"Aaaaaaaaagh!"
A scream echoed through the summer sky.
Had they been near the main road, the people walking along it might have heard it. But right now, that scream was echoing from somewhere off the road... high up in the air.
The sky was clear and blue, the sunlight pouring down with the fierce intensity so typical of summer. And through that sky, Hester's scream resounded.
"Quiet down already. You're the one who said you wanted to come with me to take down the Goblin Leader, by any means necessary. So how about you endure this much at least."
"Th-that's asking the impossible!"
Hester shouted back.
His voice came from below Rei... and below Set, whom Rei was straddling.
That's right — it came from Hester, who was dangling in midair, held by Set's front legs.
Rei had initially planned to set out with just Set to defeat the Goblin Leader, but Hester had insisted on coming along, no matter what.
Rei had wanted to bring him — his comrades had been slaughtered, after all — but only Rei could ride on Set's back. And if they traveled overland at Hester's pace, the Goblin Leader might slip away before they caught up.
As Rei weighed his options, a memory surfaced: Set once carrying a massive bear in his front legs while flying through the air.
That bear had clearly been heavier than Hester. In fact, compared to Hester — who would be kitted out with a longsword, leather armor, and other gear — it probably weighed as much as three... maybe even four people.
If Set could carry that kind of weight with just his front legs and still fly, then transporting a single human shouldn't be a problem, right?
That thought had led him to try it, and the result was the scene now unfolding: the three of them flying through the sky.
Set soared on beating wings, showing not the slightest sign of strain.
While the only ones who could ride on his back besides Rei were small children, carrying someone in his grip posed no difficulty at all.
The weight was no issue. What was troublesome, however, was Hester's incessant thrashing.
"Gruuu."
Understanding Set's frustration, Rei called down to Hester in an exasperated tone.
"Thrash too much and Set won't be able to hold on. He'll drop you."
The moment the word "drop" left Rei's mouth, Hester froze like a statue.
They were currently flying at an altitude of about a hundred meters — a routine height for Rei and Set.
But routine was relative. For Hester, who had never flown in his life, this was his very first experience at such a height.
For that matter, it was his first time flying at all. A hundred meters was clearly well beyond what he could endure.
(Hm? But if that's the case, then my first time flying was when I rode Set too, wasn't it?)
Listening to confirm that Hester, dangling from Set's front legs, had gone completely still, Rei mulled it over.
Even back in Japan, flying wasn't particularly unusual. Airplanes, helicopters, parachutes, gliders — they all existed.
But growing up in the countryside, Rei had never had the chance to ride in any of them.
And yet, when he flew for the first time on Set's back, he hadn't felt the slightest bit of fear.
(Even though it was my first time flying, I had prior knowledge of what it would be like. Was that the difference? Well, if so, that makes sense.)
Footage taken from the air was something you could see on TV all the time.
By that logic, Rei had held a significant advantage over Hester in terms of prior knowledge.
Beyond that, his trust in Set probably had a lot to do with it as well.
Hester barely knew anything about Set, and so he couldn't place the same absolute faith in him that Rei did.
"Stay quiet like that. We're already above the grove. This is the area, isn't it? Where your party was attacked by Goblins. Given that, I'd think it's better not to make any noise."
At Rei's words, Hester sucked in a sharp breath.
He must have decided that avenging his comrades took priority over his own predicament.
This speed of judgment — or perhaps his ability to cut straight to what mattered — was exactly why Rei had taken notice of him.
Even at the Guild, despite being visibly cowed by Rei's presence, he had bowed his head without a second's hesitation, begging to accompany him for the sake of vengeance.
Quick decision-making was an indispensable skill for an adventurer. There was no telling what kind of trouble you might stumble into mid-quest, after all.
(Well, whether Goblins on the ground can actually hear a conversation happening at a hundred meters is another matter entirely.)
But Rei's caution was not without reason.
The creature they were about to face was very likely a Rare Species of Goblin Leader.
Which meant the possibility that it possessed abnormally sharp hearing couldn't be entirely dismissed.
Though, personally, Rei doubted its abilities were that narrowly specialized.
"Gruuu!"
As they cruised back and forth over the grove, scanning the surroundings, Set suddenly let out a sharp cry.
Understanding what it meant, Rei directed his gaze toward the ground — toward wherever Set was looking.
Below them lay the grove, thick with all manner of trees, their branches heavy with summer foliage.
That canopy served as a natural screen against eyes from above, and in most places, it was impossible to see the forest floor.
But "most places" wasn't the same as "everywhere." The cover wasn't perfect.
A Gryphon of Set's caliber could peer through gaps in the leaves, and there were spots where the foliage simply didn't fully conceal what lay beneath.
And while one or two Goblins might have gone unnoticed, a band of a hundred was impossible to hide completely.
Rei turned his gaze toward the same spot where Set was staring so sharply.
