Not a barbarian warrior.

As Eugene couldn’t take his eyes off , Lorena rummaged through the papers on her desk.

“N-Not this one, not this either…. Where did I put it… W-Wait a moment…”

While she was searching for something, rummaging through the desk and drawers, Eugene quietly picked up this erotic book. Then he opened the book and skimmed through it with his eyes.

The sound of drawers opening and closing with a “drrr-” continued for a while, along with the sound of Eugene flipping pages with a rustle.

“Ah, I-I found it…”

Lorena raised her body, pulling out a paper she had barely found at the bottom of a drawer.

It was the moment Eugene had just understood how she could say such obscene things at the inn.

“Y-You just need to find and bring back the herb drawn on this paper… Huh? Wh-What’s that book?”

“Ah, it was lying at my feet, so I unconsciously…”

Eugene closed the book he had opened and handed it to Lorena.

“Wh-Why is this h-here…!”

She hastily shoved the book into a drawer with a flustered face. Then, with a reddened face, she got angry at Eugene.

“D-Don’t read other people’s books as you please…! R-Rude person…”

Eugene felt wronged. How could one not read such a book after seeing it? He thought at least half the fault lay with Lorena.

If it was a book that shouldn’t have been seen by others, she should have stored it properly, instead of carelessly throwing it on the floor like that, causing this situation.

Eugene decided to act confidently since they were both at fault.

“The content was as interesting as the cover. Especially the part describing the scene where the lady is tied up on the bed, begging…”

“Wa… Waaah!!”

The tomato, no, Lorena threw a book she had grabbed randomly at Eugene. It was to shut that wicked mouth that was talking so casually.

Eugene naturally caught the book flying towards his head and retorted:

“Isn’t this happening because you don’t clean up usually? It would be good to do some cleaning.”

“Th-That’s… I’ve been too busy lately…! And I don’t think it’s your business to interfere…”

Lorena’s face was not just well-ripened, but on the verge of bursting. Looking at her face, Eugene thought he should change the topic now.

‘Hmm, her reaction is quite intense. I should stop teasing here.’

He was about to change the subject of conversation after putting the book she had thrown on his lap. Eugene’s eyes naturally went to the cover of the book.

“…”

The phrase written on the plain black cover without any illustrations greatly stimulated Eugene’s intellectual curiosity.

Just as his hand was unconsciously moving to turn the pages, Lorena hurriedly ran over and snatched the book away.

“Ah, aah…”

Leaving Eugene looking disappointed behind, Lorena threw the book far into a corner.

Breathing heavily, she thrust a piece of paper into Eugene’s hand and blurted out words. Right now, her mind was full of thoughts of getting Eugene out quickly.

“Y-You just need to find and bring back the herb drawn on this paper. The, the location of the herb is when you leave Carlisle and go west, there should be three small mountains, and there…”

Eugene put aside his disappointment and tried to remember what Lorena was saying.

On the paper she handed over, there was a plump root resembling a person drawn under a stem with red round fruits.

‘…Isn’t this ginseng? No, since she said they scattered seeds and planted it on the mountain, should I call it wild ginseng?’

Eugene confidently told Lorena, who had finished her explanation, not to worry and that he would bring it back well.

“Th-Then please leave quickly now…”

“Since it’s still morning, if I don’t wander around, I should be able to bring it back before nightfall.”

“O-Okay, so hurry and go…”

As she pushed Eugene’s back as he stood up, she thought. She should at least tidy up the books before he returns.

Eugene, who had been practically kicked out of Lorena’s mansion, started moving busily.

Eugene put on his newly acquired gauntlets and boots, wore the repaired black gambeson, and packed his usual weapons before slipping out of the city.

As she had said, when he headed west, there was a gently protruding mountain.

Both the forest and the mountain were perfect places for monsters and beasts to inhabit.

As he started climbing the mountain following the direction Lorena had told him, thick undergrowth and trees blocked his way. Eugene headed towards the place where the herb should be, either cutting through them with his knife or going around.

As the sunlight was blocked by trees and everything around started to darken, he knelt down on one knee in a suitable spot. It was to awaken his other senses by closing his eyes.

‘I should move carefully from here on. It would be good if I could know whose territory this is…’

Several hours after starting to climb the mountain, Eugene suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck at some point. His body was sending a warning about a danger his head hadn’t consciously perceived.

Eugene stopped in place and looked around. There was nothing special except for the cool wind blowing.

‘What is it…? There’s definitely something… Don’t tell me…’

He quietly drew a throwing knife and raised his head. Then, his eyes met with green-skinned monkeys perched on the trees. They were goblins.

“Of all the bad luck…!”

Eugene nervously threw the knife while drawing his sword. One goblin that had been looking for an opportunity to pounce on Eugene from above fell to the ground with a scream.

As if this was a signal, the goblins that had been hiding silently on the trees, camouflaging themselves, all rushed towards Eugene at once.

A single goblin wasn’t a very threatening monster. They were small in stature, not particularly strong, and could be knocked down with a single kick.

However, the problem was their number. Not only were dozens of goblins rushing from all directions, but they were also falling from above.

‘This is crazy… There must be at least thirty, no, more than forty…!’

There was nowhere to run. Eugene gritted his teeth and swung his limbs frantically. Throwing knives, swinging his sword, stabbing with daggers, kicking…

The strategy of these creatures was simple. It was all about overwhelming with numbers, trying to bite and scratch somehow.

“Just! Get lost-!”

Eugene shouted at the goblins clinging to his limbs like ticks. Then, the creatures with stiffly tensed muscles rolled their eyes and collapsed.

Eugene took advantage of this gap and swung his sword widely. The sword, drawing a semicircle, split the bellies of three goblins, spilling blood and entrails.

