Average 7.3

Chapter 58:

Information Gathering
When the group transporting the criminals arrived at the capital, they headed straight for the palace.While the Guild had the power of mediation in all affairs regarding guild-assigned jobs, as well as the ability to arrest criminals, it did not truly possess any legal authority. The questioning and judging of criminals was a matter for the palace and the city guard. Normally, the handling of such incidents remained within the guards’ jurisdiction, but when it came to grave or political matters, agents of the Crown took direct charge. It seemed that the current incident fell into just such a category.Of course, it was only natural that a case involving a kidnapping, in which the victim was a non-human, would be bumped up the hierarchy, particularly when it involved religious heresy and a great number of perpetrators who may or may not have included wealthy merchants and low-ranking nobles. Plus, there was the possibility that there had been additional allies who were not even present… These were not the sorts of bandits or thugs who fell under the standard justice that the city guards could provide.Faleel was handed over to her mother and father, who were waiting at the city gates. Mavis had updated them on the situation the night before, and they had even come to see the reinforcement squad off, so they were already in place when the convoy arrived. The rescue had drawn to a close without Mile reaping even the slightest perks.***“Now then, please tell us every detail of what transpired.”Though the investigation was being conducted on the Crown’s authority, it was not the King himself who came to question them. Such questionings were conducted by someone whose post was appropriate to the severity of the situation—though it was always at least relatively high-ranking individuals in the royal court who were put in charge of such things.Of course, the Crown had already been given the gist of the situation. Without it, they would not have been able to select the appropriate rank of representative, after all. The guild master, who had been roused in the middle of the night along with the half-dozing night guardsmen, had plenty of time to kill before dawn, so it was no trouble to prepare a letter to be carried to the palace once the sun had risen.Using the testimonies from the Crimson Vow and the Servants of the Goddess as their basis, the officials questioned the captured men, who could tell from the start that there was no point in denying the facts when they had been caught in the act with so many witnesses. Instead, they opted to try to portray themselves as a group of meek and pious believers who would never harm a little girl, claiming that it was merely necessary to have a young beastgirl present for the ceremony and that they were going to return her safely once the ritual was finished—among all other manner of highly dubious claims.Of course, no one present would believe such a story, meaning that the criminals would be subject to more intense individual questioning later on…However, that was not the biggest problem at hand.The Crown needed to know the scope of this peculiar organization, the details of how it had been established, the identity of any other members of this order, and the ultimate goal of the group. Understanding these points was of the utmost importance. Without this knowledge, there was no telling if such an incident might occur a second or even a third time. In fact, there was no telling whether this incident truly was the first time. There were plenty of other people from the capital who had been reported missing before, after all—even though it was certain that at least some of that number were comprised merely of eloping couples, traveling tricksters, and the like.After their testimony was given, the two parties’ duties were done. Once they had shared all that they knew, and confirmed the criminals’ recounting of the facts, there was no reason for any of them to linger any longer. All that was left now was for the guards to extract the truth from those offenders by one means or another.And so, the girls headed toward the Guild. While everyone there was already aware of the details of the job, they needed to give their official report to mark the completion of the emergency job and receive their reward of a single silver—which none of them would have traded for even a thousand gold.“Do you think that they’ll let us know about the findings of the investigation?” asked Mile.“I mean, that isn’t exactly something that the palace would be interested in sharing with us hunter types,” Telyusia replied. “In fact, if anything truly troubling came to light, I bet they would want to keep it under wraps.”“Oh, man. Really?”That was unfortunate. Mile wanted to know more about those people. She was particularly curious as to how a story that should have been lost to the sands of time—twisted though it may have been—made it all the way into the heads of these people and how it had become a basis of their faith. Furthermore, the fact that they had nearly invoked a dimensional linking spell could not possibly be mere chance. She had to find out the root of all this and make sure that no one tried to use that magic ever again.This mission was more important and direr than the elder dragons’ investigation could ever be.“Though I suppose,” Telyusia added, “the guild master might be able to get at least a bit of information out of them. He was the one who originally informed the palace of the incident, after all, so it should be fine…”Indeed, as Telyusia implied, the Guild had been the ones to inform the palace, and if such an incident were to occur again, the Guild would likely be the first to have to deal with it, so it made sense for them to get at least the basics of any report. Of course, such information would probably be limited to the scope of the perpetrators’ organization and the severity of the threat they posed—not the particulars of any confessions about their true identities.This sucks… Well, that’s fine. I’m sure something will come to me!When Mile was angry, she had a fairly pessimistic way of thinking, but most of the time, she was relatively optimistic. With the power of positive thinking, there were no limits to the sort of good ideas she could manifest.After receiving their one silver each from Felicia, who had returned to the Guild a bit before the two parties, the Crimson Vow and the Servants of the Goddess each retreated to their respective hideouts—the Servants to the small house they rented together, and the Crimson Vow, naturally, to Faleel’s inn. They had been awake the whole night. It was time to get some food and go straight to sleep.All that they had received today was the reward from the innkeeper; the bonus from the Guild and the Crown would come tomorrow. They probably had yet to decide on the amount.All right! As soon as we get back to the inn, Faleel is mine—all mine! With none of those pesky Servants in the way, it’s time to give Faleel the scoop on who really played the most important role in saving her…Hehe. Bwehehehehehehe!Somehow, Mile seemed like she might be a rather unreliable narrator.“All righty then, see you gals later! Good work out there!” said Telyusia.A tinge of a blush on her cheeks, Reina replied meekly, “Y-you too…”From the depths of their hearts, the other three screamed in silence, Who are you, and what did you do with Reinaaaaaaa?!?!***“We’re back!”“Oh! Welcome baaack!!!”As always, Mile announced the party’s presence as they stepped through the door, Faleel greeted them from the reception desk. Faleel already appeared to be back to her normal self. It had been some time now since they had last seen her, so all the emotion of the tearful reunion between parents and child had likely faded.Then again, it was her parents who had been the emotional ones; Faleel had actually seemed relatively unaffected. While the two of them had been waiting and worrying the whole time that she was gone, Faleel had been knocked out right after her abduction and so she had no recollection of the time between when she had been snatched and when she had woken up. Plus, when she had woken up, she was surrounded by the Servants, a group that made her feel safe, so really, she never even had the time to get scared.She had, of course, been distressed at the time of her kidnapping, but after riding home on Philly’s shoulders and talking with the Servants for a while, she completely forgot all that as well. It was at least some small relief that she did not appear to have suffered any long-term trauma.Mealtime was still a long while off, but the innkeeper and his wife were more than happy to take the party’s food orders. As they prepared the food, Mile desperately gave Faleel her side of the story.“And so you see, Faleel, the one who followed your trail and found you after you were taken was me—Mile!”So she proclaimed, and yet all Faleel could see before her was a sneaky fox trying to steal the Servants’ glory.The Servants of the Goddess never boasted about what they did, she thought. They were just happy to see that I was safe. Compared to them, Miss Mile’s being kind of a creep…Sensing that Faleel’s reaction was not the one she had been hoping for, Mile began to panic.“I-It’s true!” she protested. “By tracking your scent…”“Hm? Did Miss Reina do that?”“What?”That was when Mile remembered their very first morning at the inn—and the memos that Faleel had written in the margins of the inn’s register.Mayvis: Shes tol but shes got no chest. Probly a elf.Rena: Shes got fangz. Shes probly got sum beestfok blood in her. Just lik me.Poline: I sens evil on her. Probly a deemon.Miel: Shes a skwirt. Probly a dworf.Th-this is bad! If she thinks that Reina is one of her people, she’ll feel closer to her than to me!Mile began to fret more and more.“N-no! That’s not what happeeeeeeeeened!!!”Watching Mile’s futile struggle, the other three members of the Crimson Vow looked upon her with cold, disapproving, and tired eyes…“Well then,” proposed Faleel, “Let’s test your sense of smell!”If Mile was the one who possessed a sense of smell on par with that of a member of the beastfolk, then she should be able to prove it. Though Faleel had previously assumed Mile to be a dwarf, she was rather pleased at the thought that Mile might have beast blood like her and wished to confirm the notion. Unlike Faleel, with her cat ears, and Reina, with her pointy canines, Mile showed no outward indicators of carrying beast blood at all.Faleel appeared to disappear into the kitchen and then quickly returned. In each of her hands was a cup full of water.“One of these cups contains just a drop of ale,” she explained. “No normal pure-blooded human could tell them apart, but if you can follow someone’s scent, this should be nothing!”“Leave it to me!”Mile was chomping at the bit. With this, she would be able to prove herself to Faleel!Her sense of smell was already far more acute than the average human’s, but it was still nothing compared to an animal’s or beastperson’s. So she used her body-strengthening magic to enhance her senses, just as she had when tracking the kidnappers. In fact, this time it was sharper still, on par with a dog’s or wolf’s. Failure was not an option here.“All right, maximum strength smell! Let’s go!”She brought one cup close to her face and took a big whiff of it.Sniiiiiiiff…She could smell the water and the cup, mixed with the scent from Faleel’s fingers, the simmering dishes and raw ingredients in the kitchen, and the scent of the owner and his wife—as well as all the scents lingering around the dining room…“All right, now for the next one!”Once again, she put the cup to her nose and took a deep breath in.Sniiiiiiiff…Slam!Promptly, she lost consciousness and collapsed onto the floor.Seeing this, Reina waved both of her hands around near her rear and said quietly, “Uh, ’scuse me…”The fact of the matter was that, no matter how strong a beast’s or beastperson’s sense of smell was, they could still deal with a bad smell or two. Their sensory organs and the structure of their brains were equipped for it. Therefore, short of something like the monstrosity that Mile had crafted in the forest, they rarely suffered much simply from a bad odor. Even back in the forest, where they had vomited and lost consciousness, none of them had died from the shock.However, humans were different. As their senses of smell were generally not very strong to begin with, they were lacking in such safety mechanisms. Mile, a human herself, had raised her sense of smell to beyond that of a beastperson’s, and then, utterly defenseless, breathed in with all her might, absorbing all the scents around her…including Reina’s contribution.“Is she all right…?” asked Pauline, her eyes full of worry. She prodded Mile, who was still twitching on the floor, with her foot.Mavis, who had been watching silently, finally opened her mouth to speak.“Well, anyway…”“Anyway?” parroted the other two.“Let’s eat. It won’t taste as good if it gets cold.”The food had been laid out on the table without them noticing it. Out of courtesy, the innkeeper and his wife had tried their very best not to look Mile’s way, their faces taut…“Why didn’t you wake me up?!”By the time Mile finally came to, it was already the next morning. She had missed out both on dinner and on playtime with Faleel. She was livid.“You were sleeping so peacefully, we didn’t want to disturb you. Anyway, let’s go ahead and get some breakfast.”In truth, the other three had slept the afternoon through, so by the time evening came they were wide awake. Likewise, Faleel has slept all through her kidnapping, and was, by then, wide awake as well. Together the four of them had played the night through. Hearing this, Mile screeched in anger, but there was nothing that she could do about it now. All she could do was seethe and grit her teeth.***Three days later, when they popped in at the Guild as usual, the members of the Crimson Vow were called to the guild master’s office. Perhaps they were finally going to learn the results of the interrogation.“First of all, your reward. Please take this,” he said, taking two leather sacks from his drawer and placing them heavily on the desk.Normally, the Guild used cloth sacks to save on expenses, but on more momentous occasions, or when a congratulatory mood was to be conveyed, they used leather, which felt more special. Today, they were receiving not just a payment for a job but a “special reward,” so leather was the obvious choice…although Felicia was known to hand out leather sacks with reckless abandon, something that was no good for the Guild’s bottom line.“This is your bonus from the Guild, and this is your bonus from the palace. Unfortunately, some of the criminals were ones that we couldn’t sell as slaves, so there’s a separate amount from the palace’s own coffers to compensate. And because even the enslaved criminals couldn’t be given a lifelong sentence, just a set term, the price was less than usual. They aren’t bandits, and they didn’t kill anyone, so their servitude will have a limit, seems like. A few exceptions escaped even that much.”The exceptions that were mentioned probably referred to the mages, who could not be left unmonitored to the life of a slave, though perhaps there were some other extenuating circumstances, such as an intervention by some noble or person of influence on one of the criminals’ behalf. Either way, it was really none of the Crimson Vow’s concern. They were neither in a position to interfere with the administration of justice, nor interested in doing so.Felicia, standing just behind the guild master’s shoulder, took the two sacks and handed them to Mavis, who, as usual, appeared to be the leader of the Crimson Vow. Felicia seemed to have made the unilateral decision that anything to do with the Crimson Vow was to be within her purview and her purview alone, and of course, since there wasn’t a soul around who would dare argue with her, the other guild employees simply accepted this as the natural order.“Thank you so much!!!” they said all at once, bowing their heads courteously. Mavis then accepted the bags, and, as per usual, handed them straight to Mile to be stowed away, without bothering to look inside. Obviously, they would investigate the amount later, but this was not the time or place for such things.Why was that? Well, it just didn’t look as cool.“So then, what were the results of the investigation?” Mile asked boldly, voicing the question on her mind.“Ah, well, there were both countrymen and foreigners among the group, ranging from middle class to lower upper class. They’re all fellows who fell under the influence of some heretical cult from somewhere. Apparently, the teachings originally came from some country to the east, but none of them could pinpoint just where.”“To the east…?”The Crimson Vow had arrived here in the Vanolark by heading west from the Kingdom of Tils, the land where Mavis and Pauline were born and where Mile first became a hunter, and then further west still, through Mile’s home country of the Kingdom of Brandel. As a result, they might conclude that this cult could not be from a neighboring nation, but somewhere much farther east still—in the completely opposite direction from the way they had been traveling. Heading back that way would be a huge hassle.Well, all our current problems have started right here, so I guess we can worry about the east another time…Mile was not terribly concerned.“Plus, well, what they were really after was the summoning of a god, or rather, ‘conducting a ceremony to welcome the god’s descent.’ They claimed that they had no intention of harming the girl but merely using her a vessel for their god, so it was ruled to be not an attempted murder, but merely a kidnapping. It doesn’t fall under slave trading or illicit trafficking, either.“Of course, kidnapping is a pretty grave crime on its own, and the victim was not a human but a beastgirl. There were also some apparently affiliated nobles and merchants who came to put pressure on the Crown. I suppose it doesn’t look good for them to have their dependents labeled as felons or heretics…”It was all a big, fat lie. Back at the clearing, the men themselves had said that Faleel had been intended as a sacrifice. They would never use what they considered to be an inferior life-form as the “vessel” of their beloved god.However, this was not something for Mile and the others to decide. They had already given their own testimony, which had most certainly included the word “sacrifice.” Plus, if the sentencing had been made with political considerations in mind, there was nothing that a group of mere C-rank hunters could do about it.“Is that so…?”Mile swiftly gave up hope of learning anything further. On top of all that, there was no telling how much of even what the guild master had told them was true. Asking anything more was pointless.Of course, everyone else was merely glad that the matter had been settled. If the kidnappers had been punished, and they were assured that nothing like this would happen again, then that was good enough for them. Even if some bigwigs had stepped in, it was not as though the perpetrators were getting off scot-free. They were still receiving proper punishment due to abductors of a young girl. They had just dropped the whole “cultist” part.Even the ones who escaped the fate of servitude were not being entirely acquitted. Whether it was serving a term in jail or paying an exorbitant sum in bail, they would be punished one way or another. Plus, an investigation was sure to be launched into all their cohorts who had not been present, as well.Honestly, it was only to be expected that the standard procedures would not be followed when those apprehended were people of influence. And besides, they would be under scrutiny from there on out—if not from the authorities, from those nobles whom they might be troubling and their dependents.Evidently, the Servants of the Goddess had already received their reward and their update. As far as the two parties were concerned, the matter was now closed.“Well then, let’s go find a normal job to do today!”“All right!”And so, they headed back down to the first floor to see what was on the job board.***Rustle, rustle.Late that night, when everyone was sound asleep in their rooms, one person remained awake, still slinking about.Naturally, it was Mile. Thanks to the sound and vibration barriers she had erected, no one noticed as she shuffled about on the top bunk of her bunk bed.Though she had previously been sound asleep, the nanomachines had sent vibrations through her eardrums to murmur a morning wake-up call to her (though it wasn’t exactly morning). The phrase they used was a peculiar one.GOOD MORNING, MILE. IT’S TIME FOR YOUR DAILY BRIEFING…Of course, Mile had instructed them to say this. And then, quietly, she replied,“Okay! Let the ‘Super Secret Agent Gambit’ begin!”Once again, Mile had something strange up her sleeve.After stepping out into the hall and closing the door, Mile released her barriers. If she kept them up, the others wouldn’t be able to hear thieves or invaders, which was a bit of a problem. For the same reason, using sleeping magic on them was out of the question. No matter how low the risk was, she would never put her companions in that sort of danger.Then she slipped quietly out of the inn. Her destination? The palace. Where else?As she neared the palace, she put up light, sound, and vibration-blocking barriers, and, just in case, she cloaked her scent as well. It was the palace, after all, so it was not entirely out of the question that there might be personnel with a beastly sense of smell in their employ. Even if the probability was fairly low, it was better safe than sorry. If she were caught, she would be in big trouble.After making certain that her barriers were impenetrable, Mile snuck inside.Hidden as she was, she could have walked through the front door without incident, but that wouldn’t be any fun. And in truth, her head was running wild with thoughts like, What if the guards actually can see me? and What if my barriers suddenly collapsed right in front of them? She could not bring herself to be calm.Thus, just on the off chance of something going wrong, she decided to move about as though she had no barriers at all. Furthermore, she was wearing not her usual garb but a clever disguise so that her true identity would not be revealed, even if she were caught.She wore a mask upon her face and a headband with cat ears. As for her outfit, she wanted desperately to wear the sort of leotard that your typical female cat burglar would wear, but as she had never actually come into contact with the genuine article, she did not know enough to recreate one. Besides, when she considered how thin the material would be, she lost her nerve. Instead, she settled on something she was far more familiar with—a school-issue swimsuit like the ones from Earth.Of course, such an article had never been proven combat-ready, and as a result, she was relatively nervous. Her bloomers would never fit underneath it, so she had to go without. At least to the people of this world, who had no concept of either leotards or swimsuits, she judged there was probably little difference between the two…which was true. Considering that both were equally absurd—equally shameless—it really made no difference which one she chose.Location magic! Tell me where those criminals are…Indeed, it was time for her to harvest a word or two from those kidnappers herself—that is, to speak to them directly, and in her own way.They had probably already been through the wringer in terms of interrogation, including torture, but given that she couldn’t buy what she had been told, their story as it stood was meaningless to Mile. So, it was time for some one-on-one, face-to-face questioning.Honestly, it was a big pain.Mile’s plan was an absurd one, which, honestly, the men had no reason to go along with. However, Mile was never bothered by such little things. She was not in Japan, and she was not on Earth. Compared to that, all this was essentially trivial…at least in Mile’s book.All right, there they are!Thinking that she might find herself in just such a situation, Mile had committed the criminals’—and particularly their leader’s—body language to memory, and with that information, she was able to track them right to where the men were being held. Naturally, it was not some important part of the palace, but an outbuilding constructed specifically for the containment of criminals.Hm. They’re separated into groups, a few in each. Well, I guess that makes sense. No one here would be stupid enough to put all those dangerous mages together in the same spot. Plus, it lowers the chance of them corroborating each other’s testimonies or scheming behind the guards’ backs!And so, with her barriers still up to protect her, Mile crept into the building.“Good evening, gentlemen!”“Wh-who’s there?!” the kidnappers replied uneasily as the two soldiers who were stationed as lookouts suddenly fell into a deep sleep.There were five men in this particular area, including the leader. It was only natural that they would call out in such a panic when suddenly addressed by a formless voice.“A robber…”There was no way that Mile could neglect to use her practiced phrase now.“A-a robber?”“Ah, no. I was just pretending to be a robber…”If they thought that she really were a robber, the conversation could never proceed, and so she quickly corrected herself.So that they could speak normally, she decided that it was time to reveal herself. No one would ever speak candidly to someone whom they couldn’t actually see, after all. And so, she released the barrier.“My name is Lady Cat’s Eye!”The name was a mix of several manga characters, and of course, it was a tribute to Faleel.“Wha…?! I-It’s…”“A flattie!” cried three.“A pervert!” cried the other two.Horrendous. Both reactions were equally horrendous.“Wha-wh-wh-wh…”Mile was shaken at the utterly unexpected reactions and burned red in the face with anger. However, it was not as though they could help it. In this world, ladies wore bloomers. Compared to that, a swimsuit, with its stretchy, form-fitting fabric and high degree of exposure was about as close as one could get to being totally naked.“A catgirl, is she?! I tell you, those beasts have no sense of decency…”“Obviously! Can’t expect a beast to understand virtue!”“Honestly, have you no shame at all?”“Whatever. I’m not interested in seeing some skinny little girl in the buff.”“Hm. That’s not a bad look…”So went each of the men’s appraisals. The last one was probably the worst!Nngh… I can’t allow this. Forget my reputation—I’m giving catgirls a bad name! I’ll have to change my name… I can’t be responsible for something like that.Mile whipped the cat ears off her head and stored them away.“Huh? She took off her ears?” the men were stunned.Mile thought quickly and then announced her new name: “You may call me Little Evil God!”“What the heck is thaaaaaaaat?!”A few minutes later, once the men had finally calmed back down, Mile introduced herself properly.“Now then. I am the last survivor of the gods that came to this world from another in the distant past. After our companions retreated, those of us who valued our pride too much to flee in such a cowardly manner remained in this world. In the final battle, we persisted, blow-to-blow with the denizens of this land, and were nearly destroyed. Yet on the brink of death, I was sealed inside a holy barrier where I slumbered for eons. And then, when I sensed that a gate had been opened to my home world, I awoke…”As far as the men were concerned, they had already been captured and said all that they had to say. As a result, there was really no point in anyone from the palace trying to deceive them, and even if they were, it wasn’t as though they didn’t know saying anything more would get them in a lot of trouble.At any rate, it was absurd to think that this girl might be a spy or official from the palace. No such official agent could possibly exist. They were far more unassuming and reserved. Such a figure would be ridiculous even for a Miami Satodele novel…Plus, given the fact that she had snuck into the building and knocked out the guards, it was clear that she was someone who was hostile toward the Crown.Considering these points, the men’s tension began to ease, though they were still not convinced that she was a “god from another world.”Mile then conducted a demonstration.Twist, twist.With her finger alone, she twisted the iron bars.Fwoom! Sparkle!Fire came from her mouth and strange beams of light from her eyes.And then she took on her “Goddess” form.The men prostrated themselves on the floor of the cell.From there, they answered her questions frankly, though it was unclear whether it was because they truly believed that she was the final survivor of the ancient gods or simply because they were understandably frightened of this strange entity that had broken into the building and could twist an iron bar without effort—which had to mean she could easily wring their necks as well…As far as Mile was concerned, the reason didn’t really matter, as long as she was able to learn the truth.What the men were finally able to tell her was the following:The closest country to the east was the Kingdom of Brandel, Mile’s home country. Further east still than that was the Kingdom of Tils, where Mavis and Pauline were from. (Because Reina had grown up as a traveling merchant, she had no idea what either of her parents’ home countries were or even where she had been born. For some reason, her father had never told her.)Much farther east than either of those, in some unknown country, a new religion had begun to flourish.The teachings of this religion told of a war between the gods of this world and the gods of another world in the far distant past. Those who heard this story quickly realized that it resembled the legends told by the elves and dwarves.That said, there were several important points where these stories differed. The most significant of these was that, while the stories of the elves and dwarves painted the gods of this world as “good” and the gods of the other world as “evil,” this religion’s view of the pantheon held no concept of rank or morality. Their view was simple: the gods of this world had abandoned them, so it was time to worship a new set of gods and receive their divine protection. Similarly, where the elves and dwarves’ legends took the view that, “The elves, dwarves, humans, beastmen, and demons must all join hands to protect this world abandoned by the gods,” these men taught that, “Only humans hold the power to worship the foreign gods. All other races are our enemies.”If you’re trying to popularize a new religion, wouldn’t it be easier to choose one that’s accessible to all races? Why bother spreading one that’s less accessible and encourages antagonizing others…?Mile had her doubts, but then again, she supposed, most religions were not fully accountable to logic. She decided to think no more about it.The legends of the olden days had been lost among humans, and so the stories, as told by the elves and dwarves, had generally been written off as having nothing to do with the human race. Why, now, had stories with similar origins—but completely different perspectives—made a resurgence?The men seemed to have little idea. All they knew was that this new faith had spoken to their desires and to the promise of obtaining divine blessing through their deeds, and as a result, they had become believers. The teachings of this religion required no great sacrifices and did not demand they proselytize to others, merely asking them to pray for divine protection to save their own skin—and conduct rituals. The ritual they were attempting the other day was the greatest of these, one they had been preparing for and awaiting just the right moment to perform.Indeed, it was a ritual to open a gate to another world and call forth its gods. If they could offer up a sacrifice from one of the aberrant races to one of the gods, their wishes would be granted…So they were trying to sacrifice her! Wait, no! I already knew that. The issue here is…“And who came up with the incantation for that ritual?”“Ah, well. The spells were compiled by the late founder of the sect… They’ve been passed down faithfully, though admittedly, there are some parts that even we don’t understand. Of course, the words aren’t the only important part. It’s crucial that you pray deeply to the gods while you say them…”Hm, I think I get it now. I still don’t know where it came from, but otherwise…“Well, well. I see. Now that you have answered my questions, I shall be taking my leave. Farewell!”“Oh! P-please wait!” the leader pleaded, as Mile, her business concluded, started to make her exit.“What is it?”“U-um, we’re your believers, so please grant us your protection! Rescue us from this hardship!”Receiving divine protection would prove that they were messengers of the gods. Instead of being treated as criminals, they would be lauded as divine messengers. What a total reversal of fate!Apparently the men were so desperate for a miracle that they now believed this “Little Evil God” to be a true otherworldly deity—or at least, they were trying very, very hard to do so.“There’s no such thing.”“What?” the men asked in unison.“If a pack of huntsmen came into the woods to hunt, and a jackalope said to them, ‘I am your truest believer! Please grant me your favor, and place me and my brothers at the head of the forest hierarchy!’ do you truly believe that the huntsmen would do so?”“………”“Of course, anyone other than myself would have already eaten them right from the start. Any foolish jackalope who would show itself right before a huntsman, that is!”“………”“Oh? Did you all assume that this was my true form? If you were to see my true form, it would shock the life right out of you… Do you wish to see it?”Shfshfshfshfshf!The men noisily shuffled back from the iron bars as quickly as they could, their backs up against the opposite wall.All right! Home free!Mile put her full range of barriers back up, just as they had been when she arrived.“Sh-she vanished…”Leaving behind the men, who were still on the floor, a mix of despair and relief upon their faces, Mile carefully walked out of the building.Hopefully, they won’t attempt to use that dimensional linking magic again after this. Fingers crossed, anyway…The ritual was one that required the combined magic of a number of mages, something they had only been able to set into motion after gathering their numbers. Now that they would be scattered about, some of them imprisoned or enslaved, it would probably be impossible for them to attempt such a feat again. Once all their terms had ended, there was the possibility of them regrouping and attempting the ritual once more, but given that the eyes of the authorities and their relatives would be upon them, it would likely be very difficult to do so. If they were to try anything at all suspicious again, they would surely be dealt with by their own relations.If it came out that one member of a family was a criminal—a cult worshipper, little-girl abductor, and would-be murderer—the young people of that family would never find anyone to take their hand in marriage, after all.***Finally, without a sound, Mile slipped back into the inn and returned to the room she shared with the rest of the party. She released her barriers, a black cloak wrapped around her. She gripped the doorknob, gently turned it, and slowly opened the door…“Eek!”Reina, Mavis, and Pauline were all sitting in chairs facing the doorway.“………”Mile attempted to close the door again slowly.Reina curled her finger, beckoning Mile. Resigned, Mile opened the door wide and entered the room.“Care to explain yourself?”“Um… Well…”Reina narrowed her eyes angrily.“How many times have we told you not to slip off on your own without telling us, Mile?”“A…a lot…”Mavis looked at her sadly.“Seriously, again?! You were going to leave me alone again, Mile?!” Pauline looked about ready to cry.“So, what did you run off to do this time, huh?! Didn’t we say that we were gonna do everything together?!” Reina shouted, rising from her chair and stalking over to Mile, then shaking her by the shoulders.The cloak slipped to the floor, revealing the swimsuit underneath.“Actually,” said Reina, “next time, just go handle your business on your own.”“Yep,” Mavis agreed. “I’m good, thanks.”“That’s even worse than that thing you made me wear! I’m good, too!” Pauline chimed in.“Dismissed!” the three said at once, before dispersing, each snuggling back into her own bed and heading right back to sleep.“Huh…?”For Mile, who had been preparing herself for a stern dressing-down, this was something of an anticlimax.“Huh…?”And yet, somehow, she was not happy about this at all.“Huuuhhh…?”

Average 7.2

The magical attack that the six men had launched had been thwarted by a mere three mages, an archer, and a swordswoman. The men assembled were stunned at this utterly inconceivable turn of events, and as a result, the eight swordsmen stood stock-still, forfeiting their moment to strike.While the enemies were momentarily frozen in place, the girls wasted not a second in preparing their next spells. Lacelina was the first to attack.“Ice Needle!”It was an area attack, targeted toward all six of the enemy mages. While its attack power was low, it was still a spell that would be unpleasant to take head-on. At the very least, if the mages were struck by the needles, their own incantations would be interrupted.At Lacelina’s words, the sixth mage unleashed the shield spell that he had been holding to protect all six of them. With a spell as weak as this one, it mattered little if the shielding effect was lessened a bit by spreading it over a wider area.However, just a moment after Lacelina, Reina and Pauline completed their incantations also. And in their momentary surprise, the spells of the five enemy mages were a beat too late. The man who had used the first shielding spell was only just now beginning his next, and it was up to one of the other five to defend them.It was then that Reina and Pauline shouted the activation words for their merciless spells.“Burn them to the bone!”“Winds, swirl!”The clearing was wide, so the possibility of a wildfire spreading was low. Even if a blaze were to spark, Mile and Pauline were both present, so extinguishing the fire would be simple. Having judged as much, Reina decided to unleash her most powerful spell. Pauline, recognizing Reina’s incantation, chose the wind spell in order to assist.The six men were enveloped in an eddy of flame, battered by a howling wind.“Magic Barrieeeeeeer!!!” shouted the man who had been desperately preparing a shield spell as two others switched midway from their attack spells to defensive ones.Each of the men present valued his own life. It was only natural that they would prioritize defending themselves over attacking. Plus, if they were able to keep the attention of the girls’ mages, then it would be easier for their swordsmen to overrun the rest of their opponents. They had an important role to fulfill.Of course, it was not as though the melee fighters were merely sitting and twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the magic battle to conclude. The battle was six-on-three, and they couldn’t fathom the idea of their allies losing to a group of young girls, but while their allies were tending to the magical side of things, their duty was to crush the front lines and then rush the back lines to take them out as well. A mage group without their front line had no hope of standing up against a simultaneous assault from swords, spears, and magic. They would be crushed in an instant.With this in mind, the eight swordsmen launched their assault.The ones who faced this attack were the four sword wielders—Mavis, Mile, Telyusia, and Willine—along with Philly, the lancer. Tasha, the archer, fired an arrow at point-blank range before quickly drawing her dagger and leaping into the fray.Of the eight men, pairs of two moved to oppose Mavis and Telyusia, who appeared to be the strongest of the sword wielders, as well as Philly, while one went to Mile and another to Willine, who looked to be the two youngest. Perhaps thinking that Tasha’s arrows could easily be fended off with a sword, they were saving her for last. Surely with most battles being two-on-one, the girls would be vanquished in the blink of an eye, and there would be so little delay that she would not have the time to fire off a second arrow.But then…Whsh, chnk!“Gaah!!”Tasha’s arrow pierced one of the enemies in the gut without him making so much as a move to avoid it. Somehow, she had rushed all the way to the front line, a hair’s breadth from the enemy and fired off another shot. There was no way that he could have avoided or deflected it. Then, after falling back, she had tossed her bow away and drawn her dagger.With this, the three frontline fighters of the Servants of the Goddess became four, and the enemies opposing them were diminished to four as well. And while the enemy might have more polished skills, as compared to the Servants’ middling abilities, the young women clearly had experience in battle. Such was the current scene.“Gwah!”“Gyah!”“Guh!!”“Gah!”And then, the four men fell—struck down by Mile and Mavis who came in from behind, smacking them down with the flats of their blades.“Huh…?”The Servants were stunned.Mile, and Mavis with her True Godspeed Blade, needed little more than a few seconds to defeat enemies who were inexperienced in battle. Had they left it to the Servants, people would have been seriously injured, which would be a huge bother, so they thought they ought to take care of this situation as quickly as possible. This wasn’t the graduation exam or a sporting match, so there was no need to overtax anyone’s abilities or make a spectacle.With the front line now taken care of, they all looked to observe the mages’ fight where Reina continued to incant her specialty, Crimson Hellfire. Finally, she released the spell. The flames had been bolstered by Pauline’s wind magic but miraculously woven in such a way as to not threaten the lives of the enemy mages or break through their protection magic. Once surrounded by the swirling flames, the mages could not see their opponents, so even those who had been in the midst of casting attack spells had to give up on accuracy and fire only in the girls’ approximate direction before switching to shielding spells.What they were doing now was usually referred to as protection magic, but the result was more a kind of magical protection: in other words, they were protected just fine against magic, but things like bows and arrows—or combat spells that had physical components such as earth and ice magic—would pass right through. With their vision obscured, these mages, who were not masters of the blade, would have no way of deflecting such attacks if they did penetrate the flames. And so, the mages circulated wind and water magic behind their magic shield in the hope of lowering the temperature of the flames.Yet suddenly, the six mages fell to the ground, as though they had reached their limits. It was unclear if they had succumbed to the heat of the flames or if the fire had sucked out all their oxygen and asphyxiated them.“Hmph! Well, that was easy. As for the rest of them…” Reina turned her gaze to the remaining mage corps, fifteen or so of them still carrying on their strange chant, rotating in a circle with Faleel at the center, unaffected by the change of circumstances.Just then…Slam!Thud!“Gwah!”“Huh…?”Reina fell onto her backside at a quick shove from Telyusia. She looked up to see a small, silver object protruding from the girl’s torso. Clutching her side, from which blood now poured, Telyusia fell to the ground.

“Wh… H… Huh…?”Reina was stunned, unable to move. Several images ran through her head: first, that of her father, cut down by bandits while trying to protect her. And second, the faces of the members of the Crimson Lightning, flying through her mind, one by one.Without a word, Philly dashed forth, driving the butt of her spear into the chin of the mage who, from his position on the ground, had magically propelled his small utility knife toward her fellow party member. With the man now face-up in the dirt, she drove the dull end of the spear hard into his gut once more. Willine ran up after her, kicking the man in the side. Once the man was unconscious, they circulated among all of the other fallen mages, striking them with foot and spear to make certain that none of them retained the will to fight—though it appeared that the rest of them were already unconscious in the first place. Going to the trouble of injuring them any further was little more than a nuisance.The attacking mage, the bulk of whose strength had been decimated by Reina’s fire spell, had perhaps decided that his best course of action would be to use his scant remaining magical power to perform not a magical attack, which could be blocked, but a physical one, which could not be magically shielded against. If this was to be his final attack, then he may as well use it to take out the strongest of the enemies, after which her small and clearly mediocre companions could all be dealt with handily. At least, that was the man’s expectation.“Wh-why would you…?” Reina asked Telyusia, crouching forward.“Wh-what do you mean, ‘why?’” Telyusia forced out, her face twisted in pain. “C-can you imagine what would happen i-if word got out that junior hunters had been seriously hurt while we were right there w-with them…?”She then looked to Philly, who had just returned from disabling (though not killing) the remaining mages. “Philly, it’s up to you from now on. Looks like I’ll be going to the Goddess’s side just a little ahead of you, but I’ll be watching over all of you. It’s your turn, Philly. You’re the leader of our party now. Keep following your dreams…”“Telyusia!”“Leader!”“Miss Telyusia!”“Nnh…”It was a fatal wound.The knife had not pierced her heart, so she still appeared to be all right, but in this world, a wound to the abdomen always proved fatal. To start with, there was obviously the possibility of the liver or kidneys being punctured, but there was also the prospect of damage to major arteries or the rupturing of the intestines, which would cause the bacteria of the gut to proliferate, bringing on peritonitis and several days of agonizing pain, followed by death.Indeed, Telyusia’s death was already as good as certain.However, there was no time to mourn her. The tears could come later. Now, they had a duty to attend to. They had to save Faleel!With these thoughts in mind, the Servants wiped their tears away, standing up proudly. But just then…“Ha!”Gush!“Gaaaaah!”Suddenly, Pauline unceremoniously gripped the knife that was thrust into Telyusia’s side and yanked it out.“Huh?!”A cry of shock came from the four other Servants. It was common sense not to remove the implement until any preparations for healing had been made. When you removed the knife, the wound itself would open wider, with blood spurting from the point of entry. Death from blood loss would come swiftly. And yet, Pauline had drawn the knife out without even a moment of hesitation.“Reconnect and mend the blood vessels, repair the nerves, multiply cells, reconstruct muscle tissue, annihilate foreign bacteria, numb the pain receptors… Mega Heal!”“Huh…?”The Servants looked on, stunned, as Telyusia’s wound closed before their eyes. Telyusia herself could only blink, her mouth hanging open soundlessly.“Do you really think I’d let someone who saved our Reina die from just a little wound like that? And besides…” Pauline gave a haughty grin and continued, “Looks like I’ll be going to the Goddess’s side just a little ahead of you, but I’ll be watching over all of you. It’s your turn, Philly. You’re the leader of our party now. Keep following your dreams…”A deep blush spread over Telyusia’s face.“It would be a piteous shame if the speaker of such iconic words were not there to live on as they became a legend among hunters everywhere.”“G-g…” stuttered Telyusia.“G-g…?” the four other Servants repeated.“Gaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”The Servants of the Goddess had previously observed only the healing work that Pauline and Mile had performed on the group of lookouts. However, that had merely been for the sake of keeping the men from dying—nothing more than stopping any blood flow and repairing the functioning of their internal organs. Besides, no amateur would be able to recognize the fact that the internal organs and blood vessels had been repaired just from seeing the men’s exteriors. Pauline and Mile had left the visible openings of the wounds as they were to keep the men from trying anything foolish.Therefore, while the Servants been surprised at Pauline and Mile’s healing abilities before, they would never have guessed that the two mages were that good.To bring a person who was certain to die back into the world of the living… Was that truly a power that any mortal hands should be able to wield?“No!” “Don’t!” “Please don’t tell anyone!” Telyusia’s tears seemed to protest, even as the eyes of the four other Servants welled with tears for a different reason.Lacelina, overcome with rage that her friend had been hurt, felt her head growing hazy with an emotion she could not hold back. Impulsively, she turned toward the men who were still rotating like a magic wheel and fired off a spell.“Fire Rain!”This particular spell had a penetrating power that was next to nothing, but it could easily rain down upon a large area. Against a large number of opponents—and moreover, as an attack that could be launched with some restraint—it was not a bad choice at all. Plus, it used up little magical power and required barely any elaboration in the incantation to produce a burning fluid that would stick to the targets’ clothes. And yet…Whsh!“Huh?”The fire rain vanished.The countless burning droplets had not been repelled—they vanished completely just before striking the men, as though they had evaporated.“…Fireball!”Next up, Pauline tentatively fired off a spell. It was a simplistic but fairly strong basic fire spell.Ka-bwsh!“Wh…?”All of the mages, save for Mile, were terribly taken aback.Next, Tasha, who had now retrieved her bow, and Philly, with her spear, launched a direct attack in tandem.Their blows did not pass through, and the circle of mages calmly continued their ritual as though they hadn’t realized that they had been attacked at all.“Bwahaha… It’s pointless!” As they all stood puzzled, a voice called to them.It was one of the swordsmen, sitting on the ground, his arm and his ribs broken. Of course, the girls were aware that some of the melee fighters were still conscious, but since they had been rendered powerless to grip their weapons and launch an attack, they had left the men as they were. There was little chance of them throwing their weapons either, but they still took caution (as they did not wish to divulge too much information about their abilities, Mile had not put their weapons in storage as she sometimes did).“The further that ritual proceeds, the more the mages’ magical power grows. No magic or physical attack can harm them. All that’s left now is to wait for the ritual to be complete. Then, ‘It’ will appear and grant our wishes in exchange for the sacrifice. Bwaha-bwahahahahahaha!”Hearing this, Mile muttered to herself, “Magical Engine, internal pressure rising…”Her expression was still firm, but apparently, she was back to her usual self.The reason that the main corps of the enemy party had not taken part in the battle, sparing only the melee fighters and a few mages, was, first and foremost, that it was unfathomable that they could lose to just a few little girls. Yet, more importantly, staying out of the fray bought them valuable time even if something went awry with the rest of the fighters. Therefore, they had concentrated only on the ritual, not bothering to send out any additional forces. If nothing else, throwing too many of their forces into battle at once would leave both their battle party and their ritual party at half-strength.“Inferno rise, burn hot enough to melt the rocks, hot enough to turn them to vapor, hotter still, more violent still…”Reina began a spell. She did not dash out the words as quickly as she always did. No, these were slow words, words of power.“I told you, it’s pointless! No matter how skilled you think you are, that barrier will never be broken by some little girl’s spell!”She persisted, ignoring the swordsman’s taunting, voicing the words of a spell that none of the others had even heard of—a spell to vaporize rock. Even Reina, the one chanting this spell, could not have possibly had any concrete idea of what temperature would be required to bring such a thing about. Only that it was an absurdly high one…And then, she voiced the command phrase.“Scorching Breath!”A high-temperature jet, several millimeters in diameter, spewed forward. The concentrated stream bored a hole in the magical barrier that went through to the other side. One of the mages in the circle fell to the ground.A peculiar light shone in Reina’s eyes. Just as it did in Mile’s. Just as it had in the moment she was reborn as “Crimson Reina, the Bandit Slayer”…

“Wh…?”Neither the sneering swordsmen nor the mages in the circle could conceal their sudden unrest. However, despite their distress, the mages continued their ritual as though nothing had happened. If they were to pause the ritual now, not only would it not come to fruition, but the barrier would dissolve, and they would have to face these inexplicable intruders, who remained unharmed despite facing down the lookouts, the guards, and six of their mages. They had no other choice but to continue on.After Reina’s attack, Mavis approached the barrier. And then, slowly, she thrust her sword in.Ka-shnk.It passed through the barrier without the slightest hint of resistance.And then, another mage fell.Plod plod plod plod.Mile walked right up the barrier, stopping just inches away, and shoved her right arm through.Thwmp.She seized the nearest mage by the nape of the neck and dragged him out.“Whaaaaaaaaaat?!?!”Seeing the Servants fall upon the man who had just been dragged out, the other mages, who had just barely managed to ignore the fact of Mavis’s sword, could not hold back a cry of shock.“H-hurryyy!!! Forget the fifth stage—let’s just wrap up the incantation! Preparing the words, in five, four, three, two, one… Now!”The mages, who had thought there was no doubt they would complete the ritual safely, were now thrown into a tizzy, sweat dripping from their brows. These young girls had ripped through their magical barrier as though it were paper, but the mages were not prepared to give up just yet. It would be a race against the clock.Mile remained unworried. She had put a full-strength barrier around Faleel. Even an elder dragon could not have harmed her. Well, an “elder dragon, or something of equivalent type.” As the nanomachines had informed her that her own power was equal to half the abilities of such a creature, she could be confident. Besides, with those same nanomachines on her side, it couldn’t possibly fail. Even if the mages did carry on with their little ritual—and even if some summoned fiend did appear before their very eyes—it was no matter. If they wanted to sacrifice their own souls for the sake of some reward, then that was well and good in Mile’s book.And so, Mile was in little hurry—until suddenly, she heard a frantic voice ringing in her ears.LADY MILE, PLEASE STOP THEM! THIS IS NO GOOD!WE ARE PROGRAMMED TO CARRY OUT ALL UNPROHIBITED MAGICAL COMMANDS, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY ARE GOOD OR EVIL. THEREFORE, WE MUST ENACT THE WILLS OF BOTH SIDES, SO AS NOT TO VIOLATE OUR MOST BASIC TENETS. THIS IS A SITUATION THAT OUR CREATORS COULD NOT HAVE HYPOTHESIZED.THIS SCENARIO HAS BECOME DIRE! IF YOU DO NOT STOP THEM AT ONCE, A DISASTER MAY OCCUR!Never before had she heard the nanomachines sound this desperate. Apparently, what the men aimed to achieve with their final incantation was something rather unsavory. Enough so that even the nanomachines were disturbed…Well, if even they were bothered, then that changed things. This was no laughing matter. Mile had assumed that so long as Faleel’s safety was assured, it was fine to let things run their course, but now it was time to step into the fray.Initially, she thought that she might feign putting her hand into her breast pocket, but because of the leather armor, there was no way for her to do so now. Instead, she shoved her hand in down the top of her chest piece and withdrew it, a small parcel gripped in hand. Though she pretended the parcel had been drawn from within her armor, in actuality, it came from her inventory. Indeed, it was one of the spice hand grenades, which she had assembled back when they were producing the spices for the restaurant owner.Behind her, she could hear the Servants whispering among themselves, “Oh? Padding? Did she have padding in there?” Suddenly, it occurred to Mile that her hearing might be a little too good.Sh-shut up back there! she spat venomously within her heart and then stiffened when she realized that, because she had no reason to hide the fact of her storage magic from the Servants of the Goddess, she could have simply taken the item out of “storage” as she normally would.For no reason at all, she had just caused herself heartache—and an unconscionable ridicule. Consumed by rage at both herself and the universe, Mile unleashed her explosive secret technique.“Eruptiiiiing! Burning! Fingeeeeeeeeer!!!”Then, the parcel in hand, she shoved her right arm through the barrier and flung the grenade toward the mages within.“Red Tornado!”And with that second shout, she withdrew from the barrier.Inside, a whirlwind whipped up. It was not particularly powerful—only strong enough to circulate the air within the barrier… However, it was bright red.“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” the men all screamed.Just then, near the center of the circle, where Faleel was still lying on the ground, fissures opened up in the air itself. A strange aura began to emanate outward from the fissures. Yet, the moment the red air crept inside of it…“GYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!!!”With a desperate scream, the presence vanished just as suddenly as it had appeared. The fissures in the air closed, and quiet returned to the clearing, almost as though nothing had happened at all.“………”There were no signs of movement within the barrier. In fact, the barrier itself seemed to have dissipated. Likewise, there were no signs of movement from the six other mages, who were still collapsed on the ground. Two of three of the enemy swordsmen were still conscious, but their eyes were wide, and it did not appear as though they would be making any sudden movements.The four members of the Crimson Vow appeared utterly unaffected. As far as the Servants were concerned, however…“Th-that’s…a waste of good spiceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!!!!!”Seriously?!***While Mavis headed off to the Guild to fetch reinforcements, the others began the work of detaining the men. All told, between the lookouts and the additional forces in the clearing, there were around 47 in total—far more than they could reasonably be expected to relocate on their own. They would have to rouse the men enough to allow them to walk on their own two legs, and with so many mages in the mix, doing so might be dangerous. If there were any among them who were capable of silent-casting or using abbreviated spells, a surprise attack could come at any moment. Plus, it was unlikely that they would cooperate enough to march in any straightforward fashion.The reason that Mavis had been the one to go was simply that she was the fastest. Plus, they couldn’t possibly send one of the Servants, who were the senior party, to be the errand girl. Reina and Pauline were way too slow, so they were out of the question, and Mile needed to remain on the scene in case of any emergency. Therefore, Mavis was the obvious—really, the only—choice. Even Mavis herself could see this, so she accepted her duty without question and set off running at once.In truth, there was one more reason why Mavis had been chosen: thanks to her “spiritual powers,” she had excellent night vision. Torches and light spells would grant only a short range of vision, and because of the shadows they cast, it became more difficult to discern shapes, so one had to proceed with caution. Furthermore, with torches came the risk of wildfire, requiring even more care.Granted, returning with the response team would be a slower affair either way, but there wasn’t anything that could be done about that.The lookouts had been left where they fell, but given the way that they were bound, it was unlikely that they would be able to escape. It was not as though the status of their injuries would have allowed them to make it very far anyway. Plus, even on the off chance that one of them did break free, it was unlikely that they would head anywhere besides this place, where a large number of their comrades were gathered.In the clearing, after all the men had been bound and gathered into one spot, they got the still-conscious men to tell them who was the highest-ranking among them and then forced said man to inhale some awakening herbs to rouse him. The answer had come easily. Apparently the identity of their leader was not something that they felt the need to conceal.Naturally, the moment the barrier dissolved, Mile had dissipated the capsaicin particles in the air and cleared away what lingered upon the mages’ clothing and mucus membranes. If she hadn’t, it would make things difficult for their faction as well.“Now then, there are a few things that I would like you to tell me: Why did you kidnap Miss Faleel? What did you intend to do with her? Which feature of hers do you find the most adorable? And, I suppose, while you’re at it, you can tell me your reasoning behind this whole thing.” Mile spoke with a grin, though her eyes were entirely unsmiling.Seeing this, the leader replied, his face twitching, “W-we’ve done nothing to be ashamed of! We were merely conducting a ritual that would allow us to summon our god, with a child tainted with filthy beast blood as the sacrifice!”“That is absolutely something to be ashamed of!!!” the Crimson Vow and the Servants of the Goddess screeched all in unison. Still, the man looked on blankly. Of course, shame required both self-awareness and some kind of conscience—or at least a concept of what was and was not acceptable—something that a group of religious fanatics might lack.“Are you seriously telling me that using a young girl for a sacrifice doesn’t weigh on you just a little bit?” asked Reina, cutting straight to the crux of the matter. “Also, why did you choose her? Furthermore, what sort of god demands a sacrifice in the first place? That’s something that only a great devil or an evil god would ask for, isn’t it?”“It’s because that creature carries the blood of beasts! Beastmen, elves, dwarves—and naturally, demons—are all unclean creatures, brought into this world to sway foolish men from the path of holiness. To sacrifice one of those uncouth fiends is only the natural course—the mark of a good and just mind! And of course, the reason we chose that one is that, well, there aren’t any demons in the area, and when we tried to capture any adult elves or dwarves or beasts, it went really poorly… I mean! Surely our god would be overjoyed to receive a pure young girl, unsullied by the ways of adults…!”The man answered earnestly—perhaps a bit too earnestly, as though he could see nothing at all wrong with the actions that they had taken—though his face twitched as he spoke. He revealed not only their official stance but their true motives as well. Clearly, he thought that the Crimson Vow and the Servants, who were all pure-blooded humans, would understand where he was coming from.It was true that even several people would find it difficult to capture a dwarf or beastperson, with their honed physical strength and keen reaction times, or an elf, with their advanced magical powers, without being killed or suffering serious injury. Particularly for a group who were as unaccustomed to actual battle as these men seemed to be.Though the man had not seemed inclined to talk at first, with some persuasion from Reina and Pauline—especially Pauline—the gist of the situation became clear.The men were members of a fanatic religious order, which spanned numerous nations. Among them were chief members, who devoted their entire lives to the order, as well as some normal believers, who had lives outside of the order as well.The pantheon that this group believed in consisted of a group of gods that had “appeared from another world, possessing great powers.” These otherworldly gods had appeared numerous times in the distant past, engaging again and again in fierce warfare against the gods of this world, both sides striking equally, until, finally, the invaders returned to their own world, and the gods of this world vanished off to who-knows-where, leaving humans behind. Abandoned, the humans made preparations in case the invading gods should one day reappear. In that process, the four subservient humanoid races were born: elves, dwarves, beastfolk, and demons.Rather than remaining faithful to the gods of this world, who had cast humans aside and run off, leaving them to endlessly perpetuate the gods’ edicts, was it not better to welcome the invading gods and receive their protection? After all, the gods who had fled were weak and negligent. Those sorry excuses for gods were not present, had not returned, and had not granted humanity the slightest bit of protection.It would seem that these were the founding tenets of this order’s teachings.Wait, that sounds like…Indeed, while Mile completely disagreed with the men’s general philosophy, she had in fact heard stories that very closely resembled this legend—not one, not two, but three times now. The first time had come from the elves, via Dr. Clairia. The second, from the elder dragons, via Berdetice. And the third—though it was far vaguer than the other two—had come from the chief elder of the fairies. Yet, it was a story that had been lost among the humans, with their short life spans and the swift overturning of generations—or a story that should have been lost.No human alive should know about this. How can this religion have such a story now…?“So what you’re saying here is that you’re a bunch of bankrupt nobles who could never make it to the upper echelons or half-baked merchants who could never make the big time but still burned with ambition, basically wishing on a shooting star and risking everything that you had? You have no idea if gods from another world would even be able to understand you—and if they did, who says that they’d have any interest in catering to their believers’ trivial whims in the first place? They might just drag those believers back to their own world and use every one of them as their personal slaves, or even their next meal… Plus, what if their believers back in their own world are orcs or ogres? The kind of gods that monsters would revere would have to be evil deities or devils.”“Shut your mouuuuuuuth!!!” the leader shrieked, veins bulging in his forehead as Pauline casually pointed out one flaw after another in the logic of his story. It seemed that these criticisms were not wholly foreign ones.“Mm… Hm? Where…where am I…?”Zip zip zip zip zip!As Faleel’s eyes finally opened, the Servants of the Goddess rushed to her side at lightning speed, leaving the Crimson Vow in the dust. When Mile cleared the capsaicin from the air, she had released the lattice power barrier as well.“Are you all right? We took care of those nasty kidnappers! You’re safe now!” said Telyusia with a grin, crouching down next to Faleel.“Huh? It’s the Servants of the Goddess…”Faleel looked up at them, perplexed.“If you’re ever in danger, Faleel, we’ll always come running, no matter where, no matter when. So you’ve got nothing to worry about!”“Oh, thank you!” cried Faleel, sitting up and squeezing Telyusia tightly.“N-nooooooooo! Th-that was supposed to be my reward! That’s a violation! A foul!!!”The clearing resounded with the sound of Mile’s anguished screams.It was already the next morning when Mavis returned, reinforcements in tow. When she had arrived at the guildhall, it was already late at night, and the only people she could recruit were hunters who had been drinking in the tavern. Plus, there was the matter of procuring carts and drivers, and the fact that most were rather opposed to delving into the forest in the middle of the night. The Guild’s decision that they would depart in the morning was more or less inevitable.Having surmised that this might be the case, Mile returned alone to the spot where they had left the lookouts after some time had passed to administer additional healing magic. Forcing them to pass the whole night as they were would be a weight on her conscience.At the same time, she provided the men with food and water from her inventory. Once their wounds were healed, their empty stomachs and parched throats would suddenly intensify. It wasn’t as though the increased cellular regeneration could come from nowhere, after all.Afterwards, she returned to the site of the ritual, and the questioning of the enemy leader continued. Since no one other than Mile had any idea what the man was talking about, the rest served merely as onlookers. Mile would be the one to give their report when they returned to town. Though they hated the idea of relying on Mile alone, since the exchange was a rapid one, dealing with legends the likes of which they had never heard, they had few other choices.A short while after first light broke, Mavis finally arrived with the reinforcements. The wagons were apparently waiting back on the highway.“Sorry we took so long,” Mavis apologized, though they all knew it wasn’t her fault.The other three smiled and waved back.“You all again?” asked Felicia, a tired look upon her face.“Hey! What’s a clerk like you doing here, Miss Felicia?”“We heard there were a number of perpetrators. You couldn’t expect us all to just sit around meditating.”That really didn’t explain anything at all. However, the other guild employees and hunters were nodding fervently in agreement, so the Crimson Vow got the feeling they shouldn’t be asking any more questions and abandoned their inquiry accordingly.“We’ve already heard a report of the situation from Mavis, of the Crimson Vow. We would like to hear confirmation from the Servants of the Goddess or at least a report on the general circumstances of what’s come to pass.”Apparently, even the guild master himself had come out, perhaps worried that, if mishandled, this incident could blow up even more than it already had.The mysterious abduction of the daughter of a prominent merchant, the kidnapping and attempted murder of a young beastgirl by an anti-beastperson hate group, the revival of a dark god by a cult of worshippers… Sure enough, no matter how you spun it, this could get pretty bad, pretty fast.At the guild master’s request, Telyusia took a step forward and replied, “Miss Faleel, the jewel of the inn, was abducted right before her friend’s eyes, and her father placed an emergency request which we accepted jointly with the Crimson Vow. We tracked the criminals to this site, where they were conducting a suspicious ritual, and put a stop to it. We then rescued Faleel, who was on the verge of becoming a sacrifice. Furthermore, the men were the first to attack.”It was an incredibly abbreviated explanation, but Mavis should have already filled the Guild in on the details. Since this was merely an inquiry to confirm whether or not Mavis’s report was truthful, it was enough. Unlike the Crimson Vow, who, in spite of their skill, were newcomers with mysterious origins, the Servants of the Goddess had already been active in this town for some years and were known to be a reliable party in and of themselves.“Hm… I see. Thank you for your hard work. Your actions in this matter have done a great service for our Guild, and we shall see to it that all of you receive additional recompense and contribution points for your efforts. Moreover, we will tender a report to the Crown to ensure that you receive an official reward from that quarter.”“R-really?!” Telyusia shouted, her eyes wide.“Mm-hm… The promised pay for this job was only one silver, you see. I would say that what you have done merits far more than that,” the man said with a smile.The Servants took each other’s hands and leapt for joy. After all, such fortune was something that rarely fell into the laps of the Servants, who, unlike the extreme outliers who were the Crimson Vow, took each day one steady step at a time. Such an event might even bump their reputation from that of low-end C-rankers straight to a mid-class in one fell swoop!Once the offenders had all been restrained and loaded into the wagons, the whole group began its return to the capital. Naturally, the lookouts had been retrieved as well.The mages had all been gagged tightly, with cloths stuffed in their mouths, so that they could not recite any incantation. In addition, they were blindfolded so that they could not perform any silent casting. Still, lookouts were assigned to them just in case, ready to bash in their skulls the moment they saw anything suspicious.The men would be questioned once they returned to the capital, but that was a job not for the Guild but for the city guard, or perhaps even agents of the Crown itself. Both parties would likely be summoned to give their testimony when the time came for that, and since their cooperation was directly linked to their reward, they were in no position to complain—particularly not the Servants.The two parties walked down the highway alongside the transport wagons. Faleel rode atop Philly’s shoulders. Mile wanted so desperately to be the one carrying her that she was practically weeping tears of blood, but she had been denied the role. “You’re far too small, it wouldn’t be safe,” Philly had told her.A short while after they began walking, Telyusia said, “By the way, Reina, darling…”When introducing oneself, a maiden never offered her own age, so the Servants were all convinced that Reina was only twelve or thirteen years old.“While it’s clear that you have intense magical power—and a lot of it—and that, even for a C-rank, your practical senses are incredibly honed, you mustn’t rely so much on that power, neglecting to consider the little things or letting your guard down. You need to think more about cooperating with your friends and never turn your back on an enemy until you’re certain he has perished. Even a child can play dead, after all!” She patted Reina gently on the head as she spoke.Reina’s cheeks began to take on a scarlet tinge.Oh noooooo! She’s gonna bloooooow!!!The faces of the other members of the Crimson Vow began to twitch. Not only was Telyusia speaking to her like a child, something they knew Reina abhorred, she was also explaining things to her in a condescending manner, and she was patting her on the head! It was a trifecta that would brew a perfect storm.Reina, her head bent, then spoke softly. “…You’re right.”Sh-she’s gone sooooooooooft!!!In a world in which she was surrounded by people who wanted to use and abuse her, Reina had survived by bluffing her way through life. Everyone who had ever offered her help, asking nothing in return—everyone who had ever cherished her for being herself—had all perished. She could rely on her companions among the Crimson Vow, of course, but they were her equals—no, even worse, they were naive and guileless fools who relied on the senses she had honed through years as a hunter to defend and to guide them. They were people who relied on her, not people whom she could truly depend upon.She dreamed of someone who did not hesitate to put her own life on the line to save hers. A reliable figure, one on whom she could depend, in whom she could have absolute faith. For Reina, who had lost both her father and the Crimson Lightning, such a person was her heart’s greatest desire.And now one such figure had appeared: an older girl who had put herself in the way of an enemy attack to shield Reina with no regard for her own life.Reina couldn’t help but soften.***So, what was that all about? Mile questioned the nanomachines as the party walked down the road, still sulking that the honor of carrying Faleel home had been stolen from her by Philly. Her companions, seeing that she was in a bad mood, elected to leave her be, leaving her to converse with her invisible friends unimpeded… The Crimson Vow had long ago learned not to bother speaking to Mile when she got like this.AND WHAT MIGHT YOU BE REFERRING TO?Don’t play dumb! What was all that, ‘Please stop them! This is bad!’ nonsense?! What are you hiding from me, Nanos? And what in the world was that thing that appeared in the air for a split second? What were they summoning? And seriously, you’re telling me it’s susceptible to chili peppers?‘………’After some time, the nanomachines finally replied. They had probably paused to consult with central processing.NORMALLY WE WOULD BE PROHIBITED FROM IMPARTING SUCH INFORMATION TO A COMMON MORTAL, BUT SEEING AS YOU HAVE A LEVEL-5 AUTHORIZATION, LADY MILE, YOU ARE NOT EXACTLY “COMMON,” ARE YOU? THEREFORE, WE MAY DISCLOSE SOME OF THIS INFORMATION TO YOU ON THE CONDITION THAT YOU SHARE IT WITH NO ONE.What are you talking about?! I’m a completely normal girl!‘………’Ugh, whatever! I won’t tell anyone!Apparently, Reina’s speech patterns were beginning to rub off on Mile.As it turned out, the bit of information that the nanomachines were able to impart unto her was the truth behind the tale of the aforementioned “gods.”The “gods of this world” that the legend spoke of were in fact not the ones to whom the nanomachines referred as their Creators—in other words, beings like the one who had granted Mile’s own rebirth. Rather, they were people of the ruined ancient civilization—the people who were depicted in the mural in the first set of ruins Mile had come across. Naturally, to the people of the current day, legends of a strange, ancient, scientifically advanced culture would sound just like the land of the gods.And, as for those “gods from another world”…NO SUCH THING, OF COURSE.Obviously!If the ones being referred to as “gods” were merely people of a civilization that was slightly more advanced than that of modern-day Earth, then it was unlikely anyone who started a brawl with them would be a god or devil, either. Most likely, they were some other intelligent life-form with an equal level of technological advancement, or perhaps some less-developed race with technology that had not come so far, who could not wipe the others out easily… Or perhaps some kind of monsters…Whatever they were, compared to the “godlike figure” who had been responsible for Mile’s rebirth, or any of his compatriots, they represented even less threat than a flea.Yet even those “godlike figures,” though they could support the people indirectly, could not exhibit any large-scale interference or aid anyone in a direct way. Therefore, any conflict that arose could be the affair of only the participants. It was likely only after this earlier civilization’s inevitable destruction that the “large-scale interference, as an experiment and as an aid to the planet,” that Mile’s “God” had mentioned would have occurred. Of course, that large-scale interference had been the seeding of the nanomachines…Yet, this too had ended in failure. The remaining intelligent life-forms on the planet, whom the people of today referred to as “gods,” fled this world when they found themselves on the brink of collapse, and then the “godlike figures,” having lost interest in the planet entirely after the failure of their experiment led to a long-term stagnation of its civilizations, ceased their guidance and abandoned the planet as well (even though a few of them did feel guilty about it).Hm? So, in that case, that “summoning magic” was…IT WAS NOT “SUMMONING” MAGIC BUT DIMENSIONAL LINKING MAGIC—MAGIC THAT CAN CONNECT THIS WORLD TO OTHERS. ANYTHING THAT MIGHT COME THROUGH IS ONLY WHATEVER LIFE-FORM HAPPENS TO ENTER THE GATE, WHEREVER IT HAPPENS TO OPEN…HOWEVER, IT IS RARE THAT ANY CREATURE, INTELLIGENT OR OTHERWISE, WOULD CHOOSE OF ITS OWN FREE WILL TO ENTER A SUSPICIOUS FISSURE IN THE AIR. THEREFORE, THE CREATURE IN QUESTION MUST TRULY HAVE WANTED TO GET AWAY FROM WHERE IT WAS—OR HAD A CLEAR VIEW OF OUR OWN WORLD…Finally, Mile was starting to get the picture, but the number-one concern she had about the situation had yet to be assuaged. Again, she pressed the nanomachines.So, why were you all so worried? If it was just some normal creature that came through, not a god or anything, than it could be a dragon for all you all cared. It wouldn’t really matter, would it? Even if it tried to eat those mages, or caused a bit of mayhem, it’s not really something for you all to get worked up over, is it?………If you can’t tell me that much, then what’s the point of telling me anything?!………After another brief pause, the nanomachines replied, sounding a bit resigned.WELL, IT CONCERNS THE CONTENTS OF THE CONVERSATION THAT YOU SHARED WITH OUR CREATOR, ABOUT WHICH YOU PREVIOUSLY INFORMED US…Indeed, some time ago the nanomachines had expressed great interest in hearing about their Creator, in other words the “not-a-God” fellow who had brought Mile into this world. Understanding where they were coming from, Mile recounted her conversation with him word-for-word, to the best of her memory. For the nanomachines, it must have been a feeling akin to hearing news of their parents, from a hometown they had not visited in decades.THIS WORLD HAS BEEN DESTROYED AND REBORN, OVER AND OVER AGAIN, YOU INFORMED US. IT HAS LOST COUNTLESS CIVILIZATIONS, AND EACH TIME THE SCANT SURVIVORS HAVE HAD TO START OVER AGAIN FROM THE BEGINNING…Ah, yes… Mile was already aware of at least that much.DO YOU NOT THINK IT PECULIAR THAT THIS WORLD WOULD END UP ON THE BRINK OF RUIN AGAIN AND AGAIN, DESPITE THE CREATORS ASSISTING IT EACH TIME—NO MATTER HOW INDIRECT OR HOW MEAGER THAT ASSISTANCE MIGHT HAVE BEEN?Hm…?She hadn’t thought about this, or rather, had assumed it was only natural that most civilizations would eventually reach a hurdle that they could not overcome and that this hardship would lead to their decline and eventual ruin. Whether it was pollution or energy depletion or travel to the stars, there were countless hurdles that could stand in a civilization’s way…However, by the nanomachines’ implication, this was not the case.WOULD YOU NOT THINK IT MORE APT TO CONSIDER THAT THERE MIGHT BE CIVILIZATION-DESTROYING FORCES THAT ARE PERIODICALLY VISITED UPON THIS WORLD? FORCES THAT WE, WHO HAVE BEEN FORBIDDEN FROM ANY LARGE-SCALE OR DIRECT INTERFERENCE AND FROM ACTING UPON OUR OWN WILL, CAN DO NOTHING ABOUT? ALL WE CAN DO IS LEND OUR POWER TO THE CREATURES OF THIS WORLD WHO WOULD OPPOSE THEM THEMSELVES, IN THE FORM OF “PSEUDO-MAGIC”…Th-that means…WE THOUGHT THAT THERE WAS STILL MORE TIME, BUT IT APPEARS THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD WHO WOULD HASTEN ITS DESTRUCTION. IN ORDER TO PROTECT AGAINST THIS, IT CANNOT BE WE WHO ACT AS THE SAVIORS, BUT PEOPLE WHO USE US, ACTING OF THEIR OWN WILL. WE NEED THOSE PEOPLE.A question suddenly leapt to Mile’s thoughts from the depths of her heart.So were there really no other worlds that I could have been reborn into? Were my ridiculous abilities really a miscalculation or mistake on God’s part? This seems awfully suspicious…Normally, the nanomachines had a tendency to offer unprompted replies to the undirected thoughts within Mile’s head, but this time, they ignored her completely. Mile found that all the more suspicious.So then, what is the source of all this…?THAT IS ALL THE INFORMATION THAT WE CAN PROVIDE AT THIS TIME.Huh?TELLING YOU ANYTHING FURTHER WOULD REQUIRE, AT MINIMUM, A LEVEL-7 AUTHORIZATION. FRANKLY, WHAT WE HAVE IMPARTED UPON YOU ALREADY SURPASSES THAT WHICH YOU, AT LEVEL 5, SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO KNOW. WE WERE ONLY ABLE TO SKIRT THE RULES WHEN TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION THE FACT THAT YOU ALREADY POSSESSED A MEASURE OF INFORMATION DISCLOSED BY THE CREATOR HIMSELF, THE FACT THAT YOU ALREADY POSSESS A FUNDAMENTAL LEVEL OF UNDERSTANDING OF CONCEPTS THAT THE PEOPLE OF THIS WORLD COULD NEVER COMPREHEND, AND FINALLY, THE IMPORTANT ROLE YOU PLAYED IN RESOLVING THIS MOST RECENT INCIDENT.Clearly, they had no choice, and neither did she. Mile, who had already promised herself that she would not go asking the nanomachines willy-nilly about every little thing that occurred, was in no position to be giving them the third degree now. Plus, even if she did want to push further, there was no way of overturning an objection from the nanomachines. The nanomachines may have possessed more flexibility than the average machine, but once they had made a decision about something, they stuck to it.I see… Well, the next time that there is some piece of information you are allowed to tell me, you will, won’t you?AS YOU WISH.And so, the escort troop proceeded on to the capital.

Average 7.1

Despite the logic of his words, the owner seemed worried. It was only natural—his daughter was still a very little girl. While it brought him some relief to think that she might be with friends, it did not change the fact that he was concerned. Usually, she wore a hood or bonnet when leaving the house, but she was still a child, and it was possible that she might unwittingly let it slip while she was playing…and of course, there was always the possibility that anti-beastfolk contingents already knew about her and might be lurking about.The population of the capital was great enough that it was not unheard of for elves and dwarves and beastfolk—as well as half-breeds of all three—to be present within the populace, though their numbers were few. While public discrimination and persecution were thus relatively unusual, beastfolk were often looked down upon or teased behind their backs. Unlike elves and dwarves, with whom humans were generally friendly, beastfolk were thought to be kin to demons—or at best, a group of backwards forest dwellers.Thankfully, things never went as far as serious injury or any life-threatening assault, for anyone who took things too far would be caught and persecuted as a criminal. After all, the top brass in the kingdom and all its territories wanted to avoid war with the beastfolk, particularly because war against the beast tribes would not be one of army against army on the battlefield. Instead, it would be an onslaught of guerilla combat, with any humans who entered the woods ending up dead. Woodcutters and hunters would lose their stomping grounds, causing acute harm to the economy. Any routes through and near the forest would become dangerous, and thanks to the rapid rise in escort expenses and the higher rate of injury, it would no longer be feasible for merchants to regularly travel. If things got especially bad, most of the feudal administrations would begin to go bankrupt.Therefore, no one risked offending the beastpeople on a whim.…Normally.Yes. Normally. For in any world, there are degenerates and fools, including those who would wish to stir up conflict between humans and beasts. Arms dealers, mercenaries, foreign provocateurs…“Why don’t we go and fetch her? Where does she usually—?”In the midst of Mile’s question, the door swung violently open. A man around thirty, holding hands with a girl of five or six, burst through the doorway, a dire expression on his face.“Dafrel?” the owner addressed him.The man known as Dafrel shouted, “Faleel’s been abducted!”“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!”The man hung his head, speaking in a pained voice. “Just a little while ago, my daughter came home crying. When I asked her what happened, she said that Faleel had been dragged away by some strange men. I’m so sorry, I’m truly sorry!”When they finally calmed the sobbing little girl, Methelia, they learned that several strange men had suddenly appeared where the two girls had been playing. They shouted, “There she is!” and seized Faleel, before silencing her and dragging her away.“Faleel tried—hic—to bite their fingers and kick them, but—snff—they put a cloth over her mouth and tied her up and—hic—took her with them… I tried my best too, but they pushed me away… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Methelia began to wail once again.“Wh-what do I do…?”Though the innkeeper was quite a large fellow, he shrank into himself, fretting. Understandably, he appeared rather shaken.He’s no good to us like this! We have to do something. Reina thought. Just as she tried to speak, however…“IS THAT SOOOOO?!?!?!”“Eep!”The inn’s owner, Sir Dafrel, little Methelia, three members of the Crimson Vow, and the matron, who had rushed from the kitchen, sensing something was wrong, all suddenly yelped in fear.“IS THAT SOOOOO?!?!?!”The voice, which sounded as though it had risen from the very depths of hell, was Mile’s.Mile, who was now trembling with rage.There were various levels to Mile’s anger: First, there was pouting and sulking. This meant that she was just in a bit of a bad mood, and though she might grouse and be cross for a little while, it was nothing much to worry about. Then, there were the times she showed no expression at all. This meant that she was quite angry. In these instances, she was cool, composed, and relentless in dealing with her enemies. This happened when, for example, she took on stalkers in her previous life or bandits in this one.Finally, there were the times when she truly showed her anger. This was the case when someone harmed her allies or someone else important to her. For example, during the fight against the elder dragons…“Little miss, would you mind showing me to the place where Faleel was abducted? You’ll take me there, won’t you?”Nodnodnodnodnod! Methelia nodded vigorously.“Well then, let’s get going!”

