An ordinary profession creates the world's strongest

For adventurers on quests, food is generally limited to dry rations. Preparing a more elaborate meal would add weight to the luggage and become a nuisance in an emergency. Conversely, upon arriving in town and receiving their reward, they could immediately enjoy a delicious meal. This was the norm.

These were all things Hajime and his companions had heard from other adventurers during their meals over the past two days. However, while those adventurers were talking about these things, they were dipping soft bread into the luxurious stew that Hajime and his companions had prepared.

"Ah~ Delicious! It's so delicious~ As expected of Xi-chan! It doesn't matter if you're a demi-human or not, will you marry me?"

"(Eating voraciously) Haha, how could you sneak away! Xiaoxi is my wife!"

"Ha, what are you talking about, you filthy ugly man? Don't you know your own worth? Anyway, Xiaoxi, how about having dinner with me when we get to town? My treat, of course."

"Well, then, I want Xiaoyue! Xiaoyue, please eat with me!"

"Satsuki's spoon... huhu."

The adventurers continued to devour the delicious stew prepared by Shia.

On the first day, as they restlessly ate dried meat and a ration of bread, Hajime and his companions, as usual, prepared a meal using utensils and ingredients from the "treasure vault." The delicious aroma of the food naturally attracted everyone's attention. As Hajime and his companions devoured their piping hot meal, the situation had already devolved into—all the adventurers were drooling, staring at them with bloodshot eyes. Shia, feeling quite uncomfortable, suggested sharing the food with the other adventurers, leading to the current situation.

Even in front of the adventurers who were like hungry dogs, Hajime ate without batting an eyelid. Of course, he had no intention of sharing his food with them.

However, since Shia became the cook for the camping trip, they have to rely on her to enjoy delicious food outside. Although Hajime and Yue are not incapable of cooking, their dishes are always too bland. This is because Hajime cooks men's food, and Yue seems to have no cooking experience because he is a member of the royal family.

So Shia, who had helped them cook a delicious meal, suggested that they share the food, and even Hajime couldn't refuse.

After that, every mealtime, adventurers would gather like hyenas. They were initially embarrassed, but recently they'd become more complacent and would chat up Shia and Yue whenever they had the chance.

Silently, Hajime cast his "intimidation" upon the noisy adventurers. Though the hot stew should have warmed their bones, their bodies suddenly felt icy cold. The adventurers' faces paled and they trembled. Hajime swallowed the meat in his mouth, slowly raised his gaze from the stew, and spoke in a voice that was soft but remarkably loud:

"And then? Who wants to throw up everything in their stomach?"

“““““Sorry, we got carried away!””””””

The adventurers immediately apologized to Hajime in perfect unison, kneeling in unison. Though they were all veteran adventurers older than Hajime, they lacked any of that authority. While this was certainly due to the extraordinary pressure Hajime was exerting, it was also because they all knew what Hajime had done in Brook Town, so no one dared to resist.

"Really, Hajime-san, it's mealtime, so what's wrong with a little liveliness? And, no matter what others say, I, I'm Hajime-san's person, okay?"

"I don't care about that kind of thing."

“Ah!?”

Shia smiled shyly and declared nonchalantly, but Hajime denied it with a single word.

"……beginning."

"Hmm? ...What's up, Yue?"

Seeing Yue's accusing look, Hajime felt a little timid.

Yue raised her index finger, pointed at Hajime, and said, "...You're not a good boy!" Simply put, she was asking Hajime to be gentle with Shia as they had agreed. As for Hajime, he didn't have romantic feelings for Shia yet, so he thought it would be enough to just treat her like one of his own. However... Yue didn't seem to agree.

“Hajime-san! If you keep that attitude, I won’t give you that deliciously grilled kebab!”

Furthermore, Shia has become more resilient recently. She remains mostly unmoved by Hajime's cold words, and even when she's hurt, she quickly recovers and continues to actively express her love for him.

“…So why do you know that joke?… No, it’s nothing. Alright, give me that skewer of meat quickly.”

"Hehe, do you want to eat? Open your mouth then, ah~"

"..."

Shia's cheeks flushed as she brought the deliciously grilled skewer to Hajime's mouth, as if to feed him. Hajime glanced at Yue. Yue excitedly picked up the skewer, seemingly waiting, perhaps wanting to do the same after Shia finished feeding Hajime.

Feeling the gazes of the adventurers, Hajime sighed, then turned towards Shia and opened his mouth. Shia's expression instantly filled with joy.

"Ah~hmm."

"..."

After biting the meat into his mouth, Hajime chewed silently. Shia looked at him with a happy expression, and this time she handed him a kebab in the opposite direction.

“…Ah~hmm.”

"..."

Hajime ate it again, chewing it wordlessly. Then he ate it from Shia's hand on the other side, "Ah~hmm." Then he ate it from Yue's hand, "Ah~hmm."

