I can give the Thunderbird a "strong" evaluation if it can control the power of lightning on its own, then it would be extremely powerful. When treating the wounds, I found that the Thunderbird's feathers were very special. Each one was fifty centimeters long, with a pure transition from dark blue to indigo. The quill was as hard as solid wood, unable to be broken by the strength of two hands. It was because of these feathers that the bullets did not cause a significant penetrating injury, only lodging in the shallow subcutaneous tissue.

But my wife's arrow was more lethal, fortunately only hitting the back. After removing the bullet and arrow, my hands were stained with a lot of blue blood.

"Mr. Bird, the kingdom is going to war with us."

"Gaga."

"Well... I don't know if you can understand, but I'll tell you anyway."

"Gah?"

"Uh, can you help us?"

"..."

The Thunderbird tilted its head and looked confused. I shrugged and glanced at my wife, but she just rolled her eyes and didn't say anything.

Okay, let's put the matter of fighting against the kingdom aside. I waved my arms, assuming a flying posture, wanting to see how serious the Thunderbird's injuries were. This large bird was obviously unharmed, calling out twice before shaking off the rope around its neck and flying into the sky.

My wife and I breathed a sigh of relief and continued on our way. Just as we had taken a few steps, the Thunderbird returned and landed in front of us.

"Mr. Bird, is there something else?"

"Gah!"

The blue bird let out a harsh cry and used its beak to pluck the lighter-colored feathers from its chest, handing them to me. It gave me three in total, and despite the feathers being sturdy, they were lightweight. This should be the Thunderbird's reward.

At the time, I didn't know what these feathers were for, but later I learned that they were called "Light of Mord." Mord was the translation of lightning in the kingdom's language, and the main purpose of Thunderbird feathers was to make ink pens. The magical part of it was that by casting a bit of magic, the feathers would emit light on their own, with adjustable brightness. If made into a pen, there would be no need for candles at night; you could write just by the light from the pen itself.

If you talk about usefulness, it's not that great, otherwise why wouldn't we just attach a small light bulb directly to the pen? These pens were more of a symbol of authority, only Magic Council officials could have one in hand. Ironically, all of these pens were made from Thunderbird feathers traded by black market dealers to the kingdom...

After bidding farewell to the Thunderbird, we continued on our way. It seemed like my dream of having an air force was impossible to realize. The Succubi could indeed fly, but they couldn't fly very high. Leya could only fly up to about fifty meters at most. Unlike the Thunderbird, which lived on cliffs hundreds of meters high and could achieve true high-altitude flight. Succubi flying low against infantry formations during the day would be treated like flying discs.

Whenever I thought about the kingdom's war, I would worry. Why doesn't this world have any super monsters that can defy the odds?

Even the Hydra was much smaller than I had imagined, and stupid to boot.

"Husband, are you thinking about the future war?"

"Yeah, my wife knows me best."

"If you ask me, you should go talk to the people of the kingdom."

I've thought about this suggestion more than once, but besides Boshi, I don't know who else I could talk to. Plus, when I originally smuggled the blind Medusa out of the kingdom, I must have offended some high-ranking officials. If I were to voluntarily go to the kingdom again, it's likely that I wouldn't come back.

"Wife, you don't know, but I don't know many people in the kingdom."

"So what if you keep telling me how amazing you are and how you're... what was that word again?"

"That's called dominating, riding high in the kingdom."

"Doesn't matter how you say it, in any case, war is definitely not the outcome you want."

"Yeah, the kingdom may have already taken action now, Saprovore might have been killed."

"Uh... is the kingdom really that powerful?"

"Absolutely, trust me."

It wasn't shocking to hear that Saprovore had been killed because I had seen Saprovore in the kingdom's monster dungeon. They put Saprovore in a deep glass tank and periodically heated the bottom with flames to maintain the water temperature. Saprovore was in great pain in hot water; humans could barely tolerate sixty degrees, but Saprovore seemed to endure even lower temperatures than that.

In hot water, Saprovore can only flatten its body, trying to float on the water surface to dissipate heat, unable to resist at all.

That's why Augus chose to survive in a place like a mud pit with stable temperature.

"Wife, before I met you, have you ever fought with humans?"

"Let me think... I had one fight when I just moved out."

"You definitely won, right?"

"Huh? Why do you think I would win?"

"In the beginning, we were able to defeat those five humans because you were strong, and I actually just held you back."

"Husband praises me for being strong, I'm so happy, I should answer like this, right?"

"Hehe, that's the truth..."

With a proud look on her face, my wife told me about the battle from a long time ago. According to her description, it was difficult to determine the reason for the human's fight, but one thing is for sure, the kingdom equipped itself with flintlock guns several decades ago. These cutting-edge weapons truly posed a threat to the monsters' lives. According to my wife's words: "Those things called guns are as fast as my arrows, and it hurts a lot when they hit you."

A Medusa can survive being shot multiple times, but can also be killed with one shot to the head. And my wife doesn't seem to know how to protect her head, which may be related to Medusa's attack style.

