream visible far below.
“This isn’t just a valley... It’s a canyon!” Kuro’s voice trembled as she looked over the edge.
“I heard the egg’s around here somewhere,” Mary said. Then she pointed at something. “Oh, over there.”
Half way down the cliff, the garuda nest was positioned precariously on a ledge. It was so much bigger than any ordinary bird’s nest that they couldn’t even imagine how large the garuda itself had to be.
“You never told us why you wanted the egg, Mary,” Mil said.
“I don’t have to tell you.” Mary abruptly turned her head away. Her argumentative nature was cute in its own way.
“We gave you some good soup just now, didn’t we?”
“Ugh...”
“There’s still some left.”
“Forget that,” Mary said. “How were you planning to get down there? Did you think you could climb down the cliff?”
She had a point. The garuda nest was some way down on a narrow ledge. They’d have to do some rock climbing to get near it. And not only that; whoever went down would have to climb back up with the eggs in their arms. All while powerful gusts blew through the canyon. They could feel the wind on their faces each time they looked over the edge.
“What’ll we do...?” Kuro asked.
“We’ll just have to climb down,” Mil said.
“B-But I can’t do that...” Yulia objected.
Mil gazed down at the nest. “Hmm...”
Mary gloated over them. “Heh, heh. I’ll take care of this while you three are wringing your hands,” she said before jumping off the cliff.
“What?! Mary! Huh...?”
Powerless against the force of gravity, Mary plummeted toward the bottom of the canyon. Or so Mil assumed, only to be proven wrong when she saw Mary floating in front of her. Naturally, there was nothing beneath her feet.
Mary beat her wings and said, “This is a piece of cake for someone like me.”
Oh, that’s right. I forgot demons have wings.
The canyon’s powerful winds didn’t so much as slow Mary down as she glided smoothly toward the nest. With no effort whatsoever, she reached her target, picked up an egg, and carried it back to the top of the cliff.
“Phew.” With the egg held in one arm, Mary swept back her hair with the other hand and said, “Don’t worry, there’s still more.”
“That was amazing!” Mil said. “Grab some for us too, please!”
“Okay, but this makes us even.”
Mary’s help was going to make everything easy. If it was safe for Mary to make several trips, then Mil wanted to avoid trying the risky climb down the cliff herself.
“How many do you want?” Mary asked.
“Three!”
“All right. Just wait right there.”
“Thanks! Let’s all eat the eggs together later!”
“Fine, I’ll eat with you if you insist.”
Mary glided back down. It seemed they’d all have an egg within just a few minutes.
“I can’t believe how easy this is,” Mary said to herself. “Those soldiers made it sound like a difficult mission.”
The response came as a shrill, deafening screech that filled the air above. “Kukeeeeeh!”
Fearing the worst, Mary looked for the source and saw a huge, monstrous bird flying straight at her from the depths of the canyon. It looked big enough to be the garuda. It was so big, in fact, that it could have swallowed a human in a single gulp.
“That must be the mother!” Kuro cried. “Mary, get out of there!”
“Mary, run!” Mil yelled.
“Huh...? Ah!”
The garuda hit Mary full force with its wing, sending her flying into the cliff face.
“Now what?!” Kuro said.
“L-Leave it to me! Aero garden!” Yulia held out both hands and created a powerful gust of wind that blew through the canyon.
“Kukeh!” Caught up in the wind, the garuda lost control and crashed into the cliffside.
Mary seized the opportunity to fly back, with an egg still held under each arm.
“Mary! Are you all right?!” Mil asked her.
“Thanks. I’m just fine.”
The garuda continued to screech as it rose from below the cliff and flew at Mil’s party.
“Kukeh!” a lightning bolt fired from the bird’s open mouth, tearing up the rocky ground at their feet.
“M-Magic barrier!” Yulia hastily cast a spell that created a translucent dome around herself, Mil, and Kuro.
Magic barrier could create a wall that blocked magic attacks. The higher the caster’s intelligence stat, the stronger the wall it created.
Realizing that the lightning attack was ineffective, the garuda began beating both wings powerfully. It was creating a powerful storm that threatened to blow the party away.
“Watch out!” Kuro suddenly leaped at Yulia to shield her.
“Um... Ah!”
Not a second later, a huge fissure appeared in the ground where Yulia had been standing. It seemed the garuda had some sort of skill for making invisible shock waves with its wings.
“Th-Thank you, Kuro.”
“Let me handle the shock waves,” Kuro said. “I can sense them coming.”
Mil couldn’t see the garuda’s attacks at all, but she didn’t have Kuro’s beastkin skills.
It made sense now that the guild staff had warned them about the garuda. It was just one more reason for Mil to act fast.
“All right! I’ll support you from the rear!” Mary readied her scythe for a fight.
“Mary, wait!” Mil cried.
“What? But your barrier’s not going to hold up much longer!”
Mary was right. They’d be in even more trouble once Yulia’s barrier failed. But Mil had come too far to stop now. There was something she had to do before letting Mary defeat the bird.
“I wanna touch those fluffy feathers! Then maybe I can put a collar on it and keep it as a pet!”
I wanna make a strong garuda mine!
Mary flatly rejected Mil’s pleas. “I’m taking it down.”
As the garuda flew at Mil’s party, screeching, Mary swung her scythe.
“Death scythe!”
She scored a direct hit on the garuda’s body with the dark blade.
“Gukeh!” The bird’s pained screech made it clear Mary’s attack had worked.