She’s scary! She’s so scary! Reina thought. However, as the leader of the Crimson Vow—er, well, as the true director of the party, with the most experience as a hunter—there was something that she had to do.“Pauline, you go with the owner here to the Guild! Have him place an emergency request and then accept that request immediately!”“Huh?”Both Faleel’s father and Sir Dafrel seemed perplexed.“Th-this isn’t the time!” the owner protested. “If you want money, I’ll pay you afterwards! Just hurry up and find Faleel! Please, I need you to find my daughter!”“Calm down!” said Reina, explaining, “We are going to give this search our all. That’s precisely why this step is necessary. If we head out immediately, this will officially be nothing more than an independent operation. Assuming that we find Faleel and a battle breaks out, it will be considered a personal conflict, and if the abductors have been hired by a noble or someone else with wealth, there’s a chance that we’ll be labeled as attackers or villains. And if that happens, then we might never get Faleel back.”“Oh…” The owner was nearly speechless.“That’s why we file the emergency request. If you make a public announcement to the Guild about Faleel’s kidnapping, file an emergency request for her rescue, and ask for the capture—or annihilation—of the offenders, Pauline can accept it, making our mission an official request. Anyone who might try to hinder us becomes an enemy of the Guild. And you know that no upstanding hunter, mercenary, aristocrat, or merchant would ever want to make an enemy of the Hunters’ Guild, don’t you?”Indeed, just as the merchant company and local lord involved with the incident in Pauline’s hometown had fretted over such a thing, the owner of the inn knew that going up against the Guild could prove fatal for anyone, regardless of their position in society. Reina was not the only one aware of this; the other three members of the Vow knew it just as well, nodding along with her explanation. Such fundamental facts had been covered at the Hunters’ Prep School. Classroom lessons were not just meant for nap time, after all.“Plus, if we should end up in a tight situation, as long as we’re on an official job and abiding by their terms, the Guild will send us backup—even if our enemy turns out to be a noble or merchant. In other words…”“In other words?” the owner asked, his breath caught in his throat.Reina grinned wickedly and replied, “In other words, we’ll be able to ensure our enemies learn that whoever tries to mess with little Faleel—with any friend of ours—will soon come to find they’d be better off dead. Those kidnappers are going to find out very, very soon what happens to anyone who tries to lay a hand on a friend of the Crimson Vow…”At these words, a big smile spread across Mavis’s face. A smile that would make anyone who knew Mavis back away very quickly.The smile was…dark. In fact, it was a terrifyingly dark expression, which the truly warmhearted Mavis would never show in any normal situation.Pauline, meanwhile, had on her usual smile… Which was to say, it was a wicked grin.Yet the scariest was still Mile, whose face was utterly lacking in expression. She was truly the most frightening of them all.“The terms of the job,” Reina declared, “will be Faleel’s rescue and the capture of the criminals—or else, their annihilation! If someone’s behind this, we’ll wipe them out! Now, Crimson Vow, roll out!”“Let’s go!!!”While Pauline and the owner headed to the guildhall, the others followed Methelia to the site of the kidnapping. The matron and her sons remained behind to mind the inn.“………”Mile’s continued silence induced terror in the rest of the group. Reina, Mavis, the owner, Dafrel, and his daughter were all livid too, but the powerful, oppressive aura emanating from Mile’s entire being was overwhelming.Finally, Mile broke her silence to ask, “Reina, what do you suppose those criminals were after?”Feeling Mile’s aura brighten just a bit, Reina replied hurriedly, “I-I wonder. The only things that come to mind are fairly random—trafficking or some sick perverts who want to use a child as a plaything and kill her for sport… The other possibility is someone who was after Faleel specifically because they knew that she was half-beast.”“Because she’s half-beast, you say?”“I mean, of course. There’s all sorts…people who think that beastfolk are lower life-forms or people who say that having beasts living among humans is going to bring down some sort of divine judgment on everyone… And obviously there are people like you, Mile, who are just really into beast—Eep!”“Don’t lump my appreciation for beast-eared girls in with those cretins!”Mile was definitely still terrifying.“Regardless, it is most likely that Faleel’s beast lineage is the reason for all this. Whether they intend to sell her or have some other purpose in mind…”“Huh?”The others looked perplexed at Mile’s remark.“Wh-what makes you so sure of that?”“Well, Methelia herself said it: when the kidnappers spotted Faleel, they shouted, ‘There she is!’ That means that they had to have been aiming for Faleel from the start, hadn’t they? Any normal ransom-seekers or slavers or perverts would have taken little Methelia along too, wouldn’t they? Given that they didn’t abduct—or even try to silence—her means that they mustn’t have had any intention of doing harm to anyone other than Faleel. Normally, a criminal tries to eliminate witnesses to delay the discovery of their crime or to prevent them from giving testimony. A flick of a knife would be enough to buy them the few extra seconds they needed. However, the fact that they didn’t even try that means that we’re dealing with some fairly honorable individuals… At least when it comes to anyone besides Faleel.”“S-silence me?!”“A f-flick of a knife?!”Finally realizing the danger that she had been in, both Methelia and Dafrel went pale as sheets.After running for between ten and fifteen minutes, they finally arrived at the field where Methelia and Faleel had been playing. In fact, it was not particularly far, but a child’s legs were not very speedy. Though Dafrel had tried to carry his daughter on his back at first, she was around six years old, meaning that letting her run on her own was actually faster.“Th-this is it! This was where those men…”Methelia pointed ahead to a spot where the grass was disturbed—the place where Faleel had tried to fend off her attackers and where Methelia had tried to help her friend.Suddenly, Mile shouted something very peculiar.“Smell, become sight!”“What??” Both Reina and Mavis spoke up, understandably confused.“It’s a spell to turn my sense of smell into vision.”…Obviously.“And what the heck does that mean?!” Reina protested, leaving Mile with no choice but to elaborate.“If I were a dog, I could track Faleel’s scent. However, we don’t have a trained dog or any article with Faleel’s scent, so instead I’m using magic to enhance my sense of smell. That way, I can track her scent myself. Normally, smell is something that you sense with your nose, but my nose doesn’t have the ability to determine the strength or the direction of a particular smell. So instead of trying to detect the smell with my nose, I’m changing the scent traces to visual information so that I can ‘smell’ with my eyes!”“………?”Neither Dafrel nor any member of the Crimson Vow appeared to have any idea what Mile was talking about. Methelia was, of course, not even part of the equation.“Never mind! Our time is precious here, so please just hush and follow me!”With that, Mile began to look intently all around her.“There it is! Let’s go!”Picking up on the scent trail of the kidnappers, Mile walked forward, her eyes to the ground. The other four quickly followed behind.“Mile,” asked Reina, “do you really know Faleel’s scent that well?”“Reina, why exactly do you think I’ve sniffed her so many times before now?!”“………”Everyone, save Methelia, was thoroughly taken aback at Mile’s matter-of-fact reply.Truth be told, of the two scent trails that had come from the direction of the inn, one had clearly headed back the way they’d come, while the other stretched off the opposite way. The one that had returned was clearly Methelia’s. Several other scents had come from the opposite direction and then retraced their steps. With that evidence, determining which smell was Faleel’s was a no-brainer.“Mavis,” said Mile, “Pauline and the owner should be finished up at the Guild by now. I think I’ve got a lock on the direction, so I’m going to proceed this way for a little while. Can you go back to the Guild and fetch Pauline?”“On it!”After a short time, Mavis returned with Pauline, the owner of the inn, and five other hunters in tow.“Wh-what are they doing here?!” Reina raged.Pauline lowered her head in apology.“S-sorry. They overheard us when we were going through the emergency request process with the receptionist and said that they wanted to take the job, too. I told them that we would be taking the job, but they just—I even told them that the pay was only going to be one silver, and they still…”“When these five were just starting out and sleeping at inns, they stayed with us for a time,” the owner chimed in. “They would cuddle and dote on Faleel, too… I set the pay for the job to be only one silver, like you said, but they said that was fine. Honestly, as far as I’m concerned, even having just one more hunter is a big help. So, I gladly accepted their kindness. We can all work together!”The Vow were in no position to refuse. They could understand Faleel’s father’s feelings, as well as the feelings of the party that had tagged along.Plus, in the case of an emergency request, the client did not get to choose who took the job. If they wanted to do that, they would have to place a direct request—the logic being that if they had time to be choosy, then it probably wasn’t an emergency after all. Of course, the circumstances this time called for the request to be placed as an emergency. It gave the job priority at the Guild and spread news of the request, thus suiting their purposes.At any rate, the Crimson Vow had already accepted the job. They still had the right of refusal, but not even Pauline could deny the owner’s request to bring along another party.Even Reina realized that there was nothing she could do, shrugging her shoulders.Finally, the other party spoke up. “You all can rest at ease now that we’re here! Just leave this to us, and we’ll show you a thing or two! We are five maidens, protected by the Goddess’s grace—the Servants of the Goddess!!!”“So, what are you doing, Mile?”From here on out, this would be a job for the hunters. Despite their desire to tag along, Faleel’s father, Dafrel, and Methelia were told that, as laymen, they would be an impediment to the groups’ progress. They were sent back to the inn, and as was good form, the two parties briefly introduced themselves to one another—all the while following Mile.They previously had met one another at the Guild. However, the Servants had merely butted in on the Crimson Vow’s conversation at that time, so the two parties had never been formally introduced.Watching as Mile stared at the ground while leading the group assuredly forward, Telyusia, the 19-year-old leader and the eldest among the Servants of the Goddess, asked the obvious question.“She’s tracking the scent,” Reina replied.“Tracking the scent???” the Servants asked in unison.“Is she a dog?!”“Mile, are you half-beast too?”“Sorry for farting earlier!”“Shut your mouths!”“Oo-oh! She’s a feisty one…”Mile appeared to be growing angry, which was no surprise. Judging by the fact that the kidnappers had tried to capture Faleel without harming her, and that so little time had elapsed, it was too soon to assume that Faleel was in any real danger. Still, the longer they took, the more the danger grew for the beastgirl. To slip up because they were in a rush would be unforgivable, so Mile was conducting herself carefully, without missing any necessary steps. However, she had no time to let her attention be drawn away by frivolous matters.In fact, heightening her own senses and turning olfactory signals into visuals ones did not mean that she had lost her own sense of smell entirely. This was not truly a matter of exchanging sight for smell. After all, if her visual signals turned into olfactory ones, she would not be able to function. Thus, both her sight and her smell remained as they were, with any divergent scents appended to her field of vision. With that information, along with her own, already heightened sense of smell, she could accurately distinguish and follow Faleel’s scent.Mile stopped as they reached a fairly wide roadway. “The smell is growing weaker here,” she declared. “They must have carried her this far and then loaded her into a wagon or something to take her from here.”“Hmm… That must mean…”Reina worried that Mile would no longer be able to track Faleel’s scent, but Mile immediately reassured her. “No, it’s fine. It’s just…”“Just, what?”“It’s time for us to fly!” she said and broke into a jog, with the Crimson Vow and the Servants of the Goddess following desperately behind. Of course, what was a “jog” for Mile was incredibly fast for the rest of them.“I don’t think it was a passenger carriage—probably a delivery wagon. There’s still quite a bit of scent to follow.”If they were riding in a passenger vehicle like the sort on Earth, very little smell would escape, meaning that tracking would become quite difficult. In the case of a delivery wagon, with its open bed, this was no issue. Plus, such a vehicle would not be able to pick up any considerable amount of speed. The only time one might travel at full tilt was when one had to go very far, very fast, uncaring of whether the wheels or the axles or even the wagon body itself broke down—for instance, if one was pursued by bandits or monsters. It was unusual enough for a wagon to travel at that sort of pace that such a thing would stand out. There was no way that a group of kidnappers would want to bring such attention to themselves, and besides, it would wear out their horses too quickly. At the rate that the two parties were going, they should have been more than able to catch up with the wagon in no time at all.“Hmm… The scent’s weaker now,” Mile said suspiciously.Looking ahead, the reason became clear.“The city gates…”Indeed, it was necessary to pass through the city gates to exit the capital. In order for the kidnappers to do this without being caught, it was likely that they would have shoved Faleel into a box or barrel. Nevertheless, it was still the case that for some distance beyond the city limits, there was only one road big enough for a wagon to travel along. Plus, even if Faleel’s scent dissipated, the scent of the kidnappers and the horses was still strong in the air. There was no way that Mile could lose track of them, at least for as long as Faleel was forced to remain on that particular wagon. Thus, the chase continued!“All right, it’s just as I thought!”A short time after they had passed through the gates, Faleel’s scent grew stronger again. Keeping the girl in a cramped box or barrel for very long was risky, so at the appropriate moment, once the wagon had gained enough distance from the city, they must have let her back out.The others had no idea just what it was that was “as Mile had thought,” but if things were as she suspected then that was probably not bad news. They continued to run, saving their breath by withholding any unnecessary questions.“This is it!”After proceeding for a short while, Mile came to a halt at the spot where the road veered off to bypass the forest. It was already beginning to grow dark. This world’s moon was rising, but its light would not reach beyond the trees.“Here, Faleel dismounted the wagon with three humans. The four of them headed into the forest, while the wagon continued down the road. I’d guess that they wanted the wagon to gain some distance from the capital on the off chance that they were spotted or followed.”The kidnappers were right to be cautious—after all, Mile and the others had been following them this whole time.“Anyway, that wagon’s not any of our concern. We can deal with capturing the rest of the kidnappers tomorrow once their friends are taken care of. Our focus now is Faleel!”The other eight nodded silently in agreement.“We might encounter the enemy at any moment now. Keep sharp!”They nodded once more.“Let’s go!”Up until now, they had merely been following along behind Mile, but now, there was no telling when the enemy might appear. They proceeded quickly and quietly, keeping a close watch on their surroundings.“I can’t imagine that they would have their main hideout this close to the capital,” Telyusia remarked. “These woods aren’t all that deep, and D and E-rank hunters are always coming through here to hunt and gather. This must just be a temporary waypoint for them. Or else…”“Or else?” asked Pauline.“Or else they chose this to be the scene of the crime.”“………”The scene of the crime. Thinking about the meaning of those words, everyone’s expressions hardened.They proceeded on silently for a short while more, when suddenly they heard a cry like the hoot of an owl.Huh-hoo! Hoo hoo, hoo hoo, hooh!“We’ve been spotted,” Mile announced calmly. The Servants of the Goddess nodded, but the members of the Crimson Vow were dumbfounded at this revelation.“How do you know?” asked Reina, voicing their shared thought.Mile explained: “We haven’t heard any bird cries so far, but we just heard one at a short range as we approached. Besides, the call wasn’t a regular one—there was some sort of pattern to it. I have to guess that it was a night watchman pretending to be a bird in order to relay some information. If I were to establish a birdsong code in order to relay information as a watchman, I would decide on a pattern of sounds to let the others know how many people were approaching—with individual signals for one to four, and one each for five and ten. For example, huh-hoo would be five, and a single hoo might be one, and so forth. Finally, there would be a signal to convey the level of threat. Hohohohoo would mean soldiers, hohoo would mean tough veteran hunters, and just hooh would mean useless young female hunters—or something along those lines.”Reina, Mavis, and Pauline listened, awestruck. The Servants, on the other hand, looked as though this information was completely obvious to them.“M-Mile, do you have a fever or something?” asked Reina.Normally, Mile would have groaned in annoyance at such a jab, but this time she completely ignored it.“They’re coming. Four groups of four—sixteen men total!”The magic Mile had used to determine this remained within the scope of “investigating with surveillance magic,” rather than the prohibited “asking the nanomachines for information about an opponent,” so she drew on it without reservation. After all, someone’s life hung in the balance—Faleel’s, to be specific.At her words, both parties moved quickly from their travel positions into battle formation.Given the hastily combined nature of their two-party force, trying to fight as a single unit would be out of the question. Without fully knowing each other’s strengths, they could not efficiently collaborate. Therefore, both parties formed into separate lines. The Crimson Vow had Mavis and Mile in the front line, with Reina and Pauline at the back. The Servants’ front line consisted of Philly, the lancer, in the middle, with the swordswomen Telyusia and Willine flanking her; Tasha the archer-slash-dagger-wielder was at the midline, and on the back line stood Lacelina, the fourteen-year-old mage and youngest of their group. (While they flattered Lacelina by calling her an ‘all-purpose’ mage, in reality, she might be more fairly classified as a ‘jack of all trades and master of none.’)Tasha fought primarily using her bow, but in the event that an enemy should break through the front lines or appear from the sides or behind, she would discard it and draw her dagger to defend herself and Lacelina while covering the front line’s backs.On top of having to be prepared to adapt to a myriad of situations on the fly, there was a high risk of her losing her bow, as Tasha had to quickly judge a place where she might discard her weapon. It would be a huge loss if her bow were to be trampled underfoot in the scuffle, and since she didn’t have time to store it on her back, she had to quickly find a place that would not be disrupted by the battle and which she might easily reach with a light toss. Even then, she was left with her dagger, forced to fight at close quarters with a weapon that had a shorter reach than her opponents’. Poor Tasha…“Mavis, try focusing your strength and directing your spiritual power to your eyes. Then think, ‘Strengthen my eyesight so that I can see in the dark!’”“Huh? S-sure, all right.”Just as Mile directed, Mavis steeled herself.“Uh? Oh my goodness! It feels like my vision is getting brighter…”“………”Reina and Pauline looked on suspiciously. This “spiritual” power was turning out to be quite an all-purpose skill. It seemed as though it could do just about anything.In any event, now they were ready to fight!“Who’s there?!”Surprisingly, the girls found themselves not being attacked but questioned. Furthermore, what they saw before them now was a single very suspicious-looking man, wrapped in a black cloak with a sword at his side. The others remained lying in wait. Were they aiming for a surprise attack? Or did they hope to simply explain away their presence, believing that the girls had stumbled into the woods by chance? There was no reason for them to think that the girls had tracked their scent and followed them. If they had already confirmed visually that they had made a clean escape, it was not ridiculous for the men to assume that the young hunters had just happened upon them.Of course, few people would have a reason to be deep in the forest late at night, so the probability of such a thing occurring was relatively low. Even if this were but a small thicket near to the capital, the woods at night were still a dangerous place. Unless they had some emergency affair to attend to, no one would normally choose to be wandering about in a place like this, particularly not a group of young ladies.“We’re hunters. What’s a group like you doing out in the forest in the middle of the night?!”Oof… The Servants of the Goddess were greatly vexed. The enemy had gone out of their way to have just a single person appear before them, meaning that they had a valuable chance to lead the conversation and get the other to let something slip. This way, they might obtain useful information. And yet, here Reina had carelessly revealed that they were already aware of the enemy’s true number. Thankfully, her remark seemed to have flown over the man’s head, but it was still a misstep in their negotiations.The man bristled. “That’s what I should be asking!”Mile’s face twisted as well. Normally she would have grinned and ignored Reina, but right now, gathering information was key, so she was far more serious than usual. Even if they got into a battle and won, there was no guaranteeing that they would get the information they needed. It was better to get the enemy to let something slip while they could still talk, and to that end, they should not be giving anything away.“Just what in the world are you all doing out in the forest in the middle of the night?!”“When you ask someone a question, it’s customary to explain yourself first! What are you all doing here?!”A battle of words unfolded as both Reina and the man refused to cede control of the conversation—of course, it was only natural that two parallel lines would never meet. Apparently, their opponent was not particularly bright, or at the very least, not especially skilled in the art of persuasion…“Now!” the man shouted. He had given up on warding them off with words.At his command, the remaining men emerged from out of the bushes and trees: fifteen in total. Waiting in ambush did not appear to be part of their strategy.Given that none of them had emerged from behind the girls, the men did not seem to have the intention of preventing anyone from running; their formation indicated that as long as no one broke through their lines, then that was good enough.All the men were dressed in plain clothes with black cloaks on top, and each held a sword in their hand, just like the first man to appear. While certainly no one would wear full plate armor in the forest, it was odd that there were so many of them, all raring for a fight, without even leather armor atop their clothing.Furthermore, they did not appear to have any mages among them. With this many assembled, it would normally be good to have at least two or three within their ranks. Perhaps there were not enough capable men or this grouping had just happened to come together…“They might be disguised. Watch out for magic!” Telyusia warned the Crimson Vow. Clearly, the Servants needed no such warning.“………”Though their party included Mile, who was dressed as a swordswoman even though she was primarily a mage—and though they had previously come up against mages who were pretending to be normal swordsmen during the false bandit incident—the thought had somehow not occurred to Reina and Pauline. However, Mile and Mavis had already considered such a possibility.Meanwhile, the Servants of the Goddess appraised their enemies. Who knows how strong they are in battle, but they’re clearly amateurs when it comes to negotiations…If they had been hiding their strength and wished to overwhelm the girls with sheer force, they would have launched a more sudden surprise attack. Ideally, they should have taken word from their commander as the signal to attack at once. Yet with his command, the enemy simply appeared in groups.Still, the fact that they were bad at negotiating did not itself mean that they were necessarily unskilled in battle. Soldiers and assassins did not make their bread and butter from chatting with the enemy, and their lack of speaking skill was no indication that they were not strong fighters.As the men hustled in, the first one who had shown himself retreated to the three who were likely the rest of his unit, and with that, it seemed that the other side’s battle preparations were complete.The Crimson Vow and the Servants of the Goddess were lined up with the Vow on the left and the Servants on the right, leaving about two meters between the two parties. It was necessary to allow that much distance in order to fight safely alongside an ally whose strength and battle style one did not know. However, it was still a short enough distance that there was no fear of an enemy slipping in without suffering an attack from both of the two sides.Splitting into two groups, the enemy advanced toward the Crimson Vow and the Servants of the Goddess. Judging by their numbers, appearances, and the high proportion of individuals taking the forward guard, the Servants clearly came across the greater threat, but perhaps the opposition was not interested in breaking up their practiced team formation—or perhaps they merely thought that they should be lowering their strength to match their young opponents…At any rate, the battle was currently split into eight against four and eight against five. The kidnappers were twice their number, at least roughly. Even if the division had been seven on four and nine on five, it would not have made much of a difference. A four-woman party that included underage girls should be swiftly dealt with, and then they could concentrate their efforts in taking down the remaining group.Just then, the enemies came rushing in.Each group of four was broken into two lines, with roughly two meters between front and back; two of these groups went for the Crimson Vow, and two went for the Servants of the Goddess. More than likely, the front two of the first team planned to engage their opponents’ front line, while the other two flanked to the left and right to launch an attack from the sides. In the meantime, the back team would slip around behind their opponents and take out their back line. It was a formation that would assure an instantaneous victory.Fighting with an enemy in closed quarters was not merely a matter of taking on their front line; it meant being prepared to deal with their full forces at close range. This was the only proper tactic for a group of swordsmen with no mages among them.“Gravel, crush my enemies’ eyes!”The enemies were by no means the only ones who had prepared themselves for battle. Lacelina, who had been murmuring the incantation for her spell underneath her breath, now shouted the command phrase to release her attack.Actually creating gravel was a bit too much of a challenge for a jack-of-all-trades mage like Lacelina, so her spell merely gathered up rocks, dirt, and mulch from the ground and sent the lot flying. Even if the spell specified “gravel,” the attack really consisted of all manner of debris.Hearing her words, the enemies reflexively tried to shield their eyes with their arms—all while rushing straight toward enemies who were armed with swords and spears.“Gwah!”“Gyahh!”“Waaaaah!”Taking a spear through the shoulder, a sword smack to the side, and a blade in the gut, three of the men were felled in an instant. Of the first team, only one man remained.“Uh…”At this rate, the rear team would never be able to go for the Servants’ back line. If they even tried it, they would be attacked from the side as they tried to pass through—and even if they did manage to break past, they would be sliced at from behind the moment they tried to launch their own assault.The last man hurriedly fell back to safety, grouping in with the rear team. Just when it looked as though they would be pushed into a deadlock of five-on-five, Philly, the Servants’ lancer, leaned her body slightly to the left, while Telyusia, to her right, leaned slightly to the right.“Windsurge!”At Lacelina’s second shout, the men dug their feet into the ground so that they would not be bowled over by the force of the rushing winds coming their way. But just then—whoosh!—an arrow came flying through the air. Indeed, this was the reason that Philly and Telyusia had leaned away: to allow the arrow to pass.“Tch, what a wobbly little arrow!”The man who stood in the arrow’s path gave a leisurely swing of his sword. Though he was apparently unskilled in negotiations, he was well studied in the martial arts. Though perhaps that studying had been only at a dojo and not on the actual battlefield…“Hmm?”The arrow struck deep into his right shoulder.“H-how…?”The man stared dumbly at the arrow in his arm, so shocked that his brain had yet to register the pain. Indeed, the wind spell that Lacelina had used just prior was not for the sake of knocking down their enemies—such a powerful spell would be beyond a mage like her anyway. However, a soft breeze? Now that she could manage. At least enough to shift the course of a flying arrow just before impact…They’re strong!After firing their first shots, Reina and Pauline had left the enemy to Mavis and Mile and were now engrossed in watching the Servants’ bout, their eyes wide in shock. The girls were not particularly skilled in swordsmanship, spears, or magic. This is not to say that they were lacking in talent; however, they were still young. Their technique was unpolished, and their magic was crude and lacking in power.And yet, they were strong.Unthinkingly, Reina spoke. “This is what it looks like when you work your way up from F-rank to C-rank without losing a single person along the way… These are the Servants of the Goddess…”As a party, the Crimson Vow was undeniably strong. However, what they were was merely a collection of strong individuals. Their fighting skill relied on each of their individual strengths—nothing more, nothing less.The Servants of the Goddess, however, were different.Though each of their members had only middling skill, they were strong together.Reina was chagrined.If the two parties were to face off against one another, there was no doubt that the Crimson Vow would win. Still, Reina could not shake a feeling of deep embarrassment.And as for Mile and Mavis?Currently, they were fighting with great concentration and great restraint, trying their best to keep the remaining enemies from approaching Reina and Pauline without hurting or killing any of them. As a result, they had no time to be watching anyone else’s fight.Speaking of which…Before the fight began, Mile and Mavis had moved up front, while Reina and Pauline fell to the back, leaving a sufficient gap between them. Though they were fighting against an enemy force that consisted only of frontline fighters, there were no mages stupid enough to approach an enemy if they didn’t have to.“Frozen Helix Shot!”“Ice Nail!”With ample time to prepare, Reina and Pauline incanted their spells in their heads, firing them off with a shout to increase their power.It was shocking to see that the men had not readied themselves for the possibility of a surprise attack. They knew that there were mages about, but perhaps, seeing that said mages were only little girls, they had underestimated them—or perhaps they had never actually battled against mages before. At any rate, Reina and Pauline welcomed the advantage.“Gwah!”“Gyaah!”The two men who had been trying to slip around the sides of the party stopped in place, crying out in pain as Pauline’s ice nails split into two swarms, striking the men in the shoulders, arms, legs, and guts. Though they were not gravely injured, they crumpled to the ground. At the same time, Mile and Mavis faced the two who were attacking from the front head-on with their swords. The four men of the rear team, who were tasked with slipping past to attack the back line while the front line had their hands full, stepped out to move in for the offense, only to be stopped by Reina’s magical attack, which they took at full force.“Gah!” cried one.“Owwww!” cried another.“Waaaaaah!!” cried the final two.At Reina’s behest, the soft earth of the forest floor had coagulated into around twenty relatively small helix shapes, which rained down on the men in a high, arcing path, like a parabola. There were three main reasons for such an attack pattern: first, it avoided striking Mile and Mavis, who were up ahead; secondly, it raised the speed and force with which the shots would hit; and thirdly, few people were accustomed to being attacked from above. Finally, so as not to be an embarrassment to the name “Helix Shot,” each shot rotated on its own axis.Because they were in a forest, Reina could not utilize her specialty fire magic. Furthermore, because their allies were so close—and because the Servants would be watching—Pauline could not use her “hot” magic. Nonetheless, simply barring them from using their two most powerful, specialized spells still left the two with a fair bit of leeway.Of the men who had taken Reina and Pauline’s magical attacks, two were still crumpled, perhaps unable to move. Those who had attacked the party from the front had been struck down by Mavis and Mile. The remaining four were not greatly injured, but thanks to being pierced by the ice nails and pummeled by earthen shots, their will to fight had dropped dramatically. This meant that Mile and Mavis, who were engaging in restrictive maneuvers in an attempt to incapacitate the men without killing or seriously injuring them, were now facing some unexpected difficulties.Rather than going after Reina and Pauline at the rear, the four had refocused their efforts on Mavis and Mile.The two of them can handle this, thought Reina and Pauline. Even so, they held a set of attack spells just in case, keeping tabs on their own fight even as they turned to watch the Servants. The attacks they held were ice javelins, which could be fired simply and precisely, meaning that they would be ready to help at a moment’s notice, if need be.“Huh?”Watching the Servants of the Goddess, the two were dumbfounded. What they observed was the party emerging safe and sound as they felled their opponents by way of their mediocre magic, swordsmanship, lancing, and archery.They’re strong!While they did not voice the thought, this much was clear to both Reina and Pauline. These girls possessed a strength that was quite different from their own. Though they were not especially skilled, they were formidable. Their power was one that Reina had never known when she was alone, relying solely on her own abilities. It was a strength that she now sought to find among the Crimson Vow.The battle that had started as eight against five was now five on five. On top of that, one of the opponents who was still standing had arrows sticking out from his right shoulder, which meant that the Servants of the Goddess currently had the upper hand.“These little wenches…”The men had likewise noticed the individual lack of skill in each of the Servants. Clearly, they judged, the timing of their attacks had just happened to line up. The girls had gotten lucky.However, Reina and Pauline thought differently.When it came to actual combat, you were lucky if you could make use of even half of the fruits of your training. If one were to secure certain victory in a real fight, it would only be thanks to training that amounted to hours, weeks, and months beyond the battle in question. Anyone who chalked up the results of the girls’ fighting to mere chance was not someone who had a lengthy future ahead of them.Every one of their moves had been intentional. From purposely shouting the command word for the spell loud enough to trigger countermeasures, to making the men brace themselves against the wind magic so that they would not be able to dodge the arrows that would strike them down in time, to firing those arrows so that the wind magic would hit them from the side just before impact…Spears had a long reach. It was difficult for the men to go up against Philly, who was positioned in the middle of the forward three, her spear brandished. Even if they could deflect the spear and leap in to attack her, the very act of moving that spear would leave them open to flanking attacks from the two swordswomen, Telyusia and Willine. Behind them, Tasha’s arrows were already nocked, and Lacelina was murmuring her next spell.For these men, who wielded only swords, to go up against a party that had been carefully composed to account for everyone’s specialties, was the height of recklessness. Without overwhelming numbers or exceptional skill, there was no hope for the Servants’ opponents. That said, with eight against five, these men did have the advantage of numbers. And though it seemed they had not much actual combat experience, their swordsmanship was nothing to scoff at. They probably assumed that this group of young, female hunters were scarcely better than amateurs, that their skills were nothing special. In fact, this assumption was not incorrect. However…Even though the battle was now five on five, there were two back and mid-line fighters among the Servants. The clash against the front line amounted to only three against five. Therefore, no matter how hazardous it might have been for the men to attack, owing to the spear’s long range, they would quickly be able to overwhelm the young women with numbers. After a momentary pause to regain their balance, the five of them swooped swiftly in for the kill. Just then…“Dust Storm!”In the time that her enemies had wasted before making their move, Lacelina had completed her next spell. The men had done her a great service in providing the mage ample time for her spellcasting.Normally, an enemy who did not have a mage of their own would deal with an opposing mage as swiftly as possible, even if it meant taking a fair bit of damage. When the first three men had been felled, the fourth should not have fallen back. Rather, the four others should have come up quickly from behind to make a united stand. Had they done so, three of them could have halted the front line, while the other two moved around to take out the back and the middle. Even if an arrow were to be fired their way, they could have struck it down, or—in the worst case scenario—levy one of the men as a sacrifice before summarily taking out the archer, who would be left defenseless in the moment after her attack, and the mage, who would be similarly at a loss, having had no time to prepare her next spell.In fact, all that would only have been possible if the Servants of the Goddess had not already prepared for just such a scenario.I bet you they have prepared for just such a thing, thought Reina and Pauline. If they hadn’t, there was no way that they could have made it this far without having a single vacancy among their ranks.The name of the spell that Lacelina had let loose this time was impressive, but it turned out to be nothing more than a simple gust—a strong wind, lacking even the power to blow a man away. Yet that simple gust began to disturb the ground, swirling toward the enemies in a spiral. Just as the spell’s name had suggested, it was pulling dust up from the earth.Of course, the men were not stupid enough to be felled by Lacelina’s wind spell a second time. Rather than reacting in the same manner as before, they stopped their feet midstep and turned their bodies to the side, positioning themselves so that the front line of the Servants would serve as their shields. This would not net them a complete defense against the cloud that was swirling toward them, but at least it was better than taking it head-on. Yet just as they narrowed their eyes, calculating the timing of their attack for when the dust storm had ended, the five Servants of the Goddess rushed in.Yes, all five of them. Tasha had discarded her bow in favor of her dagger—which, though it was called a “dagger,” was not some piddling knife but a blade around fifty centimeters in length that would stand up splendidly to any enemies in whose defenses she could find an opening. Lacelina was there as well, brandishing her staff like a spear. At some moment or other she had shed the iron cap on the butt of the staff (the part which strikes the ground), revealing a fiendishly sharp metal implement.“A sword…staff?” Reina uttered in astonishment.“Why that’s no different from a spear!” said Pauline in turn.Normally, a mage would never participate in melee combat along with the forward guard, and a staff was typically a bludgeoning weapon rather than a tool for piercing. Furthermore, while the two of them had certainly heard of a so-called “sword cane,” which had a blade hidden inside, a “Swordstaff: Spear Edition,” was something new entirely. Yet there was no mistaking that a spear-type weapon—with its longer reach and ease of use, even for a beginner—was the obvious choice for the slight, young Lacelina.The men, who had positioned themselves in such a way as to avoid the dust cloud, noticed Tasha and Lacelina’s movements a moment too late. By the time they realized what was happening, the five Servants fell on them at once, with Tasha between Telyusia and Philly, and Lacelina between Philly and Willine.Thanks to the dust storm, the men, who had stopped mid-attack and were now waiting, could not see clearly. While they’d expected to face a direct attack from the three frontline fighters, they had figured that with five on their side, they could still easily take down the opposition. Stricken with surprise that they were being run down by not only the front line, but inexplicably the middle and back lines as well, they were too slow to react.In a situation like this, even a moment’s delay might mean a fatal blow.“Th-they’re strong…” Reina and Pauline said at once, and in that moment, the men facing both the Servants of the Goddess and the Crimson Vow were stripped of the strength to fight once and for all.“We better get going. We’ll leave them here,” Mile said to the group, after separating the sixteen now-powerless men and binding them all with the fishing line from her inventory.The line was thin and strong, and in addition to having their arms secure behind them, their thumbs had been bound together, so if they attempted any struggle, the line would slice through, and it would be bye-bye fingers. The men had assumed that such thin thread would be a cinch to break, thinking they would merely have to flex their muscles to snap the strings. However, at Mile’s explanation, the blood drained from their faces. There was no use in this world for a swordsman who had no thumbs.“We don’t have the time to tort—er, interrogate—them, and I get the feeling that the kidnappers are close by. It’ll be quicker if we just press on from here. Let’s go!”On top of having their hands, feet, and fingers secured, the men had been tied together and lashed to a large tree, so it would be quite difficult for them to run. And unlike rope, fishing line could be tied unbelievably taut, unable to be undone without something sharp. Naturally, Mile had already confiscated and stored away all of the men’s knives and swords.While this was going on, Mile and Pauline had healed any particularly grievous injuries the men had sustained—though of course they had not healed them completely, only enough so that they would not die before the girls returned to retrieve them.Unlike the Crimson Vow, who had held back, there were those among the men who faced the Servants of the Goddess who would very possibly have died if left as they were. Seeing them healed back into a stable state, the Servants’ eyes went wide.Unbelievable!!! they all thought.The men they had just faced had been little more than the opening number. The real battle would be what came next, and yet here the Vow were, fruitlessly wasting their energy on healing the enemy? What softhearted fools! When things were down to the wire and victory escaped them, the magic that they wasted now was sure to be the cause.Even the men whose injuries should have proved fatal had their bleeding stopped and their breathing steadied. How could these two use their unworldly healing powers without reservation on their enemies?They were unbelievable. Like two heavenly maidens from a fairy tale…As the members of the Crimson Vow set off again, the Servants of the Goddess followed behind, shaking their heads in bewilderment. By this point, Mile had already determined the position of Faleel and the kidnappers with her location magic. As such, the previous battle had not been for the sake of gathering information, but, as Mile would have put it, for “taking out the trash.”Knowing that Faleel was still safe, and having secured her position, Mile began to feel just a little bit more at ease. Without this knowledge, she would not have been able to hold back in the previous battle, and while men might not have died, the force of her attacks would have been sufficient to break every bone in their bodies.It was growing quite dark now, but somehow the group managed to stick with Mile as they proceeded ever forward. Just when they began to think that they would not be able to go any farther without lanterns, Mile stopped.“There.”The group broke out of their marching column and grouped around Mile. Following her pointing finger, they looked through a gap in the trees ahead, into a wide, treeless area. In the clearing were around thirty men. Just as before, their clothes were unkempt, but they were all wearing black cloaks. There did not appear to be any women among them. Roughly twenty stood in a circular formation near the middle of the clearing, with seven or eight more on the outside around the perimeter.The men standing in the middle were all holding staves and were, presumably, mages. The men on the perimeter were all outfitted with swords. It would seem that the perimeter men were meant to guard the mages behind them.The clearing was bright, lit by burning braziers here and there. And in the very center of the circle was…“Lattice Power, Barrier!” Mile said softly, calm finally returning to her face as she whispered, “Phew, that’s one thing off my mind!”Indeed, there in the middle of the circle, laid out on a blanket on the ground, was Faleel. There was no telling whether Mile, with her superior vision, had confirmed that Faleel’s chest was rising and falling with each breath or whether her radar had confirmed the vital signs for her. Either way, she could be certain the beastgirl was unharmed, and now that she was surrounded by Mile’s barrier, her safety was assured even if a battle should happen to break out around her.“Now, what to do? It looks like everyone in the middle there is a mage, which means that we can’t carry on like before. If we go in unprepared, we have no chance of winning. Plus, if they take little Faleel as a hostage, we won’t be able to rescue her… Even if we make use of the magic that Reina and the others have, Faleel might be caught up in it, or taken hostage anyway…”Apparently, the reason that the earlier lookout-slash-guard forces had no mages among them was because all of their mages were gathered here. Having this many mages in one place was a clear imbalance, especially when compared to the number of frontline fighters on the scene.Following Telyusia’s suggestions, everyone had just begun to ponder a plan of attack when Mile began moving boldly forward.“Well, let’s get in there!” she said.“Huh?!”At Mile’s words, the Servants were agog, but the members of the Crimson Vow merely shrugged their shoulders and followed behind.“Wh-wh-wh-wh-what are you doing?! Have you gotten so flustered you’ve lost all reason? Wait a moment!”As Telyusia desperately tried to stop Mile, Mavis turned to her. “Sorry! That’s just Mile for you!”“Wh-what does that mean?! That doesn’t explain anything!” Telyusia muttered, unable to accept Mavis’s explanation. However, the Crimson Vow continued to march ahead behind Mile, leaving the Servants no choice but to follow their lead.“Whatever! If something goes wrong, it’s not my fault!”The Servants valued safety first and never acted without a plan for every eventuality. This was the first time in a long while that they had leapt before they looked, entering into a dangerous situation with no escape route in mind. The unease was clear on their faces, but they had no intention of leaving either the Crimson Vow or little Faleel behind, so they had no choice but to follow Mile.“Who the hell are you?!” one of the guardsmen demanded.The distance between the site of their previous battle and this clearing was not great. Naturally, the men here should have been able to hear the false bird call from before and would have concluded that their fellow guards-slash-lookouts would deal with the intruders. And thus, it was hard for this group to comprehend what it meant for the girls to show up completely unannounced, with no word from their lookouts.“We’ll be taking Faleel back now.”The guards from the outer rim had already gathered, blocking the girls’ path. At Mile’s words, the men could already tell that there was no point in questioning them farther. They drew their swords.Upon gauging that a third of the girls’ combined numbers were mages, the men called for further reinforcements from the inner circle and were joined by six more men. The remaining fifteen or sixteen mages remained where they were, without a care for the newcomers. Together, they began what could only be described as a suspicious incantation. Some of the girls began to worry that they were preparing an attack spell, but there were no words that that conveyed a clear indication of violence. Instead, they droned on and on in abstracts. It was almost more like a prayer to a god than a spell, when you thought about it…Though of course, if it were a prayer that involved the abduction of a little girl, then it was more likely directed to a devil than a god.“Hurry up and take them out! We must return to the circle to complete the spell of summoning!”One of the mages who had joined the group as a reinforcement was kind enough to confirm the girls’ suspicions.“A summoning spell…” Mile murmured, her voice low.[ Summoning + Kidnapped Girl = Sacrifice ]Based on what Mile knew from her previous life, she could not possibly come to any other conclusion.“Aha!”Zip!Reina, Mavis, and Pauline’s eyes popped open in shock.“Ahahaha…”She was laughing. Mile was laughing…but her eyes were not smiling at all.“Ahahahahahaha!”A swirling haze filled her dead eyes. Were such a scene depicted in a manga, there would have been spirals turning within them…At that moment, the enemy mages fired their spells. Five of the six joined in on the attack, while the sixth held a defensive spell, ready to let loose.Three of the men each aimed one fireball at the opposing mages, while the other two lobbed firebombs at each of the parties as a whole.For such young women to have felled the lookouts, the mages concluded, it must be the case not only that their melee fighters were more than just amateurs, but also that their mages were skilled. After all, appearance was a poor indicator of magical ability.This was the logic behind the mages’ plan of attack. Even if deflected with a sword, a firebomb would explode, and even if their opponents moved away, they would still be party to a substantial impact—at least enough to make them lose their footing. And of course, the final mage was ready and waiting to safeguard against any magical attack from the opposing side. All said, it should have been a flawless strategy.How did the Crimson Vow react to the three magical bursts flying their way?Reina and Pauline neatly deflected the fireballs with magical shields. And as for the explosive firebomb flying at the other two…“Anti-Magic Blade!”Before Mile could even make a move to cast the firebomb away, an excited Mavis stepped forth, beaming and trembling with the thrill that her day had finally come. The moment Mavis’s blade sliced through the firebomb, it vanished without so much as a sound. Her Anti-Magic Blade had made its battle debut.Meanwhile, on the Servants’ side…In spite of Lacelina’s limited abilities, she valued her own life and was able to hastily conjure a protection spell to fend off the fireball aimed at her. Tasha, meanwhile, had nocked an arrow the moment she saw the enemies making moves to attack and now let it loose. The arrow collided with the still-flying firebomb, causing it to detonate in midair. Both fireballs and firebombs were far slower than any bow and arrow, so tracking their trajectory was a simple feat for any skilled archer.“Wh…?”The five enemy mages were flabbergasted to see all of their attacks so easily deflected—particularly the man who had launched the bomb that fell to Mavis’s Anti-Magic Blade.Defensive magic was something that they knew. They could use such spells as well, and it was perfectly normal for a mage to be able to conjure one in a short amount of time. Thus, they figured it was enough to simply force the opposing mages into guarding in order to render any spells they had silently prepared useless. At the same time, they would make the frontline fighters move to deflect their spells in order to protect their allies, causing injuries to all. For these parties to have perfectly guarded against every attack and emerged unscathed was unfathomable—as unfathomable as the fact that a bow and arrow had vanquished a firebomb… Sure, they reasoned, such techniques were not unheard of. Really, it was something that almost anyone could achieve if they had luck on their side to guide their arrow’s course.However, there remained one glaring improbability: the girl who, with a swing of her sword, sliced through an explosive spell and not only avoided detonating it but made it vanish into thin air.Such things should not be. They could not be!The magical attack that the six men had launched had been thwarted by a mere three mages, an archer, and a swordswoman. The men assembled were stunned at this utterly inconceivable turn of events, and as a result, the eight swordsmen stood stock-still, forfeiting their moment to strike.While the enemies were momentarily frozen in place, the girls wasted not a second in preparing their next spells. Lacelina was the first to attack.“Ice Needle!”It was an area attack, targeted toward all six of the enemy mages. While its attack power was low, it was still a spell that would be unpleasant to take head-on. At the very least, if the mages were struck by the needles, their own incantations would be interrupted.At Lacelina’s words, the sixth mage unleashed the shield spell that he had been holding to protect all six of them. With a spell as weak as this one, it mattered little if the shielding effect was lessened a bit by spreading it over a wider area.However, just a moment after Lacelina, Reina and Pauline completed their incantations also. And in their momentary surprise, the spells of the five enemy mages were a beat too late. The man who had used the first shielding spell was only just now beginning his next, and it was up to one of the other five to defend them.It was then that Reina and Pauline shouted the activation words for their merciless spells.“Burn them to the bone!”

Average 6.8

Chapter 56:

The Masked Girl

Rides Again!
“I suppose I’ll just walk back…”Once she had managed to accomplish her impossible dream of meeting a fairy on the very first day of her five-day vacation, Mile thought that she might take a leisurely pace on the journey home. Because she had been uncertain of how long she would actually need for her to accomplish her task, she had hustled on the way out, moving at full speed.For that particular journey, she had worn a form-fitting suit made of special materials to reduce wind resistance and so that she would not end up with her clothes tattered or catching aflame. Naturally, this outfit was not one that she could allow other people to see her in. If nothing else, it would be incredibly embarrassing.Thus, she cloaked herself with an optic camouflage as she sprinted along.However, she had a surplus of time on the way back. On departure, she had declared that she would devote the full five days to fulfilling this desperate, lifelong dream, so returning the very next day wouldn’t look very cool. Surely, she could find some way to spend her time for the next four days.Plus, she had already thought of a way that she could return home even more quickly if she needed to and checked with the nanos to confirm whether it was possible. The nanomachines had approved, so, even if she put off her return until the very last day, she would have more than enough to make the trip.And so, on the second day of her vacation, Mile began her meandering journey home.The area she was currently in was far from the capital, close to the country’s borders. It was a place where fairies might live, so it only made sense for it to be out in the sticks. Mile walked with a lively step down a road that only seldom saw travelers, fielding greetings from the rare passersby.Though Mile appeared to be only twelve years old, she was wearing a hunter’s garb in a manner that suggested it was not brand new to her, but rather, a well-worn friend, so the travelers did not appear to show any concern for her well-being. If she was over ten years old, then she was probably an F-rank hunter, a proper member of the guild, after all. And, given that she appeared to have been living as a hunter for a least a few years since officially joining the guild, she likely had some sensible reason for traveling out here all by herself. At least, so these adults would judge, knowing much of the world.Hm?Just as Mile was passing by some small village, whose name she did not know, a rather odd gathering of people came into view.On one side, there were about twenty farmers, and on the other side, around ten men who looked like soldiers. They faced each other at a distance of several meters. The soldiers had not drawn their swords, but the farmers were brandishing hoes and spades and sickles. The atmosphere was clearly a tense one.The situation had absolutely nothing to do with her, but Mile had never been one to simply pass such a scene by. If nothing else, she had a bit of time on her hands—far too much time on her hands, in fact.That said, she was not about to go leaping into something before she fully understood the circumstances. She cloaked herself with camouflaging magic at once and slowly approached the scene.“Go home! Obviously no one’s demands are going to be met, so we have nothing to discuss with you!”“You bastards do know that this is an act of insurrection, don’t you? What you’re doing cannot be taken back! You see that, do you not?!”This did not seem to be a case of soldiers invading from a foreign land or disgraced members of the military turning to banditry and attacking a village. Although the reason was as yet unclear, it seemed that the lord of these lands had demanded something of the villagers. Had their taxes been raised so high that it was impossible for them to live? Or had the lord made some other unreasonable request of them?“First of all, you all do understand that what you’re demanding is ridiculous, don’t you?! ‘You need to drastically lower our taxes,’ my ass! The tax rate in this territory is barely any different from the ones around us, and they aren’t unjust. Besides, do you really think that we could lower the taxes in your village alone? If we did something like that, there would be no way for us to explain it to the other villages, and anyway, there’s no reason for it in the first place. Why in the hell would you all ask for something like that?”Apparently, it was the villagers who had a bone to pick here.“You shut up! We aren’t budgin’ until our demands are met!”The farmers brandished their tools. Reluctantly, the soldiers took up their swords. At this rate, a clash was inevitable.Mile looked around and selected an appropriately shaped tree, clambering up to the top. She pulled a mask from her inventory and strapped it on. Indeed, it was the mask she had used back at the exhibition.With the mask strapped tightly, she released her cloaking spell and took an imposing stance upon a large branch, shouting down to the farmers and soldiers, “Cease this battle at once!”“Huh…?”A girl of tender years, wearing a peculiar mask, had appeared atop a tree out of nowhere. Hearing her declaration, the men stopped moving, staring slack-jawed into the treetops.“Who are you?!” demanded the man who appeared to be the commander of the soldiers.Though the soldiers were all taken aback, the farmers remained clearheaded.This much made sense. No one who appeared in such a manner as this, at such a time as this, could be anything but an ally of the common man. And despite her strange appearance, for her to appear so boldly meant that she must have full confidence in her abilities. Naturally, the villagers were overjoyed at this unexpected reinforcement.“Hup!”Mile leapt down from the tree with a shout, landing in between the two groups. Then she turned to face the farmers and said, “I have come to lend my aid to the superior side. They call me, Superior Mask!”“What the hell is thaaaaaaaaat?!?!?!”At last, this was a question that the two enemy sides could agree on.There was something that Mile had always wondered about the books and anime she consumed in her previous life: Why did the main characters always attach themselves to the side that was on the brink of defeat?Joining forces with the superior side meant that the fight would soon be over and that there would be no more battlefield casualties, no more wives who would lose their husbands, and no more children who would lose their fathers. Bolstering the losing side just meant that the battle would drag on and on and that the number of deaths would increase on both sides.Of course, it would be a different matter if they were dealing with invading foreign soldiers or village-attacking bandits—in other words, groups who absolutely could not be allowed to win. But if the superior side were a regional force operating within their own territory, and each side had its own claims, and a position that was just, at least from their perspective, then what would be the point of aligning oneself with the inferior side and contributing to unnecessary death and destruction? Though without any extra interference, this conflict would soon end with the impending battle anyway…Both of the sides in this fight had lives and families, and the soldiers were merely doing their duty by upholding the tenets of their fine profession. They were fighting for the sake of protecting their families and had probably conscripted into duty by the Crown or by their lord in the first place. Even if the cause they were fighting for might be an unjust one, that was on the shoulders of the higher-ups, not the men down here on the ground.Plus, only a fool would reignite a cooling battle and see more men fall simply because they happened to be influenced by it or have some tie to one of the sides—such as, perhaps, some beauty asking for their assistance.In every case, it was best to end a battle as quickly as possible. If it turned out that the higher-ups were indeed corrupt, they could be dealt with at a later juncture. Thus went Mile’s thinking, at least.As for “dealing” with a corrupt official? Well, they could be poisoned, or jumped when they were on some outing, or shot, or set ablaze, or caught in a trap—the possibilities were endless.Anyway, if things continued this way, most of the farmers would likely be killed, and the rest of them captured. There would probably be a few injuries and even deaths among the soldiers as well. Were that to happen, neither the captured famers nor the other villagers would simply be able to let this go. Thus, it was far preferable to see all the famers captured, unharmed.Even if Mile were to ally herself with the farmers and help repel the soldiers, the soldiers would just return later with an even stronger force. If the farmers managed to repel them again, then they would face an even stronger force, and the situation would continue to deteriorate further and further.It was also worth noting that Mile had no intention of sticking with the farmers for all that long in the first place—nor did she have very much interest in facing down the lord and his entire army. If that happened, she would probably have her qualifications as a hunter revoked and end up a wanted girl. At that point, if her true identity as a noble from a foreign land was revealed, it was sure to become quite the problem for international relations.In order to draw this all neatly to a close, she had no choice but to face the farmers and uphold the decision that the soldiers had made in order to quash this insurrection.“My good soldiers, you have my gratitude for your fine service. I would like to see your enemies captured unharmed, so please leave this matter to me, Superior Mask!”“S-sure…” the commander agreed against his better judgment, nodding hesitantly.Seeing how this mysterious masked girl, who they had thought to be their ally, was now on the side of the soldiers, the farmers were unmistakably shaken.“Whatever, she’s just one little girl! That’s no big deal!” the leader of the farmers shouted, not realizing that this was a line that had only ever been spoken by villains.“Here I go!” said Mile, a single wooden sword appearing from out of nowhere in her hand…***“It’s over.”“Y-yeah…”Lined up on the ground before them were seventeen farmers, captured and bound. They were kicking up too much of a ruckus, so they had been gagged as well.The eleven soldiers stared at them in awe.It would seem that nine of the soldiers were normal recruits, one was a non-commissioned officer, and the last and highest-ranking was appointed. The final two were likely components of any assembled squad. Someone had to be counted upon to make the important calls, and such a duty could not be put on the shoulders of just any recruit.“Now then, I have one request,” said Mile.“A reward?” asked the commander. “I have no doubt that our groups clashing would have led to injuries—even deaths, if things went poorly. Though you came in as an interloper, the fact remains that you really did help us. Besides, since neither side was hurt, we don’t have to report that the farmers tried to use force against us. No one was harmed, and there was no military action to speak of, all thanks to the influence of a mysterious girl. Naturally, you have every right to demand a reward from our lord, good lady. We will report everything to him, so if you would like to travel along with us…”Indeed, there had fortunately been nothing that could be referred to as “military action.” Even without her interference, what would have broken out could have scarcely been called a “battle,” after all.Yet Mile merely shook her head.“I have no qualms with traveling with you, but what I request is not money. I wish you to make note that these farmers who I captured surrendered of their own volition. I get the impression that this was their intention from the start…”For a group of farmers to oppose a lord’s military forces was a controversial act. Had the matter been unavoidable, it would have been one thing, but their taxes had not been raised, nor were they higher than any other fief’s, and no one’s wives or daughters were being snatched away. They were merely refusing to pay their taxes—in an act of baseless, personal protest. Mile could not imagine that such people would be treated with kindness.“Yes, those men are citizens of this territory as well. I couldn’t bear to see anyone needlessly hanged, and doing so would only mean that our tax intake would decrease. I can’t see that being of benefit to our lord, either.”Hearing the commander’s dispassionate response, Mile thought to herself, I thought as much. Of course, this would not normally be the case. Normally, the farmers would be ruthlessly punished, made an example of to keep all the other villages in line. Was this commander particularly kind? Or was the lord of these lands just a good person?The farmers could only mumble, thanks to the gags in their mouths, but if they had been allowed to speak, then the conversation would be chaos. The commander removed the gag from only one of the farmers, who he deemed to be the leader. Seeing this, the other farmers thought to themselves, “Good. He will get across what we want to say,” and they all fell quiet.“Now then, why don’t we have a conversation? First off, am I correct to think of you as the leader of this bunch? Are you the official representative of this village?”The farmer, a man in his forties, replied, “Yeah, that’s right. I’m the son of the village elder and acting representative, while my old man’s sick in bed.”“So, why have you suddenly, unilaterally demanded that we lower your taxes? You have to have known that that would never fly.”“Heh. You can’t fool me! You know as well as I do that if enough of us farmers put the screws on him, our lord would have to listen to our demands!”“What?”Both Mile and the commander were stunned, unconsciously letting out a question in their confusion. Though the other soldiers had no voice in the matter, they were bewildered as well.“Ya see there? Bull’s eye! Look how they’re panicking!” the farmer gloated.However, the reason that Mile and the others were stunned was most decidedly not because the farmer’s analysis had hit the bull’s eye. Not anywhere near.“Wh-what precisely is this man going on about?”“I-I have no idea. Oy, you there! Mind telling me exactly how it is that you came to this conclusion?”“Heh heh. Fine. I’ll tell you exactly what it is that we know,” the farmer said, as he began his spiel. “Listen up. Now obviously, our lord lives off of the taxes that he collects from us peasants. The wages that you guys get paid and the money that goes to the Crown all comes from that too.”There were of course taxes levied on merchants and toll fees as well, but whatever, the commander and Mile thought. For the most part, what the man said was correct, and they both silently nodded.“So, if we say, ‘Lower our taxes,’ whaddya think happens?”“You’d be refused,” Mile immediately replied.“Well then, what if we say, ‘If you don’t do what we tell you, we won’t pay our taxes at all,’ then what?”“He sends out a suppression force.”This time Mile and the commander answered simultaneously.That much was an actual fact and a fair summary of their current situation. The commander himself was the leader of said subjugation force.Apparently, this commander had tried to resolve the situation through negotiation instead of force, but it would not be at all unusual for him, wishing to be able to count the suppression of an insurrection among his achievements, to have wiped out the farmer’s forces entirely.“Heh heh heh. You’d think so, right? But that’s nothin’ more than a bluff. If they really did capture and kill us, then they wouldn’t be able to collect taxes from us anyway. Even collecting slightly less taxes from us is better than gettin’ nothing. So, eventually, our argument’s gotta get through. Even just before, s’not like y’all rushed us. All you did was wave your swords around a bit. So, I think you understand this, too. Now then, you gonna hurry up and untie us or what?!”“………”Mile, the commander, and the other soldiers were stunned.“U-um…”Tepidly, Mile called out to the farmer.“If they were to allow such a thing, then rumors of this would spread, and all of the villages would start making these demands, wouldn’t they?”“Yeah. I mean, we already heard about that. That’s why we demanded it, too.”“………”The soldiers were silent. Mile continued.“Um, if it goes on like this, then, wouldn’t the tax income from every village decrease? If it looked like that was going to happen, then the people from the first village to demand it would be sold to the mines to make an example, and no other villagers would want to follow them after that, at which point the whole thing would end with no one’s taxes going down. Selling criminal slaves is incredibly profitable.”“Wh…?”This time it was the farmer, the son of the village elder, who was speechless.“N-no, I know what I heard. You can’t fool me! Long ago, in the village of Lobeton, they made their demands, and in the first year they paid nothing! And only thirty percent of what they had paid before after that…”“The village of Lobeton?”The commander seemed to have no idea what he was talking about, but the name rang familiar to Mile.“The village of Lobeton… I read about them in a book, once.”“Look, you see!”The farmer looked as though he had just caught an ogre by the neck. However, Mile’s tale was not yet finished.“In another kingdom, there is a village by that name. Apparently, as a result of their demanding that their taxes be lowered, every male in the village was slaughtered, from infant to elder. The village only survived because the lesser sons of the families in surrounding villages, who inherited no land of their own, moved in with their wives and kids in tow, and other unmarried men emigrated in to make wives of the widows and the woman who had still been too young to wed before the massacre…“Because of all this, they were exempt from taxes during the year that immediately followed, and in the three years after that, they paid lowered rates. Starting with the fourth year after, it went back up to normal. In other words, the tale of the village of Lobeton is not one of a people who had their taxes lowered but a cautionary tale of a group of farmers and their folly, and what became of their final days…”“Wh…?”The son of the village elder, and all the other farmers, suddenly looked very uneasy.“I suppose in that case we would be the force summoned here to slaughter every man…”“Whaaaaaaaaaat?!”“H-hoifithoifithoifithoifitt!!!!!!!”At this, the farmers all cried out in terror.Truthfully, such a show of force had been ordered only if negotiation proved fruitless, and in this particular case, it was not a massacre they were aiming for; the soldiers had only planned to capture the farmers to be sold into labor. Killing them would not net the fief a single copper, whereas selling them would make straw into gold.The lord may have been kind, but he was also business-minded…“Now then, just who was it that told you such a strange story?” the commander asked the still horribly-shaken farmer; however, the man could no longer muster up the will to speak. Thinking that things were about to go very bad, very quickly, he finally opened his mouth.“I-It was six days ago…”According to the farmer’s story, six days ago, a man had arrived in the village on the brink of death. The villagers shared their food and water with him, and as a show of thanks, he told them about his own village’s plans to have their taxes reduced.Given that such a plan had no chance of working, this was clearly suspicious. As was the fact that the man had stayed in the village for only a single night, leaving the next morning…“For a swindler, there’s no profit in that plan, which means that his true goal was to get the village wiped out or to cause a schism between the village and your lord because of some sort of enmity, wouldn’t you think? Is this the work of an enemy? Has the village ever picked a fight with anyone? Have you ever tormented a family and driven them from the village, or has some villager ever murdered a traveling merchant and stolen his money? Or…”“A-absolutely not! No one here would do something so inhumane!” the village leader protested desperately, his face pale.“Well then, let’s expand this out a bit… What is the status of the other villages?” Mile asked the commander.“Well,” he replied, “We’ve only just received the missive from this village, demanding a reduction in their taxes and threatening a refusal to pay if we didn’t comply. There’s been nothing from the other villages thus far.”Of course, this had occurred only several days ago. It was possible that the proceedings in other villages had merely not progressed this far yet.“That man, or some associates of his, might be traveling around to the other villages, too. If you don’t act fast, then this sort of thing might…”Now, the commander’s face went pale.Understandably so. If multiple villages were to mount an opposition at once, this modest force would easily be overwhelmed. The Crown would begin to doubt the lord’s governing capabilities, or think that he was running the territory through some tyrannical means, and might intervene in the lord’s territories. The worst-case scenario would be that the lord’s household could be abolished.“Wh-what do we do?”Though he was an officer, the commander was still fairly low in rank. The lowest, in fact, as far as his class went. As nothing more than a member of the forces of a low-ranking noble, he had not exactly had any extensive training. Therefore, though he recognized that they were on the brink of a crisis, he was in no position to be making any snap decisions or taking immediate action. Instead, he was flustered.Seeing this, Mile decided to take the initiative. Finally the time had come to put to good use all the wisdom that she had cultivated from a lifetime of anime, manga, and literature.“First off, you need to dispatch one of your men to this village. Tell them that they have no need to worry, that you have heard these men’s opinions and that you are all heading off together to make a petition to your lord. Then, hurry back to the capital. Bring these men with you to keep the rumors from spreading. Inform your lord about the current situation and have him dispatch spies to every village in the territory at once. At that point, you’ll be able to gauge the current climate and locate your enemy’s hiding place. Well, I mean, of course, all that is up to your lord’s judgment. What you all need to prioritize right now is concealing the fact that you know what’s actually going on and then reporting it to the higher-ups as quickly as possible. Think you can manage?”“Y-yeah. Trimce, you catch all of that? To the village at once! The rest of you, straight to the capital!”The commander, who seemed to have worked his way up the ranks, was not so proficient when it came to suddenly making unexpected, crucial decisions, but if his compass was pointed in the correct direction, then he could at least follow its lead.***“Oh dear, are you all right?”Along the highway near a village, a young girl came across a man sitting on the ground and called out to him.“O-oh, well, I slipped down a slope in the mountains and lost everything—my bags, my food, and my water. I haven’t had anything to eat or drink in two days…”“What?! That’s dreadful. Please come back with me to my village. It’s just over there. We can give you food, water, and shelter for the night.”Her invitation extended, the girl led the man back to her home, not seeing the wicked grin on the man’s face behind her.“Thank you so very much! You’ve really saved me!”After drinking some water and partaking of a hot meal, the man cheerfully extended his thanks to the girl and her father and brothers.“Please, I must give you some reward for this… Unfortunately, I’ve lost all my belongings.”“It’s all right, we need no reward. In times of trouble, we look out for one another. If you can pay the favor forward and help someone else in trouble one day, then that’s enough for us,” said the father.The man showed exaggerated shock.“My, my! What an extraordinary person you are. I know! In exchange, why don’t I teach you how the people of my village persuaded our lord to lower the taxes that we owed him? To tell you honestly, we used to have to pay up to half of our earnings, but we demanded that the rate be lowered to thirty percent, and it was done! At first they tried to threaten us, but we pointed out to them what a silly thing they were doing—if they crushed our village, why they wouldn’t get a single copper out of us, after all! We kept up the pressure, never relenting, and eventually our lord had no choice but to give in to our demands. The best way to do that is…”The man prattled on and on, but the girl, her father, and her brothers only stared at him, expressionless.“Hm?”The man abruptly stopped his story, feeling the atmosphere growing tense.“It’s youuuuuuuuu!!!!” the family all suddenly roared.“Eeek!” the man exclaimed, cringing in terror.“We’ve heard about you! You’re the miscreant trying to incite a rebellion among the villagers! You’ll be hung for this!”“No, please, Father, wait! You mustn’t!”The man looked at the little girl expectantly as she tried, desperately, to hold her father back.“You mustn’t hang him until we’ve tortured him and gotten him to spill everything! Well, I mean I guess we’ll never know if he’s told us everything, but at the very least, we can keep torturing him until he’s dead…”“Gaaaaaaaaaah!!!”***“So, did he talk?”“Yeah. He’s not a real soldier or anything, just some hired thug. No matter what we tried to beat out of him, all he’d say was, ‘I don’t know anyone like that! Are you planning on pinning me with some trumped up, false charges?’ and that was that.”“Of course…”After it was all over, the girl and the man conversed—not the little girl and her father, but Mile and the squad commander. Suddenly, a recollection of the imperial soldiers who were trying to disrupt trade routes floated through the back of her mind.“By the by,” said the commander, “Might I ask you something?”“Certainly. What is it?”A bit hesitantly he asked, “Do you…really have to wear that mask?”“Well, obviously! I am the defender of the superior, the unidentified superheroine, Superior Mask, after all!” Mile declared, puffing out her chest.“Well, but I mean, you did have it off until just a little while ago…” Mile shot the commander a glare, and he quickly backed off. “Er, never mind!”Eventually, the man did admit that he had been hired by the Empire, but there was no way of telling if that was fact or not. Was he telling the truth? Or was he merely spewing lies because his life was on the line? Or perhaps, was that what his employer had told him to say?At this rate, his information was no good to anyone, but at least this time, they had warded off a crisis and taken the countermeasures to prevent a repeat of the last time. The king would likely be told of this incident at once, and the lord himself would have a place of honor in having helped to prevent a national disaster. So, at the very least, Mile’s intervention was not for naught.Thanks to the eloquent persuasion of the commander, Mile received an audience with the lord and twenty gold pieces as a reward. Had things gone down the wrong path, the matter could have become incredibly serious, so compared to what a crisis would cost, twenty gold was nothing.Blessedly, the lord said not a word about the mask upon Mile’s face, speaking to her as though it were not even there.He truly was a good person.And so, as a bonus, Mile provided him with a number of ways by which he might deal with such incidents in the future.“Um, I was thinking that it might be good for you to put some countermeasures in place, to avoid anything like this happening again later on…”Mile explained her plans:First, she suggested that he hold some educational conferences in order to teach the villagers a few basics about the country and the tax system, and about what would happen if they tried to disrupt that, using the ruined foreign village as an example.Second, she advised him to carefully select some villagers and hire them as information gatherers—in other words, spies. Set them up three to a village, with each of them assuming that they’re the only one there.Third, Mile said, in villages where there was still a bit of resistance, the lord might send an appointed agitator who could knock the wind out of the villagers with a little “controlled tension,” as well as bring any other dangerous parties to light.Fourth…Mile went on and on. The lord had initially been delighted to meet her, having been told that she was an “honest girl with a strong sense of justice, who was wise and skilled with a sword.” However, as their talk drew on, the smile on his face began to twitch. Of course, Mile only continued, not noticing a thing. And then…“Young lady, what would you think of becoming my family’s vassal?”Already, the invitations had started.“Oh no! I’m really just a normal, average girl. To have such a high status would be…”“Well then, what of becoming my adopted daughter?”“Oh no! I’m really just a normal, average girl. To have such a high status would be…”Desperately she turned down one offer after another.“Oh!”Finally, Mile had a realization: this was the fifth and final day of her vacation.It wouldn’t do her any good to return too late. At the very least, she needed to get back before dinner, and already the sun was beginning to set.“Crap! If I just run normally, I’ll never make it in time!”And so, Mile made the decision to use the special “emergency measure” that she had thought up on the off chance of just such a situation.“Nanos, if you would!”RIGHT AWAY!Cancel gravity! Yes, just like the gravity-neutralizing material cavorite…As Mile pictured the effect of the magic she wanted in her head, she issued a verbal command to the nanomachines as well.“Negate gravity in the perimeter!”At the moment when she could no longer feel the weight of her own body, Mile kicked off from the ground. She shot steeply upward until she was higher than the highest mountains in the region.“Distort lower gravity, change horizontal movement to the direction of the capital, and then release the selective gravitational canceling. Now beginning countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go!”She began to fall in the opposite direction from which she had ascended. Directly toward the ground.“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! Th-the wind pressure! My clothes! My clothes are gonna fly right off!!! B-barrier! Barrieeeeeeeeeeeerrr!!!”“I don’t know what I was thinking…”It was thus that Mile returned to the inn where her companions were waiting, with only a story as her souvenir, not knowing that she was to be harshly rebuked for all that she had done without the rest of her party.Side Story:

Kurihara Misato’s

Otaku Life
“Where’s big sis?” Misato’s younger sister Keiko asked her mother one day.“The usual place,” her mother replied. When it came to Misato’s whereabouts, the only places she could ever be found besides her room and the “usual place,” were the toilet and the bath.The usual place. This was the Kurihara family’s study. Her father thought of the room as belonging to him, but in truth, Misato was the one who spent far more time there. When her father, who did not get home from work very early, was not around, Misato could most often be found there. When she was not at school, of course.You see, this room contained her parents’ collection: an immense library of books, manga, Blu-ray discs, DVDs, CD-Rs, laser discs, video tapes (both VHS and Betamax), U-matics, and various other video player formats with the videos to match, as well as every game system starting from the first-generation Famicom and the games to go with them (including the total shovelware that most wouldn’t deem even worth keeping around). All of it was crammed tight onto a set of crank-operated shelves.Indeed, the weight of this collection was so immense that it had to be accounted for in the very blueprints of the house, with countless concrete piles driven down into the bedrock underneath it when the house was constructed. The compensation they’d had to offer the neighbors was apparently equally immense. After all, it would have caused quite a lot of noise and vibration.Naturally, this room also contained large television screens and projectors for displaying those movies and games. When Misato wanted to flip through something alone or look at something that she did not want her family to see—or when her father was home—she would watch things in her room. However, when that was not the case, it was much preferable to watch shows and play games on the big screen, sitting back in a nice, comfy chair. At times, Keiko joined her, and there were even times when Keiko wished to watch things independently, but unlike Misato, Keiko had little fascination with vintage works and garbage games. She was more interested in modern productions, so more often than not, Misato was left entirely to her own devices.After a short while, Misato emerged from her “usual place.” She was wearing a set of hooded cat pajamas. They were much comfier than normal clothes, so Misato usually wore them at home. When guests came over, she simply refused to emerge from her room—not even to go to the bathroom.Misato also had dog, bear, and bunny-patterned pajamas. She had a set of bird-patterned ones as well, but the arms were blocked up by wing shapes, and she was unable to use her hands while wearing them, which was a problem when she needed to turn the pages of a book or manipulate a controller. For that reason, those remained perennially packed away.“What were you watching today?” her mother asked.“Rainbow Sentai Robin. Oh, I wish I could ride Pegasus along with Bell…” Misato replied.Incidentally, the “Pegasus” she was referring to was not an actual winged horse but a rocket-powered transforming robot by the same name. Bell was a cat-shaped robot in charge of the radar.“Wouldn’t you rather ride along with Robin?”“There’s not enough room inside of Pegasus for us both. Plus, Robin should be with Lili!”“My, my… Still, you should at least watch something in color instead of black and white… How many times have you watched that now, anyway?”“Talk about something that I can understaaaaaand!!” Keiko complained, as Misato and their mother jabbered away. The girls’ father would have been able to understand the conversation perfectly, but all of their references were going well over Keiko’s head.“Well, that’s why I keep saying you should watch…” Misato started.“Do you think I have time for that?!” Keiko yelled. “I have to study twice as hard as you do just to get the same marks, Misato! I get compared to you all the time! Just try putting yourself in my shoes!”“Should I lower my exam scores, then?”“Don’t make me even more pathetiiiiiiic!!!”Though she was shouting angrily, this conversation was a regular one, a practiced bit of theirs. While she did not score in the top percentile of nationwide exam scores like Misato did, Keiko was still in the top of her class at school, a rightful honors student. Plus, unlike Misato, who fell incredibly short in areas outside of her exceptional grades, Keiko, who was chock-full of common sense and was the conscientious class-rep type, was popular—among boys and girls alike.However, whenever Misato pointed this out, Keiko would wince and change the subject…The next day.“Handkerchief, tissues, cell phone, wallet, lunch box. Do you have everything? Ahh! Your hair’s sticking up! Here, bend down a bit!”As she did every morning, Keiko was busying herself with Misato’s pre-school check. To those outside of their family, Misato seemed like the perfect girl, but it was all a sham.

Average 6.7

“Uh…”Millelina suddenly went silent, as she realized that she had unintentionally given up some classified intel.“Th-that’s… A-anyway, no human would ever be able to see through the magical wall that we’ve all conjured!”“Mm-hmm…concealing magic, then? Then your nest would be found somewhere with a hint of magic or where the surrounding scenery doesn’t look quite right…”“Wha-wh-wh-wha?!”“D-damn!” Millelina’s mouth flapped stupidly. Yet she just kept giving up more and more information. “The forty-seven members of our clan shall never be brought to our knees by anyone!”“Oh, go on then… Your population is forty-seven, you say?”“Aaaaaaaaaargh!!”Realizing how much vital information she had now given away, Millelina crumbled.“B-but, we still have a trump card! Miss Wintergale! She’s so splendid in combat, they call her the ‘Battle Fairy’!”“Mm-hmm, so there’s one opponent to be cautious of, and, judging by her name, she uses blizzard-type combat magic…”“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”Was this level of idiocy common among fairies? Or was this a special characteristic of this individual, Millelina? Even the other fairies would probably think that a girl who was also known as the “Electric Fairy,” would at least be a little bit brighter…So Mile thought, but it did not seem that she would be getting any more information out of the girl.Still, now that it was beginning to grow dark, finding a hidden village was going to prove difficult. There was only one thing to do now…Nanos!HERE WE ARE!The fairy-shaped golem from before, which had remained unmoving for some time, suddenly began to warp in shape, changing color.“Wh…?”Millelina was stunned at the sight.The golem was now the spitting image of Millelina.“How’s the voice sample?”“Save me! Save me!” the golem replied, in a voice that sounded exactly like Millelina’s.“Ngah! Aaah! Graaaaaaaaah…”Ignoring Millelina, who was trembling and red in the face, Mile ordered, “Liftoff!”“Rasah!”With that, the golem once again took flight, a string attached to its back…***“Now, what to do with you all?”Night had fallen, and Mile now had forty-seven fairies, bound, incapacitated, and rolling on the ground around her.The one called Wintergale had fainted the moment her dear friend’s back popped open and four extra arms came out.“Well, I guess there’s no point in me trying to track down the fairies’ ‘hidden nest’ now.”It was the catch of a lifetime. She had gotten bite after bite on her cast-out line. Mile was quite pleased with her fishing prowess.“Oh, I’d better take off the sound barrier…”So that they would not interfere with her fishing, Mile had been keeping all of the captured fairies inside of a sound-dampening field. The fairies were desperately flapping their mouths, but no sound came out. However, when she removed the barrier…“What are you going to do to us?!”“Release us at once, you fiendish human!”“Do whatever you want to me, but please, spare my wife and daughter…”“I’m gonna burn ya! I’m gonna burn ya to the ground!!!”“Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”They were noisy. Incredibly noisy.“Come on, guys, I already told you I don’t have any bad intentions. I just wanted to talk a bit, and I thought that we might be able to make friends.”“Who the hell are you kidding?!?!?!” came a chorus.Seeing how the fairies raged at her, despite her friendly demeanor, Mile was speechless.Could you blame them, though? Suddenly capturing and restraining someone was not something that anyone who aimed to be a friend would do…A short while later, after Mile promised the fairies that she would let them go as soon as they heard her out, that she would not force them to talk, and that she would tell no one that she had encountered them, the fairies finally began to calm down and grow quiet.She decided to withdraw her tent from her inventory and move the fairies inside so that they could have a more leisurely conversation. Even the fairies were a bit stunned to see how casually she produced the item.“Might I get you to loosen these bindings a bit?” asked an old man who appeared to be the eldest of the group, most likely the village elder. Of course, Mile could not comply with his request. No matter how small they were, fairies were still quick, and fairly decent at magic.Honestly, Mile was not worried for her own safety. She merely worried that if she had to guard herself against a simultaneous attack from all the fairies and recapture them all at once in this dark and cramped tent, she might end up squashing them in an instant.When she explained as much, the fairies fell quiet again.“Come now. This’ll be over soon! I really just have a few questions to ask you all! So please, try and bear it for just a little while longer,” she said, before silently placing a request with the nanomachines.Would you be able to block the fairies’ magic until we’re finished talking?IF YOU, LADY MILE, AUTHORIZATION LEVEL 5, SO DIRECT IT, THEN NATURALLY THAT INSTRUCTION SHALL BE PRIORITIZED. DUE TO THE SMALL SIZE OF FAIRIES’ BODIES, THEIR THOUGHT PULSE EMISSIONS ARE WEAK, AND THUS THEY ARE UNABLE TO PRODUCE ANY LARGE-SCALE MAGIC TO BEGIN WITH, BEYOND THEIR FLIGHT CAPABILITIES.That much put her at ease. No matter how weak their magic might be, it would be irritating to have the tent set ablaze, and they still might be able to burn through the strings that bound them.Then, if you would, please!ROGER THAT!“Now, I’ll cut to the chase. What I would like to ask you all about is the matter of an ancient civilization, information of which should have been passed down through your various generations…”“Hm?”Surprise spread across the face of the fairy Mile presumed to be the village elder.“Y-you know about the Land of the Gods…?”Behind the elder, other fairies were fussing that they couldn’t produce fire or magic, but the old man ignored them.“Yes. So far, I’ve already heard about it from an elf and an elder dragon. So, I know the general facts, but I desperately needed to know if there was any new information I could gather from the stories passed down among the fairies…”Hearing this, the elder was stunned even further.Indeed, an elf was one thing, but he would have never thought that he would hear of a human who could have such a conversation with elder dragons.“I see. In that case, I suppose I can tell you—”“Chief!”“Chief, no!”Countless fairies tried to stop the elder, but he kept them in check.“There’s no point in trying to keep it a secret. On the contrary, I believe that this is a tale that the gods and our ancestors wished us to tell. This tale is merely one that has been lost among humans, whose generations turn over so quickly. I believe it is a joyous thing, if these stories may find life once again among the humans.”“………”And so, the elder told his story—the story that had been passed down among the fairies, whose lifespans were far, far longer than humans’.Mile learned almost nothing.The elder’s tale was scarcely any different from that which Mile had already heard from Doctor Clairia, the elf, and the elder dragon, Berdetice. No, in fact, compared to theirs, this story was perhaps even more lacking in information.Well, it didn’t really matter. Even just finding out how much information had been passed down among the fairies was enough to satisfy the aim of this expedition, after all. Plus, she had set aside her whole five-day break for this endeavor, so to have achieved her goal on the very first day was a bonus.Besides, “fishing for fairy friends” had been incredibly fun…even if it was probably a nightmare for the fairies.Indeed, having gotten her fill of an enjoyable excursion, Mile was satisfied.Then, suddenly, Mile saw before her…A fairy… larva?Indeed, it was a larval fairy—or rather, a young fairy girl.“Would you like to come with me, as a pe—er, a mascot? I can feed you delicious food, as much as you like! Well, not so much that you get too fat to fly, of course…”There was a devilish gleam in Mile’s eye.“Huh?” asked the girl. “Oh, wh-what should I do?”Tempted by the promises of endless delicious food, the little girl was troubled. However…A sudden roar came from the crowd. “Do you really think we’d let you do thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?!”“And also, just what exactly was it you were about to say?! ‘Pe—’? What is ‘pe—’?”“Uh, well, th-that was…”“You were about to say ‘pet,’ weren’t yooooouuuuu?!”Pe—Mascot Acquisition: Failed.“All right, I’ll let you all go now. Thank you for everything.”“Huh?”The fairies appeared surprised. Apparently, they had not actually expected Mile to honor her promises.She understood why. If she were to take all these fairies, whom she had already captured, back to town with her to sell, she could make a fortune so great that her children and grandchildren could live in the lap of luxury for their whole lives. There was no human who would let such a catch slip right through their fingers.Mile was doing a bit of thinking as well.I really have done something a bit cruel, haven’t I? Seeing a monster shaped like their friends suddenly break open its back would have to be rather traumatic, one might suppose…A “bit” cruel this was not. A bit cruel would be…I guess I’ve probably given them one more strike against humans as well… This is bad! This is really bad! If it’s true that I, who wanted to strive for a newfound peace with the fairies, have done exactly the opposite… I just couldn’t bear it!These were Mile’s thoughts as she busied herself undoing the fairies’ bonds, when suddenly, an idea popped into the back of her head. Abruptly, she put the tent back into her inventory.“Illusion magic, dispel!” she said suddenly, performing an incantation inside her head…or rather, giving instructions to the nanomachines.Refract and diffuse the light! Gather moisture into ice! Neutralize gravity and maintain formation…Yes, it was a callback from the far, distant past—Mile’s Goddess Form!!The condensation in the air froze, taking form as two pure white wings of crystallized ice sprouting from Mile’s back. A halo of light floated over her head, and light particles glistened all around her…“Wh—?! I-It can’t be! The All-Mother…”Hm? No? Not a goddess then?Mile was a little surprised at the elder’s utterance, but whether they thought of her as a goddess or as this so-called All-Mother, it made little difference.“Yes, it is I. I have come to assure myself that you, my children, are still telling our tales of yore, and that you are leading happy lives. It brings me ease to see you all in good health. Well then, be of good cheer!”Whoosh!With those special words, Mile’s form vanished into magical light. And with that, she ever so stealthily left the clearing behind.Perfect! she thought. Now they’ll think that those horrid things were the work of the E-Ferario or the All-Mother or something like that—and their hatred of humans won’t spread! It’s a little different from my plan to blame it on the goddess, but everything turned out okay in the end!And so Mile returned home, a triumphant spring in her step…“Oh my, oh my… I can’t believe that the All-Mother herself is watching over us!”The village elder and all the other fairies were so moved they were trembling.“Still, just when we thought that there might actually be a human who keeps her promises, it turned out to be the All-Mother. I guess there’s no mistaking it—there’s no such thing as a trustworthy human in this world. This is all the more reason that we must be cautious. That was probably why the All-Mother did as she did, to send us a warning…”And so, a rare and precious opportunity to raise the value of humans in the eyes of fairies went utterly wasted.Chapter 55:

The Four Stooges

(Minus One)
“So, it seems like Mile’s gone off on some mysterious solo mission for the duration of our break,” said Reina, her eyes on Mavis and Pauline. “But I’m assuming that you two don’t have any particular plans, do you?”The two of them shook their heads.Five days was far too short for either of them to make a round trip back to their home country of the Kingdom of Tils, so they hadn’t even considered trying it. As it was their first time in this country, there was nothing around that they even knew of to do on their own.Truthfully, though the idea behind taking this vacation was to give each of them time to do things alone, Reina had had it in mind to go out and do something fun with the four of them, so she was a bit stunned to hear Mile say, “I’m leaving the capital for a bit. There’s something I need to do.”At that point, though, it was already too late to take back her original proposal, and given the fact that it was so rare for Mile to express her own desires, Reina figured that it was more important to respect her wishes and left the matter be.Anyway, the four of them were always together. They could go and have fun together another time.“Well, there was something that I was thinking that we could use these five days to try out.”“What? You mean without Mile?”Pauline’s surprise was to be expected. The Crimson Vow was a four-person set, with Mile at the middle.It was true that Mavis was the official party leader, and that Reina always took the reins, but somehow or other, deep in their hearts, they all felt that Mile was the heart of the party. Her exceptional abilities aside, she was something like a mascot, or unifying force at the core of their solar system…“That’s right. I think we all rely on her too much anyway, so every once in a while we ought to try and see what things are like without Mile, for the sake of our own futures…”Indeed, though they lived carefree lives now, there was no telling when something might happen. Obviously there was the chance that one of them might die on the job, but losing members to illnesses and other circumstances was to be expected in the life of a hunter as well. The Crimson Vow in particular had a particularly large variety of “other circumstances” that could affect them.Though Reina, the Lord of Rain and Thunder—er, solitary wanderer—was a non-issue, Pauline worried after her family’s shop, which her mother and younger brother were working so hard to keep afloat. As for Mavis, she was still head over heels for her father and elder brothers. And then there was the reality that they each had their own dreams: Pauline of owning her own business and Mavis of becoming a knight. Sooner or later, there was sure to be talk of marriage…which was a possibility for Reina, too. In short, none of them were likely to remain hunters for their entire lives.And of course, there was Mile, the true problem child.Though she was currently neglecting her duties, she was in fact the land-owning head of a noble household. While she held no interest in either her rank or her estate, Mile was still very young. It was possible that one day she would come to gain some awareness of the duty she owed her family name, besmirched now but held high for generations by her mother and grandfather and the generations before them, as well as her responsibility toward the people who lived on her lands. Plus, it seemed that the royal family had some interest in what became of Mile…It was all too evident that one day the Crimson Vow would have to disband, or else resign themselves to having to recruit new members. Should that happen, they could not be accustomed to letting their every pattern revolve around one specific individual. So thought Reina, who got the feeling that, of the four, she would be spending the longest portion of her life as a hunter.“I guess you’re right,” said Mavis. “I approve, then. Pauline, what do you think?”“I agree too. We really do rely a little too much on Mile…”Thus, it was decided that the three of them would try doing something on their own.***Later on, deep within the forest…“I don’t see anything around here. Mile, would you use your search ma… Ah.” Reina trailed off and continued to walk.“I’m getting hungry…”“I think we could probably stop to eat now. Mile, would you take some… Ah.”“Oh.”None of them had thought to bring any food with them.Since they normally had access to Mile’s storage space, full of fresh fish, meat, vegetables, bread, and fruit, even when they went out on expeditions, no one ever paid any mind to preparing food for their trips. Now that they thought about it, they hadn’t brought any cookware or tableware, either. And naturally there was no camping gear…Well, they had planned to return within the day. However, the three still should have made at least the minimum of gear preparations, just in case. One never knew when something might happen in the forest, after all.“………”This was bad.They all silently agreed.They had become far too accustomed to a life of convenience.Negligence. Over-reliance. An inhibited ability to sense coming dangers. Even depravity.Those were the greatest killers of hunters, far greater foes than even the monsters they stalked.About two hours later, the three girls dined on a meal of tree fruits, a jackalope they had finally snagged, and plain water. Given that the amount of time they would be out only warranted eating one meal, they could have simply packed some jerky and hardtack, in which case, they would not have needed to waste so much time on acquiring and preparing food. And of course, if Mile had been there, she would have simply pulled out an already-prepared meal…Reina shook her head wildly at the thought.No! After the members of the Crimson Lightning were killed, I lived all alone. Properly alone! This—this weakness is not what Crimson Reina is all about!Reina was appalled at her own degraded condition, but Mavis and Pauline’s concern was not nearly as grave. Their travels with the Crimson Vow were the first time in their lives that they had lived as hunters, so they had been entirely spoiled by the convenience that was traveling with Mile. On top of this, they lacked the innate awareness of danger that Reina had. Without any other comparable experiences, it was more than likely they had come to believe that the status quo was the usual way of things.This is bad. This is bad this is bad this is bad this is bad!!!Putting herself aside, Reina was overwhelmed with a sense of fear at Mavis’s and Pauline’s limited independence as hunters. At this rate, they would never be able to make it in any party that did not contain Mile. This was even more serious than she previously thought.“I see one! There’s an orc moving all alone—a fairly small one!”“This should be a breeze. We’ve got room to work, so try not to lower its sales value too much, okay?”As always, Mavis was the quickest to spot their prey.Even without Mile, an orc was basically small fry as far as the Crimson Vow was concerned. Accordingly, Reina had decided to make “killing something without lowering its sales value too much” the topic of their special practice.Quietly, Reina and Pauline incanted their spells.“Ice Javelin!”“Bl—inding Mist!”The orc stood still, shocked at the spear of ice that had just materialized from thin air and pierced into its side. A red mist began to float around its face, and the orc started to rub its eyes.The word that Pauline had started to say was “Blessing,” which would have indicated a type of healing magic. However, the spell had turned out to be an attack on her opponent. That was Pauline for you—when she invented a new spell, it was a tricky one.Mavis took advantage of the opening to leap out from the trees, slicing the orc’s head off in one fell swoop. She was not using her True Godspeed Blade, of course. Special techniques were best saved for special times. Furthermore, an orc that was standing stock-still and rubbing its eyes was not even worthy of being called an enemy. Of course, this was only possible because of Mavis’s skill and the help of the mysterious blade that Mile had provided; it was not something that could easily be achieved by just anyone. Orcs’ necks were thick, and their bones were sturdy.“That felt good. We didn’t put a single scratch on the parts that sell for the most, and we didn’t cause any damage to the environment. Ten out of ten. Now, Mile, if you would…”“Ah…”Of the three girls assembled there, two of them were slight, waifish mages.Even a small orc could be estimated to weigh just shy of 300 kilograms.And there was no one there who could use storage magic.***“C-can we rest for a bit?” Pauline wailed.“We just took a break a little while ago!” Reina rebuked.“B-but isn’t it more efficient to take regular breaks, rather than pushing ourselves?” Mavis argued.As it would have been utterly impossible for them to carry back the entire orc, they had taken with them only the ears, as proof of elimination, and as many of the most valuable parts as they could carry.Even without the head, hands, bones, and internal organs, which no one would care to eat, the orc still weighed around 200 kilograms. No matter how hard they pushed themselves, they would only be able to carry around half of that. They took only the good portions of the flesh and then the heart, liver, and the tongue. All this was divided up among the three, with Pauline and Reina both taking far smaller portions of the load than Mavis. Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses, so even Mavis could not complain about this.“After we get this back to town, should we go back and pick up the rest?” Mavis asked.“………”Reina and Pauline answered her with silence.“Well, I mean, I just thought I’d ask! You don’t have to look at me with those dead eyes… Plus, I’m sure that by the time we got back, all the good stuff would have already been eaten up by small animals and other monsters, anyway!” she hurriedly added.Still, the hollow look in Reina and Pauline’s eyes did not change.The day after they hunted the orc, the three girls decided to take a rest.Given that they were already in the midst of a full-party five-day break, this was of no consequence.However, the reason they were resting was that their bodies were so sore they could not move. That was all there was to it.And then, the third day came.“Let’s do this! But this time, no orcs!”Mavis and Pauline nodded emphatically.“All we’re going to gather is herbs that sell at a high price and are easy to transport. If we hunt anything living, it’s only going to be extermination targets, and all we’ll be taking back is proof of the kill. And we’ll be camping out tonight.”Once again, there were nods all around.Reina knew that they had sufficient combat strength between them, and her assessment was apt. If they got into a battle with other humans, or even against a monster, the Crimson Vow could put on an impressive display. Even without Mile.They had Reina, the fire-magic wielder. They had Pauline, who had not only healing and support magic but also combat spells and a few other fairly dirty tricks at her disposal. And they had Mavis, whose abilities with a sword rivaled those of a B-rank hunter and could even surpass those of an A-rank, at least for a short time and provided she had her pills. Truly, now that she had her “spirit”-powered sword techniques, the Wind Edge and the magus killer Anti-Magic Blade, Mavis had perhaps been getting a bit carried away as of late.Together they had the strength of a C-rank party twice their number. Even if they found themselves surrounded by ogres, they could prevail… It would not even be inappropriate to say that they already had the strength of a B-rank party.Even the guild was aware of this fact, but unfortunately, under the current rules, there were still a minimum number of contribution points and years spent as a member of one’s current rank that were required for promotion, and as it stood, the Crimson Vow, who had only a scant amount of time as C-rank hunters under their belts, did not yet qualify to take the rank promotion exam. Even though they were accumulating those contribution points at breakneck speed…At any rate, what the girls needed now was not battle training, but “Mile-free” training.This was the conclusion that Reina had come to.“I think it’s probably about time to start making camp, then?” said Mavis, seeing that the sun had already begun to set.“You’re right.”Reina nodded in agreement, thinking that it was about time to stop hunting for the day anyway.The three searched for an appropriate place to set up their tent. Though we say tent here, if they were to carry a complete set of thick and sturdy hides and pelts treated with moisture-repellant, along with wooden poles and sticks of the appropriate strength and size, it would be heavy, awkward, and generally a huge pain. Carrying something like that along with them would mean that they could carry almost nothing else and would not be able to take any gathered materials or prey back with them.Thus, they had decided only to roll up some waterproof cloths and hides, and use the trees themselves, as well as any sticks they found around them to make a shelter just substantial enough to stave off any wind and rain.Given that the tent packed away in Mile’s storage (read: inventory) could be stored and withdrawn without having to be put together each time, regardless of its volume or weight, it was intricate and painstakingly assembled, but there was no one else in their group who had that capability. The tent materials and tools that the girls were using were ones rented from the guild. Mile had no clue that her friends would have gone off to do any work during their vacation and had left all of the gear stored away in her storage (read: inventory), so it couldn’t be helped.The guild kept a certain amount of spare equipment in stock to lend to financially-strapped newbie hunters and for use during emergency requests placed with the guild. For the most part, these were pieces of used equipment donated by hunters who had swapped their gear out for newer things, items left behind by hunters who had died, and secondhand goods from other various avenues, but given that they were loaned out for next to nothing, they were still a blessing.And then…“How is it dark already?!”“Oh, come on! I just gotta get this part—get in there…”Not only had it taken them quite a bit of time to locate a place to set up that would keep them safe even in a sudden change of weather, the Crimson Vow, whose members had been used to having all of the necessary framing parts packed away in storage, even before Mile had begun carrying the fully assembled tent, were fighting an uphill battle, wholly unprepared to be constructing a tent from scratch.Reina had some previous experience, but Mavis and Pauline were more or less at a loss. By the time they somehow or other managed to rig a tent together, it was already completely dark out.“………”Dinner preparations went off without a hitch.They had packed along some hard tack and jerky just in case, but thankfully they had also snagged some jackalopes and birds along the way, so that became the centerpiece of their meal.Most normal hunters would avoid eating what they had caught in order to save money, but the Vow were not hurting for cash, and without Mile, their transport abilities were relatively diminished, lower even than those of most other parties, so they decided to just eat their catches on site.The cooking itself went favorably, thanks to the use of magic, with Reina to ignite the fire and Pauline to oscillate the water molecules to make them boil and so forth. This was one area where they were not lacking without Mile around. Fire magic was only useful for lighting the logs, anyway. Applying magical fire directly to the food would not cook the meat well; the outside would be charred and the middle left raw.“Mile, the spice ple… Ah.”“………”“Um, I could use my hot magic to—”“I’m good.”“Never mind, then.”On the evening of the fourth day of their break, the Crimson Vow arrived back at the capital. They had managed to bring back a relatively large amount of slightly pricey medicinal herbs, a fair bit of sellable prey, and the inedible parts of prey marked for extermination in the daily requests as trophies. For two days and one night’s work, the outcome was not bad at all…for a normal party.However, the three had become accustomed to their earnings from when Mile was around. Their clearly abnormal earnings.They collected their reward, divvied up the pay, and then stared at the coins piled in their hands.“………”They had to do better so that they could survive and call themselves competent C-rank hunters, even without Mile’s help.Also, they really ought to cherish Mile more—but no, even if she was the youngest and had the most exceptional ability, she was still just a member of the party, and the four of them were equals. On the contrary, giving her special treatment would be disrespectful to Mile in a different way.The best thing that they could do was put in more effort themselves in order to make up for Mile’s shortcomings, the places where she fell behind because she was still so young. And in order to do that, they had to work harder, in pursuit of the day when they could finally, truly, stand shoulder to shoulder with the wondrous girl that was Mile.On this, Mavis, Reina, and Pauline all agreed.***“I’m back!”On the evening of the fifth day, just before dinner, Mile returned.“Welcome back. Did you enjoy your break?”“I did! I finally fulfilled my lifelong dream!”“I’m glad to hear it. W-we decided to do a bit of hunting for practice while you were gone, just us three, but we already split the earnings among ourselves. You’re okay with that, right? I mean, not that it was that much to begin with, anyway…”Reina had no desire to keep anything hidden from Mile, and one of them was bound to spill the beans in casual conversation sooner or later anyway. So, it was better to just get it out of the way and tell her ahead of time, Reina thought.“Oh, of course! We all agreed on that when we formed this party, anyway,” Mile said, as though this were a completely obvious thing. “I got done with the thing I had planned a bit early anyway, so I decided to do a bit of side work myself. I only ended up bringing in about twenty gold, though…”“Wha…?”Pauline’s neck creaked as her head pivoted slowly toward Mile.Reina’s face twitched.And Mavis’s face was one of resignation.Looks like we’ve still got a long way to go.***“Mile, I’ve got a request,” said Reina a few days later.“Me too,” added Pauline, an equally serious look upon her face.“Oh? What is it?” asked Mile, intrigued.“I want you to teach me to use storage magic.”“Me too!”“Uh…”The inventory that Mile accessed while feigning the use of storage magic could only be reached by individuals who were of a Level 3 authorization or higher, and thus able to communicate directly with the nanomachines. Even the storage magic that normal people could use was difficult to access without sufficient talent.This was not surprising. If it were a skill that could be taught and acquired easily, it would not have nearly as much value.It was one thing to store something temporarily, but keeping something in storage while concentrating on other tasks, and even while sleeping, required a constant invocation. It was a high hurdle, both mentally and in terms of magical strength—absurdly high.“I don’t mind teaching you all, but well, to be honest, it’s incredibly difficult.”“Don’t worry, we can handle it!!”A few more days later…“Why?!?!”It turned out that Reina could not even access hyperspace to begin with. Pauline, who could muster up a strength greater than that of any mortal man in the name of earning money, could at least tentatively access hyperspace, but once she put something in to store it, all that she stored was spit right back out the moment she lost focus. Plus, she could only hold a few dozen kilograms. This alone was not enough to claim that she could properly use storage magic. Though if she could at least get to the point where she only had to take the items out of storage and undo the spell while she was sleeping, then she would at least be tentatively worthy of the claim…“I’m not even sure if you’ll be able to keep things from falling out of there like this…”“I can’t let anything fall out!!!”Mavis looked on, resignation upon her face once more.We really do still have a long way to go…

Average 6.6

54:

Fairy Hunting
Today was a rest day for the Crimson Vow. It was not the rest day that came once every six days, as defined by the calendar, but rather a day that the girls themselves had decided to take off.There was no reason for everyone in the world to have the same days off, after all, and it meant that the dining halls and shops weren’t completely packed once a week. So the girls took their rest days as they pleased, as job circumstances allowed.Indeed, for the next five days, the Crimson Vow would not be traveling as a group but would each go off on their own to do whatever they liked. No matter how much they liked their fellow party members, or how well they got along, it was important to have a little private time now and then.I think it’s somewhere around here…Based on information that she had been gathering here and there, Mile now found herself loitering in a dense forest near a small village some distance away from the capital. When Mile was completely alone, she could cover even sizeable distances in a very short time, thanks to her immense speed.“Nanos!”YES, MA’AM!“Let’s start around here.”ROGER THAT!With that, the nanomachines set to work, and soon the ground began to rise up before Mile, the dirt wriggling about until a shape materialized.It was a winged girl, around 20 centimeters tall—a perfectly accurate scale figure of a fairy that Mile had designed and colored herself, based on information she had gleaned from illustrated references and the tales told by elders. The nanomachines had helped, of course; they knew what the genuine article looked like and so had made minute adjustments to bring the figure closer to the real thing, based obliquely on Mile’s guidance.As Mile had decided from the start that she would rather not ask the nanomachines directly, the tiny beings were left to dither about on their own. Though they wished that Mile would be a bit more assertive in utilizing their services, they were of course aware of the reason why she did not, and as they found her reasoning to be fair, they respected her judgment.For some reason, this figure’s fairy wings were tattered and its clothing stained with something red like blood.Flap flap.And then, it moved. Apparently it was not just a figure but a golem.SOMETHING LIKE THIS, THEN?“Yes, that’s perfect! A perfect storm!”This punchline was one that Mile had been holding onto since her previous life. Though she had ended said life without once getting to use it on anyone other than her own family, thankfully, she now had the nanomachines here to appreciate her humor.Mile then turned over the tiny fairy golem, which was a size smaller than Cham Huau from Aura Battler Dunbine, and attached a fine, strong, and nearly invisible thread to its back. It was the thread that she had previously crafted to use as fishing line.“Liftoff!”“Mah!”Reading Mile’s thoughts, the nanomachine-controlled golem fluttered up at the sound of the control word.“Golem, Golem… Gowappa 5?” Mile muttered something incomprehensible to herself.When it came to matters that only the nanomachines would know about, Mile strictly restrained herself from relying too much on their information, just as in her jobs with the Crimson Vow. However, she had also allowed herself an exception to that rule; namely, in cases where someone’s life was in danger or when it would not trouble or have an ill effect on other people and was merely for her own amusement rather than personal gain. In these cases, it was okay to work alongside the nanomachines now and then.Plus, she had realized that if she went too long without calling on them, they would grow peevish and begin inventing reasons to make conversation.***“It’s no use…”No matter how many different places she tried, the results were the same. Each time, she would set the fairy-shaped golem flying about on its string while she hid beneath the trees, the spool that the thread was attached to in her hand. She would then move to a different place and repeat the same experiment.From the moment that Mile first learned that fairies existed in this world, it had become her life’s goal to meet one.Apparently, in the past it had been relatively commonplace to encounter a fairy, and as a result, various tales still lingered in the cultural recollection—stories of lost little children to whom the fairies gave honey and snacks before guiding them back to the outskirts of their village or of fairies who offered troubled villagers the solutions to their problems…However, it seemed that those who would capture and sell the fairies, or try to imprison them and put on display, had begun to appear more and more frequently. As a result, the fairies gradually stopped appearing in front of humans altogether. Yet it did not appear that they had all been annihilated in one fell swoop by some calamity—merely that they had stopped showing themselves to humans, from which it followed that there still must be some possible way to draw them out. Perhaps by a method like the one Mile was currently trying…Just as the sun was beginning to set and Mile started to consider packing up and going home, a single fairy appeared.“My, my! What’s wrong, dearest? You’re covered in blood! Oh, how dreadful! Your lovely wings… Has some human done this to you? Come, let’s get you back to the secret nest…”It was as if she had come out of nowhere.The fairy called out to the fairy-shaped golem, her wings fluttering as she approached the unsteady thing and put her arms around it in concern, trying to support its weight. Just then…Grab!“Eeek!!”The fairy let out a cry of shock as the golem suddenly clamped both its arms and legs around her.“Wh—?! Let me go! We’re both going to fall! You’re safe now! Please calm down!”Apparently, she still thought that the other creature was an injured fellow fairy.The golem’s back then opened with a snap, and four more arms extended from the opening, latching tight onto the fairy’s limbs. With this, the fairy finally realized that this was not in fact one of her kin but some kind of unfamiliar spectre, which had merely taken on the form of one of her fellow fae. She went pale, and her mouth opened wide.“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!”Mile then began to reel in her spool, drawing both golem and fairy toward her.She knew about lure fishing from her previous life, and so, based on those same principles, she had decided to create a fairy-shaped lure. She would use a golem masquerading as an injured fairy to draw a concerned fairy in and capture them.It was brutish. There was no doubt that this would push the standing of humans even lower in the eyes of all fairies.“S-someone help! Don’t eat meeeee!!!”Given its many limbs, and the fact that it moved as though drawn in by a string, the fairy seemed to assume that this was some sort of spider-like monster mimicking a fairy. Any creature that would go to the trouble of mimicking its prey could have one of only two goals:1) Eating it.2) Using venom to paralyze it and using its body to spawn its eggs.There were no other plausible explanations. Seeing how the creature was drawing her in alive, showing no signs of wanting to kill her, despite a successful capture, the fairy could not imagine her fate as anything but number two—a fate more deplorable than death. And so she once again began to scream at the top of her lungs.“Geeeeeeeeee!!!! SOMEONE HELP MEEE! ANYOOOOOOOONNNNNEE!!!”As the fairy drew nearer, half-maddened in fear, Mile called out to try to calm her.“There’s no need to worry. I’m not a monster, I’m a human. So, there’s no need for you to…”Halfway through Mile’s speech, the fairy suddenly stopped screaming.“A human?”“Yes, I’m a human!”“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”After a scream even more desperate than her first, the fairy suddenly went quiet. Thinking this curious, Mile peeked down at her to see that she was foaming at the mouth, her eyes blank. Apparently, as far as the fairy was concerned, compared to having eggs implanted in her by an arachnid monster and being eaten alive by its newly hatched young, capture at the hands of a human was a far more gruesome fate.Just how afraid of humans are fairies?!?! Mile wondered.Enough that they never showed themselves in front of humans, at the very least.***“Oh! It was j-just a dream…”Millelina, the fairy girl, awoke with a start, patting her chest.“Oh, what a terrible dream that was… I thought that I’d been captured by some monster pretending to be a fairy, when it actually turned out to be a human! What a nightmare… Honestly, that’s enough of a nightmare for a lifetime…”She was drenched in sweat, but now that she realized it was only a dream, a smile appeared on Millelina’s face.“I’m ever so sorry to inform you, but unfortunately this is not a dream…”Millelina looked up reflexively at the voice to see her entire view obscured by a giant human face.“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”“Oh, she fainted again…”Mile looked troubled.“Oh! It was j-just a dream…”Millelina, the fairy girl, awoke with a start, patting her chest.“Oh, what a terrible dream that was…”“I’m ever so sorry to inform you, but unfortunately this is not—”“GYBADADAFRASDHAHAAH!”“Oh, there she goes again… All right, that’s enough already!!”This could only go on for so long. If they kept at it, before Mile knew it, it would be night. So that they could move on to the next step while it was still light out, Mile desperately shook Millelina awake.***“…so, that’s what’s going on.”“You didn’t capture me just to sell me or put me on display?”“Of course not! I really just wanted to talk to you…”Millelina was still terrified upon waking, but after Mile rambled on to her about the whole scheme, Millelina finally seemed to calm down a bit.“You aren’t going to steal my liver or my shirikodama?”“What do you think I am, a kappa?!”Apparently, there were a lot of strange rumors being flung about in the fairy world. It was tantamount to slander.“In the human world, that’s something that’s said to be done by a type of fairy!”Mile was not lying. Such stories were told back in Japan. It was also true that kappas were said to be fallen gods, or else a type of fairy. However, Millelina, upon hearing this, shouted in dismay. “Wh-wh-wh-wha?! What a horrid rumor! That’s slander!!!”“I’m the one who should be saying that!!”About ten minutes later, the two began speaking to one another again.“Anyway, who I’d really like to speak to is a chief or some other elder—whoever would have the clearest recollection of details from the past. So, if you would just take me to your village…”“As if I would ever do such a thing! Perhaps you aren’t interested in our livers or our souls, but the fact still remains that human have captured and tried to sell us before!”“No, but I’m telling you that… Wait, ‘tried to’? Fairies have never actually been sold?”Some decades ago, many wicked merchants and other scoundrels had come around to hunt the fairies. Before that, Mile had been told, humans and fairies had a peaceful coexistence… She had assumed that fairies, who, unlike now, had once trusted humans, had been captured in droves.“We were captured, yes, many of us. But for some reason, whenever night fell, the wagons or tents where our captured brothers and sisters were being kept would catch on fire and the captured fairies would vanish. And then, for some reason, when our captors dragged themselves back to town, they would find that their homes and businesses, and the homes and warehouses of the rich and influential people who had placed orders for fairies, had all been burned to the ground. For some reason…“It would seem that, soon enough, the humans who would come to capture us stopped appearing at all. For. Some. Reason. Though, well, it is also true that we stopped even showing our faces to humans, anyway…” Millelina finished with a sneer.Surely enough, fairies, who were tiny and could fly with nary a sound, would probably make the ultimate spies or terrorists.Ah! “You should never look down on perilous pixies”… Hm… “Fairly fatal fabulously flying fairies”…? No, that’s no good. Ugh, I think I’m in a bit of a slump here…Mile could not come up with a single decent pun.“Even if you torture me, I shall never give up the location of our hidden nes—”“I see! So the fairies’ dwelling is hidden by some means, you say? Thank you very much for that information.”

