A cloud of dust rose from the ground as four horses pulled a carriage through the outskirts of the Great Forest of Tob with great momentum.
A group of 3 goblins riding wolves escorted the occupants, while 2 others, holding bows, stood on the ceiling, and finally, a burly goblin sat beside the blonde coachwoman, seemingly ready to fight at any moment.
This was the leader of this group of goblins, Jugem.
Originally, they didn't have names, but due to their summoner's benevolence, all of them had been granted names.
Jugem's gaze was mostly directed to the way ahead, but he still cast some worried looks at the interior of the carriage from time to time.
Oblivious to her subordinate's worry, Enri spent her time looking out the window opposite her while trying to maintain as much elegance as her humble origins would allow.
This was her first time in a carriage, and she didn't know how to behave, especially considering the other two occupants.
The carriage was longer than it was wide, with seats placed alongside the windows.
By her estimates, it had the capacity for 10 people to sit comfortably without issue.
Besides that, she knew that beneath its body it could carry a lot of luggage.
When they were leaving, Ainz had allowed her to bring 5 barrels of medicinal herbs to sell in E-Rantal.
Officially, she was going on this journey only as a guide for Ainz's companions, but she understood that he was simply helping her.
The village desperately needed money, so he was helping them by giving her the opportunity to sell the herbs gathered by the villagers in the city.
This was the main way the poor villagers of Carne had to earn some money, but they would usually need to wait until merchant caravans passed through the village to be able to sell their products.
In the village chief's words, these merchants bought the herbs at a price well below the market to resell them at other locations and earn quite a bit of profit, but even if they knew that, the villagers had no other choice.
Because of that, this expedition could be considered a great opportunity for the villagers of Carne, so they gathered everything they had in these 5 barrels in hopes that she could sell them at a good price and bring back the money for them to revive their village.
Enri felt a mix of expectation and anxiety.
She was not used to carrying so much responsibility, but she also didn't want to disappoint everyone.
She also knew that by choosing her as a guide for this trip, Ainz was also helping her personally.
Nfirea.
How long has it been?
Four months?
Nfirea had been her friend for well over 10 years at this point, but they didn't see each other very often.
He used to come to the village with his grandma every few months to gather some medicinal herbs in the forest, and they would stay in Carne for a few days each time.
As children, they became friends, and this friendship continued even as they were now reaching adulthood.
The events of the last few days left her feeling weary and empty, and she found herself missing him more than usual.
A soft smile touched her lips as she remembered this shy and awkward friend of hers.
She really wanted to see him now.
As she lost herself in these thoughts, Enri finally noticed the priestess curiously looking at her.
The woman's amber eyes were gauging her with an amusing, almost seductive glint, although she didn't know whether this was reality or just an illusion brought on by how stunning the woman was.
"H-Hum… Lupita-san, is there something wrong?"
Lupita was a tall woman with red hair and brown skin, draped in priestly robes.
She was also the most beautiful woman Enri had ever seen, to the point that she even felt afraid to talk to her.
"What were you thinking just now, Enri-chan?" Lupita moved to her side as she spoke, looking like a gossip demon.
"Ah, it's nothing important, I was just thinking about my friend Nfirea."
"Oh?" A hint of seriousness flashed through Lupita's eyes, but it vanished just as quickly, leaving Enri confused.
She also saw how the warrior, Momon, seemed to straighten his posture upon hearing her mention Nfirea.
What's going on?
"Are you two close?" Lupita looked at Momon before whispering in her ear.
You're the one who's too close right now.
Feeling the hot breath against her skin, Enri began to blush furiously.
She wasn't at all used to this level of intimacy, but Lupita seemed to treat her personal space as her playground, invading it with no hesitation.
She pushed the other woman, but found that she couldn't move Lupita at all, something that only made the woman's smile widen.
"Cough."
Momon coughed lightly, and just like that, Lupita moved away, sitting politely beside her as if nothing had happened.
Confused by her behavior, Enri replied.
"We're very close. We've been friends since we were small children."
"What about you two? Are you guys close to Ainz-sama?"
Enri had been very curious about this ever since they appeared.
Ainz was someone who had saved Nemu and her, so she would be lying if she said she wasn't curious about the man, but she never found a chance to ask him about himself.
Now that she was with these two in the same carriage, this was as good a chance as any to find out more about him.
Once again, Lupita looked at Momon.
"Ainz is our leader. We are all members of the same group." The warrior answered calmly, while Lupita nodded accordingly.
"So Ainz-sama is the leader. I guess it's something to be expected. It wouldn't make sense for someone so powerful and thoughtful not to be in charge."
"Wow, Enri-chan, you are smarter than you look~."
"Thank you?" Enri didn't know whether to feel insulted or flattered by this remark.
"Oh, that's right," feeling emboldened by the conversation, Enri decided to ask something that had been bothering her for a while.
"Why do you two want to go to E-Rantal?"
"To be adventurers," Momon answered without hesitation.
"I'm undergoing an important pilgrimage for my order of knights, one in which I am required to amass feats under my name before returning home. Lupita is in a similar situation, so we've decided to make this party. Ainz heard our situation and recommended that we both become adventurers, that's all."
