I’ve Become a Combat Soldier in a Dark Fantasy Adult Game

3. There’s No Allowance for Field Work (2)

It’s not easy to draw out a wary animal. Even more so if it’s a yokai with higher intelligence than ordinary animals. Yokai that have risen in level often have superior spiritual power detection abilities compared to humans, and when a strong spiritualist appears, they make one of two choices.

Either they come out to fight due to combative spirit, or they run away like dogs.

In this case, perhaps because it had experienced being raised by humans, it seemed to fall into the category of running away like a dog. We blatantly tried to fish using Kanon, but there were no signs of it taking the bait.

“Nngh. Releasing spiritual power is tiring.”

“Let’s have a meal.”

“Modern combat soldiers even cook?”

“We may be called combat soldiers, but we also serve as servants.”

“You’re really like a person.” After muttering that, Tenri ate the sandwich I had prepared as a simple meal. We might need to do real cooking later, but for today, this would do.

Since I don’t really need to eat, I chewed on the spirit medicine issued as a meal substitute. It’s fucking bitter.

“Um, please eat with us.”

“I’m thinking of saving food since we don’t know how long we’ll be here. Besides, I didn’t even bring my share.”

“Aww…”

Kanon became gloomy. There was nothing in the story about her doing anything bizarre, and I hadn’t noticed anything strange when I occasionally saw her, but she is a branch member of the Tachibana family. Even if she suddenly started laughing while eating my internal organs, I would just think, “Well, here it comes.”

Leaving her behind as she hunched over slightly, fidgeting with her shiny black hair, I ran into the mountain. Since Kanon had been scattering spiritual power wildly during the day, all minor yokai had become frightened and disappeared, making it relatively safe.

At the location I had marked in the morning, I set up traps. Having confirmed that the yokai bastard was more cautious and timid than I thought, forcibly drawing it out by stimulating it aggressively was not a good choice. One of the common characteristics of the yokai race is berserk mode.

When they get worked up or are driven to the brink of death, they abandon intelligence and techniques and rampage wildly, consuming their own bodies and spiritual cores in the process, making them very dangerous unless there’s a clear power difference.

We need to naturally guide it to the prepared location with patience and careful effort. My spiritual power is pathetically weak, but I have techniques taught by Ohime, who knows that my body’s performance is no different from a regular combat soldier.

Ohime says they’re “retarded techniques for a retard,” but to me, they’re tools I couldn’t use unless I had them. When she taught me, I expressed my utmost gratitude by performing tricks for her.
I still remember her expression when I did a headspin while performing breakdancing I’d learned in my past life with a combat soldier’s physical abilities.
After that day, dance was removed from her list of requested tricks.

“Spread. Rotate. Engrave.”

All exorcist houses have reached their pinnacle in barrier techniques, each in their own way. The reason is simple. There have been many great yokai and legendary divine spirits who tried to destroy the strongholds of powerful exorcists. The monsters who blocked them and maintained their families have created the modern houses by mixing blood. They are humans with exceptional abilities to protect their strongholds.

Even the techniques Ohime gave me so I wouldn’t “die in an ugly way” were mainly focused on protecting my body, so although they might look shabby, I could use fairly effective barrier techniques.

And this is not a barrier meant to block.

“Guide according to my will.”

A very subtle feeling of rejection. A guidance-type barrier that makes you think, “Maybe I’ll take the right path today” even if you usually take the left path.
One day might not be enough, but after two or three days, the day will come when this path is chosen. Then Tenri’s familiar will find and catch it.

After marking the barriers I had installed and the guiding directions on a topographical map of the mountain, I drew the expected movement paths. Hmm. If this were a mountain owned by the Tachibana family, I could calculate much more easily, but it seemed that due to insufficient research data and the possibility of underground caves or hidden paths, things might not go as I expected.

It would be better to ask the two with higher spiritual power and strength to check by releasing shikigami.
Since doing unnecessary things on an unsupervised mountain could give an unnecessary opening to the three people voyeuristically watching me, I did only what was necessary and quickly returned.

Though they’re from a branch family, they’re still Tachibana. While I was wandering around, meddling with the mountain, the quarters she had completed overnight showed defensive capabilities comparable to a small fortress. Since it was clear that if I touched it wrongly, I would end up not much different from a chicken roasted in an electric oven, I quietly entered through the opening she had prepared.

Since it was Tachibana technology, it was relatively easy for me to recognize, so entering wasn’t difficult. It wasn’t a construction with trap-like gimmicks, so I carefully avoided dangerous areas and entered, only to see two people inside hugging each other with disheveled clothes.

Hmm. As if we’re not already in an eroge, what is this right after setting up camp.
I quietly went outside. As soon as I left, I was guided back in by a bat familiar.

“I’ll stand guard outside, so please continue.”

“I’d like to clear up that misunderstanding first.”

“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?”