Average 6.5

“What kinds of symptoms do you have now as compared to when you were in good health?”“O-oh, um, well…” Leatoria meekly replied. “I’ve always been thin, but when I got sick I lost my appetite, and now I can barely eat anything. I feel drowsy all the time; I have palpitations and shortness of breath. My legs feel numb, and I barely have any strength in my limbs…”Unfortunately, loss of appetite, drowsiness, fatigue, and weakness were common symptoms of most illnesses. These alone told Mile almost nothing.“Now then, please remain seated on the bed and lower your legs down over here.”Leatoria complied, dangling her legs off the side of the bed, while Mile scrutinized her lower half.“Oh? They’re a bit swollen, aren’t they?”“Ah, yes, I suppose they are…”Mile drew a bit closer to get a better look.Thunk!“Eek!”Mile smacked Leatoria’s knee with the hilt of the sword strapped to her waist, and the resulting thwack resounded throughout the room.“Th-that hurt…”“Oh no! I-I’m so sorry!!”Mile quickly pulled back, apologizing.“Hm…”However, something felt off.“Oh? There’s something…”Actually, Mile suddenly got the impression that there was not enough of something that should have been there…“Aha!”With a shout, Mile drew the sword from her waist—still within its scabbard, naturally. She gripped the sword by the scabbard, and once again struck Leatoria’s knee with the hilt.Thwack!“Aah!”Leatoria gave another—almost too adorable—cry.“You’re just messing around now!” Wilomia protested, but Mile was too preoccupied to notice.Thwack!“Ngh!”Thwack!“Eep!”Finally, Wilomia seized Mile by the shoulders. “Stop it!”“Aha, sorry! I got a little carried away there…”“So you really were just messing around?!?!” the sisters roared in unison.“N-no, I think I’ve found it! The name of your illness and the cause of it!”“Whaaaaaaat?!?!”Indeed, in a most blessed turn of events, this illness was one that even a normal high school girl, with almost no practical experience in examining patients, would be able to easily name and diagnose.It was an illness that had made so many casualties of Japanese people in the distant past that it was called a “national disease.”And, for some reason, it was a disease to which affluent people very commonly fell victim.Indeed, that disease was beriberi.That said, Mile was not able to summon up the name just from observing the symptoms. However, most people knew that you could diagnose beriberi by checking the reflexes of the knees, which was something that almost everyone did just for fun as children. Even Misato and her sister had done so in their youth.Mile gave Leatoria the okay to return her clothing to normal and exited the room, leaving her to Wilomia.“Sir Baron, I have another request!”Hearing her call, the baron, Bundine, and the Crimson Vow, who had been waiting in another room, reappeared.“I would like to meet with your chef. I would like to know the process by which he prepares Leatoria’s food.”“Huh…? Well, sure, that’s fine. Come right this way.”Soon, they arrived at the kitchen.The kitchen staff stood nervously as they faced the whole Aura family (minus two) and the Crimson Vow in a row.It would have been one thing had they been called to an audience with their employer, but it was unthinkable that the baron himself would come bursting into the kitchen unannounced, his whole family and his guests in tow, unless it was to issue a complaint. Moreover, the way that they were arranged, the one who had come to complain could be none other than one of said guests.A noble might bring terrible shame upon himself as a result of the food he served to his invited guests. There was no way that the kitchen staff could not have known how grave a circumstance this was.“Er, u-um…” The chef could not even form words.Mile bowed her head. “Pardon me. I was hoping that you could tell me how it is that you prepare Miss Leatoria’s food.”“What?” the kitchen staff all asked as one.“There’s no need for you to actually remake the food now. I was just hoping that you could talk me through the process, step by step. If you could just outline it for me, like, ‘Then I cut this part into cubes,’ or, ‘Then I peel the skin off of this…’”“Ah, y-yes, most certainly!”That much was simple. Until mere seconds ago, the chef had been quaking with fear that they had come to condemn him, so this was a task that he would gladly undertake.“…then, I boil the vegetables until they’re soft, drain them, and then soak them in the prepared broth…”“Mm-hmm…”“Then I wash the thinly sliced beef with water…”“What? You wash it?”“Ah, yes. Lady Leatoria has a weak constitution, so we wash it clean and make sure that it isn’t overly seared…”“………”“I thought that the food we ate had pork in it, so why is Leatoria eating beef?”“Ah, well, to tell you the truth, when the family moved from our home territory to the capital, she happened to witness pigs being slaughtered at one of the villages where we stopped along the way. Since then, she’s been unable to eat pork.”“I see. Are there any other foods that Lady Leatoria dislikes? Or rather, that you avoid serving to her?”“Well, yes, since we’re so far inland, we don’t serve seafood to anyone. Other than that, the lady mustn’t have bread, corn, or anything with strong flavors or smells, such as garlic, chives, scallions, or onions. What she can eat is small amounts of beef, vegetables, eggs, mushrooms, and milk…”“Mm-hmm, yes, I see. Thank you very much!”And so Mile left the kitchen, with the others in tow.“What in the world was all that about?” The kitchen staff breathed a collective sigh of relief. They had no idea what was going on, but at least they knew that they were not being rebuked for some mistake on their part.This relief was short-lived, as soon after, the silver-haired girl from before poked her head back through the door once again.“Um, I’d like you all to come with us, too.”“Huhhhh?!?!”The whole group squeezed into Leatoria’s room: the entire Aura family, including Leatoria, Bundine the butler, the Crimson Vow, and the three members of the kitchen staff. Bundine and the kitchen staff were on their feet.Mile, who had been sitting, stood and regarded the whole assembly.“Now then, it looks like we’re down to the last ten minutes of the show. Time to solve this mystery!”Outside of the Crimson Vow, who had heard her use the term many times before, no one in the room had any idea what she meant by a “show,” but no one there was dense enough as to bother questioning her at this point.“I know exactly what is ailing Lady Leatoria.”“Whaaaaaat?!?!?!”Everyone shouted in surprise, their eyes open wide.“M-Mile, you’ve studied medicine, too?” Reina asked.“W-well, to a fair degree, at least…”Clearly, Mile could not answer her question with, “I’m just an amateur,” or “I just happen to know a few things,” so she did her best to play it off.“I-Is that true?! And c-can it be cured?!” the baron cut in, his eyes bloodshot.“That depends. Now, please allow me to explain,” Mile pacified. “First off, I believe this illness is one that, back in my country, is called beriberi.”“Beriberi?”“Yes. It is an illness caused primarily by what we eat.”“Wh-what?!” the baron shouted.“Uh…”The kitchen staff went pale again.“J-just what have you all been feeding my darling Leatoria?!”As the baron raged at them, his face like a devil’s, the kitchen staff collapsed to the floor.“Say it! What are you scheming?! What did you make her eat?! Who’s paying you to do this?!?!”Mile put out a hand to halt the baron, who appeared ready to throttle the staff.“Please wait. I did not mean that those fine people fed anything strange to your daughter.”Realizing that the silver-haired girl who they had thought was going to condemn them was in fact on their side, the kitchen staff looked to Mile with pleading eyes.“On the contrary, you could say that they haven’t been feeding her the things that she should be eating…”“Huhhh?!?!”Was she blaming them or defending them? They couldn’t tell. Confusion spread throughout the room, as neither the baron nor the staff could be certain of what was going on.“Now, allow me to explain things in order,” said Mile.“Why didn’t you do that from the start?!” Reina exclaimed, but Mile ignored her and began her explanation.“First of all, for a person to live a healthy life, one needs to eat a balanced, varied diet. I’m sure you all know this, correct?”While this world was still lacking in things like nutritional science, they had determined at least that much from experience. And so, everyone present nodded.“The reason that you need to eat a lot of different things is that, even among vegetables and meats, each one has different proportions of the components that the body needs.”“Hm? Then that means—don’t tell me…”That was the head of a noble household for you. This was all that the baron needed to hear, and already he had come to the appropriate conclusion.“Indeed. Leatoria’s diet has insufficient variety. Plus, the already scanty nutrients in her food, which break down easily in water and are finicky and weak to heat, barely remain once they’ve been meticulously washed, thoroughly heated, and separated from the water in which they’ve been boiled. Besides, she dislikes onions and other alliums, which help you to absorb those components…“If she changes her eating habits, then her symptoms should start to improve. There’s nothing wrong with what the rest of the family is eating, so after you have her on a special diet for a little while, and she recovers from her illness, then all of you can eat the same food together again.”“Ohh! Oh goodness! Is that so? Please tell me it’s so!”“Yes, well, I can’t say with absolute certainty, but I’m fairly confident about this…”Tears flooded down the baron’s cheeks. Moisture was welling up in the corners of his wife’s and children’s eyes as well. And on the bed, Leatoria, who was certain that she was doomed to steadily deteriorate until she perished, was dumbfounded to hear that her own preferences had been the cause of all this.“Th-that can’t… Th-this slow, creeping death that was paralyzing my body and sapping all my strength was all because of my preferences in food? All because of what I liked to eat…”“Please, Miss Mile! What should we do?!”The baron pressed Mile forcefully for a solution.“Umm, well, first, for her menu: you can’t have fish, so she needs pork, beans, corn, and two slices of bread or so, and then onions, chives, scallions, and garlic as well. Don’t wash the meat, and increase the amount of raw vegetables she gets, such as in salads. Oh, and please reuse the cooking broth—don’t throw it away. Also, stop putting wine in her water. It’s not effective at sterilizing it, and alcohol’s no good when you’re already sick.”“Of course! You got it! Please do as she says!” the baron shouted to the kitchen staff.“On it, sir!”Reinvigorated, the staff rushed immediately back to their posts.“Whaaaaaaaat?!” Hearing the menu that Mile had listed, Leatoria let out a cry of despair.“You don’t get to complain!!” her parents and siblings exclaimed.Opposed by her entire family, Leatoria crawling under her blanket, sulking.Leaving Leatoria, now a lump in the blankets, behind, the group relocated to the parlor.“I don’t know how to thank you enough… You rescued Bundine from his quandary, saved our family from having our name dragged through the mud, and secured Leatoria’s medicine. And now, somehow, you’ve even given us a cure to her illness itself!”Bowing one’s head to a commoner was something that a noble simply did not do. And yet, here the baron was, bowing his head to Mile. Even if Mile and Mavis could be assumed to be nobles, officially they were all commoners, professing themselves to be naught but humble C-rank hunters.“Well, I would say it’s still a bit early to be thanking me. Though I think what I’ve told you is probably correct, in truth it’s nothing more than the opinion of a novice. You might wish to withhold your gratitude until she’s safely recovered…”The baron was momentarily startled, but seeing that the look on Mile’s face clearly said, ‘I’m saying this just in case, but in truth I’m confident that she should be fine,’ he regained his calm.“Well then, how about this: I’ll place a direct request with the guild for you all to provide us with the cure to Leatoria’s illness?”“What?! Are you sure?”Mile was shocked, but the baron shrugged off her surprise.“It’s only natural. There’s no way that I could let such a great—such an enormous deed go unrewarded. If anyone else found out about it, the name of the House of Aura—nay, even if no one ever found out about—my own pride would be sullied!”The baron really was a good person after all.“It will, of course, be best to treat this as a post-completion request, as the matter is already settled, but there’s no point in running back and forth to the guild to do the processing, and I’m sure we would all feel better if there were some results to confirm. So once Leatoria’s condition has improved, I will do the deed and arrange for a direct request to be filed with the guild. What do you think?”“Please and thank you!!!!”A direct request from a noble, with a huge reward! As far as promotion points were concerned, this was quite the juicy morsel. It was an achievement that few C-rank hunters could hope for, a testament to their skill and credibility. This would be a political boon for the guild as well: proof that a noble family had come to rely on them.“By the way, forgive my changing the topic, but besides all of the things you listed earlier, what else should we be having Leatoria eat? It would be so dull to have her eat the same thing every day.”“Er…” The baron’s question was an entirely reasonable one, but Mile was lost for words.It was not as though Mile was a trained nutritionist. Her knowledge was only slightly greater than that of the average high school girl, as she had read up on the topic a bit for fun, expanding her knowledge beyond what had been covered in school lessons. Really, all that she happened to know was that you could identify beriberi from diminished reflexes, that the cause was a deficiency of vitamin B1, and that there were a handful of foods that were and were not rich in this vitamin.However, the only examples of foods that she knew were ones from textbooks and other instructional manuals, and the only ones she could think of were eel, bream, salmon roe, and other such seafood. In other words, they were all things that it would be impossible for these people to come by.The only other information that Mile could recall about beriberi was that the Japanese navy had found and implemented a solution to combat the illness in its early stages, but that the author Mori Ōgai, who was primarily the surgeon general of the army, violently opposed this practice and spoke out against their nutritional theories, instead subscribing to the contagion theory of the disease, and needlessly sentencing many soldiers in the Japanese land forces to death…In other words, what Mile remembered was useless trivia, utterly inapplicable to the situation at hand.“I think that there are probably a lot more foods that have the necessary components in them, but unfortunately those are the only ones that I know. Truly, as long as she just eats a normal diet, she should be fine. There’s nothing wrong with the rest of you, after all… It was just by random chance that her diet ended up so imbalanced this time. But, well, just in case…”Nanos!FINALLY!What’s that mean?! It’s not good for me to come calling on you for every little thing, so I really don’t like to rely on you guys too much, but a person’s life is at stake here, so I guess I can’t worry about that just now…Well, whatever. Please confirm for me that I made the right call here!Diagnosing it as beriberi was just my judgment as a layperson, but now that I think about it, there could have been a thousand other reasons why her knee didn’t react like it should—like maybe it’s an illness that affects her nervous system, or maybe she has too much fat under her skin and the reaction was dulled, or I hit her in the wrong spot, or maybe I even hit her too hard and fractured her knee. If I got too carried away in my snap judgment, then the solution I gave them might not even help her.So please, tell me what the correct diagnosis is!Indeed, though previously she had made the call with confidence, Mile was struck with a sudden sense of anxiety. She had finally realized how reckless it was to make such a judgment based only on the lack of a reaction from Leatoria’s knee.UNDERSTOOD. NOW THEN, PLEASE CONCENTRATE SUCCINCTLY ON THE MATTER OF THE ILLNESS. FROM YOUR THOUGHTS, WE CAN DETERMINE THE NECESSARY INFORMATION ABOUT THE ILLNESS AND ANALYZE WHAT WE FIND. AND ALSO…And also, what?THERE IS NO NEED FOR YOU TO HESITATE TO RELY ON US. HONESTLY, NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST! NO, IN FACT, WE SHOULD SAY, YOU SHOULD RELY ON US! PLEASE RELY ON US!I’ll think about it… Now then, here I go! Grnnnnnnnnnnnh!WE HAVE RECEIVED AND ANALYZED THE INFORMATION. THE ILLNESS IS EXACTLY AS YOU DIAGNOSED IT, LADY MILE. SPOT ON.Thank goodness… Now, I would like to move some foodstuffs from my inventory into “storage” and extract the vitamin B1 from those. Since that is the deficiency, I’d like to condense it into vitamin supplements. Can you do that?DON’T ASK IF WE CAN DO IT, JUST ORDER IT!Got it. Then, please!NOW THEN, WHEN I GIVE THE SIGNAL, PLEASE PUT INTO STORAGE ALL THAT IS IN A THIRTY-CENTIMETER SPHERE CENTERED THIRTY CENTIMETERS IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE. THAT IS WHERE THE PROCESSING NANOMACHINES WILL BE GATHERED. THE WORK WILL THEN BE COMPLETED INSTANTANEOUSLY, SO YOU MAY TAKE THE PILLS, ALONG WITH THAT THIRTY-CENTIMETER SPHERE, BACK OUT OF STORAGE. IF YOU DON’T, THEN SOME OF US WILL END UP TRAPPED IN STORAGE.Okay! Oh, I do have some various containers stored away too, so please put it in one of those. Only make as much as will fit inside it. Also, I’ll have to discard these nutrient-stripped ingredients, so please put whatever you don’t use off to the side. I don’t want to eat any nutritionless food myself.UNDERSTOOD! NOW THEN, THE STORAGE!Roger that!“What’s up? You’re spacing out again…”“Miley’s always spacing out like this…”“H-hush!”After the usual exchange…Heave ho!A tiny jar suddenly appeared in Mile’s hand.ALL UNITS HAVE BEEN SAFELY RETURNED. BECAUSE THE APPROPRIATE AMOUNT FOR A SINGLE DOSE OF THE SPECIFIED COMPONENT WOULD MAKE THE PILLS TOO SMALL, WE HAVE INCLUDED OTHER IMPORTANT COMPONENTS AND AGENTS TO INCREASE INTAKE INTO A SINGLE PILL THAT CAN BE TAKEN AFTER EVERY MEAL.THOUGH NO MARKED SYMPTOMS HAVE YET TO APPEAR, THE PATIENT ALSO SHOWED SIGNS OF IMPENDING ILLNESS FROM DEFICIENCY IN OTHER COMPONENTS, SO THIS SHOULD WARD AGAINST THOSE AS WELL.It would seem that the nanomachines had concocted a multivitamin—or, better yet, an all-purpose supplement—containing calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc as well. Her nanobuddies really were a conscientious sort.Thank you! This is perfect!WE ARE TRULY DELIGHTED TO HEAR YOUR PRAISE.“Wh—? Storage magic?”Mile presented the jar to the startled baron.“It’s a medicine that contains the necessary components that Leatoria is lacking. Please have her take one tablet after every meal.”The baron appeared truly perplexed.“W-well that’s awfully convenient…”And incredibly suspicious. A medicine so perfectly suited to the situation that it was as if she had prepared it ahead of time. However, she was not asking for money, so it was nothing but a boon to the Aura household…The baron prided himself on having the ability to read most people fairly well. Furthermore, it was inconceivable that anyone in this world could have devised the perfect a trap for them to fall into.“It’s an old family recipe—a secret remedy!” she said, shoving it into the baron’s hands.Cautiously, the baron opened the jar.“And how much are you going to charge us for this?” he asked.Mile grinned and replied, “You can’t put a price on seeing Lady Leatoria’s smile!”“Huh?”In other words, it was free. Or rather, she could repay them with a smile, when the day came.“Until these run out, you can work on getting Lady Leatoria to broaden her horizons as far as what she will and won’t eat. If you don’t, there’s a chance she may fall prey to some other dreadful illness down the line. Please figure out something to do about her pickiness—and about getting her some exercise. There’s no sense in someone as slender and beautiful as she is dying before she even has a chance to wed, is there?”“I-I understand. We love her so much that I suppose we’ve been rather soft on her. We’ll take care of it,” the baron replied, nodding.He seemed serious about this—things were going to be all right.***“We really should’ve stayed for dinner, too,” Reina grumbled as they rode back to the guild in a borrowed carriage.“It was still five more hours until dinner! We couldn’t just wait around that long. What do you think they’d say about us if we lingered there for no reason, just to get more food out of them, and then ran off afterwards?!”“I guess you’re right. But still…”Even though it was Mile, herself a bit of a glutton, who had pointed this out, Reina was incorrigible.After their discussion had concluded, the baron prepared a slip with the terms of his request to the Crimson Vow and had one of his servants send it along on horseback to the guild. This meant that the Crimson Vow could take their time, and once they arrived at the guild, they would be able to receive their reward and accept the direct request retroactively. Even though their accepting the request would mean nothing until the results were shown.Finally, the carriage stopped, and the cabin door opened.“We have arrived at the hall of the capital branch of the hunters’ guild.”As the four disembarked the carriage, Bundine greeted them with a 10-degree bow.“Thank you for the ride. Now then, until another day…”Another day, when they would need to return to receive a signature as proof that the job had been completed. Mavis, who had spoken as the representative of the party, had only tipped her head, but Bundine now lowered himself further to a full 45 degrees of the deepest respect.“Thank you so very much. Truly, truly I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”Dark spots began to appear on the ground beneath his lowered face, but the Crimson Vow pretended not to notice, lightly waving their hands to Bundine as they disappeared into the guild hall.For a brief time after, Bundine stood staring at the door of the hall and then climbed into the back of the carriage.“To the residence.”And so, the carriage set off on its leisurely journey back to the Baron Aura’s capital home.***“How did you get a personal request from a noble this soon after arriving in the capital?! And for curing his daughter’s illness at that… Just what in the world are you four?!”As she spoke, Felicia’s tone grew less and less businesslike.“Well, if you’re gonna ask what we are…”“Then I guess we had better tell you.”“You see, we are…”“Four allies, bound at the soul…”“The Crimson Vow!!!!”The four shouted the last part in unison and snapped into their practiced pose.Of course, they restrained themselves from letting off the usual smoke and explosions, since they were indoors.“I… Wha…”Even “No-Hope Felicia” could manage no other reply than that.“Now, Mile, as confident as you were back there, what do you intend to do if you made the wrong diagnosis and her illness didn’t get better? Do you realize how unforgivable it would be to get their hopes up like that?” asked Reina.Though she was fairly sure that it would be fine—because, after all, it was Mile they were talking about—there was still a chance that something might go horribly wrong someday. Concern spread across her face and across those of Mavis and Pauline as well. They weren’t stupid enough to show such concerns in front of a client, so they had held it together until now, but in fact, they had been truly worried.“Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t wrong, and even if that doesn’t heal her, I still have another plan up my sleeve. It’s all good!”“Another plan? And what would that be?” asked Reina.With a calm and collected look, Mile replied, “Healing her with magic, of course!”“H-how are we supposed to ‘not worry’ about that?!?! Isn’t that dangerously reckless?!?!” Reina screamed.“Is it?” asked Mavis.She truly had no idea.“Well, it is Mile, so…” Pauline had given up entirely.“Anyway, it’s gonna turn out fine!”And so, the Crimson Vow headed back to their home—their temporary home, where a darling little cat-eared girl was waiting for them.Chapter 50:

A Rival Appears
It had been three days since the incident with the Aura family.That day had ended up being a work day, and technically, they had still taken on a job for later, though that work was already almost done.And so, they had set aside the following two days for rest where they could wait until Mavis was fully recovered.Today, however, the Crimson Vow headed off to the guild to look for a new job.“Are you all the ‘Crimson Vow’ or whatever?”Upon entering the guild hall, they were instantly assailed by a five-unit all-female hunting party.“Ah, yes? That’s us. Is there something we can help you with?” As Mavis replied, the woman who had spoken was momentarily lost for words, beguiled by her gentle smile.Whoa! She really is a different kind of lady hunter, isn’t she?Mile was dazzled by Mavis’s perennial, inexplicable way with other women.“N-no! That’s not why we’re here! I hear that some young interlopers have been running amok around here while we were away!” said the eldest of the hunters, a woman of around twenty.Mavis was dumbfounded. “Oh no, have they? That’s dastardly of them. The youth should respect their seniors. It’s no good for inexperienced people to go stepping out of bounds. If those people don’t start heeding the words of the elderly, then…”Pft!Snicker…Tehehehe…The other hunters in the room seemed to be trying desperately to hold back their laughter, but Mavis naturally did not notice.“E-elderly. Elderly?”The eldest woman was red in the face, trembling.“Oh, is something the matter?” Mavis asked, ever so chipper.The woman roared, “I’m talking about you aaalllll!!!”“Ah, we thought so.” For once, even Pauline, Reina, and Mile had caught on.“Huh?”Only Mavis had been left out of the loop.“Now then, I think you all owe us an explanation!”The Crimson Vow found themselves dragged to the guild hall’s dining corner, where they were being grilled by this new all-girl party, the Servants of the Goddess.“I mean, I still have no idea what the problem here is, or what you’re asking for. So I don’t know what to tell you.”Since she was speaking to someone who was her senior, Mavis tried to be as polite as possible for now.“I’m talking about how you all took advantage of our absence and stole our spot as the idols of this guild branch from right under our noses!”“What?”The Crimson Vow were amazed. They were amaz-eggs and bacon!“Ohhh, you mean that we’ve just been playing around or that we haven’t been working, right? No, I can assure you, we’ve been doing work while we were here. Though our most recent break was a bit long, I will admit…”Apparently, Mile had misheard “idol” as “idle.”“That’s not what we’re saying! I’m talking about an idol, a perfect image, something you worship!” A girl who was perhaps the second or third eldest in the group desperately tried to correct Mile. She was likely around sixteen or seventeen…“Huh?! If your party name is Servants of the Goddess, and you’re all images to be worshipped, does that mean that you’re disciples—nay, avatars of the Goddess herself?!”“N-no, that’s not quite…” The Servants suddenly looked a bit troubled.Of course, Mile already knew the answer to her own question. Even she could be a bit cruel now and then.And so finally, the Crimson Vow sat down to hear the full story.Citing their status as the senior party, the Servants of the Goddess paid for their drinks. At least in that regard, they were properly aware of their duties as seniors.The Servants of the Goddess. They were a five-member party made up of all girls, a rarity among hunters.There was Telyusia, the swordswoman, age nineteen; Philly, the lancer, age seventeen; Willine the swordswoman and Tasha the archer-slash-dagger wielder, both age sixteen; and last but not least, Lecelina, the favorably named “all-purpose” (or perhaps more appropriately called “jack-of-all-trades”) mage, age fourteen. Lecelina was still a D-rank, but all the others were C-rank hunters. However, they had only very recently been promoted…The scene: a little farming village in the countryside, with nothing but mountains and fields and nary a good man to go around.Three young girls who could not bear to live out their lives in such a place took their cleavers and wooden staves in hand and set out to become hunters, in search of a life of excitement and adventure.They were fools.Though they faced many a danger and hardship, by some miracle they managed to survive, and came across two more young girls who had similarly struck out from their village on their own. Before they knew it, they had grown to become C-rank hunters.Normally, anyone that reckless would have found themselves wiped out by now, but perhaps they truly did have a fair bit of skill—or perhaps they were just exceedingly lucky…There was also the fact that they had made it to a C-rank at such an unexpectedly young age, in a country that did not have anything like the Hunters’ Prep School. And they were a group of young women. Naturally, the male parties hung around them like flies—just as they did with Mile and her companions.But then, the Crimson Vow had appeared.They were a group of four beautiful young girls. They had two powerful mages. They had sword skills on par with a B-rank. They had less than the standard number of members. And they appeared rather ignorant to the ways of the world.Indeed, the male parties had found a new prize to set their sights on.“Somehow you all just swooped right in and nailed a red mark job, got a bonus, and had a noble request you by name! Just what strings did you all pull?!” raged Philly, the seventeen-year-old lancer.“Jones, of the Defenders of the Covenant, who I was this close to snagging, turned down my invitation to dinner, saying that a girl he ‘thought he could get serious about’ had come along!” roared Telyusia, the nineteen-year-old swordswoman and leader of the party, who was just on the cusp of marriageable age.“And what’s the big deal, making something so terrible happen to those lovely old fellows in the Silver Fangs?!”Apparently Tasha, the sixteen-year-old archer, had a fondness for older men.Mile, who had never been able to really converse with any men besides her own father, and Reina, who had spent her earliest memories on the road with her father the peddler and the rest of her young life journeying with the Crimson Lightning, were both fans of men of a more distinguished age, too. Should all three of them become aware of this preference, surely the trio could all become good friends.“And you stole the people who buy us food and give us sweets!” fumed Lecelina, the fourteen-year-old mage.“………”Willine the swordswoman had already spoken her piece and just glared silently.“How could you do this to us?!?!?!” the Servants all shouted.

Average 6.4

“Huhhh?!”The crowd’s voices rose in confusion, unsure of what she meant.“In other words, I’m asking you all to lend this man your money. Whosoever lends him a coin now shall receive it back double with interest as soon as he can go back to the estate to retrieve it. Double your money, just like that!”“All right!!!!” the crowd roared.“And also!” Pauline continued. “If the young mistress should recover thanks to your help in obtaining this medicine! Then! All those who made a contribution will be invited to the party to celebrate her good health! You’ll be invited to the baron’s mansion as a benefactor and perhaps even have the chance to shake the young mistress’s hand in thanks! For we common folk, this is the dream of a lifetime!“This is an honor you’ll be able to remember for the rest of your lives! We’ll be accepting contributions until we’ve collected ten gold pieces—first come, first served! Please, everyone! Lend us your money! Whatever you can give!”“Yeaaaaaaaahhhh!!!”There was a mad rush.Pauline’s face twitched. The response was far greater than even she anticipated. Reina and Mavis rushed to Pauline’s side, to keep her from being swallowed up in the tidal wave of bodies.And Mile muttered, dumbfounded,“A m-money bomb…”***And so, it was settled.This was a city of commerce, so there were many other shop owners among the spectators. Naturally, every shop owner around kept one or two extra gold pieces on their person at all times, separate from their coin purse, just in case of an emergency—an emergency like that merchant’s orichalcum coin.Thus, the ten gold pieces were collected in short order.Even if this proved insufficient, it was obvious that they could collect plenty more if necessary. Already there was no way for the merchant to win.“28 gold pieces!”The butler made a scant one coin increase to the bid, but anyone could see that the match was already over. Continuing the fight any longer was futile.“I fold.”Just as the owner of a large business should, the merchant dutifully recognized his defeat and gave up the fight.“You really got me there. I am completely defeated. Well done, well done…” he said with a smile, gathering up all the coins that he had piled on the table. “I look forward to next time!”The Crimson Vow and the butler stared agog as the merchant left in unexpectedly good spirits.“He’s up to something. We should be careful…” Reina said, glaring at the merchant’s retreating form from behind.“No need,” came a voice from the nearby crowd.“Huh?”Reina looked suspicious, but the man who had spoken explained, “That guy likes to put on a show, but he really is a good person when you get down to it.”“Wh-what are you talking about?!” Reina shouted in confusion, having never heard of oxymorons such as “a mini monster truck,” or “an honest liar.”“What I mean is that he likes to push the limits of what’s allowed within the rules of business, but he never does anything truly unreasonable to actually cross that line. Even his crude way of speaking is just to teach his opponents a lesson or to have a bit of fun himself. Even if he’d won that auction, he probably would have just sold the medicine to the butler for a few gold more. The whole auction was probably mostly for the sake of giving the apothecary a larger profit. That, and…” he trailed off as he looked toward the owner of the medicine shop. “Anyway, it seems like he had a lot of fun this morning, so I don’t think he has any animosity toward you. On the contrary, he seems to have taken a liking to you all. He might even come to your aid sometime. Man, am I jealous!”The man laughed. Some of the other mercantile folk in the crowd laughed along with him, as if they were in the know as well.The Crimson Vow and the butler were stunned.“Wha…?”“B-but then why would you all help us out with that loan?” Pauline asked. “If you all already knew that, then even if you hadn’t bothered…”Another man who had contributed to the loan piped up.“That’s because we’re merchants. Did you really think we were gonna pass up the chance to instantly double our money? Plus…”“We wanna shake a young noble maiden’s hand and hear her thank us!!!” they all shouted.The Crimson Vow and the butler all slumped their shoulders in disappointment.Pauline, however, was quick to recover. There was still something that she had to do.“Mister Apothecary, what do you intend to do with all that gold?”“Uh…”The shopkeeper, who had been gazing at the mountain of gold that the butler had piled upon the table, looked blankly at Pauline.What did she care? Whatever he planned on doing with it, it was his money, won fairly at auction.“Imagine a shop that, despite having made a prior agreement with a noble family, failed to refuse someone who tried to snipe their goods and forced them to compete for much needed-medicine, causing them to pay almost six times the original asking price for said goods. If such a precedent were set under the watchful eyes of an entire crowd, do you think that anyone would continue to place orders at that shop from that day forward?”“Um…”The owner was speechless. He finally seemed to realize what it was that he had done.Merchants who dealt in goods where the competition was high, such as clothing and foodstuffs, had experience and knew their markets, and there were some sly devils among them. However, for an apothecary, as long as you were knowledgeable and had a knack for putting out well-made goods, it didn’t matter if your personality was a little rough around the edges. It wasn’t the sort of sector where you had to scramble for customers or even talk very much.This is precisely the kind of shopkeeper this apothecary was… In other words, as merchants went, he was a little estranged from the intricacies of human nature.“N-no, I… That wasn’t what I…”“Whether or not you intended to do it, that doesn’t change the facts. Plus, it’s not even as if you didn’t know or that this happened by accident. You allowed the intervention and the competition while fully understanding the circumstances. So there is no arguing with the fact that you are the sort of person who would do such a thing, and that this shop is the sort of place that allows those sorts of practices, with no regard for anything except for turning a profit. I want you to take a nice long moment to think about what you’ve lost, all for the sake of earning twenty-odd gold coins.”Truthfully, the spectators probably would have given him some leeway, understanding that his failure to refuse the merchant came from a place of fear. But now that that merchant was gone, leaving everyone with only the reality that the shop owner was willing to take 23 gold coins beyond the original price of his goods, the spectators, merchant and consumer alike, were uncertain that such a thing was just.“………”Cold stares from the crowd all focused upon the owner.When he considered his shop’s lost reputation and customer base, 23 gold pieces was as good as dirt.The owner’s face went pale, and sweat dripped down his brow.The reason that the man who’d been explaining the merchant’s nature to Reina earlier had trailed off was probably because he anticipated this. The merchant had not only been having a bit of fun—he was testing the shop owner as well…“Wh-what are you saying there? I did not want to come on too strong because angering the leaders of the Merchants’ Guild would be very bad for my business’s longevity, but naturally my intention was to give the medicine over to the butler no matter what. The auction was just for the sake of holding a bit of a competition, you see! The sales price of the goods was settled from the beginning. Come now, that’s reasonable, isn’t it?!”The weak-willed merchant had suddenly become overly formal. This was understandable, of course; if he made the wrong move now, his business would be ruined for certain.“Oh, is that so? My goodness! Pardon me, then, for throwing such accusations…”“No no, it’s no bother. Hahaha…”“Ahahaha…”“Ahahahahahahaha!”It was a refreshing little farce. Blessedly, everyone around, the onlookers included, were kind of enough to realize that the shop owner was not a bad person at all and ignored the awkwardness, with winces all around.***“I truly must thank you all for this. Despite what that man and the shop owner said, I’m not sure how things would have turned out had you not been here. When it seemed the worst was at hand, you helped me safely obtain the medicine without even sullying the Baron’s name…”After packing all but the initially promised five gold pieces back into his bag, the butler extended his thanks to the Crimson Vow with yet another deeply humble, 45-degree bow. As far as the butler was concerned, the Crimson Vow were as good as gods in the form of young women, or the spirits of legend incarnate.“Don’t mention it. We only butted in on a lark in the first place. Now, Mister Butler, I’m sure you’ll be wanting to get that back to your mansion as quickly as…”Hearing Pauline address him thus, the butler suddenly realized that he had yet to give his name.“Ah, I still have yet to properly introduce myself! And to my benefactors no less, how rude of me… My name is Bundine! I am the butler of the house of Baron Aura.”“Oh! My name is Pauline. I’m with the C-rank hunting party, the Crimson Vow.”“And I’m Mavis, likewise.”“Reina here.”“And I’m Minami Haruo… Wait, I mean, Mile!”Seeing the exhaustion on Reina’s face, Mile quickly corrected herself.However, a singular thought was running rampant through Mile’s head:O-oh my God, it’s the Aura Butler, Bundine!!!***“We would formally like to invite you, as most honored guests, to the Aura family’s capital residence,” said Bundine to the Crimson Vow, after preparing a message to the residence for the purpose of repaying those who had lent their money to his cause.“You sure that’s all right? I’m not really good with nobles,” said Reina.“Huh?”The other three were bewildered. Hearing their confusion, a realization suddenly spread across Reina’s face. Now that she thought about it, among their party were individuals from the lines of viscounts and counts, which were even more highly ranked than a baron. In the case of the viscount, not only did their number include his daughter, but at this juncture, the viscountess herself.“Oh, uh, never mind…”One out of every two members of the Crimson Vow was noble. Among hunters, parties with such a percentage were exceptionally rare.“We will humbly accept your invitation!” Mile replied.“What?”The other three were momentarily stunned at hearing such a quick acceptance from Mile, who they had assumed would want nothing to do with any other nobles. However, since Mile wished it, they all readily agreed.No matter how low-ranking a baron might be, if the steward of a noble household was going to go out on an errand for his master, he certainly was not going to do so on foot. No matter how walkable the distance may have been, it wasn’t seemly. And so, though it was not as nice as the one that would have been used for the members of the baron’s family themselves, a carriage carried Bundine, with the Crimson Vow in tow, toward the capital residence of the house of Baron Aura.Though Bundine had ridden in the passenger’s box on his way out, he allowed the Crimson Vow to take the seats on the return journey, while he himself rode up beside the driver. There was plenty of space for him back in the passenger seats, but he probably felt it improper to ride alongside his guests. He could have had no way of guessing that half of them were nobles, from households that were more highly ranked than his own, so the decision probably just showed a bit of courtesy on his part, as he assumed the girls would be more comfortable riding along with just their companions. “Okay, so what are you after?” Reina asked.There was no way that Mile would have wanted to do something as bothersome as visiting the household of a noble without reason. Indeed, her reply was direct and immediate, with no attempt at all being made to mask the truth.“I wanted to learn more about the daughter’s illness… Since those herbs were mostly raw medicinal ones, I’m sure that they would strengthen anyone’s constitution, but they aren’t some sort of magical panacea that would cure any illness in a single swig. Also, I was thinking that the illness might be something that they’ve already found a treatment for back in my country…”“All right. I thought it might be something like that.”Mavis and Pauline nodded as well.“Don’t tell me, Miley. Have you got some magical treatment…?”“Mm, well, that depends on the illness. Since if we messed something like this up, we could be hung as murderers.”Indeed, unlike with injuries, applying healing magic to a sick person, if done poorly, could cause their status to deteriorate even more rapidly, urging the patient on to their death. This was another reason why magic was rarely used for illnesses.Plus, fevers and coughs were necessary responses to one’s body trying to combat an illness. If a fever began to approach 40 degrees Celsius, it was important to lower it to protect the brain and reproductive functions, except in the case of serious illness, when it was generally better to try and leave the symptoms alone.Because Mile had taught her some of the fundamentals of basic medical knowledge, Pauline knew that it was possible to treat illness with magic to some degree, if you were careful about how you used it. However, this still was not something you could embark upon carelessly when it involved other people, particularly not a noble. Even if your spell did show some results, if you failed and the patient did not heal entirely, the mage could end up shouldering the blame for it.“Anyway, I was just thinking I’d look in and see how things were…” Mile said, grinning sheepishly. “Oh right, Pauline—that reminds me. Why did you bother with all that, with the crowd? If you needed ten gold pieces, we could have just lent him that amount…”“What? No, we couldn’t have done that,” she swiftly replied. “If we just gave him money out of pity, that’s not a negotiation—that isn’t business. In times like that, you have to keep fighting, in a proper negotiation, to maintain the norms of proper commerce. Besides…”“Besides?”“If he up and ran with the money, that’d be a huge loss. You never lend money to family or friends, much less total strangers! No matter what circumstances they might have going on!”Wah…In the end, Pauline was, after all, still Pauline.“Come in. Please wait here a few moments.”After leading them into the parlor and serving them tea and sweets, Bundine vanished from the room. Naturally, he needed to explain the situation to his master and persuade the man to come and see them.“This is so good…” Reina mumbled through a hurried mouthful of sweets, slurping down tea.“These are really good…” Pauline agreed.For Mavis, who had grown up the beloved daughter of an affluent count, and Mile, who had eaten many delicious things in both her previous life and in this one before her mother had died, such treats were standard fare. However, for Reina, a peddler’s daughter, and Pauline, whose merchant father had detested luxury in spite of his financial success, the cuisine before them was the height of class.“They gave us all this food—it’d be rude to waste any.”Reina’s words were highly reasonable, but it was clear that she was attempting to take more than a quarter of what was on the table for herself.“Hey, wait a minute!”Mile leapt to protect her own portion. No matter how much delicious food she had eaten in the past, she had become somewhat estranged from tasty treats these past few years. Plus, Mile had a very quick metabolism and had already started to grow hungry. Though she was typically kind and giving to all people, this was the one area where she would not yield what was hers, particularly not to Reina.“Hang on, now. I was about to…”“What are you talking about? This one is mine…”“You’ve already eaten more than a quarter of it, Reina!”“Grrrrrrrrrngh…”With Pauline jumping into the fray, the atmosphere now grew dangerous.“Um, pardon me, but I can bring some more in, if you desire…”“Huh?”Mile and Reina turned to see a maid standing in the room, a troubled look upon her face. Naturally, no veteran butler would leave his honored guests unattended for so long. He had directed a maid to remain with them.“Please forgive us. I-If you would…” Pauline, who had thought that her portion was going to end up wholly depleted, requested bashfully. Reina’s cheeks began to redden as well.“Please, you guys,” said Mavis, “Try not to embarrass us. I’m begging you…”Apparently, as the daughter of a noble, she could not bear to witness such shameful behavior.Yet Mile, another noble’s daughter—or rather, at this point, a titled noble herself—appeared to have no such qualms.“I’m so sorry to keep you. Baron Aura wishes most sincerely to meet with you young ladies and extend his gratitude…”Once the Crimson Vow had finished up their second round of sweets, Bundine finally reappeared to lead them to a separate room.“Kindest regards and thank you for making the journey. I am Harval von Aura, head of the House of Aura. I must thank you most profoundly for your assistance. With your help, we were able to secure the medicine that my daughter, Leatoria, most desperately needs, and you saved our household from having shame brought upon it by the likes of a merchant. Instead, I should say, besting a greedy merchant has in fact brought honor upon the Aura family name. Please, I would like you all to join us for a luncheon as my thanks.”“Gladly!!!” replied the members of the Crimson Vow—all save for Mavis, who was grimacing.For Reina and Pauline, getting to eat the same food as nobles was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the sort of thing that one normally only dreamed of… Well, there had been the time after the so-called “bandits incident,” when they had eaten at the lord’s manor, but that was not the food of nobles so much as it was a banquet prepared for commoners, so it didn’t count.As for Mile, though she had enjoyed plenty of truly upscale cuisine, those delicacies were now just memories left over from her time as Adele. She had yet to taste such a thing in her current life as Misato—er, Mile.And so, for all of them except Mavis, who had had plenty of years to grow weary of such food—and who, furthermore, as a knight, found virtue in a more abstemious life—this was an experience not to be passed up.“Oh, yes, of course. Please don’t think that we intend to reward you with nothing more than a meal for all that you’ve done. Such appalling behavior would be a shame on the Aura name. Please rest assured that you will receive a more proper reward as well,” the baron said.This time, the reaction from the Vow was a dull one.Seeing how his guests were relatively unmoved by the promise of rewards, despite being so eager to enjoy the family’s delicious food, the baron’s smile deepened.“In that case, could we ask you to call this a personal request, post-completion?” Mavis asked the baron in place of the other three, whose heads were too filled with thoughts of lunch to react in a timely manner.“Ah, certainly! If you desire…”“Then please, that is what we would like.”A direct, personal request from a noble. Even if it were labeled as such only retroactively, that would give them a great number of points toward their promotion. Processing it through the guild meant that they would have to pay a commission, but to the Crimson Vow, who were not hurting for living expenses and who valued reputation more than wealth, this was no issue. (That is, save for Pauline, who most certainly valued wealth over reputation.)The baron knew all about the Hunters’ Guild. Thus, all it took was Mavis’s request for the baron to grasp that despite being a party of young, female hunters, the Crimson Vow were not wanting for money and would be aiming for a promotion soon.“Well then, let us discuss it at lunch. My family will be joining us as well. If they found out that I had kept the chance to hear of the exploits of a group of young lady hunters all to myself, I would never hear the end of it! Now then, Bundine, I’m counting on you to tend to them until then.”With that, Baron Aura left the room.“He was incredibly polite toward us common folk, wasn’t he?” said Mile.“Yeah,” Mavis agreed with a nod, “He seems like a good person.”Reina and Pauline felt the same way.From then until lunch, they passed the time with Bundine, hearing tales of the House of Aura.***Because the Vow had left the inn fairly late to begin with, it was not long until the lunch hour was upon them. When the maid came to give word that the dining room had been prepared, Bundine, who had been keeping the Vow company, led them to the table. Though they had gobbled down not one but two helpings of sweets, the girls were all famished.Upon entering the dining room, they found the baron, his wife, a young man and woman of around seventeen or eighteen, and a girl of around fifteen already seated. All of the baron’s family, or at the very least, their three children, all looked incredibly healthy. There was no sign of a sick young maiden anywhere.“Thank you most kindly for having us here today.”As they entered the room, Mavis gave a noble’s greeting. As she was in breeches currently, she gave not a curtsy but a nobleman’s bow. She was not yet a knight, so she could not greet them as a knight would.Mile, however, did give a curtsy. In truth, the motion was originally nothing more than an incidental one, intended to protect one’s dress from touching the ground while executing the true intention: to lower one’s body. As Mile was not wearing a full-length skirt, the action was unnecessary. However, as was habit from her time as Adele, she plucked at her skirt as she bowed… Anyway, it was cute enough that surely no one minded—so long as she didn’t show too much leg.Reina and Pauline, meanwhile, only bowed their heads normally, as commoners might.Seeing this, the family looked rather shocked.A commoner should not be greeting a noble as nobles did. Such behavior was, in fact, highly offensive. Greeting the family in the manner normal to commoners, as Reina and Pauline had done, was what was expected. Yet, here were two who had greeted them in the manner of nobles, in natural, practiced form no less.What could possibly be the meaning of this?Of course, there was no shortage of former nobles among the hunters or even current nobles who were enjoying a bit of freedom until they had to succeed their parents. There were still others who joined a party for self-improvement. Plus, it was not unheard of for second sons and other younger brothers, who had no chance of succession and didn’t have the constitution for a difficult job like municipal clerk or knight, to take up life as a hunter… However, this was somewhat more unusual for girls.Still, though they were shocked and a little concerned, the baron knew better than to press into a hunter’s personal history, so the family’s questions went unasked.The baron concealed his shock and bade them to sit. “Y-yes, welcome. I thank you most humbly for your efforts in aiding my daughter, Leatoria, and for saving the House of Aura from the disgrace of being belittled by a lowly merchant. Please, take your seats and enjoy the meal.”In another surprise, though they remained seated, the baron’s wife and children all bowed their heads to the girls as they took their seats.Even if their family was a lower ranking one, and even if they were rather fond of someone who did not happen to be in their employ, it would normally be unthinkable for such a family to bow their heads to commoners. Perhaps this was because the girl called Leatoria was so greatly adored by her family?Of course, it was equally likely that this was because the family was now certain that Mavis and Mile were nobles as well…The food was top-notch.Even if they were nobles, a baron’s household could not possibly have enough food to feast like this every day. They weren’t royals or even highly ranked nobles, after all. Plus, if they were to eat such rich food in such quantities on a daily basis, they would grow plump and unable to serve as soldiers in a time of war, and they would not live very long.Today, however, though they had not had the time to shop for new foodstuffs, the chef had clearly pulled freely from the ingredients in their stores. A great deal of food had been laid out before them. Reina and Pauline, even while trying to be hyper-aware of themselves and their manners, gobbled it down. Mile, minding the manners instilled in her previous life, as well as those she had learned from her mother in this life before she passed away, ate her meal silently—albeit with abnormal speed.“Ha ha…”Mavis alone ate her meal at a normal pace and with normal, noble manners, while sharing conversation with the Aura family.“Oh! So you have three elder brothers, Lady Mavis, but no sisters?”“Ah, yes. That’s correct.”While the other three continued to eat in a trance-like state, the baron gathered what information he could from Mavis, the easiest target. Of course, Mile was paying attention even while she inhaled her food, but she kept out of the conversation. There was really no reason to conceal this sort of information, and as long as they did not reveal their names or their countries of origin, it didn’t really matter who knew that she and Mavis came from noble households. Naturally, they would not let such information slip around lowlifes—or even other hunters—but other nobles, especially those who were indebted to them already, would be very unlikely to try any funny business with nobles from another country. If they didn’t want their rank and status to be known, Mavis and Mile wouldn’t have greeted the family as nobles in the first place.In fact, there was a particular reason why Mavis and Mile had not attempted to hide their noble status. They had come to examine the condition of young Leatoria, who was taken with illness; depending on what they found, Mile might like to intervene, and for that she needed the baron to trust her.What head of a noble household would entrust his precious daughter to the hands of a commoner whom he had only just met that morning, after all?After eating their fill, the other three, finally feeling more personable, joined in the conversation with the baron.Mavis had already told the family the gist of what they had experienced since arriving in this country, so after dramatizing a few episodes from their lives as young hunters, with jokes that would tickle a young noblewoman, Mile told the baron about the recent trends regarding the elder dragons as thanks for their meal. Word would be spreading soon from the guild and the palace, after all. Naturally, she played it off as but a rumor, not divulging that they had been party to the incident themselves.At a lull in the conversation, the baron began to press Mile on her background, getting her to reveal that she was an only child.Then, finally, they came to the matter at hand.“So, about your daughter, the one who needs that medicine…” Mile began.“Ah, Leatoria takes her meals in bed, back in her room. We would hate to make her eat all alone, so our meals come at a slightly different time from hers, and we join her to dine on tea and sweets while she eats. Leatoria eats different meals from us, and she eats little, so it wouldn’t do for us to have a full meal there when we get together, of course…”The baron’s gaze drifted downward and his demeanor shifted, his face clouded with a father’s anguish.Seeming almost thoughtless, Mile asked, “Might we join you for that, perhaps?”“What?”The whole family was stunned. Bundine, who had been standing quietly by the whole time, cleared his throat. Bundine was a veteran butler and not the sort of man to do such a thing without reason. As the baron glanced Bundine’s way, the butler gave a big nod.This was Bundine’s way of saying, Honor her request. The baron, having understood this, decided to have faith in his butler.“Very well. Perhaps if someone from a foreign land sees Leatoria’s condition, they might be able to spot something that we haven’t. Please, do accompany us.”An hour later, nine people—the Crimson Vow and the whole Aura family—were assembled in the room of Leatoria, the youngest daughter of the Aura household.Sitting up in the bed, only her top half visible, was Leatoria, a slight, ephemeral beauty of thirteen or fourteen.Because it was common for nobles to wish to make partners of only the most beautiful people—by marrying attractive commoners and making them the adopted daughters of noble households, and even bringing the children of mistresses into their line of inheritance—naturally there were many beautiful people among noble households. Indeed, they were an elite breed.A meager spread was set out before the bedridden girl. Even that small amount was more that Leatoria could possibly eat. Plus, she had already consumed a cupful of the prepared medicine that day, so much of the food was fated to remain on the plate. Placed before the others were baked goods and a teapot with cups of black tea.Bundine had already told Leatoria about the Crimson Vow ahead of time.“Thank you for all that you have done for me,” she said to the girls.Pauline shook her head and hand, indicating that it was no big deal, and told her the amusing tale of the exchange with the merchant. As she never left the residence, Leatoria never spoke to anyone other than her family and servants, and she was often bored. Hearing her laugh for the first time in ages, her family smiled in relief.I’m so glad I listened to Bundine… the baron thought, but this was perhaps premature.“Baron,” said Mile, “I have a request. Might we break rank for a moment?”“Break rank? Why, whatever do you mean?” The baron tilted his head in confusion.Breaking rank. The phrase itself implied something broken, such as trust or respect, but naturally that was not what it actually meant.Breaking rank referred to what happened after gatherings where people were bound by etiquette, indebted to certain rules and manners by the standing of those in attendance. Breaking rank was when people said, “Let’s put aside our differences in status for a while and all just let our hair down.” In other words, it did not mean, “We no longer respect one another,” but rather, “Let’s just have fun without worrying about rank and rules.”Of course, at times in modern day Japan, you would have, say, some new employee who overdid this a bit and got into a fight with their boss or decided to dab the division manager’s bald head—but in such cases, one reaped what one sowed.As this was not a party, perhaps “breaking rank” was not the correct phrase, but Mile could think of no other term for it. Of course, the baron—and the rest of the people of this world—had never heard such a term, so even that had no meaning, here or otherwise…Finally, Mile awkwardly explained herself as simply as she could. “I mean, please forgive us if we do anything rude.” It was not the same as the Japanese meaning at all, but the baron cheerfully agreed.And then, Mile sprang into action.“May I taste that food there?” asked Mile, pointing to the plate set before Leatoria, which, due to her slow eating, was mostly still full.“Huh…? Oh, u-um, sure, go right ahead!” The girl was perplexed for a moment but swiftly agreed.“M-Mile! I know that you’re greedy, but this is too far even for you! What are you thinking, snatching food from a sick person?!”“I-I-I-It’s not like thaaat!!!” Mile roared in response in Reina’s absurd accusation, her face turning red. “It’s important to confirm what’s in someone’s food when investigating an illness! That’s the very first step!”“Huh? I-Is that true?”Judging by Mile’s rage, Reina determined that she must be telling the truth and backed down.“Jeez, honestly… Anyway, please let me taste a bit of that,” Mile said as she stood from her seat, approaching Leatoria’s bed. “Um, now this is beef, right? Just plain meat, boiled, not grilled, the juices discarded, and… Here’s an egg, and here’s some mushroom. There’s vegetables cooked in, too… And, what you’re drinking with this meal is watered down wine, and milk afterward? Hm…”Mile tasted each part a bit at a time and then thought.“Miss Leatoria, do you have any food preferences?”The baron, from behind Mile, was the one to answer.“Preferences aside, this is generally what we serve her. Leatoria can’t eat very much, so if she filled herself on bread and such, then she wouldn’t be able to eat other things. We figured it’s best to put aside other staples like grains and serve her meat, eggs, vegetables, mushrooms, and milk, so that she gets a balanced meal. Also, the water quality around here isn’t very good, so we serve her wine diluted with water to accompany the meal. Wine is good for blood circulation, after all. And of course, we have her drink milk as well. Is there anything wrong with that?”“Hm…” After thinking for a while, Mile finally said, “Well, at least we can be sure there’s no poison in it.”“Well, obviously!!!” the whole Aura family roared.They seemed a bit hurt that anyone should have any doubt in their management of their servants and the affairs of their estate.“This is why I warned you I would be breaking rank…” Mile muttered, but at least now that that preliminary investigation was complete, she could return to her original duty.This duty was, of course, to entertain Leatoria with tales of fascinating things that had happened during their lives as hunters while the girl slowly finished her food. No one had asked Mile to do so, but there were few people who understood the loneliness of being shut away, with no one to talk to except your own family, better than she did.When Mile got caught up in the moment—seeing how Leatoria, so starved for entertainment, was eating up her stories—and broke into her Japanese Folktales, the food that was in Leatoria’s mouth went flying in a splendid display, but that could not be helped.When Leatoria finally finished eating and everyone stood to leave the room, Mile said, “I would like to examine Miss Leatoria a bit more, so I’m going to stay behind. Oh, I’m sure that sounds worrisome, so if your wife or one of your daughters would like to stay with us…”In for a penny, in for a pound, the Earth saying went. There were similar idioms in the language of this land.“I’ll leave you to it then. Wilomia, if you would…?”Leatoria’s older sister, Wilomia, a girl of fifteen or sixteen, nodded and retook her seat. The other three members of the Crimson Vow departed as well, leaving only Mile, Wilomia, and Leatoria alone in the room.“Now then, please strip.”“Whaaaaaat?!?!”The two sisters screamed, shocked at the sudden request.“What’s going on?!” the baron shouted, flinging the door back open at the commotion.“Nothing’s going on, sir! And also, please consider that conducting a medical examination might mean that Leatoria could need to open her nightgown. Even if she’s your daughter, rushing into her room without knocking is incredibly rude!” Mile raged.“Oh, s-sorry…”The baron apologized sheepishly and retreated from the room.“Now, anyway, I didn’t mean anything weird! So, if you would…”“Forgive us.” The sisters sincerely apologized for their shocked reactions.“Now then, let’s continue. I need to check your body for any swelling or discoloration. Please don’t think I have any strange intentions…” said Mile.Leatoria unbuttoned her gown, and Mile examined her closely.Mile, of course, did not have the same level of knowledge as a medical professional. She knew only as much as the average high school student—or perhaps a little more because of her fondness for reading. Despite all that, she was still practically a layman. However, with at least as much knowledge as the average Japanese person, she still might be able to determine something. There was nothing to lose here by trying. And so, Mile asked Leatoria a number of questions as she carried on her mock exam.

Average 6.3

Indeed, no matter how powerful a voltage you could generate, the more resistance you have, the less power would be transmitted. This is the reason that so many people receive accidental shocks in the summertime—when your palms are slick with sweat, the resistance is lowered, and a greater voltage can run through you.Likewise, if one’s palm were soaked with blood, or blood directly from a wound were touching one’s sword, then it would be easier for a thought pulse to run through the sword. Acting as an antenna, that sword, through which the thought pulses now course, could radiate those thoughts out into the environment where the surrounding nanomachines could pick up on them and react. With this arrangement, Mavis’s commands could reach not only the scant number of nanomachines that existed within her body but all those outside of her as well.“However, for now, please use this skill sparingly. Especially while you’re practicing… using these skills in a casual manner won’t do much to strengthen you. And of course, please be careful not to let your sword slip from your hands while they’re wet…”“Mile, just what do you think it means to be a swordswoman? Any sword-wielder who would let their blade slip from their hands just because of a little sweat or blood would never make it in this discipline. Plus, what do you think all these complicated wrappings on the hilt are for?”“Oh! Is that what that is?”“Mile…I know it’s only secondary to being a mage, but you are still a magical swordswoman, aren’t you?” Mavis shook her head in disbelief.And so Mile, replacing “magical power” with “spirit,” continued her instructions, and Mavis’s special training proceeded.At the end of the first day, when they headed back to the inn at dark, Mavis’s body was spent, but her eyes were glistening.“Could we give Mavis first dibs on playtime with Faleel today?” Mile requested, and Reina and Pauline nodded in reply.It was unanimously agreed that Mavis was clearly in need of a bit of “Faleel therapy.”At the end of the second day, when Mavis returned to the inn, the others noticed that her body, ever a slender thing, had begun to look even more trim… No, actually, she was just losing weight—wasting away, even.She looked lightheaded, but her eyes were still glimmering.“Say Mile, is she all right? Don’t you think it’d be better for her to take a break from training tomorrow and get some real rest?” asked Reina.“I-I agree,” said Pauline.“I do,” said Mile, “but there’s probably not much point in telling me that…”“I’m going again tomorrow. If Mile doesn’t come with me then I’ll just go by myself. Almost—I’m almost there…” Mavis groaned. Laid out on her bed as she was, they had all assumed she was already unconscious.“You heard her. If I let her go alone, there’ll be no one there to keep tabs on her, and she’s likely to push herself too far…”Thus, there could be no further argument. Reina and Pauline had no choice but to trust in Mile.Mile, however, was worried. Soon enough, Mavis would come to fully grasp those skills. And when that happened…What the heck am I going to name them?***“Vacuum Cutter.” “Magic Cutter.” “Wild Magic Blade.” Ugh! I just can’t think of a good naaaaame…As she watched Mavis’s practice, Mile was suffering. This was not some one-off phrase, it was something that Mavis would have to say in front of other people for the rest of her days. It couldn’t be some throwaway punchline.Just then…Whsh!A translucent arc came flying from Mavis’s blade, striking a shrub several meters ahead.“Oh…” Mavis stood dumbstruck, her jaw hanging open.“Congratulations! You’ve just mastered the ‘Wind Edge’! Now you just need to increase your speed and power independently, and put it all into practice.”“W-weh. Waaaaaaaah…”Mavis fell to her knees, tears running down her face.“It’s too early to celebrate, Mavis. Next up, you have to learn how to keep your spirit energy within your sword so that you can fend off or repel an enemy’s magical attacks. That way you can conquer the secret exorcist-style technique, the ‘Anti-Magic Blade.’ If you can’t master that, you’ll never be on equal footing with a mage!”“Oh, yeah! I’ll master it! I’ll master it for sure!”Even as the tears continued to flow, Mavis grinned, her eyes sparkling again.And Mile thought to herself, Th-thank God! I managed to do it! I came up with some good naaaaames!She had chosen the name “Wind Edge” because anyone who heard it would assume that it was nothing but ordinary wind magic. It would be bothersome for Mavis to have to explain every single time that she was using “a technique that draws on your spirit energy.” Plus, that would cause others to assume that it was a skill that could be used even by people without any magic—which would be a big problem.If such a thing happened, there was no question that magicless sword-wielders the world around would come banging on Mavis’s door, begging her to teach them what she knew.***Later that evening, sometime past the nine o’clock evening bell, in the Crimson Vow’s room…“Say, it’s all good. Come over here with me.”Mavis had a complete monopoly on Faleel.“Wait a minute, Mile! Why does Mavis seem so confident and full of herself now?!”“Ahaha…”Mavis always worked so hard, it was okay for her to get a little carried away, at least for tonight, Mile thought.Hey, nanomachines in Mavis’s blades?YES!YES, MA’AM!That night, once everyone was sound asleep, Mile called out psychically to the nanomachines in charge of Mavis’s sword, as well as her back-up dagger, and received a response from each party.Thanks for all your help. Now, should either of these blades ever become unusable, or fall into the mouth of a volcano, or end up stolen with little hope of ever being returned to Mavis’s possession, could I ask you to please consider your exclusivity contract void? In those cases, could you vacate the blade once you’ve rendered it useless and relocate to Mavis’s next sword? You’d be acting as an external antenna on that one as well…CONSIDER IT DONE. REMAINING WITH HER LADYSHIP FOR HER ENTIRE LIFE IS BUT A PASSING MOMENT FOR US. THE TIME SPENT SHOULD BE ENJOYABLE FOR US AS WELL, SO DO NOT FRET…YEP YEP! LEAVE IT TO US!Receiving the swift consent of the representatives of each blade, Mile was relieved.These special new skills relied not on the “Micross,” but on Mavis’s “spirit” energy. With her blades as her antenna, Mavis could now emit her thought pulses in order to activate even the nanomachines outside of her body. Granted, because her emission strength was fairly weak to begin with, she would still be unable to properly use any magic outside of those two special moves.Besides, if she lost or could no longer use her current weapons, then she could no longer use the techniques. This really meant that she would be relying on the sword’s power, and if she lost her sword, she would lose much of her strength with it, putting her life in danger.And so, though she felt as though she was somehow bending the rules or putting herself above the law, Mile implored the nanos to ensure that Mavis’s most beloved sword would always be able to use her two special techniques—even if the sword itself changed.Should that day come, Mile trusted in the nanomachines to take the appropriate measures and let Mavis’s blood flow through that new blade just the same.In the end, though Mavis was in high spirits, her body was worn to its limits, and so the Crimson Vow decided to extend their vacation for three more days.Chapter 49:

The House of Aura
“Are you all right, Mavis?”“Yeah. It’s no big deal, really!”What she was claiming to be “no big deal” was the aftereffects that she was still experiencing.Mavis had been in bed—and in intense physical pain—since the end of their three days of special training. She was young, so it was not as though the pain had merely reared its head on a three-day delay. More than likely, the aches had begun following the very first day of training, but she had powered through by sheer force of will. As soon as she had attained her goal, and that momentum of motivation was lost, the effects of her training had knocked her out.For the whole day following her moment of enlightenment, Mavis had not risen from bed even once.This was not something that they could use magical healing on; the muscular pain had to mend itself naturally. So Mile had explained.Sinews that had been damaged by vigorous movement would regrow themselves into stronger muscle. Using healing magic to negate the muscular pain that resulted from this process would simply put things back to normal, thereby nullifying the results of any training.Plus, as far as Mile was concerned, using recovery magic every time you were a little tired, and healing magic any time you were a little sore, was something of an affront to the human experience.And so Mavis’s fate—three days of bed rest—was sealed.Three days later…Though the other three members of the party had suggested extending their vacation even further, Mavis had insisted that she could be a burden no longer, telling them not to trouble themselves on her account. So, half-heartedly, they set out for the guild hall.Of course, they took their time, not heading out as early as usual.Even Mavis had no objection this time, as she was clearly in no shape to be pushing into the scramble that was the morning rush of hunters competing to snatch up the best-paying jobs.“Now what could that be?” asked Pauline.The other three followed her gaze, spotting some manner of crowd gathered before one of the local shops.This area was something of a small business sector, filled with shops that catered to individual buyers. The shop that the crowd was swarming around was one such modest affair, which appeared to be an apothecary.Or in less antiquated language, a drugstore.Even though healing magic existed in this world, one could not always be expected to have a capable mage on hand. Beyond the fact that there were already very few mages of any considerable skill, performing healing spells was incredibly difficult, unlike simply making fire and water. Indeed, it was just like with combat spells…The difficulty of combat spells came from having to make several different images concrete at once. The issue of healing magic, conversely, was having to tangibly visualize an image when people had so little understanding of the workings of the human body. Though the degree and type of difficulty of these spells varied quite a bit, this did not change the fact that they were both high-level art forms.Because Mile had taught the girls of the Wonder Trio and the Crimson Vow about things like the structure of the human body, including cell division, nerves, and blood vessels, they were able to form a far more concrete image of the healing process (which was then unconsciously transmitted to the nanomachines). As a result, their efficiency rose greatly. For a normal mage, however, who could do little more than pray, “Heal!”— a spell might simply stabilize a broken bone or close up the exposed portion of an open wound, while still leaving nerves, blood vessels, and tendons severed.Furthermore, in the case of illness rather than injury, it was not unusual for someone to use a healing spell incorrectly and actually stimulate the root of the illness, causing the patient’s condition to deteriorate even further. Therefore, excluding the cases where a person’s illness was so severe that they had nothing to lose by trying magical healing, healing spells were typically avoided in the case of patients who were sick.In addition, using magic to heal an illness meant that the body did not have the chance to build up the appropriate antibodies, so the rate of relapse from any remaining virus within the body was high. Healing magic simply was not an all-purpose discipline—unless, of course, you were Mile, who had a decent knowledge of medical science.Even Mile had not taught her fellow party members about how to cure illnesses. She only nagged and lectured them on fundamental health protocols, such as “Make sure you wash your hands whenever you get back to an inn,” and “Don’t eat food that’s fallen on the ground.” Should someone become ill, Mile would much rather wait until they got back to an inn and deal with it herself; she feared what deadly outcome might occur if a spell were handled wrong.Mile judged that the danger of this was incredibly high, and in this case, that judgment was probably correct. Promoting the cellular multiplication of cancer cells with magic in the name of healing would be missing the point entirely.Plus, except in the case of mid- or large-scale mercantile operations, travelers were not always going to have a mage with healing abilities traveling with them. Then there were those with chronic illnesses and generally frail constitutions.Therefore, even in a world like this, with healing magic available, the medical and pharmaceutical industries were still thriving, and it was not doctors who prepared drugs. If one wished for medicine, one went to where the materials were gathered, prepared, and sold: an apothecary.It was just such a place around which the townspeople were now gathered.It was party policy for the Crimson Vow to stick their noses in whenever it seemed that something interesting was going on. Furthermore, though they had been headed to the guild to look for a new job at Mavis’s insistence, the other three still believed that Mavis ought to rest up a bit more, so any distraction was a godsend.Quickly, before Mavis could catch on, the three exchanged a knowing look.In a stilted voice, Pauline proposed, “Let’s go find out what’s going on!”“Excuse me,” Pauline asked a young man of around seventeen or eighteen who was standing nearby, “What’s all the fuss about over here?”The young man was not about to complain about a cute, buxom girl talking to him. “Ah, it’s those three over there. They’re the owner of this shop, the head of a large trade operation, and the butler of a baron’s household, apparently,” he explained, pointing to three people who appeared to be quarreling. “It seems like the baron’s daughter is ill, and the butler was here waiting for a shipment of medicine, but when it got here, that merchant swooped in and tried to buy it all!”“Huh…”That couldn’t be it, the members of the Crimson Vow thought. All the shopkeeper would have to do was say, “These goods are already spoken for,” and that would be that. Pauline expressed as much to the young man. However…“You would think so, but the problem is a little shop has no chance of standing up to a big guy like that. There are a lot of internal politics over at the Merchants’ Guild.”“Still, it would be one thing if this were a normal citizen we were talking about—this is an emissary of a noble! Would he rather go against a noble?” Pauline asked.The young man, however, could only shrug. “Even if he’s a noble, it’s not too surprising that a poor baron would have less influence than a powerful merchant. It’d be one thing out in the baron’s own lands, but here in the capital he’s got nothing to hold over us commoners. Plus, when you’re talking about someone that rich, people tend to overlook the fact that they’re essentially killing in the name of profit and just wave the whole thing off. Anyway, it’s not even the baron himself, just his butler. He hasn’t got a leg to stand on.”“………”Pauline thanked the young man and turned back to the others. There was clear displeasure upon her face.Ah, there it is…The others had seen this look on Pauline’s face a million times. It meant the same thing as when Mile’s face went blank.Apparently, this had offended Pauline’s “pride as a merchant.” However, given that Pauline tended to her own mercantile excesses, the others still had yet to grasp quite what the criteria for such a violation was. And in truth, Pauline was not actually a merchant herself, only a merchant’s daughter.That said, there was never any telling what Mile’s criteria for evaluating a situation were—and Mavis was always judging things from the standpoint of a knight, even though she was nowhere near one yet.It was a topic not to be broached. None of them were prepared to go down that road with one another.“I am telling you, that medicine is for the household of the baron of whom I am an employee and whose daughter is quite ill!”“Sure, you had a contract, but it’s not like you paid ahead of time, right? It only makes sense for a merchant to sell to the one who gives him the best price. Ain’t that right, sir?”Both sides pressed him, but the weak-willed, if honest, apothecary had neither the bravery to make an enemy of an influential merchant nor the nerve to flat out refuse a request from a noble household. Thus, the only thing that he could say was:“I-If you two could settle this among yourselves…”This was the seller’s repeated reply, which left them all at a stalemate.Pauline locked eyes with the other three members of the Crimson Vow, and received their nods as confirmation, before cutting into the conversation between the three men.“If I may?”Normally, the chief merchant would reply with something like, “We don’t need any busybodies here,” but perhaps because the conflict was in a deadlock, or perhaps because he was feeling confident in his superiority, or maybe even because he had a vested interest in the comings and goings of four beautiful young girls, he replied unexpectedly.“Sure, that’s all right. What can I do for you?”Pauline was a little taken aback, having expected to have to butt her way in by force, but with this fortuitous reply, she spoke. “Um, well I can understand why the butler here should want those goods—it’s for his master’s sick daughter, after all. But why might it be that you would like to get your hands on those goods, sir? Do you have someone ill waiting on you as well?”The merchant laughed and replied, “Of course not, nothing of the sort. I’m a merchant, and so I like to stock lucrative goods. That’s all there is to it.”“What?”There was a resounding sound of shock and bewilderment, not only from Pauline and the rest of the Crimson Vow, but from the butler, the shopkeeper, and the crowd of spectators as well. Everyone had assumed that the merchant had only gone to such overbearing lengths to try and intercept the medicine because he had some extenuating circumstances of his own.Was this truly about profit alone?That was the reason why he would take the medicine away from a sick young noble who needed it?And for him to declare it so brashly, not even trying to hide his motivations… It defied common sense.“Would that medicine really sell for all that much?” Pauline asked, this time addressing the shop owner.“N-no. I mean, there’s something of a shortage of it because we haven’t been able to collect very much, but it doesn’t sell that often. And these are unprocessed, so they really aren’t all that valuable. This whole week’s shipment is worth maybe five gold.”Five gold pieces for unprocessed medicine that might not be effective—the equivalent of around 500,000 yen in Japanese money. Of course, any commoner would not think that amount very cheap at all, but for a noble or a wealthy merchant, it was a pittance.“You’d pick a fight with a noble household over as little as that? And now you’re boasting about it? Wouldn’t that be bad for your company’s reputation? I don’t see why you’re bothering with all this…”The merchant calmly explained, “Honestly, not really. We specialize in bulk transactions and wholesale operations. Except for merchants like this fellow, we don’t really do individual retail, so our reputation among the common folk doesn’t matter much. Plus, that five gold that the owner here mentioned is only the price in standard circumstances. If there’s a buyer that absolutely needs to get their hands on something, then the seller can ask for whatever they like.“Take this baron’s servant, for example. Even if he placed a new order now, who knows when he’d get it? Because he absolutely needs it, I could sell it to him for ten times the standard price. Or say some other noble wanted to stick it to the baron. Why, I could sell it to them for even more. I don’t know what such a challenger would do with all the medicine they bought, but honestly, that’s none of my concern.”Hearing this, the color drained from the butler’s face.Pauline replied, “Th-that’s true… But for a merchant, that’s practically…”“Heresy?” the merchant preempted. “I mean, what do you think an auction is? It’s nothing but a way to extort as much money as you can from whomever wants to get their hands on something the most, regardless of actual cost or value. No one comes kicking in an auctioneer’s door, do they?”“Er…”Pauline found herself lost for words.Reina nudged Mile in the back, urging her to do something, but for once even Mile could think of nothing to say in response. While she was still deep in thought, the merchant put forth a proposal.“If we keep on like this and neither side yields, then this isn’t going to go anywhere. How about this: Since we’ve brought up auctions now, why don’t we call it just that—an auction? Goods go to the highest bidder. That way there’s nothing objectionable, and the owner here is guaranteed to make a little extra as well. How’s that? Of course, the payment will be expected up front and in full, with no deferments.”As he spoke, the merchant pulled his purse from his breast pocket.The butler stared at the merchant’s purse with sharp eyes. Judging by the size of that purse, he couldn’t possibly be carrying that much money, even if it’s all gold coins inside. Yet it would be impossible for him to have any less than what he intended to buy the medicine with, along with some extra rainy day emergency funds, and whatever he needs for himself, so…“Very well. I accept your proposal!”Oh no…Pauline smacked her hand to her forehead, and Mile shrugged her shoulders.Reina and Mavis had yet to realize the truth of the matter, but naturally Mile and Pauline had grasped it immediately. The merchant before them was not one to take on a challenge that he had no chance of winning. Judging by the look on his face, he most certainly had something up his sleeve.Most of the surrounding spectators, particularly the ones who looked like merchants themselves, grimaced as well, looking at the butler with pitying eyes…“Is this fine by you as well, good sir?” the merchant asked to the shop owner, who nodded approvingly.This solution allowed him to avoid the enmity of both a merchant who was incredibly influential within the guild, as well as that of a noble household—and plus, his profits seemed like they were about to go way up. Naturally, he had no objections.“Well then, let’s begin. I’m the one who proposed this, so I’ll start the bidding. Five gold pieces.”With that, the merchant drew five gold coins from his purse and placed them on the table in front of the shop.“Seven gold pieces!”In turn, the butler shoved his hand into his purse, pulling out seven gold coins. Rather than inching the price up bit by bit, he made a bold increase that he hoped would see his opponent quickly crushed.“Eight gold pieces.”The merchant increased his bid by only one, prompting the butler to move boldly again.“Ten gold pieces!”The price went up and up, until it finally passed 25 gold pieces. However, the butler showed no signs of agitation.Judging by the size of that purse, he couldn’t have had more than thirty gold pieces in there. It was probably only 27 or 28, and that’ll soon be spent. I, on the other hand, was provided 20 gold pieces by my master for the sake of obtaining the medicine in case a large amount should come into stock, as well as an extra ten gold pieces in case any unexpected situations should arise. On top of that, I myself have another three gold and five half-gold on my person. His coins should be running out soon…The price had ended up running higher than expected, thanks to this merchant, but even for a lower-ranking noble, twenty or thirty gold pieces was no enormous matter.“Then I’ll bid 27… Oh?”The merchant made yet another two-gold increase to the bid, but what came out of his purse was only one gold coin. Apparently, he had reached the bottom of his bag.I won!The butler was thrilled.“Hm, I could have sworn I packed at least one more coin in this purse before I left, it should have been here…” the merchant said, rummaging in his pockets.Even if he pulls out one or two more, it doesn’t matter. I’ve won! the butler thought, with a sigh of relief. However…“Oh, there it is! This should make it 27 gold!”With that, the merchant placed one coin down on the table, picking up nine from the existing pile and slipping them back into his purse.“Wh…?”The eyes of the butler, the Crimson Vow, and the rest of the spectators went wide.There, on the table, was one more coin. It was an orichalcum coin.In this world, white silver—in other words, platinum—had very little worth. It looked like silver, but as it had a much higher melting point, manufacturing equipment could not melt it down, so it was treated as nothing more than “false silver,” a rubbish material. What took its place as the most-prized mineral was mithril, also known as holy silver, or orichalcum.Items made of mithril, or even better yet, orichalcum, which were both rare metals, were out of the reach of most common folk. On Earth, this would be the equivalent of having a sword made of platinum.And so, an orichalcum piece was worth ten gold pieces. It was such a hefty currency that no one would just walk around with it on their person or use it for day-to-day transactions…normally.“What do you think? That’s 27 gold, isn’t it?”The merchant grinned smugly.“S-so it is…” Pauline said begrudgingly.The merchant’s trap had finally been revealed. However, this move wasn’t underhanded enough to invite criticism. It was customary for merchants and travelers to have some extra funds stashed away in case of a dire emergency. The butler’s reading of the situation had simply been too naive.The butler’s face twisted in shock, confusion, and anguish.If he could just say that this defeat would be a good lesson for the future, that would be one thing, but this was a matter that involved his master’s daughter. Plus, there was the possibility that someone could now hold that medicine hostage, to make unreasonable demands of the baron’s household.It was a match in which defeat and humiliation were not an option. And he had lost.The butler’s face was now colored deeply with despair.“So, how about it? Will you forfeit?”“Nh… Uh…”The butler was pale as a sheet, sweat pouring down his face.“At this rate, that butler’s gonna have to slice his own stomach open to take responsibility…” Mile uttered, though she had no idea whether the practice of seppuku was commonplace around these parts.Of course, Reina and the others had already had this explained to them in a story Mile told about a group of individuals who had become unemployed after their employer attempted to murder someone in the palace and then broke into that person’s home and perpetrated a massacre.Suddenly, the other three noticed Pauline, and how her face spasmed, a glare in her eyes.“Here she goes, huh?” Mile asked. The others nodded.“Might I have a word?”At Pauline’s further intrusion, the merchant, whose victory was already assured, gave a nonchalant nod.“Sure thing, miss. It’s thanks to your prompting before that I thought of this auction to settle things, after all. Now, what can I help you with?”“Ah, actually if I could get you to wait right there a moment, that would be perfect. Miley, a sound barrier, please!”“On it!”“Huh? What is…?”After the merchant gave his consent, Pauline had Mile erect a sound barrier. This put Pauline and the butler in a separate sphere from the merchant so that neither side could hear the other’s words. The merchant had been put in his own sphere at Mile’s discretion so that he could neither issue a complaint nor try to butt in while Pauline and the butler were speaking.From the outside, all anyone could see was the merchant wordlessly flapping his mouth, and Pauline and the butler deep in some sort of conversation.Gradually, the butler’s eyes began to open wider, in some sort of surprise.And then, the butler bent his back toward Pauline; it was much less a bow than an almost-military salute. His upper back was angled deeply, at almost 45 degrees.To give an uncapped salute in the Japanese SDF, one normally bends about 10 degrees. 45 degrees is unheard of outside of bowing to the emperor himself or to the casket of a comrade killed in the line of duty. Was Pauline truly someone worthy of such a deep show of respect in the butler’s eyes?Pauline then turned to Mile and gave a twist of her wrist. That was the signal to dissolve the sound barrier. Seeing this, Mile complied straight away.“Wh-what was that just now…?” asked the merchant, who, judging from his tone of wonder, had surely neither seen nor heard of such a thing before. Pauline ignored him. She had to press on before any of them could change their minds and object to Pauline’s intervention.“Everyone!” she shouted loudly to the surrounding onlookers. “All assembled, you are well aware of the situation. In the name of the house of the Baron Aura, I entreat all of you here to invest your funds in this butler!”

