The next day, we continued on our journey with Dennis’s caravan.

Jack must have told his party about my preference for girls or something since they no longer try to hit on me. Unfortunately, the stares continued, much to Katsuki’s annoyance.

They still talked to me like normal but the flirting had stopped so at least they were respectful of my sexual preferences. Otherwise I might have thrown them out.

Just as I was wishing that something interesting would happen, a shout came from outside.

“Monsters to the left! Hell Wolves!”

The three men immediately leapt out of the wagon, Markus moving surprisingly quickly despite wearing full plate armour and carrying his shield.

I looked up and saw several other people leaping out of the wagons ahead of us as well, all of them moving up to form a defensive line against the Hell Wolves.

Oooh! This is my first time witnessing a group vs group battle! This looks awesome! I should definitely take some notes so that I can direct my summons better in the future!

The Mercenaries were still outnumbered with their side only having fifteen people and the Hell Wolves having around forty or so, but none of them look concerned by the disparity in numbers.

Three of them wielding tower shields stood at the front resolutely, showing no fear in their stances as they stared down the group of Hell Wolves.

Behind them were two party members who wielded spears, occupying the spaces in between the shields to poke the pointy ends of their weapons towards the wolves.

The rest were a mix of archers, swordsmen and what looked like mages mixed in the crowd.

Judging by how casual the others were treating this situation, I’m guessing that this must be a common enough occurrence and that this wasn’t too big of a threat to these Mercenaries.

“They’re coming!” One of the shield bearers shouted, bracing himself for impact.

The archers and mages started firing their projectiles into the throng and killing several of them before they could reach their shieldbearers.

Jack shouted out instructions and the others spread out along the flanks right as the first of the wolves clashed against their front lines.

The two spearmen thrusted out their polearms, skewering the first two wolves that tried to leap at their comrades.

The next bunch of wolves smashed themselves into the shields and the shieldbearers held firm, their heels digging into the ground as they stood against the onslaught.

Jack barked out another order and the rest of the party charged forward, attacking the flanks of the Hell wolves and cutting them down with relative ease.

It seems like most of them have stats higher than a Hell Wolf so it wasn’t that surprising that they weren’t really struggling despite the number disadvantage.

What I’m concerned about is how they were going to deal with the Hell Wolf Alpha that was at the very back of the horde.

Jack saw the monster and shouted out another order, “The Alpha is coming! Archers, Mages, concentrate fire on it!”

His party members reacted quickly and redirected their firepower towards the boss monster.

It managed to dodge through most of the attacks but a few of the arrows and spells still managed to score a few hits on it, though they were just superficial wounds at most.

Fortunately, it seems like the attack was mainly aimed at slowing the boss down so that the rest of the party could wipe out the mobs first, in which case that was a roaring success.

The three tanks moved forward and locked their shields together, bracing themselves as the Alpha wolf smashed into their shield wall.

They managed to hold on despite the wolf’s superior strength with the support of their comrades, allowing the others to descend upon the beast.

I watched on as they surrounded the wolf, splitting into two groups to attack the wolf’s flanks and retreating when it tried to snap at them.

The tanks would then smash the wolf with their shields to regain its aggro, allowing the rest of the party to engage the wolf again.

Eventually, Jack managed to slice through the wolf’s neck and the battle ended with their victory and no casualties to their party.

The others in the caravan cheered for them and congratulated them on their victory, treating this more like a show than an actual threat.

“Mistress would have dealt with those wolves easily…” Katsuki muttered disappointedly.

“Ufufufu~ Indeed~ My child is the best, after all!” Mother agreed.

I decided not to offer my own opinions on the battle.

Their party then began disassembling the wolves for their Mana Crystals and parts before setting rest of the corpses on fire, returning back to their wagons.

Jack was quite smug as he sat down across from me, “So how was the show my lady? Is this the first time you’ve seen a fight like this?”

I nodded, “It was quite educational and it was indeed the first time I’ve seen a group battle.”

“Oh? If you’d like, I can give you some pointers with the sword! You can see it as a senior teaching the junior!”

Unexpectedly, Katsuki answered in my stead, “My Mistress is stronger than you. She could have taken out that Hell Wolf Alpha by herself.”

Erm… Katsuki? I didn’t need them to know that…

Mother giggled, “Ara, ara? Little Katsuki, it’s not good for the maid to speak for their Mistress unless given permission~”

Katsuki gasped, “My apologies, Mistress!”

“Umm… It’s ok… You’re still learning,” I assured her before turning back to Jack. “Sorry about that.”

Jack waved his hand, “It’s alright, I understand that it might look easy to an onlooker but Hell Wolf Alphas are classified as D rank monsters because of their strength, speed and ability to lead a pack. It’s normal to have a D rank party like us to coordinate like that to take one down.”

I leaned forward, “Just out of curiosity… What rank would a Wyvern be?”

“Oh? Depending on the type of wyvern, they can be anywhere between B to S rank.”

“And dragons?”

“Ha! Those are at the very minimum A ranks and going all the way up to SSS rank. The ones in the triple S rank are strong enough to wipe out entire cities!”

“Are there… Are there people out there who can challenge dragons?”

Jack grinned at me, “My lady, the path of a Mercenary isn’t as simple as you might think it is. There’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears involved to get stronger or even just make a name for yourself. To answer your question… Yes, there are people out there who can challenge dragons by themselves but they are few and far between. Those people can be considered to be gifted by the Gods themselves. For people like us? We don’t stand a chance at all.”

I really want to ask if those people are Off-Worlders but I’m not sure if these people even know about them. From what I know, it’s not exactly common knowledge and Mother did say there are mixed reactions from those that are in the know about them.

What’s more… I don’t know if there are others like that trashy asshole who is going around hunting ther Off-Worlders either so it’s better to be cautious.

Of course, I know not all Off-Worlders are like that trashy asshole but still, can’t blame me for being more paranoid because of that. I have no interest in dying a second time before I get to explore this World and eat all the sweets it has to offer!

But that doesn’t mean I won’t try to find out as much information as I can right now!

“So who’s the strongest Mercenary right now?”

Markus let out a bark of laughter, “Ha! That’s a question that is impossible to answer, little lady! Sure, there are a number of SSS rank Mercenaries and Dungeoneers out there, but almost none of them are interested in challenging their peers to find out who is stronger!”

“Eh? Why not?”

Loyd shook his head, “That’s because their reputation would be at stake. Even if one of them were to win, it would only bring them a little bit more fame than normal which isn’t worth the risk of having their own reputation stained with defeat. No doubt, they might have challenged each other in private but the results of such matches are never made known. Besides… Each of them have their own specialties so it’s already hard to judge.”

Jack nodded, “An SSS rank mage might be ranked that way because of his powerful magic, but he requires a long casting time for his spells. Pit him against a SSS rank warrior in an arena and the mage will get cut down without question. Give the mage enough space to cast their magic and the warrior would be the one who loses. So how do you determine who is the stronger one?”

Huh… That’s quite surprising… I thought there would be those hot headed Mercenaries who want to prove they are the strongest in the world or something and go around challenging everyone.

Then I realised that such people probably won’t go very far before they offend someone stronger than them who would then kill them off somehow.

Perhaps some of the SSS rank people are like that too, except they learned to keep that a secret from the public eye.

I wonder… Would I be counted amongst their numbers one day? And what are the chances of me meeting one?

…

Is Mother a SSS rank?