Putting aside personal feelings, looking at the situation objectively, the men's inner voices were probably perfectly unanimous, saying "Please, explode!!" However, even in their inner thoughts, they still used honorifics, which truly revealed their power relationship with Hajime, and it was truly empty.

Two days later, with only one day left to go, some ignorant attackers finally appeared and disrupted the peaceful journey.

Shia was the first to notice. Her rabbit ears twitched a few times towards the forest beside the road, then she dropped her carefree expression and warned everyone:

"Enemy attack! Over a hundred of them! Coming from the forest!"

Upon hearing her warning, a wave of tension spread among the adventurers. While the path they were on connected to the forest, it wasn't a dangerous place. After all, it led to the continent's premier commercial city, so safety was guaranteed to a certain degree. Therefore, even though there were frequent reports of monster encounters, they were usually only around twenty, with forty being the upper limit.

"Damn it, over a hundred of them? I haven't heard of any attacks lately. Are they trying to build up their strength? Seriously, if there's anything unusual on the road, we should at least investigate!"

Garitima, the captain of the escort, cursed with a bitter expression. The caravan's guards totaled fifteen, and even with Yue and Shia, there were only seventeen. With that number, it was difficult to protect the caravan from harm. They were clearly outnumbered.

Incidentally, the bunnyman known for her gentleness, Shia, was naturally considered a combatant because, back in Brook Town, she was angered by the actions of some radical "wannabes" who wanted to be Shia's slaves, and she punched the outburst of perverts away. This incident, feared by many adventurers, has become widely known.

Just as Garitima began to consider letting most of the guards delay the enemy and cover the caravan's escape, a proposal interrupted his thoughts -

"Since you're hesitating, why don't we kill the enemy?"

"what?"

Someone, in a casual tone like "Let's go shopping," made an unbelievable suggestion. It was none other than Hajime. Garitima, unsure of Hajime's intention, uttered an awkward response.

"So I say, why don't we just annihilate the enemy?"

"No, no, it's true that protecting the caravan from harm will be difficult at this rate, but... uh, can you do it? The monsters that appeared around here aren't very strong, but their numbers..."

"Numbers aren't a problem. Yue can handle them quickly."

Hajime said, and placed his hand on Yue's shoulder, who was standing beside him. Yue didn't show any signs of being particularly nervous, and replied with a "yes" as if it was a very simple task.

Garitima hesitated. He'd heard the rumors, basically. Yue was an exceptional magician. Even if they couldn't completely annihilate them as he'd promised, judging by their attitude, they could at least reduce their numbers. This approach would be a safer strategy than risking a split in their forces and allowing the caravan to flee.

"I understand. Let her take the initial blow. Even if we can't annihilate them, as long as we can reduce their numbers to a certain extent, it'll be fine. Then, we just need to use our magic to reduce their numbers even further, and finally kill them directly. Do you understand?"

""""learn!""""

The other adventurers responded to Garitima's judgment with great vigor.

It seemed he didn't quite believe Yue could wipe out the enemy alone. "Don't worry about that," Hajime thought, shrugging his shoulders. Common sense told him it wasn't common to find a magician capable of annihilating over a hundred monsters with a single strike, so it was understandable that they would make such a judgment.

The adventurers lined up in front of the caravan. Though their faces radiated tension, they wore a serious, measured expression, devoid of any playful playfulness. I'd heard them rave about their exploits as seasoned adventurers along the way, but seeing this side of me couldn't help but nod in agreement—so they truly were seasoned veterans. Hearing that a sizable monster army was approaching, the caravan's members expressed fear, peering out from behind the carriages to watch.

At first they were on the roof of the caravan carriage.

"Yue, you'd better chant a bit, otherwise it will be very troublesome later."

“… Chant… chant…?”

"...You don't know the spell, do you?"

“…※Okay, no problem.”

“…This joke makes me feel strangely uneasy.”

"Ten seconds until contact with the enemy!"

Because being questioned by the people around her was troublesome, Hajime told Yue to chant first. However, perhaps because chanting wasn't necessary in the first place, a question mark appeared over Yue's head. It didn't matter if she couldn't chant, she could just whisper a few words and it wouldn't be a big deal. However, Yue's answer made Hajime feel very uneasy.

As they were talking, Shia's report came in. Yue raised her right hand toward the forest and began to chant in a clear voice:

"He brings crimson light to the endless darkness, shattering ancient prisons and removing all obstacles. The power of the strongest companion will be with him, becoming a light that even devours the sky—the Thunder Dragon."

Yue's chant ended, and the magic was triggered. From the dark clouds that had been gathering and enveloping her during the chant, a dragon formed from lightning appeared. It took the form of a serpentine Eastern dragon.

“W-What is that…?”

I don't know who said this.

Despite the hordes of monsters before them, everyone seemed mesmerized, gazing upwards at the majestic form of the Thunder Dragon as it violently unleashed its electric currents. The guards, experts in magic within the escort, stood transfixed, their mouths gaping at this unprecedented display of magic.