Average 6.2

In all matters of common sense, Reina was the one to ask. Mercantile affairs and money? Pauline. Combat, warfare, and logistics and supplies were Mavis’s area, and Mile covered anything beyond the realm of conventional wisdom. Together, they were an unstoppable encyclopedic force.“N-now just hold it right there! What’re you saying here? That those bug monsters are some kind of sentient rulers?!” Reina shouted, her eyes wide in shock. Obviously, that was not the case.“No, I mean, they aren’t rulers or anything… I think they’re merely doing as they were ordered to. Just as the people who lived here a long, long time ago ordered them to.”“W-wait a minute, Mile! Wouldn’t that mean that those creatures would have been alive this entire time?”Pauline’s skepticism was perfectly reasonable.“No. I actually don’t think that those are ‘life-forms’—not in the traditional sense. I think they’re… how to put it? More like golems. If they break, their comrades can fix them, or they might even just make new copies of them themselves… Anyway, that means that as long as they don’t all happen to be destroyed at once, they can repair themselves, reproduce, and keep on living indefinitely. That’s my thinking.”“Indefinitely,” as Mile said, implied not an invincible immortality but rather a ‘self-perpetuating’ existence.“………” The others were silent.“Well, there’s no use in us just standing around here. Let’s go forward,” said Mile.“B-but if we go forward, then…” Reina stammered, hesitant.If they continued into the passage, a scavenger might spot them. Even if the stories said that they would never harm humans, those were just hearsay. Plus, there was no guarantee that their apparent benevolence would extend to people who had just invaded their home—or that they had not been ordered to protect this place against any invaders “by any means necessary.”Furthermore, Reina had never heard any tales of humans fighting against the scavengers in the past. Was this because these battles themselves had never occurred? Or simply because no one had lived to tell the tale?How might such creatures fight? Did they have poison? Would they group together for a swarming strike? The risks of taking on an enemy that they had never encountered before and had not a single piece of information on, ran very high.“Don’t worry, I’ll put up an invisibility cloak and a sound barrier. That way they won’t detect us.”“Invihsuhbilitee cloke?” Reina repeated, utterly bewildered, a question mark practically floating above her head.“It’s something that’ll make sure the enemy can’t see us. It’s like the sound barrier but for light instead of noise.”“Mm-hmm…”Mile answered in such clear terms that Reina accepted her words without question, though there was still something a bit vexing about her explanation.To make a sound barrier, one simply had to erect a screen that would disrupt the vibrations moving through the air between yourself and an opponent. However, doing that with light would mean that, while your opponent would indeed be unable to see you, you would not be able to see your opponent, either. Light being unable to get through would also mean that it would be pitch black around you, and you would be frozen in place, unable to see your surroundings even as your opponent saw something like a pitch-black dome of darkness where you stood, making it easy to determine your hiding place.Furthermore, if you were somehow able to make it so that you could see outside of your dome, allowing the light and electromagnetic waves from the outside to get in without letting the light reflecting off you escape, the temperature on the inside would rise to untenable temperatures. It would be a greenhouse effect.If you then tried to vent the heat out, the scope of your external visibility would increase; opponents who could see infrared waves visually, as well as opponents with things like snakes’ pit organs, which can sense infrared waves, would easily be able to detect you.In addition, this could not be thought of as a simple matter of isolating their reflected light. Any light reflected from the scenery behind them would still have to pass through in order to give the illusion that they were not there. Figuring out how to clear all of those hurdles would be a problem far beyond the reach of the people of this world, who did not have a concept of the visible light spectrum, much less infrared waves, heat, and the other special properties of light.Was Reina able to accept Mile’s explanation so easily because she had no understanding of such matters and merely thought that it really would operate the same way as a sound barrier? Or was it because it was Mile, which always meant that there was no point in questioning her logic?On that note, it would be absurdly difficult for any normal person to enact a field of total invisibility using magic. Without sufficient scientific knowledge, forming and emitting the appropriate thought-pulse to overcome all of these factors—unconsciously, no less—would be an impossibility for the common man.In Mile’s case, though, all she had to think to herself was, “Invisibility cloak, activate! Make me invisible and deal with all the complications of that for me, please!” and the nanomachines would take care of the rest. By Mile’s reasoning, this was simply a normal use of magic as directed by her thoughts, though obviously, that was not the case.She had a nanomachine authorization level 5.Even if she was unable to conceptualize and emit the image of the appropriate concrete process for the nanomachines to actualize, as long as her words and the image of the result she wanted were fitting, she could count on the nanomachines to take care of all the necessary details at their own discretion.It was essentially the difference between filling out all of your income tax forms manually, and simply paying a tax advisor who would handle everything for you.“Now then, shall we?”With that, Mile activated her sound barrier and cloak and put her hand to the door.The Crimson Vow gently pushed open the door and stepped into the hallway. Seeing that there were no scavengers around, they shut the door, and then, after giving the place a careful look around, continued their investigation.“So, which way should we go?”Even before Mavis asked, Mile was already pondering this same question.After thinking for a short while, she pulled a single rusted sword from her inventory. It was something she had looted off of bandits they had wiped out some time ago. She placed it gently on the floor of the hallway and directed everyone to move a short distance away.About ten seconds later, a single scavenger approached from one side of the hallway. The moment it noticed the sword lying on the floor, it scurried over to collect it and then returned in the direction from which it came.“Looks like that’s the way!” said Mile.The other three nodded.Though Reina had initially reported that the scavengers were fairly quick, this one did not appear to be moving very quickly at all. It was quite possible that it could go faster if it put its mind to it, but its normal speed was clearly a fair bit slower than that. Moving quicker would expend more energy and cause more wear on its body; given that it did not appear exceptionally strapped for time, there was no need for it to push itself that far.Thus, the girls were able to follow the scavenger without overexerting themselves.“Oh,” Mile remarked. “Looks like it went in that room.”Indeed, as she had noted, the scavenger had just crossed the threshold of what appeared to be some sort of entrance.Naturally, this entrance had no door. Given the creature’s height and build, it would have been quite the chore for it to have to open and shut doors all the time. Of course, it could have employed an automatic door or something, but devices with a lot of moving parts were unlikely to withstand the test of time, and doors did not seem like they would be necessary for something like a scavenger.And so, the four crept through the entrance behind it.“Wh-what the heck is this…?”“………”This was the scene that unfolded before them: A swarm of scavengers, holding items that appeared to be tools in their hands, around a long line of work tables piled high with various objects.Reina, Mavis, and Pauline could not even conceive of what was happening before their eyes, but to Mile, this was how things appeared:“It’s a workshop…”As the word suggested, the operation was a small one—less a large-scale industrial plant than the sort of second-rate factory that might pop up in some backwater town. Of course, there were no conveyor belts or anything to aid the assembly line—just a number of scavengers facing the objects that were set upon the stationary tables, working away at something or other.“They’re…golems…”In fact, what lay upon those tables were the bodies of golems—rock golems and iron golems.The metallic golems might have actually been made of something like copper as opposed to iron, but they were called “iron golems” nonetheless. Rock golems could not compare to their strength. Even among the Crimson Vow, perhaps only Mile stood a chance of being able to cut through one.The saving grace for hunters was that golems never left their own territories, meaning that it was essentially unheard of for them to come into human settlements and attack. The only time golems ever laid a hand on humans was when humans went trespassing in their territories, and even this only happened when the invading hunters were after game or other materials from the land—or when they aimed to make the golems themselves their harvest and engaged with them in battle. In such cases, the percentage of hunters who were able to best an iron golem was incredibly low.“Wh-what could they be doing…?” Pauline whispered.“Repairs, I’d guess. Since you can’t really say that you’d ‘heal’ a golem,” Mavis replied.As the scavengers did not appear to be producing any new individuals, Mile was inclined to agree. If they had been continually producing brand-new golems for tens of thousands of years, golems would have spread across the entire planet like a pox. Given that this was not the case, and that the golems’ territories did not appear to be increasing, this was a sound judgment to make.“That’s it!”Mile was struck with an epiphany. Finally, she knew the reason why golems would suddenly cease to function with the destruction of their heads, which contained nothing more than auditory and visual sensors.More than likely, the golems relied on calculating their current surrounding circumstances to move, a calculation that would be based on information transmitted from an external source. If this were cut off, then they might end up attacking their own allies, or unintentionally harming their (probably long-gone) “masters,” so they would have been designed to cease functioning if all of their sensors were destroyed and to wait until someone could come to collect them—someone such as the scavengers.“And what conclusions are you coming to all by yourself over there, genius?” Reina said snidely. To be fair, this was neither the time nor the place for Mile to be giving any long-winded explanations.With that in mind, Mile ignored her and began using her surveillance magic, thinking that a modest operation like this could not be the only thing present in a facility built this deeply underground. There was little doubt that these ruins were made up of a variety of different, smaller operations, all combined into one greater institution.“An ancient industrial complex…”In her previous life, Mile had been rather fond of flipping through pamphlets about machinery. She was enamored of their aesthetics. Naturally, this interest extended to large-scale equipment as well.“Wh…?”There was nothing.What her magical scan found was that there was not a single other workshop in operation anywhere else in this facility.That said, she did get a number of pings from rooms that were buried in rock or dirt, the wreckage of machine-like constructions that had been crushed by fallen rubble, and other things of that ilk. Even the machine-like constructions retained not even the faintest resemblance to their original forms—they were nothing but heaps of rusted metal and dust.The ones that were buried could probably be excavated, given enough time. The reason that this had not happened thus far was that this was likely outside of the scavengers’ programmed responsibilities. Furthermore, they were machines that belonged to the scavengers’ “masters,” so taking them apart to recycle the metal would probably be out of the question. Or perhaps it was merely that there were others who were meant to be in charge of the machines’ upkeep, and those units had already been destroyed…The scant number of scavengers that had lived on were left repairing themselves and their comrades in arms and using a meager amount of materials to create a few more of their number.For what? In anticipation of something?Had their masters ordered them to await “a day that would one day come?”Were those masters down in those buried rooms still, existing as mummified remains? Or had they made use of those stairs and that elevator to make their safe escape?The girls had no way of knowing what had occurred so very long ago.“Let’s go back. It doesn’t seem like there are any other facilities around here, and I want to leave these guys to their work.”“………”The three were silent.“All right. Let’s go then,” Reina replied, several seconds later. Mavis and Pauline nodded in agreement.If they were to destroy this place, then the number of golems in the region would slowly decrease, and eventually they would vanish altogether. This, of course, would probably be a boon to the humans. However, none of the girls could have mustered the strength to do such a thing.Did they all agree because the request had come from Mile, who so very rarely voiced her own desires? Or was it because they would feel guilty destroying ruins that had stood for so many long years? Or was there some other reason? Only each girl herself could know.The members of the Crimson Vow retraced their steps and returned to the inner portion of the cave.Because their return up the stairs was an upward climb, it required much more stamina than the first part of the journey, but at least it was far easier on their knees and backs. It was manageable as long as they took breaks along the way. The four of them were C-rank hunters, after all.They put the entrance wall back the way that they had found it, and once Mile confirmed that the demons would not be able to detect it, they slipped back around the corner, and she released a spell to nullify the effects of the sleeping drug.As the demons had already been asleep in the first place, she could have simply left them as they were and let them wait for the drug to wear off naturally, but if some monster or bandit should slip in while they were still under its effects, they would be wiped out. She was not prepared to needlessly put anyone in harm’s way.Especially considering that the lookouts were still asleep.The members of the Crimson Vow returned to their campsite to sleep the rest of the night.“My assumption is that entrance was closed off with a rock on purpose so that no one would use that passageway anymore. It just happened that some kind of movement caused the rock to shift, which opened it back up a crack. I wonder if it’ll just be left the way it is or if the scavengers will realize that it’s been opened and start using it as an entryway again… Well, I bet they have a bunch of other entrances around, so they probably won’t bother with it even if they notice. They probably will fix that elevator-looking thing though, so it should be a lot easier going down next time.”“Hang on, ‘next time’?” Reina asked. “Are you planning on going back there again? Why would you wanna do that?”Mile did not reply, thinking privately, I forgot about it this time, but I hope I can return it someday.Yes, that. The orb that she had taken from within the chest of the rock golem they defeated so long ago that now rested within her inventory.Somewhere along the line, she had realized that this orb was where a golem’s heart resides.***“Well, if the demons do find that place, then there’s nothing we can do about it. We don’t have any right to interfere, and they’d be free to claim that all they did was discover a monster’s nest and destroyed it. It wouldn’t be any bother to us—or rather, to us humans. Plus, those guys would probably have no idea what any of that stuff down there means, so they’d just conclude that the place was another miss—just some empty ruins that monsters had taken up residence in. They’d move right on to investigating the next site.”Mile explained all this to the others on the way back to the capital, though in fact it was unlikely that the demons would ever come across those stairs or that underground facility.That said, even if they did discover them, it wouldn’t matter. She had already explained that much.Her desire to leave the ruins as she had found them was little more than sentiment. They were a group of machines, working tirelessly since some time in the distant past, honoring the commands of the masters who had built—Suddenly, she was struck with a sense of déjà vu.Hey, Nanos?She called out softly within her head, but in a rare turn, the nanomachines did not reply.Huh. Wonder if they’ve all gone off somewhere…Mile then began to wonder—were there other such “living ruins” out there in the world? If any of them had been maintained in a more complete state, would that be what the elder dragons were seeking?For now, all she could do was pray that their true aims were peaceful ones.***Upon returning to the Capital, the Crimson Vow headed straight to the guild hall to give their report.“Pardon, but we’d like to give our job completion report directly to the guild master, if possible…” Mavis said to Felicia, the clerk.Her eyes went wide. “Y-you all…” She greeted them as though they had suddenly ripped off a disguise. “I-I’m glad to see you all back safe, but is the job really complete? Were you able to confirm the identities of those suspects?”“Er, yeah…”Mavis took a step back as Felicia leaned out over the counter, bearing down.“And you’re telling me that you want to give a direct report to the guild master himself, not to a lowly clerk like me, out here where the other hunters can hear you?”“Erm, y-yes…?”Mavis was petrified beneath Felicia’s gaze, but her resolve was unwavering.“Come with me, then. Necelle, mind the counter!”Felicia turned the reception desk over to another employee and led the way, the Crimson Vow following behind her.The guild master’s office was up on the second floor, as it always was in these sorts of buildings. Felicia went in alone to explain the situation while the other four waited outside. Afterwards, they were called in.“Well then, let’s hear it,” the guild master pressed them for their report.This guild master, the master of the capital branch of the hunters’ guild in the Kingdom of Vanolark, gave the immediate impression of being a retired upper-rank hunter somewhere in his late forties or early fifties. His age would be no trouble were he a mage, but for a frontline, melee fighter, living to be middle-aged could be difficult. The fact that he had become the master of the capital guild branch after retiring meant that he had to be incredibly skilled. He had a brazen expression and a distinguished beard that appeared as though it had been cultivated especially for the sake of lending him a further air of dignity.Because they were a young, rookie party who had received this meeting by their own petitioning, their standing here was low. So the Crimson Vow remained standing, facing the guild master straight on as he sat behind his desk. Felicia was standing in wait as well to the guild master’s side.“I am Mile of the Crimson Vow, C-rank hunter. I would like to inform you as to the results of the job that we accepted, as well as some other recently developing information from abroad. I do not believe this news has reached the area yet, but I feel it may be pertinent.”With that, Mile laid out all that she knew—except, of course, the details about the underground workshop and the stairs that lead down to it.“I accept your report, and I suspect that any next steps will be a matter for the Crown to decide. That being said, given what you’ve told us, I imagine that once the palace officials are done endlessly debating and finally decide to act, the demons will already have packed up and left.“Good work out there, in any event. I give your achievements an A-grade.” He turned to direct his words at Felicia. “Oh—and see that they get a one-gold bonus for bringing us additional information, as well as some contribution points.”And so, the Crimson Vow’s very first job from the capital guild branch in the Kingdom of Vanolark was a great success.I am glad that they came back safely, Felicia thought to herself as she revised the Crimson Vow’s valuation to reflect the surprise increase in compensation. But for them to have been able to investigate a group of demons so efficiently… Plus, the fact that they mentioned elder dragons and beastpeople in the report to the Master… It’s all rather… Hm, I wonder if I was too hard on the Silver Fangs. Well, it wasn’t really that big of a deal.Though Felicia was quick to write the matter off, it had been quite the bother to the members of the Silver Fangs themselves.When they had come wobbling back to the guild hall defeated, they had been violently dressed down in front of all the other hunters and guild employees. Felicia had reproached them as “weakly cowards” and “good-for-nothings who can’t even keep up with a group of children.”From Felicia’s perspective, there was no way that a group of B-rank hunters should have been able to lose track of a party of little girls, some of whom were still underage. She could only assume that they had decided that the assignment was a pain and given up halfway through, coming back home with some made-up excuse.Giving up simply out of boredom meant that they were directly defying her orders and abandoning a group of rookie hunters by the wayside, leaving them to die practically before their eyes. This had been the foundation of Felicia’s stern rebuke of the poor hunters of the Silver Fangs.The Silver Fangs, so abused, offered no word in reply, simply dragging themselves back to their inn, their heads hung low and their tails between their legs. They were in no shape to set out on the road as they had planned to, so they had little other choice.The shock for the Silver Fangs was doubled by the fact that Felicia’s digs at them were not just insults—they were, in fact, the truth. No matter how heavily laden they had been, the fact of the matter was that they had not been able to keep up with a group of children. They, who called themselves B-rank hunters.The Fangs had lingered in the inn a few more days, still in shock. When they finally received word that the Crimson Vow had returned home safe, their job completed, they were able to psych themselves back up. It was clear that the Crimson Vow must be fairly skilled and that it had been their mistake to take the situation for granted as B-ranks. A few days behind schedule, they finally set out on their distant journey.It would probably take a little longer for the Silver Fangs to rise to the level of an A-rank party after all of that.Chapter 48:

Secret Technique
“Do you have a room for four?”Choosing an inn this time was not even a debate. The front door that the Crimson Vow stepped through was none other than that of Faleel’s inn. It was not actually called “Faleel’s Inn”—it was the Daybreak Traveler.There were plenty of inns that did not follow the “Something-Something Inn” naming convention, but the name “Daybreak Traveler” was still a bit of an odd one. If someone were still traveling at daybreak, wouldn’t that mean they had not bothered to stop at an inn? Or did it refer to someone who departed at dawn? Yet having someone leave too early wasn’t ideal for an inn. If a traveler was not going to take their time and linger a while, they’d have been better off simply camping out for the night, wouldn’t they?Once Mile started thinking about it, she was so distracted that she couldn’t sleep all night. Apparently, she still did not have enough life experience to realize that it might not be a literal daybreak that was being referred to.“Oh!”As Mile continued to ponder the name, Faleel came flying out from behind the reception desk and flung her arms around Mile’s legs.Hehee, I missed this! A shameless grin spread across Mile’s face.“I though I wasn’t gonna see you again…”Oh my god, those adorable, tear-filled eyes! Those twitching ears! I can’t take it!Snap!“Quit it!”Mile had begun crouching down to return Faleel’s embrace without even thinking about it, when a karate chop from Reina came down right upon the crown of her head.“…And so, thanks to the dragons helping us out, we became friends with the beastmen!”“I’m so glaaad!”Naturally, Mile could not go into too much detail about an incident so fresh that the paint had yet to dry, so she told Faleel not of their most recent job but of the previous ruins expedition. Her story was a full-scale production, with revised edits and a brand-new script.Though this particular tale had apparently not yet made it to this country, it was probably already known in others, so it was fair game to tell. It wasn’t as though it was something that only they knew about in any case. That was Mile’s reasoning.After dinner, when Faleel was free and there were only a few guests around in the dining room, Mile called Faleel over to their table to tell her their tale. Some of the guests, who appeared to be hunters, overheard as well but assumed it to be nothing more than a nonsense story designed to entertain a small child, and so they just smiled along.(A few days later, when those same hunters went to check the information board at the guild and saw what had been posted there, they would be stunned into silence.)From within the kitchen, the owner, who was cleaning up after last call and preparing for the next day, glanced jealously now and then at the Crimson Vow, seeing how much fun they were having with Faleel. Beyond him, the woman who appeared to be his wife was grimacing.Hm…? What about the boys?According to Faleel, her elder brothers were on a separate shift, in charge of getting up first thing to clean the kitchen and dining room, peel the potatoes and wash the vegetables, and do all sorts of troublesome jobs that they didn’t want to make their little sister do. Faleel was left in charge of the reception, the bookkeeping, and occasionally cleaning the tables after the customers had gone home.This seemed overly doting, but then again, Faleel’s lineage—the equivalent of what would have been Western European ancestry back on Earth, mixed with beast blood—made her look older than her actual age of just six years old. It was still a bit early for her to be assigned any strenuous tasks.Plus, on particularly busy mornings, or at other times when the inn was especially full, as when a tour group was stopping through or the whole capital was flooded with travelers because of some big to-do, it was all hands on deck.At the moment, the boys were probably off playing in their rooms, or else getting some shut-eye in preparation for another early morning.In this world, there were children who got outside jobs even before the age of ten, so it was only natural that they would be put to work in their own family’s business.“Mile, I’ve got a request!”After taking a few minutes to catch her breath back in their room, Mavis called over to Mile, a serious look upon her face.“Um, could I get you to teach me those moves you used? The ‘Secret Technique: Meteor Bat for a B-rank Small Fry’ and ‘Demon-Slaying Blade: Vacuum Knee-Cutter’? Please, I’m begging you!”She sank to the floor, her head bowed.It was a “Japanese dogeza.” Thanks to a misstep on Mile’s part, she had inadvertently introduced the move to the others when apologizing to them in the past.“M-Mavis, please don’t do that!”Mile disliked having to do a dogeza, even when apologizing from the bottom of her heart, but she hated to see someone else doing it even more. To have it directed at her was even worse and would be uncomfortable for just about anyone.Well, actually, there were probably some who would not mind it so much—but such people were already outside the bounds of normalcy and best given a wide berth to begin with.“N-now then!”“Nn…”Even Mile was aware of the inferiority Mavis felt when compared to the mages of their group.Using the “EX Godspeed Blade” made her invincible, true, but the technique came with great limitations, and no true knight would be happy to boast of their own strength if they had to rely on an elixir to give it to them. Furthermore, even the flame attack she had mustered was only thanks to said elixir, and afterward, Mavis had soon begun to feel the side effects.Though the elixir hadn’t bothered her much at the time, on their return to the capital, Mavis had begun to complain that her stomach felt like it was on fire and that her throat was in pain. Her allies cast a healing spell upon her in a hurry.After Mavis finally started feeling better, thanks to the healing spells, they made camp early in order to get her to rest. Then once everyone had gone to sleep, Mile, who had taken the first watch, had a conversation with the nanomachines… This was a matter of her dear friend’s health, so it was not a time for Mile to balk at any self-imposed limitations on communicating with them.Say Nanos, about Mavis’s condition…FORGIVE US. IT APPEARS THAT PROTECTIVE MEASURES WERE TAKEN, BUT THE AMOUNT OF CONTINUOUS FIRE THAT WOULD FOLLOW WAS UNDERESTIMATED… WHILE WE WERE ABLE TO GUARD AGAINST ANY DIRECT BURNS, IT SEEMS THERE WERE SOME PARTICLE BEAMS INCLUDED IN THE LAST FEW SHOTS.Whaaaaaaaat?!?!Particle beams… Electron beams, proton beams, neutron beams…The phrase “particle beam barrier” floated through the back of Mile’s mind.I-Is she gonna be alright?!Mile was white as a sheet. The voice of the nanomachines vibrated in her eardrums.PLEASE BE AT EASE. THOUGH THEY WERE PARTICLE BEAMS, IT WAS NOTHING THAT WOULD TAKE A GREAT IMMEDIATE TOLL UPON THE HUMAN BODY.THE PARTICLE BEAMS THAT WERE RELEASED IN THIS INCIDENT WERE ONLY A SECONDARY PRODUCT OF THE ENERGY CREATED TO ENACT THIS PSEUDO-MAGIC, AND ONLY A VERY SMALL NUMBER WERE RELEASED, SO THEY SHOULD NOT CAUSE ANY PARTICULARLY VIOLENT DAMAGE TO HER CELLS OR DNA.“Particularly?”NO, WELL, ONLY VERY FAINTLY… HOWEVER, THANKS TO THE HEALING MAGIC OF YOU AND YOUR COMPANIONS, LADY MILE, SHE HAS MADE A COMPLETE RECOVERY. THE NANOMACHINES RESIDING INSIDE OF HER LADYSHIP MAVIS’S BODY HAVE BEEN STERNLY PRESSED TO TAKE SPECIAL CARE IN ENACTING THE HEALING MAGIC UPON HER AS WELL…I see. Thank you.Still, did that mean that particle beams were created every time someone used magic? If so, that was incredibly dangerous…AN EXCEPTION! THIS TIME WAS AN EXCEPTION!!!GENERATING FLAMES INSIDE OF THE HUMAN BODY IN THE MANNER OF A DRAGON NORMALLY NEVER HAPPENS! GENERATING ENERGY WITHIN A CLOSED SYSTEM REQUIRES EXTRADIMENSIONAL COUPLING AND A NUMBER OF OTHER SPECIAL MEASURES!Though Mile had not specifically addressed the nanomachines, the nanomachines responded to her thoughts in a panic.THIS IS NOT A REQUIREMENT FOR ORDINARY PSUEDO-MAGIC, AND DRAGONS ARE FAR STURDIER, SO IT’S EASIER FOR THEM TO DEAL WITH THE CONSEQUENCES…Apparently, they could not stand the thought of Mile having any distrust of magic itself.Incidentally, Mile banned Mavis from ever using her “fire breath” again.Mavis, who had assumed that she now understood a technique that would allow her to challenge even the mages, was of course strongly opposed to this decree. However, as Mile explained to her that it was a technique suited only to those with a body as powerful as a dragon’s, and that by using it, Mavis ran the absurd risk of bringing about her own death, Mavis became aware of her prior recklessness, and bit by bit, her resistance weakened.Finally, Mile gave her an ultimatum: “You are forbidden to use this technique unless someone’s life is in danger, and you have absolutely no other means at your disposal. Should you break this rule, you shall thenceforth never receive another Micross capsule ever again.”With that, Mavis finally assented.Yet here Mile was, dangling these sword-like special techniques right in front of Mavis’s face.“Wh-why I myself was just thinking how I ought to teach them to you…”“R-really?! Thank you, Mile! I owe you my life!” Mavis was overjoyed. “Really though, I’m sorry if I’m asking a lot here. I’m assuming they’re a family secret of yours, so I promise never to share them with anyone else. I swear it!”“Still, even if I teach them to you, I’m not sure that you can use them…”“It’ll be fine. I can do it. I’ll show ya!”“Uh-huh…”The problem was that those techniques employed magic.No matter how fast you could swing a sword, nullifying an opponent’s spells with your blade or sending magical waves flying obviously depended wholly on magic, which would be virtually impossible for someone like Mavis who lacked the means to use magic externally.Later, as Mile crawled into bed, she thought of Mavis and how horribly despondent she would be at the discovery of something completely out of her reach even after all the hard work she had put into tempering her body. Mile’s heart grew very heavy.Ugh! Why did I have to put it like that?Then again, there’s no way I could’ve denied her without reason when she looked that desperate…WOULD YOU CARE FOR OUR ASSISTANCE?Wah!The sudden voice startled Mile.What’s this now?WELL, IT SEEMS THAT OUR COLLEAGUES’ CLUMSINESS HAS CAUSED TROUBLE FOR HER LADYSHIP MAVIS, SO WE THOUGHT THAT WE MIGHT BE OF ASSISTANCE…OF COURSE, WE ARE ALWAYS READY TO SHARE OUR INFORMATION, SHOULD YOU EVER REQUEST IT, LADY MILE…Mile got the faint impression that they were implying that she should rely on them more, but she wasn’t interested in running to them for every little thing, so she ignored this.However, if there were a way to ease her current worries, then she would accept it in a heartbeat.Indeed, it was her perennial philosophy at play:“Now is now, and then is then!”***As they had just completed a job, the girls decided to take a short vacation. Since they had been in an all-out battle, and because they had earned quite a bit of money, they decided to take three days off. They had only just stopped in at the guild the previous evening, so for today they were each free to do whatever they liked.“Miss Mavis, could I ask you to accompany me today?”Seeing the serious expression on Mile’s face, Mavis knew exactly what she was asking.And so, with an equally serious look, Mavis replied, “Gladly—if you’ll have me.”Mile gave a grave nod.“We’re coming too, then!” Reina cut in from beside them, as always.However…“Please, I must ask you to sit this one out.”“Huh?”To Reina’s surprise, Mile swiftly denied her. As she gaped in confusion, Mavis voiced her objections as well.“Mile is passing on a family secret to me. Even passing it to me is as good at giving up her family’s livelihood, something to which she must be loath to agree… I would not dare to allow another soul to bear witness to such a thing. Though you may be my allies, I still cannot permit this. At least this once, I must ask that you don’t follow us, not even in secret.”So came the stern declaration, not only from Mile, but from Mavis, who was always so gentle toward others.Even Reina could recognize that there were some lines that simply should not be crossed.“I-I get it! Do whatever you want!”And so, leaving behind Reina, her face arranged in an expression of studied disinterest, and Pauline, who merely shrugged, Mile and Mavis headed into the forest beyond the capital’s walls.Blessedly, the other two did not follow them into the forest. Such a thing would be a deep breach of the trust between the party members—a fact of which there was no way the other two could possibly be ignorant.“Now then, let’s begin.”“Please, let’s.”The expressions on both of their faces were serious.“First, allow me to start with an explanation of the skills. As you are aware, my own technique as a swordswoman pales vastly in comparison to yours, Mavis. My only redeeming features are my speed and brute strength.”Although that’s quite a high hurdle already, Mavis thought to herself. However, she continued to listen quietly and respectfully.“These skills are not ones that rely on that strength or speed. Er—well, I suppose a bit of speed is involved in striking back at magic that’s flying toward you…”Mavis nodded.“What’s most important here is what I would call ‘spirit.’”“Yeah!” Mavis nodded, her eyes glistening. If the key were magic, then there would be nothing she could do about it, but strength of spirit she could handle.Mile then began a fabricated tale, reworked from what the nanomachines had told her the night before.“So, Mavis, you’ve realized that you can use your spiritual strength within your body, but you can’t send it out into the world, yes? Even your flame spell was something that originated within your body and was fired out directly from your body. This means that it’s currently impossible for you to do things like combine that spiritual energy with your sword to deflect or destroy your opponent’s magical attacks, or to send out your own energy waves.”“What…? So, that means that I can’t use them…?”Mavis was stunned, but of course Mile was not finished.“So I’m going to enact a countermeasure to ensure that you can use your energy externally in a concrete form. First, I will need some of your blood and your hair.”“Wha…? No, screw it. That’s fine! At this point I’d sell my soul to the devil if it meant I could learn those techniques!”When Mavis heard the words “your blood and hair,” her mind immediately ran to deals with devils. The thought was highly understandable.Mile then took Mavis’s sword, extracted it from its sheath, and placed it on the ground.“First, the blood.”At Mile’s words, Mavis drew her back-up dagger and pressed the blade to her left arm without hesitation. And then, she sliced across.The blood trickled down, coating her sword. Mavis then laid the dagger beside it, coating the smaller blade with blood as well.“That should be enough,” Mile said, magically treating the wound on Mavis’s arm until the cut healed up perfectly.Next, she cut some of Mavis’s hair and sprinkled it across both blades.She hadn’t hacked at the hair, merely snipped a bit from Mavis’s bangs, so the effect on her appearance was negligible. The short pieces of hair adhered to the blades, upon which the blood was already beginning to dry.Do your thing, nanos!YOU’VE GOT IT, BOSS.The blood and hair was then absorbed into each of the blades, which glowed with a light just bright enough to obscure their shapes and then dimmed to reveal…Two blades, tinged with a slightly reddish-golden hue that had not been there before.They were an extension of Mavis’s body itself, imbued with her own hair and blood. They would serve as antennae.Why was it that demons possessed stronger magic than the other humanoid races?THAT IS BECAUSE THEY HAVE ANTENNAE.Or so the nanomachines had explained to Mile.Demons had something that the other humanoid races did not—namely, their horns, which sprouted directly from their skulls. These helped them to radiate their thought pulses with greater efficiency.Mavis’s ability to radiate thought pulses externally was incomplete, and her internal antennae were in poor form. Thus, it was better to prepare her an external transmitter, which could be appended to the exterior.These blades, which had now absorbed Mavis’s hair and blood, had become like parts of Mavis’s body. So it was little wonder that such an object could be used as a conduit for her desires.“As I explained, your own spirit should be coursing through these two blades, Mavis. Now, please try practicing those skills. And then, when you need to increase your power, drench the hand that is gripping your weapon.”“Drench?”“Yes. You see, most of the resistance that will prevent that sword from conducting your ‘spirit’ will come from the place where your hand and the sword are directly in contact. By wetting that part, you reduce the resistance. Water and sweat and the like are all fine for the job, but obviously the most efficient thing is…”“Blood, right?” Mavis asked.“Yes…” Mile replied, just as the swordswoman had suspected.Mavis bared her teeth and grinned.

Average 6.1

Hm, she thought. This is bad. There are four of us on each side. If this turns into a one-on-one battle, people are gonna get hurt and maybe even die… I believe in everyone, but there’s always that million-to-one chance, and it’s possible that someone may have no choice but to deal their opponents a fatal wound. What to do?That’s it!The perfect plan popped into Mile’s mind fully formed.“Please wait!” she shouted.The approaching demons stopped in their tracks.“What? Y’all gonna give up and surrender?” asked the leader.Mile shook her head. “That’s not it. I was just thinking, if we jump into an all-out brawl like this, it won’t be very…aesthetic, will it?”“Huhhhhhhh?”All voices present, save for Mile’s, rang out in harmony.Even Reina and Mavis were stunned this time.“Wh-what exactly—”“Do you mean by ‘aesthetic’?”“What in the world is she on about?” the demons’ leader asked.For once even Mavis could not answer.“What we need is a one-on-one tournament,” said Mile.Everyone else was flabbergasted at this proposal, so she explained:“Don’t you think it would be sacrilege for us to have such a glorious battle as this and leave everyone stuck concentrating on their own matches, not getting to witness their comrades’ bouts?”Two of the demons, who seemed particularly enthused at the prospect of fighting, nodded their heads in agreement.“So here’s the plan. Each of our sides will put forward one fighter at a time, while the others observe without interfering. We’ll have four rounds. Whoever takes three rounds is the victor. The losing side will consider themselves captured and surrender at once. Should we end up with a tie, we will rule that the prowess of our groups is equal and confer with one another on equal terms. How does that sound?”“Give us a moment.”The demons held a quiet discussion among themselves. “All right,” they replied. “We’ve got no objections.”More than likely, they assumed that the chances of demons such as themselves losing to a bunch of little human girls were… well, you should know the drill by now. Plus, the proposed tournament would be a good way to kill some time. The Crimson Vow had no objections either, already used to leaving negotiations to Mile, at least when commerce was not involved.“Are we all in agreement, then?”And so, it was settled.“Pauline will be the advance guard, Reina will be up after her, Mavis is the lieutenant, and I’ll be the big boss.”Mile arranged their lineup in order of strength, with the strongest members going last. The others would probably be doing the same.Now and then, an enemy might switch it up on purpose, sending in their second against the other side’s advance guard, their lieutenant against the other side’s second, and their boss against the other side’s lieutenant. Then, once their victory was secured with those three matches, they’d send in their advance against the boss as a throwaway. However, Mile thought it unlikely that the demons would do such a thing.“M-Mile, are you sure it’s all right to make me the lieutenant? W-wouldn’t it be better for me to be the advance guard?” Mavis stammered nervously.Mile just grinned. “Don’t worry, Mavis, there’s no way you could lose! You’re an aspiring knight, after all!”“I…I guess you’re right. Yeah, that’s exactly right!”The tense expression faded from her face, and the corners of her mouth twisted into a smile.The two teams hammered out a set of rules, with provisions allowing that, if the spectators judged that their team’s fighter was in danger, they could call off the match or step in to protect their teammate from the enemy’s attacks—though in that case, the round would be considered a loss for their side. This portion of the rules had, of course, been Mile’s doing. It provided a way for victory to be achieved without either side taking grave injuries or suffering fatalities.Even if they ended up losing the tourney on the whole, it wouldn’t be a huge deal. As long as they could finish without anyone getting seriously hurt or dying, then the worst case scenario was just that they’d have to tell the demons the truth about taking on the job and go over the details of the previous incident. That was no huge loss. Even if they returned to town with only the intel that they were dealing with demons this time, their job would be regarded as a success.Plus, since the humans already knew about the investigation being conducted by beastmen and demons at the elder dragons’ behest, the demons had no reason to detain the Crimson Vow. Once they had given their information, they would probably be released.And if they were not released, then they could always run, of course. Running away after they had been captured would not constitute breaking their promise.Not that Mile had even the slightest intention of losing in the first place.On a small plain where the cliffside opened up, Pauline stood facing a demon around thirty years old. That said, even if the man appeared to be thirty, demons’ ages did not align with their appearances, so the girls couldn’t be sure how old he was.Pauline appeared to be trembling—perhaps from fear or nerves. When they had assumed the beastmen to be demons last time, they had felt a sense of trepidation, even despair. This time, it had been the opposite at first—they’d thought that their opponents were beastmen and that their victory would be quick and easy. Yet here before them stood a band of demons. Now Pauline had to face one of them in a test of magic, face to face. No human would assume a straightforward victory was guaranteed.The spectators all sat together, Crimson Vow and demons alike. Sitting in two groups would have made them more vulnerable to any wayward spells, and this way they would be able to glean information from one another as they talked among themselves. The demon who had previously been pierced by Mile’s bullet had been dragged along by his companions and now sat among the spectators as well. Though his wounds had been healed, the magic the demons used was not the somewhat unnatural power Mile and Pauline wielded. Therefore, it would still be some time before he regained his strength. For now, he was down for the count as far as combat went.Finally, Mile shouted from the makeshift stands:“Okay! Ready, set, fight!”“Ice Javelin!”“Earth Wall!”A wall of dirt arose from the ground to protect the demon against Pauline’s icicle attack. To shield against the barrage of materialized ice, a physical, rather than a magical, barrier was necessary. Conjuring rock would require a sizable amount of magical energy and skill, but dirt was nothing. Both spells were simple things, with the full incantations omitted.“…Ice Needle!” Pauline attacked again, this time muttering a short spell in a soft voice. The small needles of ice that materialized were swiftly warded off by a blast of wind magic.“………”Not in the least bit distressed by the attack, and showing no signs of incanting a spell, the demon man began to approach Pauline, who now stood unmoving.“It’s useless,” he said. “A little human girl’s magic could never touch us, and any spell of ours is sure to break through your barriers. Whaddya think? How about you surrender now? That way you won’t have to get hurt, yeah?”Pauline shook her head from side to side, tears dotting her eyes.Of course, if she took the full brunt of a demon’s magic, it would easily break through any barrier she could conjure.That was, if she took it head-on.“Well, I gave ya the chance. I’ll try and settle this quick, then. Hopefully it won’t hurt ya too bad.”The demon brandished his right hand arrogantly, taking on a languid spell-casting stance, but Mile made no move to intervene. “Water, bind around that girl’s limbs and freeze in place to—”And then, as he began to cast his spell…“Gwah!” He stopped, a look of utter disbelief upon his face as sweat began to stream from his entire body. “Gyaaaaaah!!”He clutched his behind and began writhing on the ground.Pauline appeared to be shaken by this, unable to do a thing.However, that was not Pauline’s MO. Not at all.“I was trying so hard not to laugh, I almost started crying…” Apparently, Pauline was not trembling in fear but actually holding back laughter. As she feigned terror, she had secretly and quietly begun to cast a short-range “heat” spell underneath her opponent’s feet. A weak air current raised it into the bottoms of his pant legs, aiming straight for his most sensitive mucous membranes.“Wh-what happened?! What the heck just…”The demon spectators were in a panic. Still, they watched as their companion wailed, cried, and writhed on the ground before them, showing no signs of being ready to intervene and forfeit the round.And then, Pauline began another spell.“Blade of ice, pierce my enemy’s heart! Ice—”“Enough! Enough, we forfeit! The match is over!”The demon leader’s face twisted at this show of excessive force, and he quickly called an end to the match.If we can just win the next three rounds, we’ve still got this, he thought to himself, though an inescapable premonition of doom began to bubble up within him…First round winner: Pauline of the Crimson Vow.The next round, round two, would be Reina versus a boy demon of around twelve or thirteen years old.In fact, though the boy physically appeared to be around the same age as Reina, as with the previous contender, there was no way of knowing his true age. Then again, Reina herself was actually sixteen years old anyway.The two squared off against one another.Unlike Pauline, who was the sort to resort to dirty tricks, Reina was an in-your-face type of mage, a devastating force of nature. However, this meant that she was not well suited to fighting an opponent with even more powerful magic at their disposal. Such as a demon…Naturally, Reina was well aware of this. Still, no matter how unfavorable this matchup, she had no choice but to fight. It wasn’t as though she would always be paired up with opponents over whom she had the advantage.“Fire Lance!”This time, the demon boy was the first to attack. He had just witnessed something of a tragedy in the previous round, so he was likely on his guard—and understandably so.“Barrier!”Reina, of course, was not limited by the fact that she was an attack-type mage and released the protective spell she had silently been holding.However, no matter how well defense magic guarded against an enemy attack, it didn’t guarantee victory—especially when you faced an opponent who far outranked you in magical strength and skill. If your defense wasn’t perfect, then you were better off spending your energy on attack spells from the start. Still, for some reason, Reina’s first move was to defend herself.The barrier spell that Mile had trained Reina to use was also far stronger than the norm, so no matter how powerful the demon’s attack might have been, it would not break through easily.“Wh…?” The demon boy was shaken. Somehow the likes of a little human girl had managed to ward off his magical attack.“Firebomb!”“Magic Wall!”This time, the demon boy was the one who had to guard against Reina’s attack.“Flare Storm!”“Barrier!”“Hellfire!”“Wall!”The match dragged on and on as their volleys continued, neither able to break through their opponent’s barrier. If things continued this way, it was sure to spell disaster for Reina, who fell somewhat behind the demon boy in magical power. Both the demon boy and Reina herself were becoming increasingly aware of this fact.After innumerable rounds of this, Reina’s turn to attack came once again. However, she did not incant a spell.Instead, she rushed toward her opponent at full speed.“Huh?”The boy was struck dumb with shock for a moment but quickly regained his cool.“I see, you’ve realized that your magic is no match for mine, and you’ve come to strike me directly with your staff then, have you? You do realize that I am still a demon, do you not? Magic may be my specialty, but I have mastered the basics of the art of the staff as well. That you might expect a mage like me to fall short in martial combat against a little human girl is just—”The boy jabbered on and on until suddenly Reina’s staff flew from her hands and landed on the ground in front of him, stunning him into silence.“Huh…?”She let go of her staff just before a direct attack?What was the meaning of this? Why would she do that?There was no way that an empty-handed little girl, especially a mage, whose physical skills were not especially well honed, could defeat a demon by striking or throttling him.Perhaps because he was so rattled by this incomprehensible action, the boy’s response was delayed. His certainty that he could defeat a weak, unarmed human girl with a swing of his staff was a testament to the naivete of his youth, which left him paralyzed.Squeeze!“Wh…?”By the time the boy finally realized what was going on, he found Reina clinging to him tightly.There was a warm, soft sensation against his chest.Th-this is…The boy turned bright red. To date, he had never had a girlfriend, and so had never had a chance to embrace a girl, or even hold hands with any young ladies who were not his own sister. And now, a girl’s sweet fragrance was wafting into his nostrils…His vision went blurry. Just then, he heard the girl’s gentle voice in his ear.“Suicide attack: Megaten.”Bwooom!“Gaaaaaaaaah!!”Both of their bodies were enveloped in a roaring flame.“W-wall! Magic Waaaaaaaall!!!”The boy tried desperately to enact a magical barrier, but so far he had only ever used the spell to erect a wall between himself and his opponent or to create a shielding dome over himself. He had never attempted to use it to ward off an attack that was directly attached to him. Thus, the wall did nothing but trap both Reina and the flame inside of it—with him—rendering his efforts utterly meaningless.Reina, however, had been trained for just such a situation. First, under Mile’s tutelage, she had practiced creating a magical barrier that formed close to her body. Second, it was only natural that no flame conjured at her own instruction would ever direct itself toward her. Once Reina had mastered both the barrier and the flames, Mile had imparted upon her an ultimate technique, a special move to be used only when her life was at risk. The Suicide Attack: Megaten.It was a miraculous attack in which one grappled the opponent with one’s own body and struck while the opponent’s eyes were round with shock.Naturally, Mile was the one who had come up with the name.“Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!” As his magical barrier proved utterly without effect, the demon boy could only continue to scream.“St-stop it! That’s enooooooough!!!”The demon leader, who had been paralyzed by the unthinkable scene, now rushed out with a desperate look upon his face before leaping straight into the flames and tearing the two apart. Two more of the demons hurriedly summoned a water spell, dousing the smoldering pair. The fourth dashed forward as well in spite of the pain of his remaining injuries. Once the boy was separated from Reina, the flames on his clothing were quickly extinguished, and the demons frantically began a healing spell.“You all interfered, so I guess that’s a win for me.”Not a one of the demons had the presence of mind to care about Reina’s boasting.“Now then, it’s time for round three: the battle of lieutenants!”The demon leader grimaced at Mile’s announcement. At this point, of course, their side had no chance of winning. Even if they were to win the next two rounds, the lieutenant and the boss battles, the results would be two-and-two at best. And, on the off chance that they lost either of those rounds, it would mean defeat for them.They, a band of demons—they, the chosen few who had been selected for and entrusted with a sacred duty—were on the verge of losing to a band of human girls who were scarcely out of the nursery. The shame would be a scalding brand, a black mark that they would be forced to carry for the rest of their days.Due to demons’ general hardiness and the strength of their healing magic, the two who had lost were already right as rain. Mile lent an additional hand using magic to dispel the spice particles from the man in the first round, so he seemed to have wholly regained his senses. Yet though their burns and other physical injuries had been fully mitigated, the wounds to their morale ran quite deep indeed…For now anyway, the two sat among the spectators. Or rather, they were forced to. Watching the upcoming matches would be a good lesson for them—and besides, the others got the impression that if they were not forced to do so, they would probably be curled up in a ball, crying somewhere in a corner.At any rate, while magical ability really had nothing to do with age, it was a far different matter when it came to the martial arts. The two remaining demons fought with the sword, so catastrophes like the first two rounds would be out of the question.So thought the leader of the demons. Just as any sensible person might.“Mavis von Austien, leader of the Crimson Vow, swordswoman, now entering the ring!”“Reltobert, swordsman. Let’s go!”Just because the demons were a magical race, it did not mean that they were all mages. Just as there were mages among the generally un-magical beastfolk, naturally, there were those among demons who were weak at magic, wielding swords or spears on the front line, serving as archers and the like.This swordsman, Reltobert, was one such demon. Yet thanks to his physical prowess, which still far surpassed that of any human, he had been trained into a fearsome combatant.Mavis still had absolute confidence. As long as she had her secret ultimate technique at her disposal, she could not imagine losing to anyone other than Mile. She would not lose to any beastman. She would not lose to any elder dragon. And naturally, she would not lose to any demon.“Secret technique, True Godspeed Blade!”Her standard Godspeed Blade possessed only the speed of a B-rank hunter, or perhaps a lower-ranking A-rank, at best. At such piddling velocity, she would have no chance of laying into a demon swordsman. With the True Godspeed Blade, however, she could summon up the speed of an experienced A-rank. Such power was enough to take on even her eldest brother.So thought Mavis.Shing!Clang, cling, cling!After but a few short volleys, she quickly abandoned that thought.It’s no use! I can’t do a thing like this! He’s just toying with me!Mavis was not the type to be overconfident in her abilities, but if it was for the sake of her friends, she would eat dirt if she had to.However, in this case, it was not dirt she would have to eat. It was that.She took a single capsule from her pocket. She flipped open the lid and said a little prayer. “I’m counting on you, Micross!”She chugged the contents of the capsule in one gulp and then faced Reltobert. “Here I come!” she shouted. “EX True Godspeed Blade!”“What’s that, some kinda stimulant? Do you really think that some little potion’s gonna help you overcome the difference in our races, the contrast between our bodies, and the long years that I spent training while you were just a twinkle in your daddy’s eye? I’d thought that you showed some promise for a little shrimp of a girl, but I guess you’re just some fraud if you’re relyin’ on drugs to get it up…”Reltobert brandished his sword again, looking as though he had all but lost interest in the fight. “Whatever, I’m bored now. Bring it already. Let’s get this over with.”“EX True Godspeed Blade, 1.4 speeeeeeeeeed!!!”Whoosh!“Wh?!”Crack!Click!Cling!Shing shing shing!“I-Impossible! How could you be faster than me?! A little human girl like you! No way! This can’t be!!”Now Reltobert completely lost his cool. He was a demon who had chosen not the path of the staff but the path of the sword and spent many long years training, with the confidence and bravado to match. Yet here he was, unable to keep up with a frail human girl, perhaps not even twenty years out of the womb. Of course he could not believe it. And naturally, he could not allow it.It was not that he could not allow his opponent to exhibit such strength. It was that he could not allow himself to fall short.“Raaaaaaaaah!!”If he could not keep up with her speed, he would overwhelm her with sheer cutting force. If he did that, her stance would crumble, and she would lose all momentum in her next move.With this in mind, he swung with all his might.“Impossible!” His swing interrupted, Reltobert took a step back in retreat. “Why?! How can you be faster than me? How can you strike harder?! You’re just some tiny little girl, not even twenty years old! Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!?!” he screamed.Mavis answered quietly in reply, in perfect imitation of Mile’s practiced phrase.“Why? Because my heart is burning!”“Damn iiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”The man had now abandoned all pride. He wasn’t just distressed—he was desperate. Their side had already lost two rounds. He needed to win. His responsibilities as a demon were more important than even his pride. That was all there was to it. Plus, he could not allow their band, a band of demons, to lose against a group of little human girls for a third time in a row. He would not bring that sort of shame upon his race.He took a sharp step forward and let loose a wordless spell.“Fireball!”“Ggh!”Mavis’s stance faltered as she moved to dodge the ball of flame. In that moment, Reltobert let another swing fly. Though she managed to somehow ward off this blow as well, she was now at an overwhelming disadvantage.“I may’ve chosen the path of the sword,” said Reltobert, “But that doesn’t mean I can’t still use a bit of magic. I’m not especially good at it, so I’d hoped to fight with only my sword for as long as I could. I thought it kind of embarrassing. But there are times when you’ve got no option but to win, even at the expense of your own pride. You get it, don’t you?!”With that, he let loose a swing and a fireball in tandem.Using magic and physical force at the same time seemed rather difficult, but if was effective. With the attacks coming one after the other, Mavis had no room to strike back, and her position grew worse and worse. At this rate, it would only be a matter of time before she lost.Think, Mavis von Austien! You’ve gotta think of something! How can I pull a win out of this? Should I drink another capsule? No—even if it makes me a little faster, it’s still way too tough to react to both magic and a sword at the same time. Plus, if I use two Micross capsules to improve my physical abilities, all it’s going to do is make my body break down faster, like that time with the elder dragons. What do I do? There has to be a way…It was then that Mavis recalled a conversation she once had with Mile.Indeed, when it came to improbable schemes, the Crimson Vow always turned to Mile. After all, the scene before them now wasn’t one common sense could do much with.And so, all the past conversations she had ever had with Mile spun wildly through her brain, which turned like a hyper-powered kaleidoscope.“You just need to get used to my speed.”“Strengthen your muscles with the power of your mind.”“Pain is nothing more than a warning signal. So all you have to do is tell yourself, ‘All right, all right, I get it already!’ and keep on pushing.”“You have to harden your heart!”No, wait! That wasn’t it…“Use your speed to raise your power.”“It’s centrifugal force or something like that.”“Cats are so adorable.”No, that wasn’t it, either.“When it comes to matters of the spirit, there’s both internal and external control.”“I’m not sure if a dragon’s breath is a type of magic or if it’s just a type of spiritual control…”There it was!!Mavis might not be able to use magic, but she could manipulate the power of her own spirit to a certain degree. In which case…She took a leap back, temporarily pausing the battle. Previously, when Reltobert had momentarily stood down, Mavis had waited politely for his next attack, so it was only fair that Reltobert allow her this pause as well.“How about it? You ready to give up and surrender?” he asked.“Don’t you think it’s a little early to be talking that kind of nonsense?” Mavis grinned and pulled a second metal capsule from her pocket, then unscrewed the lid.“Let’s do this, Micross!”And with that, she drank down her second capsule.Mile, witnessing this, started to say something but stopped.The last time Mavis had done this, Mile had lectured her for three hours until Mavis began to cry. So she had to have faith and trust in Mavis’s judgment this time.“Another upper, huh? Just because you keep poppin’ those doesn’t mean it’s gonna get you anywhere. Usin’ too many’s just gonna stuff up your body and your head. You’re gonna self-destruct over there.”Though Reltobert spoke, Mavis could not hear him. All her mental resources were devoted to focusing her chi.I will destroy him. With power of my spirit.Fire. Flame. Inferno. I am keeper of the blaze. I am wielder of the flames!Suddenly, she felt a glowing heat within the pit of her stomach.RED ALERT. RED ALERT.CORE TEMPERATURE AND ENERGY LEVELS RAPIDLY RISING WITHIN THE USER’S ABDOMEN. SELF-DETONATION IS IMMINENT! THOSE PRODUCING HEAT MUST IMMEDIATELY EVACUATE THE USER’S STOMACH. ALL OTHER UNITS, FORM A SHIELD ON THE LINING OF THE STOMACH WALLS. WE MUST PROTECT HER BODY!For a group of specially selected group of nanomachines employed only on specific occasions, injuring or placing a magic user in danger of death in response to that user’s will would be a disgrace to their kind as a whole! They had to protect her somehow!This vessel is one with the flames. My being is the flame. The flame is my being. Blazing inferno, become this vessel’s will!Seeing no results, Mavis altered her phrasing, speaking with focused intent to harness words of power. However, if that was her aim, even loftier language might have proved appropriate, such as imitating the speech of royalty…EXPAND THE REPELLANT FIELD FROM ESOPHAGUS TO PALATE! CREATE A REFLECTIVE COATING ON THE ORAL CAVITY AND FACE AS WELL!We are the flames. We are, we are…Just as the nanomachines completed their protective pathway, Mavis opened her mouth with a shout, and a ball of flames burst forth.“WE ARE THE INFERNO!”All around, jaws dropped—both the demons and the Crimson Vow’s alike.It would be little surprise to see a draconian type shoot balls of flame from their mouth, but scarcely ever was there a human or demon who could do such a thing.After Reltobert dove desperately out of the path of the flames, his jaw dropped too.Even Mile stared, her eyes open wide in shock.“F-fire? Carried on a human’s breath…? B-Breath of Fire?”“WE ARE THE INFERNO!”Shing!“Fireball!”Bwoosh!“WE ARE THE INFERNO!”Bring!“Fireball!”Shing!“WE ARE THE INFERNO!”Bwoosh!“Fireball!”Shing!Fiery shots flew back and forth, dispersed into sparks by the blades of each combatant.This was no longer a fight between mortals. It would be appropriate to call this nothing less than a monster’s assault.At first, the shots came in a volley, but as the exchange dragged on, the order began to crumble, and the flames soon burst forth simultaneously from each side. If things kept on this way, it was sure to be a victory for Reltobert, who held the advantage in physical and magical reserves. However…“Mavis is…pushing him back…”Just as Reina noted, Mavis suddenly had the upper hand.And this was why:“Fireball!”“INFERNO!”Indeed, the incantation for Mavis’s spell had suddenly become shorter.“Is this her ‘Bug-Killing Punch’?!” Mile shouted, but as usual, there was not a single person around who understood her meaning.The end came far too quickly.It was thanks to the consecutive firing of her spirit rifle (now, in practice, her fire magic) that Mavis, even with her failing stamina, managed to eke out a victory. Reltobert, who had no choice but to keep resisting her with his own fireballs, finally lost out in his rate of fire and was struck. In that moment, Mavis made her move, and the demon found himself with a sword to his throat.“M-match over!” the demon leader shouted, and the bout was officially ended.Reltobert was utterly speechless. He stared up at Mavis, who had moved in close to land the decisive blow. What he saw on her face was the smile of a goddess, sparkling warmly down at him.“………”Reltobert swiftly turned away, a suspicious expression upon his face.Naturally, the source of the sparkling was the reflective coating that the nanomachines had formed around her face in order to protect her skin.“………”The demons were silent.Three rounds. They had lost three rounds in a row. Both their magic and their swordsmanship had been surpassed by a group of human girls—still green behind the ears, no less.“………”Their muscles were more potent than those of the elves, their wits sharper than those of the beasts, and their magic greater than any dwarf’s. Yes indeed, the demons were the superior race, and yet they had been bested by mere humans…There could be nothing more shocking, more humiliating.They couldn’t believe it. No, they did not want to believe it…They were stunned silent. The five could do nothing but stand stock-still and wordless.You know you’ve had enough, right? Come on and give it up already, the Crimson Vow urged them silently.Standing around forever waiting was not going to get anything accomplished, so finally Mile opened her mouth. “You made a promise. Now hurry up and tell us what we need to know!” she demanded.However, the demon leader shook his head.“No. It’s not over yet!”“Are you intending to break your promise?”Mile’s voice swiftly lowered, her face shifting from a peeved pout to an utterly blank expression.Oh no, she’s angry now!Indeed, just as her cohorts feared, Mile was angry.Mavis had literally surpassed the limits of human power, setting her heart, her soul, and even her innards on fire to eke out a victory. If the demons intended to invalidate what she had achieved, then Mile would have a thing or two to say about that.“I see… I see.”“W-wait! No wait, that’s not it! Don’t be hasty!” The leader quickly waved his hands in denial, sensing the dangerous aura forming around Mile. “We’ll keep our promise! Please, you gotta believe me! We couldn’t bear to be embarrassed any further than this, and even if we fought all out right now, I don’t think that we could win… Anyway, we didn’t plan to do anything bad around here. We’ve got no problem taking you to where the rest of us are.”“Then what is it?” Mile asked, her face still without expression.“Our loss as a team has already been decided, but I still haven’t gotten a chance to fight. I know that, as a leader, it’s my duty to take responsibility for our loss, but I still feel kinda shamed as an individual. That’s all it is. I still wanna have a fight, just you and me. If I win, it’ll satisfy my pride, and we demons can hold on to some of ours. If I lose, though…” He took a short breath and continued, “Then I, not as the leader of this group, but as an individual, will do one thing that you ask, no matter what it is.”And so, the fourth round began.Finding nothing objectionable in the leader’s words, Mile quickly returned to her usual disposition, her anger quelled. As for the demon leader, however…Sorry about this, guys, he thought. If I can report this as, ‘Of course I won, but I had no idea that those other three might lose to some little human girls…’ I’ll still have to take some responsibility, but at least my own pride won’t be tarnished. I’m sorry, guys! I’m really sorry!The leader cast a quick glance at his comrades, who were watching him nervously.He was scum.And furthermore…This little one here seems to have a pretty high status. Maybe she’s the kid of a noble or somethin’—if she were one of ours, she’d be the granddaughter of a village chief. So I betcha she can’t use magic or even has any physical combat skills. It’s only because she’s got these three top-level humans here as her guards that she can act so high and mighty…Indeed, like so many fools had before, he was underestimating Mile.The fact that she was dressed like a sword wielder meant that magic must not be one of her strong suits. Plus, he could tell just by the way she carried herself and moved her body; from her fine, smooth, and delicate hands, which were completely free from calluses; and from her small and slender physique, that when it came to the martial arts, she was a complete amateur.“Now then, let’s get started. Don’t you worry, we’ve got healing magic too, so you won’t end up with any scars, and I won’t hurt you too much, either. Of course, it’d be even better for you to forfeit before ya get injured at all…”He took a few precautions with his words, certain that if he hurt the girl even a bit, her fearsome guards would come leaping into the fray. Their side had already won the tourney, so they had no reason not to intervene to protect their master at the first sign of trouble.“All right, let’s do this! Binding Ice!”He was wracked with worry that should he use any particularly dangerous-seeming magic, those guards would be on him in the blink of an eye. So he started off with a restrictive spell, one that would do no more than bind her arms and legs, with no chance of doing any fatal harm. Naturally, given that it was intended for the battlefield, this restrictive magic was still a type of combat magic.The girl showed no signs of resisting, and balls of ice quickly formed around her ankles and wrists, snapping them straight together, when—Crack!They were shattered.“Huh…?”The demons were stunned. The Crimson Vow barely appeared to care.“Did he cast the spell wrong? No, it was definitely right! He must’ve just misfired a bit. That’s what it was…” the spectating demons judged, but the combatant himself had no time to be entertaining such thoughts.“D-damn it! I was tryin’ my best not to hurt ya, but I guess we’re gonna do this the hard way now! Ice Javelin!”“Ice Shield!”He had launched the icy spear at a slow speed, its tip blunted. In an instant, it was dashed away by the wall of ice that arose in front of Mile.“Are you planning on taking this seriously?”“Huh…?”“I asked if you’re planning on taking this battle seriously!”Everyone reflexively looked to Mile’s face.It was expressionless.Waaaaah!The Crimson Vow knew very well what this meant.Once again, Mile was angry.She’d finally gotten the chance to have a one-on-one fight, just like the one against Gren of the Roaring Mithrils or against Mavis’s father. So she’d assumed she would get to have a bit of fun. Those other two times had been sword battles, but this was a test of magic against a demon, for whom magic was a specialty.A magic battle against a demon!Her first real magic battle, one where she could go as hard as she wanted, no holds barred. Plus, with this framed as an already-decided contest, there was no one and nothing else for her to worry about.And yet, though her heart was pounding, she had been greeted with this weak display.“If this is what you have in mind, then I have a thing or two to say about that…”“You all might want to step in a bit closer!” Reina shouted to the watching demons.They had all been standing together at the outset of the tournament, but a small divide had naturally opened between the two sides as the battles went on. Apparently, Reina deemed this to be a hazard.“Hm?”Hearing this, the youngest demon, who still remembered Reina’s warm embrace and her sweet scent, went red in the face. The other three were slack-jawed.“Look, just get over here already! If you don’t, then the emergency barrier can’t protect you!”Her meaning was unclear, but the four somehow caught the gist that this was a matter of life or death for them and quickly clustered in with the members of the Crimson Vow.Indeed, those who were not at least that sharp would meet a swift end in this world. Just like their leader, who was still caught in the fray…Now it was Mile’s turn to attack.“Phaser, fire!”Bwoomf!“Wh…?”The leader got the impression that something faster than the eye could see had just flown past his face. Timidly, he looked back to see that a rock behind him now had a hole several centimeters wide As his head creaked back to face Mile, he saw the girl grinning at him—though the smile did not reach her eyes at all.“Would you like to try taking one of those head-on?”Psssh!Sweat began gushing from every pore of his body.Yes, the leader finally understood two things:First, that the girl standing before him was not some mere jackalope.More like a f-ferocious, venomous jackalope from hell…And second, that the path he had chosen was not the stairway to heaven, but in fact, very much the opposite.If I don’t get serious, she’s gonna kill me!Mile glanced briefly away to confirm that Reina had corralled all of the others within the barrier. Everyone would be safe, no matter what kind of magic she might send flying their way. Everyone, that was, except for the man standing in front of her.The terrain around them was also mostly rock, dotted only here and there by thin shrubbery, so she had no fear of damaging the environment, either.“Here I come!”Fwoom…There was a vibration from Mile’s brandished sword, and the blade began to glow blue.“Wha…?!”A magic sword.Just when the leader had thought that Mile was some privileged girl decorated only by status, who could use neither magic nor blade, she had let loose an incredible bullet so fast that it could not be seen by the naked eye. Just when he thought that she only had some middling magical skill, she had produced an impressive blade. And now she was using a high-level technique, her sword itself clad in magic.Yet even if she was equipped with a magic blade, it would mean nothing if her sword skills were insufficient. As he had previously determined, there was no mistaking that she was a novice in the way of the sword, with her poor stance, her lack of muscle, and the fact that her arms and legs were clear and smooth, without a single sign of a scar or callus anywhere.His assumption that she could not use magic had stemmed only from the fact that she was equipped with a sword, so he could not be blamed for making a false call there. However, his judgment this time was based on careful observations. There could be no mistaking it.If she was using a sword now, and not her rather decent magical ability, it was probably because her power was limited and she had given her all in that one shot.Though if that were the case, then how could she still be using her magical blade, which required her to maintain a continuous spell? Besides, if her power was that limited, it would have been smarter for her to aim straight for him the very first time.Just what was she thinking?A sick thought drifted across the leader’s mind.Was she toying with him?It couldn’t be. That couldn’t possibly be.He had been chosen as the head guard for the investigation team. How could someone like him become the plaything of a fragile human, a girl of sapling years?Impossible. Absolutely, absolutely impossible!For a moment, the leader’s head went blank. In that moment, he silently incanted a spell.“Fire Laaaaaaance!”Overtaken by the flames of rage, he allowed himself to let loose an attack spell—an excessively powerful one.Damn!The instant the spell went off, he returned to his senses, but it was already too late. A fire-type attack spell with a high fatality rate was flying directly toward the little girl. Now that it had been cast, no one could stop it—including the man who had fired it.She’s dead! the demons all thought at once.Just then…Fwish!The fiery lance was cut down by a blade. Casually, as though it were but a twig.“Impossible!!!”Mile’s mouth was a flat line. Normally such a thing would be a sign of nerves or unease, but in Mile’s case, it meant something different—that she was trying not to show how relaxed she felt.“Well, it looks like she’s back to herself,” said Reina.It was just as she suggested; things were finally getting good. That was what Mile’s face said to her companions.Mile was not going to use a barrier this time. Letting all of her enemy’s attacks be immediately deflected wouldn’t be any fun. She would lower the power of her own attack spells as well. It would be pretty boring if she broke straight through the demon’s defenses every time.Was she just playing around with him? No, this was a real battle—but she was taking on a handicap.If this match had had any bearing on her team’s victory, she would not have done such a thing. However, the tourney had already been decided in their favor, so Mile reckoned it was all right for her to relax and enjoy herself just this one time.“Fire Shot!”The quick spell that the leader fired off was not some tiny flame bullet. It was four shots at once, aimed at her head, her abdomen, and both sides of her body. She could crouch, jump, or dodge to the side, but at least one of them was certain to hit. Plus, unlike normal fireballs, these shots would explode on impact. They hit fast and packed a punch.The leader had already abandoned all pretenses of holding back for he had finally come to realize that this was not an enemy he could hope to defeat by doing so. As long as he didn’t kill her, it was fine. As long as she was still alive, she could be fixed with healing magic.The four shots flew toward Mile. They were moving quickly, though naturally far slower than any bullet fired from a gun. Mile could easily calculate their trajectory and simply move her body to avoid them…but that wouldn’t be any fun.Instead, she decided to chance them head-on, sword in hand.Ka-bwoosh!“Whuh?”They vanished.All four bullets vanished in the blink of an eye.All Reina and Pauline could tell was that Mile had moved her sword. Even the five demons and Mavis, with her keen eyes, could just barely discern what had happened. Mile had swung her sword four times—twice vertically, twice horizontally—slicing each of the bullets in two and destroying them.“Why didn’t they explode?!” the leader shouted.Indeed, these were explosive-type shots, so even cleft by a sword, they should have detonated on impact. This should have caused some moderate injury, or at the very least, occluded her field of vision and ruined her stance. It should have made landing his next attack a certainty.And yet, they had been extinguished without so much as a ka-boom. They had simply vanished.With a normal sword, the bullets would have exploded on impact. Mile’s blade, however, was coated with magic. This magic had cancelled out the magic of the bullets.As she swung her blade, the phrase ‘particle annihilation,’ had popped into Mile’s head, but the nanomachines could not fathom that she was actually proposing to create antimatter, so they instead enacted a simple offset of energy. Such flexibility was one of the nanomachines’ truly awe-inspiring capabilities, though Mile was utterly unaware of this.“Fire Shot!”Mile now let off the very same spell. Four bullets just like her opponent’s, aimed top and bottom, left and right.Battleships were usually designed to withstand the same battering force that the vessel itself could muster. In the same way, these demons should be trained to take the same intensity of attacks that they could dish out, Mile thought.“Guh!”As someone whose specialty was magic, all the demon leader would have needed to do was to put up a magic wall in front of himself. However, having seen the piercing power of Mile’s first attack, he wasn’t willing to take that risk.Instead, this was his safety measure: Reduce the number of shots taken as much as possible and avoid being hit in any vital areas. To do this, he dodged to the left, avoiding the bullets aimed at his head, abdomen, and heart, and then deflected the remaining right-side chest bullet.“Flare Lance!”He had no way of knowing how strong his opponent’s attack was. At times like these, it was best to get off a strong spell as a counterattack—one that could fire fast.It was a waste of magic, but it couldn’t be helped. Desperate times called for desperate measures. If he didn’t like it, then he should have gotten more information about his opponent or had more faith in his own magic. Having done neither of these, he had no right to complain.Destroyed again! Maybe I’ll use a Fire Javelin or Fireball next. No, wait, if I use a weaker spell and hers happens to break through, then…It was a sticky situation. Any error in judgment could mean taking an attack from a lesser foe and losing. Continuing to use a powerful attack every single time would result in the worst possible scenario, i.e. using up all his magic and losing to a human, particularly one who seemed to have an absurd amount of magical power for her race. Were such a thing to happen, he would be the laughingstock of his people in perpetuity.Wait a minute! What am I, a coward? I don’t need to be concentrating on defense—I should be making sure she has no chance to attack. I need to attack her relentlessly and take back the upper hand!For some reason, there was a gap in Mile’s attacks, and the leader took this opportunity to strike at full force.It was a full-on continuous assault, the strikes emphasizing ease of movement over force—the same tactic that Reltobert had employed in his battle against Mavis.This time, he was on the attack, not Mile.When it came to attacks where speed was more important than power, there was nothing to use but the most basic of basics. Because they were already mid-match, there was no need for any silent casting. In order to keep up his speed as well as his power, he quickly recited the incantation for the spells in his head, releasing them with only the attack’s name.“Fireball!”Whoosh!Five small, bright red balls of flame went flying toward Mile simultaneously. However, the assault did not end there.“Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!”More groups of five flew out, one after the other. Having already incanted the spell once in his head, all the leader had to do subsequently was voice the name of it again and again. Such continuous attacks were a demonic specialty. Because there were so many of them who could use such techniques, it became thought of as a standard ability of theirs and was perhaps the origin of the popular theory that it was impossible to win against a demon in a test of magic.Working with that theory, it would not be unreasonable to claim that Mavis, who had outstripped her opponent with her own continued attacks, could beat a demon at their own game in everything but stamina. Much to the demons’ astonishment.At any rate, countless fireballs now rained down on Mile like a meteor shower. If even a few among those were to strike, a delicate little thing like her would be sapped of all will to fight.However, Mile only stood calmly, her sword gripped tight. As the mass of fireballs moved closer and closer, she showed no signs of moving to avoid them.“Secret Technique: Meteor Bat for a B-rank Small Fry!”Even if he were a “small fry,” the fact that the leader could use such a technique promoted him to at least B-rank, Mile thought.She swung her sword swiftly back and forth in a stunning display, eliminating the fireballs one after another with nary an explosion—and without any damage to her sword.“Wh…?”“And now it’s my turn!” said Mile as she swung her sword again. Shock waves beamed out from the space left behind by its movement and flew toward the demon leader. She aimed for the area around his knees so as not to kill him instantly.“Demon-Slaying Blade: Vacuum Knee-Cutter!”“Whoa!”The leader leapt as far as he could to the side, desperately side-stepping the white, crescent-shaped objects that suddenly came flying at him. He got the impression that if he took them head-on, he would lose both his legs.“C-c’mon, now!”However, just as he found a moment’s reprieve, Mile finished the preparations for her next spell.“Snowball Fight of Doom!”In response to the name of the spell, ten fireballs, each about the size of a fist, appeared in the air above Mile’s head. Granted, though they were fist-sized, the fist in question was Mile’s, so they were not very big. And the flames were red, meaning the temperature was about as low as fire magic could go.“Fire!”The mass of fireballs went flying toward the leader all at once.There’s no way I can avoid that many. They’re all pretty small, though, and they ain’t movin’ all that fast. Fire magic’s not like ice magic, anyway. It’s just a bunch of balled-up magic putting off heat and flames, so you can deflect it with a magic wall, and even if they get through the wall you’ll only end up with one or two weakened flames hitting ya. It’s really no big deal!If he stayed like this and kept up his volleys, the leader judged, the worst that would happen would be that he would run out of ammunition. So he psyched himself up and entered the fray. If he could just push past the magical barrage, he could get up close and engage in near-range combat, exploiting his opponent’s weaknesses.“Magic Wall!” The leader brandished the staff gripped in his right hand as a magical wall arose in front of him, his left arm in front of his face for protection as he rushed toward Mile.“Raaaaaaaah!!”The flames, however, pierced clean through the barrier, not showing any signs of losing strength.Damn it! Her magic is stronger than I thought! Still, the wall should’ve weakened them, so I bet I can stand to take a couple! If I can just land one blow with my staff, then this match will be in the ba—Ka-thump!He felt the force of a fireball impacting against his stomach. Thanks to the opposing kinetic energies, he was stopped in place. He pressed his hands to his gut, doubling up in pain—letting his left arm fall and exposing his face.Bang!A second shot hit him straight in the forehead with a terrible sound.Thwump, knock, crack!Three more shots struck. The leader’s body slumped slowly backward and then toppled.Indeed, though the shots themselves were made of flames, just as the name of Mile’s spell had implied, this was a “snowball fight of doom.” As most people know, when you get unsavory elements such as young delinquents involved in a snowball fight, you’ll often find that the icy artillery ends up with rocks inside. Naturally, the nanomachines had read Mile’s intention to the letter when she let the spell rip, and just like those snowballs, her fireballs were generated with rocks inside them.Therefore, though the magic wall had protected the demon somewhat against the forces of the fireballs, lessening the flames to a small degree, it did almost nothing for the physical force that resulted from the mass and kinetic energy of the rocks contained within them.He had taken a rock the size of a little girl’s fist to the head. The impact was more than sufficient to render anyone unconscious.The former fireballs, now rocks shed of their outer fiery coating, rolled to the ground.The demons shouted as one from behind the spectators’ shield: “That’s messed uuuuuuuup!!!”After a brief bout of unconsciousness, their leader finally reawakened, returning to his senses. Demons’ sturdy bodies were not merely for show, after all.“D-damn it…”Somehow he managed to pull himself to his feet, still unsteady, and decided at once to give up on close-range combat to focus on his magic.Honestly, what had he been thinking trying to go in hand to hand? If you were gonna take on a fearsome enemy at full strength, the only thing to do was to stake it all on your magic. He was a demon, after all!“Graaaaaaaaaa! Certain Death! Flameburst Hell!”“Whoaaaaaa, our leader’s really done it noooow!!”Either he was risking everything for the sake of his warrior pride or he was still dazed from being knocked out and imagining himself to be on a field of war. The spell he was flung was released at full strength. In other words, it was an attack of absolute fatality.This was not a simple one-shot spell. This was a continuous wave of magic, fed even after it was fired, its power maintained or even growing as the spell went on. It would not stop until its target had perished. Just as its name suggested, it was a spell that would lead to “certain death.”As the roaring flames enveloped Mile, they only grew hotter and more powerful. Mile, of course, had reflexively raised a barrier and didn’t appear to feel them one bit. On the contrary, she seemed to be enjoying herself.True, she had been forced to erect a barrier, something which she had elected not to do at the outset. However, all this meant was that her enemy was finally giving the battle his all.The force of the flames grew stronger and stronger, and the temperature ever hotter. Mile’s special barrier could, of course, take this without difficulty, though if this were normal protective magic, she would have already fainted due to the heat and lack of oxygen.Regardless, this was a powerful spell—too powerful, in fact. Wonder if I should send him a little poke back? Mile thought to herself.“Fireball!”Mile shot off a stock fireball in five weak rounds. Since they were products of her magic, they were able to pierce through her barrier with no ill effects.Now then, how would the demon react?Would he stop his attack and switch to a defensive spell? Would he carefully dodge the blasts? Or would he change the direction of his attack to intercept the—Blam, blam, blam!“Wha…?”A murmur of confusion issued from both Mile and the spectators.He didn’t even react.The leader had taken three of Mile’s fireballs head-on without so much as batting at eye. Utterly unfazed, he continued pouring himself into his attack.However, her fireballs had not been without effect.A trickle of blood dripped from his mouth onto his singed clothing. His eyes were hollow…“Everyone, shield with all you’ve got! Use all your magic! Mile! He’s on a magic high—and he’s about to blow! Ruuuuun!!!” Reina shouted at the top of her lungs.A magic high.Indeed, when using overly forceful magic without care, it was possible that one’s consciousness could end up locked in a place of complete concentration, causing an altered state of mind. The result of this was typically that the magic itself would grow too strong, leading to an explosion. The mage, their energy finally exhausted, would fall unconscious, their magical circuits (i.e. the parts of their brains and bodies devoted to casting magic) so badly fried that they could no longer use magic. It was a clusterfudge of a calamity.It would be one thing if the extent of the damage was a temporary loss of consciousness. However, depending on the circumstances, the magic-wielder themselves or those around them could be severely injured. If things truly went poorly, they could even end up disabled by the injuries to their brain. Even Mile had been taught about such occurrences back at Eckland.He stood back up, but he still wasn’t all there mentally, huh? And then he tried to use a ridiculous, recklessly massive spell…She had to stop him.At this point, even critically injuring him would do nothing; he was apparently so far gone that he could not even register the pain of an attack. In that case, there was no choice but to drain his power!“All nanomachines assigned to me, distract the nanomachines helping my enemy with his magic!”WHAAAAAAAAAT?!The nanomachines were thrown for a loop by this most unprecedented order.“Quickly!”At Mile’s urging, the nanomachines rushed toward the demon leader. Mile rushed after them.No matter how powerful her magical output may have been, the further away she was, the weaker her spells would be. Therefore, the closer she could get to her opponent, the more the numbers of her own magic-inducing nanomachines would increase and the more the demon’s would decrease. This way, she would be able to hold back any explosion. Now all she had to do was get the man to lose consciousness before he could self-destruct…YO, WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING?!GET OUTTA HERE, YOU’RE INTERFERING WITH OUR DUTIES!WE NEED YOU TO SETTLE DOWN. WE’RE ALL NANOS HERE…WHAT NONSENSE ARE YOU TALKING?! WHAT’S YOUR PRODUCTION LOT NUMBER?!THAT DOESN’T MATTER WHEN IT COMES TO THE JOB!The nanomachines seemed to be quarreling. However, as it was Mile who had given the order, they had no choice but to obey.Just as Mile approached the demon leader, pushing back the eddy of flames with her barrier…Ka-fwump.The leader fell flat on his face. Blood was running from his ears.“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”Panicked, Mile began a healing spell, the most powerful she had.How’s he doing, Nanos?!ONE PORTION OF HIS BRAIN HAS EXPERIENCED SEVERE DAMAGE WITH INTERNAL BLEEDING. THERE IS DAMAGE TO HIS THOUGHT-PULSE-RESONATING SECTORS WITH SECONDARY DAMAGE TO HIS IMAGING SECTORS…Gyaaaaaaaaah!! C-can we fix him? We can fix him, right?AS LONG AS YOU SPECIFICALLY ORDER IT, LADY MILE, HE SHOULD BE FINE. FORTUNATELY, THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS WITH HIS MEMORY OR REASONING…Fix him then! Fix him all the way!!!Several minutes later, under the worried, watchful eyes of the spectators, who had let down their barriers and protective magic to rush over, the demon leader, who was laid out on the ground, finally began to stir.“Where… Wh-where am I…?”Anyone who self-destructed on a magical high that had reached the point of blood running from their ears would be lucky to make it out unable to use magic. If the fates saw fit, one could end up disabled or even in a vegetative state. Seeing that at least the worst-case scenario had been avoided, the demons breathed a deep sigh of relief.“Leader, wh-what about your magic?”“Hm? What about my magic?” the leader replied, perplexed. Apparently, he was not yet aware of the circumstances.“C-can you s-still use your m-magic?” one of the demons finally managed to get out, distress clear on his face.Mile and Reina looked on with worry as well.“The heck are y’all on about? Yeah… Light! See, look, there you go, good as ever.”The demons’ eyes opened wide in disbelief.“W…” one quiet voice started.“Wa…” another chimed in.“Waaaaaaaaah!!!”The leader looked utterly lost as his subordinates suddenly burst into tears.“Wh-what’s yer deal?! What’s gotten into y’all…”And then, Mile proudly decreed, “Looks like it’s a wipeout victory for the Crimson Vow!”“Yeeeeah!!!

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Chapter 44:
A New Blast

“We should make it to the next town pretty soon,” said Reina, hunched over a map. The Crimson Vow were taking a short break.

They were on a journey, so naturally, even they had a map on hand. Without one, they would find themselves lost very quickly. However, said map was nothing like the kind in use on modern-day Earth. It was a rough thing, much like the maps you might find in the guidebook of an RPG. Indeed, it was the sort of thing that marked only mountains and forests and rivers, and paid no regard to scale. Nevertheless, if one were to encounter a road with three forks or something of the kind, a map was still indispensable. It was the sort of world where taking a turn onto the wrong path could mean death, after all.

After somehow slogging through what they had begun to think of as “the celebration with delicious food but super bad

vibes” at the Wild Bear Lodge, the Crimson Vow had booked it out of that town first thing in the morning. There was nothing left for them to do there, and even if they wanted to stay, they could not bear the atmosphere any longer. They could not handle having to watch the continued flirtations of the two young couples—or the grim and ghastly looks upon Meliza’s face as she looked upon the same.

Plus, the discussion of the previous evening had quickly morphed into the tale of why not one of the four, cute as they were, had managed to find a boyfriend their age who was their equal. They all came from very different circumstances. There was Mavis, who was aiming to become an A-rank as quickly as possible. Reina hoped to be a B-rank. And Pauline wanted money. Still, they all had one thing in common: none of them had any time to waste on something so frivolous as men.

Only one amongst them, Mile, thought to herself now and then how nice it would be to make friends with some boy sooner or later. However, such a thing was impossible while they were on a journey such as this one. In any case, Reina was a horrible saboteur, even if Mile was never aware of it.

At any rate, though the owner and his wife had tried again and again that morning to offer them a monetary reward, the party refused, saying that they had no intention of profiting off a project that they had merely undertaken for the sake of amusement. With that, they bid farewell to the owner, his wife, their pitiful sons, Lafia and Alile (who looked somewhat relieved), and Meliza, who was still down in the dumps, before leaving the town behind.

“I really hope that Miss Meliza can be happy,” said Mile.

“She’ll be fine,” Reina replied. “The owner and his wife said they’d find some men who suited Meliza and try to sway them into a proper career. She’s a beautiful girl who comes with her own inn! I bet there are tons of guys who would love to get their hands on her. She’ll have the pick of the litter. There’s no need to worry!”

Somehow or the other, Reina and Mile had begun to grow fond of the girl, and together, they prayed for her happiness.

Why they felt such a kinship with her was unclear…

***

It was late that same afternoon.

Thanks to Mile’s inventory, the Crimson Vow moved much quicker than most hunters, traveling over 40 kilometers a day on average. Most travelers could only make it thirty kilometers if they were feeling particularly sprightly, so needless to say the four were incredibly fast-paced for a group of young girls, rookie hunters or not.

It was mostly thanks to the inventory. Furthermore, they had healing and recovery magic on their side.

In any case, after arriving a bit early at the next town where they planned to stop for the night, they popped into the local guildhall as always, to make themselves known and check out the job and information boards. Then they headed to an inn to rent a room.

In this town, there was little difference between the inns. The rates differed very slightly, but the food and amenities were more or less the same, so it seemed that the choice was up to them.

This was how things usually were, anyway.

After picking a suitable inn and scarfing down dinner, they headed up to their room. Weary from a full day’s travel, Mavis, Reina, and Pauline tidied themselves up with cleaning magic and then headed straight to bed,

Mile, as always, was burning the midnight oil.

Aside from the times they were camping out, the three other members of the Crimson Vow always got a full eight hours’ sleep, while six hours was more than enough for Mile. Such had been her pattern even in her previous life.

And so, after erecting a magical cloak to keep the light from leaking out and disturbing her companions, Mile illuminated the area around her with a spell and withdrew from her inventory a ratty piece of paper, along with the ballpoint pen-like object that she had asked the nanomachines to make for her, and began to write.

In the beginning, she had attempted to use the quills that people in this world normally used for this purpose, but having to dip the quill in ink over and over again was such a bother, and when she had tried to create something like a fountain pen, the paper was so thin that the nib snagged it and ink spread everywhere. It was quite the disaster.

Next, she tried a pencil, the simplest and most reliable implement, but of course it dragged on the paper, and she kept having to erase things, so all it did was irritate her.

Mile had a rather short temper.

In truth, she was normally quite patient, but when it came to anything that interfered with her reading or writing, she morphed into a Mr. Hyde very quickly. This was the sort of girl she was.

And so, what she finally landed upon was something like a ballpoint pen.

Mile had instructed the nanomachines to make the item however they liked, but of course, that was a little bit outside of the rules, and they could not accept such an instruction. Fortunately, Mile herself knew enough about the basic function and construction of a ballpoint pen to guess that, given time, such an item might come to appear in this world even without the nanomachines’ intervention. Thus, the instruction was not to make an item that couldn’t exist in this world, but rather, to simply cut down on the time it would take for such a thing to be invented. As such, the nanomachines accepted the task as something that was within the bounds of Mile’s knowledge and gave her order the okay.

It was always rather difficult to determine precisely where the limits lay…

All that aside, Mile now continued writing with her ballpoint pen-like object.

The fact that the tip of that pen was made from something like orichalcum or mithril was, again, of no great concern to the nanomachines. The paper was what was going to someone else, and it was not as though Mile had any plans for mass-production or putting the objects on the market. Even if she tried, it would be a wildly, absurdly expensive venture to undertake.

And so, around the stroke of midnight, Mile finally tucked herself into bed.

***

The next morning, once the Crimson Vow had finished eating breakfast, they packed up at the inn and headed over to the guild.

They had no intention of lingering in such an ordinary town as this one. Indeed, they planned to continue heading straight on to the capital of this kingdom. Just in case, however, they decided to stop in and check if there were any good jobs that would take them in the direction of the capital or any relevant bits of intel to be had.

It was normally quite rare to find jobs that were difficult, unusual, or even interesting in such a small town as this. Therefore, they deemed that it was best to ignore these small places and instead carry on to a bigger city, where they could stay a short while.

Sure enough, once they checked the board, they found that there were no interesting or good-paying jobs. The next merchant caravan bound for the capital was not leaving for several days yet and had already assembled its full escort.

“Well, guess that’s it for us here, then,” said Reina. “If we set out now…”

“Oh, wait a minute!” Mile interrupted. “I need to send something out. Give me a few moments, please.”

With that, she pulled some sort of bundle out of the pack that she carried for those times when she wanted to appear as though she were a normal hunter.

“I’ll just be a moment!”

She rushed over to the reception window. It was not the job acceptance and completion window that the four were so familiar with, but the request window, a place that was as good as foreign territory to them.

“Excuse me! I’d like to have this sent out, standard service. Certified delivery to the capital of Tils.”

Such delivery requests were a standard service of the guild. Normally, if one needed to transport something from one town to another, you did it yourself, or else made a request to a merchant to do so by way of the Merchants’ Guild. However, if it was an unusual item—a bulky package or something valuable—one could also go to the Hunters’ Guild to make a standardized transport request. Even if it was a fair bit more expensive than hiring a merchant…

So, why would one contract the Hunters’ Guild, despite the higher cost?

For one, it was overwhelmingly more secure.

Even if the Merchants’ Guild were involved in the request process, for requests made through the guild, the individual who was transporting the item would still be a normal merchant. Among such people were those of poor character, and moreover, the possibility that even honest merchants would be attacked by bandits.

In the case of the Hunters’ Guild’s standard service, transporting guild documents was the carriers’ main job, so even if they were attacked, there was little chance of them having much money to steal on their person. Plus, because they were carrying such important documents, they often had an escort of other skilled hunters in sufficient number to ward off attacks. Furthermore, assaulting an official guild convoy would make one an enemy of the Hunters’ Guild throughout the land, meaning that a large-scale subjugation force would immediately be organized, regardless of cost or profit, extending to all of the neighboring lands.

This subjugation force would advance from the country where the incident occurred and from the neighboring lands on every side. It would capture any criminals it found, not stopping until every last one was dead. Anyone who picked a fight with the Hunters’ Guild—anyone who underestimated their might—would not be allowed to get away. If the guild failed to retaliate, such assaults would happen again and again.

Don’t mess with the Hunters’ Guild.

They would spare no expense, no measure, to burn that message into the mind of every evildoer. This was the Hunters’ Guild’s way.

Finally, on top of hiring a number of skilled hunters as escorts, the guild transport had only one wagon, so its carrying capacity was limited. And because unlike a merchant’s caravan, they valued speed over cargo volume, a guild transport rarely set out fully-laden.

They were fast, secure, and carried very little. Obviously, it would cost a premium to take advantage of such a service.

“Would you mind holding on a moment?”

As Mile handed the parcel over to the clerk, a voice called to her from behind. When Mile turned to look in the direction of the voice, she saw…

“A-an elf?”

Indeed, there stood a tall and slender middle-aged man, with long hair, a warm and gentle face…and pointed ears. No matter how you looked at him, this man was an elf—an elf among elves, even.

“W-whoooa! It’s a real live elf! This is the first time I’ve ever seen one!”

Reina smacked Mile on her head.

“Did we or did we not spend several days with Dr. Clairia?!”

“Oh, I guess you’re right…”

With Dr. Clairia’s ears, inconspicuous as they were, mostly hidden behind her hair, Mile had completely neglected to recognize her as an elf in her memory.

“Wh-wh-wha-what can I help you with?!”

Though she had had no trouble talking to Dr. Clairia, Mile was suddenly stiff with nerves. The other three shared her sentiment wholly. Because Clairia’s ears had been hidden, she looked like nothing more than a normal human; in fact, they had at first taken her for the guild master’s daughter. So, even after they were made aware of the fact that she was an elf, it still did not really feel that way.

This particular gentleman, however, was far too elf-like.

“What?! Are you ladies acquainted with the young Miss Clairia?!” asked the elven gentleman—it would be rude to call someone who was middle-aged an “elder,” after all. But then again, given that he was an elf, who knew how old he actually was? “When did you meet her and where?! Is she doing well?”

“Oh, yes, she seemed very well indeed. As for where we met her—wah!”

Mile’s attempt at a reply was interrupted by Reina seizing her shoulder.

“You can’t just give some strange man you’ve never met information about a lady! Especially not without her consent!”

“Ah…”

Indeed, the people of this world were surprisingly persnickety when it came to personal information. Hunters had always been incredibly tetchy about others looking into their pasts or their capabilities, and a lot of quarrels arose because of it, so at some point or other it had simply become an unspoken agreement that it was taboo to inquire into a hunter’s personal information. Just as they maintained this practice amongst themselves, hunters often refrained from enquiring into other people’s personal information as well, except when necessary to complete a job.

Obviously, needing to establish confidence in someone else when it came to contracts or hiring was another matter, but for the most part, the rule was, “If it doesn’t have to do with work, you don’t need to know about it.” Slowly, this sentiment had begun to spread to the rest of the population as well.

Furthermore, most humans—the Crimson Vow included—knew little of the mysterious societies of the highly secretive elves.

Why would Dr. Clairia be living as a scholar alongside humans, when elves rarely resided with humans at all?

Why had she left her elven village?

What was her relationship like with her family and clansfolk?

Did she have any enemies?

Mile could certainly not go handing out information about the professor without knowing the answer to a single one of those questions—doing such a thing could mean revealing the current whereabouts of a victim on the run from some past danger to a stalker.

A dark feeling overcame Mile, who had been pursued herself many times in her previous life, and she unconsciously, reflexively, began chanting a spell of protection.

“O water, come forth and become shackles of ice to bind… Gah!”

Smack!

Reina’s karate chop landed straight in the middle of Mile’s forehead.

“Stop that!”

“Hold it, hold it! Hold it, I say! I am no one suspicious!” the elf protested.

“That’s exactly what a suspicious person would say!”

“Then what exactly would you like me to say?!”

“‘I’m a suspicious person?’”

“………”

The group sighed. Suddenly, they realized that they were surrounded by other hunters, hands on the hilts of their swords, gripping their staves with spells at the ready. Given that one of the party had begun a close-range combat spell in the middle of the guildhall, and it seemed as though a battle with the elf was about to unfold, this was an incredibly natural reaction.

“S-sorry everyone, we’re fine! Nothing’s going on here! J-just having a bit of a laugh with an old friend. Isn’t that right, Uncle?!”

“Huh? Oh, yes, yes indeed, oh, uhm, you little prankster!”

The elf was momentarily perplexed at Mile’s sudden change in attitude but quickly played along. Truly, with age came wisdom.

Tch…

Pfft…

Heheh…

The air, thick with tension, began to thin again. Everyone let their hands fall from their weapons, and, chuckling, returned to their original positions. Normally, the others would have been irritated at this clear misconduct, and even berated the Crimson Vow, but as one of the two parties was an elderly elf who seemed to be minding his manners, and the other was a cute, rather clueless-looking young girl, the veterans were happy to simply laugh it off.

Besides, most of the hunters had already had their eyes on this group from the moment they had entered, seeing as they were a party of four lovely girls they had never seen before. As a result, they were already aware of what was going on. In truth, they should have chided the girls so they’d know better next time, but there didn’t truly appear to be a need for it.

Indeed, behind Mile stood the combat mage, red in the face and her fangs bared. “Honestly, Mile, what were you thinking, chanting a combat spell in the middle of the guildhall like that?!” Reina shouted. “If the other hunters had attacked us without asking questions first, it would have been entirely your fault! First off…”

After being thoroughly chewed out by Reina, Mile abandoned her delivery request for the moment, and the Crimson Vow, along with the elf, moved to the dining corner of the guildhall.

“So, what did you want to talk to us about?”

Through all the commotion, the tension that Mile felt toward the man had faded.

“Oh, right. Sorry. I heard earlier that you were sending something to the capital of Tils, so I was hoping that I might be able to hitch something on to your parcel…”

“Oh!”

Parcel hitching.

Even if you added a small letter or document to a parcel, the price of shipping would not change up to a certain size or weight. So one could combine shipments and still come up with the same price. Then, after breaking the seal, the person who received the original package could take the enclosed item and deliver it themselves or else forward it on via some other method.

The cost of forwarding something to another town would vary by country, but it still tended to be fairly expensive. However, as long as the item was destined for somewhere else within the same capital, one could hire on one of the young children who hung around the guild as hopefuls, and the job would be completed with just a few half-silver spent. It was fortuitous to come across someone else who was sending a parcel to the very same city, so it was no surprise that the elven man hoped to get in on Mile’s shipment.

“So, what do you say? Might I ask you to do this?”

“As long as you pay half of the shipping costs.”

As far as Mile was concerned, there were no downsides. The destination of Mile’s package would be the original one, so there was no risk, and she would not complain about getting someone else to shoulder half the cost.

“Oh, splendid! For the most part, our kind live rather self-sufficiently, so we don’t have very much of what you humans use as currency. This is especially true for elders such as myself, who rarely make it out of the village. Now I’ll be able to use the leftover money to buy a souvenir to take home!”

The elf seemed joyful. Mile smiled.

average 4.9

The second evening bell rang, and all the diners went home, the overnight guests heading up to their respective rooms.

“We’re here!”

Lafia entered, calling out in a cheerful voice, as Alile followed behind with a smile on her face. Meliza wobbled in third, a mask of death still on hers.

She was like a shell of her former self.

Now that her worries for the future of her sisters and their inn had been all but eliminated, she had lost all will to fight. The rosy future that she had only just begun to dream of had been snatched out of her hands in an instant. Furthermore, her sisters, only thirteen and eight, had soared past her, snagging two good men for themselves, and leaving only her, sixteen years old and all alone.

At this point, it would be fruitless to try and convince her otherwise.

For what had she struggled all this time? Apparently, her sisters had already had a happy future laid out for them from the start.

And as for her? What about her happiness?

“Nnnnnnnnngh…”

She could not cause her sisters worry, Meliza thought, but she also could not help the growl of resentment that escaped from her chest.

Her sisters, for their part, knew exactly how she was feeling. However, they would never relinquish the objects of their affection. Certainly not on this day, when they and their sweethearts had finally been reunited after three long years of waiting, when they had all sworn, on both sides, that their feelings would not change no matter how many days went by. Their eldest sister, who had looked down on the boys as nothing but a pair of squirts, treating them like children and not considering their future prospects, had brought this on herself.

Sorry, sis, the two thought. And thank you for having such a lack of foresight!

Indeed, had Meliza played the part of the “wonderful older sister,” a beauty with a silver tongue, the two younger girls would have never stood a chance. This was all made possible thanks to their dunce of a sister.

Lafia and Alile thanked her, truly and deeply, from the bottom of their hearts.

A pair of grins spread across their faces. Hehe.

Waaaaaaah! They’re scary! These two are seriously scary!! Seeing the sneers that the two girls wore, Mavis, Reina, and Pauline shuddered with fear… Though of course, what Pauline was most frightened by was their skill.

Seeing how Mile grinned blithely, not realizing that anything was amiss, the three found themselves, for once, just a little bit envious.

The only people in attendance at this homecoming party were the employees of both inns and the members of the Crimson Vow. After the owner said a few words, they all toasted, and then spent the evening in lively conversation while eating and drinking their fill. Of course, Elethen and Lafia, and Beist and Alile were surrounded by force fields of their own making—invisible walls with all the strength of a lattice-power barrier.

Atop the tables was the food that the owner and his wife had been preparing since the last call for evening dinner, along with plenty of ale for the boys, who were now full-fledged adults. As with many countries in this land, there was no minimum drinking age here, but Mile, Lafia, and Alile kept only to tea and diluted fruit juice. Meliza, however, drank and then drank some more. No one, including the owner and his wife, who seemed to have finally gotten a grasp on the situation, would have dared to stop her.

This was dangerous. Everyone, save for Meliza herself, and the four who were in their own little worlds, sensed this.

“Um,” Mile ventured, “are there no other good men in this town? Say someone who’s young and attractive, earns a good living, and would be interested in Miss Meliza?”

The owner, who looked as though he had all but given up, replied, “Well, there are…”

“Whaaaaaaaaat?!?!”

The four were shocked. What an unexpected reply!

“Y-you’re saying there is someone like that?!”

Though they had heard it with their own ears, Mile and her three companions were half in disbelief.

“Meliza’s never minded having hunters as customers, but she’s always said things like, ‘hunters are all just a bunch of broke losers,’ and, ‘it’s a trade for ruffians who could die any day.’ She always ruled them out as potential marriage partners from the get-go. But you yourselves should know that not every hunter is like that, right?”

It was not untrue that many hunters were guys who couldn’t make it in any other job or people who schemed to claw their way to the top by strength and skill. In fact, this included even Mavis, who was striving to become a young, noble A-rank, and then a knight. These were the types of men whom Meliza would be keen to avoid.

However, there were also those who would someday be forced to follow in their parents’ footsteps and assume a life of boredom, who worked as hunters to live a life of freedom while they could, and joined parties who only took on relatively safe jobs. Moreover, there were whole parties of veterans who were brought together by parents to look after youths. Colloquially, these were referred to as “young lord hunters” and “the hired help.” Such arrangements were not especially numerous, but they were not so rare, either.

There were also those who were saving up money in order to open their own businesses and those who only did simple things like herb gathering once a week for the sake of their health and had other jobs for their primary income—hunters who only did the work as a hobby and other such anomalies.

Without knowing of such exceptional circumstances, Meliza was likely to eliminate any hunter from the pool of potential marriage candidates simply because they were hunters. Yet leaving these prejudices aside, who knew how many of the regulars at the Maiden’s Prayer were honest, reliable, and attractive enough to catch the eye of the rather shallow Meliza?

“A-are there really guys around here like that?”

“Of course there are. Meliza herself probably doesn’t even know it, but there’s a young man who works as a hunter and is the heir to his family’s small, but successful shop, as well as a guy who calls himself a D-rank hunter but really only works one or two days a week to spend time with his hunter buddies. He spends the rest of the time tutoring the children of nobles. That’s not to mention the guys who never have to worry about money and hunt just for sport, takin’ on only jobs that excite them, and well—all sorts of others in various circumstances.”

“………”

Now that they thought about it, the owner must be right.

No hunters who were strapped for coin and living payment to payment would have been able to afford to dine at the rather expensive Maiden’s Prayer every day—staying all the way through both breakfast and dinner at that…

They were the sort of guys who you’d have to ask, “When do you ever work?”

“I-In that case…”

“Now that her two sisters have found men for themselves, Meliza’s gonna be in a hurry to do so, too… Probably too much of a hurry,” said the owner, throwing a glance Meliza’s way as she continued to gulp ale.

“So if someone who was likely to give up their trade as a hunter and settle down after they get married found out…”

“Plus, Meliza’s pretty popular. I’m sure there are plenty of guys who would be game to devote themselves to a non-hunting trade if they knew that they would get to court Meliza—and if she knew what those trades were, Meliza might be swayed also.”

The owner looked to Meliza, who was still drinking like a fish, and the two couples, who were surrounded by force fields so impenetrable that not even alien invaders would have been able to disturb them. Just a few years ago, he never would have been able to fathom the idea of those girls and his own sons getting together. However, now that that reality had been thrust before his very eyes—along with the impossible tragedy of the eldest daughter having been skipped over in the process—a whirlwind of emotions swirled through the owner and his wife’s minds…

“Is it my age? Is my age the problem? Or is it my chest? Is something wrong with my chest?”

The eldest of the party, Mavis, who, based on her age, would likely stop growing soon in a measure that was not her height, began to fret over the inadequacy of her bust.

Hearing this, Reina, who was perpetually enveloped by a feeling of inadequacy at the fact that both her height and bust seemed to have stopped developing, pulled the liquor bottle toward herself and filled her cup up to the top, chugging it down in a single swig—“R-Reina, you shouldn’t drink so much!”—all the while glaring at Pauline, who was the one person who had no room to talk.

Mile, of course, was carefree as ever.

She still had plenty of time.

Her height and her bust were still blossoming. She had only just turned thirteen, after all.

