The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine! - Chapter 351. Picking Firewood While Taking A Chance to Get Close to The Druid

Chapter 351: 351. Picking Firewood While Taking A Chance to Get Close to The Druid

Rex had seen her ice sculptures from afar. They were the kind that shaped ice instead of throwing shards. Up close, it looked different.

She used a blade with the ice she made, so it moved like a weapon instead of an elemental effect. This battle style combined magic and physical attacks in a unique manner that required years of practice due to the differing timing involved.

The blade hit the creature in front of it in the shoulder, and the ice worked to loosen the ground under its front foot. It only made the thing fall, which was nothing in and of itself; it just set up the next attack.

“Left flank,” Mireya said to Apollo without looking at him, and Apollo shifted his coverage accordingly without hesitation.

Rex watched how well they worked together.

Elizabeth simultaneously employed the two methods of working that she had demonstrated while on her way to work on her grimoire. In this case, she made a suppression field on the creatures’ side that didn’t stop them but did change the ways they could move, pushing them into the area where Iris was already.

“Iris, the second one is coming your way,” Elizabeth called.

“I see it,” Iris said.

Rex had read about her and seen her from afar. He had also seen the blade work at the car’s track.

It was different to see her in a place where she was really dangerous.

She wasn’t as fast as Zeraphyra had been, which was the system-accelerated speed of someone running above their physical ceiling.

She moved quickly, as if her body had been trained to act without conscious thought. It was a different experience to witness this kind of speed in action.

It seemed like the time between the cause and the effect had gotten shorter.

At the exact point where the armor was thinnest, she stabbed the second creature in the neck. Something that was always true about Iris’s work was that the creature fell like it had lost its strength.

“Third one’s stalling,” Apollo said. “Mireya.”

“Already on it,” she said.

Rex looked at all of this and felt the specific satisfaction that came from an assessment that gave accurate information.

“They are strong, alright, but I believe I can defeat them all with my current resources, and it won’t pose any problem for me.” Rex thought while looking at Apollo and Mireya.

Apollo and Mireya worked together to take care of the third creature. They had developed the kind of efficiency that came from people who had been fighting in the same situation for a long time and knew how to time their attacks.

When it was over, Apollo let out a slow breath and looked at the clearing without saying anything about it.

“Good execution,” Elizabeth said, closing her grimoire. “And there’s not a single wasted coverage.”

“Let’s keep moving.”

Rex walked back to his carriage position when it was over.

Talyra, who had been watching from his right, said in a low voice, “Miss Elizabeth does the two works at the same time.”

Rex said, “I know.”

“Have you seen anyone else do that?”

“No,” Rex said. “Which means it’s either a feature of her magic or a method she developed on her own over a long time.”

Talyra said, “If she developed it herself, it has layers that aren’t visible from one engagement.”

“That’s exactly what it means,” Rex said. “File it.”

Talyra glanced at him. “Already did.”

…

The first night’s campsite was a flat area of ground east of the road that opened up into a small clearing. The campsite seemed to have a history of serving this purpose, and it embraced the idea.

Elizabeth organized the camp tasks with the confidence of someone experienced, demonstrating her understanding of each person’s strengths and the careful planning behind her assignments.

“Talyra, Aisella, you’re responsible for the kitchen.”

“Alexander, conduct a perimeter check on the west side.”

“Apollo, you have the east.”

“Iris, set up the tents.”

“Rex and Nerith, get some firewood,” Elizabeth told them. She gave the orders with the same confidence and decisiveness she used for everything else, without a doubt.

Talyra and Aisella took over the camp kitchen without any fanfare, which was in line with what Rex had seen of their skills in the field and their general attitude toward being useful.

“There are herbs along the northern edge,” Aisella said to Talyra as they passed Rex. “I’ll get them while you start the fire.”

“The ones with the narrow leaves?” Talyra said.

“Those ones, yes.”

