Ch.313Chapter 313 – Taking the Bait

After the encounter with the demons, the Demon Extermination Alliance formed more reconnaissance teams than before.

They had assigned all personnel as reconnaissance teams except those needed for base operation and management.

It makes sense to form more reconnaissance teams after contact with demons, but I wonder if this is really the best approach.

For reference, I was managing the daily food supplies for the Demon Extermination Alliance alongside the priests of earth.

It wasn’t actually something I needed to do, but they said my abilities would be helpful for their self-sufficiency if used periodically.

I helped with their work because thanks to the priests of earth, I could eat proper food instead of just biscuits and jerky.

However, with the increase in reconnaissance teams, the priests of earth had to prepare lunch boxes every day, and the number reached a staggering 600.

“Is it really okay to make 600 lunch boxes every day?”

“Hahaha. We’re used to it from our daily work at the temple. It’s actually much easier here because we have more people making food but fewer people to feed compared to back home.”

I asked out of concern, but it seemed the priests of earth were accustomed to such tasks.

I was beginning to feel a sense of admiration for his spirit, claiming this was actually easier for them.

The priests of earth numbered only 50, but they were remarkable people who fed all 1,000 people who had come here.

Well, just looking at pure muscle, the forearms of the earth priests were thicker than those of most holy knights, which says it all, doesn’t it?

In my opinion, if these guys came to Earth, they’d easily bench press 300kg. People with practical working muscles tend to be surprisingly good at powerlifting.

Watching the priests of earth quickly prepare 600 lunch boxes and then head back to the fields and orchards to farm while spreading blessings on the land… they’re truly amazing.

Oh, by the way, the priests who worship the sea god collected wood from somewhere, built boats, and brought back fish every day.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t get meat because we weren’t raising animals.

I tried using my ability on the remaining jerky, but it only made it tastier and chewier rather than turning it back into raw meat.

Well, the stew made with that jerky was incredibly flavorful, I must say.

So we were forced to eat meals centered around fish, vegetables, and fruits rather than meat.

It would be nice if we had even just one chicken, but unfortunately, it seemed impossible to make chickens lay eggs abundantly even with blessings.

And even if it were possible, the god of livestock absolutely opposed it, saying it was a practice they would never permit.

Apparently, it’s an absolute truth that animals must live comfortably to produce delicious meat?

Well, in my world too, meat with clear marbling of fat was considered top grade, so I guess that says it all.

Actually, fish wasn’t that bad either. Someone had brought seeds for spices, and thanks to cultivating those, we were eating quite tasty food rather than bland meals.

However, despite our intensive search efforts, we still couldn’t find the demons’ hideout.

Even though March had ended and it was now mid-April, we still hadn’t located their base.

To make matters worse, there had been reports of theft recently.

“Theft, you say?”

“Yes! Fruits and grains stored in the food warehouse have disappeared. And not just one or two items, but at least several sacks worth. At first, we thought we might have miscalculated, but after recounting, we confirmed things were indeed missing.”

Everyone tried to find the thief who had taken large amounts of food from the warehouse, but strangely, no one had been seen going near it.

Everyone had their own duties to attend to, and since food was served plentifully, there was no reason for anyone to raid the food storage.

After gathering together and brainstorming, we reached one conclusion.

“This must be the work of demons.”

“Only demons could make so much food disappear.”

“And the fact that the holy knights on guard duty didn’t notice anything suggests they must have used some kind of trick.”

“Hmm, that seems likely. Those of us who serve the god of war are less sensitive to detecting auras compared to others.”

It was all the demons’ doing.

But even knowing it was the demons, we didn’t have a good solution.

The food warehouse was already heavily secured, yet they had managed to steal things through some mysterious method.

Then, an idea occurred to me.

“What if we leave some food sacks outside with tracking devices inside them?”

I thought there might be a similar concept to tracking devices in this era, so I suggested the idea, and surprisingly, it was well-received.

“That’s a good idea, Apostle. Since they seem to be targeting food anyway, wouldn’t they go for easily accessible food first?”

“What if we slightly open one specific food warehouse to make it easier for them to steal from?”

“Let’s work out a detailed plan. When the demons steal the goods, we can follow them and find their hideout, right?”

Once I suggested the idea, everyone started developing various plans.

Really, their initiative is truly impressive!

It’s so convenient that everyone is gathered for the single purpose of exterminating demons, so there’s no conflict of interest.

We’re not planning to settle here permanently; our goal is to quickly eliminate the demons and return home.

So the alliance members set up a situation to deliberately allow demons to steal food.

They created a food warehouse under construction and temporary food piles, with people pretending to be asleep from exhaustion.

Since we didn’t know what they would take, tracking devices were placed in several random sacks.

Night fell, and by morning, we discovered that items from several food warehouses and piles had disappeared.

“How is the tracking going?”

“The demons are quite clever. They scattered in different directions, then the signals split into two—one remained stationary while the others converged at one location. The signal continues to emit from there.”

The demons were unexpectedly smart. They had inspected the sacks and discarded the strange objects they found inside.

But what they didn’t know was…

“They probably didn’t realize that it wasn’t the objects inside that were emitting the signal, but the sacks themselves.”

What we had targeted were the sacks themselves. We had blessed the sacks to be trackable in a way the demons wouldn’t understand.

Even though they removed and discarded the objects from inside, our real target was the sacks themselves. Their clever tactic of scattering and then regrouping after discarding the objects actually worked in our favor.

If they had all gone in one direction and then moved again, we wouldn’t have known which location was real. But how convenient that they scattered in different directions and then gathered at one place!

With this information, we immediately formed a combat unit.

Not a reconnaissance team like before, but a real combat unit ready for a full-scale battle.

After leaving a small force to protect the base, we had about 600 people deployed for combat.

I was among those 600, with Eterna there to protect me.

“We’ll move out now. We’ll split into groups of 100, scatter, and then reconvene at the designated location.”

Given special compasses pointing to the demons’ location, we scattered in random directions, and after a set time, we began moving toward our target.

“Oh.”

“So this was hidden here.”

Arriving at a place with house-sized boulders scattered about, we discovered an iron door perfectly concealed between the rocks.

The door was colored similarly to the rocks, making it difficult to spot from a distance.

Anyway, since the signal was detected here, the demons were certainly inside.

“Now! We begin the demon extermination! Legato brothers! Break down the door!”

“Understood. Hyaaah!”

The holy knight called Legato swung a hammer the size of a human body at the door.

The firmly closed door crumpled and shattered, and we charged through the crushed entrance to prevent the demons from counterattacking.

“Let’s go! Exterminate the demons and restore peace once more!”

“Waaaah!”

The sight of 600 people charging at once was truly spectacular.

But as we descended underground, we didn’t encounter a single demon.

“Welcome.”

And what greeted us at the lowest level was an old demon and what appeared to be his personal guard of 100 fully armed demons.