"Promise me, in future battles, don't rush in front of me."

"Why?"

"You have suffered too many injuries for me... "

"Really?"

"Yes... so, don't rush in front of me anymore to protect me."

If we were really facing the muzzle, I wouldn't let my wife take the lead. It would be too risky. Singing the bow's magical incantation takes time, and if I shoot fast enough, I would have an advantage. As for petrification magic, I don't want my wife to use it easily.

"I don't care what kind of attacks I might face. What I need is for you to take care of the enemies from behind."

"With that, I would worry about you..."

"As a husband, wouldn't it be embarrassing to hide behind my wife?"

"Oh? Do you want to be my knight?"

"Don't I look like one? At least I can still ride a horse~"

In the eyes of most humans, knights are the most elegant type of people. The kingdom's storybooks have even mythologized knights, depicting them as great heroes who protect humans by vanquishing monsters. From the treatment of the three thousand Scarlet Lance Cavalry, it can be seen that the kingdom highly values its cavalry.

Speaking of the Scarlets, they are soldiers who can truly charge without fear of Medusa's petrification magic.

Unconsciously, we have already walked half of the way up Mount Glee. We only have the last section left before we can go home. Thinking about this, I couldn't help but feel happy, even though the crisis of war has not yet been resolved.

The rainy season is a strange term for me. I have only heard about the continuous rainy season in the south. In this world, the meaning of the rainy season is two weeks of frequent rain.

It's exactly two weeks, no more, no less. I even suspect that this kind of weather is caused by magic.

And as the name suggests, frequent rain means rain on the first day, overcast on the second day, rain on the third day, and so on in a cycle. Last year, when I lived in a cave, I didn't experience the rainy season. This year, I am experiencing it for the first time.

It doesn't bother me much, but my wife suffers. She hates the rain, especially when the wet and cold rain surrounds her. On the first day of the rainy season, I teased her for covering herself with a tent canvas like an old lady, but on the third day, I couldn't stand it anymore.

It's difficult to start a fire, difficult to preserve food, difficult to keep clothes dry, and most importantly, even smoking becomes difficult...

"Husband... please make the rain stop."

"I want to as well, but the sky doesn't want to talk to me."

"It's so wet, it feels so uncomfortable."

"Sigh... yeah."

I quickly made a simple support frame under a tree and covered it with canvas. My wife and I huddle together to seek shelter from the rain. I used a small iron box to store matches, and cigarettes had to be wrapped in paper and kept in my pocket. It was so hard to light a cigarette, and it felt damp when I smoked.

I even wrapped my pistol in layers of cloth, three on the left and three on the right, to prevent the gunpowder from getting damp.

"Wife, I'm going to find a dry place. This is not a good solution."

"I'll wait for you here."

"Stay alert, and if there's danger, try to fight nearby and run if you can't win. Don't worry about me."

"That won't do, what if you can't find me when you come back?"

"Look up."

"Huh?"

My wife didn't understand what I meant, but she still lifted her head.

I gently kissed her neck and told her, "Do you believe that I can remember your scent?"

"Well...but you have to be careful."

"Oh, just take a look around nearby to see if there are any caves or places to take shelter. Nothing will happen."

After giving a brief explanation, I rode my horse to the foot of the mountain to search for a cave or a place to seek shelter from the rain. Unexpectedly, I actually found one – a strange cave on a flat rock wall.

By strange, I don't mean the peculiar shape of the cave itself, but rather the obvious signs of human activity inside. I tied up my horse and quietly approached to investigate. This cave was extremely deep, and calling out resulted in a clear echo. Its width was twice the size of the small cave we had at home. At the entrance of the cave, there were some tattered clothes, but the colors had faded, likely left behind by previous travelers.

Because I didn't have a torch, I didn't dare to enter the cave and instead examined the surroundings in the rain. There was a very strange feature of this cave – a circle of small holes, the size of a forearm, had been drilled along the entire edge of the cave entrance. The arrangement of these holes was very uniform, as if adding a decorative border to the mouth of the cave.

What were they used for?

No matter from afar or up close, I couldn't discern their purpose.

Blowing air into the small holes, I found that they were all empty. They didn't seem like any kind of hidden weapon or trap. A magic array? That was even more unrealistic. I've seen the patterns of magic arrays before, and they were much more complex than these few small holes. The only certainty was that these finely crafted holes were the work of human artisans.

"Hmm..."

I pondered for a moment, and suddenly had a thought. What if these holes were part of the preparations to seal the cave?

It was not impossible, and the probability was very high. Filling these holes with explosives would turn them into firing points to blast away the rocks and seal the cave entrance. Or, taking it a step further, these holes could be used to secure a large piece of cloth, on which a powerful magic array would be drawn, and then several mages would seal the cave...

Whether or not my assumption was accurate, if these holes were indeed meant to seal the cave, it meant one crucial thing – there was something inside this cave that needed to be sealed away by humans.