“I don’t know about her, but I normally like men. What you just saw was because we spilled water while talking after our meal.”

“What? I like men too!”

“Ah, I see.”

What am I supposed to do with this? As I maintained an expression of little interest, Tenri said with an incredulous look:

“You really don’t care, do you?”

“Well, no. I’m not idle enough to care about others’ love lives.”

“…For the first time today, you’re acting like a combat soldier.”

It wasn’t just because of that. The three people who seriously stalk me are all women with mental issues, and especially in Ohime’s case, she’s a woman whose brain has done about 500 somersaults after hearing some kind of sick joke, so I couldn’t help but be dried up in sexual aspects.

If you mess around with your dick, you’re fucked.
Not just me, but the other person would go down with me too.

Anyway, since they said they spilled water, I took out towels from the bag I had prepared and handed one to each of them, then checked if any important items had gotten wet. Nothing seemed to be problematic, so I put everything away in a corner to prevent damage.

Since Kanon was staring at me blankly without wiping herself, I took the towel from her and neatly cleaned her face and parts that were acceptable to touch.

“I’ll now share what I’ve prepared.”

Regardless of their expressions, I had to do my job. Unless I were strong enough, there was nothing I could do alone from discovering to eliminating the yokai.

I stuck the map firmly on the wall and explained my entire plan—how I had mapped out the paths across the entire mountain range, how I expected everything to be caught in the trap within a few days, which parts needed help, and which parts required staying still.

Kanon, who had taken back the towel I gave her and wiped her entire body, and Tenri, who was looking at me with a slightly impressed expression, presented contrasting images. Kanon must be familiar with me since we’ve worked together several times.

Me? I’m the guy who carried group projects even as an international student. This kind of work isn’t difficult.

“There’s a reason the young lady of the main house treasures you.”

Not exactly. The point at which Ohime began to recognize me as her possession was after the fateful encounter of the three psychos. I don’t want to think about that incident again. It was an event that left both my body and mind tattered, and its aftershocks brought misfortune.

And while these two might not know, Ohime is a pervert who knows all about my situation and voyeuristically watches, so if I were to say nonsense like she treasures me or likes me, I could be killed—not without a trace, but rather as a spectacular example—so I had to be careful. Of course, if I spoke this aloud, I’d also be turned into a rag, so there was no way to warn them.

Save me.

“So when we get into the real fight, what’s the plan?”

“Are you confident in your running?”

“Uh, average, I guess…?”

Kanon’s physical strength as an exorcist is below average. If I had to categorize her, she’d be like a main cannon with good firepower and defense but garbage mobility. In game terms, a mage position. She’s a unified offense and defense as long as her spiritual power lasts, but if she wastes it carelessly, she becomes a burden.

I don’t know Tenri’s skills precisely, but considering the pistol at her waist, the bat familiar she brought out earlier, and the fact that she usually acts alone, she’s probably closer to a mid-range all-rounder. Charitably speaking, versatile; uncharitably, incompetent.

I’m a relatively fast and relatively sturdy meat shield.
Using me as a taunt totem is best, but even taunts sometimes fail against high-level yokai.
My only advantage is that even if my arm flies off, it can be replaced for 3,000 yen.

Hearing myself say all this, it sounds like a hopeless party, but if the opponent’s strength is within expectations, we’ll manage somehow.

“First, if there’s only one individual, it’s simple. I’ll take hits from the front, and you two will eliminate it.”

“Take hits…? Not block?”

If you can’t dodge or block, you get hit, right? And I wasn’t confident in dodging or blocking everything.
The good news is that, like the spider yokai from before, I won’t die from taking a couple of hits from attacks at the beginning of mid-level. I might become disabled if unlucky, but it’s relatively easy to fix my body.

“Next is if it has gained companions. Most yokai don’t often form packs, but this one is a wolf.”

Yokai occur when will is given to natural or artificial spiritual wells. This will includes the principles of the world or the intentions of whoever breathed life into it, which is why they often take the form of ordinary creatures. And in such cases, they follow those behavioral patterns too.

Considering the characteristics of canines, we must also consider the possibility of a pack forming.

“Then I’ll handle the rest except for the leader, and during that time, you two eliminate the biggest one, then help me.”

“Isn’t that too dangerous? I know how hard it is to handle multiple opponents alone.”

“It’s because I have the fastest feet. Are you confident you can dodge if multiple wolves attack in coordination?”

Tenri lacks the ability to endure alone, and Kanon is the only high-firepower holder among the three, so if she were to drop out, it would be too difficult to catch the leader of the pack. If Kanon exhausts her strength on minor yokai and lacks firepower to deal with the leader, we’d be annihilated. In the end, I’d have to run away with tears and snot flowing.

She closed her mouth.
So that’s decided. Having completed my duties as a combat soldier, it’s now time to act as a servant. Repeating the cycle of cooking, cleaning, and standing guard until the time comes.

I hoped we could wrap this up within three days.