“You worthless things!”

Eugene was greatly angered at these creatures who couldn’t even understand human speech.

By now, the newly acquired gambeson had its back torn, with linen and wool poking out, and the gauntlets and boots had their leather torn, revealing the iron plates underneath.

Seeing the armor he had acquired for the hefty sum of eighteen silver coins damaged, Eugene felt his insides burning, but at the same time, he also felt relieved.

‘It’s good I bought the ones with iron plates. If it weren’t for these, my arms and legs would have been in tatters long ago. Haa… By the way, how much will it cost to repair this?’

Inwardly sighing, Eugene continuously swung his sword. The number of goblins gradually decreased.

Soon, as more than half of the creatures that had numbered over forty died, those who lost morale began to desert and run away one by one.

“Hey, you bastards-! Where do you think you’re running now!”

As Eugene shouted with full anger, the goblins became even more frightened and all scattered in different directions.

Eugene pulled out a knife from a goblin corpse and threw it at a fleeing one. One unfortunate target fell. That was the end of the battle.

“Huff… huff… These damn bastards…”

Eugene looked around, catching his breath. Dozens of lumps of meat were lying around, bleeding.

In the middle of the chaos, Eugene stood covered in blood. His clothes, as well as his arms and legs, were in tatters, and his hair was disheveled and wet with sweat and blood.

Eugene, inwardly shedding tears of blood, retrieved his weapons and then approached the goblin corpses with a dagger in hand.

“It won’t be much money, but… I have to make up for the loss a little…”

He cut off the hideous things hanging between the creatures’ legs one by one and put them in a sack.

When the work was finally done, Eugene quietly left the place carrying the heavy sack.

‘There should be a large rock around here… Ah, there it is. They said it was planted in the gap below here, seems right.’

After many twists and turns, Eugene arrived at the place Lorena had told him about and found an herb that looked exactly like the drawing.

He started digging the soil very, very carefully with his bare hands. He was so careful that not even a single hair-thin root was damaged.

After a while, when the entire shape of the herb buried in the soil was revealed, Eugene couldn’t help but admire it.

‘With this size, how many years old could it be? I’ve never seen such a large and thick ginseng before…’

Inwardly exclaiming ‘I’ve hit the jackpot’, he slowly lifted the herb. Then he plucked some moss nearby to wrap it like a blanket, tied it with cloth, and put it in his bosom.

After retrieving the requested item, he hurriedly moved his feet. He had to get out before the smell of blood from fighting the goblins attracted the attention of other monsters. Fortunately, Eugene finished descending the mountain without any incidents and entered inside the city gates.

As he walked around the city covered in blood, people uniformly avoided him, walking far away. Eugene headed towards Lorena’s mansion without even washing his body.

‘There’s no better appearance than this to show how hard I’ve worked. She’ll be pleased that I brought the item before sunset as promised.’

When Eugene arrived in front of the mansion and knocked on the door three times, her voice was heard from inside.

“Wh…Who is it…”

“It’s me. I’ve brought the requested item.”

“A-Already…?”

As soon as Lorena opened the door, she stepped back, pinching her nose. With a nasal voice, she asked Eugene with a frown:

“Couldn’t you have washed up before coming…”

“…”

Eugene, silent for a moment at the unexpected reaction, took out the item from his bosom. He carefully unwrapped the cloth and said:

“I thought it was an urgent item… Can I come in for now?”

“Ugh… C-Come in while staying a bit away.”

As Eugene entered, Lorena stepped back to maintain a certain distance from him.

“Let’s check the item first.”

When he removed the cloth and the moss covering it, the herb revealed its dazzling appearance.

From the red fruit at the end of the stem to every single fine root, it was in a perfectly preserved state.

Eugene looked at Lorena as if asking how it was.

“Th-This, don’t tell me… It’s a-alive…?”

Her complexion was extremely pale upon seeing the herb.

“…? I dug it up as carefully as possible to avoid damage.”

“You… You madman…! Wh-Who digs up a mandrake alive…!”

Lorena spoke, terrified. She stepped back further, widening the distance from Eugene.

Eugene was surprised at the word mandrake and asked. It wasn’t ginseng? What was a mandrake?

“Wasn’t this something similar to ginseng?”

“Wh-What is that…! I-I clearly told you to pierce the root and cut off its breath before digging the soil…!”

“…You didn’t say that.”

“Huh…? I-I didn’t…?”

Surprised by Eugene’s words, Lorena traced back her memories. She was sure she had mentioned the precautions… Surely…

‘…Ah, I-I forgot to tell him…!’

She just realized that she had omitted the most important thing in her hurry to send Eugene away.

‘I can apologize later. F-First, I need to deal with that mandrake quickly…’

It was the moment when the flustered Lorena was speaking to Eugene while continuing to step back.

“L-Listen to me first. If you have something like a dagger, take it out slowly. Be careful not to wake the mandrake…”

She stepped on a small cylindrical flask rolling at her feet and fell backward, biting her tongue.

It was the moment when the karma for not cleaning her house until now was being cleared.

The flask that slipped from her foot and launched flew towards Eugene’s hand and hit it strongly.

“Oops…!”

In his surprise, Eugene ended up dropping the mandrake he was holding.

The mandrake rolled towards the fallen Lorena and stopped at her feet.

Awakened by the impact, it instinctively felt that its life was in danger.

The mandrake, opening its sealed mouth with a “crack”, immediately sucked in air and greatly inflated its body.

Eugene belatedly realized then that something had gone wrong.

“Kyaaaah-!!”

A piercing scream echoed inside Lorena’s mansion.

Eugene and Lorena’s eyes rolled up for a moment, and they lost consciousness and collapsed right there.