Rex noticed that Elizabeth and Alexander were walking back from the water source together, engaged in a quiet conversation meant for just the two of them rather than for the entire group. The tension that had existed between them earlier in the day had resolved.

Apollo and Mireya came back from the west side of the clearing with fruit that grew in the right kinds of places on the far east side of Aethelgard.

“Apollo actually looked at them before he picked them,” Mireya said. She wasn’t talking to anyone in particular, but it sounded like someone giving a compliment with a hidden meaning.

“I always look,” Apollo said.

“Hahaha~! You sweet liar! You looked at the first batch on the Sable trip, and they were wrong,” she said.

“Ehem… well… I was distracted on the Sable trip,” Apollo said.

’Fucking lovebirds…’ Rex thought with a disgusted look.

There was no other word from Mireya when she gave the fruit to Aisella. That in itself was an answer.

Iris set up the tents with the skill of someone who had mastered the art of field shelter. The tents she constructed were not the standard issue; they had been modified by someone who understood what changes would endure through repeated use in the field.

“The stakes are higher on the eastern side,” she said to herself as she worked the mallet with the economy of someone who had done this work in worse conditions and was able to handle it.

Elizabeth snapped her fingers to Rex. “Don’t forget about the firewood, Rex.”

Rex glanced at Elizabeth when she said it. “Ah yeah… sorry about that; I was dozing off.”

’Fucking hell… I was just enjoying this good atmosphere, but at least now I can start my move on Nerith…’ Rex looked at Nerith, and then she looked back.

“Let’s go gather some firewood, Nerith,” Rex said while getting closer to her. “I’ll try to protect you if something happens.”

“D-Don’t jinx it like that…”

“Hahaha!”

…

The forest on the edge of the clearing looked like it did in the late afternoon. The leaves let in amber light, and the sound of bugs getting ready for bed was the kind of sound that made the space between you and everything else seem farther away than it really was.

Rex moved through it with the calm efficiency of someone who had done this kind of work before and found it relaxing instead of boring.

Nerith moved like she was in her natural environment. She moved the same way she did in the carriage, on the road, and in the clearing but with the added advantage of being closer to their normal level of ability here.

She always had a passive connection with the forest, and in this environment, there was more to work with.

Rex found a good branch, picked it up, and broke it to the right size quickly and easily.

Nerith was working nearby, doing the same thing, but also doing what druids did in forests, which was keep track of everything happening within her natural channel’s range. The leaves in her hair were green and unhurried, which was what they looked like when she was comfortable.

Rex asked, “How does it feel to be here compared to the city?”

She gave him a sideways look.

“Being in a room with the lights on is like being in one where you can only hear things moving in the dark,” she said. “The city is the second room.”

“You always know there’s something there,” Rex said. “You just can’t see the city’s energy as clearly.”

“The city has natural energy,” Nerith said. “It’s just compressed.”

“The channels go between things instead of through them.” She paused. “It’s not unpleasant, but… it’s just smaller.”

“Does the compression affect your output?”

She considered this with the same quality she brought to questions that deserved a real answer rather than a convenient one. “It affects the range, yes…”

“The depth stays the same, but what changes is how far I can feel before the signal starts to scatter.”

Rex broke another branch. “And here?”

“Here I can feel the edge of the clearing from where we’re standing,” she said. “I can feel the root systems under the road we came in on.”

“There’s an old growth section about two hundred meters north that hasn’t been touched in at least sixty years.”

“How do you know sixty years?”

“The root architecture,” she said. “Old growth develops layering patterns that take decades to form.”

“You can determine the age of the tree by examining the depth spacing, but only if you know what to look for.”

Rex looked at her. “That’s not in any academy curriculum I’ve seen.”

“It’s not in any written curriculum,” Nerith said. “It’s in the practical druid record, the kind that gets passed down in person rather than through texts.”

’Oh wow… she really knows her stuff. Is she some kind of druid nerd type or some shit?’

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