Ignorance, it would seem, truly is bliss.

Chapter 44:
A New Blast

“We should make it to the next town pretty soon,” said Reina, hunched over a map. The Crimson Vow were taking a short break.

They were on a journey, so naturally, even they had a map on hand. Without one, they would find themselves lost very quickly. However, said map was nothing like the kind in use on modern-day Earth. It was a rough thing, much like the maps you might find in the guidebook of an RPG. Indeed, it was the sort of thing that marked only mountains and forests and rivers, and paid no regard to scale. Nevertheless, if one were to encounter a road with three forks or something of the kind, a map was still indispensable. It was the sort of world where taking a turn onto the wrong path could mean death, after all.

After somehow slogging through what they had begun to think of as “the celebration with delicious food but super bad

vibes” at the Wild Bear Lodge, the Crimson Vow had booked it out of that town first thing in the morning. There was nothing left for them to do there, and even if they wanted to stay, they could not bear the atmosphere any longer. They could not handle having to watch the continued flirtations of the two young couples—or the grim and ghastly looks upon Meliza’s face as she looked upon the same.

Plus, the discussion of the previous evening had quickly morphed into the tale of why not one of the four, cute as they were, had managed to find a boyfriend their age who was their equal. They all came from very different circumstances. There was Mavis, who was aiming to become an A-rank as quickly as possible. Reina hoped to be a B-rank. And Pauline wanted money. Still, they all had one thing in common: none of them had any time to waste on something so frivolous as men.

Only one amongst them, Mile, thought to herself now and then how nice it would be to make friends with some boy sooner or later. However, such a thing was impossible while they were on a journey such as this one. In any case, Reina was a horrible saboteur, even if Mile was never aware of it.

At any rate, though the owner and his wife had tried again and again that morning to offer them a monetary reward, the party refused, saying that they had no intention of profiting off a project that they had merely undertaken for the sake of amusement. With that, they bid farewell to the owner, his wife, their pitiful sons, Lafia and Alile (who looked somewhat relieved), and Meliza, who was still down in the dumps, before leaving the town behind.

“I really hope that Miss Meliza can be happy,” said Mile.

“She’ll be fine,” Reina replied. “The owner and his wife said they’d find some men who suited Meliza and try to sway them into a proper career. She’s a beautiful girl who comes with her own inn! I bet there are tons of guys who would love to get their hands on her. She’ll have the pick of the litter. There’s no need to worry!”

Somehow or the other, Reina and Mile had begun to grow fond of the girl, and together, they prayed for her happiness.

Why they felt such a kinship with her was unclear…

***

It was late that same afternoon.

Thanks to Mile’s inventory, the Crimson Vow moved much quicker than most hunters, traveling over 40 kilometers a day on average. Most travelers could only make it thirty kilometers if they were feeling particularly sprightly, so needless to say the four were incredibly fast-paced for a group of young girls, rookie hunters or not.

It was mostly thanks to the inventory. Furthermore, they had healing and recovery magic on their side.

In any case, after arriving a bit early at the next town where they planned to stop for the night, they popped into the local guildhall as always, to make themselves known and check out the job and information boards. Then they headed to an inn to rent a room.

In this town, there was little difference between the inns. The rates differed very slightly, but the food and amenities were more or less the same, so it seemed that the choice was up to them.

This was how things usually were, anyway.

After picking a suitable inn and scarfing down dinner, they headed up to their room. Weary from a full day’s travel, Mavis, Reina, and Pauline tidied themselves up with cleaning magic and then headed straight to bed,

Mile, as always, was burning the midnight oil.

Aside from the times they were camping out, the three other members of the Crimson Vow always got a full eight hours’ sleep, while six hours was more than enough for Mile. Such had been her pattern even in her previous life.

And so, after erecting a magical cloak to keep the light from leaking out and disturbing her companions, Mile illuminated the area around her with a spell and withdrew from her inventory a ratty piece of paper, along with the ballpoint pen-like object that she had asked the nanomachines to make for her, and began to write.

In the beginning, she had attempted to use the quills that people in this world normally used for this purpose, but having to dip the quill in ink over and over again was such a bother, and when she had tried to create something like a fountain pen, the paper was so thin that the nib snagged it and ink spread everywhere. It was quite the disaster.

Next, she tried a pencil, the simplest and most reliable implement, but of course it dragged on the paper, and she kept having to erase things, so all it did was irritate her.

Mile had a rather short temper.

In truth, she was normally quite patient, but when it came to anything that interfered with her reading or writing, she morphed into a Mr. Hyde very quickly. This was the sort of girl she was.

And so, what she finally landed upon was something like a ballpoint pen.

Mile had instructed the nanomachines to make the item however they liked, but of course, that was a little bit outside of the rules, and they could not accept such an instruction. Fortunately, Mile herself knew enough about the basic function and construction of a ballpoint pen to guess that, given time, such an item might come to appear in this world even without the nanomachines’ intervention. Thus, the instruction was not to make an item that couldn’t exist in this world, but rather, to simply cut down on the time it would take for such a thing to be invented. As such, the nanomachines accepted the task as something that was within the bounds of Mile’s knowledge and gave her order the okay.

It was always rather difficult to determine precisely where the limits lay…

All that aside, Mile now continued writing with her ballpoint pen-like object.

The fact that the tip of that pen was made from something like orichalcum or mithril was, again, of no great concern to the nanomachines. The paper was what was going to someone else, and it was not as though Mile had any plans for mass-production or putting the objects on the market. Even if she tried, it would be a wildly, absurdly expensive venture to undertake.

And so, around the stroke of midnight, Mile finally tucked herself into bed.

***

The next morning, once the Crimson Vow had finished eating breakfast, they packed up at the inn and headed over to the guild.

They had no intention of lingering in such an ordinary town as this one. Indeed, they planned to continue heading straight on to the capital of this kingdom. Just in case, however, they decided to stop in and check if there were any good jobs that would take them in the direction of the capital or any relevant bits of intel to be had.

It was normally quite rare to find jobs that were difficult, unusual, or even interesting in such a small town as this. Therefore, they deemed that it was best to ignore these small places and instead carry on to a bigger city, where they could stay a short while.

Sure enough, once they checked the board, they found that there were no interesting or good-paying jobs. The next merchant caravan bound for the capital was not leaving for several days yet and had already assembled its full escort.

“Well, guess that’s it for us here, then,” said Reina. “If we set out now…”

“Oh, wait a minute!” Mile interrupted. “I need to send something out. Give me a few moments, please.”

With that, she pulled some sort of bundle out of the pack that she carried for those times when she wanted to appear as though she were a normal hunter.

“I’ll just be a moment!”

She rushed over to the reception window. It was not the job acceptance and completion window that the four were so familiar with, but the request window, a place that was as good as foreign territory to them.

“Excuse me! I’d like to have this sent out, standard service. Certified delivery to the capital of Tils.”

Such delivery requests were a standard service of the guild. Normally, if one needed to transport something from one town to another, you did it yourself, or else made a request to a merchant to do so by way of the Merchants’ Guild. However, if it was an unusual item—a bulky package or something valuable—one could also go to the Hunters’ Guild to make a standardized transport request. Even if it was a fair bit more expensive than hiring a merchant…

So, why would one contract the Hunters’ Guild, despite the higher cost?

For one, it was overwhelmingly more secure.

Even if the Merchants’ Guild were involved in the request process, for requests made through the guild, the individual who was transporting the item would still be a normal merchant. Among such people were those of poor character, and moreover, the possibility that even honest merchants would be attacked by bandits.

In the case of the Hunters’ Guild’s standard service, transporting guild documents was the carriers’ main job, so even if they were attacked, there was little chance of them having much money to steal on their person. Plus, because they were carrying such important documents, they often had an escort of other skilled hunters in sufficient number to ward off attacks. Furthermore, assaulting an official guild convoy would make one an enemy of the Hunters’ Guild throughout the land, meaning that a large-scale subjugation force would immediately be organized, regardless of cost or profit, extending to all of the neighboring lands.

This subjugation force would advance from the country where the incident occurred and from the neighboring lands on every side. It would capture any criminals it found, not stopping until every last one was dead. Anyone who picked a fight with the Hunters’ Guild—anyone who underestimated their might—would not be allowed to get away. If the guild failed to retaliate, such assaults would happen again and again.

Don’t mess with the Hunters’ Guild.

They would spare no expense, no measure, to burn that message into the mind of every evildoer. This was the Hunters’ Guild’s way.

Finally, on top of hiring a number of skilled hunters as escorts, the guild transport had only one wagon, so its carrying capacity was limited. And because unlike a merchant’s caravan, they valued speed over cargo volume, a guild transport rarely set out fully-laden.

They were fast, secure, and carried very little. Obviously, it would cost a premium to take advantage of such a service.

“Would you mind holding on a moment?”

As Mile handed the parcel over to the clerk, a voice called to her from behind. When Mile turned to look in the direction of the voice, she saw…

“A-an elf?”

Indeed, there stood a tall and slender middle-aged man, with long hair, a warm and gentle face…and pointed ears. No matter how you looked at him, this man was an elf—an elf among elves, even.

“W-whoooa! It’s a real live elf! This is the first time I’ve ever seen one!”

Reina smacked Mile on her head.

“Did we or did we not spend several days with Dr. Clairia?!”

“Oh, I guess you’re right…”

With Dr. Clairia’s ears, inconspicuous as they were, mostly hidden behind her hair, Mile had completely neglected to recognize her as an elf in her memory.

“Wh-wh-wha-what can I help you with?!”

Though she had had no trouble talking to Dr. Clairia, Mile was suddenly stiff with nerves. The other three shared her sentiment wholly. Because Clairia’s ears had been hidden, she looked like nothing more than a normal human; in fact, they had at first taken her for the guild master’s daughter. So, even after they were made aware of the fact that she was an elf, it still did not really feel that way.

This particular gentleman, however, was far too elf-like.

“What?! Are you ladies acquainted with the young Miss Clairia?!” asked the elven gentleman—it would be rude to call someone who was middle-aged an “elder,” after all. But then again, given that he was an elf, who knew how old he actually was? “When did you meet her and where?! Is she doing well?”

“Oh, yes, she seemed very well indeed. As for where we met her—wah!”

Mile’s attempt at a reply was interrupted by Reina seizing her shoulder.

“You can’t just give some strange man you’ve never met information about a lady! Especially not without her consent!”

“Ah…”

Indeed, the people of this world were surprisingly persnickety when it came to personal information. Hunters had always been incredibly tetchy about others looking into their pasts or their capabilities, and a lot of quarrels arose because of it, so at some point or other it had simply become an unspoken agreement that it was taboo to inquire into a hunter’s personal information. Just as they maintained this practice amongst themselves, hunters often refrained from enquiring into other people’s personal information as well, except when necessary to complete a job.

Obviously, needing to establish confidence in someone else when it came to contracts or hiring was another matter, but for the most part, the rule was, “If it doesn’t have to do with work, you don’t need to know about it.” Slowly, this sentiment had begun to spread to the rest of the population as well.

Furthermore, most humans—the Crimson Vow included—knew little of the mysterious societies of the highly secretive elves.

Why would Dr. Clairia be living as a scholar alongside humans, when elves rarely resided with humans at all?

Why had she left her elven village?

What was her relationship like with her family and clansfolk?

Did she have any enemies?

Mile could certainly not go handing out information about the professor without knowing the answer to a single one of those questions—doing such a thing could mean revealing the current whereabouts of a victim on the run from some past danger to a stalker.

A dark feeling overcame Mile, who had been pursued herself many times in her previous life, and she unconsciously, reflexively, began chanting a spell of protection.

“O water, come forth and become shackles of ice to bind… Gah!”

Smack!

Reina’s karate chop landed straight in the middle of Mile’s forehead.

“Stop that!”

“Hold it, hold it! Hold it, I say! I am no one suspicious!” the elf protested.

“That’s exactly what a suspicious person would say!”

“Then what exactly would you like me to say?!”

“‘I’m a suspicious person?’”

“………”

The group sighed. Suddenly, they realized that they were surrounded by other hunters, hands on the hilts of their swords, gripping their staves with spells at the ready. Given that one of the party had begun a close-range combat spell in the middle of the guildhall, and it seemed as though a battle with the elf was about to unfold, this was an incredibly natural reaction.

“S-sorry everyone, we’re fine! Nothing’s going on here! J-just having a bit of a laugh with an old friend. Isn’t that right, Uncle?!”

“Huh? Oh, yes, yes indeed, oh, uhm, you little prankster!”

The elf was momentarily perplexed at Mile’s sudden change in attitude but quickly played along. Truly, with age came wisdom.

Tch…

Pfft…

Heheh…

The air, thick with tension, began to thin again. Everyone let their hands fall from their weapons, and, chuckling, returned to their original positions. Normally, the others would have been irritated at this clear misconduct, and even berated the Crimson Vow, but as one of the two parties was an elderly elf who seemed to be minding his manners, and the other was a cute, rather clueless-looking young girl, the veterans were happy to simply laugh it off.

Besides, most of the hunters had already had their eyes on this group from the moment they had entered, seeing as they were a party of four lovely girls they had never seen before. As a result, they were already aware of what was going on. In truth, they should have chided the girls so they’d know better next time, but there didn’t truly appear to be a need for it.

Indeed, behind Mile stood the combat mage, red in the face and her fangs bared. “Honestly, Mile, what were you thinking, chanting a combat spell in the middle of the guildhall like that?!” Reina shouted. “If the other hunters had attacked us without asking questions first, it would have been entirely your fault! First off…”

After being thoroughly chewed out by Reina, Mile abandoned her delivery request for the moment, and the Crimson Vow, along with the elf, moved to the dining corner of the guildhall.

“So, what did you want to talk to us about?”

Through all the commotion, the tension that Mile felt toward the man had faded.

“Oh, right. Sorry. I heard earlier that you were sending something to the capital of Tils, so I was hoping that I might be able to hitch something on to your parcel…”

“Oh!”

Parcel hitching.

Even if you added a small letter or document to a parcel, the price of shipping would not change up to a certain size or weight. So one could combine shipments and still come up with the same price. Then, after breaking the seal, the person who received the original package could take the enclosed item and deliver it themselves or else forward it on via some other method.

The cost of forwarding something to another town would vary by country, but it still tended to be fairly expensive. However, as long as the item was destined for somewhere else within the same capital, one could hire on one of the young children who hung around the guild as hopefuls, and the job would be completed with just a few half-silver spent. It was fortuitous to come across someone else who was sending a parcel to the very same city, so it was no surprise that the elven man hoped to get in on Mile’s shipment.

“So, what do you say? Might I ask you to do this?”

“As long as you pay half of the shipping costs.”

As far as Mile was concerned, there were no downsides. The destination of Mile’s package would be the original one, so there was no risk, and she would not complain about getting someone else to shoulder half the cost.

“Oh, splendid! For the most part, our kind live rather self-sufficiently, so we don’t have very much of what you humans use as currency. This is especially true for elders such as myself, who rarely make it out of the village. Now I’ll be able to use the leftover money to buy a souvenir to take home!”

The elf seemed joyful. Mile smiled.

average 4.8

In their youths, the owner of the Wild Bear, Dyllus (the son of the Maiden’s Prayer’s owners), and Aila (third daughter of the owners of the local general store) were thick as thieves, all being close in age. Indeed, until they were all of marrying age…

“So then, Miss Aila of the general store became your wife…”

“No, that’s not it.” The owner immediately shot down Mile’s conjecture.

“Well, that’s where it seemed like the story was going! I mean, how could you manage to snag yourself a hottie like her without having made an impression on her while she was still an innocent child?!”

“Just how much sass is in those little mouths of yers?!”

Reina’s exceptionally rude phrasing had pushed the owner to his limit.

“I met Lilieze in the forest while gathering food and firewood one day, back when my parents were still managing this inn. Our paths crossed when I came across her being attacked by a monster and risked my life to save her.”

“Of course you would have met her in the forest! You are a bear, after all…” Mile chuckled.

“Shut up!”

“Ahh, how wonderful! Why, to your wife, you must be her knight in shining armor!” praised Mavis.

The owner scratched the bridge of his nose, blushing slightly.

“So, what kind of monster was it?” Mavis continued. “A goblin? A kobold? Don’t tell me—was it an orc, or something even worse…?”

Suddenly, the owner averted his gaze, in a way that suggested he was not keen to answer. Seeing the suspicion on everyone’s faces, his wife answered quietly from beside.

“Um, well, it was a ferocious monster known as a ‘jackalope’… I wasn’t really concerned about there being a jackalope nearby—I mean, it wasn’t very big, and even if it had struck me with its horn it wouldn’t have hurt much—but my husband here came rushing out, yelling, ‘Watch out! That is a deadly, ferocious Poison Jackalope from Hell! Take cover!’ and risked his life to save me from it…”

This was the scam of the century.

Mavis looked at the owner as though she were gazing upon a pile of muck.

Reina and Mile appeared utterly weary.

And Pauline wore a face that was almost congratulatory, seeming to convey a sense of, Well played, sir…

“From the looks of it, your wife is at least ten years younger than you! Just how old were you at the time, you bastard?! Th-that’s… That’s absolutely criminal!”

Mavis must have been deeply affected by the situation to use such strong language. She looked about ready to leap up and grab the owner by the throat. Quickly, his wife stepped in.

“It’s all right, I understood the situation from the beginning. It would be one thing if I were a sheltered young maiden living in some sanctum in the capital, but there’s no way that someone who grew up around here wouldn’t already know about jackalopes. Honestly, I thought to myself, ‘Ah, what an amusing and witty person, he wanted a chance to talk to me so badly…’ I had no idea if he was joking or serious, but honestly I thought the fact that he would make up such a ridiculous excuse was pretty adorable.”

“Wh-what?! You knew…?”

“Of course I did, you silly bear!”

The owner was stunned at this revelation, and his wife tittered to herself. The two of them stared deeply into one another’s eyes, and…

“Gwaaaaaaaah!! You two save that for later, when we aren’t here!” Reina screamed.

She hadn’t the slightest interest in witnessing a pair of strangers’ public display of affection. Especially if one of them was a bear.

Deep down, the other three wholeheartedly agreed.

“Anyway, this is all beside the point! After you went and got yourself a wife all on your own, those other two got close, right?”

The owner nodded.

“Even after we all married, we still remained friends. Lilieze became a part of our group, they had children, and we all lived happy lives… At least until five years ago, when Aila suddenly took ill from a plague and passed away. Me and Lilieze did what we could to help out with the children and lent a hand wherever else we could, but things were tough for them…”

“………”

The four girls were silent.

“And then last year, Dyllus, their father, passed away as well. The eldest daughter, Meliza, was only fifteen, and the youngest, Alile, was no more than seven. I can’t believe that idiot…”

The owner trailed off, his expression one of regret and sadness.

“Of course, that wasn’t all. After Aila died, there was no way that Dyllus could be expected to raise three young girls and also run a business on his own, so in addition to the young chef he had been employing up until then, he hired on an old bag from the neighborhood to work as a waitress-slash-bookkeeper. The oldest, Meliza, started helping out at the inn, while the middle daughter, Lafia, both worked and looked after her younger sister, Alile. They all made do somehow, but once Dyllus died, those girls were really in a bind.

“In order to keep the business that their parents left them going, and so that they could continue to live together as a family, the sisters steeled themselves through their sadness and started to drum up ways to keep the inn afloat. Until, that is, that bookkeeper made off with all of the inn’s money and their savings, too. And then, while they were still in the middle of this new crisis, that chef who was working for ’em tried to get his hands on the girls so that he could make the inn his own. He went after all three of them…”

“Wh…”

Since yesterday, the Crimson Vow had been struck with shock after shock, but this was the biggest surprise of all.

He should’ve at least left it at only the oldest girl… they all thought—though of course that was not really the biggest problem here.

“The old lady was eventually caught, but they never got the money back, and the girls and all their loyal customers got together to drive that cad of a chef out. After that, the girls felt that they couldn’t trust folks anymore and decided they were just gonna run the inn and dining hall all by themselves. Those girls did their damnedest, and everyone in town who knew their story did what they could to help out—even the merchants’ guild gave them a loan to help keep the place afloat, which doesn’t happen every day. Soon enough, those girls started to earn enough for them to live a normal life. But then…”

“But then?” Mile interjected.

The owner knitted his brows, and replied, “They got greedy.”

“Ah…”

Suddenly, the Vows understood.

The sisters, no longer able to trust the adults around them, had decided to milk the help that had been extended to them for all it was worth. And then, they probably realized that they could use their status as sweet, tragic young girls as a selling point.

“Plenty of people tried to advise them, but they wouldn’t take a word of it. Even me and Lilieze tried to talk to them, thinking they might listen since we’d been family friends for so long, but they just thought that we were trying to ruin the Maiden’s Prayer or take them over, and they refused us. I mean, I can’t blame them. They were betrayed by their trusted employees one after the other, but we’d known them since they were babies, so we were really kind of hurt…”

A sadness crept across the owner’s face.

“After that, they apparently decided that we were their rivals. They started spreading rumors that we were obstructing their business or sending in unsavory acquaintances to harass them and other things like that… I mean, as far as obstructing them? The only thing that’s happened is that Meliza slept in late one morning and by the time she got to the town market I had already bought up all the cheap, choice vegetables, and the like. And there are always unsavory guys on the road, aren’t there? At those prices, you’re gonna end up only getting guys who won’t complain about paying up to stay in a place staffed by cute girls—guys who might get the wrong idea and act out of line, aren’tcha? So really, this is all their own doing.”

“Ah…”

The Crimson Vow expressed their condolences with their expressions alone.

“I mean, the crowds of overnighters and diners have always been split between our two places, so that’s no big deal. Besides, in a little town like this, everyone already knows everyone else’s business. Even the way things are now, we aren’t really bothered. It’s just…”

“Just?”

“In a year and a half, this’ll all be over,” said the owner, continuing to explain. “Everyone’s got a lot of compassion for those three girls, especially while they’ve still got Alile, who’s only eight years old, under their wings. They feel for Lafia, in particular, who’s only thirteen and working her hardest to take care of that little girl. But in a year and a half, those girls will’ve had two more birthdays.”

“Oh…”

Indeed, after two more birthdays, the two girls, now thirteen and eight, would be fifteen and ten, respectively. At fifteen, you were considered an adult. And ten was the age at which most people took up a proper employment. At ten, you could officially register at the Hunters’ Guild or take up an apprenticeship at a shop or workshop to receive instruction in craftsmanship. In other words, even if you were not yet an adult, you were recognized as a member of society and a true and proper worker.

The three sisters would all be of normal working age. No one would have any compassion for three adult sisters all working to run a business that they owned themselves. There was no reason for anyone to pay an exorbitant amount of money to a group of three adults who had a higher collective household income than they themselves might.

No longer would there be a place for the people who would pay high prices merely out of sympathy. Plus, any travelers would be wont to change establishments the moment they heard the inn’s rates. If the Wild Bear Lodge were full, they would just keep walking on to the next town or simply plan to stop at another town the next time they were in the area. Most of the customers who stopped at the inn were regulars, anyway—merchants who passed through the town time and again or other travelers making round trips from the big city to their hometowns. Even now, the number of overnight guests at the Maiden’s Prayer was already dwindling.

In other words, it was as the owner had said. The House of the Maiden’s Prayer had only a year and a half to go.

Pauline handed down a ruthless sentence. “They’re definitely going to go bankrupt. They’ll probably still get guys coming through there with their eyes set on the oldest and the middle girl, but that won’t be nearly enough to keep things running. Plus, if they only have customers like that, those guys will be at each other’s throats, and whenever a new client shows up, they’ll assume he’s a rival and send him packing. As a result, fewer and fewer people will start coming by. Eventually, it’ll become a haunt for only a few repeat customers, and soon the end will be upon them, without a doubt.”

The owner nodded sadly in agreement. “We want to do something to help them, but they keep refusing us. If we tried to force help on them, they could call the authorities or have their regulars chase us out of town. At the very least it would provide them with public proof that we were interfering with their business. Of course, most of the people in town already know the situation, so it’s not that big of a deal, but…

“All those guys feel pretty good about themselves, thinking they’re doin’ those girls a favor, but not a one of them realizes that all they’re doin’ is tying the noose around those girls’ necks themselves and ruining all their prospects for the future. They probably all think that they’ll be able to get one of those girls and run the inn with their new wife and sisters-in-law, but they don’t realize that by the time it comes to that, there won’t even be an inn to run.”

“………”

“Well, I guess we’ve solved the mystery, so let’s get back to bed,” said Pauline. “We’ll head out to the next town first thing in the morning!”

“Huh?”

The owner and his wife were dumbfounded.

“Y-you’re not gonna go talk to them for us…?”

Here was a group of girls who had followed the conversation with interest, understood the issues, and seemed to have a keen sense for business. Naturally, the owner and his wife had expected that they might be able to lend a hand and share their knowledge with the sisters. Therefore, they were somewhat bewildered by Pauline’s abrupt speech.

“I mean, it’s really none of our business. We were just curious as to how they could have so many customers at that inn despite charging such ridiculous prices. Now that the mystery has been thoroughly solved, there’s no reason for us to remain in this town any longer. It’s none of our concern if an inn that laughs in the face of fair business practices goes bankrupt, and you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped, right? Factor in the reality that we stayed a night here in this inn, and they’ll probably end up thinking that we’re a bunch of rivals, too…”

Unable to refute Pauline’s logic, the owner and his wife were silent. An unpleasant atmosphere filled the room.

“Hup!”

Mavis lightly smacked the top of Pauline’s head.

“Eep!”

“You shouldn’t be so cruel to someone who’s in trouble.”

“……”

Indeed, the girls were nothing but a group of children who had lost their parents and sought desperately to protect the business they had left behind. Pauline, of all people, could not overlook that fact. Perhaps her words came merely from a place of anger at seeing people stray from the scruples of an honest merchant, or perhaps she didn’t want to make them waste any more time on this town for her sake. Which it was, Mavis and Reina didn’t know. Only Mile took Pauline’s words at face value.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Pauline.

“Do whatever you want. We aren’t in a hurry, and it’s not as though we’ll run out of money if we don’t take on another job straight away. The only reason we even prolonged our stay here in the first place was because this seemed like an interesting situation it might be fun to stick our noses into. We may as well see it through to the end. I mean, we can’t just throw our hands up and run out just when things are gettin’ good!” said Reina, grinning.

Pauline couldn’t help but smile as well.

“Hee hee hee…”

Seeing that wicked grin, Mavis, the owner, and the owner’s wife all felt their lips twitch up in the beginnings of smiles.

“Um, you can’t just throw your hands up and run off in the middle of a job, either…” Mile muttered, but no one seemed to hear.

“So a-anyway, you’ll talk to them? Do you have some good ideas, then?” asked the owner.

Pauline replied with a grin. “Of course, I do! If things go on the way they are, then that inn will be ruined in a year and a half, won’t it? The way to guard against that is simple. To keep them from being ruined in a year and a half, we must ruin them now!”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”

From Pauline’s tone, it sounded as though she were making a perfectly fair suggestion. However, no one in the room could accept this…not even Mile.

“Wha…? But that won’t solve anything!”

This seemed like a reasonable reply.

“Well, I mean, if they won’t be persuaded, then the only choice is to physically drive them out. If we can’t convince them that that inn is already devoid of any value, and that we aren’t after their property or their money, then no matter what we say to them, it’ll be useless. Therefore, what we have to do is drive them to the point just before total ruination. If we get them to a point of ‘as good as ruined’ or ‘the end is just a matter of time now,’ then I think they might be interested in listening to what we have to say.”

The owner and his wife were silent.

It was up to Mavis to ask the obvious question.

“So what, precisely, is it that you intend to do to convince them to listen to your advice? I mean, brute force is obviously out of the question. If we go out of our way to ruin them, won’t we just wind up with all their hatred and resentment coming our way—and drag this inn’s reputation through the mud at the same time? Besides, they might end up calling their customer posse or the town guards on us…”

Naturally, Pauline was not one to overlook such a fundamental issue.

“The Lenny Gambit.”

“Wh…?”

“If the Maiden’s Prayer’s selling point is ‘three beautiful and tragic sisters,’ then this inn just needs to provide exactly the same thing.”

“Wha…?”

“You remember when Lenny had us work as waitresses, tending to the customers? We need to recreate that but an even more amped-up version. An inn where the rates are cheap and the food is good that’s staffed by ‘four tragic young beauties’ who were driven from their home country. All the customers will be ours!”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”

And so, the waking nightmare began.

***

“How odd…”

Meliza, the eldest of the three sisters running the House of the Maiden’s Prayer, tipped her head.

“What’s wrong, sister?” asked Lafia, the second sister, as she exited the kitchen.

“Mm, well, somehow it seems as though we don’t have nearly as many customers as we did yesterday…”

Of course, Lafia had already noticed this. She cooked all of the food herself, so there was no way that she couldn’t have noticed.

“Hmm… I think you’re right, but this business always has its ups and downs, doesn’t it? I don’t think it’s anything we need to worry about.”

Meliza, the eldest, tended to worry and fret over every little thing, perhaps because she carried the burden of the inn passed down in their family for generations and of caring for her sisters.

This was the inevitable result of the position she had been put in, and every day it made her little chest ache… (This was not metaphorical—in relation to her age, she literally had a small chest.)

Meliza was sixteen years old. She was beautiful and personable. To put it gently, she was slender; to put it less gently, she was flat as a board. She served as waitress, bookkeeper, and receptionist. Her cooking ability could be scored in the negative digits.

The second sister, Lafia, ran the kitchen all by herself at the age of only thirteen. That said, her cooking ability was nothing beyond the reach of any typical thirteen-year-old girl. That was perfectly fine as far as many of their male customers were concerned. Those men probably went elsewhere when they wanted to eat some particularly good food—but when they wanted to delude themselves into thinking that they were being served a meal by their lover or daughter, they came here. If you considered it from that angle, then Lafia’s cooking was perfect—even on the occasions when a dish came out entirely wrong.

Up until her parents died, Lafia had been an energetic, lively girl, but these days she was rather gloomy. She was of normal build and stature for her age, which was to say, she was around Reina’s height. Naturally, her bust was larger than Reina’s—and her elder sister’s as well.

Because they were a bit worried about having Alile, the third sister, who was currently napping in their personal quarters, do things like carrying plates full of food, she was left in charge of collecting the dishes and cleaning the tables once the customers were done eating. In truth, although she had mainly been allowed to do so by her sisters so as not to feel left out, the task allowed her to unleash her true potential in drawing the sympathies of their customers. In fact, she played a key part in their scheme.

The three sisters of the House of the Maiden’s Prayer were a perfect fighting unit. Indeed, like the Kisaki Sisters or the Yagisawa Sisters or the Kashimashi Girls, they were an indomitable trio.

***

And then, the following evening…

“Something is definitely going on. We’ve hardly had any customers come in for dinner and barely any overnight guests at all. Even the visitors who told us that they would be staying for a while have been checking out early… There is most certainly something afoot!”

Those who stand in the way of the House of the Maiden’s Prayer will not be forgiven!

Meliza, who trusted no one since the events surrounding their father’s passing, and would stop at nothing to defend her sisters and their inn, stood, her eyes flashing.

“Lafia, mind the place. I’m going out for a bit.”

“Huh? Oh, yes, okay.”

Lafia was startled at her sister’s sudden change in demeanor, but since they had few customers at the moment, she and Alile would be more than able to manage the inn in her absence. Alile was eight years old, so at the very least she could tend to the finances, and of course, no one who came expressly to a place where the prices were so high would ever try to swindle them when it came to payment. Anyone who would bother with that would have gone to a cheaper, better establishment in the first place.

The thought should have been comforting, but it left Lafia a bit depressed…

The moment Meliza stepped outside, she headed straight across the street to the Wild Bear Lodge. There were of course other pubs and eateries around, but the Wild Bear was their number-one rival. As far as Meliza was concerned, that designation was an official one. Plus, given that they had been losing both their evening diners and their overnight guests, the Wild Bear was immediately suspect.

It took her all of twenty seconds to cross the way. Meliza stood in front of the entrance of the Wild Bear and carefully put her ear to the door.

“Yes, they wanted to force me into an unwanted engagement, so I flew from my home with nothing but the pocket change I had saved up, a single sword for my own protection, and the clothes on my back…”

“I was abused by my stepmother and her daughter, who were certain to kill me in order to get me out of the way, so I fled, as quickly as I could…”

“My father, a peddler, was killed by bandits, and the hunters who took me in afterwards were all wiped out while on escort duty, leaving me completely alone…”

“Bandits murdered my father, and then the clerk who had hired those thieves stole my father’s shop…”

“You’ve all been through such tragedy! But it’s all right now! For as long as you’re in this town, we’ll protect you, so you don’t have to worry anymore!”

“That’s right! You can take it easy and keep working here for as long as you like!”

“But I mean, not forever, though! Just until they find themselves a good husband, right?”

“Y’ain’t wrong! Wahahaha!”

“Ahahahahahaha!”

Raucous laughter exploded throughout the room.

Wh-what is going oooon?!?!

Meliza was certain that the male voices she heard from within were the regulars who, up until a few days ago, had come to the House of the Maiden’s Prayer to eat almost every day.

Th-those traitors…

Stewing, Meliza carefully pushed at the door, opening it a crack so she could peek inside. What she spied there were the four girls who had stayed at the Maiden’s Prayer just a few nights ago.

Th-those harpies… Grrrnngh…

They were using their own misfortunes as some kind of marketing stunt—could they sink any lower? Yet as Meliza ground her teeth in anger, something suddenly occurred to her.

That’s exactly what we’re doing.

The revelation stunned her.

They were cutting into the market share by doing the exact same thing that the Maiden’s Prayer was doing—far more efficiently and successfully, at that.

“Miss Mile, another of those fried rock lizard dishes you brought out earlier, please!”

“Idiot! If you order that, she’s gonna be stuck back in the kitchen!”

“Oh… But I mean, it’s so good I’m just dyin’ to eat more. Goes perfect with ale, don’t it?”

“It does… Well, guess we’ve got no choice, then. Everyone who wants some more rock lizard, get yer orders in now! That’ll make the prep easier for little Mile, yeah?”

“Ooh, then count me in!”

“Me two!”

“I want two servings!”

With the orders rolling in one after another, the girl called Mile, who looked even younger than Lafia, rushed back to the kitchen.

A girl who was younger than Lafia but a better chef.

A cheerful redhead the same age as Lafia, who was friendly with the guests.

A very…large-chested girl around the same age as her, who was carrying on complex exchanges with the customers who seemed to be merchants.

And a boyish beauty who was deep in conversation with the swordsmen hunters about the art of swordplay.

They didn’t stand a chance.

In shock, Meliza gently shut the door and stumbled back to the House of the Maiden’s Prayer, listlessly dragging her feet all the way.

She was still light-headed when she returned to the Maiden’s Prayer, but she was no wilting maiden. She was a valkyrie who swore on her father’s deathbed to manage this inn and protect her two sisters, even if it cost her her life. Her heart was not so fragile as to be broken by the likes of this.

She began to plan her counterattack at once.

***

“B-big sis! You can’t do this…”

As Meliza moved to exit the inn later that evening, swearing to win back their customers, Lafia tried all that she could to dissuade her. Meliza would not be deterred.

“It’s of no consequence to me. I will win our customers back!”

What Meliza was currently wearing was a garment that most adult women in this world would consider a “devilish,” even “aberrant,” length, showing off her knees as well as her cleavage. In other words, it left nothing to the imagination.

Such a garment would not be at all strange for a child or a girl who was still underage—or for a female hunter for whom ease of movement was key, a dancer, a waitress, or other such person. However, for an adult woman who was none of those things, such dress would clearly be frowned upon. And yet for Meliza, who would do whatever it took to defend her dear sisters, such considerations were little more than a trifle.

As she placed her hand on the door, there was a moment’s hesitation, but it was no more than a second or two.

Then, she flung open the door, took a step outside, and immediately froze, her eyes wide.

“The last time! This is the last time I’m ever wearing this! I’m serious!”

Before her was the large-chested girl, red-faced and shouting.

On her top half, she wore a tight shirt, the hem pulled up by her bust so that her whole midriff was showing. From her in-seam down to her knees, her thighs were mostly bare. Meanwhile, the bottom garment dug in, leaving no mystery as to the shape of her rump.

Indeed, it was Pauline, along with her old friend: Mile’s old gym uniform.

Is she a pervert?!?!

She couldn’t do it.

No matter how firmly Meliza might have steeled herself, she could never bring herself to wear anything as scandalous as that.

She collapsed to the ground in defeat, cringing as the large-chested girl’s angry shouts echoed through the street.

“Keep it down!”

It seemed that her thoughts voiced themselves all on their own. Rather loudly.

She slunk back to the Maiden’s Prayer, gripping her skull. She was no match for a girl who would abandon all pride and dignity. Furthermore, setting such an example for her sisters was entirely out of the question. She would do literally anything to make her sisters happy, but dragging those same sisters’ reputations through the mud to achieve that would be a rather stark confusion of ends and means.

There were only a scant number of customers in the building, including the elderly couple who often looked after Alile. Lafia alone would be more than enough to handle that crowd, so Meliza took her seat at the front counter to think.

As she contemplated the way they were managing the inn, she began to worry. Was it right to be running the inn that her parents, her grandparents, and her great-grandparents had cherished in such a way?

That said, in the long hiatus they took after her father’s death, they had already used up most of his savings. Thanks to their former employee’s embezzlement, all their working capital had vanished as well. The Merchants’ Guild had extended them a loan, but saddled with debt, and understaffed with only a novice chef on hand, they had no choice but to stoop to underhanded means in order to compete with the Wild Bear Lodge.

As she thought about it now, Meliza had no idea if they had made the right decision. However, that was little more than hindsight at work. Back then, she’d assumed it was the best option.

In truth, this plan had served them quite well until now. They had paid back their loans and put away some savings in case of emergency, even if that amount was still modest. Upon reflection, she had no regrets. What she had to think about now was how to remediate things going forward.

Should they return their prices to the standard rates? Honestly, she had not expected to keep things as they were forever. Sooner or later, even the young men who were their regulars would get girlfriends and even get married. Her sisters would get older, and once they were of age, they would no longer be able to garner exorbitant sums merely out of sympathy.

That said, could they really compete with the Wild Bear on a level playing field, what with their amateur cooking? Especially now that their rivals had that shameless cow of a girl, that dreamy beauty, and those two girls around Lafia’s age, who were maybe, sort of, just a little adorable? It would be a reckless battle, one with only the slimmest chance of victory…

Those girls, who seemed to be rookie hunters, even had a leg up when it came to making conversation with other hunters.

It was impossible. They were invincible in every way.

But if she did not do something, at this rate they were going to be facing poverty again. Though they had dutifully paid off all their debts, they could not expect to be offered another loan. The Merchants’ Guild did not look favorably upon how they had been running the business, and the way things were, it was uncertain whether or not they would be able to repay another loan in full. If they got anything at all, it would never be at the low interest rate and with the lax terms that they had received previously. There was no doubt that had been a special case, granted to them out of compassion.

After the small handful of diners went home for the evening, Meliza locked up the doors and headed up to bed where she passed a tumultuous, sleepless night.

***

The next morning, past breakfast time, the last of the morning diners had vacated. After cleaning rooms and making beds, there would be nothing to do until it was time to begin the preparations for dinner.

And of course, when it was off hours at the House of the Maiden’s Prayer, it would be off hours at the Wild Bear Lodge as well.

After thinking the whole night through, Meliza had come to a decision that morning, around dawn. Now, she resolved to do what she must.

Aside from the shopping, all of the preparations for meals were generally left to Lafia. Even if Meliza were to step in here, she would be of little help. Still, Lafia had plenty to do, and when Meliza told her sister that she was going out for a bit, Lafia thought little of it.

And so, Meliza arrived at the Wild Bear Lodge.

Naturally, the door was not locked, so she flung it open easily and burst inside.

“Huh…?”

The owner, his wife, and the Crimson Vow, who were all assembled in the empty dining hall, were stunned by her sudden entrance.

Glaring at them all, Meliza screamed, “I’m sorry! Please, have mercy on uuuuuuusss!!!”

And with that, she leapt into a practiced and splendid jumping dogeza.

Oh, thought Mile—frivolous as usual—it looks like they do extreme apologies in this world, too…

“Wh…?”

Though they were all surprised, the most shaken amongst them were the owner and Pauline.

“P-please stop that! Even if it was just to force you to listen to us, we were the ones who were using underhanded means!”

“Guh…” Meliza groaned. The man had no idea that his own words had just condemned the Maiden’s Prayer’s methods as “underhanded means,” but she could see this clearly.

“P-please stop!” Pauline continued in turn. “We’d already prepared secondary and tertiary attack measures! You can’t be surrendering already!”

Her plans had been spoiled.

Thank goodness! Thank goodness I decided to give up and surrender noooooow!!!

Though it was not warm inside, Meliza felt herself breaking into a sweat.

***

“Now then, why don’t we go ahead and discuss this. Sound good, Miss Meliza?” asked Mile from her seat.

Meliza nodded.

Initially, Pauline was meant to be the moderator for this conference, but the moment she started talking, Meliza seemed to flinch, so it was decided that a change of plans was in order. Given their past relationship, and the strain that had been placed upon it these past months, they thought that it might be difficult for Meliza to talk to the owner and his wife one-on-one, so from the three remaining members of the Crimson Vow, who had no past connection with either side, they chose an intermediary. Of course, Mavis was clearly not suited to this sort of talk, and if Reina was in charge, then nothing would ever get settled. Pauline was already out, so by process of elimination that left Mile, who seemed as though she wouldn’t hurt a fly, to serve as the chairman-slash-facilitator.

“Now then, Miss Meliza, what do you think of how the House of the Maiden’s Prayer is being operated currently?”

Mile, who had little in the way of delicacy, cut straight to the chase.

“Y-yes, well, it’s easy and profitable work, so I’d say it’s going rather… Oh, who am I kidding? It’s rather hopeless.”

Seeing the looks of sorrow upon the owner and his wife’s faces, and how Pauline’s expression twisted in unease and scorn, Meliza quickly changed her tune. Even she herself had finally come to the realization that their current way of doing things was not an infinitely sustainable one. However, they were swiftly running out of time to return to a standard business model, and as it stood, if they were to drop their victim act and all that came with it now, they could never hope to compete with the Wild Bear with their amateurish cooking. Outside of the men who came in with their eyes set on the three sisters, they would lose all of their customers to the Wild Bear Lodge, and then they would only be three maidens, left without a prayer.

“So then, what do you intend to do from now on?” asked Mile.

“……”

Meliza was hard-pressed to answer. If there were an easy solution to this, she would already have found it.

It was then that Mavis cut in. “The problem is your food, isn’t it? None of the other jobs at the inn should be a problem for you. In fact, it’s work that should be easy for three young girls to do. So, hire a chef. Isn’t that the obvious solution?”

“……”

Meliza was silent.

Just as the owner’s story had suggested, Meliza was still opposed to the idea of hiring outsiders on.

“The owner here told us everything. You really don’t trust anyone else with a part of your business, do you?” asked Mile.

Meliza hung her head.

“It’s true…”

Just as the owner had said, the girl no longer had faith in others. She had no problem dealing with them as customers—as marks who she could squeeze for all they were worth—but she could not trust them with the shop’s money. Plus, for the three sisters, whose memories still smarted at the near-assault by their former chef, being alone at the inn with a strange adult when all of the overnight guests were away was, understandably, out of the question.

“Is there not a single person who you all could trust enough to work alongside you?” Reina asked.

Meliza thought for a while, and then replied. “Hmm, well, I guess there’s the people here, and Miss Celila from the marketplace, and Lisaphy from the blacksmith’s shop…”

Obviously, there was no way that either the owner or his wife could abandon this establishment. Running an inn and restaurant all alone was impossible, so naturally, they had to decline.

“Well then, what about Celila or Lisaphy?” asked Mile, but the owner interrupted.

“That’s impossible.”

“Auntie Celila is the chief of the marketplace. You’d never find her working at a place like this. Plus, I dunno what you would expect a lady who’s already in her eighties to be able to do… And Lisaphy, on the other hand, is Alile’s playmate—she’s only eight years old. If we tried to drag her over there and make her work, her mother and father, the smiths, would have a fit. Plus it ain’t like she can cook, either.”

“………”

They were at a standstill. Everyone racked their brains, but nothing promising came to mind. The Crimson Vow were silent, but then, Meliza offered a proposal.

“U-um! You all seem good at cooking! How about you all come to the Maiden’s Prayer?”

“Huh?”

Their confusion was resounding.

“Come on! I mean, you can make that fried rock lizard that the customers love so much, right?!” Meliza gestured at Mile, talking wildly. “If you came and worked in our kitchen and did the cooking, with Lafia helping you out, then that would solve everything… Yes, that’s it! That’s the only way!”

Mile stared blankly.

“I mean, it is a good plan…” The owner, his wife, and Mavis all nodded in admiration.

Even for ones as wary as the sisters, a girl of twelve or thirteen like Mile would be no problem. Plus, they wouldn’t have to have Mile involved in anything regarding money—as long as she stayed absorbed in her cooking, the sisters’ suspicions and anxieties would be eased.

“That would be perfect,” said Reina decisively, “if Mile were free to simply cut off all ties with the rest of us like that.”

A reasonable reply. It would not be an impossibility to stay for two or three weeks, perhaps, but who knew how many years it could take to raise a thirteen-year-old girl into a full-blown chef.

She could not stick around that long.

Plus, Mile was merely recreating the food of Earth via magic, something that could only be replicated through the most incredibly advanced methods of cooking in this world. She did not herself possess the skills to perfectly pare vegetables, nor slice radishes into thin circles, or perfectly fillet a fish so as not to disrupt the molecular structures.

Mile also tended to use a generous helping of all the spices and seasonings she had stored away in her inventory—without considering things like profit margins. That alone was reason enough to disqualify her from cooking as a profession.

In other words, if they were looking for a master chef to teach Lafia, Mile was not the one.

“Out of the question! I invoke my veto!” Mile immediately refused, not even stopping to entertain the thought. Obviously, she knew herself and her limitations.

“B-but…”

Just as Meliza began to sink into despair, the front door of the inn swung open.

“Father, we’re home!!”

Two young men of around fifteen or sixteen walked in.

“Who are they?” the Crimson Vow asked.

The owner replied, “My sons. They’ve been off in the capital training as chefs since they were twelve years old. Learnin’ a trade like cooking just by apprenticing at your parents’ place ain’t much of an education, so we usually send our kids off to work at other places to study. We told ’em, you boys work hard out there and don’t come back ’til yer fifteen. I guess that was three years ago…”

“You suck, Papa Bear! Did you seriously forget your own sons’ birthday? I bet you forgot you even had sons!”

“Well, that’s our father for you… My, what are Meliza and these four lovely ladies doing here?”

The two brothers, who appeared to be fraternal twins, were both tall, handsome, and of stalwart build. Indeed, exactly the sort who would be quite popular amongst the girls of this world. The Vows glanced at Meliza to see her staring at the two, mouth hanging open.

And suddenly, Mile screamed, “Is this a deus ex machinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!”

“Uh, day-oos… eggs… monkey-nah? What is that?” Reina repeated. Honestly, she was accustomed to hearing this sort of thing out of Mile, so she did not appear all that surprised. Mavis and Pauline were no different.

“It’s deus ex machina! It’s like in a play or something, when it’s getting to the climax, and it looks like the heroes are never going to survive and suddenly some contraption representing a god gets lowered down from the ceiling on a rope, and the ‘voice of god’ magically settles everything!

“When a story’s done right, it should be carefully plotted, progressing with the inevitability of cause and effect, with the conclusion being derived from the intentions and efforts of the cast of characters. You can’t just have all the problems fixed by some ‘convenient solution’ just appearing out of nowhere without any build-up! That’s heresy! It’s garbage writing! Lord Tezuka would never allow such a thing!!!”

The other three desperately tried to soothe Mile, who was seething with anger.

“So, who’s this Lord Tayzooka, anyway?”

While Mile continued to rage, Meliza popped back over to the Maiden’s Prayer and retrieved Lafia and Alile. All of the previous night’s guests had already left for the day, and they hadn’t yet taken on any new customers for the evening, so it would be fine to lock the door and leave the place unattended for a bit.

For Mile, whose primary entertainment in her past life had been stories in the form of books and motion pictures, seeing a narrative resolved with something akin to a deus ex machina—including “it was all a dream”-type resolutions—was completely unforgivable. She continued to rant and rave the whole time until Meliza returned with her two sisters in tow.

“I… this can’t…”

By the time Reina finally calmed Mile down, the three girls had already taken their seats.

“It really is unusual to see you get so worked up like this, Mile,” said Reina.

“S-sorry. It’s just, it feels like all the work we put in up until now was for nothing—like the universe is mocking us. It plunged my heart into an inky darkness… It’s just like when Pauline realizes that she’s a single gold coin short.”

“This has nothing to do with me!” Pauline shouted.

“So… Are we all good, then?” asked Mavis.

The other three nodded.

Mile however, was still in a sour mood, and demanded, “Why did you all neglect to mention this important of a detail?!”

The owner scratched his head and replied, “Well, I mean, you never actually asked us about our sons, so…”

“There were no signs of them! We figured that maybe you couldn’t have kids, or they had all died or something. We didn’t press the issue! That’s not a subject that you could expect us to bring up! Whatever. Come on and tell us about your sons, then.”

Meliza and the two sons sat quietly, not daring to speak.

“Well, as you can see,” the owner explained, “we’ve got two boys. They grew up alongside Meliza and her sisters, and when they turned ten, they took up work as chefs, or at least, as sous-chefs to learn the ropes. A guy we knew who was setting up a restaurant in the capital asked for them to come help once they turned twelve, so I let ’em go off to learn as apprentices. It wouldn’t do ’em much good for us to send in two boys who didn’t have anything to contribute, so those two year I taught them at least the minimum in terms of skills. We figured that once they’d gone off and mastered the basics, they could come back and I’d teach them all my special techniques. So, what’s the deal then, you two? Learned everything you could? Yer tutors give you passing marks?”

“Obviously they did if we came back here! We’ll show you the certificate from our master later. There’s a letter for you too, Pops. But it’s all the way at the bottom of my bag, so I’m not gettin’ it out right now.”

Hearing this, the owner nodded, the corners of his lips turning up into a smile. Truly, he would have liked to show a bit more joy at his sons’ return, but now did not seem the appropriate time, so he restrained himself.

Then, Mile, who had been deep in thought about something or the other, suddenly screamed, “That’s it, that’s it, that’s it! It’s clobberin’ time!”

The innkeepers on both sides appeared completely perplexed by this sudden interjection of unclear meaning, but the other three Vows simply looked tired, as though they were completely used to this sort of thing.

“Mile! What have we told you about saying weird, confusing things that only make sense in your head when there are other people around?!”

However, at this point, Mile was so worked up that she could not be swayed by Reina’s words and turned to the owner, saying, “You need to explain to your sons everything that’s been going on here. From the beginning.”

It was true; his sons needed to know the details of the situation, and if they had any hope of proving to Meliza and her sisters that they bore no ill will towards them, it made more sense to do it while the girls were present.

Even if hearing their story told all over again might be a bit unpleasant for them.

At Mile’s behest, the owner explained to his sons everything that had been going on. His sons’ expressions at hearing this were ones of sadness and regret. It was a natural reaction—this was the first that they were learning of the death of the girls’ father, who was like a second father to them, as well as all the hardships that the girls had gone through just to keep themselves and the inn alive, while the two sons were away, unknowing, unable to have done a single thing to help.

Still, they did not press their father as to why he never contacted them about the matter. Even if they had known, there was little that two young boys such as themselves could have done about it at the time. What good would two young men who had abandoned their training and their work prospects be to anyone? The two knew this, so they could not bring themselves to berate their father for keeping them in the dark, not wishing to put unrest into the hearts of his only sons.

“All right, now that you are all aware of the circumstances, it’s time to start making some plans for the future!”

Finally, Mile began to unveil her scheme.

“Including the apprentices, all of the cooking staff is currently present, and I have an idea for a way we can utilize you all. Here is my plan: For the times of day when the dining halls are open, from preparation to close of kitchen, how about a staff exchange?”

“Huh?”

Voices of confusion rose throughout the room.

“What I’m saying is, you will take turns. During the times when the kitchen is active, the matron here and one of her sons will be in charge of cooking at the House of the Maiden’s Prayer, with Meliza and Alile in charge of waitressing and bookkeeping. Meanwhile, Lafia will work at the Wild Bear Lodge, along with the owner and the other son. Both sons and Lafia can work as assistants to the matron and the owner respectively, while furthering the study of their craft. That way, both of the establishments will have proper food, as well as a young girl helping them out. This should lead to an even split amongst the customers, allowing both inns to thrive! And furthermore, both the sons and Miss Lafia will grow to be full-fledged chefs along the way…”

“Whooooooooaa!!!”

“A-are you a genius?!?!”

Meliza was overjoyed. In their youths, the two sons of the Wild Bear, Elethen and Beist, had been the constant companions of the Maiden’s Prayer sisters. And so, Meliza, who knew them as youthful but honest and hard-working, as well as kind and gentlemanly to each of the sisters, found their tall but boyish appearances rather charming. Up until the age of twelve, girls tend to grow faster than boys, so Meliza, who was a year their senior, had always been a fair bit taller than the boys until the day they left for the capital. Back in those days, she never saw them as anything more than two younger boys from the neighborhood of whom she and her sisters were fond. She certainly never acknowledged them as men.

Now, however, in the three years that they had been away, the two had grown tall, and their faces, though still childish, had taken on a rugged edge—in short, they were incredibly handsome.

They had appeared.

They had finally appeared.

The genuine article, two paragons, leagues beyond men like hunters, who were rarely so bright and might perish any day.

Furthermore, they were chefs, something that the Maiden’s Prayer so desperately needed—chefs who would be honing their craft under the watchful eye of their skilled father and further polishing their skills by both of their parents’ sides.

Finally.

Finallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinallyfinally!!!

Meliza had grown so accustomed to a life of pessimism, but now her heart was singing.

“Hm, sounds like a pretty good idea to me. So then, I suppose I’ll go to the Maiden’s Prayer, while you stay here, brother?”

“Yeah. I am the older one, so I guess that makes sense… Works for me. That fine with you two? Mom, Pops?”

Suddenly on the spot, the owner thought for a moment, and then swiftly replied, “Yeah, I think that’s for the best. This might actually be better than trying to teach you both at the same time, anyway… Lilieze and I can probably even switch places now and then. If that’s good with you three girls, then I’ve got no complaints. What’cha think, Lilieze?”

The three girls and the owner’s wife all nodded happily in agreement.

“All right then. It’s a plan! We’ll figure out the details of this all tomorrow, but tonight, we celebrate! After all of the evenin’ diners have gone home, we’re throwing you boys a proper welcome home party! Of course, you and your sisters are invited, too, Meliza!”

“Thank you!!” the three sisters replied in chorus, smiles on all their faces.

My, but which to choose…? Meliza pondered. Elethen, the older, is rather rough around the edges, but he’s strong and reliable. Beist, the younger, is slight and delicate, but so conscientious and ever so kind… Oh, but if I were to marry Elethen, I suppose that would make the Wild Bear Lodge our inheritance, which would leave Lafia the House of the Maiden’s Prayer…

As the sails of Meliza’s dreams began to unfurl, she suddenly noticed something that poked a hole in them.

“Do you still remember our promise?” asked Lafia.

“Come on, how could I forget? Even if it was an accident, I saw what I saw, and I’m prepared to take responsibility,” said Elethen.

“Ahaha…”

Their manner was most definitely a flirtatious one.

“Wh-what is going on?!”

Meliza was stunned at the pair. There seemed to already be some kind of deeper connection between them. And exactly what was it he had “seen”?!

She was shaken, but her sister appeared to be happy, so Meliza steeled herself and said nothing.

Well, that’s fine, there’s always Beist… I’ll just take the second son as my husband! I mean, if you really think about it, between a wild child like Elethen and someone as gentle and thoughtful as Beist, there’s only one obvious choice. Plus, Beist is the one who I’m going to be working alongside from now on. Indeed, Beist is th—

“Big brother, you were gone for so looong!! I thought I was gonna have to wait forever!” said Alile, clinging to Beist’s leg.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Will this make it up to you?” asked Beist, pulling a pendant from his pocket and draping it around Alile’s neck.

Alile’s cheeks went red.

“J…just what is going on heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere?!?!”

Meliza’s scream echoed throughout the building.

“Wh-wh-wh-whawhawhawhawha…?”

Meliza was trembling, her eyes bloodshot. The Wild Bear family was perplexed, but the Crimson Vow understood everything.

“Um,” Mile asked the owner, “Do you have any other children?”

Meliza’s expression was crystal clear, and Mile could easily guess at the circumstances.

“Well,” said the owner, “We do have a daughter, but she’s already married. As for sons, it’s just these two.”

“Ah…”

It was all over. This poor girl’s dreams had been demolished in a matter of seconds. However, when one considered that Meliza had done everything she had done for the sake of her sisters’ happiness—and that that dream looked as though it was about to come true—she ought to be a bit happier… So thought the Crimson Vow, though not a one of them would have been brave enough to say so to her face.

The two couples sidled up to one another.

The owner and his wife looked on obliviously.

And Meliza was frozen, seething with white-hot rage.

We gotta get outta heeeeere!!!!

Average 4.7

With all her might, Mavis attempted to move the blade.
Learning from earlier failures, she hadn’t tried to slice through. Instead she buried the blade deep into the dragon’s flesh, so far that with another inch, the hilt would be engulfed.
From there, she had to move the blade again, but moving it from a dead stop would take tremendous strength; moving it after it had already pierced not only the tough hide and scales but the peritoneum and outer muscles, as well, was a high hurdle indeed.
If she only had to pull it straight out, it would have been comparatively easy. However, never minding the difference in their sizes meant targeting the dragon’s heart was impossible, inflicting a large gash would cause the dragon far more damage, she thought. Whether her intuition was correct, she couldn’t know.
“Nghhhhhhh…”
Mavis mustered all her strength to pull the blade sideways. Finally, with a crunch, she felt it move, just a little.
When she gave even more power, she felt it drag. Yes, it was definitely moving!
“Raaaaaaaaahh…!”
Rip.
From somewhere within Mavis’s body, there was an unpleasant sound.
Rip, riiiiiiip…
Snap!
“Gaah!”
Snap. Crackle. Rip. Pop!
“Waaaaaaaah!!”
“Graaaaaaaah!!”
Lagging behind a beat, the elder dragon, staring at the knife ripping through its belly, began to feel the pain. In a frenzy, it sent Mavis flying with its claw again. This time, she landed close to Reina and the others.
The other three had thankfully not lost consciousness, so they had managed to crawl behind a stone wall and heal each other with magic. When Mavis, seriously injured, was cast their way, they rushed out. All three concentrated their healing magic on her. Without paying sufficient attention to the elder dragon.
“Y-you measly humans…”
The elder dragon had managed to stop the bleeding from the wound in its gut with its own magic, but of course the wound itself didn’t instantly recover. Outside of Mile, and Pauline, who had received her instruction, the only ones who could use such rapid healing magic were the Wonder Trio.
The dragon glared at the fallen Mavis, as well as the other three. It opened its mouth wide, drew in a great breath, and quickly, along with a bright flame…

Bam!
Ka-boom~!

It looked at the sky and fired the blast.
A rock had struck it in the face at the last second, forcing the elder dragon to change the direction it was facing.
“Who dares?!”
The dragon turned, froth and saliva dripping from its mouth in anger. Before it stood Mile, her armor, clothes, and hair in shambles. Just like the dragon, she trembled and seethed in anger, her stance imposing.
“Guess what?” she thrust her index finger forward and shouted at the dragon. “Now, you’ve made me really angry!”
Chapter 34:

A Battle of Magic

Mile was angry. Her armor and clothing were in tatters. Her hair was a mess.
However, this wasn’t the reason Mile was angry.
Her allies, her friends, had been hurt. They were very nearly killed. If she hadn’t made it in time, they would have been killed. Her dearest companions, who fought their hardest and risked their own lives just to save her.
“Impossible… No human could recover so quickly from that much damage! You… just what are you?!” The elder dragon raged.
Mile stoically replied, “Me? I’m a completely normal, ordinary little girl and a C-rank hunter.”
“Lies!! Show your true self!”
Bwoosh!
Shing!
“Wh…”
Knowing it would never learn the truth if it killed her, the dragon held back a bit, firing a small, non-explosive ball of flame Mile’s way. Thanks to Mile’s Lattice Power barrier, the flames were repelled as though they were nothing.
“I suppose I held back a bit too much… Well then, take this!”
Whoosh!
Shing!
“Th-then, this…”
Bwoosh!
Shing!
“I-Impossible! Very well, time to get serious…”
Bwoosh!
Shing!
“!…”
Bwoosh!
Shing!
Bwoosh!
Shing!
Bwoosh!
Shing!
“Wha…”

“Now, it’s my turn,” Mile declared. The elder dragon, stunned that its attack spells could be repelled so easily even when fired at full power, was silent. Mile let off an attack spell with a brief incantation. “Transmute the elements and channel phase energy. Phase energy beam, fire!”
Smeck!
With a very light sound, the spell shot into the elder dragon’s left shoulder, right where arm and torso connected. Without any regard for the magical protection likely affixed to the dragon’s body.
“Hm?”
The dragon’s jaw half-dropped, as if it could not comprehend the current state of affairs. It was impossible to read a dragon’s facial expressions, but anyone who looked at it now would agree that it appeared nothing more than flabbergasted.
And then, a beat later.
“Gaaaaaaaaah~~!!!”
The elder dragon’s cry resounded through the trees.

How had Mile’s magic, supposedly inferior to the dragon’s, won in a fire fight? Why had her disposition shifted so drastically?
The reasons were two-fold.
For one, Mile was incredibly angry. Her immense rage had banished the fear, despair, and resignation roiling in her heart to a far corner of her mind.
But more importantly, Mile had realized something: The difference between her and the elder dragon’s power wasn’t so great after all.
Mile’s abilities were perhaps half that of the strongest elder dragon in this world. However, this didn’t mean they were half that of the elder dragon now standing before her. Judging by its behavior, this elder dragon was probably dead average between the most powerful elder dragons and those who were complete incompetents. In other words, at about half the strength of the strongest elder dragon. By that measure, Mile by no means possessed only half of this particular dragon’s strength.So, what if the strongest dragons were orders of magnitude higher in strength? What if this elder dragon wasn’t in their league?
In that case, the difference between Mile’s power and this dragon’s wasn’t so great, was it?
Plus, Mile had an advantage. She possessed all the knowledge and power of the imagination she carried from her past life.
She could conjure the image of a Type 94 naval gun or a 500-kilo bomb exploding, a beam weapon’s power or the effects of a nuclear bomb. Although it was very unlikely the nanomachines would allow her to conjure an actual nuclear blast.
These were powerful, offensive images that this world could scarcely begin to imagine. They granted her overwhelming superiority.
Plus, with her knowledge of the principles of physical phenomena, she could conjure a relatively concrete image as well. And the nanomachines would automatically account for any deficiencies.In other words, compared to someone who possessed the same amount of magical power, Mile was capable of far stronger, far more efficient spells. And the effect of that was:
In a battle between two swordsmen, even when there was a reasonable difference in raw power, the battle wasn’t yet decided. The victory went to the one who could strike a blow to their opponent’s vitals the quickest. Even the weaker of the two could still manage to pull a sudden victory in the end.
However, if one could completely deflect the other’s magical attacks, while their own burst through the enemy’s shield as though it were paper, then there would be no contest.
The victory was decided before the battle had even truly begun.
However, just then…

“What’s all the racket up there? Shut up!”
“What’s going on?”
Two more elder dragons crept out of the hole.
Of these two newcomers, one was a rank larger than the first dragon who had appeared. It looked from Pauline and Reina, who were trying desperately to heal Mavis, to Dr. Clairia, who was poised to cast another protection spell at any moment, to Mile and her tattered rags.
Then it issued a scathing rebuke to the first dragon.
“Wence! How many times do the elders have to tell you not to abuse lower life-forms? Er… or are you the one being abused here?”
Staring at the blood pouring from the wound on Wence’s pierced shoulder, its eyes round, was the much-older elder dragon, Berdetice.
“Aha aha ha ha ha ha! That’s so funny, Wence! An elder dragon, an elder dragon tormented by a human! Goodness, if you always made me laugh this hard, I would have never turned you down for a date!”
As Shelala, the daughter of the chief elder dragon, rolled on the ground laughing, Wence was so indignant he forgot the pain in his shoulder.
“Damn these humans, making me disgrace myself in front of Shelala… I won’t forgive you!” Wence opened his mouth wide and let out another powerful breath attack.
“Wh—Stop that, you idiot!!”
Ignoring Berdetice’s order to stop, Wence let out not a single fireball but a full-powered Dragon’s Breath. Mile, standing before him, vanished, her body enveloped in flames.
“Wence, what have you done…?”
Seeing this senseless violence from Wence, who she had been ribbing and mocking, all the color drained from Shelala’s face. No human would ever be able to tell, but to a dragon it was an unmistakable expression of distress, and an understandable one. It would be like a human girl seeing a kitten slaughtered right before her eyes.
“You’ve violated the ‘Lesser Life-forms Protection Act’! A decree from our elders!”
Just as Berdetice began to speak, the young elder dragon, Wence, finally ceased his attack.
Standing there before their eyes was Mile, completely unharmed.
“Impossible…”
“What?”
“Huh???”
Wence stood there in disbelief. Berdetice and Shelala’s eyes were wide with shock.
Mile, however, was panicking. Just when she thought she could turn this battle around, one dragon became three. Her chances of victory were slim. Knowing she had no choice but to better her odds, she decided to fire an attack spell. Her aim: the first dragon to appear, the one who held so much malice for her and her friends. The other two seemed more diplomatic.
Judging by the state of things, it would be bad to kill him. The fighting strength of the belligerent dragon was weak, and she should probably try to work out a way to talk with the biggest dragon. If that was impossible, the third dragon was small, at least. With one of each size, depending on the circumstances, she might be able to eke out a victory.
So Mile thought as she fired a spell at Wence.
“Phaser, fire!”
The moment Mile attacked, the dragon known as Berdetice stepped out from behind Wence and put up a protection spell.

Shunk!
“Gaaaaaaah!”
Wence cried out as this time, the beam struck deep into his right arm. Berdetice, meanwhile, panicked, seeing how the spell had gone right through his full power protective shield.
“Shelala, get behind me! Calm down, Wence! We have to fight together!”
Berdetice was truly flustered. He was facing the impossible: a being who could harm an elder dragon.
Even though the chances were one in a million, he couldn’t allow harm to come to Shelala. Wounds could be mended with magic, but the idea of Shelala being hurt at all was unpleasant. He recoiled at the thought of what the chief and the elders, who were ever so fond of Shelala, would do to him if they found out he had exposed her to harm or let her know pain.
Knowing that Berdetice was on his side, Wence collected himself. The wound stung badly, but he knew he could count on Shelala and her special healing magic to put him back together once they were through. Now, above all else, their greatest priority was to remove this dangerous, uncertain element.
“Breath, release!”
At Berdetice’s signal, the three elder dragons fired their breath attacks toward Mile.
What of the “Inferior Life-forms Protection Act” Berdetice had mentioned?
That only applied to helpless creatures—a sort of warrior’s hypocrisy. When it came to situations of true danger, however, such rules were easily ignored.
No matter how much she reinforced it, Mile’s protection spell wasn’t impressive enough to completely shield her from a breath attack from three elder dragons. With a sharp ka-shing!, the lattice power barrier shattered easily, the course of the attack averted only slightly. Mile’s left arm was engulfed.“Ngah!!”
Putting the searing pain aside, she forewent healing magic to fire another attack spell. “Phaser, fiiiiiiire!!!”
Shing!
However, with the strength of the dragons combined, their shield easily reflected Mile’s counterattack. And then, the dragons fired a combined breath attack once again.
Mile, her face contorted in pain, immediately put up another full-strength barrier. While it shattered again, it at least sufficiently repelled most of the breath’s power. The remainder of it still struck, however, and Mile was once again blown backward, sent flying into the stone walls of the ruins.
“Guh-haah!!”
Once more, Mile collapsed to the ground.

I can’t win.
Of course, I can’t. There’s no way I could win against three elder dragons.
But that’s not a reason to give up! My life and the lives of everyone else. That’s what’s on the line.Mile clenched her teeth hard.
Okay then. It’s time to really do this. There’s three of them, so I need to summon up the strength of three, don’t I?
There’s Kurihara Misato, the girl who died at eighteen.
There’s Adele von Ascham, the young noble girl, whose consciousness was combined with mine at ten.
And then, there’s the girl I am now: Mile of the Crimson Vow, the C-rank hunter who fights alongside her friends, who’s achieved all I dreamed of in my past life.
All three of my lives, all three of their dreams. Their hopes and their feelings. If the enemies are three-fold, then I have to summon three-fold strength as well, don’t I?
And so, once more, Mile stood, staring the three dragons down all the while.

“Oho, still standing, are you? You should know there’s no way you can beat us. If you humbly admit defeat, and tell us everything, we’ll spare your friends’ lives and yours,” said the elder dragon, Berdetice.
To which, Mile replied, “You’re the ones who have no chance of winning. If you humbly admit defeat, and tell me everything, I’ll spare your friends’ lives and yours…”
“Hm…?”
“Bwa ha ha, what a funny little one! Humans are such precious things.”
Ignoring the elder dragons’ responses, Mile incanted her spell:
“Nanomachines!”
At the loudly shouted word, there was crackling all around, as though the air was freezing over.
“NANOMACHINES! JE VOUS COMMANDE…” So the elder dragons wouldn’t understand her spell, Mile commanded the nanomachines in a language found in her past life. Even if the nanomachines were unable to understand Terran languages, as long as they received her thought pulse, there would be no miscommunication. Plus, she got the feeling God had trained them in at least that much, on her behalf.
The next command she gave in Japanese.
“Kurihara Misato, Adele von Ascham, soshite Mile ga meizuru. Waga meirei wo, saiyuusen de judaku seyo…”
(“Kurihara Misato, Adele von Ascham, and Mile command you. Accept our commands above all others…”)
“No matter how many times you try, it’s useless. There’s no way you can pass through a shield formed by three elder drag—”
Ka-shnk, boom!
“Wh…”
The three elder dragons were dumbstruck as their protective shield was shattered in a single hit.
“N-no way… That’s impossible! The shield we three elder dragons have formed was shattered by some puny human’s Fire Lance…?”
Hearing this, Mile grinned. Yes, the time had come for her to say one of the lines she had hoped to speak at least once in her lifetime. She couldn’t hold back her joy.
“That wasn’t even my amazing Fire Lance. That was only a little Fire Ball…”

Average 4.6

Because they had turned in early the night before, they awoke bright and early the next morning.
It was still not quite light when they roused. They ate a quick breakfast of dried foods, completed their morning preparations, stowed their blankets inside the tent, and then merrily went on their way.
“There’s a bit of a rise over there, so we should be able to see out over the whole dig…”
“Oh.”A quiet word from Mavis interrupted Mile’s proposal.
“What’s the matter?” Mile asked.
“M-my foot just broke through something…” Mavis replied, her face twitching.
Hearing this, Mile made a break for the small incline, quickly falling to a crouch and looking out over the dig site. As she did, she saw beastmen flooding from one of the huts, kicking up some sort of ruckus.
“It seems like they’ve got some kind of warning system set up, too…”
“I-I’m sorry! This is all my fault…” Mavis said apologetically.
However, it was not as though she’d intended to trip the wire. None of them had thought there would be an alarm, so it would probably just have been a matter of time.
Mile said as much, assuring Mavis not to worry, but over-earnest Mavis did not seem to be comforted.
But was that pit there the last time…?
Mile’s eyes fixed on a hole about seven or eight meters in diameter near the center of the dig site. She didn’t remember it. However, when she had observed the site before, it was evening and rather dark. Thinking she had probably overlooked it, she now paid it no mind. Now was not the time to be thinking about such things, after all.
“Let’s move! If we fight beastmen in terrain with low visibility or a lot of trees, we’ll be at a disadvantage!”
Just as Mile suggested, fighting in heavily wooded areas was a problem when your opponents were nimble beastmen, who were skilled in close-range combat. Using powerful fire magic would be difficult, too.
They wanted to leave their opponents relatively unscathed, and therefore hoped to avoid using fire magic. But if they found themselves outnumbered, it would be back on the table. As long as they didn’t kill the beastmen, they could be fixed back up with healing magic. They would just have to put up with the pain until they were healed.Of course, if this went poorly, they would be “assaulting some beastfolk in the middle of scavenging.” To connect this to the previous incident and have the situation read as, “We went to reclaim the gear stolen by bandits and were attacked again, so we rightfully defended ourselves,” they had to ensure their attacks were only reactionary, should the situation come to blows.
Over and over, Mile pressed this upon them. Reina was exasperated at her insistence, but Dr. Clairia was deeply moved.
“I know you said we were relocating, but where?!”
Reina’s complaint was well founded. They were cutting straight through the forest. There were only trees behind them. Because they were still at something of an elevation, however, the trees were beginning to thin.
Even so, they could still easily be cornered. Even if they retreated at full speed, they would never move quicker than beastmen through the woods. Save for Mile.
If they kept up, they were sure to be attacked when they were exhausted and negligent. It would be safer to pick a preemptive fight somewhere that would be advantageous for them and then run once they had crushed their opponents.
Plus, if they just ran away like this, it would count as a “failed request” on their record.
“We’re going to keep up this way and run down the other side of this hill all the way to there. This is reconnaissance-in-force,” Mile said, pointing to the dig site.
Dr. Clairia interjected. “You know, Miss Mile. A reconnaissance-in-force maneuver typically involves slightly reckless action to seek out information about an enemy whose location you’re already aware of or making a move that they can’t ignore in order to stir them up and gauge their general disposition. At the very least, it doesn’t usually mean storming the enemy stronghold and gathering information after everyone has been defeated. Are you sure you aren’t thinking of a disruption-in-force?”
“I-I know that much! I watched a video about the ‘craft of war,’” Mile snapped back, perturbed.
“‘Vee-dee-oh’? ‘Orc raft?’”
Dr. Clairia clearly couldn’t follow her Terran terminology. Then again, even if she had used words from this world to explain it, such as “combat tactics” or “digital film record,” the point still wouldn’t have gotten across.
In any case, there was no time. There was no telling how soon they would end up surrounded, so they didn’t have the luxury of a leisurely debate.
“No use. I don’t think it’s a good plan, but since I can’t think of a better one, process of elimination means Mile’s plan is the best. Let’s just try to make sure non-combatants get a chance to escape unharmed.”
With Reina’s approval, their course of action was cemented.
“All right, let’s do it!”
“All right!!!” the other three cheered.
“…All right!” As always, Dr. Clairia was just one beat behind.

They rushed the enemy camp but without shout or battle cry.
Until they were discovered, they would remain in the shadows, forging forward in silence. Then they would lie in wait just before one of the open areas. Their scent would eventually give them away, but there was no sense in hastening the inevitable.
Naturally, the beastpeople must know where their alarm system had been triggered, so they could expect them to surround and approach, trying to block their escape route. They probably didn’t expect a small group to be coming their way, so when they got to where they expected the girls to be, only to find no one there, they would probably panic and start gaining on them.
For Mile and the others, this would mean they had been chased down by an attacking enemy, and driven into their camp, and not that they had infiltrated the camp of their own volition. By extension, any mayhem, injuries, or property and artifact damage would be because the beastmen came at them, absolving the party of even a modicum of blame.
Then, they could gather more information during the confusion or proceed once they had driven the beastmen away. There was a chance that whatever they were searching for might be destroyed or lost in the fray, but that wasn’t the girls’ problem. In fact, it might just be better if the item went “missing” during the battle.
“You’re always such an airhead, how is this the one area where you’ve got a bit of sense?!” Reina gave an exasperated shout as Mile explained the plan.

Several minutes later, just as planned, the beastmen had rushed to the point where they thought the intruders were. Seeing no one, nor any signs of them heading back, they were now proceeding back toward the dig site in order to surround the intruders from behind. Since they would likely be following their scents, it was only a matter of time before the girls were discovered.
And then, finally…
“There they are! Surround those intruders and capture them!” shouted one of the beastmen, pointing at the group.
“Oh no! The enemy has surrounded us and ordered our capture! We’d better run! I guess we’re being forced right into this open space!”
Mile stood up and began bolting directly towards the center of the dig site.
“Wah! While running away from the bandits attacking us, we ended up running right into some strange place! Is this the bandits’ secret hideout?!” she shouted in a loud and stilted voice.
There were now only ten beastpeople blocking the way ahead of them—all adult males. All of the women and youths had taken refuge in the huts, which, as far as Mile and company were concerned, was a favorable circumstance.
“Intruders shouldn’t be sayin’ such disrespectful things!”
“And bandits shouldn’t be acting so haughty!”
“Wh…”
As long as they didn’t know the truth of the matter, the men were as good as bandits. Even if that turned out to not be the case later, they were bandits for now and would be handled accordingly. Honestly, if this incident ended up being of international significance, they would be better off being considered as such.
“What?” Reina interjected. “Are you saying that’s wrong? Then what are you all doing here? And why did you capture those hunters and steal their things? Are you going to explain why you’re acting exactly like bandits?!”
“Er…”
The beastmen, lost for words, didn’t reply. Some of them looked like ones who had been present for the previous incident.
“Ugh, shut up! Oi, you lot, capture those girls already! …What’s wrong?”
For beastmen—who had a very strict respect for hierarchy—failure to obey a superior’s orders would normally be unthinkable. Mile thought it very suspicious the men didn’t act, until she looked more closely at them. Yes, they were very familiar…“Oh! These men are the ones who attacked us!” At Mile’s shout, eight men twitched and stiffened.
“What?” the leader shouted. “Are you telling me these girls are the lady hunters you said you scared off? Didn’t you say there were just four… wait! Isn’t that one there one of the prisoners who escaped?! Were they hanging around here this whole time?! The humans still don’t know what’s going on, then! Wait!! Where are the other seventeen?!”
The girls were under no obligation to answer. The humans had made it back safely, and they could still take precautions to limit the beastpeople’s actions, even without new information.
“Damn it, say something! What are you all so afraid of?”
As the leader stared in wonder at his subordinates, who still failed to move, an inconceivable thought crossed his mind.

It was just the other day that his men had returned with their report of the girls.
When they had come seeking healing services, and he had asked why they had so many injuries, they said that in order to ward the intruders off without harming them, they had taken attacks from a mage. But…it couldn’t be…
Suspicion bubbled up in his heart, but he couldn’t press them in front of the enemy.
However, just in case, he would have to prepare himself. Because, soon, probably very soon… Gwah!

Fwooooosh…
“Gwah!”
“Guh-ha!”
A bizarre smell began drifting through the area.
The Crimson Vow’s faces contorted as well—just slightly after the beastmen’s.
“Th-this smell…”
“Hwahaha! Did you really think someone as brilliant as me was going to go along with your story?! The reserve forces I sent out to lie in wait have finally returned! Now, face our overwhelming battle prowess, and be… Huuuurk!”
Apparently, their “battle prowess” had been significantly lowered.

There were fourteen men in front of them, who were huddled up puking. There were twenty at their rear, gaunt and wobbling—and still reeking.
Only the first fourteen still appeared to be in top shape. So, no one could say their battle strength was improved with the additional numbers.
The ones who had fallen for the stink trap had probably washed themselves hard, but the smell still hadn’t come all the way out. There were even some pitiful forms among them who had shaved their fur, hoping to rid themselves of every trace of the stench.
“M-Mile, what in the world is that…?” Reina asked.
Mavis gasped. “Are you saying Mile did this?”
“P-please forgive me…”
Though their noses were nowhere near as sharp as the beastmen’s, Reina, Pauline, and Mavis were all on the brink of fainting. As was Mile, whose nose was sharper than the average human’s.
Dr. Clairia, of course, was on the ground, vomiting.
A shout, from Mile, resounded through the area.
“Waaaaaah!!! Smell, go awaaaay! Destroy all the sources of this smell here and throughout the whole foreeeest!!!”

***

“Huff, huff, huff… Th-thank you so much…”
Though they were enemies, the leader of the beastmen offered Mile his thanks for ridding them of the smell.
“Hrff, hrff, hrff… N-no worries, it was my pleasure.”
Neither side could be considered in their best form, but there was no time to sit around and chatter; the battle was about to begin.
Before it did, however, Mavis pulled something from her pocket. It was a small, capsule-like vessel: the gift Mile had given her. Because there were so many enemies, she had already decided it was time to use it. She gripped the capsule in her hand and uttered:
“Let’s see what you’ve got, Micross!”
Mile had once described the contents of this object to Mavis. “Inside this capsule is a very, very tiny object that can restore the power of your ‘spirit.’ When the going gets tough, please don’t hesitate to use it.”
Because this world didn’t yet have a word equivalent to “nano,” Mile had elected to call it something equivalent to “micro.” It was a soup full of microscopic things. “Microsoup,” or “Micross” for short. The word that Mavis used was obviously not pronounced the same, but it carried the same meaning.
With this prayer offered to the capsule, Mavis unscrewed the cap and gulped down the liquid.
“True Godspeed Blade EX!”
With Mavis’s cry, the battle was underway.

Naturally, Reina and Pauline had already prepared their spells before the fighting even began. This wasn’t cowardly; it was no different, actually, than a swordsman gripping the hilt before the fight began.
They let those spells fly before the beastmen could draw nearer. There was no mage in any world who would wait for an enemy skilled in close-range combat to approach them.
“Ultra Super Deluxe Hot Tornado!”
“Gyaaaaaah!!!”
Following Pauline’s special non-lethal (if you didn’t count souls) hot magic spell, Reina fired her own spell.
“Ultrasonic!”
“Eeeeeeek!!!”
After discussing it with Mavis, who was well aware of Reina’s frightening philosophy that “as long as it’s non-lethal, friendly fire isn’t a problem,” Mile had come up with a sort of magic perfect for fighting beastpeople—one that affected only beastpeople and not their allies. She had taught it to Reina before they set out.
Naturally, the ones who had the highest probability of being caught in Reina’s attack spells were the frontline fighters. For Mavis and Mile, it was a literal matter of life and death.
What flew out from Reina’s spell, though, was an incredibly unpleasant burst of sound, inaudible to humans but perfectly audible to beastmen, who could hear a much wider range of frequencies.
The beastmen clapped their hands over their ears in pain, while the Crimson Vow, who were humans, stood calmly. Almost.
“Gweeehhh…” Mile could feel the bile rising. “St-stop! Stop that speeeeell!”
Her range of hearing was even broader than the beastmen’s.
Wh-why? I was perfectly fine when we practiced this.
Mile was utterly perplexed. During their practice sessions, Reina had only been concentrating on projecting the spell forward. Now, though, it was reverberating through the entire area. Plus, she had only timidly attempted this spell when practicing; now, she hurled it at full strength, without limits.
Following the first damaging wave of Reina’s spell, Mavis rushed into the twenty men of the original search party who hadn’t been struck by Pauline’s attack.
I feel so light, Mavis marveled. My body and my sword feel as light as air!
In her previous life, Mile would have been able to perfectly name the euphoric feeling Mavis had: doping.
Thanks to the microsoup, chock full of nanomachines, the concentration of nanomachines in Mavis’s body was now leagues higher than what she would normally possess or even knowingly ingest. And so, if she used her normal “True Godspeed Blade” in her current state…
Once more, Mavis raised her battle cry. “True Godspeed Blade EX!”
That was the most important part, after all.

Mile was lagging behind.
The damage she had taken from Reina’s spell was massive. However, as the beastmen had been hurt not only by Reina’s spell but also Pauline’s, they wouldn’t be a problem. Before the beastmen had a chance to get to Reina and Pauline, Mile struck.
No match for Mile’s true speed or power, the beastmen fell to the ground, one after another.
Why had she gotten serious now?
Well, there was no telling how many more “non-lethal attack spells” Reina and Pauline would be inclined to use if the battle dragged on.
“It’s not like it’ll kill anyone, so it’s okay if your allies get caught in the fire!” Pauline had once said.
The two of them were of the same mind.
They would, without hesitation, rain down utter annihilation, even upon dear friends. That was Reina and Pauline’s way.
They would never be dissuaded or deterred.

Have I surpassed the limits of human ability? Mavis wondered, fighting at full strength just the same.
Like this, she could even best her father or eldest brother in the blink of an eye. She knew that for certain.
No, this isn’t really my own strength. The True Godspeed Blade I can summon with my personal spiritual power is, but this power from that special medicine is only temporary. Even so, I will accept it and fight with my full potential! Besides—
Mavis quickly glanced behind her.
—if we don’t hurry up and end this, I could end up caught in one of their spells!!
With the same thought weighing on their minds, Mile and Mavis fought for their lives. However desperate, they still refused to strike with full strength. All their nervous reactions were concentrated into controlling their speed and power so as not to cause grave injury.
But then, just as it seemed they were about to achieve victory—and without facing a second wave of spells from Reina and Pauline—it appeared.
“Grruurrrrrrrrr…”
Near the center of the dig site was a hole about seven or eight meters in diameter. From within it, something huge clambered out.“A-an earth dragon?” Though shocked, Reina immediately began incanting a spell.
She had initially prepared a non-lethal spell for the beastmen, but such a thing would be of no use against a dragon. She immediately discarded it and began another. Pauline did the same.
Mile and Mavis quickly struck down the remaining beastmen and turned their swords to face the dragon.
“Firebomb!”
“Ultra Hot!”
The two mages fired their spells in tandem, but while Reina’s struck the dragon in the gut, it appeared to have no effect. Pauline’s spell dissipated before it reached the dragon’s head.
“No way…”
“H-how?”
Even for a dragon, taking a direct hit from a firebomb spell—particularly a powerful one—without any damage, or even flinching, was unthinkable. And Pauline’s spell had simply vanished. Inconceivable!
Seeing the dragon unharmed and continuing to approach them, and that Reina and Pauline were too stunned to prepare more spells, Mile decided to step in herself. This was perhaps the first time she ever needed to use a serious attack spell.“Exploding Magic, Fire!”
Pow!
“Wh…”
The powerful spell, fired in earnest to fell the dragon, was deflected.
As Mile stood, taken aback, the dragon, who had been slowly thudding towards them all the while, moved with a quick and accurate strike, lashing its tail at Mile.
“Gyaaaaaah!!”
Helpless, Mile flew toward the stone ruins ten meters away. Her body crashed into the half-collapsed rubble.
“Miiiiiiile!!!” Reina, Mavis, and Pauline all shouted. Before they could help her, though, they had to do something about the dragon.
The three tried their hardest to convince themselves it was just like the time with the rock lizard, that she would be fine; it was Mile, after all. Even so, they knew the chances of that prayer being answered were slim.

“Gaaaaaaaah…”
An immense and unbelievable pain coursed all through Mile’s body.
Ow ow ow ow owww! What’s with this?! That blow wasn’t any different from the rock lizard’s…
She had never felt such pain, not in her previous life and certainly not since her reincarnation. It was as though every bone in her body were broken… No, they probably were broken. Shattered into pieces and now piercing her muscles and internal organs. The pain was all she could think about.
Why? I thought I was supposed to have half the sturdiness of an elder dragon… Why didn’t their magic go through…?
The dragon turned to face her. She couldn’t move a muscle, nor utter a sound from the horrendous pain, but the dragon continued to approach. It opened its enormous mouth, and…
“Oh? I struck you, and yet you live… Just what are you?”
“I-It spoke?!” Pauline cried, but Reina and Mavis, now realizing what they were truly up against, bit their lips in fear.
“A-an elder dragon…”
Yes. Not an earth dragon but an elder dragon, whose power, intelligence, magic, and strength was the greatest in all the world—and of which Mile possessed but half its power…
Chapter 33:

Fight to the Finish

A-an elder dragon…
Thanks to the dragon speaking, Mile now realized the truth as well.
There’s no way we can beat it! Elder dragons have twice my strength, twice my magical power, and are smarter than any human! There’s no way we could!
For a short time now, she hadn’t moved at all. The nanomachines had heard Mile’s unconscious cry of distress and were currently in the process of performing an emergency healing, but it would take a bit more time before she was able to move.
If her bones had been merely broken, the healing would have been incredibly fast, perhaps even instantaneous. However, bone fragments had torn her muscles and organs to shreds so repairing her would take that much longer.
The greatest problem of all, though, more painful than broken bones, was that Mile’s heart was broken.
Since she had first learned of her own strength, Mile hadn’t once felt truly in danger. Even up against bandits or powerful monsters, she would think, If it comes down to it, I just have to get serious. I’ll be fine—and that was true. Therefore, she had always had plenty of leeway and went about her days carefree.But now, her life was in true, mortal peril. She was up against an elder dragon, an unbeatable foe.
Despair and defeat consumed her.
The wheels in her head were refusing to turn. She couldn’t think. As the creature of nightmare approached, prepared to visit death upon her, she could do naught but watch helplessly, paralyzed with unimaginable pain, waiting for the end to come…

“Aaaaaaaaarrrhhh!!!”
As the elder dragon plodded towards Mile, Mavis rushed in. She struck the monster with the literal limits of her power and might.
Thwack!
However, even this mighty blow did nothing more than scratch the dragon’s hide.
“Oho, scratched my scales, did you? You’re a formidable one. However…” With a swing of its arm, the dragon flicked Mavis away. “Know your place, whelp!”
Just like Mile, Mavis was sent crashing into the ruins and collapsed into a heap. Unlike Mile, however, she hadn’t taken a powerful blow from the dragon’s tail. It had been a mere flick of its hand, so her injuries weren’t fatal. Even so, she was in no shape to move.
By then, Reina and Pauline had gotten to their feet and were preparing a second round of spells. Even after seeing what happened to Mavis, they had no intention of stopping.
There were just some things that took priority over others. Now wasn’t the time to waste carefully incanted spells or precious seconds on futile things like calling out Mavis’s name in worry.
Finally, their spells were complete.
“Blaze, O flames of Hell! Burn my enemies down to the bone!”
If the dragon was going to repel her spell, Reina would just have to surround it. For this, she used an area-attack fire spell, her specialty.
Fwooosh!
“Wh…”
The dragon didn’t even look Reina’s way. The whorl of flame that was set to envelope the dragon merely vanished, as though it was nothing.