Spotting a single Goblin through the canopy across the entire grove would have been hopeless — but if he narrowed his focus to one small patch, he could study the gaps carefully.
"...There they are."
At the end of Rei's gaze were the very Goblins they had been searching for.
Of course, there was no guarantee these were the same ones that had attacked Hester's party.
Rei had been thinking they needed to confirm whether this was truly a horde of around a hundred, just as Hester had described — but then Hester, dangling from Set's grip, muttered with raw hatred.
"Rei-san, please. Just hurry up and—"
"Calm down. We still don't know for certain that these are the ones who attacked you. We should confirm that first."
"...No. I know. It's them."
There was something dangerous in Hester's certainty. Rei sensed it.
Was he so blinded by hatred that he'd kill any Goblin that crossed his path?
If Rei could see his face, he might have been able to read his intentions. But Hester was suspended by both shoulders, and from this angle, his expression was hidden.
Should they circle back? Rei considered it, but Hester spoke first, as if to cut off the thought.
"I can't tell for sure from this distance, but I have a feeling the halberd one of those Goblins is carrying in that gap belonged to someone in my party."
A halberd was a halberd — Rei wouldn't deny that, but naturally they'd all have similar shapes, wouldn't they?
Before he could raise the objection, Hester pressed on.
"Look, Rei-san. Can you see the butt of the halberd? The part painted blue? That was Daisy's... it was a quirk of the guy who used that halberd. Everyone told him it looked tacky, having just that one part blue, but he refused to change it."
"...I see."
Rei's short murmur was because he could indeed make out the blue paint on the halberd's pommel, just as Hester described.
Hester had been able to confirm that detail because Set had been gradually descending.
And if Hester could see the pommel from his position, then Rei, with his superior vantage point, could see it even more clearly.
"Then it's settled. ...Alright, Set. Let's do this. Word is this Goblin Leader is a crafty one, so we take it down without letting it escape. It's been a while — I'm using magic."
"Gruuu!"
Set rumbled in acknowledgment.
Despite the fact that Rei was about to use Flame Magic in the middle of a forest, Set showed not the slightest trace of concern.
That was the depth of his trust.
...Hester, dangling from Set's grip, heard those words and assumed Rei would use magic that wouldn't damage the woods — not Flame Magic, the spell that had become his signature.
After all, Rei had always made a show of being able to use magic other than fire, including techniques like Flying Slash.
Given that, it was hardly strange for Hester to jump to such a conclusion.
"Hester, what will you do?"
Hester, who had been grinning at the voice above, certain the Goblin Leader was as good as dead, paused to consider the question.
If possible, he wanted to kill it with his own hands. But...
Before he could answer, Set turned his face toward the grove.
And Rei's expression darkened as he too stared in that direction.
Hester couldn't see Rei's face, but he could see Set's movements clearly.
Puzzled by the shift, he spoke up.
"Hey. Set's acting strange. What is it? Rei-san?"
"...I heard voices of pain coming from the grove. I don't know if they're from your party, but someone is still alive down there."
"!? Are you serious!?"
Hester drew in a sharp breath.
His party members might still be alive.
That hope blazed through his mind.
But contrary to the hope in Hester's voice, Rei's expression remained grim.
Even if they were alive in this situation, it wasn't hard to imagine what state they might be in.
The real question was: why would Goblins keep captured adventurers alive? The answer to that was nothing to celebrate.
Understanding exactly what that implied, Rei called down to Hester.
"Did your party have any women?"
"!?"
That single question was enough. Hester understood instantly what Rei was getting at. He drew in another sharp breath — for an entirely different reason this time — and quickly shook his head. Then, realizing Rei couldn't see the gesture, he spoke.
"Rest assured. All of my party members were men."
Like Orcs, Goblins violated humans, Beastmen, and Elves to produce offspring.
Having witnessed that horror firsthand when he'd raided an Orc settlement, Rei let out a small, involuntary sigh of relief.
"I see. That's good, then. But... that raises a different problem."
The relief was fleeting. Rei's expression hardened once more.
If they were women, the Goblins might be keeping them for breeding. But why keep the men?
As food. As objects of cruelty. There could be other reasons, but those two were the most likely.
And what Rei had heard were voices of pain.
Which meant the very scenario he feared was unfolding in that grove — there was no mistaking it.
"Rei-san!"
"Yeah, I know. ...Set, change of plans."
His original plan had been to use Flame Magic and incinerate every Goblin in one sweep.
There was a risk of collateral damage, but he'd judged he could manage that through his choice of spell.
But if Hester's comrades were being held captive, that was out of the question.
If they'd already been killed, the approach would have been viable. But he'd heard screams of pain — which meant they were still alive.
"Hester, Set and I will take the Goblins. You secure and protect the captives. Got it?"
"Got it!"
At Hester's forceful cry, Rei nodded — and jumped straight off Set's back.
"Eh?"
All Hester could manage was a dumbfunded noise as he watched Rei plummet toward the ground right beside him.