Chapter 289: This seems like a great way to lose weight, doesn’t it?

The Rubul desert also stretched to the southeast of the Schneger territory. And so, we followed a route that cut straight through the domain.

By the way, this domain was once seized by the Albert forces, but has now been returned to Marquis Schneger’s control.

“Amazing! The sand’s really everywhere!”

After flying over some barren earth for a while, we finally saw the desert.

I lowered our flying altitude to get closer to the ground.

“We’re finally here! Let’s get down now!”

“Wait, we’re still too high!”

Selen jumped off from the park and landed on the sand.

After I hurriedly made the park land, we got down to the desert as well.

There were no plants anywhere nearby. There was nothing here but the sandy ground.

In the distance, I could even easily see the haze coming out from the ground.

It rarely rained in this area and there were hardly any clouds at all, so it wasn’t so surprising that the sunlight here was harsh. Moreover, because the sand reflected the sunlight, we were being assaulted from above as well as from below.

There was also hardly any moisture in the air. It was still just the early morning, but it felt like the sand could burn us should we make direct contact with it.

Just a few minutes later and we were sweating profusely already. A few more minutes of walking in this heat and we were bound to be parched…

“This seems like a great way to lose weight, doesn’t it?”

“How about you take a few laps?”

“Actually, I’d advise you to refrain from doing that. Your already small assets will completely shrivel up after all.”

“I-it’s gotten bigger, you know!?”

Millia and Selen began arguing like that, but the heat had robbed me of any energy to stop them.

At that time, something sprung from the sand.

That something was a hornworm-looking monster that had a diameter of nearly 2 meters. I couldn’t gauge how long it was because a lot of its body was buried deep in the sand, but there was no mistake that it was gigantic.

“It’s a Worm! Be careful! It attacks from below the sand!”

Without any delay, Philia-san shouted so while shooting an arrow.

Her arrow hit the monster, prompting it to hide in the sand right away.

“Did it escape?”

“No, once a Worm has set its mind on a target, it won’t stop until it takes it down. It might not look it, but it’s quite smart too; it’ll bade its time until it finds the right opportunity to attack.”

Noncombatants like Millia and I quickly evacuated to the park. We figured the Worm wouldn’t be able to attack us here.

“Selius-dono! Below you!”

“!?”

As soon as I noticed the lump on the ground below Selius-kun, the Worm emerged from it like a geyser. The Worm’s round mouth—littered with sharp fangs—opened widely and threatened to swallow Selius-kun whole.

“Haa!”

However, Selius-kun used his wind to jump up in the sky, thus escaping from the Worm’s mouth.

Upon closing its mouth without getting anything, the Worm turned around to get back in the sand. Before it could do so though, everyone launched an attack against it.

“!?!”

Upon receiving a barrage of attacks, the Worm became tattered. And yet, it still tried to escape into the sand. At that point, Gori-chan firmly grabbed it.

“My, there’s no escaping us ♡ here ya goooo!”

Gori-chan vigorous yelled so as she pulled on the Worm and dragged it out of the sand.

That revealed just how long the Worm actually was. By my estimate it was either 6 or 7 meters in length.

The Worm continued to squirm its way back to the sand, but Gori-chan’s superhuman strength just wouldn’t let it. Completely defenseless like that, all that was left was for everyone to finish off the Worm.

“W-wait! Please kill it without damaging the body as much as possible!”

“? What’s the matter, Coch-san?”

Coch-san suddenly shouted so, confusing the attackers and stopping them in their tracks.

“That monster…”

With his eyes sparkling, Coch-san proceeded to explain.

“Will make for a fantastic ingredient…!!”

Eehh….

TL note: Luke says the monster looks like a hornworm/caterpillar. Philia calls it a “Worm”.