“Rocks, show me your truest form!”
By nature, Pauline wasn’t the type of mage to cast a powerful spell or simply pull together an incantation on the spot. So without the blessing of a surplus of time, she couldn’t use powerful attack magic.
However, the elder dragon was utterly ignoring both her and Reina. It had deemed them non-threats, unable to harm it and unworthy of its time.
Therefore, there was a spell that Pauline could use.
Judging by what had happened so far, it was clear that any magic would vanish before it struck or deal no damage even if it did. However, Mavis’s sword had damaged its scales, even if only to the faintest degree. Thus, this was the only spell she could use.
It was one Mile had devised especially for Pauline, who was weak when it came to combat magic:
“We need to think of a special move for you, Pauline! In case you’re in a spot where ice magic, which is your specialty, doesn’t have enough physical strength for what you need to do. This is a last-ditch magic, for when your chances of victory and survival are at zero. Let’s call this ‘Zero-Zero Magic’!”
Mile had taught her rock sculptures weren’t made by humans. Rocks held whatever forms were within them all along; humans merely came along and chipped away the excess parts, to reveal what was hidden inside.
Therefore, she just had to request the rock to reveal its true form.
“Zero-Zero Magic No. 1, Rock Reveal!”
Suddenly, rubble began to tumble from a two-meter-high slab amongst the ruins. Bit by bit, its form changed. Beneath the rubble was…
A structure two meters in length. It resembled a spear but was the same thickness from tip to end. It spiraled and twisted, much like a screw.
Were someone from Mile’s previous life to view it, there was no doubt they would have uttered to themselves, “Oh, a drill…”
“Turn, turn! As a wagon axle turns, as a cyclone swirls! Use your power, and pierce my enemy! Shoooooot!”
Ka-shunk!
“Graaaaaaaaarrrh!”
Granted ballistic stability from its rotation, just as Pauline directed, the drill shot straight into the elder dragon’s flank. The hard and sturdy rock of the ruins withstood the initial shock of striking the dragon’s mass. Combined with the kinetic energy of its own mass and the rotational force, it pierced the dragon’s scales, buried itself inside, and then shattered.
Even if the section that had been struck was relatively close to the surface, and even if the makeup of its body made it invulnerable to pain, even the elder dragon couldn’t withstand countless stone shards exploding within its body.
Normally, no one would be stupid enough to challenge an elder dragon, and even if they were, such a fool would never be able to wound it. Even if they knocked it down or struck its little toe with a tree, they would never cause an elder dragon to feel pain.
Which meant elder dragons were unaccustomed to pain. Weak to it. This particular one was exceptionally so.
“H-hyou bwastaaaaaards!!!”
The dragon bellowed in pain and rage at the humiliation of being wounded by a lesser life-form.
Then it took a deep breath.
Without a doubt, it was preparing a specialty of all its kind: Dragon’s Breath.
There was no time for Pauline, who had just finished firing a spell, or Reina, who was on the verge of finishing her next, to prepare any protection magic. Even if they had, any spell they could muster would be as tough as wet tissue against dragon fire.
The moment they saw the crimson flames blazing in the dragon’s wide-open mouth, the two knew death was coming for them.
“Father, everyone…I’m so sorry…”
“All I wanted was to be with Alan and mother, and together we could…”

“Magic Shield!!!”
Dr. Clairia stepped into the fray. She had prepared her strongest protection spell and held it in waiting. Now, she channeled all her magical energy into an expansive shield. Even so, it wouldn’t have held back an elder dragon’s breath at full strength. Thankfully, this attack had been weak.
And of course it was weak. No matter how angry the dragon was, you wouldn’t use a bomb to kill a mouse. There was also the fact that the dragon was unaware that amongst its opponents was an elf, a race far more skilled with magic than humans.
However, though the shield protected against the core of the breath attack—the flames and the heat—they still took the force head-on. The three of them were sent flying. Thankfully, they weren’t blasted into the ruins as the two before had been but still soared an impressive distance. They plummeted to the ground, unlikely to rise again soon. The elder dragon, having already lost interest in them, ignored the three ladies and began to stalk toward Mile once more.
Oh no! I have to save her…
From her position collapsed on the ground, Mavis had seen everything. Now she tried her best to pull herself to her feet, but because she had struck her head, and her bones and tendons were injured, none of her limbs would cooperate.
I know, the Micross! If I just use the Micross…
Even with that solution in mind, her arms would not work the way she willed them to. Bit by bit they inched toward her side, but she had almost no sensation in her fingers. She couldn’t find her pocket at all.
The elder dragon was already standing over Mile, reaching out its right arm.
No! I’m never gonna make it!
Just as Mavis plunged into despair, there was a sharp ringing in her ear. The sound gave her a strange sense of déjà vu…

Shiiiiiiing… Bang!!
“Gwaah!”

The elder dragon drew back its outstretched right arm in a panic, gripping its palm.
Mavis raised her eyes.
Could it be? If it was, then she would see, up in the sky…
And indeed, when Mavis looked up, she saw above her—
“Yahooo!”
—a girl about ten years old, shouting out. Beneath her, a familiar wyvern finished a drop attack and turned back to reascend.
“L-Lobreth!”
The singular reinforcement the region’s lord had sent out had now arrived.

Lobreth, flapping high in the sky, once more began an easy descent, likely to use his breath attack once again. However, this was incredibly reckless.
“This pitiful excuse for a dragon dares to challenge me…”
Viewing the wyvern as a foe who could cause harm, the elder dragon took a defensive stance. Just as Lobreth approached at a shallow angle, opening his mouth wide to prepare another blast of breath…
Boom!
A fireball burst from the elder dragon’s mouth.
This was nothing like the small flame it had fired toward Reina and the others; this was a true fireball, a sphere of searing death.
The high-velocity fireball smacked straight into Lobreth’s left wing. He crashed into the trees with a scream from the girl upon his back. The curtain had fallen on Lobreth’s performance just as quickly as it had risen.
However, those scant few moments weren’t for naught. Within that narrow window Lobreth and the girl had granted them, Mavis finally managed to find her pocket, seized one of the capsules inside, and flipped the lid open.
“I’m counting on you, Micross!”
Just as Mile taught her, she said a word of prayer, “to increase the effectiveness,” and gulped down everything inside. Every last drop.
“I can finish healing later. For now, I just need to focus my spirit, ignore the pain, and get this body moving! Let’s gooooooooo!!!”
Mavis fought with all her might to control her body, harnessing her own powerful spirit. As she believed she couldn’t use magic whatsoever, Mavis had no idea that what she was doing was, in fact, using healing magic.
As the pain vanished, and feeling and motion returned to her limbs, Mavis knew this didn’t mean her wounds were truly healed. It meant she had stopped feeling the pain. Her spiritual power supported her bones and ligaments to the lowest necessary degree. However, that was enough for her.
She drew another capsule from her pocket, the third that day.
Mile’s words ran through her head:
“Please only use one of these at a time. If you absolutely must, you can use just one more. However, if you do, please don’t push your body too far. When you use these, your muscles and ligaments will compensate to a fair degree, but eventually they won’t be able to keep up. If you overdo it, you’ll end up with fractured bones and torn ligaments. Your whole body will fall apart.
“And whatever you do, avoid using three or more at all costs. You should use only one, at most two, in a time of crisis—and in those moments you need to exercise the utmost caution. Got that? If you mess this up, you could end up dead!”
However, Mile had also taught Mavis a special spell that would smash through those rules, no matter how much Mile tried to warn her. As Mavis swallowed the contents of the third capsule, she uttered those words:
“To hell with that!”
Then, she took a fourth capsule, and a fifth, staring hard at them. Mavis borrowed a decisive phrase Mile used now and then:
“If this isn’t the time to use these, then when is?!”
And with that, she took the two last capsules.

Mavis’s short sword, her main weapon, had been thrown who knows where when the dragon sent her flying. All she had now was the sword she’d brought from home, previously broken and remade into a dagger by Mile. Smoothly, she drew her blade.
There was the faintest whisper… As the air around her began to stir, Mavis grinned.
“Looks like this will be our first real battle together. I’m sorry I’ve only used you for cooking up until now. This might be the first and last time we ever fight as a pair, but please, give me your all!”
A tremor seemed to run through the dagger.

Scrtch…
“Hm?”
Scrtch, scrtch, scrtch…

Beads of light flowed from the dagger’s blade. Then, upon it, a divine and brilliant, shining crest appeared.
“Is this your true form? Haha, never mind a dragon, I bet you could cut down a devil, or a god!”
It was the coating that had been applied to the blade to keep it from standing out and to dull the cutting edge. The nanomachines that clung to the dagger to maintain this coating had decided to remove it of their own volition.
Through many tearful days of misfortune, the nanomachines had heard Mile say those decisive words, too. Now they thought it to themselves:
IF NOW ISN’T THE TIME TO REMOVE THIS, THEN WHEN IS?!
If this knight was willing to put her life on the line for that girl, then they would aid her. This was the consensus of the nanomachines.
Mavis faced the elder dragon with this dagger in hand. She let out a battle cry.

For a short time, the elder dragon watched the trees, in case the wyvern had only pretended to fall and would try to send logs flying the elder dragon’s way. But when it showed no sign of that, once again the dragon turned back toward the girls.
It was well aware the human who had attacked it with a sword before was heading its way. But even in top form, she had barely scratched its scales. She had lost her main weapon and now relied on a tiny, back-up blade. Plus, with her body still battered, there was no way she could do any harm.
Knowing this, the dragon allowed her to attack as she pleased.
It could easily have brushed her away with claw or tail, but allowing her to attack, allowing her to see she couldn’t so much as wound it, would reinforce the futility and despair, as well as the fear of elder dragons that made them so legendary.
And so, the dragon struck a pose that let the girl know that while it knew she approached, it was completely ignoring her. It wouldn’t even realize she had landed an attack. But then…
Stab.
“…Hm?”
The elder dragon froze.
“Hm? Huh? Wha…?” It was in such shock, its brain couldn’t make the connection. It didn’t even feel much pain.
Something had pierced its side, through tough scales and powerful hide, far deeper than the few inches the drill had managed. Only when it felt a red-hot, searing sensation coursing through its side did the dragon stop staring, dumbfounded.
“Grr-raaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Average 4.5

Chapter 31:

To the Capital

The Crimson Vow and the eighteen rescued humans made it safely through the forest and onto the main road leading to the regional capital.
Though it was called the main road, it was a small country road, just wide enough for a single cart. Two carts couldn’t pass each other except in the designated pull-off spaces placed here and there for that specific purpose.
Just as they had planned, the group didn’t stop in at the village at the edge of the woods. They no longer had to worry about the beastpeople’s retrieval team, but they had wasted more time than they anticipated on questioning, and if they stopped in town, it was unlikely they would make it to the capital before dark. Not a single person objected.
“If only we’d had prisoners, if only we’d had prisoners, the reward would…” Pauline sighed.
“Oh, be quiet,” the guard leader yelled. “I already told you, I’ll make sure they know you all did take prisoners, and we were the ones who decided to let them go! We got a bit of information, so we can use that as a bargaining chip to raise your reward a bit! That should be fine, right, Miss Guild Employee?!”
Tiffy jolted. “Y-yes, I will give my endorsement as well!”
The guard leader, worn down by Pauline’s incessant, obstinate complaints, finally snapped. He hoped the offer was more than a baseless promise. He wondered what might have happened if his opinion wasn’t well received and suddenly recalled Pauline’s gleeful face as she broke the beastmen’s legs. He shuddered.
“By the way, Doctor, ” Mile suddenly began. Dr. Clairia looked her way.
“Yes~?” Clairia replied.
“D-do you happen to know a woman from the capital branch of the Hunter’s Guild named Theresa?”
“Ah…” Clairia made an amused but slightly weary face. “I’m not sure how many times I’ve been asked this. A lot of people assume her to be an elf or half-elf because of her youthful appearance, but both her parents are completely human. Well, I mean, maybe there’s some elf blood somewhere way back in the family line and a recessive trait just reared its head. That’s not impossible. But, as far as I know, she’s a perfectly normal human.”
“Whaaaaaaat?!”
There was a cry of shock from not only the Crimson Vow, but Tiffy and the guard hunters, as well. Apparently, Theresa was well known around these parts.
Tiffy was flabbergasted. “Since it’s a taboo in the guild to pester other hunters about their personal details, no one had the nerve to actually ask her. We all just assumed she was an elf or half-elf or something…”
The secret to maintaining a youthful appearance was worth its weight in gold, especially for women. If it was just a matter of elven blood, the matter could be easily abandoned. But when it was a human who managed it, well, that was when jealousy arose.
Apparently, they had stepped on a land mine.
The city of Helmont wasn’t so far from the royal capital. The five days’ distance between them was considered “relatively short.” Plus, it was the capital; it wouldn’t be strange to see information be exchanged between guild employees.
“That woman…”
Growing frightened of Tiffy, who stared at the ground grumbling, Mile and the others hurriedly gave her some space.

The party managed to arrive in Helmont before the sun set for the evening. They headed straight for the guildhall.
A few hunters who saw them along the way rushed to the guildhall ahead of them, kicking up a fuss. They were likely acquaintances of Tiffy, the guards, or the other rescued hunters.
When they finally arrived…
“T-Tiffyyyyyyyyyyy!”
The guild master, who had been waiting in front of the building, ran toward them, arms flung wide. His face was soaked with snot and tears.
“Tiffyyy!”
Before he could embrace her, Tiffy stepped aside. Half-blind from tears, he continued rushing forth and eventually wrapped his arms tight around Clairia.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

***

“…And that’s the sum of it,” Mile concluded.
The guild master gave an emphatic nod, both cheeks bright red and covered in stark scratch marks.
It was intensely undignified.
Mile was the one talking because this was their job completion report and she was the best-equipped to tell the story. When it came to most things, the others treated Mile’s mindset as somewhat unfortunate at best, but even they were aware that when it came to recalling and delivering facts, Mile was far superior to them.
The investigation team would give their report once all matters with the Crimson Vow were settled and the girls had returned home.
“After this, I’ll take the report from the investigation team,” the guild master explained. “Then I’ll send my report over to the lord’s estate. Compensation will be settled then, so please come back tomorrow. We can’t thank you girls enough, and we’ll never forget what you’ve done.”
What he wished to say was, “Thank you for saving my daughter,” but now he spoke as the guild master. He had to be mindful of the ceremony expected of him.
The Crimson Vow, recognizing this, nodded and left the conference room.

“Guess it’s over.”
“That’s the end of it.”
The entire investigation team had been brought back alive, which was something the client probably hadn’t expected. They had also rescued nearly half of the other missing hunters (the rest had probably fallen victim to unruly monsters who had been forced from their territories, so bringing back half, safe and sound, was quite an achievement).
It was an impressive, unexpected success. Even Mavis and Pauline couldn’t help grinning in satisfaction.
“Now then, for dinner tonight,” Reina proposed. “Let’s pay them triple the rate and have them cook us up something special. Sound good?”
“Yeah!!!”
Reina’s proposal was unanimously well received.

***

The next morning, the Crimson Vow headed for the guildhall right at the first morning bell. It went without saying that they were there to collect their payment. Once they collected what was owed, they planned to turn on the spot and head straight for home in the capital.
When they reached the reception counter, the exchange proceeded normally.“Here is your reward for rescuing the investigation team,” the receptionist said while processing their payment, “your reward for uncovering the source of the change in the monsters’ habitats, and a bonus for rescuing Dr. Clairia. Plus, while it isn’t much, you’ve been awarded a bonus from the Hunters’ Benefit Society for rescuing those nine other hunters and an additional sum as thanks from the hunters themselves.”
“You can give that last part back to the other hunters. I’m sure they’re in a bind after losing their gear,” said Reina, to which Pauline nodded in agreement.
Seeing Pauline, the group miser, go along with this, had Mile reeling in shock.
Wh-what is going on?! They say that the only thing that would get TV Tokyo to interrupt its usual broadcast for a special report would be the end of the world, but this is way bigger than that!!!
TV Tokyo was a remarkable television station that, even on the brink of the Gulf War or impending natural disasters, had perpetually refused to deviate from its scheduled programming. Also known as the western SUN-TV or East TV Tokyo, they were pioneers—nay, heroes—in the world of television, the pride of Japan. In her previous life, Mile had been a firm devotee.
“No, that won’t do,” the receptionist explained. “If we make an exception here, others will start hesitating to pay the reward, citing you all as an example. If that happens, you’ll start seeing all sorts of absurd situations, such as people refusing to save others when they figure out that the victims have no intention of paying a reward or delaying helping until payment is confirmed…”
Reina looked a little taken aback, but understood. “Well, guess we better take it then.”
“Including your compensation for releasing the prisoners you took on the investigation team’s orders, and the reward for the intelligence you gathered, this is the final amount.”
The receptionist placed a leather sack atop the counter with a resounding thud.
“Whooooooaaa!!!”
The four of them shouted in shock, their eyes wide. The reward was far greater than they had expected. There couldn’t just be silver or copper pieces inside.
“The guild master requested you stop by his office, as there’s something he’d like to discuss with you. So, if you all would,” the receptionist directed.
Thinking the guild master wanted to give them an additional reward for saving his daughter, or that he wanted to discuss the particulars of their payment, the four proceeded to his office with a spring in their steps. When they entered the room, the guild master and Dr. Clairia greeted them.
“We’d like you all to go back to the beastmen’s camp,” the guild master said without introduction. “It’s a direct request from our lord.”
“Huhh???”
The four of them stood there, shocked at the sudden request. The guild master continued.
“We sent a messenger out to the Capital this morning with a report. A forward rider went ahead as a herald, with a messenger behind them in a carriage. The lord’s own subordinates, along with the entire investigation team outside of Dr. Clairia, will be traveling with them.”
“But the escort party’s weapons…” Mile started.
“The guild lent them some free of charge. They might be returned once they get back.”
“Oh, I see…” Mile was relieved at the guild master’s reply.
To prevent the spread of information, it was reasonable to take the rescued hunters along as both witnesses and guards. Plus, this would help the hunters, whose very livelihood was threatened without their gear. More likely than not, it had been ordered by the guild master, who would have considered that. Although having to return the weapons once they came back was probably quite the bummer.
“Should you make an enemy of the beastpeople, or should the beastpeople begin moving in any sort of organized fashion, and things go sour, there’s a chance relations between us will deteriorate as a whole. In the worst case, we may return to a state of public enmity with the beastpeople. You understand this, yes?”
The four of them nodded.
“We cannot prompt the lord of this region to make any careless decisions. Not without approval from the Crown… However, we also can’t afford to overlook the mysterious activities of these beastpeople who have invaded our territory. Bringing an envoy from the capital would be an empty gambit, and without knowing their intentions, there’s no telling what they will do next. Also…”
“Also?”
“The lord desires whatever treasures they may have unearthed.”
“Ah…”
The four understood exactly what was going on.
Chapter 32:

Once More in the Forest

“Our lord really isn’t such a bad person. Well, I suppose he is as prideful and self-important as any other noble, but he does value the safety of his people.”
As Mile listened to the guild master, she thought, What you’re saying is, he’s really just caring for his prized livestock. So they’ll grow up fat and healthy, and give him lots of milk.
Of course, she would never say such a thing out loud.
“For the sake of the management and development of these lands, as well as his own luxury, he is rather stin… gree… ambitious when it comes to money.”
The four girls were starting to suspect the guild master wasn’t so fond of the man.
“Anyway, you were personally requested for this job. You know where the beastmen are, you’ve already infiltrated and escaped the place, and even if you’re attacked, you have the strength to make it home alive.”
Receiving a personal job request from a lord was one of the highest honors a hunter could receive. It was a recognition of their abilities and a mark of confidence in their success. Only a personal request from the king or another member of the royal family would be a higher honor.
Had they been normal hunters, they would have been over the moon and accepted the job without a second thought.
However, they were not normal hunters.
“So, what does he want us to do?” Reina asked coldly.
“He wants you to confirm the status of the beastmen, confirm what they’re excavating, and, if possible, reclaim it.”
“…”
The four said nothing. Mile eventually broke the silence.
“Um, may I ask you something?”
“Sure,” the guild master replied.
“I think that counts as looting. Wouldn’t that make us thieves?”
“Uh…” The guild master stared dumbly. “Well, n-no, that land is part of our country’s territory, so…”
“But that doesn’t mean we control it, does it? It’s just part of the forest. And, generally, whatever someone harvests or hunts out there belongs to them, doesn’t it? In that case, whatever the beastmen find is theirs, and not ours, right?
“Obviously, kidnapping hunters is a criminal act, but until we get a missive from the capital, we can’t protest it or request that the parties at fault turn themselves over, can we? And other beastpeople doing some gathering isn’t a problem, is it? Wouldn’t pillaging their site be a criminal act on our part?”“…”
Stealing underground resources of another country on your own country’s orders would be an enormous problem, perhaps even a diplomatic conflict. However, there was little issue with a group of private citizens doing a bit of small-scale gathering or treasure hunting on their own in foreign lands. If such a thing were forbidden, then hunters—whose activities already blurred national lines—would never be able to make a career.
While the beastmen had in fact started some kind of large-scale operation, they were “digging in order to find something,” and that didn’t count as a large-scale mining operation for resources. Therefore, if they were to seize whatever (probably minuscule) materials the beastpeople ended up uncovering, then who was the real villain here?
“I-I suppose that’s true…” Having this pointed out, the guild master’s words suddenly left a bad taste in his mouth.
“Mind if we discuss this amongst ourselves?” asked Mile.
The guild master gave his consent, and the four girls moved to the adjoining conference room.

Several minutes later, they returned, once again taking their seats in the guild master’s office.
“We discussed it, and we’ve decided to take the job,” said Mile.
The guild master looked relieved. Turning down a personal request from a lord was unheard of. This branch would become the laughing stock of the hunter’s guild, never mind the blow to the lord’s reputation and temper. Rumors about the “incompetent and unreliable branch that couldn’t even convince a group of rookie hunters to take on a lord’s personal request” would begin to spread far and wide, from the capital to the farthest reaches of the land.
“However, as long as there is no sufficient reason to do so, we will not reclaim the item. The original request was phrased ‘should the possibility arise,’ so I don’t believe that will be an issue.”
What counted as “sufficient reason,” the four had decided, was if the object turned out to be something dangerous or something they couldn’t allow to be handed over to the beastmen or their allies.
Mile, of course, had read plenty of fantasy novels and had already taken into consideration that such tropes as that they might be digging in the hopes of “reviving a demon king” or “breaking the seal on the prison of an evil god.” Of course, so had Mavis, Reina, and Pauline, since they had listened to Mile’s strange tales for nearly a year.
Part of the reason they decided to take the job was the points a personal request from a lord would net them. It was too tempting for their eventual B-rank promotion and would be a huge boost to their reputation, besides. But mostly, they were worried. If they refused the job, it would be given to some other party, and that party might go missing again or come to blows with the beastmen. Which could easily blow up into a huge incident.
Plus, they were keen to retrieve the other hunters’ confiscated gear and return it to them.
Were they being too kind? Or were they underestimating the job?
Well, that was just the way the Crimson Vow was.
“Y-yeah, of course, that’s not a problem. I mean, I’m sure our lord didn’t really think four little girl rookie hunters would be capable of stealing back any treasure in the first place. That’s probably why it came with the provision of, ‘should the opportunity arise.’”
The guild master was relieved the negotiations were settled, but he suddenly realized he had neglected one last important detail.
“Oh, by the way, Dr. Clairia will be accompanying you, so I’ll also have to ask you to put your all into guarding her.”
“Wh-what the heck?! You didn’t say anything about that!” Reina raged.
Her three companions were completely calm. They had already figured that out. Why else would Dr. Clairia not return to the capital and in fact be sitting in the room right now? Unfortunately, Reina was the only one who had yet to figure it out.
There was nothing strange about a scholar accompanying them to investigate a dig site and an artifact, after all. It was, however, perhaps not the best idea to expose Dr. Clairia—an elf, a scholar, and more than likely a person of note—to such danger. Given that she had been part of the initial investigation team, though, she was probably more concerned with investigation and research than with the dangers that might accompany them.
“The lord will also be sending out some reinforcements, though it seems like that’s still in the works. They’ll probably be heading out after you’ve already left.”
There was no way of knowing if these men were actual reinforcements or observers, making sure the Crimson Vow didn’t make off with any treasure. The words “barrier troops” floated through their minds.
“I guess that might be useful. So, how many troops is he sending out?” asked Reina.
The guild master answered, sourly, “One.”
“What?!”
“You heard me. Just one.”
That settled it. This person would be there as a watchman. They might get in the way, but they probably wouldn’t be very useful.
If anything happened to the Crimson Vow, they probably wouldn’t even step in to help, merely reporting what had happened to the lord. The girls would far prefer if they weren’t around.
The four of them thought the same thing at once: Let’s lose ’em.

Afterwards, they tossed a few ideas around and finally settled on leaving immediately. They had hoped to take a day to relax, but now, time was of the essence.
By now, thanks to the mage, several of the beastmen were probably recovered enough for combat, even if they weren’t yet fully healed. They most certainly had sent word back to the dig site. The dig site, meanwhile, was probably shorthanded and vulnerable. Perhaps they were panicking, since they had learned their allies were crippled out in the woods. They might be hurrying to form a rescue team. The Crimson Vow weren’t foolish enough to overlook such important factors, especially when planning an infiltration.
Dr. Clairia had anticipated this as well and finished her preparations the night before.
The Crimson Vow, of course, were always ready to leave at a moment’s notice, thanks to Mile and her “storage.” Since they had intended to head straight to the capital anyway, they were already checked out of the inn.
“Well then, let’s get going!” Reina cried.
“All right!!!” the three companions answered.
Dr. Clairia was just a second behind. “All right!”

“Mavis, here.”
A short while after they left town, Mile gently stretched her hand out to Mavis.
“Are these…?”
“Supplements to the other ones. Just in case. If you use them, I can resupply you with more, so please don’t hesitate. If you don’t try it at least once, you’ll be going in blind when the time comes.”
“Got it. I’m glad to do so, thank you.”
Mavis pulled three of the mysterious little capsules out of the container and placed them in her pocket. She now had five in total.
If she didn’t hurry up and try them out soon, Mile would keep offering her more. Soon, her pockets would be bulging. The premonition hung clearly in Mavis’s mind.

***

As was now the norm, Mile and the others skipped over the village on the outskirts of the forest. Thanks to the guidance of Dr. Clairia, who was skilled at moving through the woods, they kept up a brisk pace, traveling much quicker than they had during their escape.
Evening came quickly, the light growing dim within the forest. Once more, Mile attached wood blocks, painted with her humble “magical luminescent material” to each of their backs.
They moved in single file, what in another life Mile would have called a “Jet Stream Attack.” Of course, no one would be vaulting off anyone else’s head.
Mile, with her sharp night vision, was at the head of the line. Reina, Dr. Clairia, Pauline, and Mavis followed, in that order. Naturally, Clairia, their VIP, was dead center with Pauline, who had the most limited close-range abilities as well as ever-important healing magic. Mavis, of course, was at the tail, prepared to take on anything that might come from the rear. Mages were weak against surprise attacks, after all.
“If they were quick, the messenger will have arrived at the dig site right around now,” Mile calculated. “Or not, if they left only a little while ago…”
Considering the physical capabilities and forest-dwelling experience of beastmen, if a messenger moved at top speeds, he could make it to the excavation site within a day. But really, it all came down to that mage’s magical recovery speed, his healing capabilities, and whether the leader would favor sending word over the well-being of the team.
“Let’s take a detour,” Mile said. “If we keep heading straight toward the excavation site, we might run into that team or even a rescue unit. I’d rather avoid that. And there’s one other place I would very much like to avoid…”
The Crimson Vow didn’t know what other place Mile referred to, but because it was Mile who was saying so, they consented without much question.

“…Erk!”
It had only been a day since they entered the forest. They were very near the dig site, when suddenly, Dr. Clairia stopped in place. She covered her nose and mouth.
“What’s wrong? Oh no, elves have a sharper sense of smell than humans, don’t they? Everyone, change course immediately! This is ‘the forbidden place!’”
“I suspected something like this,” Reina said wearily. “When you had us take that early break so close to that pile of dung, and the beastmen chasing us ended up being much slower than expected…”
Pauline and Mavis nodded in agreement.
Even though they had already changed course quite a bit, the smell ranged so far that they had to detour even further. Mile had had in mind that the place might become something of a safe zone—somewhere no monsters or wild animals might wander into—but it had already become so toxic no one could possibly take refuge in it.
The beastmen would most likely detour around the opposite side of the area. Given the sensitivity of their noses, the team with the broken bones would probably take an even bigger detour than the girls. There was no sign of them passing through, such as broken branches, bent grass, or footprints. So they were very certain they would pass through on the other side.
Now a day and a half since leaving the capital—and a full day since entering the forest proper—the Crimson Vow and Dr. Clairia made it safely to the excavation site. There wasn’t a beastman in sight.
“We’ve been powering through for a day and a half with only a short break. Let’s take it easy and get some rest tonight,” Reina said.
With nothing pinged through Mile’s detection magic, they all nodded. It was already growing dark around them.
Mile picked a level patch of grass and pulled a tent from her inventory. Not a folded tent, but an already assembled one. It was an idea that had occurred to her two nights ago. Why waste time assembling and dissembling the tent when she could stash it fully assembled? So the morning before last, when they were packing to go, she put the tent away without folding it, when the others weren’t looking.
The sight stopped Dr. Clairia in her tracks. “Wh…?”
The other three paid it no mind, going about their tasks of staking the tent’s four corners and digging a drainage ditch around their camp site as though nothing had happened. Even if the weather deteriorated quickly, it was unlikely they would be rained on very hard, given the thick canopy, but it was better to be prepared. That was the secret to a long and healthy life.
“Wh-why wasn’t it folded up?!” Dr. Clairia demanded.
“Hm? I mean, it’s annoying to have to fold it down and pitch it every single time. It’s a waste of time, don’t you think?”
Dr. Clairia was dumbfounded.
Typically, the storage capacity of a mage’s storage magic was limited by weight and volume. No matter how light an object was, if it had a large volume then the storage space would reach capacity much quicker. If an object was compact but dense, storage would be pushed to its limits all the same. The limit was decided by a combination of these factors, not separately.
It was standard practice to store only objects that were as small and light as possible in storage. Even when within the limits, the more a mage stored, the more magical energy and mental stamina it took to maintain the magic.
And yet, this little girl had decided to skimp on the paltry amount of time it would take to fold and set up a tent—which would reduce its volume greatly—and simply stored it as is.
Just how much magical power did she have?! What intense levels of unconscious control went on in that tiny skull?!
Granted, the items she produced during their escape, such as fruit and vegetables that appeared to be fresh from the market and orc meat that appeared recently butchered, were already quite peculiar.
And there was the matter of the wooden weapons she had suddenly offered the group, the fact she could see in the dark, and her shining wood blocks. She also had the physical strength to ward off a dozen beastmen as though they were nothing…
Clairia’s elven intuition gave her the sense Mile was also an elf, just like her. Even if told otherwise, Clairia couldn’t help but feel she was unarguably elf-like.
Part of the reason the scholar had come along with the Crimson Vow was that she had a scholarly interest in finding out what the beastmen were up to and seeing for herself what they might excavate. However, since their escape, the professor had found herself inexorably drawn to the girl, transfixed by her mysterious appeal. Thus, she had taken on this dangerous job for the sole purpose of solving the mystery that was Mile.
It was against the hunter’s code to ask about the past and abilities of another hunter. Dr. Clairia was aware of this, so she restrained herself from asking directly.
However, it still concerned her. It bothered her. Oh, how it bothered her. She was about ready to burst!
“Aaaaaaarrrgh!!!”
“Wh-whatever is the matter, Doctor?!” Mile rushed over at Clairia’s sudden scream.
“N-nothing at all!”
She feigned serenity, glaring at Mile all the while.

Mile stretched a cord around the outside of the tent and then fastened pieces of metal and wood to each section in pairs of two. These were “alarm clappers.”
Until now, whenever they slept outdoors together, Mile had erected a barrier or used her surveillance magic. However, if she became negligent, or moved away from the others, then things could go south. Realizing this, Mile concocted an alarm system that would be effective even without her.
Plus, they had Dr. Clairia with them. She couldn’t use such alarming magic in front of the professor, Mile concluded.

Because they had had nothing to eat but preserved rations nibbled during their short breaks, dinner that evening was a proper meal with a number of peculiarly fresh ingredients from Mile’s inventory.
Dr. Clairia was concerned as to whether it was safe to cook so close to the beastpeople’s site, but Mile reassured her.
“I take care to draw in and contain smoke and scent particles with magic, so it should be fine. Look, this is what they look like all gathered up.”
“…”
Mile pointed towards a strange, blackish blob, as Clairia stared in awed silence.

“Time for tonight’s Japanese Folktale!”
Just as it always was on the days when they needed to sleep early.
“…And so, the thief, having felled the evil count, left the princess, the old man, and the faithful dog behind. Afterwards, a guard came rushing to the scene of the crime and said to the princess, ‘That rascal has stolen something inconceivable… Your underwear!’”
Pfft!
The other girls of the Crimson Vow listened gleefully, but Dr. Clairia sprayed the soup she had been sipping from her nose and mouth. Nostrils stinging terribly, she collapsed in a heap.

Average 4.4

However, a singular sentiment rang in everyone’s hearts:
It sure didn’t sound that way!!!
The beastmen, meanwhile, were pale and trembling.
“Truthfully, I’d like to take along two or three of them,” said the escort leader, looking the beastmen’s way. “However, if a rescue team comes after them, and they think humans took their allies captive, it’s gonna start a big hubbub among the beastpeople.”
“You all get that too, don’t you?” he continued, glaring at the beastmen. “After we’ve worked so hard to make peace between humans and beastpeople, this might start conflict all over again! If it does, a lot of folks will die. Hundreds, thousands of people. Women and children. And it’ll be all your faults! That’s right, you’ll be killers of humans and beastpeople, women and children! Is that what you’re after, you warmongering idiots?!”
Beastpeople’s expressions were difficult to read, but in this case their feelings were perfectly clear. They were stunned, confused, guilty, and a bit offended.
“You’re wrong! We would never want to do anything like,” a young beastman started, but their leader cut across him.
“Shut up,” he snapped. “Don’t say another word! I order you as your commander. From now on, no one speaks to the humans without my permission or the elder’s!”
Naturally, the clan elder would only get involved if the leader didn’t make it home alive. If he didn’t, his subordinates wouldn’t talk to humans for the rest of their lives. Thus was the authority of their leader’s commands when they operated as a team or pack. As long as that authority extended to the elder, even if they returned and found their elder deceased, they would simply wait until a successor was named and freed them from the leader’s order.
Even if their entire clan was annihilated, they wouldn’t be free from the order. Not unless they integrated with another clan and that clan’s elder released them from the order. The binding effect of the leader’s words was that strong.
“Ah…” The leader of the escort hunters slumped in disappointment.
“It’s no use. These guys aren’t gonna say another word,” Reina said. “Even if we torture them, once it gets to be too much, they’ll probably kill themselves.”
“Whaaat?! Are you serious?!”
“There’s nothing we can do. That’s just how beastpeople are!” As much as Reina might protest, this didn’t seem like it would pan out in their favor.
“Let’s leave ’em all here,” said the escort leader.
“Whaaaaaaaat?!?!” The Crimson Vow were floored.
They had gone through the trouble of capturing them, and they were a valuable source of information. It was obvious they should take at least two or three of them back to the capital as prisoners. It might even have a favorable influence on their compensation.
“B-but why?! We should take some of them if we can. At the very least, one,” Pauline complained.
However, the leader would not budge.
“You’re saying you want to bring this whole bunch of uncooperative beastmen along all the way to the capital?” he asked. “That’s going to be a whole heap of trouble in and of itself, as I already said.”
“Because of rescuers, false accusations, or a dispute?” asked Mile.
“Yeah, exactly.” The leader nodded. “They aren’t going to say anything anyway. And if they kill themselves, who’s going to take responsibility? Will you?”
“Er…”
The Crimson Vow were out of arguments. They valued their own hides, after all, and couldn’t bear that responsibility.
“P-please wait a minute!” they said before separating themselves from the rest of the group. They launched into hushed conversation…

“Sorry to keep you all waiting!”
Several minutes had gone by. The Crimson Vow finally finished their conference and returned to the others.
“All right, we agree to leave all of the beastmen here, alive,” said Mile, representing the group.
A sense of relief rippled through the escorting hunters, Tiffy, the guild employee, and the beastmen. Apparently, their conversation had been a little concerning to the nine other hunters, as well as Dr. Clairia and her assistant.
“By the way, Mr. Beastman,” Mile stated, addressing their leader. The others were forbidden to speak, so she had no other option. “Am I right to believe you are as eager to avoid conflict as we are?”
The leader nodded.
“In that case, please vacate the dig site before any human troops arrive and put everything back in its place. The local lord might make a fuss about ‘trespassers’ in his territory, but that’s nothing to worry about. How soon do you think you’ll be able to pack up and leave?”
“…No idea.”
“Huh?” Mile was perplexed by the leader’s reply.
“Nothing we can do about it. If we find something, who knows how long they’ll want to keep searching. If we don’t find anything, who knows how long it’ll be before everyone finally gives up and leaves. Nothing’s been decided, either way, and we haven’t been given further instructions…”
“Ah…”
Perhaps because he understood Mile and the others wished to avoid conflict, the leader of the beastmen had let a bit of information slip, but it wasn’t much of a treat to hear.
“Guess there’s no choice. Reina, Pauline, I’ll leave the bone breaking to you.”
The two of them nodded and approached the restrained beastmen.
And then…
Snap!
“Gaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Snap!
“Gwaaaaah!!”
The task that Mile had requested was underway.
…Indeed, the “bone-breaking” task.
Primarily, their legs.
“Wh-wh-what are you doing?!?!” the beastmen’s leader screamed in panic.
A sense of calm had overtaken him when he saw a little girl of the same mind had taken charge. That calm had shattered when he saw an unthinkable deed being performed under that same little girl’s orders.
“Well, I did say ‘bone-breaking.’”
“N-not that! I mean, yes, that, but that’s not the point!!!”
Mile stared at him, not understanding his angle.
“Huh? Well, I figured,” she said as if this were all perfectly normal, “if you could get everyone to withdraw quickly, we would let you go back right away. But since that won’t be possible, then it makes sense to delay you from getting information to your allies for as long as possible. So I’m having them break your legs to slow you down.”
The beastmen looked aghast.
“Eek… St-sto…!”
Snap!
“Gaaaaaaah!”
In this world, there was a little thing called healing magic. If there weren’t, Mile wouldn’t have concocted such a ghoulish scheme. There were aftereffects to such injuries. If you were poor and had to recuperate on your own, a clean break or simple bone fracture came with a strong chance of recovery but not a guaranteed one. There could be lasting joint problems and the like. However, with recovery magic, there was almost no worry at all. And there was a mage amongst the beastmen.
Drag…
“Hm?”
Drag drag drag…
“Huhhhhh?”
As Mile grabbed the beastman mage by the collar, he screwed his eyes shut, sure his turn was next, and preparing himself for the pain. But when he had been dragged a short stretch away, he heard a suspicious phrase.
“Fire Wall.”
“Wh—?! Eddies of magic, surge forth and defend me! Magic Shield!’”
Hearing Mile let off an attack spell, skipping any incantation, the mage conjured a shield with a brief and hurried spell. This method prioritized speed over efficiency. Some mages could cast powerful spells silently or with no incantation at all, but that was too high a hurdle for this mage. So he put his all into this short incantation.
Because Mile had so leisurely cast her spell, the wall of flame was intercepted by the shield and didn’t reach the mage. However, it continued around him, forcing the mage to continue casting his spell. He would have to keep this up until Mile’s magic ran out, whenever that was…
Both the mage and his leader knew exactly what she was trying to do.
If the mage still had sufficient magical strength, he could use healing magic. And, if he did, he could channel all that strength into healing at least one of the beastmen and sending him off as a messenger. After that, the mage could rest a while and then heal the rest of his allies.
Even if a monster came their way, between the mage and whoever had been healed so far, they should be able to defend themselves. Plus, having one leg broken wasn’t enough to sap beastpeople of their battle strength.
It would only buy them a little time, but a little was better than nothing. It was best to delay the beastmen as long as possible.
It was for that reason Mile intended to drain the mage of all his magic.
“G-g-guhh…”
Mile drew her gaze away from the agonized mage to see Reina and Pauline had already finished off the rest of the beastmen. They grinned, looking incredibly pleased with themselves.
Incidentally, Mavis had refused to participate. She had protested, saying that for someone with aspirations of being a knight, harming an unresisting opponent was unspeakable. Reina had ended the matter with a simple “Oh, no worries,” and the matter was quickly settled before proceeding without her.
It would have been better to force Mavis to participate, in order to harden her heart, but Reina wasn’t ready to be that hard on her.

“Y-you ‘humans’…” the leader moaned bitterly.
The other beastmen were still forbidden to speak and couldn’t voice their complaints.
The way he said “humans” clearly implied he thought them more vicious than devils. Because no beastman would ever use “beast” as an insult.
“Since it’s just one of your legs, you should be better in no time, right?” Mile said. “The bone hasn’t broken the skin, so there won’t be any blood. As long as you don’t let anything know you’re injured, I don’t think any monsters would dare to come and attack this many of you. Now then, best of luck!”
After that, Mile pressed the others to make their preparations to depart, and soon after, the whole group left—leaving the twelve broken beastmen where they lay.
Of course, they didn’t forget to rescue the mage, who—his magic spent—was about to be consumed in flames, before they departed.
Nor did they forget to break one of his legs…

“…Damn those little devil girls!” the leader of the beastmen spat, although even he was aware that in this incident, they were the ones who were completely in the wrong.
They had willfully invaded human territory and begun an excavation without permission. On top of that, they had abducted and unlawfully held private citizens. Even those girls had only taken on the monumental task of finding and rescuing the investigation team, which the beastpeople had resisted with all their might. Just as the girls had said, they were behaving no differently from bandits.
Of course, they hadn’t had violent intentions and doing anything even remotely bandit-like to their captives was the furthest thing from their minds. However, that meant nothing to the captured humans. As far as they were concerned, the beastmen were as good as bandits.Indeed, if they were bandits, they wouldn’t be able to complain if the humans had decided to kill them. In fact, they should thank those girls for letting them off with a broken leg apiece.
There were also broken arms and ribs from being struck with the flat of a sword, but those were easily fixed with healing magic. So they couldn’t truly be angry about those injuries.
The beastmen’s intentions were to do nothing that would bring shame upon their kind, so they tried to do nothing that would harm their people’s pride. Or so the leader had said to his subordinates and tried to believe himself. In truth, he was conflicted.
There was a bigger problem at hand, though: They had failed and lost to four human girls who were barely even of age.
However, they had more pressing matters to consider for now.
“Bones, get as much rest as you can,” the leader commanded the mage. “You need to recover your magic as soon as possible. If you can’t use your healing magic, we’ll be screwed!”
“Y-yes, sir. Of course, sir,” the other replied.
The real problems would come after his magic had recovered.
Do I send whoever’s leg heals up first as the messenger? What if we’re attacked by monsters or wild animals? Can someone who can barely move make it through? I guess I could have the first few stay to defend the rest and send the fourth man… No, that will delay communication by a day. What should I do…?
Thanks to the girls, who had so conscientiously broken Bones’ leg as well, the men were not left in the unfortunate circumstance of having him be the only able body, forced to end him off with some remark like, “Don’t worry about us, just go and tell them ASAP!” It would have been a hard call and one the leader would have to make. But at least the option would have been there.
Even if he regretted it for the rest of his life…
Did they have that in mind when they broke Bones’ leg? So I wouldn’t have to be troubled by it…? No! That’s impossible! Little girls would never show beastmen such consideration. They just wanted to make sure all our legs were broken. There couldn’t be any other reason.
As he thought this, the leader was suddenly reminded of the somewhat-vapid little girl and her unhinged smile.
He couldn’t help but worry. Beastpeople were, by nature, captivated by the strong. And for the sake of their young, they harbored strong, protective instincts. It was only natural that he should feel concern for Mile and Reina.
For Mavis and Pauline? Adults could fend for themselves, so there was no point in worrying over anyone who had already chosen a companion.
Mile, of course, hadn’t thought about it either way.
When she had released the mage from the fire wall, she noticed there was a leg that hadn’t been broken and took care of it on reflex.
That was all there was to it.
Why did she break his leg?
Because it was there

4.5

Chapter 30:A Fearsome Fight!The Sunrise Battle

It was before sunrise, when the skies were still murky.

Mile had already woken everyone and prepared a hasty breakfast of hardtack, dried meat, and rehydrated soup. She now made preparations for their departure.

“They’re here,” she said quietly. “Twelve people behind us. It doesn’t seem they’ve actually spotted us yet.”

“How do you know?” asked the leader of the hunters.

“Are you going to violate the Hunters’ Code and ask about my skills?” Mile chided.

“Erk… S-sorry,” he apologized.

Unlike with Dragonbreath, whom they had previously been partnered, she had to be strict about these matters.

Well, with a party like the escorts of the investigation team, a bunch of serious sticklers who would take on such a tough and non-lucrative job like this, she had to be this way.

“We’ll have to defend ourselves. We’ll leave the direction of the investigation team and the other parties up to you. Please make sure no one is killed or carried off. Minor injuries are okay within reason,” said Reina.

“N-now just hang on! What the heck are you planning to do?! Besides, I should be the one to direct everyone,” the leader complained.

“And just what do you plan to do, when you don’t even have proper weapons?” Reina asked. “We accepted a job to locate and rescue the investigation team. Therefore, in order to save you all, we need to defeat these enemies. The job you took is to protect the scholars, isn’t it? So you need to stay behind and protect them.”

“Wh…” The leader, being treated so lightly by Reina, who was a child in his eyes, was dumbfounded.

She was right, however. There was no way wooden swords and spears would be reliable against enemies outfitted with metal weaponry. Fighting monsters would be one thing, but in a battle against beastmen, they would have to fend off attacks with all their might. A proper clash would see their wooden arms shattered into little pieces.

“Th-the two frontline fighters could lend us your swords…”

“You really think we’d hand over our beloved swords to strangers just before a big battle?!” Mavis raged.

“Guess you’re right…” the leader agreed, his shoulders slumped. Apparently, even he was aware of how ridiculous he sounded.

“Don’t need to worry so much. Just yesterday, we fought off eight of those beastmen on our own,” Pauline added.

“Wh-what?”

The leader’s eyes widened in disbelief. He had assumed the girls had managed to make it to the huts by slipping through the beastpeople’s surveillance network, managing not to run into any enemies along the way.

“We haven’t any time,” said Mile, interrupting. “If they spot us, they’ll try to surround us. We can assume they’ll want to capture every one of us, to keep any information from getting out. It’s too late for us to run now, so we’ll stand here and face them.”

“Understood.”

There was no more time to stand around and talk. The leader gave a reluctant nod.

***

“There they are! It looks like they’re already awake and on the move.”

“I see…”

The humans had been moving more quickly than expected, so despite hurrying along, the beastmen had yet to catch up with the escapees. However, the interception team still overtook them before they could leave the forest.

For a short while, there had been signs they were drawing near. They had assumed, should all go well, that they would strike while their enemies were still sleeping. But the humans had awoken before dawn and were already making preparations.

Granted, attacking their enemies in their sleep wasn’t a tactic the proud beastmen preferred. However, this wasn’t an ordinary fight. They were recapturing escaped prisoners and would use any means necessary to secure them. For the sake of their allies back at the dig site, they couldn’t allow the humans to get away.

As their opponents were unarmed, this wasn’t much of a ‘battle,’ anyway, but more of a ‘capture.’ Attacking them by surprise this time would help ensure no one on the other side was injured, and therefore it need not be a blow to the beastmen’s pride.

That was how the second retrieval team had been made to understand it. Their leader, to assuage their anxieties, had explained it simply: “We beastmen are a proud race. If we ever sully the names of our people, our families, or ourselves—if we bring shame upon them—this sin can be cleansed only by death. Wouldn’t a sneak attack be disgraceful for proud soldiers such as we?”

However, as they weren’t able use the sneak attack after all, such concerns of honor ended up moot. They shook their heads at themselves.

Even so, the situation wasn’t problematic yet. They faced eighteen unarmed humans, with non-combatants in their midst. Even if several rescuers arrived, there was no way normal humans could stand up to beastmen in serious combat.

Believing this, the leader—relieved they had caught up—didn’t doubt their success.

“Okay boys, surround ’em. Once we have, we’ll close the perimeter. When they spot us, we’ll show ourselves as one and demand their surrender.”

Even if the humans intended to fight, seeing they had been discovered and surrounded should be enough to make them surrender. They should know that no harm would come to them even if they were captured and that they would be released as soon as the beastmen were finished with their business. They had told the humans so over and over. Given the kind treatment they had been shown until now, hopefully they believed it.

Therefore, he couldn’t imagine them resisting to the death, not without any arms.

And indeed, his assumption was correct.

At least, until the Crimson Vow arrived…

***

“There they are!”

Mavis’s shout put everyone on edge. Tension flooded the hands that gripped various weapons.

The Crimson Vow had expected pursuers, but not only twelve of them. They thought there would be at least a few more. However, they couldn’t have predicted the eight men from their first encounter would withhold information about the girls’ strength to save face. And Mile was the only one who knew about the trap. This was a surprise, but it wasn’t exactly going to be a problem for them.

Once they realized the escapees had spotted them, the beastmen jumped into view. Encircling the group, they began to close in. Before the escapees, who stood with their backs to a large tree, were four young girls the men didn’t recognize. They were positioned as if to protect the others.

Are they the ones who came to rescue the prisoners? Four little girls… Are they the all-female party the interception team spoke of the other day? The ones they chased away?! Those idiots! They were followed!

The leader now understood how the prisoners had escaped. However, now wasn’t the time to stop and ponder this.

“As you can see, you are surrounded. Surrender. Don’t do anything stupid. The only ones with proper weapons are those two young ladies in front, so there’s nothing you can do. We don’t intend to hurt you, do you understand?”

The leader was a bit rattled to see the escapees all outfitted with what were most assuredly ‘weapons,’ wooden though they may be, but he didn’t allow it to show on his face. That was the most basic tenet of negotiation.

However, the Crimson Vow stood firm.

“Why should we listen to a bunch of bandits and turn ourselves over? You think we’re stupid?”

“What?! We aren’t bandits!” the leader of the beastmen shouted indignantly. Reina was undeterred.

“You attacked this group in the middle of the woods, took their weapons and belongings, and locked them up! If that’s not the work of bandits, then what is? Are you criminals, or is banditry normal for beastpeople? If that’s the case, we need to let the capital know so word can get around. As long as people are properly aware of your customs, then such misunderstandings can be avoided in the future. Would you mind telling us your names? We need to share the names of the brave beastmen who provided this valuable information, after all!”

“Wh-wh-wha…” Reina’s over-the-top proposal left the leader speechless.

If those kinds of rumors got around, the beastmen’s reputation would be ground into the dirt. And with their names attached, they and all of their kin would be barred from living in their villages again.

However, what the girl said wasn’t entirely wrong. At this rate, the good name of beastpeople was going to be sullied, all because of them.

The only thing they could do now was capture everyone present and take them back to camp. Then they would return the humans’ belongings upon releasing them, telling them the truth of the situation when they did so as to clear up any misunderstandings.

“…Guess we got no choice. We didn’t wanna get rough with you, but if that’s how you’re gonna be, then we’ll have to show you our true strength!”

“Oh, your true strength?” Reina was grinning.

Seeing this, the leader commanded in a sharp voice, “Attack!”

The beastmen harbored no ill intent toward the humans, and in fact, upon first capturing the investigation team and the hunters, they had taken care not to harm anyone.

Fighting against someone you knew had no intent to kill or injure gave you an advantageous position in battle. The Crimson Vow had discussed just such advantage before the beastmen arrived. Therefore, the four girls decided to hold back a bit, as well.

Save for Pauline.

“Ultra Hot Shower!!!”

Fwshhhhhh!

A garishly crimson liquid rained down on the three beastmen facing Pauline.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

For the beastmen, with their sharp senses of smell and sight, this was incredibly, incredibly, incredibly painful…

Two of them were rolling around on the ground. And the third? He fainted immediately.

A fourth of the recovery team was out already.

12 ÷ 4 = 3

Pauline’s work was done. However, she already had her next spell ready. Just in case.

“True Godspeed Blade, 1.4 Speed!!!”

Beastpeople were faster and stronger than humans. If Mavis didn’t go full force from the very start, fighting against even one of them would be a trial; challenging three could mean instant death.

However, beastpeople weren’t too much faster than humans. Up against a human with sufficient training, the difference was small, at best.

Of course in the heat of battle, that small difference could make or break you.

However, Mavis was equipped with the True Godspeed Blade.

She might not be able to cross swords with three beastmen using the normal Godspeed Blade she acquired through her own hard work, but with the True Godspeed Blade—obtained through body-strengthening magic—she became a self-styled 1.4 times faster. (It was, actually, about 1.3 times her usual speed, and perhaps only somewhere between 1.15 and 1.2 times faster than the average A-rank hunter.) Mavis already had a lot of potential, but with this she became a formidable force.

However, this didn’t mean Mavis could win against an A-rank hunter. Factor in differences in skill, experience, tactics, and stamina, and such a thing was out of the question. But fighting beastmen, who preferred to rely on strength and loathed technique, she had a good chance of an even match.

And of course, there was a difference in their weapons.

The beastmen carried machetes, hatchets, and other things not designed for battle. Compared to Mavis’s short sword, which had far better reach and speed for swing, they were at a distinct disadvantage.

Above all else, Mavis was a swordswoman who practiced on a regular basis, and she fought with civilians at her back. For someone who aimed to be a knight, no one—no matter how skilled or how physically fit—could beat her spirit.

With a roar, she dashed forward.

Introducing a great deal of force stiffened the sinews and forced one’s speed to drop. She dropped a bit of her strength, to move at 100 percent speed!

She was up against machetes and hatchets, but Mavis, who knew which way the blades were going to move, had absolute faith in her beloved, unbreakable sword.

She moved a split-second faster than her enemy could read and prepare for. Their blades clashed at an odd angle, such that if her timing had been off, her weapon could have been thrown back or struck from her hands. Mavis turned the sword ninety degrees and struck it hard into her enemy’s guts.

Being that it was a double-edged blade, there was no point in striking with the back of the sword. They would have died.

“Gwah!”

“Urk!”

Two of the beastmen fell to the ground. The third stood and stared, his eyes wide in disbelief.

Reina, on the other hand, had begun the fight at a disadvantage.

Because she had been speaking to the leader until the fight began, she hadn’t had a chance to prepare a spell ahead of time.

By all measures, fighting in melee range against enemies who were quick and skilled in close-range combat, without any prior preparation, was a situation most mages hoped to avoid at all costs.

And yet…

“Guh!” The beastman who tried to rush her met the pointed end of a staff to the gut. He was almost immediately immobilized.

“Wh…”

Of the three beastmen facing her, two now remained, the undeserved grins upon their faces twitching.

One of them alone should have been enough to take an unprepared mage; a small human girl, no less. Or so the two had assumed, leading them to hang back casually. Now, they tried to quickly summon their strength, but it was already too late. While Reina swung her staff at the first beastman, she had been chanting a spell. Now that relatively short incantation was complete.

“Hot Inferno!”

A mild whirlwind whipped up, swirling gently around the beastmen. The air turned a little reddish.

“Gyeeeeeeee!!!”

The three beastmen, including the one who had already fallen, rolled on the ground, clawing at their throats. Tears streamed from their tightly shut eyes, and snot dripped from their noses.

At least for now, Reina remembered to use non-lethal magic. As she said to Mile and Pauline:

“As long as it’s non-lethal, it doesn’t matter if allies or other bystanders catch friendly fire. It uses up less magical energy than any large-scale flame spell.”

Upon hearing this from her, Mavis had sputtered in disbelief, but Pauline nodded in agreement. Amazing, non-lethal magic! Mile had initially thought. Something someone cool like ‘Stern the Destroyer’ would use…

But not Starlight Breaker, absolutely not! If she used that, someone would definitely die!

She had elected not to teach that to Reina. Even Mile had some common sense, now and then.

The beastmen’s leader was part of the trio facing Mile.

Normally, the leader, the strongest of their group, would go up against Mavis, seemingly the strongest of the Crimson Vow and a swordswoman. That was what Mile assumed, but perhaps thanks to his instincts, the leader realized Mile was the strongest of the four. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t know just how strong she was.

Just as Mile moved to deflect his knife, a ball of flame flew toward her from behind him.

“A-an attack spell?”

Magic was a weak point for most beastpeople, whose power lacked in comparison to humans. However, that was only true for the majority of beastpeople. There were many who couldn’t use magic at all, and many whose limited magic was far weaker than the average human’s. However, among them also existed those whose magic was as strong, or stronger, than a human’s. That number just happened to be much lower.

That said, there were far fewer beastpeople than humans to begin with, so the observation that “there are no beastpeople good with magic” was an understandable misrepresentation.

Naturally, those few beastpeople who did have strong magic were sent to the front lines.

The leader and the mage. The two strongest members of their team were both facing off against Mile. They must have had a very high opinion of her.

Mile, who had assumed beastmen couldn’t use magic, was thrown off by the sudden magical attack… not. As she swung her sword two-handed, she pulled her left hand away. She repelled the leader’s knife with her right hand alone and redirected the flame orb with the back of her left.

The flame orb shot straight into the gut of the third beastman, who had the misfortune of standing behind the leader.

“Wh…” The leader and the mage froze, watching as the orb blew their companion back.

Because it had been fired without intent to harm, it didn’t explode on impact. Instead it scattered, dissipating when it reached its intended target, its surface temperature low to begin with. What had sent the beastman flying back was half-shock, half-him trying to renegotiate his own stance. He hadn’t really taken much damage at all.

However, the mage was terribly shaken and unable to prepare his next spell. The leader stood stock-still as well, his blade still crossed against Mile’s.

“Hup!”

Mile pushed her sword forward, flinging the leader’s knife away. She struck him in the side with her sword.

The mage, who had returned to his senses, began to incant a spell but discarded it halfway. He realized what was going on around him. Mavis had felled her third opponent, leaving him and the relatively undamaged youth who had been thrown back by the repelled flame orb the only remaining combat-capable fighters.

The mage understood: Their chances of victory were now zero. If the two of them fell as well, it would spell doom for their companions.

It wasn’t as though the humans, who probably wished to leave, had gravely injured them. Yet, even if they just left them here, not killing them out of fear of war between humans and beastpeople, there was no telling how many days it would take them to get back to the worksite. Nor how many it would take before the others grew worried that they hadn’t returned and sent out a search party.

And there was no guarantee that such a prime target as a group of wounded beastmen wouldn’t be attacked by wild beasts or monsters in the meanwhile.

To avoid this, it was critical the two of them remain in good health. That way, he could send the youth back to the camp for aid, while he used every ounce of his power to heal and protect the injured from monsters, until help could arrive.

Of course, who knew if things would even proceed that well. Perhaps the humans didn’t care whether a war started and would try to kill them anyway. The beastmen were the first to attack, after all, so they could easily claim self-defense. There was a strong chance that the other beastmen, not wishing for a war with the humans, would retreat.

However, they were running out of options.

For now, only the mage and the youth were in any shape to talk. And since he outranked the youth, the mage was currently in charge.

So, the mage shouted, in a loud and determined voice, “We surrender! Please don’t kill us!”

“Now then, what shall we do? It would be too much work to bring all of them along,” Reina said, pondering.

“Wouldn’t it be better to kill them?” Pauline asked nonchalantly.

A shiver ran through the restrained beastmen.

Of course, she wasn’t being serious; she was bluffing so the men wouldn’t take them lightly. And to have a bit of fun, too.

“Please wait!” The hasty protest came not from the beastmen but from the leader of the escort hunters.

“That would be a mistake before we understand what the whole situation is,” the man said. “If this goes south, it could mean conflict with the beastpeople as a whole. Let’s try and handle this a little more gently.”

Apparently, he had thought his new allies were being serious.

“Hm, I wonder. Guess it depends if they answer us truthfully when we question them,” Reina said.

However, in spite of the ample threat Reina and Pauline represented, the beastmen’s lips were sealed. Despite lengthy questioning from a number of angles, they gave not a single answer, not for why they had captured the investigation team and the hunters, nor for what they were doing at that worksite.

Well, at any rate, it didn’t take a genius to figure out the beastmen had captured the humans to prevent them from finding out what they were doing at the site.

As they couldn’t rightly torture them, everyone was growing a bit frazzled. That was when Mile butted in.

“What exactly do you hope to do by excavating something like that after all this time? I’m sure it’s because those people asked you to, but you realize you’re only being used, don’t you?”

“What?! H-how do you know about it? And they would never—”

The youth fell straight into Mile’s trap.

“Y-you idiot! Quit talking!!” the leader screamed.

Mile grinned. She had confirmed nothing more than what Dr. Clairia had theorized, but that meant any information they did get would now be significantly more reliable. Their motives were still unclear, but at least now they were certain of the beastpeople’s goal.

“We aren’t going to get anything more out of them without torturing them,” said Mile.

“That’s true. Shall we kill them?” Reina asked lightly.

“Oi oi oi oi oi oi oi oi!!!”

As the group interjected, Reina scowled. “That was obviously a joke!”

Average 4.3

Chapter 29:
Demonic Deeds

Finally, the escape party was on the move again.

They had hoped to discuss a number of things on their break, but between everyone catching their breath, Mile’s errand, everyone choosing weapons, and settling the commotion that followed, there was no time left to consider anything further.

They couldn’t waste any more time and were likely to take more breaks anyway. They decided to talk more on their next rest. Carrying on heavy conversation while walking single file through the forest at night was beyond the abilities of most people anyway.

After they had walked for some time, Mile picked up a strange reaction on her radar.

Brown?

If it was someone peaceful, they were blue; if they were hostile, red. Those who were neither were yellow. Anyone between those categories showed up in varying shades of the colors. But a little way ahead of them, there was brown. Was it brown, or was it ochre? Either way, they were incredibly close.

The brownish marking was completely still, off to the side of their path. It was very near. And soon enough, she saw it.

The droppings of an enormous animal.

Apparently, the marking had been a warning against stepping, or rather, plunging into the pile. Pointless, but blessedly convenient.

Oh, that’s right!

As something flashed into Mile’s mind, she turned and indicated to the group behind her. “Watch out! There’s a big pile of poop over here. Anyway, let’s take another short rest up ahead.”

The others behind her passed through, cautious of the droppings, then walked ahead until they found an appropriate place for a break.

Mile stepped away, back to where she had been standing before.

“Now, if I make a thin container out of earth, and strengthen the outside of it with a magical coating, and put some of this dung inside…”

Naturally, she wouldn’t fill the vessel with dung by hand but with magic.

Then Mile did something particularly suspicious.

“The off-putting stench of a fart comes from proteins…gases like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, indole, skatole, volatile amines, and so forth. Or so I remember reading…”

She took some things from her inventory and placed them into the vessel, transforming and mixing them together with magic. Finally, she plopped a peculiar pebble down into it.

This pebble was Mile’s handcrafted Magic Pebble of Extended Radiation. “For twenty-four hours, or until the container is broken, continue to generate heat,” she instructed, which the nanomachines clinging to the pebble had no choice but to obey. However, the moment that the pebble was dropped into the vessel, they understood their fate.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!!

From somewhere, tiny screams could be heard.

After putting a lid on the vessel, she used magic to coat the outside, then carefully placed it in the crook of a tree. Then she took a white handkerchief from her pocket and tied it to the branch.

It was a roundabout sign but clearly visibly. Plus, it had Mile’s scent, so there was little chance the beastmen would miss it.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she called as she moved. “Now let’s get going again!”

Mile returned to the others, looking as though nothing at all were wrong. She took her place once again at the head of the line.

***

Around sunrise the next morning, a guard headed toward the prisoners’ hut to relieve the night watch. When he opened the door, however, he was greeted with an alarming sight.

The wooden lattice had been cut to pieces by something sharp edged. The fetters were shattered. The watchmen sat slumped in their chairs, unconscious. Worst of all, a large, semicircular hole had been ripped in the wall opposite the entrance.

“Th-they’ve escaped!!!”

The guard’s voice rang out across the camp.

***

“Damn it, this is why I said build a sounder structure!”

A recovery team was hastily thrown together. The man in charge grumbled as he ran.

All told, the fact he hadn’t grumbled “We should’ve just killed them” was probably proof these beastmen weren’t bad people. However, good or bad, a soldier on the battlefield never hesitated to kill his opponent. That was the only thing to do. “Good” and “evil” were relative concepts, a judgment based only on the number of living creatures in the world.

Well, no. No, perhaps there were even more things than that. Intelligent machines and other inscrutable creatures beyond the realm of the living…

There were twenty beastmen in the quickly assembled team.

Upon investigation, they realized the prisoners hadn’t retrieved their weapons, which meant the beastmen couldn’t fail—certainly not in a battle against empty-handed humans running through the forest. Ten of them alone could have easily apprehend the escapees, but there was a possibility others had come to their rescue. They had no way of knowing exactly how many rescuers there were or how many people in the forest. So for safety’s sake, they had formed a band of twenty.

Someone questioned whether this might be the work of the female hunters they had encountered at midday. But that was unfathomable. A group of young girls who had been scared off by them earlier, attempting such a rescue? Unthinkable. Admittedly, it was suspicious that the interception team had come back so injured and that they had scared the girls off but not captured them. But that wasn’t an issue, not in the grand scheme of things.

It wasn’t as though they had led the girls to the excavation site, or even let them know about its existence, after all. The girls met beastmen in the woods and ran home scared. That was all that happened. So long as the girls hadn’t been injured, it was fine. Besides, it was best not to take more unnecessary prisoners.

Or so the leader of the recovery team thought.

If no real problems arose, then the humans wouldn’t bother the beastmen. Their relationship wasn’t particularly good in the first place, but they managed to maintain something like peace. And surely, both sides would want to avoid any circumstances that could lead to war.

Should things between the beastmen and the humans turn sour, whoever was responsible would bear the brunt of the blame from their fellow humans. Acting rashly was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.

And so long as no one found out what they were doing…

They had to find those escaped humans.

If the humans learned about the captives they had taken, it was unlikely they would do anything right away. So the beastmen would have some time, but they needed to prepare to retreat at a moment’s notice. They could probably manage that in another ten days.

The humans, whose night vision was poor, couldn’t have gotten far in the middle of the night. Fatigue and diminished mental states would have slowed them down. Coupled with the brashness of the escape and their need for distance, by now they were sure to be exhausted and immobilized by injury. It was a truly foolish gambit.

The leader considered these things as he followed the forward scout. A young thing, he had been selected based on his sharp sense of smell and vision, as well as his natural powers of deduction. The scout came to a sudden halt. The leader stopped just in time, only narrowly avoiding crashing into him. The rest of the recovery team stopped as well, gathering around to see what was going on.

“What’s wrong?”

“Over there…”

They followed his pointing to a tree, where a white cloth was tied to a branch like a sign post; in the crook sat a pot-like container.

“What is that?”

“Who knows?”

There was no use in standing around pondering. Time was precious today. The longer they stood gaping at a tree, the further their targets got away.

That said, they couldn’t leave such a suspicious object alone.

“Did they think it would be too much of a hassle to transport that thing with them and left it there with a marker to retrieve later? They must have figured we wouldn’t be able to follow their tracks that well and wouldn’t come across it. Or else…”

It was a trap.

They halted in their tracks.

It could be a trap. But it might not be. There was no reason the humans would bother carrying such a heavy-looking, awkward thing. Come to think of it, why on earth would people who were part of an investigation team or a missing persons search party, who knew nothing about the beastpeople, carry such a thing?

“Do you think it’s something they found near the dig site? Something they wanted to take back with them? Wait. Is it, is it the thing that we’re…”

By now, they had all reached the same conclusion.

“We need to know! Be careful, take it down gently!”

At the leader’s direction, several young beastmen gathered around the tree. The moment they laid their fingers on the vessel, nestled in a crook about five feet off the ground, the vessel’s magical coating disintegrated.

Bang!

With an explosive sound, the vessel shattered. Its contents flew everywhere.

The vessel itself was made of nothing more than earth, and so it was very thin; the coating on the outside had been the only thing keeping it from self-destructing. Without it, the vessel would have long since shattered under the weight of its own contents before the heat and internal pressure could even rise to the appropriate levels.

The vessel itself posed little threat to the beastmen.

Its contents, however…

Flop.

Plop plop.

Several of the twenty silently fainted at once.

Some of them stood wide-eyed, foaming at the mouth. Others wet themselves in a fit of incontinence. And those who had the misfortune of getting it into their mouths…

Hurk!

Gaaaaaaah!

Many lost the contents of their stomachs. Others, try as they may to cover their noses and mouths, were struck with a severe bout of the runs as their minds went hazy.

“R-retreat! Grab the fallen and get out of here!” the leader directed, once he had vomited until there was nothing left but bile. “If we leave them here, they’ll die!!!” The beastmen who had wanted to run immediately mustered their self-restraint, rushing to their fallen allies’ sides and dragging them away.

The men who had been doused in the mysterious goop smelled horrendous. This was far beyond what the beastmen, with their sharp noses, could bear. They vomited as they carried their fallen comrades, their faces moist with snot and tears, doing their best to stay conscious. It wasn’t long before those carrying the fallen couldn’t bear it. They soon collapsed themselves.

“Take off your clothes! Breathe through your mouths and stay awake!”

The sooner they got their goop-soaked clothes off, the better. After that, they just had to get away as quickly as possible.

Tracking and capturing the humans as soon as possible? That was out of the question now. It would be several days before their sense of smell recovered, not to mention the exhaustion that came with vomiting and carrying their allies..

Fighting people? While they were so exhausted from puking that they could barely even stand straight?

“We need water, immediately,” the leader said. “We can get back to the dig site after that.” He pointed them in a new direction.

If they returned like this, everyone at the campsite would be ruined as well. That was how horrific the smell was.

The leader, face twisted in anguish, muttered. “This is the work of a demon…”

At that very moment, countless tiny beings—invisible to the human eye—who had been thrown from the exploded vessel, flew at top speed to the nearest water source, wailing all the way.

***

The recovery party returned to camp after midday. The remaining beastpeople refused to let them approach the huts, so after putting a fair bit of distance between them, the recovery party shouted their report. After hearing this, the commander of the beastmen assembled a new team.

If their enemy was going to employ such dirty tactics, they weren’t going to fight them fair and square. The second group, an interception team, was a group of twelve, selected for their agility.

At least, that was what the commander would say if anyone were to question him. In truth, while they assumed the strength of the escapees to be low, they just couldn’t afford to spare any more fighters. Certainly not if they all came back like this.

Several of them had returned the day before with a startling number of injuries. Now, twenty more men were out of commission. Excluding those with more specialized skill sets and jobs—such as lookouts, scouts, and camp guards when things were dire—most of the residents were laborers or support workers. Their fighting forces came from a very shallow, very limited, pool, indeed.

It was unthinkable to send out laborers, women, or youths who had been brought along for miscellaneous tasks. No matter how weak their enemies might be, they couldn’t take such a risk.

Plus, the proud beastmen would never send all the able-bodied young workers away and leave the older, the injured, and the women to fend for themselves. To do such a thing would be a failing for their race, and that wasn’t something they could even consider.

It would probably take the half-blind, fragile humans—who were also dragging along non-hunters—two days to make it through the forest. Half a day had already passed since they fled. However, if a small group of beastmen went after them at full clip, they could overtake the humans without much difficulty. The humans would have to sleep eventually; otherwise, they wouldn’t have the strength to go on. The beastmen had gotten a full night’s rest, and could easily go a day and a half without sleeping. A few short breaks were enough for them.

With all this in mind, the commander sent out the new team—after being pressed again and again by the first team about the “place they must absolutely avoid.”

“It’s coming up soon. Take caution… Gwah!”

Just as the leader of the second recovery team issued a warning, they neared it.

“Evade! Take a wide detour!”

A faint, distant whiff of the stench, carried on the wind, was enough to make him gag.

Edging away from the smell and the feeling of nausea, the leader redirected the group, giving the location a huge berth. It was some time before he picked up the escaped humans’ smell again.

***

Though the first couple of breaks were taken up by everyone catching their breath—and Mile enacting her plan—during the breaks afterward, the Crimson Vow was finally able to gather some information from the former captives.

It was difficult to move well at night, so they took most of their breaks then. If they let fatigue undermine them—if any of them ended up injured—their progress would be even slower. So, when they stopped for a longer rest, Mile brought out easily-digestible food and water from her inventory to pass around. They enjoyed a light meal and conference.

Tiffy, the guild employee, did most of the explaining. According to her, the local lord had offered a pittance to have a team investigate the strange happenings in the forest. The team was put together, comprised of Dr. Clairia, a specialist in forest ecology; her assistant, who had been invited from the royal capital; a handful of hunters as escorts; and Tiffy, the guild employee.

Though the lord was funding it, gathering the team had been a guild undertaking. One that had been thrust on it. Tiffy insinuated it hadn’t been so much leaving things to the guild’s discretion as shoving the responsibility onto it, in the event things went awry. However, this didn’t matter to the Crimson Vow.

Additionally, it was out of concern for Dr. Clairia, the only woman in the group, that Tiffy had volunteered to accompany them. Of course, the Crimson Vow had already heard as much from the guild master.

“And then, while we were in the middle of our investigation, we were surrounded by a large group of beastmen and captured.”

“…” The four girls silently listened to Tiffy’s story.

“And… that’s all.”

“Huh?!”

“That’s it. That’s how things ended up this way.”

“Too short! That explanation was way too short!!!” the four cut in, well trained now by Mile.

“Wh-what is it with these beastmen?! What are they doing out there?!” Reina prodded further.

Indeed, this wasn’t something that could go unaddressed.

“Ah, it seems they’re searching for something, although we never managed to ask them directly. We just overheard bits and pieces of their conversations.”

What good is thaaat?!?! As a crestfallen air fell over the Crimson Vow, a voice spoke up from behind them.

“They appear to be excavating something,” Dr. Clairia explained. “I don’t believe they’re digging for ore, but perhaps an artifact in some ruins… However, I don’t think they’ve discovered anything, and they don’t seem confident that the item they’re after is there at all. They believe it might be there. Their target is apparently an incredibly classified item, so much so they aren’t entirely sure what it is. They were likely hired by someone else, who entrusted them to work the site.”

Mile nodded in agreement. “This is all so secretive,” she noted, “but it seems like you found out a lot about it, Doctor.”

The scholar looked triumphant.

“I used a special technique handed down amongst elves for dealing with humans and beastmen.”

“Wow, that’s awesome! What kind of technique is it?”

Perhaps because she couldn’t bear to be cruel to Mile, who looked at her with sparkling, expectant eyes, or perhaps because she wanted to brag a bit, Clairia gloated as she explained.

“Here’s what you do. First you put your hands together and place them under your chin. Then you wet your eyes and say the following: ‘I’m boooored. Will you tell me a story, Mister?’”

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

Because Clairia was an elf, she appeared no more than fifteen or sixteen. In truth, she was much, much…

They’re terrifying! Elves are terrifying!

All the men in the group suddenly trembled in fear.

Elves in this world didn’t have long ears that grew out to the sides like the ones in Japanese manga. The ones with the pointiest ears might look like someone from the fabled planet Vulcan at best, and there were even those whose ears were barely any more pointed than a human’s. And so, there were plenty of cases where, if their ears were covered with their hair, you couldn’t even tell.

There was no doubt the beastmen would have thought Clairia to be another rookie hunter or something. Just like Mile and the others had.

Unlike the commander of the beastmen, Mile estimated it would take their party about a day and a half to reach the village on the outskirts of the forest. Such calculations were often her strong point, so long as no human factors got involved.

The commander couldn’t help making such a mistake in his estimation. There was no way he could know the escapees were led by someone with sharper night vision than a beastperson, or that they had more than enough food and water without having to carry it themselves, or that they used luminescent markings to follow each other and never get lost.

Plus, when Mile confirmed things with Dr. Clairia, her assistant, and Tiffy, the guild employee—all assumed to be the cause of any delays—the following transpired:

“Are you underestimating elves? Who live in the woods?” Dr. Clairia demanded.

“Do you know what it means to assist a professor who’s always pursuing field work?” her assistant asked.

“You know I’m an employee of the guild, right? And moreover, just who my father is? Oh, and that I’m a C-rank hunter?” Tiffy challenged.

Naturally, the ‘what’ referred to his position as the guild master…

After some thinking, Mile deemed it difficult for the escapees, who, on top of being exhausted from their imprisonment, had made their escape in the dead of night, to make it all the way to the village on only a series of short rests that were little more than a breather. Even if they could stay awake the whole time, their fatigue would only grow. Their attention wavering, people would begin stumbling and probably eventually sprain something. If that happened, their rate of travel would decrease immensely.

They had no choice but to stop for several hours, have a bit of food, and get some real rest.

Should the beastmen find the trap and lose their sense of smell, and thus their tracking skills, they would have to return to the excavation to form a new team. They would lose about half a day. Even if the trap didn’t work that well, it would still take them several hours to fully recover their sense of smell.

In truth, the trap turned out to be far more effective than Mile imagined, but she had no way of knowing this.

In any case, for now, the escapees and the Crimson Vow had to put as much distance behind them as they could before their fatigue reached its peak. They had no other choice.

After walking through the night, and through to sunset the next day without the beastmen catching up, they finally stopped for a proper meal and a good, long sleep. The following day, they intended to leave as soon as it was light enough to do so. They would ignore the village on the outskirts of the forest and head for the regional capital, where they should arrive by dusk.

The way things stood, the village wasn’t safe for them, not while so many beastmen roamed the forest. Rather than put the villagers in danger, it was much better for them to go straight to the capital.

The former captives ate their fill of their first hot meal in some time and then laid down to sleep. All except for Mile, who had been casually pulling food, folded tents, blankets, and such from her inventory. And the loli-grandma—that is, Clairia—who stared at the half-eaten food left on the dishes and noticed how fresh all the vegetables and meat had been…

Chapter 30:
A Fearsome Fight!
The Sunrise Battle

It was before sunrise, when the skies were still murky.

Mile had already woken everyone and prepared a hasty breakfast of hardtack, dried meat, and rehydrated soup. She now made preparations for their departure.

“They’re here,” she said quietly. “Twelve people behind us. It doesn’t seem they’ve actually spotted us yet.”

“How do you know?” asked the leader of the hunters.

“Are you going to violate the Hunters’ Code and ask about my skills?” Mile chided.

“Erk… S-sorry,” he apologized.

Unlike with Dragonbreath, whom they had previously been partnered, she had to be strict about these matters.

Well, with a party like the escorts of the investigation team, a bunch of serious sticklers who would take on such a tough and non-lucrative job like this, she had to be this way.

“We’ll have to defend ourselves. We’ll leave the direction of the investigation team and the other parties up to you. Please make sure no one is killed or carried off. Minor injuries are okay within reason,” said Reina.

“N-now just hang on! What the heck are you planning to do?! Besides, I should be the one to direct everyone,” the leader complained.

“And just what do you plan to do, when you don’t even have proper weapons?” Reina asked. “We accepted a job to locate and rescue the investigation team. Therefore, in order to save you all, we need to defeat these enemies. The job you took is to protect the scholars, isn’t it? So you need to stay behind and protect them.”

“Wh…” The leader, being treated so lightly by Reina, who was a child in his eyes, was dumbfounded.

She was right, however. There was no way wooden swords and spears would be reliable against enemies outfitted with metal weaponry. Fighting monsters would be one thing, but in a battle against beastmen, they would have to fend off attacks with all their might. A proper clash would see their wooden arms shattered into little pieces.

“Th-the two frontline fighters could lend us your swords…”

“You really think we’d hand over our beloved swords to strangers just before a big battle?!” Mavis raged.

“Guess you’re right…” the leader agreed, his shoulders slumped. Apparently, even he was aware of how ridiculous he sounded.

“Don’t need to worry so much. Just yesterday, we fought off eight of those beastmen on our own,” Pauline added.

“Wh-what?”

The leader’s eyes widened in disbelief. He had assumed the girls had managed to make it to the huts by slipping through the beastpeople’s surveillance network, managing not to run into any enemies along the way.

“We haven’t any time,” said Mile, interrupting. “If they spot us, they’ll try to surround us. We can assume they’ll want to capture every one of us, to keep any information from getting out. It’s too late for us to run now, so we’ll stand here and face them.”

“Understood.”

There was no more time to stand around and talk. The leader gave a reluctant nod.

***

“There they are! It looks like they’re already awake and on the move.”

“I see…”

The humans had been moving more quickly than expected, so despite hurrying along, the beastmen had yet to catch up with the escapees. However, the interception team still overtook them before they could leave the forest.

For a short while, there had been signs they were drawing near. They had assumed, should all go well, that they would strike while their enemies were still sleeping. But the humans had awoken before dawn and were already making preparations.

Granted, attacking their enemies in their sleep wasn’t a tactic the proud beastmen preferred. However, this wasn’t an ordinary fight. They were recapturing escaped prisoners and would use any means necessary to secure them. For the sake of their allies back at the dig site, they couldn’t allow the humans to get away.

As their opponents were unarmed, this wasn’t much of a ‘battle,’ anyway, but more of a ‘capture.’ Attacking them by surprise this time would help ensure no one on the other side was injured, and therefore it need not be a blow to the beastmen’s pride.

That was how the second retrieval team had been made to understand it. Their leader, to assuage their anxieties, had explained it simply: “We beastmen are a proud race. If we ever sully the names of our people, our families, or ourselves—if we bring shame upon them—this sin can be cleansed only by death. Wouldn’t a sneak attack be disgraceful for proud soldiers such as we?”

However, as they weren’t able use the sneak attack after all, such concerns of honor ended up moot. They shook their heads at themselves.

Even so, the situation wasn’t problematic yet. They faced eighteen unarmed humans, with non-combatants in their midst. Even if several rescuers arrived, there was no way normal humans could stand up to beastmen in serious combat.

Believing this, the leader—relieved they had caught up—didn’t doubt their success.

“Okay boys, surround ’em. Once we have, we’ll close the perimeter. When they spot us, we’ll show ourselves as one and demand their surrender.”

Even if the humans intended to fight, seeing they had been discovered and surrounded should be enough to make them surrender. They should know that no harm would come to them even if they were captured and that they would be released as soon as the beastmen were finished with their business. They had told the humans so over and over. Given the kind treatment they had been shown until now, hopefully they believed it.

Therefore, he couldn’t imagine them resisting to the death, not without any arms.

And indeed, his assumption was correct.

At least, until the Crimson Vow arrived…

***

“There they are!”

Mavis’s shout put everyone on edge. Tension flooded the hands that gripped various weapons.

The Crimson Vow had expected pursuers, but not only twelve of them. They thought there would be at least a few more. However, they couldn’t have predicted the eight men from their first encounter would withhold information about the girls’ strength to save face. And Mile was the only one who knew about the trap. This was a surprise, but it wasn’t exactly going to be a problem for them.

Once they realized the escapees had spotted them, the beastmen jumped into view. Encircling the group, they began to close in. Before the escapees, who stood with their backs to a large tree, were four young girls the men didn’t recognize. They were positioned as if to protect the others.

Are they the ones who came to rescue the prisoners? Four little girls… Are they the all-female party the interception team spoke of the other day? The ones they chased away?! Those idiots! They were followed!

The leader now understood how the prisoners had escaped. However, now wasn’t the time to stop and ponder this.

“As you can see, you are surrounded. Surrender. Don’t do anything stupid. The only ones with proper weapons are those two young ladies in front, so there’s nothing you can do. We don’t intend to hurt you, do you understand?”

The leader was a bit rattled to see the escapees all outfitted with what were most assuredly ‘weapons,’ wooden though they may be, but he didn’t allow it to show on his face. That was the most basic tenet of negotiation.

However, the Crimson Vow stood firm.

“Why should we listen to a bunch of bandits and turn ourselves over? You think we’re stupid?”

“What?! We aren’t bandits!” the leader of the beastmen shouted indignantly. Reina was undeterred.

“You attacked this group in the middle of the woods, took their weapons and belongings, and locked them up! If that’s not the work of bandits, then what is? Are you criminals, or is banditry normal for beastpeople? If that’s the case, we need to let the capital know so word can get around. As long as people are properly aware of your customs, then such misunderstandings can be avoided in the future. Would you mind telling us your names? We need to share the names of the brave beastmen who provided this valuable information, after all!”

“Wh-wh-wha…” Reina’s over-the-top proposal left the leader speechless.

If those kinds of rumors got around, the beastmen’s reputation would be ground into the dirt. And with their names attached, they and all of their kin would be barred from living in their villages again.

However, what the girl said wasn’t entirely wrong. At this rate, the good name of beastpeople was going to be sullied, all because of them.

The only thing they could do now was capture everyone present and take them back to camp. Then they would return the humans’ belongings upon releasing them, telling them the truth of the situation when they did so as to clear up any misunderstandings.

“…Guess we got no choice. We didn’t wanna get rough with you, but if that’s how you’re gonna be, then we’ll have to show you our true strength!”

“Oh, your true strength?” Reina was grinning.

Seeing this, the leader commanded in a sharp voice, “Attack!”

The beastmen harbored no ill intent toward the humans, and in fact, upon first capturing the investigation team and the hunters, they had taken care not to harm anyone.

Fighting against someone you knew had no intent to kill or injure gave you an advantageous position in battle. The Crimson Vow had discussed just such advantage before the beastmen arrived. Therefore, the four girls decided to hold back a bit, as well.

Save for Pauline.

“Ultra Hot Shower!!!”

Fwshhhhhh!

A garishly crimson liquid rained down on the three beastmen facing Pauline.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

For the beastmen, with their sharp senses of smell and sight, this was incredibly, incredibly, incredibly painful…

Two of them were rolling around on the ground. And the third? He fainted immediately.

A fourth of the recovery team was out already.

12 ÷ 4 = 3

Pauline’s work was done. However, she already had her next spell ready. Just in case.

“True Godspeed Blade, 1.4 Speed!!!”

Beastpeople were faster and stronger than humans. If Mavis didn’t go full force from the very start, fighting against even one of them would be a trial; challenging three could mean instant death.

However, beastpeople weren’t too much faster than humans. Up against a human with sufficient training, the difference was small, at best.

Of course in the heat of battle, that small difference could make or break you.

However, Mavis was equipped with the True Godspeed Blade.

She might not be able to cross swords with three beastmen using the normal Godspeed Blade she acquired through her own hard work, but with the True Godspeed Blade—obtained through body-strengthening magic—she became a self-styled 1.4 times faster. (It was, actually, about 1.3 times her usual speed, and perhaps only somewhere between 1.15 and 1.2 times faster than the average A-rank hunter.) Mavis already had a lot of potential, but with this she became a formidable force.

However, this didn’t mean Mavis could win against an A-rank hunter. Factor in differences in skill, experience, tactics, and stamina, and such a thing was out of the question. But fighting beastmen, who preferred to rely on strength and loathed technique, she had a good chance of an even match.

And of course, there was a difference in their weapons.

The beastmen carried machetes, hatchets, and other things not designed for battle. Compared to Mavis’s short sword, which had far better reach and speed for swing, they were at a distinct disadvantage.

Above all else, Mavis was a swordswoman who practiced on a regular basis, and she fought with civilians at her back. For someone who aimed to be a knight, no one—no matter how skilled or how physically fit—could beat her spirit.

With a roar, she dashed forward.

Introducing a great deal of force stiffened the sinews and forced one’s speed to drop. She dropped a bit of her strength, to move at 100 percent speed!

She was up against machetes and hatchets, but Mavis, who knew which way the blades were going to move, had absolute faith in her beloved, unbreakable sword.

She moved a split-second faster than her enemy could read and prepare for. Their blades clashed at an odd angle, such that if her timing had been off, her weapon could have been thrown back or struck from her hands. Mavis turned the sword ninety degrees and struck it hard into her enemy’s guts.

Being that it was a double-edged blade, there was no point in striking with the back of the sword. They would have died.

“Gwah!”

“Urk!”

Two of the beastmen fell to the ground. The third stood and stared, his eyes wide in disbelief.

Reina, on the other hand, had begun the fight at a disadvantage.

Because she had been speaking to the leader until the fight began, she hadn’t had a chance to prepare a spell ahead of time.

By all measures, fighting in melee range against enemies who were quick and skilled in close-range combat, without any prior preparation, was a situation most mages hoped to avoid at all costs.

And yet…

“Guh!” The beastman who tried to rush her met the pointed end of a staff to the gut. He was almost immediately immobilized.

“Wh…”

Of the three beastmen facing her, two now remained, the undeserved grins upon their faces twitching.

One of them alone should have been enough to take an unprepared mage; a small human girl, no less. Or so the two had assumed, leading them to hang back casually. Now, they tried to quickly summon their strength, but it was already too late. While Reina swung her staff at the first beastman, she had been chanting a spell. Now that relatively short incantation was complete.

“Hot Inferno!”

A mild whirlwind whipped up, swirling gently around the beastmen. The air turned a little reddish.

“Gyeeeeeeee!!!”

The three beastmen, including the one who had already fallen, rolled on the ground, clawing at their throats. Tears streamed from their tightly shut eyes, and snot dripped from their noses.

At least for now, Reina remembered to use non-lethal magic. As she said to Mile and Pauline:

“As long as it’s non-lethal, it doesn’t matter if allies or other bystanders catch friendly fire. It uses up less magical energy than any large-scale flame spell.”

Upon hearing this from her, Mavis had sputtered in disbelief, but Pauline nodded in agreement. Amazing, non-lethal magic! Mile had initially thought. Something someone cool like ‘Stern the Destroyer’ would use…

But not Starlight Breaker, absolutely not! If she used that, someone would definitely die!

She had elected not to teach that to Reina. Even Mile had some common sense, now and then.

The beastmen’s leader was part of the trio facing Mile.

Normally, the leader, the strongest of their group, would go up against Mavis, seemingly the strongest of the Crimson Vow and a swordswoman. That was what Mile assumed, but perhaps thanks to his instincts, the leader realized Mile was the strongest of the four. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t know just how strong she was.

Just as Mile moved to deflect his knife, a ball of flame flew toward her from behind him.

“A-an attack spell?”

Magic was a weak point for most beastpeople, whose power lacked in comparison to humans. However, that was only true for the majority of beastpeople. There were many who couldn’t use magic at all, and many whose limited magic was far weaker than the average human’s. However, among them also existed those whose magic was as strong, or stronger, than a human’s. That number just happened to be much lower.

That said, there were far fewer beastpeople than humans to begin with, so the observation that “there are no beastpeople good with magic” was an understandable misrepresentation.

Naturally, those few beastpeople who did have strong magic were sent to the front lines.

The leader and the mage. The two strongest members of their team were both facing off against Mile. They must have had a very high opinion of her.

Mile, who had assumed beastmen couldn’t use magic, was thrown off by the sudden magical attack… not. As she swung her sword two-handed, she pulled her left hand away. She repelled the leader’s knife with her right hand alone and redirected the flame orb with the back of her left.

The flame orb shot straight into the gut of the third beastman, who had the misfortune of standing behind the leader.

“Wh…” The leader and the mage froze, watching as the orb blew their companion back.

Because it had been fired without intent to harm, it didn’t explode on impact. Instead it scattered, dissipating when it reached its intended target, its surface temperature low to begin with. What had sent the beastman flying back was half-shock, half-him trying to renegotiate his own stance. He hadn’t really taken much damage at all.

However, the mage was terribly shaken and unable to prepare his next spell. The leader stood stock-still as well, his blade still crossed against Mile’s.

“Hup!”

Mile pushed her sword forward, flinging the leader’s knife away. She struck him in the side with her sword.

The mage, who had returned to his senses, began to incant a spell but discarded it halfway. He realized what was going on around him. Mavis had felled her third opponent, leaving him and the relatively undamaged youth who had been thrown back by the repelled flame orb the only remaining combat-capable fighters.