"That's amazing!" Enri didn't understand much about orders or pilgrimages, but hearing this mysterious warrior completely covered in black armor talk about it made her feel like the world was a really big place.
But just as she was about to continue with her questions, they all heard a shout coming from outside.
"Boss, we have a situation ahead of us."
***
"So you're saying that there's a fight happening in a clearing 100 meters in front of us?" Enri asked Jugem.
"Well, around 100 meters, but yes, there's a fight going on there."
The carriage had come to a stop, with everyone disembarking it to hear the news.
"What do you think we should do, Jugem?" Enri lacked the experience to make a decision on situations like these, so she wanted to leave it to this capable goblin.
"I think we should take a detour to avoid them before returning to our original path. It would take longer, but this is the safest option."
"Who is fighting?" Before she could agree with him, they heard Momon's question, one that felt more like a demand than a question.
Jugem and the other goblins looked at Momon warily before turning to her, and only after seeing her nod did he answer.
" 4 human males are fighting a group of ogres and goblins."
"And who is winning?"
"I'm not sure. What do you think, Chosuke?" Jugem turned to one of the wolf riders.
"There were a few corpses of goblins on the ground, but none of the ogres or humans looked to be close to dying, so I'm not sure. My bet is that the humans will lose, though."
Chosuke spoke lightly, and Enri found it hard to understand how he could remain so detached from the news of members of his species dying at the hands of others.
"And what makes you think that?" Momon asked curiously.
"Well, the humans didn't look like they wanted to fight, and from what I saw, they seemed to be retreating."
"I see… This looks interesting." Momon seemed a bit excited with the news.
"Lupita, protect these people," he spoke before unshething two gigantic black swords from his back.
The goblins flinched upon seeing this, but Momon simply sneered at their reaction before running ahead.
"Huh?"
Why is running?
Doesn't he know that there's a fight going on over there?
No, wait, he knows, Chosuke just told him.
So why?
"Let's go, we need to help him!"
If something happens to one of Ainz-sama's companions, I don't know how I'll face him in the future.
"Ha ha ha, there's no need to be concerned, Enri-chan. Momon is very strong." Lupita consoled her.
"But there are ogres in that group!"
She knew how powerful ogres were.
Some of the adventurers that came to the village from time to time told her stories of how ogres could dismember an adult as easily as one would pull weeds from the ground.
Even if Momon was strong, he was still human. What if one of the ogres grabbed his arm during the fight?
"So?" Lupita looked at her in confusion. Her gaze seemed to imply that for this beautiful woman in front of her, the concept of ogres and danger were forever separated from each other.
"Jugem, let's go and take a look. The rest of you stay to guard the carriage."
Hearing her orders, the goblins moved, and soon she, Lupita, and Jugem followed Momon's path to find the battlefield.
There, she saw the four humans the goblins had described.
The four men looked to be around her age, but they showed no fear when facing the group of demihumans, looking very experienced as they fought.
She saw two of them using magic, while one used a bow, and the last member fought with a sword.
They were severely outnumbered and tried their best to keep some distance from the demihumans, engaging in close combat only when it was inevitable.
As much as she admired their teamwork and spirit, Enri could not see any hope for victory there.
But as Momon appeared, things changed.
The afternoon sun shone on his black armor, making him look like a shadow that had found its way into the light.
He was followed by a red cloak that billowed with the wind.
With two gigantic swords, each almost as tall as herself, he walked leisurely to two ogres.
Standing before the two demihumans, Momon looked like nothing more than a small child.
She saw how their expressions twisted into mockery as they lifted the clubs in their hands, so big that even Momon's swords looked small by comparison.
Momon, on the other hand, bent his knees slightly.
Enri felt her heart drop at the sight and was ready to run towards Momon to help him, but the next moment, Momon vanished.
No, he moved, but so fast that she couldn't see it.
In one moment, he was in front of the ogres, and in the next, he was behind them, with half of their bodies falling to the ground.
"What!?"
The scene seemed ridiculous to her.
And she wasn't the only one.
The whole battlefield fell into silence following Momon's attack.
The retreating humans stopped in their tracks, looking completely amazed by what had happened.
Meanwhile, the remaining ogres looked dumbly at the corpses of their companions before unleashing furious screams and turning towards Momon's direction.
The smarter goblins looked terrified, deciding to run away.
They split into a few groups and ran in different directions.
The furious ogres ran to Momon, swinging their heavy clubs, but the warrior treated them as toys, slaying one after the other, painting the grass with their blood.
Only then did Enri recognize how ridiculous her concern had been. There was no way someone belonging to the same group as Ainz would be weak.
But even then, seeing the bodies of demihumans on the ground, she couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for them.
She didn't have time to process these feelings because after that, Momon turned his attention to the goblins, moving towards them.
The small demihumans looked terrified of him, looking every bit like prey when faced with an apex predator.
One of the fleeing groups noticed her, or more specifically, they noticed Jugem.
In their terror, these goblins ran towards them with hopeful expressions, while behind them, Enri saw that Momon had just finished slaughtering another group and turned his attention to this one.
She didn't know what had possessed her, but Enri moved on her own, jumping
behind the goblins and opening her arms wide.
"Please, stop!"
Momon appeared in front of her, one of his swords still moving down.