This situation is not limited to our side.

Monsters emerged from the forest, filled with murderous intent, seeking to devour their prey. They too paused midway between the caravan and the forest. Seeing the thunder dragon circling overhead, glaring down upon them, they froze like frogs stalked by a snake, unable to move.

Then, like a punishment sent down from the sky, the Thunder Dragon, which was sung as if it would devour even the heavens, opened its jaws in coordination with Yue's slender and beautiful fingers and attacked the monsters.

Roar!

“Wow!?”

“Wow!?”

“Aaaaaaaaaa!!”

The Thunder Dragon roared loudly and opened its bloody mouth. All the monsters present flew towards the dragon's mouth, powerless to resist and were instantly destroyed in the Thunder Dragon's mouth.

The Thunder Dragons then followed Yue's command and formed a circle around the monsters, surrounding them.

The fleeing monsters dashed into the sudden wall of lightning before them, reduced to ash. With no escape route, the Thunder Dragon above roared again, its jaws opened wide. The monsters continued to fly into the dragon's mouth, seemingly suicidal. Before they could even feel the pain, the majestic and awe-inspiring dragon's presence was the last thing they saw, their consciousness and body reduced to ash.

After devouring all the monsters, the Thunder Dragon let out a final thunderous roar, and then the clouds and fog dissipated.

The adventurers and caravan members were frightened by the loud noise, flashes of light, and violent vibrations, and could not help but shrink their bodies and scream.

After the feeling of fear and shock that had gripped their hearts finally subsided, they opened their eyes slightly and looked ahead...

There was nothing there. If anything, only the carbonized earth, burned in a circular pattern, proved that the unreal scene had actually happened.

“…Yeah, that was too much.”

"Hey, hey, I've never heard of that kind of magic..."

"That seems to be Yue-san's original magic, huh? It seems to be a combination of the dragon story Hajime-san told me and existing magic."

"So you were doing that kind of thing while I was on retreat in the guild... By the way, Yue, what was that chant just now..."

"Hmm... I tried to sing about our meeting and our future."

Yue looked at Hajime. Although her face was expressionless, she exuded a smug aura, probably because she was conceited about the results of her magic.

Hajime smiled wryly and gently stroked Yue's hair. Even though he'd specifically asked her to chant, his original intention of avoiding trouble had become meaningless. However, seeing Yue's smug look, Hajime didn't bother to correct her.

——Yue's original gravity and thunder attribute compound magic "Thunder Dragon".

This is a compound magic formed by combining the advanced lightning magic of "Thunder Hammer", which creates dark clouds in the sky and causes huge lightning strikes, and the gravity magic of the Age of Gods magic learned by conquering the "Lessen Great Labyrinth".

It was a magic that used gravity magic to gather the lightning that was originally falling and control it at will. He had specifically made it look like the dragon he had heard of from Hajime, but that was just Yue's own taste in magic.

This thunder dragon's mouth has a gravity field, allowing it to pull in prey with its mouth open. The monsters appear to have walked into its trap because of this. Despite requiring only high-level mana, its power is of the highest order, and Yue's expression reveals that this is a masterpiece she's very proud of.

As Hajime and the others were talking, the adventurers who had been staring blankly at the scorched earth came to their senses, turned their heads sharply, stared at Hajime and the others, and started shouting:

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, what was that just now? What the hell was that!?"

"A strange creature... appeared in the sky... Ah, I must be dreaming."

"Hey, I'm getting married when I get to town."

"I understand you were shocked by such amazing magic, but you should stay calm. You don't even have any female friends, let alone a girlfriend."

"That magic just now was alive! Even if it turned into a strange creature, it's normal! So I'm normal too!"

"No, magic has nothing to do with life or death, right? This is clearly an abnormal situation, right?"

"What!? Are you saying Satsuki is abnormal? Huh!?"

"Calm down! Listen, Satsuki is a goddess, that explains everything!"

""""I see!""""

Yue's magic was so powerful that it seemed to be causing the adventurers to become a bit unnatural. However, there was nothing that could be done. After all, there was no existing magic that could transform into a living being, let alone control it freely. Even a magician employed by the state couldn't do it. The mere ability to wield the thunderbolt-destroying "Thunder Hammer" made him a top-tier magician.

Among the adventurers who had become abnormal and started shouting "Long live Master Yue!", Captain Garitima, the only normal one, saw the state of his companions, sighed deeply, and came to Hajime and the others.

"First of all, I want to thank you. Thanks to Xiaoyue, we were able to get through this without any damage."

"We're work partners now, right? No need to thank me, right?"

"...Well, I just did my job."

"Haha, really... Then, what was that just now?"

Garitima asked, unable to hide her confusion.

"...My original creation."

"Unique, original creation? You mean the magic you created yourself? You created advanced magic, no, the highest level magic?"

"...I didn't create it. It's composite magic."

"Compound magic? But what exactly needs to be combined to create that?"