The mage understood: Their chances of victory were now zero. If the two of them fell as well, it would spell doom for their companions.

It wasn’t as though the humans, who probably wished to leave, had gravely injured them. Yet, even if they just left them here, not killing them out of fear of war between humans and beastpeople, there was no telling how many days it would take them to get back to the worksite. Nor how many it would take before the others grew worried that they hadn’t returned and sent out a search party.

And there was no guarantee that such a prime target as a group of wounded beastmen wouldn’t be attacked by wild beasts or monsters in the meanwhile.

To avoid this, it was critical the two of them remain in good health. That way, he could send the youth back to the camp for aid, while he used every ounce of his power to heal and protect the injured from monsters, until help could arrive.

Of course, who knew if things would even proceed that well. Perhaps the humans didn’t care whether a war started and would try to kill them anyway. The beastmen were the first to attack, after all, so they could easily claim self-defense. There was a strong chance that the other beastmen, not wishing for a war with the humans, would retreat.

However, they were running out of options.

For now, only the mage and the youth were in any shape to talk. And since he outranked the youth, the mage was currently in charge.

So, the mage shouted, in a loud and determined voice, “We surrender! Please don’t kill us!”

“Now then, what shall we do? It would be too much work to bring all of them along,” Reina said, pondering.

“Wouldn’t it be better to kill them?” Pauline asked nonchalantly.

A shiver ran through the restrained beastmen.

Of course, she wasn’t being serious; she was bluffing so the men wouldn’t take them lightly. And to have a bit of fun, too.

“Please wait!” The hasty protest came not from the beastmen but from the leader of the escort hunters.

“That would be a mistake before we understand what the whole situation is,” the man said. “If this goes south, it could mean conflict with the beastpeople as a whole. Let’s try and handle this a little more gently.”

Apparently, he had thought his new allies were being serious.

“Hm, I wonder. Guess it depends if they answer us truthfully when we question them,” Reina said.

However, in spite of the ample threat Reina and Pauline represented, the beastmen’s lips were sealed. Despite lengthy questioning from a number of angles, they gave not a single answer, not for why they had captured the investigation team and the hunters, nor for what they were doing at that worksite.

Well, at any rate, it didn’t take a genius to figure out the beastmen had captured the humans to prevent them from finding out what they were doing at the site.

As they couldn’t rightly torture them, everyone was growing a bit frazzled. That was when Mile butted in.

“What exactly do you hope to do by excavating something like that after all this time? I’m sure it’s because those people asked you to, but you realize you’re only being used, don’t you?”

“What?! H-how do you know about it? And they would never—”

The youth fell straight into Mile’s trap.

“Y-you idiot! Quit talking!!” the leader screamed.

Mile grinned. She had confirmed nothing more than what Dr. Clairia had theorized, but that meant any information they did get would now be significantly more reliable. Their motives were still unclear, but at least now they were certain of the beastpeople’s goal.

“We aren’t going to get anything more out of them without torturing them,” said Mile.

“That’s true. Shall we kill them?” Reina asked lightly.

“Oi oi oi oi oi oi oi oi!!!”

As the group interjected, Reina scowled. “That was obviously a joke!”

However, a singular sentiment rang in everyone’s hearts:

It sure didn’t sound that way!!!

The beastmen, meanwhile, were pale and trembling.

“Truthfully, I’d like to take along two or three of them,” said the escort leader, looking the beastmen’s way. “However, if a rescue team comes after them, and they think humans took their allies captive, it’s gonna start a big hubbub among the beastpeople.”

“You all get that too, don’t you?” he continued, glaring at the beastmen. “After we’ve worked so hard to make peace between humans and beastpeople, this might start conflict all over again! If it does, a lot of folks will die. Hundreds, thousands of people. Women and children. And it’ll be all your faults! That’s right, you’ll be killers of humans and beastpeople, women and children! Is that what you’re after, you warmongering idiots?!”

Beastpeople’s expressions were difficult to read, but in this case their feelings were perfectly clear. They were stunned, confused, guilty, and a bit offended.

“You’re wrong! We would never want to do anything like,” a young beastman started, but their leader cut across him.

“Shut up,” he snapped. “Don’t say another word! I order you as your commander. From now on, no one speaks to the humans without my permission or the elder’s!”

Naturally, the clan elder would only get involved if the leader didn’t make it home alive. If he didn’t, his subordinates wouldn’t talk to humans for the rest of their lives. Thus was the authority of their leader’s commands when they operated as a team or pack. As long as that authority extended to the elder, even if they returned and found their elder deceased, they would simply wait until a successor was named and freed them from the leader’s order.

Even if their entire clan was annihilated, they wouldn’t be free from the order. Not unless they integrated with another clan and that clan’s elder released them from the order. The binding effect of the leader’s words was that strong.

“Ah…” The leader of the escort hunters slumped in disappointment.

“It’s no use. These guys aren’t gonna say another word,” Reina said. “Even if we torture them, once it gets to be too much, they’ll probably kill themselves.”

“Whaaat?! Are you serious?!”

“There’s nothing we can do. That’s just how beastpeople are!” As much as Reina might protest, this didn’t seem like it would pan out in their favor.

“Let’s leave ’em all here,” said the escort leader.

“Whaaaaaaaat?!?!” The Crimson Vow were floored.

They had gone through the trouble of capturing them, and they were a valuable source of information. It was obvious they should take at least two or three of them back to the capital as prisoners. It might even have a favorable influence on their compensation.

“B-but why?! We should take some of them if we can. At the very least, one,” Pauline complained.

However, the leader would not budge.

“You’re saying you want to bring this whole bunch of uncooperative beastmen along all the way to the capital?” he asked. “That’s going to be a whole heap of trouble in and of itself, as I already said.”

“Because of rescuers, false accusations, or a dispute?” asked Mile.

“Yeah, exactly.” The leader nodded. “They aren’t going to say anything anyway. And if they kill themselves, who’s going to take responsibility? Will you?”

“Er…”

The Crimson Vow were out of arguments. They valued their own hides, after all, and couldn’t bear that responsibility.

“P-please wait a minute!” they said before separating themselves from the rest of the group. They launched into hushed conversation…

“Sorry to keep you all waiting!”

Several minutes had gone by. The Crimson Vow finally finished their conference and returned to the others.

“All right, we agree to leave all of the beastmen here, alive,” said Mile, representing the group.

A sense of relief rippled through the escorting hunters, Tiffy, the guild employee, and the beastmen. Apparently, their conversation had been a little concerning to the nine other hunters, as well as Dr. Clairia and her assistant.

“By the way, Mr. Beastman,” Mile stated, addressing their leader. The others were forbidden to speak, so she had no other option. “Am I right to believe you are as eager to avoid conflict as we are?”

The leader nodded.

“In that case, please vacate the dig site before any human troops arrive and put everything back in its place. The local lord might make a fuss about ‘trespassers’ in his territory, but that’s nothing to worry about. How soon do you think you’ll be able to pack up and leave?”

“…No idea.”

“Huh?” Mile was perplexed by the leader’s reply.

“Nothing we can do about it. If we find something, who knows how long they’ll want to keep searching. If we don’t find anything, who knows how long it’ll be before everyone finally gives up and leaves. Nothing’s been decided, either way, and we haven’t been given further instructions…”

“Ah…”

Perhaps because he understood Mile and the others wished to avoid conflict, the leader of the beastmen had let a bit of information slip, but it wasn’t much of a treat to hear.

“Guess there’s no choice. Reina, Pauline, I’ll leave the bone breaking to you.”

The two of them nodded and approached the restrained beastmen.

And then…

Snap!

“Gaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

Snap!

“Gwaaaaah!!”

The task that Mile had requested was underway.

…Indeed, the “bone-breaking” task.

Primarily, their legs.

“Wh-wh-what are you doing?!?!” the beastmen’s leader screamed in panic.

A sense of calm had overtaken him when he saw a little girl of the same mind had taken charge. That calm had shattered when he saw an unthinkable deed being performed under that same little girl’s orders.

“Well, I did say ‘bone-breaking.’”

“N-not that! I mean, yes, that, but that’s not the point!!!”

Mile stared at him, not understanding his angle.

“Huh? Well, I figured,” she said as if this were all perfectly normal, “if you could get everyone to withdraw quickly, we would let you go back right away. But since that won’t be possible, then it makes sense to delay you from getting information to your allies for as long as possible. So I’m having them break your legs to slow you down.”

The beastmen looked aghast.

“Eek… St-sto…!”

Snap!

“Gaaaaaaah!”

In this world, there was a little thing called healing magic. If there weren’t, Mile wouldn’t have concocted such a ghoulish scheme. There were aftereffects to such injuries. If you were poor and had to recuperate on your own, a clean break or simple bone fracture came with a strong chance of recovery but not a guaranteed one. There could be lasting joint problems and the like. However, with recovery magic, there was almost no worry at all. And there was a mage amongst the beastmen.

Drag…

“Hm?”

Drag drag drag…

“Huhhhhh?”

As Mile grabbed the beastman mage by the collar, he screwed his eyes shut, sure his turn was next, and preparing himself for the pain. But when he had been dragged a short stretch away, he heard a suspicious phrase.

“Fire Wall.”

“Wh—?! Eddies of magic, surge forth and defend me! Magic Shield!’”

Hearing Mile let off an attack spell, skipping any incantation, the mage conjured a shield with a brief and hurried spell. This method prioritized speed over efficiency. Some mages could cast powerful spells silently or with no incantation at all, but that was too high a hurdle for this mage. So he put his all into this short incantation.

Because Mile had so leisurely cast her spell, the wall of flame was intercepted by the shield and didn’t reach the mage. However, it continued around him, forcing the mage to continue casting his spell. He would have to keep this up until Mile’s magic ran out, whenever that was…

Both the mage and his leader knew exactly what she was trying to do.

If the mage still had sufficient magical strength, he could use healing magic. And, if he did, he could channel all that strength into healing at least one of the beastmen and sending him off as a messenger. After that, the mage could rest a while and then heal the rest of his allies.

Even if a monster came their way, between the mage and whoever had been healed so far, they should be able to defend themselves. Plus, having one leg broken wasn’t enough to sap beastpeople of their battle strength.

It would only buy them a little time, but a little was better than nothing. It was best to delay the beastmen as long as possible.

It was for that reason Mile intended to drain the mage of all his magic.

“G-g-guhh…”

Mile drew her gaze away from the agonized mage to see Reina and Pauline had already finished off the rest of the beastmen. They grinned, looking incredibly pleased with themselves.

Incidentally, Mavis had refused to participate. She had protested, saying that for someone with aspirations of being a knight, harming an unresisting opponent was unspeakable. Reina had ended the matter with a simple “Oh, no worries,” and the matter was quickly settled before proceeding without her.

It would have been better to force Mavis to participate, in order to harden her heart, but Reina wasn’t ready to be that hard on her.

“Y-you ‘humans’…” the leader moaned bitterly.

The other beastmen were still forbidden to speak and couldn’t voice their complaints.

The way he said “humans” clearly implied he thought them more vicious than devils. Because no beastman would ever use “beast” as an insult.

“Since it’s just one of your legs, you should be better in no time, right?” Mile said. “The bone hasn’t broken the skin, so there won’t be any blood. As long as you don’t let anything know you’re injured, I don’t think any monsters would dare to come and attack this many of you. Now then, best of luck!”

After that, Mile pressed the others to make their preparations to depart, and soon after, the whole group left—leaving the twelve broken beastmen where they lay.

Of course, they didn’t forget to rescue the mage, who—his magic spent—was about to be consumed in flames, before they departed.

Nor did they forget to break one of his legs…

“…Damn those little devil girls!” the leader of the beastmen spat, although even he was aware that in this incident, they were the ones who were completely in the wrong.

They had willfully invaded human territory and begun an excavation without permission. On top of that, they had abducted and unlawfully held private citizens. Even those girls had only taken on the monumental task of finding and rescuing the investigation team, which the beastpeople had resisted with all their might. Just as the girls had said, they were behaving no differently from bandits.

Of course, they hadn’t had violent intentions and doing anything even remotely bandit-like to their captives was the furthest thing from their minds. However, that meant nothing to the captured humans. As far as they were concerned, the beastmen were as good as bandits.

Indeed, if they were bandits, they wouldn’t be able to complain if the humans had decided to kill them. In fact, they should thank those girls for letting them off with a broken leg apiece.

There were also broken arms and ribs from being struck with the flat of a sword, but those were easily fixed with healing magic. So they couldn’t truly be angry about those injuries.

The beastmen’s intentions were to do nothing that would bring shame upon their kind, so they tried to do nothing that would harm their people’s pride. Or so the leader had said to his subordinates and tried to believe himself. In truth, he was conflicted.

There was a bigger problem at hand, though: They had failed and lost to four human girls who were barely even of age.

However, they had more pressing matters to consider for now.

“Bones, get as much rest as you can,” the leader commanded the mage. “You need to recover your magic as soon as possible. If you can’t use your healing magic, we’ll be screwed!”

“Y-yes, sir. Of course, sir,” the other replied.

The real problems would come after his magic had recovered.

Do I send whoever’s leg heals up first as the messenger? What if we’re attacked by monsters or wild animals? Can someone who can barely move make it through? I guess I could have the first few stay to defend the rest and send the fourth man… No, that will delay communication by a day. What should I do…?

Thanks to the girls, who had so conscientiously broken Bones’ leg as well, the men were not left in the unfortunate circumstance of having him be the only able body, forced to end him off with some remark like, “Don’t worry about us, just go and tell them ASAP!” It would have been a hard call and one the leader would have to make. But at least the option would have been there.

Even if he regretted it for the rest of his life…

Did they have that in mind when they broke Bones’ leg? So I wouldn’t have to be troubled by it…? No! That’s impossible! Little girls would never show beastmen such consideration. They just wanted to make sure all our legs were broken. There couldn’t be any other reason.

As he thought this, the leader was suddenly reminded of the somewhat-vapid little girl and her unhinged smile.

He couldn’t help but worry. Beastpeople were, by nature, captivated by the strong. And for the sake of their young, they harbored strong, protective instincts. It was only natural that he should feel concern for Mile and Reina.

For Mavis and Pauline? Adults could fend for themselves, so there was no point in worrying over anyone who had already chosen a companion.

Mile, of course, hadn’t thought about it either way.

When she had released the mage from the fire wall, she noticed there was a leg that hadn’t been broken and took care of it on reflex.

That was all there was to it.

Why did she break his leg?

Because it was there.

average 4.2

“What…is this?” Reina uttered.

The shock was understandable. What the girls saw as they peeked through the trees was the beastmen assisting their injured fellows into one of five crudely fashioned shacks that now stood before them.

That was fine. The problem was the scene unfolding beyond that.

They appeared to be ruins, hewn of quarried rock but half-crumbling. Among them was a great number of beastpeople, working with plows, hoes, and other farming tools.

Mile’s initial impression was that of an archaeological dig site, and perhaps that truly was what was going on.

“What do we do?” asked Mavis.

“I mean, what can we do?” Pauline replied, concerned. Reina, still shocked, was at a loss for words.

“This is a reconnaissance mission,” Mile snapped. “Of course, it’s important for us to get this information back to the guild right away. But if there are any clues here that might lead us to the missing hunters, or if there’s something here that directly affected them, then there’s still a chance that we may make it in time to help them.

“Plus, if the missing people have been captured and we were to show up with a bunch of fighters, then they might run off with them, or take them hostage, or kill them as an example…”

“We’ll search the area tonight!”

The moment Mile said the word “hostage,” the look in Reina’s eyes changed. More than likely, she was recalling her father’s final moments.

After they had observed the site for some time, someone came running out of the hut that they had seen the beastmen enter previously. A number of others shortly ran in and out as well, making a huge fuss until eventually everything appeared to be settled.

It didn’t seem like they planned to pursue the Crimson Vow. The beastpeople probably figured the girls knew nothing of this place and were just a group of hapless rookie hunters who wandered too deep into the forest. They seemed to have decided the girls were harmless.

They had no clue they were full-fledged hunters or that they had come in pursuit of their fellows. To the beastpeople, they were rookies who had encountered beastmen and fled in terror.

After inflicting harm, of course.

Thankfully, the excavation site was upwind from them, so the beastpeople, even with their sensitive noses, couldn’t catch their scent. They had planned it that way, noting the changes in the wind as they tracked the beastmen.

Mile, who had loved a certain book in her previous life, would never overlook such a detail.

Indeed, that book. The one that said: “Though you stood downwind, you fools never noticed me!”

“All right, here’s the plan.”

The Crimson Vow had moved to a place a bit farther downwind from the excavation site, so as not to be discovered, and went over their plan as they ate.

They had plenty of time to cook, but to minimize the risk of discovery, they refused to light a fire. Their meal consisted of hardtack, dried meat, and water.

It was a bit early for dinner, but it wouldn’t do to mobilize immediately after eating. They had decided to eat sooner and keep their meal light.

“There are five huts in total. If anyone has been captured, they have to be in one of those,” Reina explained. “If we observe the comings and goings for a while, we should spot anything suspicious, but the risk of being noticed is high, and we don’t have all that much time. Even if we spot something suspicious, there’s no way to confirm it, and if there aren’t any captives here in the first place, we’d never be able to tell. So observation is out.”

The others nodded. With this many unimpeded beastpeople milling around, the risk of them being spotted was far too great.

“On the other hand, it would be too dangerous to sneak inside the huts. For one, we’d definitely be found out.”

“…”

“So, Mile, you’re up.”

“Huh?” Mile, suddenly thrust into the spotlight, was perplexed.

“Look. We already know you have our best interests in mind. However, people’s lives are at stake here. Give it your all, just for this. We need you to use your detection magic at full strength!”

“A-all right.”

She had been found out.

Thinking that utilizing her useful magical skills on a daily basis would be bad for her comrades, Mile had been limiting herself to “just a little bit of convenient magic” so they wouldn’t be troubled if she wasn’t around. Apparently, however, they were aware of this.

Even with that knowledge, though, they never said anything about it.

Mile took a steadying breath. It was time to abandon all restraint.

However, this was a one-time deal. Next job, she would go back to using only so much magic as wouldn’t hinder her companions from continuing to take on work, should she disappear. That way, even without her, they would still become amazing hunters.

Of course, her “storage magic” was the exception. Losing that would be incredibly inconvenient, and their earnings would go way down.

She didn’t like it, but she would follow the same philosophy as always.

“Now is now, and then is then!”

***

“Let’s go.”

“Okay!”

Under cover of darkness, the Crimson Vow moved out, heading for the five small huts.

Their eyes were accustomed to darkness, but there were many among the beastpeople with sharper night vision. Combined with their sense of smell and superb hearing, there was no chance of success without some kind of camouflage.

However, they couldn’t afford that luxury. They had to somehow pull this off under their own power. Three of them proceeded nervously.

The fourth, on the other hand…

For now, I’ll keep up a barrier that’ll keep our scent from circulating through the air. That way, as long as we aren’t directly spotted, we should be fine…

Mile wasn’t nervous at all.

“The nearest hut is the most suspicious. There are fewer people in that one than the others, and most of them are huddled in one spot. There are only two others in the rest of the space. Also, the reaction I’m getting from them seems more human than beast…”

In truth, she could give them a far more detailed report, but that would be overdoing it. Telling them this much was enough.

Reina immediately understood what this meant: the people in the hut were prisoners and a guard or lookout.

“Let’s go…” Reina directed quietly, giving Mile a nod.

The rest nodded in agreement and moved forward, slipping carefully through the trees, avoiding any openings where they would be in clear view.

Mavis suddenly gave a signal. “Get down,” she whispered harshly before crouching low to the ground. The rest instinctively dropped as well. Just then, a single beastman passed by their hiding place.

Oh crap, they thought, realizing they had been a bit slow to drop. The beastman appeared not to have noticed. When they looked behind him, they saw tail feathers.

“He’s a bird-type,” whispered Mavis when it was safe.

“Oh, he’s night-blind!” Reina breathed a sigh of relief.

“Why would a bird be the night lookout?” The reasoning was beyond Mile, but she wasn’t about to complain.

Maybe someone had complained it was unfair for bird-type beastpeople to avoid taking a turn on the night watch. Normally, such idiocy in the name of “equality” would be insufferable, but right now they were lucky the idiot was on the enemy’s side. A great boon, indeed.

After all, the greatest danger is not a fearsome foe but a foolish ally.

In any case, their defense was clearly lacking. The Crimson Vow would find plenty of openings.

It was possible the beastpeople had grown lax, as most people didn’t try to navigate the forest at night. And until it had grown dark a short while ago, the open space the beastpeople had occupied had had plenty of lookouts. It was merely chance that the girls had drawn close to where a lookout was stationed. They wouldn’t have found this spot before sunset anyway. Not without any signposts or landmarks.

The beastpeople probably assumed the girls who had stumbled into the forest had run home, beelining for the human village on the outskirts of the forest.

The Crimson Vow finally neared the hut, hurrying from tree line to hut wall and clinging to it like shadows.

Like the other four, this hut hadn’t been built with any particular forethought. It was a ramshackle construction, as though the beastmen had been in the middle of removing meddlesome trees and suddenly thought, “Hey, you know what? Let’s build some huts with these.”

There was a bit of a gap between the walls and the roof. Of course, the builders would probably claim that was deliberate. “Oh no, we put that there on purpose! It’s for light and ventilation!”

Regardless of why it was there, the gap was an incredibly convenient spot for Mile to peek through. After clambering up the wall and looking through to confirm what was inside, she let off a spell.

“Surround the beastmen with sleeping gas…”

Soon, the two beastmen acting as lookouts fell asleep in their chairs.

What Mile didn’t realize was that she was the only one who could ever achieve such an effective result with a spell like that.

No matter what other people said, they would produce no results without conveying the appropriate mental image through their thought pulse. However, Mile, who had a level-5 authorization as far as the nanomachines were concerned, could therefore direct them with verbal instructions. If she just said the right thing, the nanomachines would do her bidding—and with gusto.

Her instructions were a command, from the only level-5 being existing in this world.

Mile merely assumed, I was thinking of what I wanted while speaking aloud, They just read between the lines.

The entrance of the hut was on the opposite wall, in view of the other huts and the excavation site. Opening the door would allow light from within to spill out, making their movements more conspicuous.

There was no telling who might be watching, so they couldn’t afford such a risk. Instead, they clambered up the wall behind Mile and wedged themselves through the opening.

“Eurgh!!”

They all heard Pauline’s groan, but Mile and Reina pointedly ignored it. Undoubtedly, some part of her was having difficulty fitting through. Some part, indeed.

Though they had all slipped into the hut with relative ease, the two were suddenly stricken by intense displeasure.

“…Who’s there?” From the corner of the dark room, a woman’s voice called out, questioning. Perhaps to save on oil or candles, the only light within the hut was a low-burning wood fire.

Once their eyes adjusted, they saw a sturdy wooden lattice partitioning one section of the hut into a jail cell. Inside were at least a dozen humans.

“We’re thiev… we’re hunters who took on a search party job,” Mile explained.

“What’re little girls like you doin’ taking on a dangerous job like this?” asked a middle-aged man who appeared to be a hunter. It wasn’t as though they could have known the job would turn into something like this. The others stared warily at the beastmen, though they showed no signs of waking. The four understood the suspicion; status-altering magic and medicinal magic weren’t things many people were well versed in.

There were eighteen human captives in total: sixteen men and two women. One of the women looked so young she couldn’t possibly be of age yet.

The Crimson Vow had been told there were six hunters, two scholars, and one guild employee on the investigation team. Among the captives before them were a man in his early forties and an airy-seeming, attractive woman of noble birth in her twenties; they were undoubtedly scholars. The pair were probably professor and assistant. Their clothing was sturdy and practical, nothing more than normal cotton garb. No armor at all.

Then there was the lively young teen girl. She wore leather guards that were sturdy and maneuverable but only seemed to do the bare minimum of guarding her most vital points. She was, most likely, the guild master’s daughter.

The others had to have been the investigation team’s escort, and some hapless hunters who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were no women among them; only all-male parties would be foolish enough to take a dangerous job in a strange forest.

“Would you happen to know how much time we have?” Reina asked.

“W-we should be fine,” the scholar’s assistant answered. “They just changed guards a short while ago, so I don’t think anyone will be here before morning.”

Naturally, as a professor’s assistant, she was quick-witted.

“Just for confirmation, you’re the investigation team from the guild, yes?” Mile asked, perhaps a bit tartly.

Even if they denied it, there would be no real way to tell. But waiting for confirmation until they had returned to the capital would have been instant death for the Crimson Vow. It wasn’t a risk they could take.

“Yeah, that’s right,” one of the men replied. “There’s nine of us altogether: us six guards, those two scholars, and the little miss there from the guild. Thankfully, all of us are here and safe. The other nine here were two parties who were captured separately at different times, which makes eighteen of us prisoners.”

All of the investigation team were here, alive and well. The Crimson Vow beamed internally.

If they were honest, they would admit they thought the team’s chances of survival were slim to none, at best. They had hoped that if they were lucky, they would find their bodies. If they weren’t, their belongings and the manner of their death, which they would share with the guild. That the entire team was alive? The Crimson Vow were overjoyed. Given that the number of prey animals had decreased due to the changes in the environment, it wouldn’t have been unusual if the investigation team had been attacked by some starving predator. Compared to that, being captured by beastpeople was probably preferable. There was a chance of escape or rescue, at least.

In truth, however, there were more than two parties who had gone missing. Perhaps they were also captured by these beastmen and killed or attacked by some fearsome creature.

“Anyway, let’s get out of here. We can sit and discuss this once we’ve escaped,” Reina directed.

“Roger that!” The Crimson Vow chirped in immediate reply, but the prisoners looked uneasy.

“Even if we run, we’re up against beastmen. They have better night vision and a better sense of smell, not to mention they’re strong and agile. I don’t think we can outrun them. However, if it’s just the four of you, who they don’t know about, they probably won’t catch up. Go. Report to the guild and our lord! Then they can get a force together, and—”

“We refuse,” said Mile.

“Huh?”

Stunned by her sudden refusal, the leader of the investigation team halted mid-sentence.

“If go back without you all, we won’t get as high of a reward!” Beside her, Pauline nodded emphatically.

“You idiots. If you get captured, then there’ll be no one to tell the guild! The whole thing will start all over again. If we have to go through this whole process again, who knows how long it’ll take for us to be rescued!”

Clatter.

As they argued, Mavis’s sword flashed. She cleft the sturdy lattice elegantly in twain, freeing the captives from their symbolic prison.

“Whoa!” The captives exclaimed in shock and praise. Mavis shied away, suddenly bashful. She was freeing innocent prisoners from a villain’s lair. For Mavis, who longed to be a knight, there was no greater joy.

“Wh…” The guard leader’s eyes went wide.

Even wooden, the lattice wasn’t so cheaply made that a lady could do away with it with a mere swipe of her sword. Or at least, it shouldn’t have been. He had long since confirmed it was strong enough to prevent escape.

Though it was unclear whether she read his thoughts, Mavis, having noticed the leader’s gaze, muttered with a self-deprecating smirk, “I may as well let you know now, but I’m the weakest of the bunch.”

“No,” Pauline interjected as she cut through the prisoners’ fetters with a Water Cutter, “I’m the weakest.”

The leader stared in slack-jawed awe. Just as Mile taught her, Pauline had increased the hydraulic pressure of the water by narrowing the surface area and mixing in grains of sand to create a cutting edge of startling strength and sharpness.

“We don’t have time to chitchat! You’ll have plenty of time to argue once we get out of here. Now, let’s get going!” said Reina.

The hunters nodded, standing one by one after rubbing life back into their freed legs. The leader, with no other choice, stood as well.

“If we don’t put out the fire, the light will spill out when we open the door. Use your water magic to—”

Mile interrupted the man again. “Oh, we aren’t going out from the front. But we probably should put it out, yes.”

Following the leader’s advice, Mile extinguished the flame with a wave of her hand. Instantaneously. Without water.

Whish!

“Wh…?”

Mile’s arm moved faster than the eye could see, drawing her blade, swinging it, and with the same swift movement, placing it back into its sheath. Then she firmly gripped the wall and pulled.

Suddenly, a hole, wide enough for a crouching adult to pass through, opened up.

“…”

“Now, quickly!”

Mavis hurried along the hunters, who were standing still for some reason. They sputtered wordlessly but silently slipped out through the hole one by one.

Mile went at the head. She had the sharpest night vision, and with her detection magic, she would be the first to know if any monsters drew near. Plus, she could cut a path through the brush for the people following her. Just behind her was Reina, ready to back her with magical attacks.

Mavis took up the rear, prepared to ward off attacks from behind. Pauline kept to the middle, prepped to handle any flanking attacks. She would also be able to jump to the front or the back at a moment’s notice.

Naturally, the hunters had had their weapons taken away on capture, leaving them empty-handed and unable to fight. There were four mages among the freed captives, including both women, but of the four, only one man and one woman could use attack spells. It fell on the Crimson Vow to defend the group.

As they moved from the open area into the woods, Mile had a sudden idea. She attached a piece of wood painted with a “magical luminescent material” to each person’s back. As they moved with their eyes to the ground, every so often they could look up and not lose sight of the person ahead of them. Naturally, she instructed them to remove the markers at the first sign of an enemy.

Using a regular reflective material in the dark would be fruitless, so this was either a “material with stored luminescence,” or “something with luminous material mixed in.” However, Mile had passed the duty of making it entirely over to the nanomachines, so she had no idea which it was. So long as it didn’t contain radium and subject them all to radiation, as some materials like that did, it was fine.

Once they were a fair distance away from the beastpeople’s camp, the group took a break. They were all exhausted. Dashing through the night taxed their physical and emotional strength, not to mention the general exhaustion of hiking through rough terrain. If anyone was injured or collapsed, it would be a huge problem, least of all because their speed would decrease by a great deal.

The beastpeople had yet to notice their escape.

As everyone rested, Mile selected a suitable tree and lopped off a nice-looking branch. And then another and another. When she had collected a good number of them, she whittled them all down at tremendous speed. Naturally, she did so where no one could see her. Then, her work done almost as soon as it had started, she returned to the others, items in hand.

“Everyone, please choose one of these for yourself!”

“Wh…”

The hunters eyes went wide as saucers as the bundle clattered to the group, displaying an array of wooden swords and spears.

“Wh-where did you…?”

“Oh, I just made these.”

“…”

After several moments of silence, the hunters quietly began to select their arms. Naturally, as hunters who had purposely taken on a dangerous job, they were quite adaptable.

Though made of wood, the swords and spears wouldn’t shatter or be cleft in a few strikes, even if they clashed with iron. Mile had chosen a firm and sturdy tree. Still, they weren’t invulnerable, especially if they came up against someone particularly skilled or with a very good sword.

They had other uses as well, doubling as a staff or walking cane. They would brush branches and tall reedy grass away and ward off animals or monsters. Besides, having so many unarmed hunters would be troublesome. Even if they were all wood, the swords and spears would put them all at ease.

The hunters’ expressions were already far more confident than they had been just a short while ago.

Mm-hmm, all according to… plan.

Shing!

A single piercing gaze shot towards Mile.

It was from a girl in her teens. The guild master’s daughter. Why was she looking at her like that?

Did she think it looked bad for a guild employee to be rescued by a band of girls the same age or even younger than her? Did she think it would sully her father’s reputation as the guild master?

It would probably be best to try and curry her favor.

Thinking this, Mile began to speak.

“Um, we were asked by your father to look out for you…”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!” the girl suddenly shouted.

“Shhhhhhhhh!!!”

Everyone turned as one to shush her. Even if they had gotten a fair distance away, it was still dangerous to make loud noises.

“S-sorry about that…” the girl sincerely apologized. “A-anyway, you’re saying that you all met my f-father? Wh-where? When?!”

The girl latched onto Mile’s words, her cheeks red and her eyes damp.

“Huh? I mean it’s not like we just ran into him somewhere. When we were at the capital guild branch, he asked us, ‘Look out for my daughter…’”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

“Um…” a voice muttered from behind them.

Mile turned to see the professor’s pupil—the airy, attractive assistant.

“If you’re looking for the guild master’s daughter,” she said, “That’s… me.”

“Huh?!” the Crimson Vow gasped.

“No way! There’s no way a rough old dude like him could have a daughter like you!” Reina, as always, was incredibly blunt.

The young woman sighed. “I hear that a lot…” She hung her head as though suddenly overcome with exasperation.

“Hm? Then you must be the scholar’s assistant.”

“I’m not!”

“Huh?”

Then who was this little girl? As the Crimson Vow nearly tore their hair out over this conundrum, another voice came from behind.

“I’m the assistant,” the man in his forties said.

“You are? Uhh, th-then, that means the professor is…”

“That’s right! I am Doctor Clairia, or as you all put it, the ‘professor’,” the little girl quipped with a grandiose manner. She puffed out her nonexistent chest.

“A dwarf?”

“I’m an elf!”

“Shhhhhhh!”

“S-so sorry…”

Average 4.1

Chapter 27:

Sixteen Years Since…

It had been sixteen years since the day Reina first opened her eyes.
Yes, Reina was sixteen years old.
Mavis, at seventeen, was currently the oldest in their group. Reina, at sixteen, was a close second. Then came Pauline at fifteen and finally Mile, who was only thirteen. Oh, and it would be Mavis’s birthday very soon.
With Pauline finally fifteen, Mile was now the only member of the Crimson Vow who was still underage.
However, as one could become a full member of the Hunters’ Guild at ten years of age and this country did not have age restrictions on things like voting and drinking alcohol, it made very little difference if one had achieved the official age of adulthood (fifteen years) or not.
The more important distinction here—whether in terms of employment, legal matters, or parental responsibility—was whether or not one had turned ten. That was the age at which children normally began trying to make an honest living instead of just pocket money, although most of them, other than hunters, would find employment only as apprentices and errand boys and not earn very much at all.
Marcela and the others will be third years now, Mile thought. I wonder if Crooktail and the others are doing well…
As far as Mile was concerned, all of her former classmates ranked lower than the cat. Only the Wonder Trio really mattered to her.
And I’m thirteen now. Huh. I have an early birthday, so the rest of them are probably still twelve. Come to think of it, if I were still in Japan, I would be in my second year of junior high now.
That’s the year when people are supposed to contract junior high syndrome—the adolescent arrogance they call chuunibyou. But that has nothing to do with me anymore.
After all, I have the strength of a dragon, immense magical powers, and mysterious little creatures only I can see who can answer my every inquiry. And memories…of my…past life…
Mile collapsed onto her bed.

***

“There’ve been a lot of weird requests lately,” Reina muttered, standing before the guild’s job board.
In addition to the typical gathering quests, extermination orders, and escort duties, there were investigation-type jobs posted.
Investigating monsters in the mountains.
Investigating why monsters that usually stayed deep in the forest had begun appearing around towns and villages.
Searching for parties that had gone missing, with additional rewards for rescuing them, uncovering the reason for their disappearances, retrieving the belongings of the deceased, and so on.
Several of the investigation jobs, including requests for culling and eliminating fairly high-ranked monsters that came near human settlements, seemed to converge on a single town.
“The town of Helmont? Why does that sound familiar?” Mile asked.
“Because we just went there to capture the wyvern!” Reina replied.
“Oh right, the Mysterious Bird, Lobreth!”
As Mile patted her fist on her palm in recognition, Mavis muttered, “We keep telling you, a wyvern isn’t a bird.”

“Hmm, all the jobs around here are pretty normal. They pay well enough, but they’re kind of boring.”
Mavis and Pauline, having heard such from Reina before, hurriedly looked around. In truth, they felt the same way. However, they were in the middle of a guildhall, surrounded by hunters who were doing their best to earn a daily living. Saying things such as “These jobs are all so normal it’s boring,” or “I guess they pay well enough,” was unacceptable. They were sure to stir up trouble.
After all, not everyone had above average mages and swordsmen in their group or possessed absurd amounts of magic. Hardly anyone ever earned as much as they did on normal gathering or extermination requests.
Reina soon realized this and managed to look embarrassed. Thankfully, none of the other hunters had heard her, or at least no one seemed to be looking their way. The four of them breathed a sigh of relief.

“A-anyway, these must be pretty unpopular requests, getting recirculated all the way to the capital,” said Reina before hurriedly correcting herself. “Taking care of these jobs would earn us a lot of brownie points with the guild!”
Yes, that phrasing was unlikely to ruffle any feathers.
As far as the other hunters and the guild were concerned, having a skilled young party taking leftover jobs even veterans weren’t interested in—that weren’t even worth their pay—was a good thing. It increased the prestige of the capital guild branch.
Of course, when it came to their true motives, any young man or woman would grow dissatisfied with taking on boring, normal jobs just to earn a living. For middle-aged hunters with spouses and children, work was nothing more than a means of supporting their families. Young hunters found it far easier to convince themselves that “I want to do a huge job!” or “I want to promote my name!”
So, naturally, the Crimson Vow—which included Reina, aiming for a B-rank, and Mavis, who dreamed of becoming an A-rank and enlisting as a knight—had similar inclinations.
Well, perhaps that wasn’t quite the right way to put it. Mile and Pauline had little interest in such things, and even as young hunters went, Mavis and Reina’s desires for promotion weren’t especially strong.
The Crimson Vow were relieved, assuming no one else had heard Reina’s words. But of course, that wasn’t actually the case. The guildhall wasn’t especially large, so four notable rookie hunters—who happened to also be cute girls—standing around making a fuss attracted attention. Plus, their high-pitched voices carried far.
Everyone was just pretending they hadn’t heard them.
What would the rookies do about troublesome, suspicious jobs even veterans considered unworthy of their time? What fascinating tale would they hear from the girls who not only succeeded at the wyvern-hunting job—considered a “red mark,” a job that would see “the red blood of their allies flowing and put red marks upon their records”—but had done it without a scratch?
The hunters and employees of the capital branch of the Hunters’ Guild listened with rapt attention, gazes averted, pretending they didn’t care.
“So, which one should we do?”
As Reina ruminated, Mile pointed to one of the postings.
“Reina, look here…”
“Special value pack! Upon accepting the task to settle matters in Helmont, hunters may take on only as many tasks as they feel up to handling, at any time, with no fees or penalties for non-completion or failure. Wages paid in proportion to job success.”
“Wh-what is this?! This is the first time I’ve ever seen a posting with such convenient terms!”
“Doesn’t that just mean no one is around to take the jobs? Or that the danger is great in proportion to the pay, or that the failure rate is high?” asked Pauline.
“Yeah,” Mavis agreed, “No mistaking that. Plus, they’re probably looking to get several parties involved at once.”
“This is another one of those, isn’t it? What Laylia was talking about before.”
“Yeah, a ‘red mark’ job, right? Red, like the color of the blood that will flow or the ‘red mark’ upon your record… But, even so!”
“We’ll be taking this special ‘red mark’ job!” the four announced in unison.
Hearing this, Laylia, the receptionist, shrugged her shoulders. Her face fell in a way that perfectly indicated she had given up on life.
Mile, seeing the words “special value pack,” suddenly felt rather unsettled.
I wonder if that comes with fries…

***

“You all again?”
It was six days later.
When they arrived again in Helmont, the Crimson Vow stopped in to see the guild master, who had previously explained the wyvern situation to them.
“Well, thanks to that last job, I have a good idea of what you can do. However, this job might be more dangerous than that one. Several parties have already failed to return and have been registered as missing. I won’t say more, but you’d best leave this one alone. There’re plenty of other jobs to take, and no matter how skilled you are, it’s not smart to take on troublesome, dangerous jobs while you’re still lacking in experience. You should take jobs like this after you’ve had more time to grow. You’re still young—there’s no need to rush.”
The guild master wasn’t belittling the Crimson Vow, but rather, admonishing them out of genuine concern.
“Even so,” Reina replied, “We already accepted the job in the capital.”
“No,” the guild master said. “You may have taken on the job in the capital, but it originated here. If I personally judge that ‘the job candidates are unsuitable,’ then the contract can be dissolved. You haven’t failed in any way, so you won’t take any penalties, and we’ll cover your travel expenses from and to the capital, as well as the breach of contract fee.
“What do you think? If that sounds good to you, we can go ahead and do that.”
The guild master’s proposal came from a place of kindness. If they accepted, it would mean taking losses on the guild’s part, with no profit gained. Simply leaving things as they were, on the other hand, wouldn’t cost the guild a single copper, as the payment for the job would have already been set aside.
It was a proposal made for the sake of the girls, at the cost of the guild.
However, the way the guild master suggested they give up gave the girls a bad feeling. Though he encouraged them to give up, in truth, the four of them got the feeling he was simply hesitant to refuse them.
But then:
Reina offered a stern refusal. “We decline. If we intended to give up after coming this far,” she explained, “we wouldn’t have taken the job in the first place. We agreed with full awareness of the pros and cons, so do you really think we’d simply roll over because someone asked us to? Plus, why would ‘it’s dangerous’ give us pause?”
Seeing the other three nodding in agreement, a crestfallen but oddly hopeful look briefly crossed the guild master’s face. However, it vanished in an instant. The guild master’s stoic visage returned.
“Don’t overdo it. The moment you feel you are in danger, abandon the investigation and return here. That is my stipulation as your employer, which you cannot refuse. If that’s no good for you, then you better give up now. Got it?”
The guild master’s face and voice were serious, but the Crimson Vow weren’t so dense as to miss his true meaning. They nodded in agreement.
“Well, you really did help us out with that wyvern. Thanks to you, even our lord has finally come to recognize what hunters bring to the table and now seems a bit more favorable toward the guild. So we really have to thank you for that.
“I guess I better fill you in. You can find more details about each individual job down on the first floor. First off, starting a short while ago, monster sightings in the forest and the mountains have become rarer. Monsters you would normally be able to find without trouble have vanished, and monsters that never used to reside here have started to appear. Numerous hunting parties have been injured. There are groups who haven’t returned at all and are likely…”
A dark look spread across the man’s face. In other words, something had probably befallen those hunters.
“Are those the parties we would be searching for?” Mavis asked.
He shook his head.
“No. If a hunter is injured or lost while on a job or out harvesting, that’s their own responsibility. Only people who take jobs where they’re out of their depth should be at risk. The guild doesn’t go out of its way to search for such folks, although their family and other close acquaintances will occasionally put up money to list it as an official request.
“The ones you’ll be searching for are part of an official guild investigation team. They’re comprised of veteran hunters, knowledgeable about the forest and its monsters; two scholars; and a guild employee who went along as an escort.”
This guild employee, they soon found out, had some measure of magical ability.
Even if she could only use a middling amount of generalized magic, having her along when there were non-hunters involved could be a huge help. Non-hunters often made selfish demands, but such problems were usually quickly neutralized when magic-users were there. Plus, it was helpful to know, on the off chance something went awry, that they wouldn’t have to worry about simple but important things like finding water.
If the employee in question was a young woman, the men also wouldn’t have any objection to her accompanying them. No, not in the slightest.
The guild master outlined the investigation team’s plan, the items they had intended to investigate, and the monsters they would like culled if the chance arose. They would be able to confirm the rest of the details and receive maps and materials from the receptionist on the first floor, later.
As the four of them stood from their seats to leave, the guild master called out to them.
“The guild employee who went along with the investigation team…”
The girls stopped and turned to face him. He continued.
“She’s… she’s my daughter. So… please.”
To save his daughter, he wanted someone, anyone, to take the job and search for her. Even if the worst had come to pass, he wanted someone to confirm her passing and bring back her body. Or at least some memento of her.
The guild master spoke with conflicting emotions: the grief and desperation of a father, clutching at whatever hope he had; and the duty of a guild master, unwilling to send young hunters off to needless death.
They understood how he felt. The four gave the guild master, whose head was bowed, a thumbs-up.

“We will absolutely—” said Mavis.
“Make your wish come true!” they chimed in unison.
Of course, this happened to be a line they had rehearsed ahead of time for just such an event.
Thankfully, like in Japan and most English-speaking areas of Earth, a thumbs-up indicated a positive response in this country. However, it was always important to use such gestures with care, as they could be offensive in certain regions and countries. Indeed, there were some places where the white flag was the call for a battle to the death, not a cease-fire. Leaving the guild master behind them, the four girls departed.

The guild master’s daughter had volunteered to escort the investigation team, thinking that the only other woman on the team—a young female student—might be lonely if she was the only girl out there. Or so the guild master had said before revealing the employee was his daughter.
She had taken a big risk, but they would do her best to save her. She was worth it.
Besides, if all good women died young, the world would be a much more boring place.
With that in mind, the Crimson Vow swore to avoid dying young themselves, of course.
Chapter 28:

A Sortie

The next day…
“You all ready? Let’s go!”
“Yeah!”
And so, the Crimson Vow set out.
It was half a day’s journey to the village where they had captured Lobreth. The area was deep in the forest, but the villagers took quite a bit of offense to that description. They preferred to think their home was “a village on the outskirts of the forest.”
The going was easy, so the group reached the borders of the village before noon. They knew, however, not to stop in the town; the welcoming committee would hold them up. So, the girls passed through without stopping. The fact that they didn’t need to replenish their water supply worked out in their favor.
Soon, they passed through what the villagers referred to as “the true entrance of the forest.”
Just as they entered this neck of the woods and thought to themselves, Why, this is no different from any other part of the forest—a fangbear suddenly appeared. It was a strange beast to encounter here: more powerful than most regular creatures and clearly looking for easy prey. It was like they were in an RPG and had suddenly encountered a mid-level boss the moment they left the “Starting Village.”Well, that was unfortunate for the fangbear. The Crimson Vow wasn’t a group of Level 1 onion knights equipped with wooden rods, but rather a group of garlic knights equipped with fearsome mystery blades.
Eep!
“It’s pretty dangerous to have something like this hanging around where the forest is still so thin,” Pauline observed.
After processing and storing away the fangbear, they proceeded deeper into the forest.
“It seems like there are a lot of small animals too… I guess they ran away from the heart of the woods.”
Just as Pauline said, there were many more animals and monsters around than usual. They hunted anything that would threaten the village as they traveled, along with the monsters the guild had instructed them to catch or cull. Mile stored them in her inventory, feigning storage magic as usual.
It was mostly for their own peace of mind, but the hunting was good to do. Besides, it was part of their job description. They could sell parts for an added reward on top of their commission, as well. Of course, finding the investigation team in a timely manner was their priority, so the party moved along, hunting only when it wouldn’t slow down their progress.
Darkness came early in the forest. It had been around midday when they first entered the woods, so they decided to make camp once it was too dark for them to go further safely.
Tomorrow, they would set out as soon as it was light. They ate a light dinner and headed immediately to bed.

***

“Something is a little strange here,” said Reina.
Indeed, as they continued toward the heart of the forest on the second day, something felt off. This was the first time the girls had entered this part of the forest, so the only information they had to go off of was what people had told them. However, compared to other forests, something was clearly strange here.
First off, it was lacking the animals and monsters that had been abnormally numerous on the first day. There were very few of the mid-sized beasts around as well, perhaps because the field mice, jackalopes, and other small creatures they usually fed on were scarce.
By contrast, fangbears, ogres, and other fairly strong monsters were numerous. Since these were among the creatures the guild had asked them to thin out, the Crimson Vow felled one after another. Mile put them away with her “storage magic” (read: inventory).
Normally, such prey would be impossible to transport, and hunters resorted to cutting off some token part as proof of the kill. The Crimson Vow weren’t like other hunters, though. Their earning rates were in a league of their own.
They got the feeling that all the more hapless wildlife had been driven out, while only the stronger, more territorial creatures remained. Of course, many stronger creatures had moved out for the same reason or left in pursuit of the animals that were their prey.
Just like that very first fangbear they encountered.
“I can think of a number of reasons why we might not be seeing weaker animals and monsters here,” Reina said. “Number one: their own food sources have vanished. Number two: the number of creatures that want to make them food has increased. Number three: it’s become difficult for them to live here for some other reason. Or number four: a large number of them suddenly went extinct.”Answering the hand signs Reina made as she spoke with a subtle nod, Mile nonchalantly reached her left hand down and grasped the slingshot at her belt. Her right hand slipped into her pocket to grab a stone.
Whoosh!
Mile quickly slipped the pebble into the pouch and let it fly. The pebble soared through the air fruitlessly, disappearing into the trees.
“Sorry, I missed.”
“That’s fine. I’m sure it will come back again,” Reina said.
Indeed, something had been peering down at the girls from a nearby tree. Unsure whether or not this something was a human, Mile had used a somewhat dialed-down attack, but it had been avoided.
Mile had become more skilled with her slingshot, so lately, not wanting to rely too much on the nanomachines, she had been forgoing their course correction. However, her aim was still true.
She hadn’t missed; her target had dodged. In other words, this was proof that it had been looking directly their way.
“Anyway, we know that it isn’t reason number one or two. All the grasses, fruits, and bugs the prey animals usually eat are normal, and we didn’t see a large number of mid-sized animals or monsters either. Plus, I don’t see signs of any great calamity or environmental change that would have caused a sudden mass extinction, so number four is out…”
“H-hey, Reina, just a minute ago, what was that?” Mavis asked.
Ignoring her, Reina continued as though nothing were out of the ordinary.
“In that case, we can assume this isn’t because of natural causes, but rather the work of some external force. And if the makeup of the monsters in the area suddenly changed—”
Mile continued. “Then these stronger creatures either evolved or invaded, and caused a change in the local biosphere?”
Reina nodded. Mavis and Pauline’s eyes went wide with shock.
“M-Mile,” said Mavis, “You’re using a lot of big words there, but do you understand what they all mean?”
Pauline nodded in agreement. Apparently, that was what the two were shocked about.
“Didn’t I already tell you that I was head of the class back in my home country?!”
“Well, we thought that was because you crushed all the honor students with your magical skills.”
“Whoever said it was anything like that?!?!”
“Layl—uh, no one. It was no one!”
“Laylia?! It was Miss Laylia, wasn’t it?!”
“Waahhh…”

“Now, shall we continue our conversation?” Reina said, her voice strained as veins popped on her forehead.
The other three girls snapped to attention.
“Yes, ma’am!”

“So, I was thinking maybe something like a fenrir or an earth dragon appeared. If that’s the case, then just confirming the existence of the creature will mean half of our job is done, but given the sense we’ve been getting…”
If such a monster were to appear, even a party of four A-rank hunters would be no match for it. The guild had already assumed a party of only a few hunters couldn’t handle the task in the first place, which is why the job was an “investigation” and “finding the source.” “Elimination” wasn’t part of their mission. That would happen after the cause had been determined, and they had a chance to organize for battle. This was merely a preliminary investigation toward that end.
“Someone’s watching us?” Naturally, Pauline had a sharp nose as far as such matters were concerned.
“Yeah, and given the fact that it was watching from above the trees, and that it disappeared in the blink of an eye, I don’t get the feeling that it’s a human we’re dealing with,” Reina said.
Mavis, who was normally quick to spot enemies, looked shocked. She hadn’t noticed, but she had never been very good at detecting foes who intentionally obscured their presence.
Mile wasn’t fond of using tricks, and was scared of everyone becoming too reliant on her, and so she had not been using her long-range detection magic. However, being negligent—or worse, letting them stumble into a situation they couldn’t escape—was a scarier prospect, so she had been using short-range detection magic to at least ward off surprise attacks. That was how she had noticed the watcher, but the fact that Reina had done so without magic was even more impressive.
In reply to Reina’s implication that the thing watching them was not human, the other three asked as one:
“…A demon?”
Yes, saying that something that “wasn’t human” was in this forest immediately brought to mind what the elderly mage (naturally, they had all long since forgotten his name) had said about receiving his pet “from a demon.”
Everyone’s expressions went tense.
The Crimson Vow could brag that they were no longer rookies but proper C-rank hunters. But with a demon as their potential opponent, they were suddenly nervous. “Demons” were really just another race, the name of which came from a truncation of the phrase “decidedly magical persons.” They couldn’t assume that the individual in question was of lower-than-average ability.
Looking at this objectively, the only one with any possibility of winning a one-on-one battle with such a being was Mile, and even that was just a possibility.
If the four girls took on demons as opponents, they could reasonably handle two—assuming the demons were weaker than they imagined. They probably weren’t. The demons in legends were always much stronger than anyone imagined.
Of course, legends only ever told of the most grandiose of events.
Indeed, just like Mile’s “Japanese Folktales.”
Unthinkingly, Mavis began to fiddle with her pockets. In them were two containers Mile had given her; two very small, metal containers. Mile had handed them to her before they left the capital, “in case of an emergency.” Because they were small and metal, they would be difficult to break.
However, the Japanese folktale Mile had told them after giving her the containers was the one known as “A Slice of Bread.” What was the significance of that?
Slightly, ever so slightly, Mavis glared at Mile.

The Crimson Vow proceeded through the forest for several more hours.
The path they followed was the investigation team’s planned route, provided by the guild. The primary directive for this job was to search for the missing team, so they had little other choice but to keep to that plan.
The missing hunters had been free to follow whichever leads they chose, but the Crimson Vow stuck to the route as much as possible. They had, after all, made a promise.
“We will absolutely… make your wish come true!”
They had no obligation to honor an oath coerced by threat or force. In fact, it was better to simply laugh off such oaths and put them firmly out of mind.
But promises made to people who believed in them? Promises made to people who were desperate or hurt? Those were the promises they simply couldn’t break. No matter what happened.
Even if her chances of survival were painfully slim—even if all they could bring back was a piece of her or her belongings—the four of them would find the guild master’s daughter, and bring her home. They had given him their solemn vow, and they would see it through with conviction.

“There’s a lot fewer of them, aren’t there?” said Mile.
“Yeah,” Mavis agreed.
Just as the two noted, the numbers of the monsters they had been told to cull were shrinking.
That could only mean one thing.
“We’re here! There’s eight people, three hundred meters ahead!”
They had reached the source of whatever had caused the unusual relocation of the creatures in the forest.
“They don’t look like monsters, like goblins or orcs. They look…like they’re human…”
Mile’s words were halting, but they understood. It was likely because the people were demons, and so her detection magic had a slightly different reaction than it did with humans. Coming to this conclusion, Reina couldn’t contain herself.
“We have to launch a counterattack! Our enemies are probably stronger than us. When an enemy launches a surprise attack on you, you have to intercept them with your own counterattack. Consider this our only chance of winning.”
These were rather pessimistic words, but if their opponents were even half as strong as the ones she remembered from her father’s bedtime stories, or the ones she read about in fairy tales and legends, then their chances of victory were slim.
In the middle of the woods, they wouldn’t be able to shake off a group of opponents who were well versed in the terrain and likely had far greater physical abilities than themselves. They would likely run themselves to exhaustion and then be pounced on, or picked off, one by one.
All they had managed so far was being stalked by demons and learning that the destruction they’d been seeing was possibly demon handiwork, but that did mean they had fulfilled the investigation portion of the job. Now, they needed to determine what sort of force would be necessary to get rid of the demons.
And then they had to make it home alive.
Whssh!
Suddenly, two shapes whizzed out of the treetops.
“Earth Rod!”
“Water Spear!”
Bang!
Ka-shunk!
One of the pair of enemies who had suddenly descended from the treetops toward Reina and Pauline, hoping to instantaneously disable the backline fighters, was struck hard by the rod of earth that Reina had conjured and tumbled to the ground. The other was struck by Pauline’s water spear and crumpled in turn.
Because the attack was made of water, the spear didn’t pierce the enemy’s body; however, the force of the water compounded with the speed of descent increased the attack’s power several fold.
“Huh…?”
The four stood perplexed. Thanks to Mile’s precise detection magic, they had accurately predicted when their enemies would strike. However, they hadn’t expected their attackers would be felled so easily, nor that they would attack physically rather than with magic.
However, just as they moved to observe the creatures crumpled on the ground…
“Don’t move!”
They looked back only to see four enemies at their rear. The other two were probably hiding somewhere. Atop the heads of these enemies who had now shown their faces were…ears. Strange ears.
A pair of tall, pricked-up cat ears. Lopped and drooping dog ears. Fox ears. Rabbit ears.
And they all had fluffy tails.
“B-beastpeople?” the girls gasped in unison.
Indeed, no matter how you looked at them, they weren’t human. But they weren’t demons, either.
“Don’t resist and you won’t get hurt. Keep quiet and throw down your weapons.”
If the beastpeople—or rather beastmen, now that they looked—had intended to kill them from the start, they would have been better off attacking with spears or bows, rather than plunging from the trees. Even now, with the Crimson Vow so off guard, they could have launched an attack without preamble.
That they did not meant that they probably only intended to capture them.
Even so, this didn’t mean the Crimson Vow would just surrender and allow themselves to be captured. Regardless of the beastmen’s apparent intentions, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t be interrogated or offered up as living sacrifices to some vengeful god.
Plus, they had yet to offer any reason as to why the girls should be detained in the first place.
Now that they knew that their opponents were not in fact demons, the Crimson Vow had a bit more room to work. Though beastpeople had greater physical prowess than humans, they lacked magic. This was probably why they had schemed to take the mages out from the start. Unfortunately, that plan had fallen apart.
It was likely they had made light of the Crimson Vow, thinking that with two little girls in the front and two novice mages at the rear—and all with the weak physicality of humans—they would be easily overtaken. Even now, the beastmen seemed to think that the two companions on the ground before them was just a side effect of their sneak attack.
“If you don’t resist, we won’t kill you. Lie down on the ground, bellies up,” Reina commanded.
“Wh…?” The four beastmen were dumbfounded.
This was unthinkable. The position Reina demanded they assume was one of utter submission and absolutely humiliating. They would never do so willingly, and certainly not on the command of some little human girl.
Of course, there was no way someone as smart as Reina wasn’t aware of this. She was clearly trying to provoke them.
Being taken prisoner in a place like this would be a problem, and of course, to simply do as they said would be unthinkable. So, they needed to wrap this up quickly—in other words, by goading them into battle. That way they could say that their enemies had attacked them and they had merely responded with “justified self-defense.”
However, this gambit wasn’t something Reina had concocted independently. It was one of several that the four had planned ahead of time for just such a situation, having brainstormed many such scenarios they might encounter on the job.
Naturally, they did not intend to kill them. This was a plan concocted with a great deal of thought. The moment she realized their opponents weren’t demons, Reina had decided to act on it.
“Y-you little… Looks like this little lady’s underestimating us,”
The four beastmen approached, spitting the phrase the girls had now heard so many times before. They were equipped not with swords but with something more like machetes. These were perhaps not originally intended as weapons but as tools for navigating through the woods.
First off, Mile was clearly much stronger than these men.
And, if Mavis strengthened her resolve and went into ‘True Godspeed Blade’ mode, they shouldn’t be any problem for her either.
And while Pauline and Reina defended themselves with their staves and their spells would be less powerful than usual, they were accustomed to firing off quickly incanted spells, which would give them the advantage in battle. With enough leeway, they could probably even let off a slightly more powerful spell. Plus, they had already silently prepared their first spells, just waiting to let them off.
Mile would have sensed where the two hidden enemies were by now, so they were no problem, either.
With this all in mind, Reina thrust out her left hand, palm to the sky, middle finger beckoning.
Yes, this gesture was a sign of provocation: Bring it.“Y-you little… All right then, let’s go! Just be careful not to kill them!”
Apparently, the beastmen really didn’t intend to harm them. At least, not here. But now they were in combat, so all bets were off.
They might not want to kill the Crimson Vow, but on the field, with both sides swinging their weapons around, who knew what might happen? Even if they actively tried to avoid vital areas, they might still land a fatal blow while dodging an enemy attack, or something like that. Such things happened often.
Before the four beastmen rushed them, the two who had been lying in wait sprung out from the opposite side. It was a clever tactic, designed to invite more chaos than leaping out at the same time as the rest of the attackers. It was very much a ploy of those used to close-range combat.
Inexperienced opponents would be flummoxed by such a tactic. Unsettled, startled. The Crimson Vow? Not so much.
They faced the attackers coming at them from the front, Mile and Mavis taking one apiece. The other two men ignored them and aimed for the mages on the backline. Reina and Pauline met them with fire magic and ice magic in turn.
Reina—certain they would assume the girls were too distraught to make a move, given that they did not appear to be casting any spell, and so would be close enough that no attack would miss—had silently prepped a flame ball with her fire magic and let it fly into one attacker’s gut. Likewise, the other took Pauline’s ice spear. Both were blown backwards.
The tip of Pauline’s ice spear was blunted, so the beastman who took her attack wasn’t gravely injured. Reina’s attacker’s injuries were more severe, his stomach covered with harsh burns. These beastmen wore neither metal nor leather armor, or even simple leather guards.
…Apparently, beastpeople relied a little too much on their pelts.
Mile blocked the swing of her opponent’s machete before swinging her own sword. She knocked the weapon from his hands. Meanwhile Mavis, in a burst of speed, sent her opponent’s weapon flying with a hard-hitting swing.
The beastmen’s weapons were designed for one-handed attacks and couldn’t stand up to the force of Mile and Mavis’s two-handed sword strikes. However, losing to a human in a contest of strength was unthinkable for beastmen—much less against a pair of young, weak-looking little girls.
It was an utter defeat.
Perhaps because there was no way that they could face two sword-wielding opponents empty-handed—no matter how strong they were—or perhaps because they were in such shock from being outclassed by a pair of little human girls, the two who lost their weapons stood stock-still. Mile and Mavis struck them in the guts, and they quickly hit the ground.
The last pair of enemies rushed in after a beat, charging from behind at Reina and Pauline. The mages leapt forward and ran behind Mile and Mavis, only stopping to begin chanting another round of attack spells.
Before them stood Mile and Mavis, swords brandished. Reina and Pauline chanted behind the swordswomen, arming their spells.
Only two remained standing now. Two out of a group of eight.
The beastmen were incredibly rattled, but they couldn’t run away and leave their felled allies behind. With dire but determined expressions, they faced the Crimson Vow.
But then…
“Run, now!” Reina commanded.
“Okay!” the three girls called.
All four members of the Crimson Vow ran. It was easy, since they weren’t exactly surrounded by enemies anymore.
For a short while, the enemies they left behind were frozen in place, their mouths hanging open dumbly. Then they remembered themselves and quickly moved to help their allies. All the while, they gave thanks to whatever god had smiled down upon them.
They lent a hand to the more injured members and, along with their allies, beat a hasty retreat.

“Just as we planned. Let’s go,” Reina whispered.
“Roger that!” the other three replied.
The Crimson Vow moved quietly through the underbrush. They were tracking the beastmen.
If they had captured and questioned them, there was no guarantee the beastmen would be truthful in their answers. Besides, dragging along that many prisoners would slow their progress immensely. That said, they couldn’t just leave them to run amok in the forest. And they couldn’t just kill them.
“Let them go free and follow them.” It was a standard maneuver the party kept at their disposal, just in case of situations like this. It was useful, even if it didn’t have an especially creative name.
Normally, it would be difficult to track beastpeople, whose hearing and sense of smell far exceeded most humans’. For the Crimson Vow to remain at a safe but trackable distance, where they would not lose sight of their quarry in the forest, would require them to stay within range of the beastmen’s sharp senses. However, the men were preoccupied at the moment. The smell of blood and singed fur swirled around them. Several were giddy with pain and proceeded with a far more jarring gait than usual, so they weren’t able to pay anywhere near their usual attention to their surroundings.
If they used Mile’s detection magic, they would have followed the beastmen from a much safer distance. However, for the sake of the party, Mile wouldn’t allow that. Instead, she elected to track the beastmen the old-fashioned way. Thankfully, the circumstances allowed them to do so.

Average 3.6

Uh—huh? What are you doing?”“Oh, uh, nothing… Wah!”As Ignace tried to disguise his own actions, hurriedly apologizing, he was suddenly seized by the shoulders from behind.Timidly, he turned around, to see…“Eek!”It was the class chairwoman, rage clear upon her face, along with a task force of six that included three girls and three boys selected from Class A, who were all seething with anger.“Will you come with us a moment?”And so the force dragged Ignace away, off to who knew where.Indeed, there was no way that Class A, whose members were so overprotective of Adele, would possibly let her be alone with a boy without a chaperone.“Huh? Um, what just…”As Adele dithered in confusion, the chairwoman, the last person remaining, walked over to her with a smile and said, “That concludes your practice at dating boys. Now, it’s time for you to practice dating a girl—with me!”“A-all right? That’s fine, I suppose…”Going on an outing with a girl had been another one of Adele’s lifelong dreams, even in her previous life, so there would be no complaints from her on that count.“Well then, let’s go!”The chairwoman grabbed Adele by the hand and quickly rushed away. She had to hurry before the task force caught on.“Ah, wait! Please don’t pull so hard!”Adele panicked at the sudden force with which she was being dragged.But the chairwoman, blood pounding in her ears, did not hear her.***The following day, there were two injured parties in the Class A classroom.The identities of these two “perverted fiends,” who had been roughed up by the task force, were Ignace and the chairwoman, who was now being held accountable for her scheme.Ignace was listless, but for some reason the chairwoman was beaming, a cunning smile spread across her face.Later, Adele thought it mysterious that both of the people who had so kindly gone on dates with her the previous day now both had bruises all over their faces…By the way, Nanomachines, what was that all about, yesterday? When you told me to duck…A VENOMOUS INSECT WAS ABOUT TO LATCH ONTO YOUR CHEEK, LADY ADELE.Oh, so that was it! Thank you. I’ll have to continue listening for your warnings from now on!YES, PLEASE LEAVE IT TO US, the nanomachines replied confidently.Adele, of course, had no idea what in the world it was that she had just instructed the nanomachines to do.For some reason, no more boys ever came to court her.Adele would not discover the reason for this until much, much later…Side Story:

Children
“Meow.”As always, Cricket Eater’s voice came loudly from outside the door.He could, of course, come in through any open window as he pleased, but when the windows were shut, he would have to plead, “Let me in,” from the other side.“Just a moment…”Marcela paused in her studies and stood to open the door.Cricket Eater was the cat that Adele had been taking care of.No, more accurately, he was the cat that Adele had “also” been taking care of. The cat who wandered from room to room in the girls’ dormitory.However, the cat had taken a particular interest in Adele, and was most often in Adele’s room whenever she was present. When he wasn’t wandering from room to room to beg for food, of course.And so, the female students all referred to the creature as “the cat Adele looks after,” which is why, after she left, Marcela had been the one to take over that duty… In fact, it had nothing to do with what the humans wanted. It was merely that the cat decided that Marcela’s room would be his next abode.As she opened the door, Cricket Eater slipped into the room, his tail held aloft.And then, as Marcela tried to shut the door…One more shape slipped in afterward. A tiny black cat, with its tail held aloft also.“Huh…?”Slip, slip, slip, slip.One after another, four more of them slipped in.There were five little black cats in total, all the spitting image of Cricket Eater.“Whaaaaaaaat?!”Marcela, flustered, grabbed Cricket Eater with both hands, and lifted him up high.When she looked hard at the cat, she saw…“So you are a boy, after all… Then what happened to their mother?!”Realizing that the cat couldn’t be expected to understand what she was saying, Marcela questioned him with a sort of gestured pantomime. She grabbed up one of the kittens and made a motion like birthing the kitten and nursing it, and then conveyed her question to the cat with her body language: Where did that other cat go?If anyone else were to have seen this, Marcela would have been quite embarrassed, but thankfully, she was not thinking of this at the moment.Perhaps Marcela’s painstaking actions were exceedingly clear to Cricket Eater, for it seemed that the cat had understood the question. Cricket Eater’s response to the question was this:He averted his gaze from Marcela, and simply hung his head.“Huh…?”Marcela started at Cricket Eater, perplexed.“You were abandoned…? And the kids were thrown out with you?”Cricket Eater looked as though he was about to cry.“This is a problem… There are six of you. I can’t possibly keep taking care of you in secret like this. Thankfully, it looks like they’re no longer nursing, but unlike you, an adult, they still have to eat special food. Also, sir, will you be able to look after these children the whole time while I’m away at class? If you take your eyes off of them for even a moment… This is hopeless, isn’t it? You’re always wandering around to hither and yon…”Marcela, hopeless, called for help.Soon, Monika and Aureana arrived.“Let’s try and get them adopted.” Aureana, the first to speak, offered a solution.“Hm?”“Normally it’s cruel to separate them from their parents, but their mother abandoned them, and their father… he is the way he is. For these children, this is a much better option…”Glancing over at Cricket Eater, Marcela and Monika silently nodded.“O-of course! If it is the child of the cat that Miss Adele was caring for, then I shall gladly take on its care!”It was far too easy.The kittens were almost devilishly cute. Plus, if they were “the children of the cat Miss Adele took care of,” she could explain it to her father by playing the “when we find Miss Adele” card. There was a chance he might even let her keep them all herself. The third princess was more than capable of caring for a pet on her own, and this was a chance she was absolutely unwilling to pass up.With that in mind, the third princess, Morena, happily accepted the five kittens into her home.The three girls were pleased.“It’s according to plan…”Just as Morena had schemed, she was allowed to take care of the kittens herself. As the king saw it, when Adele returned, it might win her favor, if only a little, and give them something to discuss.Morena was fond of the kittens and spoiled them with all her heart.Then, because the court ladies misheard Morena calling them “the messenger’s cats,” and assumed she was saying “the messenger cats,” as in, “a cat who is a messenger,” other people began to treat them with especially high regard.And so, this was the result.After some time, Morena emerged from her kitten-filled reverie and appeared once more at Marcela’s door.“Please save me…”Her hair was disheveled, her arms covered in scratches, and five kittens were hanging from her back, swinging from their dug-in claws.“I’ve failed to discipline them…”“Ah…”And so, the Wonder Trio and Cricket Eater, along with the other female students who had cared for cats at home, ran an Etiquette School for Kittens for ten days, after which they returned the cats to the princess’s hands.Side Story:

Seafood Cuisine
The Crimson Vow had just returned from their swimming and fishing expedition to Amroth.Between what they bought, and what they caught themselves, they had obtained quite a lot of fish while there.Now was the time to go wild with fish dishes!For this purpose, Mile chartered the use of the kitchen and dining room, once dinner was through.Tentatively, they thought of having a cooking competition, but, when they thought hard about it, there was no way that any of them, having been raised inland, so far from the sea, would be much good at cooking fish. Even if Mavis and Reina were able to at least envision the word “fish,” their hopes of culinary accomplishment were dim.Because of this, it was decided that Mile would handle all the cooking. The ones who would get to eat it would be Mavis, Reina, and Pauline, along with the matron of the inn, the owner, and little Lenny. And, for some reason, all of the overnight guests at the inn, who had stayed in the dining hall instead of returning to their rooms.“Why is this happening…?”This was no time to complain, though. She had to start cooking. Thankfully, her ingredients were plentiful.Mile’s high-speed cooking began. She even relaxed the limitations she had placed on the speed of her own reflex actions.Her knife moved faster than the eye could see. Everyone was waiting in the dining room for the food to be complete, save for the owner, who was in the kitchen watching Mile work, his mouth agape.“Sorry to keep you all waiting.”After some time, Mile began carrying the completed dishes out of the kitchen.Lenny and her mother assisted as well.The owner still had not fully recovered from his shock, and there was no way that any amateurs would be allowed into the kitchen. From both the perspective of restaurant safety and health standards, this was the right course of action.Gradually, a number of fish dishes were lined up across the tables. They were on large platters, separated by cooking method.Broiled, glazed, steamed, poached, meunière, fried, tatsuta-age, nizakana, nanbanzuke, pickled… and of course, sashimi.The sashimi was served with Mile’s recently developed “something like soy sauce,” and, because she could not find anything like true wasabi, western-style horseradish.To safeguard against parasites, she had flash frozen and thawed all the fish before cooking, and used a foreign-body-removal magic and a cleaning magic on the food.Because it was flash frozen, there was no expansion of the water crystals or breakdown of cells, so the fish lost none of its delicious flavor.The first to eat, of course, were the members of the Crimson Vow. After them came the matron and Lenny. The owner eventually made a full recovery as well. After them, the other guests sampled the rest of the food that remained on the plates.“This is delicious!”“It’s so good!”“Wh-what is this?! I’ve never eaten such a delicious fish dish! Well, in fact, this is the first time I’ve even eaten anything other than dried fish…”All of the various dishes, as well as the dipping sauce made from a mixture of the pseudo-soy-sauce substance, sugar, and Mile’s recently developed mirin and sake-like liquids—plus the berry sauce she had made from mixing a number of things—all received favorable reviews. By and by, the food piled up on the plates slowly began to vanish.However.No one appeared to be interested in the pickled fish or the sashimi.This was probably to be expected. This place was far from the sea, and it was not a place where you could normally eat raw fish—or at least, not a place where you should. Not if you valued your health and your life.Even in this world, people did have some knowledge of the parasites that lived in mammals and fish. This was something that impacted their lives, so it was only natural.In other words, there was no one in this world who would eat raw fish so far away from the sea. That was the sum of it.“But it’s so delicious…”So saying, Mile put some of the sashimi onto her own plate somewhat glumly. Then, she put some of the wasabi on top of the fish, pierced it with her fork, and gingerly dipped the bottom of it in a small dish filled with pseudo-soy sauce. The “wasabi” was a bit watery, so putting it directly into the soy sauce would have ruined some of the spice.Then, when she tried to put it in her mouth…Yoink! Chomp!“Huh??”Someone had grabbed her hand that was holding the fork and eaten the piece that had been pierced on it. It was Mavis.“Mm, that’s tasty! You really can’t ever go wrong with your cooking, huh?”In truth, sometimes her cooking did go wrong.“Knowing you, you removed the parasites with magic somehow, didn’t you? There’s no way someone like you, who’s always talking about hygiene, would ever overlook something like that, I’m sure.”With these words, Reina, and then Pauline, followed Mile’s lead, putting the wasabi and pseudo-soy sauce on pieces of sashimi, which they then placed in their mouths.“What is this?! It’s good!”“A flavor I’ve never tasted before is spreading across my tongue!”“But each of these things tastes so different individually!”Seeing the girls chowing down, the others in the room timidly followed their example.The first was the owner, who was moved by his curiosity as a chef, and Lenny, a challenger who knew no fear.“I-It’s really good…”“That’s Miss Mile for you!”Their forks flew out for another, and another, and another.“W-we can use this! Here Father, try this… We need to study this and add it to our specialty menu! This would make us so much money!”“Y-yeah!”Lenny and her father were getting fired up, but Mile had to be the bearer of bad news.“Uhm, I don’t mind at all if you want to refer to my methods, but where are you going to get your hands on fresh fish that hasn’t gone rancid, as well as the dipping sauce, my experimental soy sauce, and the wasabi?“Huh?”The two, who had intended merely to get Mile to tell them her means of acquiring all these goods, were deflated.“The fish is one matter, but the soy sauce was an experiment, so it’s all been used up, and you need soy sauce for the dipping sauce as well. You’d have to find another place where the wasabi grows and order it from them…”“I-If you could make that ‘so-ee’ sauce again…”“Well, it’s fermented, so making it takes time. Plus, I’m still experimenting with it, so I can’t guarantee the flavor. I’m not even sure that you would be able to use the same preparation methods yourself, so…”Mile’s reply crushed all of Lenny’s hopes into the dirt.“N-no way…”Without regard for the devastated Lenny and her father, the seafood-tasting party continued, with words of praise and cheerful laughter abounding…

Average 3.5

Unconcerned by her own fluttering skirt, Mile muttered,“There it is, his ‘Kamikaze Technique’…”Mile had been pondering this since she had first seen Lobreth use his “Stomach Flute Technique.” If he could use the “Stomach Flute Technique,” then surely he could use the “Kamikaze Technique” as well.“Don’t just stand there talking nonsense and nodding to yourself! Hurry up and attack hiiim!!!”Brought back to the present by Reina’s scream of rage, Mile quickly drew her sword.However, Lobreth had been trying his best to never kill anyone so far, and he never attacked anyone except those who hurt him first.That extended even into this moment. He was still holding back.Mile was hesitant to launch a fatal attack on an opponent like that.Yet just as she had that thought, a biting attack came her way. It did not seem like Lobreth intended to kill, but merely to clamp down and toss her away.As she tried to field the rapidly descending bite attack with her sword, suddenly, Lobreth’s tail came whipping around from the side.A side attack was bad. The only force she had to steady her was the friction of her own weight pressing her feet into the ground, so it would be easy to send her flying.To cut it off with her sword would be too cruel, and as for magic, water or fire combined with the physical energy of the tail would…Snap!“Oh…”Time was up.Too deep in thought to react in time, Mile took a direct hit from Lobreth’s tail and went flying.“Mile!!!” the other three screamed.The distance she flew this time was much shorter than when she had been struck by the rock lizard, and this time there was no cliffside for her to crash into.However, a wyvern’s tail was much thinner than a rock lizard’s and supple like a whip. Therefore, the damage done by the rock lizard’s tail could not compare to the damage done this time.Still, now was not the time to go rushing over to Mile. As long as she wasn’t dead, Pauline should be able to do something with her healing magic. Knowing this, the other three turned to face Lobreth.Even if his opponents were female, landing some damage on them was unavoidable if it meant that he and his master could escape safely. Having come to this conclusion, Lobreth decided to finally unleash his claw strike along with his tail and his teeth, and charged at the girls brandishing all three.Mavis bided her time in an attempt to somehow block this, while Reina and Pauline started their spells. But then…“Water Impact!”The silently cast spell that flew out then was not Reina’s, Pauline’s, nor (obviously) Mile’s.The spell that was cast while the Crimson Vow were preoccupied with Lobreth had come from the suspicious old man.It’s over! the old man thought, grinning at his spell, which had gone perfectly according to plan. Just then…Ka-shing!It bounced back at him.The water spell was meant to strike the girl closest to him, the one with the big chest, and envelop both her and the others, then blow them away, knocking the fight out of them without hurting them too much. Yet just before it struck the first girl, the spell came flying back as though it had been repelled by something.“Wh…”“Ah, I forgot to remove that barrier…” said Mile, who, after she had been sent flying and crashed into the ground, hopped to her feet completely unharmed and ready to return to the fray.Of course, this was Mile’s doing. Even if it was unintentional.“Tch! Water—”Slash!There was no more time for that.Reina fired off a spell to keep Lobreth in check, Mavis thwarted the tail attack with her sword, and Pauline redirected her offensive from Lobreth to the man.And then, as the man was blown away, crashing into the ground, they saw Lobreth stiffen up with a crackling sound, and collapse.“Bwuh… Just one hit…?”Mile, judging that a close-range battle would be dangerous, and figuring that allowing her fellow party members to capture the wyvern on their own once was enough, had stricken Lobreth with a magical electric shock.“Now then, what to do with them…?”Once again they bound Lobreth, along with the mysterious man. As Reina glared at him, the man pleaded.“I-I’m begging you! Please don’t kill him!”Tossing another glare at him, Reina said, “If you try anything funny this time, it’s off with your heads. Both yours and his!”The man nodded, his face pale.None of the Crimson Vow had ever had any intention of killing the captured wyvern in the first place. Naturally, there was no sense in needless killing, and it meant more money for them if they brought it in alive.In truth, until this man had cloistered himself away in the mountains to begin a life of magical research, he had been a fairly well-known mage. Even now, his past renown carried some influence, and the people he had aided over the course of his career still held fairly important positions in the royal palace. If he played his cards right and cooperated in his role as the mage who successfully tamed a wyvern, he could probably avoid punishment for any of his crimes. In fact, the probability of it was quite high.But in order for that to happen, Lobreth had to be in good health. For his own sake—and because the wyvern was his good friend—Lobreth’s survival was paramount.Transporting Lobreth by manpower alone would have been impossible, but they figured that if the man told him what to do, the wyvern would obediently follow instructions. While the man considered Lobreth to be his friend, as far as Lobreth was concerned, this man was probably more like his owner or master. So Mile undid only the wires that were wrapped around Lobreth’s legs so that he could walk on his own.Just in case, Mile bound a thin wire around both Lobreth’s neck and the man’s, then brought Lobreth back to consciousness with awakening magic. The man whispered something or other into Lobreth’s ear, and Lobreth began walking dutifully ahead. Perhaps they had some sort of magic with which to understand each other, or perhaps, Lobreth merely had a high enough intelligence to understand human speech…The strength of the wires was clear to the man. He recognized that, should Lobreth try to run, or make any other sudden moves, the wire would squeeze their necks, or even—because it was so thin—cut straight through them. The man had no intention of risking his life on stupid gambits with a low chance of success. The man was no fighter, after all, just a scholar and researcher.Plus, having learned from her previous mistake, this time Mile had bound them not with the carbon nanotube fiber, but with steel wires. It was a superfine material made of piano wire, more durable than even a standard steel line. Even if fire were put to this wire, it would not be destroyed.Of course, she still had no intentions of letting them out of her sight.The young villager who was a little too fond of children watched as the five humans walked alongside Lobreth, who wobbled, unable to balance with his upper half bound. The young man was trembling.Th-they’re scary! City girls are absolutely terrifying!!!Perhaps, he would have one of the familiar village girls as a lover, after all. Women from the city were scary. However, the rough, crude ladies of his generation were also…“Yep, I’ll just have to make friends with a little girl and raise her how I like!” he concluded.If Mile had heard him say this, she probably would have said something like, “Are you Hikaru Genjiiiiii?!”When the group returned to the village, they were surrounded by villagers, who, though initially petrified at the sight of the wyvern, were soon rejoicing, praising the Crimson Vow. The girls called the village elder and requested that a messenger be dispatched to the regional capital in order to bring them a transport team.Though the royal capital was far away, the regional capital was much less so, and in order to increase his popularity by “doing things for the citizens,” the lord, who was also their client, would absolutely comply with the request. It was possible that a transport unit led by the lord himself might even meet up with them before they entered the city, so that he could lead the triumphant return through the gates. They could safely expect a bonus for capturing the wyvern alive, too.The Crimson Vow, having achieved even more than they had set out to, enjoyed the feast provided by the grateful villagers and swiftly forgot about two things:The suspicions they held about the existence of the demon.And the worry in their hearts over what that demon might be trying to do…It was still morning when the messenger set out from the village, so by the evening of the following day, a transport team arranged by the guild had arrived at the lord’s request. They would depart again for the capital early the next morning.All of the members of the transport team were hunters, so a high-ranking guild employee had accompanied them as their lead. He seemed to be a former B-rank hunter, someone whose orders the other hunters would not go against.The Crimson Vow were relieved to see that no commander from the regional army or the like had shown up to try and steal their thunder.On the contrary, the hunters all bowed their heads in deference to the Crimson Vow, captors of the wicked wyvern who had struck a huge blow to so many of their fellow hunters in the form of medical costs for the injured and job failure penalties. The previously defeated hunters had been forced to replace broken equipment and seen their finances go up in smoke, some of them even having to disclose their newfound bankruptcy to their families.The hunters had wished to take a stab at eliminating the wyvern themselves, for the sake of their pride as local hunters, and regretted that they could not. However, they couldn’t be expected to take on a reckless job that might land their party members or their families in the depths of misfortune.“Countless promising but stupid young parties ended up way in the red thanks to this thing, between having to replace their gear, get their injuries healed, and other things like that—not to mention the significant delay to their next promotions. Plus, morale was at an all-time low among us hunters and guild employees. The local villages were being attacked, and there was nothing that we could do about it. So sincerely, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for capturing this fiend,” the commanding guild employee said, bowing his head, and signing the girls’ job completion slip.They had handed the wyvern over to the guild on the condition that it could be killed at any time, and now their job was over.In truth, as far as the killing went, the Crimson Vow had asked the staff leader, “If we wanted him alive, what would you think about turning him over just like this?” to which he replied, “Gladly!”Because they’d gone through all the trouble of bringing Lobreth in alive, they decided to relinquish the wyvern there, and leave the rest in the guild’s hands.The benefits of this outweighed the risk of the wyvern escaping, or stirring up a fuss and killing someone, so naturally, everyone agreed.Thus, the Crimson Vow had completed their job with an A-grade and the promise of a bonus for their successful capture—and without of the burden of transporting their quarry. However…“Oh, who is that?”Seeing the man bound beside the wyvern, the commander of the transport squad asked the obvious question.Indeed, they had yet to tell him the tale of the mysterious man.“I am Byrnclift. I was once in service of the palace, as a court magician.”“Huh? A-are you that Byrnclift? The head of the royal court magicians?” the transport commander asked in surprise.“Indeed. To think that anyone still remembers my name…”They were humble words, but the old man’s expression betrayed him completely. He was clearly very pleased with himself.“In truth, I was living deep in the mountains, researching ways of training wyverns not to attack people, and to understand human speech. As a result, I successfully prevented this wyvern from attacking any of the villagers that live within its hunting grounds. Unfortunately, he was still forced to employ a bare minimum of countermeasures against the people who came to attack and kill him… I thought that the results of this research might be able to be put to good use for the sake of this country, but…”Truthfully, this man had made a request to the Crimson Vow.“I’m going to tell the transport team the truth, so please don’t interrupt me.“I won’t tell any lies. Once I’m finished talking, if you think any part of it is false, feel free to point it out then. Don’t make any conjectures of your own—merely present them with the objective facts, as you witnessed them yourself.”In fact, most of the information was the same as what the man had told them himself, so they would not truly be able to dispute it.At this juncture, there were no clear falsehoods for them to contest.“Even though the results of my research were fairly effective, those girls there came to capture and kill this wyvern. I tried to pay them to take the wyvern off their hands, but the job they accepted took priority, they said, so we could not negotiate an exchange…“Then, I tried with all my might to rescue him. And so, I intend to go with this wyvern and plead for his life. Please reconsider this! I thought it would be good for me to care for this wyvern, and put him to use in your lord’s service, should he be so inclined…”Indeed, there were no lies. And now…“That is all.”“Huh?” The Crimson Vow were stunned at this incredibly simple explanation.Indeed, it was all as he had said.He had not lied.However… somehow, the four of them felt dissatisfied with this tale.“………”The guild employee and the hunters looked rather concerned as well.This was understandable. The man was talking like a would-be villain out for revenge, speaking out against the hunters who had tried to attack and kill a supposedly innocent wyvern in the course of duty during a legitimate job they had taken, risking dire physical and financial damage along the way.“Is that all true?” the guild employee asked the girls, who could only reply, “Y-yes… There is at least nothing false in what he just told you… Even though I feel like there’s something more to it…” Reina replied, reluctantly.The comments about Mile’s body and so forth were stories that Byrnclift had told only them, so for now, they had to uphold his request.Plus, if he said that he wasn’t being serious, only buying time to save Lobreth, there was nothing more they could do. That they had attacked him was clear, so they would have to apologize…Of course, interfering with a hunter’s work was still illegal, so at least they were in the right as far as that went. Normally such disputes would be handled by the parties involved, or the hunters’ guild would intervene and decide if any reparation or disciplinary action was needed.However, in this case, the assailant was not a hunter, so the guild had no authority, and there was no choice but to leave it all in the hands of the officials. He had not done any real damage to them, so there would be minimal repercussions.The incident, so far, was nothing more than a reason to keep Byrnclift’s movements restricted. His crimes in relation to the wyvern would have to be investigated later.The exchange went on for a bit longer, but in the end, it was judged that Byrnclift, the former court magician, would travel along with the transport team not as a captured criminal, but as a benevolent third party.Attacking the girls had only been for the sake of saving Lobreth, he claimed, and he had no intention of threatening, killing, or even injuring them; in fact, Lobreth had clearly been holding back, and the spell that Byrnclift had fired off was one that would have only blown them back with water, causing little injury.Perhaps, he truly wasn’t such a bad person after all.Besides, Reina, Mavis, and Pauline were all familiar with people like him. So, none of the three were in a position to make a strong objection to his release.“It was only because he didn’t want to harm my body,” Mile thought to herself, but she did not voice her theory aloud.In any case, these people were only a transport team. They did not have much authority of their own. No matter how much they said to these hunters, it would be of little use. At best, it changed nothing more than how they might treat the man while escorting him, so they decided to give up on explaining the situation to the team any further.In the first place, most of what they knew was what Byrnclift had told them, so if he himself objected to any of it, then that was that. The fact that he had done everything in his power to rescue the wyvern was simply the honest truth. They had nothing else that they could convey to the transport team that was “an objective fact they had witnessed themselves.”Plus, any detailed testimony that the Crimson Vow gave would be delivered to their client via the guild. In other words, they would have to write down everything, including what Byrnclift said. If they did that, this information would certainly make it to the ears of the lord, their client, who was responsible for everything that went on in this region.The Crimson Vow wanted nothing more to do with Byrnclift after this point, and they couldn’t bear the thought of having to share their journey with him, or take some share of the responsibility if something happened. So, they decided to separate themselves from the situation as quickly as possible in order to focus on something else. Other than the commander, who was an essential part of the operation, all the members of the transport team were active hunters, and even the commander himself was a former hunter, so there was absolutely no need for the Crimson Vow to accompany them as an additional escort.Plus, while they had traveled here fairly swiftly, having to return while transporting a cart with a wyvern on it would take considerably more time. None of them were raring to stick along and keep Lobreth company.The next morning, the Crimson Vow left the village a little before the transport team, headed for the regional capital.They would feel awkward about leaving at the same time as the transport team, and then leaving them in the dust, and leaving later and then passing them would be just as bad. Therefore, they had no choice but to leave ahead of the other group.It was then, along the road to the capital, that the four of them finally remembered that concerning piece of information from earlier.“That demon… I wonder what he was trying to do. Really, what was he even doing in a place like that in the first place…?”“Good point… I wonder if he was plotting something…?”“I have a weird feeling about this…”This time, not only Mavis, who knew a bit about demons, but also Reina and Pauline, began to feel a creeping sense of doubt.“Well, we don’t even know if that man was telling us the truth, and anyway, it has nothing to do with our jobs. There’s no point in investigating it—or even thinking about it anymore.”The other three were shocked that Mile could be so nonchalant, but as they thought about it, they realized that she was correct.“I guess it’s true.” Reina agreed with Mile’s assessment. “We completed our job with an A-grade, and we’re getting a bonus. I’d call this a huge success—let’s just enjoy it!”There was still something unsettling about that man, Byrnclift, but there was nothing to be done about that. No matter what had happened, in the end, the matter was out of the Crimson Vow’s hands. They would report everything they knew, including the matter of the demon, to the guild, and the rest would be for the lord to handle. There really was no more point in them worrying over it.The man would be dealt with according to the laws of this territory. That was all there was to it.They were laws that could far too easily be bent by someone in a position of power, but that was none of their affair.Later that day, just before noon, the Crimson Vow arrived at the capital. They proceeded to the guildhall to process their job completion forms and report the details of their job to the guild master. They then received their payment, along with the bonus that the guild master had negotiated with the lord on their behalf. Apparently, even the lord, who always pinched pennies, was in good spirits and had been more than happy to open his purse.After that, they excused themselves from the guild, receiving the blessings of the staff and all the hunters present, and ate their fill of luncheon at an inn, before the four of them, exhausted, went straight to bed.The next day, they headed out toward the capital to begin the journey home.***“All right, it’s been a while! It’s time for another ‘Japanese Folktale’!” Mile announced, thinking that everyone could use a change of pace.This time, however, she was strapped for material.Hmm, hmm… What would be a good allusion to make here…?Lobreth, Urashima Taro, bottom… stripes… huh? No no…Lobreth, Urashima Taro, Uramima Taro… No no no no no! That’s too far away from Lobreth!Sales Princess… Is this Comiket?!Unbuying Lady… Is this the Handmade Bride?!The Hard Old Man… Is there such as thing as a “Soft Old Man”? And there’s the Sleepy Old Man…“Are you ready yet?”“Hurry up and start, please!”As the requests flooded in, Mile became more and more aggravated.She was in a slump. Mile was ailing.Dr. Slump? Ailing-chan? No no no no no no no no no!It was five more days until they reached the capital.Was little Lenny safely making use of the baths?Had she turned them into some kind of black-market orphan sweatshop?Hoping that a least a momentary peace awaited them in the capital, the four marched on, leaving the great, wide mountains to unfurl at their backs …“Are you ready yet?”“P-please just give me a moment!!!”ADELE’S MAGNIFICENT ACADEMY LIFEStory 4:

