Chapter 310

Clean-up Operation

“Takumi-san, be careful.”

“”Onii~chan, be careful.”

The next morning, the children, Rebecca-san and Velio-san saw me off.

“I’m the Captain of the accompanying troops, Orlando.”

“I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“I’ve told Orlando to follow your instructions, Takumi-san, so if you need anything done, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Ehh!?”

It seems that the adventurers will basically be in charge of the battle, and the soldiers will only participate in the battle if the adventurers are in danger, and the rest of the time they will provide logistical support.

I was introduced to the captain who would be in charge of the soldiers, but for some reason I seemed to have some sort of command authority as well.

“Takumi-san, it’s if something happened… so you don’t have to think about it too much.”

“… Understood.”

Reading my hesitation, Velio-san took the initiative to explain. I can’t refuse it if I’m told like this.

“Allen, Elena, should I leave Joule and others with you?”

“”Nope.””

“Take them with.”

“You, Onii~chan.”

Before we left, I talked to the children again and suggested leaving Joule and the others behind so that they wouldn’t be lonely, but they refused.

“Huh, is that fine with you?”

“”Yeah.””

“If in trouble.”

“Call everyone, okay?”

It made me happy to hear why they refused.

I guess they were worried about me because we had a lot of enemies this time, so they wanted me to take Joule and the others with me.

“Thank you. I will properly call for everyone’s help if the situation gets out of control.”

“”Yeah, don’t get injured.””

“Got it. Then, I will see you later.”

“”Have a safe trip~””

When I went to the Adventurer’s Guild, many adventurers had already gathered there.

“Takumi, over here.”

Evan-san, who noticed my arrival, beckoned me over, calling out loudly.

“Good morning.”

“Morning. Everyone is already here.”

“Huh? Am I late?”

“No, we are just about to begin. Look, here he is.”

Noah-san, the Guild Master of the Adventurer’s Guild, instructed the adventurers to gather.

“Are we all here? Alright, listen up, everyone.”

Then, Noah-san explained the details of this subjugation.

It takes about half a day to reach the Orc nest by carriage. We will move out and meet up with the reconnaissance team ahead of us at a safe place near the site. We’ll reconfirm the situation, decide on a strategy, and start the subjugation the next morning.

“And lastly, we need to decide the leader… normally, the leader is supposed to be the one with the highest rank, but…”

“That’s Takumi.”

“Indeed.”

Noah-san, Evan-san, and Scott-san were looking at me. Furthermore, the gazes of the adventurers who noticed his gaze also turned towards me.

“Eh, that’s impossible for me!”

It’s too much to ask of me, so I refused with all my might.

“I thought so. Even though you are A-ranker, you still lack experience in this department~——In that case, I will leave it to you, Scott.”

I guess he didn’t really want to leave it to me from the beginning. Noah-san easily backed down and appointed Scott-san as the leader.

“Roger that.”

“Takumi, can you be the sub-leader?”

“Erm… if other adventurers have no objections?”

“Is there anyone who… has objections?”

I’m sure some of the adventurers don’t know who I am, but since I’ve already been mentioned as an A-ranked adventurer, no one objected, so I became the sub-leader.

“I’m counting on you all.”

After the preparations were complete, Noah-san and the other guild staff saw us off, and we set off.

We arrived at our destination a few hours later… after being shaken around by a carriage.

“Isn’t this a good place?”

“Yeah. Let’s make our camp here.”

After deciding on the location of the encampment, the adventurers who were good at covert action headed toward the Orc nest to meet up with the advance party. The remaining adventurers begin to prepare the camp.

“Takumi-san, let’s start the strategy meeting.”

After a while, the people who had gone to pick up the advance party returned, and we decided to have a meeting to share information.

“Thank you for your time. First, let me introduce myself. I’m Scott, the leader of the subjugation team.”

“I’m Takumi, the sub-leader.”

When Scott-san said his name, he glanced at me, so I introduced myself.

“I’m Cino. I’m coordinator of the reconnaissance team.”

“Any injuries?”

“None at all.”

Scott-san, myself, and Orlando-san were at the strategy meeting. The other ones were the leaders of each adventuring party, Evan-san, who was in the same party as Scott-san, and three members of the advance party.

“Let us hear the report please.”

“I have already reported the number of Orcs to be around two hundred. There are at least ten High Orcs, three Orc Mages and an Orc General.”

(……)

The leaders who were participating in the meeting froze with shocked expressions.

The adventurers said that they hoped there would be only a High Orc, even if it was a higher species. But they were shocked to hear that there were not one or two, but ten High Orcs, as well as Orc Mages and Orc Generals.

“Well… let’s plan a strategy, so we can take them down with our safety as the first priority.”

“Safely, you say! That’s impossible!”

“Right! Our forces are too small for this!”

The silence lasted for a while, and no one showed any signs of opening their mouths, so I spoke up, but… This had triggered the leaders to get excited and they started calling me reckless.

“What exactly is reckless about this?”

“Isn’t that obvious!? There are too many higher species!”

“So can we proceed if the higher species are out of the picture?”

“Well… yeah, somewhat. But! The reconnaissance has confirmed the presence of the higher species, so ‘if there are no higher species’ is a moot point!”

It seems that they will be able to deal with the large number of Orcs if there are no higher species present.

“Then, what if I said I would take on all the higher species?”

(Haah!?)

Everyone but me shouted at my words and froze in place.