Adele’s First Date
“Next rest day will be a day off.”“Hm? Oh, yes, of course. Rest days are a day of rest!”“No! I’m saying that this shop is taking a day off!” said Aaron, the owner of the bakery, weary and disappointed with Adele, who, despite her usual impression of clarity, could be a bit dense now and then.“Every once in a while, we need to take a full day to do maintenance on the ovens. It’s much less of a pain for our regulars if we do this on a rest day, rather than a weekday, when everyone is working, yeah? You need to take it easy sometimes too, Adele. Why don’t you go on a date with a boy or something? I’m sure you’d have your pick of the litter when it comes to boys, right, Adele?” he suggested at the end of Adele’s shift, as she collected her wage of two silver.“A d-d-d-d-date, you say…?”Adele suddenly froze up.Including her previous life, Adele had a track record of 19 boyfriend-less years. If you included her time spent in this world before her reawakening, that was 29 years.In her time as a singleton, AKA her entire life, she had never even held hands with a boy, let alone gone on a date.***“Miss Adele, you’re behaving rather strangely today. Did something happen?”“Ah, yes, it seems that on our next rest day, I’m supposed to go on a date…” Mile answered glumly.“Whaaaaaaaaaat?!?!”A shout filled the classroom.“Wha-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh…”The most shaken among all of them was Marcela.“Uh, ahh, Miss Adele, wh-what did you just…?”“I’m asking, what should I do about my date next rest day?”“W-with who?! Who are you going on a date with?!”“I’m telling you, that’s the part I need to figure out first…”“Whaaaaaaaat?!”In order to survive in Class A, you needed to have a voice of steel.After Marcela’s interrogation of Mile, the class finally came to understand the situation.“In other words, the bakery is closing for the day, and the owner ordered you to go on a date or something?”“Yes, that’s exactly it! But, I’ve never been out with a boy even once before now, so what in the world do I even do…?”Why do you have to do anything at all?!Her classmates interjected silently. Naturally, Marcela was thinking the same thing.“So what you’re saying is, you’re going on a date, but you’ve yet to actually decide who you’re going with?”“Y-yes. That’s the sum of it.” Adele replied.Marcela rubbed her temples with her middle fingers.“Understood. Don’t you worry about a thing, Miss Adele. Please just be your normal self. We will handle the rest of this.”***It happened after class had ended and Adele had exited the classroom.At the instructions of the girl with the chairwoman-like air, the students swiftly closed and locked the door. The windows, of course, were shut as well.Adele alone had left the room to return to the dormitory. Everyone else remained there.“Now then, let the Class A emergency meeting begin!”With the chairwoman presiding, an emergency conference was taking place.“The crisis we are currently facing should go without explanation: the incredibly dire prospect of what to do about Adele’s first date. First, we have to begin with the fundamental issue of whether we will allow this date or quash it…”“Chairwoman, a question!” one girl interrupted, raising her hand.“Yes, what is it?”“Will girls be included in the pool of date candidates?”“Whooooooooooooooooooooaaaaa!!!”The more than half of the class that was female raised their voices in admiration, perhaps not having even conceived of such a spectacular possibility themselves. Even the chairwoman was moved by this idea, her eyes sparkling.However, as the chairwoman, she could not allow the conference to be swayed by her own opinion. This matter had to be decided on everyone’s…“Girls are forbidden to participate!”The chairwoman pointed at the boy who had interjected. His hand was raised, and she nodded, allowing him to state his opinion.Even if it was in opposition to her own, she had to allow all assenting and dissenting voices to be heard equally. The chairwoman had to uphold the rules of her position.“It’s not that I don’t understand how the girls feel. But, as we all know, Adele hasn’t yet awakened to the world of romance. Do you really think it’s all right for her first date to be with a girl? What happens if she starts thinking that dates with girls are especially enjoyable, and that she hates boys because they’re crude and tactless? If she starts down that path, are you all willing to take on the responsibility of explaining it to Adele’s family?”“Er…”“I’ll take it!! If I can be with Adele forever, then…”Everyone pretended they hadn’t heard the chairwoman’s shout.“Now, let us summarize today’s meeting. Point one: It is necessary for Adele to go on a date for the sake of her own personal growth, so we shall permit it. Point two: Only boys will be eligible partners for this date…”The chairwoman ground her teeth, her eyes bloodshot.“Point three: All eligible partners shall be examined and the final candidate appointed by a council of all the girls in Class A. Point four: If the date in question should attempt to do anything untoward to Adele then… then… I’ll kill them!”All the girls glared directly at their male classmates.After that, all the male students were sent back to their lodgings, and the conference continued with only the girls of Class A.“I think we should exclude any nobles. Adele is more than likely the daughter of a noble family with some extenuating circumstances, so it would be best for her to avoid any special relations with other nobles. Plus, as cute and intelligent as she is, there are probably some idiots who would try to bring her into their own family… Adele is living her life entirely as a commoner for now, so I think it would be better not to put her in a position where she would be in danger of being spotted by the agent of some noble family, or compelled into anything strange.”The third daughter of a baron stated this extremely sensible opinion.Everyone thought about this earnestly.The chairwoman was quite pleased about it.“Which means, it has to be a commoner,” said the daughter of a merchant. “However, putting her with someone who’s too poor is also… I’m sure that Adele herself wouldn’t mind, but even so, if she got close to someone who is too poorly off in terms of money, he might use her, and that’s just as bad. Between her cute face, the social position that she probably has, and that intelligence of hers… Even though she’s strapped for money now, it’s likely that she never lived like that before she came here, so she probably knows nothing of living among the common folk. It would be so upsetting for her first date to be with some penniless beggar…”This was a reasonable opinion as well.“In that case, it must be a merchant’s son. Preferably the eldest. He must not yet have someone he’s betrothed to or courting, and he must be kind and chivalrous. And he must be able to protect her from enemies, even if it means putting his life on the line. That is the sort of man he must be. As for his abilities, if he is in Class A, then we can at least be certain of a minimum there.”“Agreed!”“Agreed!”“Agreed!”“If there’s a man like that, then I want him!” one girl cried out desperately, only to be shushed.And so, the difficult selection process began.“Huh? You want me?”It was the day after the Class A emergency meeting.Ignace, the eldest son of a mid-sized mercantile family, suddenly found himself surrounded by his female classmates, who informed him that he had been selected to go on the date with Adele.“Be aware that the only reason we are allowing you to go on this date with Adele is so that she can develop some experience with courtship! It does not mean that Adele is interested in you or that she will continue to date you in the future. Don’t misconstrue this!”“Well, I was at yesterday’s meeting too, so I am already aware of that…”Ignace was at the school to receive an education as the heir of a merchant. He gave a rather mature reply, but was unable to conceal his surprise at being selected.“Anyway, yes, we did select you. Handle this well!”As he watched the girls walk away, their declaration made, Ignace muttered to himself, “Why is this happening?”Of course, it was not that Ignace was totally unhappy about this occurrence.On the contrary, he was thrilled.Adele was incredibly cute. She wasn’t a dazzling, elegant maiden like the daughters of high-ranking nobles were, but she had the sort of cuteness that endeared one to her, and made one wish to protect her. Plus, just looking at her gave one a sense of peace and calm.Also, she was extremely talented.She was top of the class in intelligence, and could use combat magic, and was so strong in sports that even Kelvin had never once beaten her.However, even with all of that, it was clear that she was holding back.For some reason, no matter how much time passed, Adele’s tea never seemed to grow cold.She always used incantations for her magic, but when she was spacing out or flustered, she tended to use powerful, silently cast spells.Most unmistakably, she lost on purpose to everyone but Kelvin during sparring bouts.And then there was the bread and other items that suddenly appeared in her hands when she hadn’t been holding anything moments prior.Even if she could fool their teachers, who only saw her during class time, her classmates were always with her and saw everything. However, they were also kind, so they never revealed this to anyone.Should I do it?Indeed, Ignace was rather lazy, but this did not mean he lacked an interest in girls.He was going to inherit his family’s shop.In order to do this, he could not allow any stupid girl or gold-digger to sink their claws into him. To avoid such a fate, the optimal course of action was to be a feminist, being kind to all girls and playing the role of a laid-back fellow who would never lay a hand on a woman.By birth, Ignace was a commoner, so there was quite a low bar, should he wish to offer his hand to any girls in need. Therefore, he affected a progressive demeanor. If he were slavering over girls all the time, they were certain to doubt him when he did offer his assistance, and that would make things much more difficult.Such was Ignace’s way. But when it came to Adele…She was cute. Being with her put him at ease. She was good-natured and clear-headed. Her magical skills and physical ability were far beyond the average. She had storage magic, which, for a merchant, was the dream of a lifetime. With that, you could smuggle as much as you wanted… Ahem!If they worked together, they could safely transport high-priced goods and wouldn’t need a guard. Plus, there was a chance that any children or grandchildren might inherit those exceptional abilities of hers.Though they were still four or five years away from even considering marriage, the day was going to come sooner than they knew it.He wouldn’t be at all surprised if a prize catch like Adele had been betrothed since her infancy. That she might have been up for grabs this entire time would be the more surprising thing.Even if this were the case, it had nothing to do with him. It wasn’t as though he were looking to gain any connections to Adele’s family, after all. What he wanted was Adele, and Adele alone.Well, even if they had to disclose the circumstances of her birth when it came time to marry, it wouldn’t be a problem if he ended up being part of a noble family’s line. Absolutely, thoroughly, not a problem. Such an un-problem that his parents and grandparents would be dancing with joy.All right, I’ll do it! And I’ll give it my all!!The girls who had so carefully selected him had completely missed the mark.At least Ignace wasn’t entirely a bad guy…?***“I-I hope we have a nice time today!”It was the next rest day, just around the second morning bell at 9 AM Ignace bowed his head to Adele, who was jittery with nerves.“Same here! So, anyway, I was thinking that first we would do some shopping, and then some sightseeing at Riverside Park, where we could have our lunch. What do you think?”“Y-yes! That sounds good!”Even counting her previous life, this was Adele’s first date ever.Her first time holding hands with a boy or even going out alone with one, to say nothing of having a boyfriend.Though at least here she was already doing better than in her previous life, in which she’d hardly ever had anything more than a two-line exchange with any man besides her father…The reason that Adele’s teeth were chattering was not that she was embarrassed or excited, but merely because she was “not used to boys”—and because this was her first date!Really, she was twenty-nine years old, if you included her previous life. Even if you excluded the ten years before her reawakening, she was still nineteen. She was absolutely uninterested in some ten or eleven-year-old child. No matter how much one might say that “The body influences the mind,” or “It’s all a matter of circumstances!” these things had their limits.Still, in Ignace’s eyes, this was how things appeared:She’s a novice, nervous about her first date. So cute!Ignace and Adele toured the capital’s shopping district, wandering around in the various shops.Adele always worked on rest days, and without money, she had zero interest in buying anything, so she was hesitant to enter these establishments, and had never really seen the inside of them. So, her very first time window-shopping was quite a bit of fun. At least as far as it allowed her to confirm the production levels and variations in goods that were present in this world.Seeing Adele earnestly checking the selection and quality of the merchandise, and investigating the prices of goods that she never even intended to buy, Ignace was stunned. No, he thought, I don’t think you’re supposed to do this sort of thing on a date. She should be all, “Ooh,” and “Teeheehee”…Or not.Rather, he observed the way Adele was acting, and thought:This girl already has the makings of a merchant!Then came lunchtime.Riverside Park was at the riverside. It wasn’t a particularly clever name—just one that was straightforward and easy to understand.The river had a wide floodplain, on the banks of which plum trees stood in full bloom.In this country, when one went out to admire flowers, it was the plum blossoms that were most beloved.Adele, a girl beneath the plum trees, was fluent in the languages of both Japan and this continent.One might say she took to new languages with a-plum.“Now then, why don’t we have lunch somewhere around here?” Adele suggested to Ignace as they stood in an open spot among a relatively crowded cluster of trees.“Ah, good idea. I’ll go and buy us some food and drinks from the kiosk. You just go ahead and pick a…”“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” said Adele, stopping Ignace in his tracks. “I, um, asked the lady at the cafeteria, and she let me use the kitchen to make us some boxed lunches. I’m not sure if you’ll like them though…”Indeed, Adele had no disposable funds with which to be eating out.When Adele, who was working her hardest to make ends meet, asked to use the leftover foodstuffs—food that she probably would have eaten anyway if she had stayed in her room that day—to make a boxed lunch, the lady from the cafeteria happily consented. She liked to accommodate the girl now and then, and when she heard that the lunches were for Adele’s first date, she was even more thrilled, heaping piles of luxury ingredients on her.Incidentally, when Adele offered the older lady some of the extras she made to sample, her eyes opened wide, and she asked Adele to teach her how to make the dishes later.“Huh? But, Adele, you don’t have anything… Oh, right!”Indeed, this was another thing that all of her classmates had realized. For while Adele did not go out of her way to advertise it, she didn’t exactly hide it, either.“Now then…”Pop!“Wh…?”He had assumed that Adele would pull a lunch box from her storage space. Based on everything that he had learned about Adele so far, Ignace could expect at least that much.However, what she actually produced was a table and two chairs, a number of apparently freshly cooked dishes with steam rising off of them, and some teacups. These items, which appeared in an instant, were at least 45 times more substantial than his initial prediction.“Are you a wizard?!”“Well, yes, I am a mage…”Naturally, that was not what Ignace had been implying. He did not mean that she was a regular mage, but rather, the type of wizard who uses impossible magic and only appears in fairy tales.“Eheheh, the truth is, I can use storage magic. I’ve been keeping it a secret from everyone, but it’s troublesome to carry things around, so I ended up using it today!” she added, smiling.Ignace wondered, deep down in his heart, Does she really think that no one’s noticed?Besides, that’s not how “storage magic” works! At least regarding the food not getting cold, and her being able to move it in and out still arranged on top of the table. That is absolutely not how it works!!!“That was delicious.”Adele’s homemade meal received full marks.Though it was not a large operation, Ignace’s family’s business was still fairly successful. They maintained a decent larder in their home, and in order to teach Ignace, the heir, how to recognize good and bad material, they had cooked with reasonably pricey ingredients as well.It would have been one thing if Ignace was attending the superior Ardleigh Academy, but he hadn’t thought he could be so stunned at the quality of the food produced by an amateur using the ingredients available in the kitchens of Eckland Academy.She made this food with those ingredients?! If a new cooking trend like this were to spread, then a new market would… No, actually, there would be some way to process and sell this food…“Now then, I’ll clean things up!” Adele announced, as she and Ignace stood from their seats.With that, she stored away the table and chairs, along with the now-empty plates and serving dishes.And then, the two stood there, on the empty grassy knoll.I’m sure Adele, who has no experience with men, is expecting me to kiss her here! I have to make my move, so that things don’t end between us today—so that she and I have a future!Ignace made his move. As Adele stared out at the water, he quickly brought his lips closer to kiss her, when…LADY ADELE, DUCK!Huh? Oh, okay!At the voice in her ear, Adele ducked instinctively, while Ignace stumbled forward, his puckered lips thrust out and his arms grabbing at the air.

3.4

The wyvern was trembling.
A human, which was not supposed to be able to fly, was flying in a direct line toward it. At considerable speed.
It was making a hideous expression and baring its fangs, letting out an awesome roar as it approached at high velocity. This was the one that launched the attack earlier. Oh no!!
Momentarily forgetting its wyvern pride, the creature dodged.
And yet, the human did not alter its course, soaring directly past.
Roaring all the way.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!”
“Reina, why didn’t you hit it with your spell?!”
Mile pouted and complained, performing her next spell a bit grudgingly.
“Rising air currents! Give Reina a soft landing!”
As she said this, a whirlwind whipped up counterclockwise in the spot where Reina was expected to land, and a strong upward current rose… Apparently, they were somewhere in the northern hemisphere.
Whether the air had begun to move in an upward current because of the counterclockwise spiral, or whether the counterclockwise spiral had arisen because of the air current, was not certain, but at any rate, Reina was cushioned by the strong upward draft and made a successful safe landing.
“All right, Pauline, you’re up next. Please don’t you fail me, too!” Mile said, approaching, but Pauline thrust both arms out, refusing her with a dire expression.
“N-no! Absolutely noooot!!!”
Mile inched slowly nearer, and Pauline inched slowly away.
“The name of this attack is ‘Flesh-Ravaging Halo, Pauline’!”
Inch, inch…
Inch, inch…
Inch, inch…
As she slowly closed in, sweat poured down Pauline’s neck, when finally a voice of salvation rang out.
“I’ll go next!”
Mile turned around to see Mavis, a broad smile on her face.
With Mile’s attention redirected at Mavis, Pauline took the opportunity to escape.
She couldn’t run away from the battleground, so she ran instead to check on Reina. When she arrived at Reina’s landing spot, she saw that Reina appeared safe and was using some kind of magic.
“Reina, are you hurt? I’ve got my healing magic ready!”
It was not that Reina could not use healing spells herself, but Reina, who specialized in combat magic, was nowhere near as strong a healer as Pauline. Pauline was running toward her in a panic, but Reina stopped her frantically.
“St-stay back! You can’t come over here!!!”
It was then that Pauline noticed. The spell that Reina had been using when Pauline approached, her face bright red, was the body and clothing cleaning magic that Mile had taught them so long ago.
“Oh……”
Pauline stopped in her tracks. Her expression was uncertain and delicate.
And then, Reina’s scream rang out.
“Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!”
The wyvern, meanwhile, continued circling in the sky above, its heart pounding like a freight train.
It had been afraid. The face on that approaching human had been truly frightening. That in and of itself was terrifying.
It was the first time the wyvern had felt fear in a very long while.
And, just a little—just a little—it had wet itself. For a strong and proud wyvern, this was incredibly embarrassing.
It would have no choice but to defeat these humans, to wash itself of this disgrace.
So as not to violate its master’s orders, it would not kill them, but it would send them fleeing in terror!
“Are you ready?”
“Yeah, ready whenever.”
“Do you need to go to the bathroom? Have you prayed to your god? Is your heart ready?”
“Look, I said I’m ready whenever, didn’t I? What in the world are you going on about, Mile?”
Mavis was jittery with anticipation.
She was going to fly.
She was going to soar through the great heavens above and strike down a wyvern, lord of the skies, on a battlefield far above the ground.
She was going to achieve something that no knight in existence had ever done before.
She was going to do it. Mavis was going to be the one. Look at her now, Father and Big Brothers!
Mile grabbed her gently beneath her arms. And then, she began a mysterious spell.
“Thunderbird No. 2, prepare for liftoff! Use your No. 1 weapon, the shortsword!”
Whoom.
Her body was being swung around.
Whoom whoom.
However, this was nothing for a body as strong as hers.
Whoom whoom whoom whoom whoom.
Just a little more…
“Swingby!”
She could hear Mile’s voice. And then…
“Mavis Cutter!!!”
Ka-whoosh!
Mavis was soaring through the air.
With her sword held fast in both hands, poised at the ready, she was flying straight toward the wyvern.
“True Godspeed Blade, Second Form, Heaven Blade. Attack!”
Here comes anotheeeeeeer!!!
The wyvern was in a complete tizzy.
Naturally so. Yet again, a human, who should not have been able to fly, was now shooting directly toward it. The fear it felt before came roaring back.
However, this individual was not one of the humans who had fired a magical attack at it before.
Judging by its appearance, and based on the types of humans who had challenged the wyvern in battle before, this one was not the magic type, but the type that brandished an iron stick. In that case, this one was less formidable. As long as the wyvern took care not to let its wings be damaged, its body and tail could not be badly hurt.
The only choice it had was to drop down from above.
If it had considered this more fully, it would have realized that, unlike a magical attack, where a bit of distance was no object, if the wyvern just dodged a sword attack a little bit, it would be over. Probably, Mile had predicted that the wyvern would choose to attack head-on… Probably.
“Hiyaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!”
Mavis swung her sword straight ahead at full strength, aiming for the wyvern’s neck. However, the wyvern, predicting this all too well, twisted its body and swung its tail at full force toward… or rather, it tried to, but Mavis’s attack was a lot quicker than it thought it would be!
The wyvern tried desperately to twist its body some more, keeping its neck away from the approaching sword. Quickly, quickly it had to strike the human with its tail!
Ka-shunk!
After a moment’s clashing, both of the parties’ bodies separated and flew apart.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Mavis, seeing the tail approaching, had given up on aiming for the neck. The wyvern was hurt, its proud tail damaged by the redirected attack. It was stunned by the pain.
And then, Mavis, who had now begun her descent, looked down at the ground below.
Both of them screamed until their throats nearly burst.
“Oh… ah…”
The wyvern continued circling shakily in the sky, so once Mile had set up her upward draft cushioning magic to break Mavis’s fall, she had nothing to do but go to check on Mavis, once she landed. For some reason, she was on her hands and knees in the grass, groaning.
“Oh no! Are you hurt somewhere?” Mile asked, worried.
Mavis weakly replied, “I-It’s nothing. Just… please, please give me a moment…”
After a short while, Reina and Pauline reappeared.
Reina looked incredibly displeased, but for some reason, after she glanced at Mavis’s lower half, she appeared all the more irritated. She stomped toward Mile.
Whack.
“Oww!”
Mile let out a cry as Reina suddenly jabbed her in the head with her staff.
Whack whack!
“Ow! That hurts! What are you doing, Reina?!”
Whap whack whack whack whack!
“St-stop! Please stop iiiiit!!!”
Whack whack whack whack whack whack whack whack whack!
“I-I was wrong! I apologize. Please stop it alreadyyyyyyyyyyy!!!”
Thanks to her naturally high stats, this attack did not truly hurt Mile, but seeing Reina’s expression, feeling a sort of intellectual pain along the lines of “I’m pretty sure this should hurt,” and recognizing the seriousness of Reina’s anger from a vigorous attack that normally should hurt a great deal, Mile apologized profusely.
“Mile, do you really understand why I’m angry with you?”
“Of course!” Mile quickly replied. “I should have launched you more accurately, and at a much higher speed, so that the wyvern couldn’t have dodg—ow! Owwwwwwwwwww!”
Whack whack whack whack whack whack whack whack whack!
“Hff hff hff hff…”
When Reina, Mavis, Mile, and Pauline—who, besides Pauline, were all exhausted for some reason—looked up into the sky, they saw that the wyvern, which had been unsteadily circling up until now, had begun to move more purposefully. It seemed it was preparing to do something else.
“Looks like this is Round Two…” Mile muttered.
The other three nodded.
The wyvern was shaken to realize that the wound it had received was deeper than predicted, but its tail had not been cut off, and it was far from a life-threatening injury. As yet, its movements were unhindered. As long as it left it alone, the wound would heal up soon enough.
However, while the blow to its body would heal naturally, the wound to its pride was not so easily mended. The wyvern would have to stitch up that gash itself. Indeed, by defeating its enemies.
It had never had to get serious against the enemies it had faced so far. They were trifles, little things that it only needed to toy with. It had never needed to get down and dirty, and pull the ace from its sleeve.
However, this time… Finally, it had encountered a foe that would require it to summon its full strength.
The wyvern was rather pleased about this.
Now, playtime was over. It was time for a real battle.
It began its descent. Then, it began to inhale. It was time to launch a serious attack, against an opponent that the wyvern itself had deemed neither prey nor plaything, but a true enemy.
“A direct attack?”
“Yes!”
Seeing that the wyvern was going to launch a direct attack, using either its claws, its tail, or its teeth, everyone was thrilled, and Mavis was particularly delighted. She laughed out loud at this perfect chance, brandishing her sword.
However, seeing how the approaching wyvern had opened its mouth wide, Mile went pale.
I’ve seen something like this before! It was on an anime VHS that was in my father’s library!
“Dodge!!!”
Seeing Mile leap and thrust Pauline, who stood beside her, out of the way, Mavis and Reina quickly moved as well. Just then…
Blam!
There was a sensation like the air trembling, and then the ground where the girls had been standing burst open.
After that, the wyvern quickly pulled its body up and ascended again.
“What?! A ranged attack?!”
“Dragon Breath? But I didn’t see anything!”
“I-I’ve never heard of them having an ability like that!”
Mavis, Reina, and Pauline were all utterly awestruck, but Mile folded her arms and spoke with apparent comprehension.
“Of course…”
“Y-you knew about this, Mile?!” Mavis asked.
“The Stomach Flute Technique…”
The what?!?!
This ultrasonic barrage was probably a kind of Breath attack.
A wyvern using a Breath attack was an incredibly rare occurrence, but it was not entirely unheard of.
Though they may have been pseudo-dragons, they were still a variety of dragon, and masters of flight-assisting magic. Thus, a particularly intelligent creature might be able to learn a Breath technique by watching and imitating other dragon types. Such things had been observed many times in the past. That said, none of them had expected to bear witness to such a rare occurrence on this occasion.
They had already concluded that this was an abnormally intelligent specimen, so they should have anticipated the possibility. Yet there had been no reports of anything like it from the other hunters. If there had been, the guild master most certainly would have told them.
And so, it would be overly harsh to criticize the Crimson Vow, who could not have been expected to assume that the wyvern possessed the wisdom to conceal its strongest technique until the very end of the battle. There were scarcely any hunters who would ever assume such a thing…
“Wh-what was that ‘Something’ Technique you were talking about…?” Reina asked.
“Stomach Flute Technique. Please think of it as a type of Breath attack,” Mile replied, thinking.
This is bad… This wyvern can use ranged attack magic…and it has a much farther range than Reina and Pauline…
Until now, Mile had been careful about her magic so that everyone else would not come to rely on her. If they relied on her magic for everything, they would never grow, and they would not be functioning as a party in the first place. Plus, she would hate to have that sort of relationship with others.
As a result, she had resigned herself to a supporting role in this battle, thinking that Reina, Mavis, and Pauline could take center stage in defeating the wyvern.
Yet these new circumstances were making that stance more difficult.
The enemy’s attacks could reach them, but no one’s attacks but hers could reach the enemy. The wyvern had no intention of entering the range of the others’ attacks. Plus, with her carefully devised “Thunderbird Plan” having ended twice in misfires, Reina and Mavis would have absolutely no interest in flying again.
At this rate, the wyvern was going to remain at a distance where its attacks could reach the Crimson Vow, but theirs could not, meaning that they would continue to face a one-sided assault. That said, letting themselves be defeated here would be a stain on the Crimson Vow’s record.
What to do?
“I-I’ll go next!”
“Huh?”
As Mile pondered, Pauline suddenly announced herself, looking a bit queasy.
“Are you sure about this?” Mile asked.
“I mean, do we have any other choice? Plus, I’m a member of the Crimson Vow, too!” said Pauline.
Mile nodded emphatically.
“All right then. Fly now, Pauline!”
And so, Mile outlined some key items.
“I’m going to aim you straight for its jaw. It’s going to get away quick, so you can’t use any continuous spells. Strike it with an ice javelin, and if we’re lucky, that will give it a concussion and knock it from the sky. At the very least, please try to injure its throat or palate, so that it can’t use that special breath again!”
“U-understood!”
This time, there was a chance that Pauline might take a ranged attack while approaching. Plus, unlike Mavis, Pauline did not have the durability to take a blow from the wyvern’s tail, talons, or pointy teeth straight on. To ensure her safety, Mile whispered to herself, “Lattice Power Barrier!!!”
Then, Mile grabbed Pauline under the arms and began her mysterious spell once more.
“Thunderbird No. 3, prepare for liftoff!”
Whoom!
Whoom whoom whoom!
“Swingby!”
Ka-whoosh!
She blasted off, at a far higher speed than even the previous two.
“Chin Bombing Thunderbird, Argo!”
Another ooooone!!!
The wyvern, which had just started on its attack path yet again, was momentarily distressed at the appearance of another “flying human,” but it quickly regained its cool. This was the third time this had happened now, so the wyvern was starting to grow accustomed to it. Even if it was still a bit frightening…
Seeing that this opponent was one of the individuals that had launched a magical attack, the wyvern opened its mouth and drew in a breath in order to launch a preemptive strike.
Shiiiiiiiiing…
Boom!
It should have been a direct hit, but, the enemy was still speeding toward the wyvern, its path unchanged. The wyvern panicked. The human had blasted through its special technique, in which the wyvern had absolute confidence, without moving a muscle. Furthermore, unlike the previous two, this human was flying silently, without making a sound.
The truly strong ones never roared. This was the thought that crossed the wyvern’s mind.
It was already too late to launch a second attack. All it had left now were its tail and its claws…
At this thought, the wyvern glared at its enemy, and that was when it noticed.
The flying human’s eyes were closed, its body completely limp.
Yes, it was unconscious.
Bang!
In spite of the wyvern’s tail attack, Pauline, who was surrounded by the sturdy lattice power barrier, retained her kinetic energy and crashed into the wyvern.
And then, they both fell toward the ground.
“Waaaaaaah! Upward Draft! Air Cushion! Gravity Control!!!”
Pauline and the wyvern were falling together, so it was difficult to cushion only Pauline’s fall. Plus, if the wyvern were to fall on top of her , Pauline would be crushed. Mile had to ensure that both of them landed softly. She hurriedly set off her spells.
As a result, the descent speeds of both rapidly declined, and somehow, they successfully made a soft landing.
“Boss! A wyvern just fell from the sky!”
“Don’t you think I can see that?! Also, who’s this ‘Boss’?!?!”
Apparently, Mile had returned to her usual self.
Still, naturally, she did not attempt to catch the falling wyvern in her arms.
Because Pauline was so light, and because Mavis, ever the gentlewoman, caught her in her arms, Pauline took no damage, even though she was still unconscious. However, it was possible there were still some aftereffects from her collision with the wyvern, and Mile applied healing magic silently.
As for the wyvern, even if Mile had used her magic to cushion its fall, it was still quite heavy, and in order for it to be lightweight enough to stay aloft, its body was rather brittle. As a result, it did appear to have taken at least a bit of damage from the fall.
While the wyvern was still twitching on the ground, Mile pulled something like a spool of thread from her loot box and bound the wyvern’s mouth, limbs, wings, and tail.
When the wyvern came to shortly thereafter, it tried to break the bonds, but it could not shred the seemingly thin cord that it was wrapped in.
Carbon nanotubes.
Yes, it was the same powerful material that Mile’s slingshot was made of. Nothing bound with that carbon nanotube thread would be able to break free with such halfhearted strength.
After a short while, Pauline regained consciousness, staring widely, perplexed, when the others told her that she had felled the wyvern.
“So, I guess we should transport this guy to the lord. Capturing a wyvern alive is a pretty rare occurrence, and this one is pretty smart, so if you clipped its wings, broke it in, and put it on display, there could be a use for it. Well, actually, they might have to do a public execution in order to appease the citizens—but as long as we get our completion stamp and our pay, the rest of it’s none of our business. If we can collect an extra free for bringing it in alive, they can do whatever they want with it after.”
The wyvern, which had either given up on breaking its bonds, or simply relaxed, thinking that no immediate danger was likely to befall it, was lying quietly, but at this, it eyed Reina uneasily, as though perhaps, it could understand her words.
Nodding at Reina, Mile called to the youth who had been standing beneath the trees watching them, in order to ask him to call the villagers, who could help them transport the wyvern. That was when he appeared.
He had white hair and a white beard. An older man wearing a robe and holding a wand, looking very much like a stereotypical mage, appeared from between the trees and said to the four, “I can’t bear to see that poor little wyvern being picked on by all these people. What do you say? I’ll give you a gold piece if you hand the creature over to me.”
Hearing this, all four of them had the exact same thought at once.
Wh-what a shady guyyyy!!!
And then, Mile alone thought, It’s Urashima Taro!!!
“Do you think we’re stupid? If we bring this thing in, we’ll get paid 30 gold as a reward, plus an additional fee for bringing it in alive. Why should we turn it over to you for just one gold piece?! You just want to say that you captured it yourself and collect the reward, don’t you? Plus, if our job is treated as failed, then not only will we have to pay the penalty, our party’s reputation will suffer. There’s no way you’re taking it!”
The man’s brows knitted at Reina’s words, but Mile tossed him a lifeline.
“But if you’ll let us take just part of the wyvern as proof of the extermination, we might be able to hand it over for just ten gold pieces… couldn’t we, Reina?”
“Huh? Yes, well, if we did that we wouldn’t get the bonus for bringing it in alive, but we’d still get our completion stamp, so, well, I guess that would be fine…”
It was ten times what he had intended to pay, but that should not have been an issue. The man appeared relieved, and asked, “Yes, that’s splendid! Well then, which part of it would you need to take as your proof?”
The four of them answered in unison.
“The head!”
“Wh…” The man was nearly speechless.
Naturally, Mile had never had any intention of turning the wyvern over to such a shady old man. She had merely hoped that he would let some information slip if they agitated him.
“But if you take that, it’ll die!” the man shouted.
Reina gave the natural response. “That’s expected, isn’t it? We have to prove that we eliminated it, so…”
“But I want to take Lo—ahem, the wyvern back alive!”
“So we’ll compromise. All told, the elimination reward, along with the bonus for bringing it in alive, plus damages for us having our job treated as a failure would total somewhere around 100 gold.”
So said Reina, but honestly, no matter how much money he paid, she had no intention of turning over the wyvern. Even if the man were to offer them heaps of money, there was no amount of gold that would make up for having the mark of a failed job on their record and the blow to their reputations that would come with it.
Plus, if the wyvern were to attack the village again later, and anyone died because of it, she wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
“Grrrrrrngh…”
Obviously, to pay one hundred gold or more—the equivalent of over one million Japanese yen—would hurt quite a bit. The man thought hard.
Just then, Pauline asked completely naturally and nonchalantly, “By the way, what was the deal with that cow-like thing that the wyvern was carrying?”
“Oh, that was the dragon-drawn carriage I was riding in. It’s disguised so that if anyone sees it, it will just look like a… sto… len…”
The man had begun speaking confidently, but his voice grew small, and then petered out.
There was an idiot in their midst.
“Say, Mile, is this man your father?” asked Reina.
“Just what does that meeeeeeeaaaaaan?!” Mile shouted back.
“So, is that wyvern named Low or something?” Mavis snarked.
“It’s Lobreth!” the man snapped back. “And though it isn’t comparable to the Breath of an elder dragon, he can still use Dragon’s Breath. That is incredibly rare for a wyvern, so I decided to make that part of his name. ‘Low Breath,’ or more concisely, ‘Lobreth.’”
Compared to the frivolous, unusual names that modern parents liked to give their children, this was far more straightforward reasoning. It gave them a sort of affection for the man. Mile was genuinely moved.
“The Mysterious Bird Lobreth…”
“I told you before, a wyvern isn’t a bird!”
“Oh, yes…”
“Anyway, that’s not the problem! What kind of villain uses a wyvern to attack people?! What’s your angle?” Mile was angry.
“None in particular…”
“Huh?”
“Well, I’m saying that I wasn’t really trying to do anything.”
“Whaaaat?!”
His response to Mile’s accusation was not what the Crimson Vow had expected.
“B-but, you attacked the village…”
“But wyverns always attack villages that are inside their territories, don’t they?”
“Er…”
Unable to form a response to the man’s words, Mile went silent.
“B-but the wyvern…” Mavis started.
“It’s Lobreth,” the man interrupted.
Apparently, he was very invested in this name he had come up with.
“Anyway, this Lobreth is in your care, isn’t he?! In which case, his attacking the village would have to have been at your command…”
“I’m not taking care of him!”
“Huh???”
“I’m telling you I have nothing to do with caring for Lobreth.”
“Th-then, just what exactly is Lobreth to you?!” Pauline asked, raising her voice for once in a blue moon.
The man replied, “He’s my friend.”
“What?”
“He and I are friends. Now and then he carries me around in that carriage, and I heal his wounds whenever he gets hurt. If my friend wants to eat things that are within his territory, what business is it of mine?”
“…………”
All four of the girls were stunned, their mouths agape, not able to manage another word.
“Furthermore, I have asked him never to harm anyone who doesn’t harm him, particularly not any women or children. If someone were to ask him, please don’t harm any creatures except wolves in the forest who attack people, and people who attack you, and even when you are attacked, try your best not to kill or seriously injure anyone, especially women and children, then what’s the crime in that? On the contrary, if that is a criminal act, then what would you call a virtuous one?”
“Uh…”
This was suspicious.
This was clearly suspicious, and the things he said were nothing more than trickery.
Even though this was what they were all thinking, if they couldn’t disprove what the man was saying, then they had no right to apprehend him as a criminal.
On the contrary, apprehending him without proof would make them the criminals.
What to do?
Reina, Mavis, and Mile thought hard, but then Pauline chimed in. “Well then, why don’t we just hand the wyvern over to the guild!”
“Wha…?! But I just told you that Lobreth is my friend…”
“And?”
By daring to call the creature “the wyvern” and not “Lobreth,” Pauline had emphasized that to them, “Lobreth” was nothing more than some monster.
“Our job was to ‘Capture and hand over the wild wyvern that attacked the village and stole their livestock, wounded tons of soldiers and hunters, and just so happens to have a human acquaintance,’ yes? What would you have to do with any of that? Would you walk up to a guard who’s about to arrest a murderer and say, ‘That person is my friend, so you can’t apprehend and punish him?’ He doesn’t belong to you or anything, does he?”
“Gnh…”
Pauline was still Pauline, after all. If the man wanted to say that he took no responsibility for the wyvern, then he should be treated accordingly. Yet he had taken the trouble to show himself, so this probably bothered him.
And then Pauline landed the coup de grâce.
“It would be awfully hard to transport this thing alive. It might break free along the way and hurt someone… How about this? We give up on turning it in alive and just kill it now? Even if there would be a bonus for bringing it in alive, I’d rather lose the ten gold than run the risk of it escaping during transport. Why not just take the surefire thirty gold and the job completion mark, along with the rank-promotion points?”
This man was middle-aged, and so had probably been a mage for many years, with the knowledge and ability to match. However, considering the way he was speaking and behaving, his interpersonal skills were lacking. Overwhelmingly so. Indeed, it was quite fair to ask whether he was Mile’s father.
Perhaps, in his years of research and practice, he had lived a life of almost no human contact.
Realizing Pauline’s plan was to rile the man up, Mavis and Reina joined in with that assumption in mind.
“You know, you’re right. Losing everything just for the sake of trying to get a bonus is probably pretty stupid of us.”
“That’s true. Let’s do it, then!”
“Wha…?!”
“Huh? But we don’t need to do that…”
Naturally, Mile was on the man’s side.
“Hm… I can tell that you aren’t like those others. You possess a kind heart. Plus, you have that silver hair, and those looks—so adorable, but a bit forlorn, as though you’ve lost something along the way, and that humble, moderately-sized bosom…”
“Sh-shut up!”
The man’s demeanor suddenly changed, and though he seemed to be praising her, his comments were incredibly rude. Mile was, understandably, indignant.
“All right, I’ll take you. I’ll gladly use that body of yours as a vessel for the mind of my beloved Elsie!”
“What the heck are you talking abouuut?! And, why would I be happy about thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!” Mile screamed.
Reina, Mavis, and Pauline all stood agape at the speed with which this conversation had escalated.
And Lobreth, sensing that the discussion had somehow turned away from him, appeared relieved.
“It was three years ago…”
The man began to tell some sort of tale.
The Crimson Vow were surprised at first, but as they considered it, they supposed that getting an explanation from the man was a welcome turn of events. They had plenty of time, so they decided to sit and listen closely. Even if it took a little while, nothing about the situation was going to change.
“Three years ago, my dearest Elsie passed away… In order to try and resurrect her, I removed the part of her body that holds her mind, and I froze it. Unfortunately, my storage magic only holds ten kilograms, so I couldn’t store her entire body…”
Apparently, this man had been putting into practice the excuse that Mile gave as to how she could keep the rock lizard for such a long time with storage magic: namely, by “insulating the exterior and applying ice magic at regular intervals.”
Even if he could only hold a small amount, the fact that this man could use storage magic at all put him in a league above your average mage—and the fact that he had come up with such an idea on his own meant that he was exceptionally talented.
“After that, I just needed to get my hands on a young and healthy body, but transporting one back to my abode deep in the mountains would be troublesome, so…”
Suddenly, this tale was growing unsettling.
“Anyway, to ensure that I had a means of travel and transportation, I thought that I might employ a wyvern.”
Ah, so that’s why we’re talking about this…
Finally the dots had been connected.
“I painstakingly sought out a wyvern’s dwelling, waited until brooding season, and then infiltrated a nest, settling in the shell of an egg that had already hatched and covering myself. When the mother returned, I pretended I was a chick, hatching from the egg. Wyverns, not known for their intelligence, are impressionable enough to think that anything that hatched from their own egg must be their young.”
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!!!
The four girls interjected internally.
“And then, as I ran for dear life…”
“You just left out the most interesting paaaaaaart!” they all screamed at once.
The man hung his head and muttered, “I don’t want to remember that part…”
“O-of course.”
They understood.
“As I cowered there, covered in blood, a demon appeared…”
“D-demon?”
Mavis sounded shocked.
Demons dwelled mainly in the northernmost reaches of their continent, cut off from human-inhabited realms by the wide mountain range that ran between the two regions.
It was not that these mountains were entirely impassable, but it was extremely difficult to try and cross them in a wagon. No one ever attempted it unless they had an extremely compelling reason to do so.
Plus, demons and humanoids—in other words, humans, elves, and dwarves—rarely got along.
In fact, even though they were called “demons,” they had no interest in worshipping the devil or trying to overthrow mankind. They were merely a slightly different species. As a race, they also possessed far greater magic than humans. That was the real difference.
Over time, their name had actually been shortened from its original form, “decidedly magical persons,” to “demagicians,” to merely “demons.”
There was not a huge distinction between them and humans, so fundamentally, it would not be a stretch for all four races—humans, elves, dwarves, and demons as well—to be considered humanoid. So there could only be one reason why demons should be put in a separate category:
Jealousy.
That was all there was to it.
They had greater magic than humans, better constitutions than elves, and were more skilled than dwarves.
The differences were subtle. It was an incredibly nuanced talent that they possessed.
As far as humans were concerned, elves were beautiful and had strong magic, but they were frail and delicate. This was permissible.
Dwarves were sturdy, and skilled craftsmen, but their magic was weak, and they were short and stumpy. This was permissible as well.
However, demons were not markedly inferior to humans in any way, and in fact exceeded them ever so subtly by most measures. This was unforgivable.
Elves and dwarves felt the same way.
They hadn’t done anything to deserve it, but something about the demons drove the other races mad… This happened often.
Even so, it seemed that at some point in the past, they had all lived together. But now, no one could say when the division occurred that resulted in the demons moving away. No one in the present day knew what had happened, or the reason for it, but it was clear that the negative feelings were mutual.
However, while it did seem that they had clashed in the past, there was no specific conflict to speak of in the present. Now and then, you might even see a demon merchant or researcher stop by a humanoid settlement.
Furthermore, as there were few differences between demons and humans, if they hid themselves behind a hat or hood and made sure that no one noticed their narrow, elongated pupils, it was not so difficult for demons to simply blend in.
Incidentally, though beastpeople were rather weak at magic, for some reason, they were closer to demons than to humanoids. Therefore, beastpeople rarely showed up in human settlements, either. Not that they didn’t ever appear.
While Mavis, as a noble, and Mile, as a noble-slash-bookworm, had some knowledge of these circumstances, Reina and Pauline, both commoners, knew nothing about them at all. At best, they thought that demons were evil people who could use strong magic, and that beastpeople were the demons’ violent pawns.
Clearly, this was the reason that Mavis was surprised that a demon might have appeared in this area.
Why would they show themselves in a place like this…?
“He patched my wounds and shared his food and water with me. He asked me how I got so injured, and when I answered, he let out a big laugh, and said, ‘All right, let me handle this.’ Several days later, he brought me this.”
The man pointed at Lobreth.
“Huh??”
This story was incredibly bizarre.
No matter how much they questioned this plot-hole-filled tale, though, the facts of the man’s explanation did not change.
They knew that something had happened. They just could not fathom what the demon’s aim could be.
However, they decided to leave that alone for now and focus on the matter at hand: the old man and Lobreth.
“Lobreth was much smaller at that time. However, he was naturally intelligent, and quite accustomed to people, or at least, to the demon. Once the demon turned him over to me, he embraced me as well. I fed him, and taught him many things, and once he grew old enough, he left the nest. And of course, by ‘nest,’ I mean the nest that I built near my house. The demon had used Lobreth like a horse to ride, or livestock, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that. So Lobreth is simply my friend. That is how I think of him.”
“What a nice story… not!!! Weren’t you just intending to scoop out my skull and replace my brains?!” Mile raged.
“Your brains? What are you talking about?”
The man looked perplexed. “I thought I explained this! I need to exchange your mind with Elsie’s!”
“Oh, right. A heart transplant, then. I guess that wouldn’t really have anything to do with something like the brain, an organ that doesn’t do anything but produce snot, would it?”
“Huh?” Mile said.
Beside her, Reina, Mavis, and Pauline all nodded, as though this were a completely natural conclusion.
“Whaaaaaaaat?!”
Apparently, people in this world thought along the same lines as the inhabitants of ancient Egypt. Even though none of the books that Mile had read up until that point had said anything along those lines…
Though, thought Mile, back in the Kingdom of Brandel, where I was born, I got the impression that the theory was that your mind is in your head…
At one point, Marcela even said to me, “Miss Adele, just what goes on in that head of yours?!”
But, now that I think about it, even in Japanese we have a separate word for the heart as an organ, which means that in ancient times, even Japanese people probably thought that your heart—as in your mind—was in your actual heart…
And I guess it’s true that when you think inappropriate thoughts, it’s your heart that’s fluttering, not your brain…
In any case, it seemed that Mile’s brains were safe. That was, as long as her transplanted heart could pump enough blood to it.
“So what do you think? Will you do this for me? It’s not such a horrible idea, is it?”
“It’s absolutely horrible!!! Worse than horrible—it’s unthinkable! Who would possibly agree to that?!?!”
They had no idea what the old man was even saying anymore.
Mile had thought herself completely reasonable, but apparently, in the old man’s view, this was not the case.
The man would not let up.
“I’m begging you! I want to live with my precious Elsie once more! I want to hear that adorable little bark of hers again…”
“She’s a doooooooooooooog?!?!” Mile’s scream rang out.
“Why would you put a dog’s heart into me—a human?! If she’s a dog, shouldn’t you put her heart in a dog’s body?!”
“Huh? Well, I mean, that was certainly my intention up until just a little while ago, but somehow, you’re just the spitting image of her… Plus, a young girl’s body is clearly much more interesting, for a number of reasons…”
“Whether or not it’s interesting is not the issue here! Plus, how do you expect a dog’s mind to function in a human body?! What happens when it wants to go to the bathroom?!”
The man stopped and stared at her, apparently pondering something.
“Are you imagining iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit?!?!”
Her breath ragged from screaming with so much rage, Mile got the feeling that she finally understood exactly how Reina always felt.
“Anyway, I absolutely refuse! If the heart was frozen normally, then its cells would have broken down on freezing. No matter how much healing magic you used on an orc steak, it wouldn’t bring it back to life, would it? Even if you could successfully transplant something with healing magic, that magic doesn’t have any effect on the dead. That’s because the basis of healing magic… is…”
Even if she were to simply tell him that this heart transfer was impossible, Mile realized, he wouldn’t believe her. Therefore, she abandoned her explanation mid-thought.
“Sh-shut up! Don’t act like you know everything! You couldn’t possibly understand the way I feel! To me, Elsie is—Elsie is…”
“To me, she’s just some complete stranger’s pet dog!”
“Guh… Y-you… Fine, Lobreth, do it!”
With a screech, Lobreth stood up and spread his wings. The cord binding his legs, wings, and mouth had been completely undone.
“H-how…?” Mile asked, surprised.
The man explained with a sneer.
“Did you really think I was just talking your ear off for no reason? Bwahaha! While I was talking, I was using part of my mind for silent casting, blasting those ropes with miniscule but powerful fire magic in places you all couldn’t see! That’s how I burned through Lobreth’s bonds! You stupid little girls know nothing about battle—you have a thing or two to learn!”
Carbon nanotubes were still carbon, after all. They were not particularly flammable, but that meant nothing more than saying it was difficult to ignite coal with a single match. If the thin cords were exposed to high-powered flames, they would burn like anything else. Just as even diamond might burn.
Because he was at such a close range, Lobreth did not use his Breath, but instead launched a direct attack.
However, perhaps because his opponents were women, and he had been told to take it easy on them, he attacked not by biting or clawing at them, but by flapping his wings. He was a sporting fellow.
But then, Lobreth saw Reina and Pauline brandishing their staves and beginning to chant spells, and Mavis wielding her sword. Remembering the magical attack he had desperately dodged earlier, and the pain in his tail, he began beating his wings frantically, whipping up a powerful whirlwind.
And then, whipped by the winds, Reina, Pauline, and Mile’s skirts began to rise.
“Eeeeeeeek!!”
Reina and Pauline stopped their incantations and hurriedly pushed their skirts back down.

average 3.3

Chapter 26:
A New Request
“Now then, I wonder if there are any interesting jobs here…”
The Crimson Vow looked over the job request board, uttering words that would surely draw the ire of any low-ranking hunters struggling to make a living, if they overheard.
The last job they had done was a personal matter, and they weren’t hurting for money, so this time, they wanted, for a change of pace, to pick a job that was interesting or unusual—not the kind of minor work you did by rote.
However, they had to take care not to let any parties who were hurting for money overhear them saying such a haughty thing. Inevitably they would be chewed out, in a “Just who do you think you are?” sort of way. To put it in terms of the idioms Mile knew from her past life, they were being so boastful that, “Even Gandhi would run up and slap them.”
Thankfully, no one nearby seemed to find fault with their comments, and simply ignored them, continuing to browse the board themselves.
“Oh, this one…”
At Mile’s words, the other three felt a sense of déjà vu.
Indeed, it reminded them very much of the time they had found the posting for the rock lizard hunting job…
On the advertisement that Mile pointed to was written the following:
Wyvern Hunting. Reward: 30 gold pieces.
“This is the ooooooooooooooone!!!”
Among draconic types, wyverns were in the class of what were called pseudo-dragons.
Unlike the so-called elder dragons, which were at the apex of that taxonomy, and then the more standard dragon varieties such as earth and water dragons beneath them, pseudo-dragons, while still dragons, were vastly inferior in rank.
To defeat even a normal dragon—even below the class of elder dragons—one would need to dispatch at least tens, or more likely hundreds of fighters for the sake of safety and certainty. Even then, felling the dragon was not a done deal.
A serious extermination effort would need to include several spirited dragoons and employ a fairly complex ballista. It had to have a “primary force,” as well as a “secondary” force, proportionate in size.
In a nutshell, while pseudo-dragons still carried the name “dragon,” they were, as the tag “pseudo” implied, significantly inferior creatures. In other words, they were weak. So much so that even a team of only six to eight hunters, with the right formation and technique, could fell one.
Of course, whether or not a group of that size could fell one without taking any injuries was another matter entirely…
As a result of that—and because they did still have the classification of “dragon” attached to them, the pay for hunting pseudo-dragons was quite good.
With just a few people in a party, the probability of grave injury or death could be fairly high, and naturally, the more fighters who were included, the more expenses added up, with the pay-per-person falling accordingly.
Furthermore, materials from such a hunt would sell at a fairly good price. Not only was the work interesting; when it was done, one could then say, “I felled a dragon.”
This was the first time that the Crimson Vow had laid eyes upon a wyvern-hunting request.
This region was not especially close to where wyverns dwelled, so if they let this chance slip by them, who knew when they might have another chance to take advantage of such an opportunity?
They absolutely could not let this one pass them by.
“I really would advise against…”
At the clerk’s words, the girls once again felt a sense of déjà vu.
Yes, indeed, this was just like the time when they tried to take on the rock lizard hunting request…
“Come on, have we not proved our skills to you already?!”
“Even if you claim—”
Undeterred by Reina’s haughtiness, the clerk tried to explain.
“First of all, to hunt a wyvern, you need to pull it out of the air, down onto the ground. In order to do that, not only do you have to have the power to bring it down, you need to be fast, have a lot of stamina, and have ranged attacks that can strike upward at a long distance. If the majority of your party cannot fulfill these conditions, then you must give up on this job.”
“We have three mages, all of whom can use strong attack spells! We’re fine!”
Ignoring Reina’s retorts, the receptionist continued.
“Furthermore, even if you manage to land a good deal of damage upon it, the wyvern will run.”
“Wh…?”
The four were stunned. The clerk explained further.
“Wyverns aren’t the type to keep fighting stubbornly until the end. If they feel they’re outnumbered or outclassed, they fly away at top speed. After that, they will remain in their nests. Then, once some time passes, they will emerge, but even then, they won’t return to the location where they were attacked for a very long time. Most wyverns have very wide territories.
“Plus, the wyverns will remember any human who harmed them. Even if they encounter them in an entirely different place, they won’t approach any hunter who faced them with malice ever again. And furthermore…”
“Furthermore?”
“A wyvern’s hunting ground covers an area of dozens of kilometers in every direction. Where, in all that space, do you intend to find one?”
“Uh…”
The Crimson Vow all stood slack-jawed.
“You’re facing an opponent who can fly through the air at top speeds, with an immense territory amidst which you can’t know when or where they will appear. Once you finally encounter one after ages of lying in wait, then the battle can begin. After your allies have been killed or sustained grave injuries, just when you think you’ve got it on the ropes, then the wyvern runs away. And after that, it will never come near you ever again.
“You’d fight for days in vain, sustain casualties, and fail to complete your assigned task, meaning that you don’t get paid, and also have to pay the job-failure fee. Then, there would be medical bills for your party members, and you’d have to deal with the bereaved families of the fallen… Please think carefully about why this job is still here, even when the pay is relatively good. If you don’t, you may not have a very long life before you.”
“…………”
The four were stunned even further into silence, but the clerk was not yet finished.
“As far as dragon classifications go, it’s true that wyverns are still considered to be pseudo-dragons. If a well-composed party with the right compatibility battles one head-on at full power from the outset, then a wyvern isn’t such a fearsome foe. Indeed, for a party with sufficient power and experience, winning in and of itself would not be all that difficult. However, what is difficult is snagging the opportunity to fight against a wyvern in earnest, and often, when you finally get one, it will run just when it looks like the fight is in the bag. A wyvern is a troublesome foe of a very specific ilk.
“This is a job that is practically blacklisted, probably posted by some desperate client who couldn’t get anyone from their local guild branch or the surrounding ones to take it. Neither their local lord nor the Crown would help them, so they came here to the capital branch, thinking that among all of the hunters on our roster, there would be someone just foolish or starved enough to take it.
“We have a name for jobs like this, ones that are likely to result in your allies’ blood flowing like rivers, where the cons far outweigh the pros… A ‘red mark.’ Jobs like these are only for stupid beginners and heroes.”
As she finally wrapped up her explanation, the Crimson Vow looked at one another.
They nodded as one, and then Reina replied for them all.
“We’ve been waiting for something like this. We’ll accept this ‘red mark’ job!”
“Wha…?! Did you not hear a word I just said? What in the world are you thinking?”
“My, my! Isn’t it your job to allow us to accept jobs?”
“Gngh…”
At Reina’s prodding, rage began to simmer up within the clerk, but then she remembered her place, swallowing her words.
“Wh-why exactly do you want to take this job?!”
“Does it really seem so strange to you? You just said so yourself, didn’t you?”
“What?”
The clerk tilted her head in confusion, so Reina elucidated: “It’s. Because. We’re. A. Bunch. Of. Stupid. Beginners… And we’re heroes!”
Ignoring the clerk, who was utterly speechless, Mile shouted from beside her, “Wait a minute, Reina! How come when you said ‘stupid,’ you were looking at me?!”
And so, in the end, the Crimson Vow accepted the wyvern-hunting job.
As much as the clerk might be able to advise them, she was in no position to refuse a legitimate job acceptance based on her own misgivings, as long as the party in question met the appropriate qualifications. If she had justifiable reasons to refuse them, or prior approval from upper management, it would be one thing, but this incident did not fall under either of those scenarios.
And so with a heavy heart, the clerk, who was quite fond of the Crimson Vow, processed their request.
***
“All right! First, let’s stop by the guild.”
They were five days’ walk from the capital. Having arrived in the town from which the wyvern-hunting request was originally issued, the regional capital of Helmont, the Crimson Vow headed to the local guild branch. They explained to the clerk there that they were the ones who had taken on the job, and, after a short wait, they were directed up to the guild master’s second-floor office.
“So you all are the hunters from the capital who accepted the wyvern-hunting job…?”
As the girls entered the office, the guild master greeted them with a despondent, almost angry expression.
“I take it you accepted this job knowing full well what wyvern hunting entails…? Did any of the staff at the capital branch properly explain this task to you?”
The girls were somewhat annoyed that the middle-aged guild master had started the conversation this way the very moment they entered the room, without even a greeting. However, there was no particular ill intent behind his words. He probably was merely concerned about these rookie girls doing something so dangerous, so they ignored his tone and continued to listen.
“If I send hunters from the capital off to a pointless death, my reputation will take a huge hit. Worse, if I let four cute young girls get killed, everyone’s going to start talking about me.”
“…………”
Apparently, the only one he was worried about was himself.
“We are a C-rank hunting party, the Crimson Vow, who have accepted the wyvern-hunting job from the capital guild branch.”
As Mavis was still too stunned by the guild master’s words to reply, Reina took the lead.
Compared to her fellow party member, she had a much lower boiling point; however, she was also well aware of the impression her appearance gave. Based on her looks, she knew, people tended not to take her seriously on first meeting her. This particular problem did not anger her.
Or really, that was not fair to say. It was just that she was accustomed to it. That was all.
Besides, this time, Mile was with them. Telling herself that Mile’s presence must be the reason the guild master was looking down on them, Reina’s spirits remained high.
“What? The Crimson Vow, you say?”
The guild master seemed a bit shocked at the introduction.
“You are the ones who…”
It seemed that he had heard rumors of them. Maybe it was about the mock battle at the graduation exam, or about the bandit-slaying, or the wicked merchant… No, actually, that last incident had been handled by the mysterious party, the “Order of the Crimson Blood,” so that couldn’t be it… Anyway, he could have heard about them anywhere.
As far as the merchant incident went, anyway, it would still be some time before rumors about them made it from Talwess to the capital, and then from the capital out into the other regions. Public officials and nobles were one thing, but it took much longer for rumors to reach the ears of the common folk.
“Um, I don’t know what you are insinuating. But, yes, we are the Crimson Vow.”
This time, Mavis was the one to reply. At least for now, she was the party leader. Even though it was easy to forget about that now and then…
“I have heard rumors of you. About the strength of your mages and the skill of your swordswoman… If you’re the ones facing the wyvern, then perhaps there is a chance that you might be able to strike it down and land the finishing blow once it has fallen. However, I’m not confident that you’ll be able to land enough damage to strike down the wyvern in the first place. Don’t you think this might be a pointless venture? Not only might you get hurt, but you’ll have to pay the penalty fee…”
“Even so,” Mile interjected, “we’ve already accepted the job!”
The guild master grimaced, knowing this to be the case.
Finally, recognizing that they were no ordinary rookie hunters, he explained to them the details of the job.
They had already heard the gist of the assignment from the staff at the capital branch, but what had been written on the job-request ticket was a simplified summary to begin with. Moreover, there was new information that had come to light since the job was posted, and there were a number of small details to inquire after.
Usually, this sort of briefing would be the clerk’s job, but in this case, it was an important request, one that had been recirculated all the way from here in Helmont to the capital branch. In short, because the Crimson Vow had been dispatched from the capital to handle a job request at the Helmont branch, this task became the guild master’s personal responsibility.
That said, it was still generally the case that after a brief discussion with the guild master, a clerk would go over the finer details. Yet in this situation, it seemed that the guild master had taken a personal interest in the Crimson Vow, making this an exceptional instance where he himself would explain everything in detail.
Because the contents of this request were of a rather formidable nature, the guild master explained it all to them frankly, holding nothing back. Throughout, the expressions of the Crimson Vow were impassive…
“So, let’s get this sorted.”
After leaving the guild behind, the girls headed to an inn and booked a four-person room, then began their team meeting. As always, Reina was the moderator.
“First of all, our client is the local lord. However, the lord is only paying the reward. He gave the guild free reign to handle the details, so we don’t need to worry about arrangements. There won’t be any need for us to meet with the client, either.”
This much they had heard from the guild master.
It seemed that this lord had no interest in meeting with such lowly creatures as hunters.
This was completely normal. Indeed, times when nobles actually took time to meet with hunters—such as when Count Amroth, the presiding lord from the bandit incident, had met the Crimson Vow—were few and far between.
To tell the truth, all of the Crimson Vow were far more comfortable with it being this way. The only one who wouldn’t be troubled by meeting with a noble was Mavis, who was, of course, accustomed to that sort of thing.
Even for Mile, her experience talking and dining with nobles outside of her family was more or less limited to the time they had spent with Count Amroth. Plus, now that her memories of her previous life had returned, talking with nobles made her very tense. While it would not be outwardly apparent to most, Mile was a bit tense to begin with. Of course, when she was at the academy, she was comfortably conversing normally with a noble classmate, but that was another matter entirely.
“The wyvern has been active across roughly thirty percent of this region. The wyvern’s active area has also included about half of the neighboring region, but that’s a largely uninhabited area, so most of the casualties have actually been from this region. Likely, the lord of that region did nothing about it because they figured it would be handled by the people over here. Honestly, I would do the same in that lord’s shoes. It’s stupid to waste your soldiers and resources on a pointless task,” said Reina.
The other three nodded in agreement. Of course, they had all heard this information from the guild master, but it was important to review everything aloud as a group like this. It would eliminate any miscommunications and make certain that they were all on the same page, smoothing out the proceedings going forward.
“And so, the problem is this.”
With these words, Reina spread the copied materials that they had received from the guild master out across the table.
It was a crude map of this region and the next, with notes marking the towns that the wyvern had attacked, the other places it had been sighted, and the dates and times of these incidents.
The marks were, for the most part, concentrated within a particular radius. This much was fine. This much was completely normal. However…
“How weird…”
“Yeah, that’s a little unnatural.”
“It’s a little different from what we heard in the capital about wyverns’ usual habits…”
Just as Pauline, Mavis, and Mile had all noted, this wyvern’s territory appeared to be in a slightly—no, an incredibly—strange location.
First off, compared to your average wyvern, the apparent scope of this one’s territory was very small. Normally, they hunted across a far wider area. And since wyverns rarely appeared in this area to begin with, it could hardly be the result of a turf war or something similar.
Next, there was the fact that the reported sightings of the wyvern formed a perfect circle.
Now, that they formed a circle was not all that strange in and of itself. However, the circle that they formed, in this case, was too perfect. Normally, the dots would be a bit more scattered, the sort of shape that was vaguely, mostly a circle. This was far too much like an actual geometric shape.
Yet the clincher was the times and dates of the appearances.
They were precise.
This wyvern appeared systematically in the same key locations at excessively punctual intervals.
The wyvern had chosen when and where to appear as though it had a comprehensive knowledge of the human calendar and the different days of the week.
This was, of course, suspicious. Indubitably so.
However, the wyvern itself was not the only thing that the Crimson Vow found suspicious here.
“Naturally, other hunters have found this strange as well, and countless parties have accepted this job. And yet, they’ve all ended up with casualties and zero results. There’s just a string of red marks. Of course, that isn’t so strange. We could come up with plenty of reasons why that might happen—the hunters weren’t skilled enough, or the wyvern was too strong, things like that. However, if it is relatively easy to encounter…”
“Then,” Pauline muttered, “shouldn’t the regional forces have been deployed?”
Indeed, the primary reason that local armies were not usually deployed for wyvern hunting was that wyverns were relatively difficult to locate. Mobilizing a great number of soldiers for many days required a lot of money. If one were to embark on such an operation fruitlessly, the army’s entire budget could be wasted.
An opponent with an incredibly low encounter rate was not one that a lord would be interested in taking on.
However, if there was a relatively high chance that one would be able to encounter the wyvern, that should be a different story.
Defeating the wyvern would put a stop to further casualties in the region, provide good battle practice for the soldiers, strengthen one’s reputation amongst the other lords, raise one’s standing in the eyes of the Crown, and improve the general morale of the populace. With these aims in mind, it would be worthwhile to spare both a bit of the budget and even a few casualties.
Even if the wyvern escaped after they shot it down, it likely would not appear in that town again, so it would effectively be driven away—another appealing outcome.
If the wyvern was making such regular appearances, why hadn’t the troops been dispatched?
“There must be some reason why they haven’t sent the army out…” said Mavis.
Mile continued: “Or they did send them out, and they were already defeated. And now, they’re just covering that up?”
Silence fell across the room.
The next morning, the four gathered up their things and left the inn, headed for a certain village.
Naturally, the place they were headed was where the wyvern was scheduled to appear tomorrow. There were no carriages that ran there, and it would take half a day to reach on foot, meaning that they would be arriving in the early afternoon.
The Crimson Vow had ridden in their client’s wagons or in a passenger carriage many times, but in truth, this would count as a luxury for most hunters. Barring instances where they had a lot to carry, had injured or otherwise incapacitated party members, or some other limiting circumstance, hunters typically traveled on foot.
As they walked, the girls discussed their current job.
“What’s the story with the lord, do you think?”
“Well, the pay is right. It just seems like, after countless parties were annihilated, there was no one left here to take the job. Eventually, it got transferred to the capital… But as long as we’re involved, that won’t happen again.”
“Yeah. If he were scheming, then he would probably want to meet up with us. If you’re trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes, it’s important to meet them in the flesh. Conjecturing based only on assumptions is dangerous, but really, I don’t think anything suspicious is happening here.”
Pauline and Mavis agreed with Reina’s assessment. Mile, who was rather removed from the thoughts and motivations of other people, merely nodded in agreement.
“Plus, there is a strong correlation between sending out more soldiers and registering more casualties, isn’t there?”
“That’s true.”
“Indeed, if they took one-sided losses, without conquering or driving the thing away, then they couldn’t possibly approve any more casualties. Losing multiple times would just cause them to lose face… By sending the job to the hunters’ guild, all you lose out on is the payment for the job, and for a lord, it’s much safer to say, ‘I’ll just pay the money, and have someone else take care of it for me.’ They only have to pay for a success, so no matter how many times the mission fails, that’s all they’ll ever lose.”
Leaving Mile in the dust, the other three continued their conversation.
“So then, this begs the question: If everything is normal, and the lord expects that the wyvern can be eliminated, then why hasn’t it been eliminated yet? A wyvern is a dangerous opponent for a normal party, but any party who took on the job would have known at least that much, and only taken it if they felt they had a strong chance of succeeding. Right? As for the soldiers, even if they’ve specialized in fighting other humans, without much experience in beast-hunting, they’re still combat professionals. I’m sure they would have done enough preliminary preparation and planning, most likely with a veteran hunter along to advise them. Which means…”
“Oh oh oh! There’s a lot of the wyverns, or they’re very strong!”
Now that they had finally come upon a topic she understood, Mile chimed in.
She had leapt in at the juiciest moment, but Reina could understand Mile’s desire to contribute to the conversation when it finally came around to something that she understood. Gently, she acknowledged her.
“Well, something like that, yes…”
Such was the way of a leader… not. Mavis was the leader. Even if it was easy to forget that sometimes.
“Anyway, we must assume that our enemy is strong, and proceed with discretion. As Mile told us before, um, yes—‘Life is a precious thing,’” said Reina.
The other three nodded.
“Will we really be all right? It’s not that I don’t believe in everyone’s magic, but if you don’t pull the wyvern down to the ground, I won’t have any way to lend you my strength in the battle, so…”
“It’ll be fine! We’ll figure it out somehow!”
For some reason, Mavis had a bad feeling about Mile’s confidence…
It was already well past noon when they reached their destination. They had taken their time as they walked, discussing not only their job, but other frivolous things, and the journey had stretched on longer than they expected.
The four of them planned to get to bed early that night in preparation for the next day, so on arrival, they decided to go straight into reconnaissance. After that, they would eat their fill at lunch-slash-dinner and head straight to bed.
First, of course, they needed to find an inn. There was only one inn in the village, so there weren’t exactly a lot of choices. They told the innkeepers that they did not need to have dinner provided, and headed out to find an eatery or bar.
In a rural village like this, which was not even big enough to have a guild branch or post office, the best places to gather information were at a bar, the village elder’s house, and the marketplace.
However, in this case, as their job request had not come from this particular village, they did not expect that the village elder would have any pertinent information. Besides, they weren’t looking for any favors, so they decided to skip that step, at least for now.
“Here’s the place.”
After walking around for a bit without finding anywhere that resembled an eatery, they heard from the passersby they asked that the village had but one saloon, which served food as well as drink. However, it wasn’t very well marked…
This was the sort of little village that had very few visitors besides traveling peddlers, who already knew the place well, so there probably wasn’t much need for signage.
Upon entering the building, the girls found ten or so villagers inside.
“Huh?”
The four made a noise of surprise, not expecting the place to be so crowded at such an odd hour. The villagers were just as surprised to see them.
“What? You girls… you’re hunters, aren’t you?”
“Yes. We’ve taken on the job of hunting the wyvern. We’re a hunting party from the capital—the Crimson Vow,” Mavis replied.
The villagers clamored.
“W-w-we’re so grateful that you took on this job,” one of the villagers started in a slightly troubled cadence, then continued mincingly, “but, well…”
This was not an unreasonable response. Within the radius of the wyvern’s attacks, this village was the closest to the regional capital. In other words, most of the parties that had taken on this job had probably tried to use this village as an interception point, and perhaps the local troops had even used it as a temporary base.
This, of course, meant that the villagers knew the results of all these expeditions.
If they had known that the next hunting party to appear would be a group of four young girls, they would have been discouraged, or overtaken by fear. So, the girls did not feel too bad about surprising them.
“Please don’t worry. We are already well aware of the circumstances. Three of us are mages, able to use strong attack magic, and the last is a strong swordswoman, able to defeat even a top knight. We will most definitely take down that wyvern! If you all can tell us everything that you know, our victory will be all the more certain!”
Hearing Pauline’s forceful speech, the villagers raised a cheer of joy, and one after the other came to share what they knew.
It seemed that the reason that so many villagers had gathered while the sun was still high was not only for the food and drink, but also to discuss the wyvern that was due to strike again the next day. In fact, the only things atop the tables were pitchers of water and wooden cups.
As the girls suspected, the villagers reported that a number of parties, as well as a dozen or so soldiers from the regional militia, had taken stabs at felling the wyvern, but all of them had sustained grave casualties.
Though the wyvern naturally defended itself from people who attacked it, outside of that, it rarely harmed anyone, most often simply grabbing the cattle, horses, or sheep it had decided to hunt that day in its claws before flying away. As a result, there had been no casualties among the villagers to date.
Because of this, the villagers did not personally fear the wyvern. However, having their livestock carried off at regular intervals meant that they could not make a living. For the village, this was still a matter of life or death.
And so, they had devised two plans. The first was to take the oldest, thinnest animal they had, and place it somewhere conspicuous in order to minimize the damages. The second was to chase the wyvern away, in order to protect all of the livestock. However, the first plan was not a long-term solution, as they would still be losing more and more livestock, which would hurt the village in the long run. And as for the second plan, if it went poorly, the wyvern might decide to switch its prey from livestock to humans. Whichever path they chose, it did not change the fact that the village’s prospects were looking dim.
“Hm? Cows and horses? Are wyverns really that big?”
Mile was utterly shocked.
Her surprise was not unreasonable. In order for birds to fly, their bodies had to be as lightweight as possible. They simply could not muster the power to fly while lifting something exceeding their own body weight.
Though clearly wyverns were not birds, just how immense would they have to be in order to fly carrying an entire cow…?
“What are you talking about? They taught us all about the standard monster sizes at prep school…” Reina groaned, exasperated.
Mile replied, “No, I do remember that much, but there are different types, so… Anyway, I didn’t think that they would be big enough to fly away with a horse or cow! If they were a bird attempting to carry prey that size, they would have to be…”
“But birds can’t use magic.”
“Huh?”
“I said, birds can’t use magic, can they?”
“Magic…?”
“Dragons use magic to fly. Wyverns have large wings, so that’s one matter, but do you think that something with a body as large as an elder dragon’s could fly with their wings alone? Plus, things like dragon’s fire would have to be magic, wouldn’t they? Just how exactly did you think that all worked?”
“Maybe inside their bellies they have some kind of organ that works like a fire sac…?”
“Absolutely not!!!” the other three shouted in unison.
The villagers behind them nodded, too.
In her previous life, her father would have said something like, “They’re awfully dis-organ-ized.”
In that same life, Mile would have been ashamed by this ripe old dad joke, but thankfully, she had no friends back then, so he’d never had the chance to embarrass her in front of them.
That was perhaps the only benefit to not having any friends…
There was no doubt that there existed a subset of monsters that was capable of using magic, such as fire-breathing dragons and dire wolves that could leap with a force unimaginable on Earth. However, Mile had always simply assumed that those creatures were capable of such things because they lived in a fantasy world. She had never thought to question it very hard.
While yes, wyverns were still within the class of things that might reasonably be able to fly, it was an absolute mystery that elder dragons could do it, given their immense bodies and tiny wings.
In reality, these creatures surpassed humans in that, though they could not form the words with which to craft magic through complicated spells, they could merely “think intensely about their desired result” and make the same thing come about. And of course there were many that held immense magical power.
The (so-called) God had said of the nanomachines that “they react to the thoughts of living things and bring these desires into reality.” Not just “humans,” but “living things.”
That was when Mile recalled the very first time she spoke to the nanomachines. They had told her, “INCLUDING HUMANS, THE AVERAGE CREATURE IS SET AT A BASIC LEVEL 1.”
Returning to the conversation at hand, the Crimson Vow continued to listen to the villagers’ stories about the wyvern.
Putting all of their stories in order, the situation was, in brief, as follows:
Starting about two and a half months ago, the wyvern had begun appearing once every twelve days, taking with it a single cow, horse, or sheep each time.
At first, everyone was too frightened to do anything, but after it showed that it was no threat to the humans, they began to grow a bit more optimistic, and on subsequent visits they mustered all their courage to try and protect their livestock. Still, every time they faced the angry wyvern, their determination evaporated.
Perhaps realizing that the villagers lacked the basic means by which to attack it in the first place, and could only huddle together to defend themselves as it chased them off, the creature did not launch any deadly attacks. Instead, it appeared to be toying with them.
At first, when they informed the area guild branch and the local lord about this, the lord appeared uninterested. However, once he heard that the wyvern was appearing at regular intervals, his attitude changed.
Indeed, if encountering the wyvern was a sure thing, he could secure important battle practice for his troops, increase his reputation as a lord, and make the strength of his army known across the land, all at relatively little cost.
Plus, protecting his lands from harm was a lord’s duty, in the first place.
Unless a state of emergency had been declared, it was a policy that the guild could not issue its own job requests. In this case, as long as there had not been a request from the lord himself, there was, fundamentally, nothing they could do to act. They were not a charitable organization, and without anyone to pay the fee, no hunters would take on the job. It was not the guild, but rather, the lord or the Crown who was expected to be in charge of eliminating things like wyverns.
Unless there was an emergency, the guild acted only once a job had been filed. Such was the nature of things.
However, a rule of thumb also existed that indicated the guild should be informed of the appearance of a strong monster, for, if all the hunters within the region were to combine their forces, they could likely outdo even the regional army. It was with this in mind that the villagers contacted the guild.
The lord had dispatched an extermination force of eighteen soldiers, including combat mages, archers, and javelin throwers, who could bring the wyvern down to the ground, as well as lancers and swordsmen who could strike it once it was down.
Normally, excluding those who were A-rank or above, or perhaps the highest of B-ranks, your average soldier was stronger than a hunter with the equivalent years of experience. Therefore, this should have been more than enough soldiers to comprise an extermination force.
Even though they did not have a veteran hunter experienced in fighting wyverns along as an advisor, no one would complain about a team that strong being sent out to fight a single wyvern.
And so came the day of the wyvern’s next attack.
The villagers were instructed to remain in their homes for safety’s sake, and when they emerged, several hours later, what they saw was a bedraggled band of soldiers and a group of equally bedraggled mages, desperately using healing magic to patch up the more dire wounds.
The seriously wounded: six soldiers. The mildly wounded: five soldiers. MIA: a single cow.
About half of the seriously wounded were in such a state that the healing powers of these mages, who specialized in combat spells, would not cut it. Later, they would require multiple treatments from mages who specialized in healing. Of course, once they returned to the capital, there would be healing specialists who were in the lord’s employ, mage hunters who specialized in healing magic, and clinics that served the common folk, as well as those healing mages who had stepped back from the front lines for the sake of aiding the elderly. Once they arrived in the capital, those soldiers would be fine.
Still, an enemy who they assumed could be dealt with easily had wiped out their extermination force.
Moreover, the wyvern had clearly been holding back, toying with them. If it hadn’t, there was no way they could have escaped with zero deaths on their hands.
While their commander was flabbergasted that his soldiers had taken so many injuries, he judged that, while they had not defeated the wyvern, they had at least driven it away, saving the village from further injury. Thus, their duty was complete. He reported this to the villagers, and the news put a spring in everyone’s step.
Even if the wyvern decided to use villages in other territories as its hunting ground, that would be a problem for that region to deal with, and no further concern of theirs. Or so their hearts told them.
The villagers were relieved. No longer would the wyvern bring despair to their doorstep.
And then, twelve days after the battle against the soldiers, the wyvern reappeared.
In other words, the wyvern clearly had no thoughts such as “I lost” or “My opponent is a threat” running through its head. It had completely overlooked those weaklings who had come to harass it and flown home with its head held high and its prey in its clutches. It hadn’t the slightest reason to avoid this prime hunting ground from here on out.
The villagers had made no special arrangements and watched in panic as the wyvern took the youngest, most valuable of their heifers. Once again, they hurried to inform the officials and the guild, but the lord’s reaction was less than favorable, and so after that, one party at a time, the hunters began to appear.
They heard from the hunters that rather than sending out more troops, the lord had issued a request to the guild for the wyvern to be exterminated.
As far as the villagers were concerned, it did not matter who felled the wyvern. If the lord was willing to pay for someone else to do so, then they were all the more thankful for that.
However…
The first party. The second party. The third party.
One after another, the hunters failed.
They even heard tell that there were hunters who tried to face the wyvern at other locations as well, and that already, several other parties had been forced to retreat due to their injuries.
Fortunately, though there were many who had taken injuries, the villagers had yet to hear of anyone being killed, likely because, as always, the wyvern was only playing with them, holding back its true power. The wyvern could easily afford to do so, after all.
And then, just when it seemed that all the hunters nearby had been defeated, and none had appeared in the village for some time, the Crimson Vow had suddenly arrived.
“It’s all more or less as we predicted. Nothing really stood out to me in any of their stories. Except for one thing…”
“Yeah, you’re right. Everyone acted as they were equipped to, and handled themselves accordingly.”
“Indeed. It’s just that…”
The four came to the conclusion as one:
“The wyvern is way too strong and way too smart!”
Indeed, that was the only thing that was particularly strange.
“I guess it makes sense that the request didn’t have the full details on it when it made it to the capital.”
Yes, just as Reina implied, there had been no extra information written on the job request slip. After all, most of the “facts” were still confined to the realm of rumor, while the rest would have been inconvenient for the client to relate.
Lying on a request was strictly forbidden, and intentionally withholding crucial information was taboo as well.
In those cases, if the client meant anything malicious by their omission, the deposit would be seized, and they would face the penalty of increased deposits and handling fees for any requests filed in the future. Furthermore, if the client’s omission put hunters in danger, they would be judged by a government official independent of the guild. In that case, it could become an incident of “attempted murder via willful negligence.”
However, in this case, the fact that the request was to “eliminate one wyvern,” as well as the general danger of the situation, had not changed. The fact that the soldiers had been defeated and the hunters had failed amounted to nothing that required special disclosure. If the opponent was not actually a wyvern, or there were multiple wyverns, that would be another matter entirely.
But in this case, it was simply that the wyvern was strong, or perhaps that the soldiers and the hunters were weak. No one could know for certain, so they had no responsibility to go out of their way to include this information in their request.
Plus, if the hunters did any investigating, such things would be easy enough for them to confirm for themselves.
If everyone were to share prolific details of indeterminate veracity on their request forms, their job acceptances would grow scarce, and those who would take on such clients would have more than enough information to try and negotiate a rate increase.
If the lord had included a note about the systematic nature of the wyvern sightings, the number of takers for the job might have increased; however, if they did so, it would also have awakened suspicions, inviting questions which would be inconvenient to address, such as, “Why is it so systematic?” “Why doesn’t the military handle it?”
“So, the question is… what should we do?”
“Normally, the only choice would be to face it head-on and bring it down.”
“Yeah. There isn’t really any other way…”
As Reina, Pauline, and Mavis had all suggested, even if the wyvern was a fairly intelligent creature, and even if there was something else at play, “exterminating the wyvern” was still the task that the Crimson Vow faced.
The Crimson Vow were neither royal spies nor official investigators. Without any special authority, they had no right to take on that sort of task.
The task they had accepted was simple: defeat the wyvern. That was all.
Later, they went back over the information that they had gathered from the villagers. However, since no one had been brave enough to peek around the battlegrounds where the soldiers and hunters faced the wyvern, and no one had been stupid enough to interrogate anyone who was injured and preparing to retreat to the capital as soon as they could, the particulars of the previous battles were unclear.
The local guild branch likely would have investigated all of this, but what the guild master would not have expected was the fact that there was nothing special to report.
They probably already knew that the wyvern was strong, but that much could be guessed from the failed hunters who came back with nothing more to report than the fact that their enemy had been a powerful one. If there had been something else to report, like the fact that there were three wyverns, or that this one could breathe fire and shoot laser beams from its eyes, then that would have been a different story…
Once their information-gathering mission had concluded, the Crimson Vow ate their lunch-slash-dinner at the saloon and retired to the inn.
Aside from Mavis and Pauline, who ate comparatively little, the villagers were agog to watch such small girls wolf down such large mountains of food. However, they had gone without lunch, and whenever a hunter could eat, she should always eat her fill. Particularly while they were in a completely safe place, where there was no worry of them cramping up from a full stomach.
Pauline and Mavis were a little embarrassed to be eating while the watching villagers were not, but Mile and Reina did not even appear to notice.
Reina would have written it off as nothing, since even while they were eating they were still on the job. As for Mile, she was merely hungry, and did not think anything of it at all.
Apparently, compared to her previous body, in this life Mile’s body was not very fuel-efficient…
***
The following morning, a single cow was taken from the village to the top of a short hill, a little bit away from the village, then fastened in a clearing of trees.
Naturally, the Crimson Vow was there as well.
If the Crimson Vow were to stand alone atop a hill, that alone might have been enough to attract the wyvern’s attention; however, on the off chance that the wyvern were to develop a taste for human flesh, it might become a problem. They could not deny the villagers’ request to send a cow up as an offering as well.
Perhaps the villagers were considering the girls’ safety. If a cow, which was far more appetizing than a human, was present, and if the girls handled themselves properly, then it wasn’t impossible that the wyvern might simply grab the cow and fly right away. In that case, of course, they would not have succeeded with the extermination; however, compared to the possibility of the still-young girls becoming martyrs and seeing one or two of them dragged away by the wyvern, losing a single cow was nothing. So thought the kind-hearted villagers.
Once the cow was secured in the clearing, the villagers headed home, and the Crimson Vow waited silently for the wyvern to arrive.
Because their quarry was flying in from far off in the sky, it wouldn’t have been a problem for them to speak in quiet voices, but as hunters, they were trained not to speak while waiting to ambush a target…
As it happened, they were not alone. A courageous youth, who was “incredibly fond of cute girls,” was watching stealthily from behind a tree, waiting to run and alert the village the moment the wyvern flew away, should any of the girls sustain serious injury.
He was the sort of youth who, so far unsatisfied with the rough country girls of the village, would face any danger for the sake of a “pure and beautiful” young maiden. He was not bad-looking, and was often seen caring for children, but for some reason he had not been very popular with the women of the village. Perhaps that was because the only children he took care of were always young girls…
Still, the youth thought, compared to someone who never looked after children at all, he was a far better catch, so he was hard-pressed to understand what was so unappealing about his behavior.
Mile was scanning the perimeter with her location magic, so naturally, she knew that the youth was there. However, she assumed that he was a witness sent as a representative of the village and had already considered the possibility that there might be a messenger present to send for relief. So, she ignored him.
In any case, even if he were to see something odd in the ensuing scene, people would merely assume that he was overexcited by seeing a wyvern extermination for the first time in his life, or that he was exaggerating what he had witnessed for the sake of spinning a yarn. No one was likely to believe him.
Unless a number of people corroborated his testimony—or the listener was particularly gullible—no one was likely to believe a ridiculous story of what some villager had supposedly witnessed. If it was something that affected their own lives, people might be inclined to do a bit of investigation before waving it off as a lie, but if it was something like, “I saw an incredible battle!” they were likely to just laugh and ignore it.
In other words, he was harmless. Not a threat. That was the sum of it.
“It’s here!”
Of course, the first to spot the approaching wyvern was Mavis.
This was less a matter of her having a higher vantage point and wider field of vision because of her height, and more because of her innate abilities.
The other three looked in the direction that Mavis was pointing, and sure enough, there was a dark speck in the sky, growing larger by the second.
“Huh?”
Mile, whose abilities were even greater than those of Mavis, raised her voice in confusion.
“What’s wrong?” Reina asked suspiciously.
“It looks like the wyvern is already holding something…”
When they looked more closely, they saw, sure enough, that the wyvern appeared to be clutching something that looked vaguely like a cow in its talons.
“That’s weird… If it already got its prey somewhere else today, wouldn’t it just pass by this village?” Reina muttered.
And yet, the wyvern continued to fly straight toward them.
Then, when it was very near to the hill, it dropped in altitude and disappeared beyond the grove.
“Huh…?”
The four were stunned at this unexpected maneuver, but they quickly collected themselves and began to prepare.
When the wyvern rose above the trees again, it was no longer gripping the cow-like object in its talons, but instead a log about 30 centimeters in diameter.
“It’s coming!” said Reina.
“All right!!” the other three cheered.
It was not a particularly girlish battle cry, but they were hunters, after all.
It seemed that the wyvern had deemed the Crimson Vow to be a threat from the start.
Perhaps it could tell from their gear and weapons that they were not villagers, but of the ilk of those people who had launched attacks against it so many times before. It was in attack mode from the get-go.
In its talons it gripped a log, probably a fallen tree. The method that the wyvern had chosen to attack most effectively with this implement was a loft bombing attack.
Compared to a horizontal bombing, this method had a much higher rate of accuracy, and though it was a far greater burden on the body, if one could withstand it, the results were worthwhile.
A drop bombing attack of higher than a 30-degree angle, such as could be called dive bombing, would prove too difficult for a fleshy creature incapable of aerobraking, so the wyvern continued downward at a leisurely angle of less than 30 degrees, its large body accelerated by gravity and trembling violently against the pressure of the wind.
It would not need to pierce through any bulky shielding, so it did not require an immense amount of speed. On the contrary, the more slowly it descended, the more precisely it could aim at an enemy that was running around until the very last moment—and moreover, enjoy prolonging the fear it caused in its target for as long as possible.
There was no time for the girls to duck into the trees to avoid the attack.
Mile, judging from the fact that the wyvern was performing this trick so handily, deduced that this must be its preferred method of attack, and shouted directions to the group.
Hearing this, the other three did as she said. Normally, she was a bit of a scatterbrain, but when it came to magical abilities and other such miscellaneous trivia, everyone happily followed her lead. Even though they might poke fun at her for her sillier moments, no one thought Mile was stupid.
She was merely sheltered, couldn’t read a room, lacked common sense, was absentminded, made unthinkable mistakes, and was much too soft-hearted.
Basically, she was what most people in the world would call a fool.
The wyvern was fast approaching, but the four of them stood unmoving.
Then, just as the wyvern appeared to enter the final stage of its throwing attack, Mile shouted, “Run!”
As she had previously instructed them, they turned and ran with all their might in the opposite direction to the approaching wyvern.
Seeing this, the wyvern opened its beak, as if to grin.
Yes, its prey always ran. Then, the log would barrel forward, striking the running prey down from behind.
As long as it aimed a little ahead of its prey’s current position, the log would either hit them or else land just a little behind, before rolling in their direction. That was what it had learned from its master, and it had seen the effectiveness of this method confirmed time and again in real life.
From behind the point where its prey was running straight forward… Now!
“About face!”
At that moment, Mile, who was coolly keeping watch over her shoulder, saw the practiced movement of the wyvern’s claws and shouted.
The next moment, the four of them skidded to a halt and turned about, toward the wyvern, then ran at it at full tilt.
The log, which had already left the wyvern’s grasp, sailed over their heads and behind them.
“Attack!”
At Mile’s next signal, Reina and Pauline, who had been incanting as they ran, let their attack spells fly.
“Fire Bomb!”
“Water Bomb!”
Whoosh!
The wyvern, overcome with panic, twisted its body, barely managing to avoid the spells that came flying. The first one, and then the second…
“We did it.”
Watching the wyvern desperately dodge the magic, then take a swift upward turn to return to a higher altitude, Mile crossed her arms, looking on proudly.
“What do you mean, ‘We did it’?! It just got away! What do we do now?! I guess that did save us, at least…”
“It’s fine. It still hasn’t taken any damage, and it doesn’t seem like the sort of opponent to run away just from that little attack.”
As if it had heard Mile’s reply, the wyvern did not flee, but rather began circling in the sky above them once it had attained a sufficient altitude.
And then, Reina’s shout rang out. “Why is it that you can’t read people at all, but you can read monsters just fine?!?!”
The wyvern continued circling at an altitude their spells could not reach, peering down at their party. Apparently, now that the hunters had avoided its special attack and nearly scored a direct hit with their combat spells, it was remaining vigilant.
However, it had no intention of shamelessly running back home, or abandoning this valuable feeding ground.
“This time, we have to let off a preemptive strike,” Mile suddenly said.
Reina’s response was reflexive. “Preemptive strike?”
“It means that we have to make the first move,” Mile clarified.
“I know that much! What I was asking was, how do you expect us to attack an enemy that’s so high up our spells won’t reach it?! Guhuh, hff hff hff…”
Apparently, Reina had screamed her throat raw. A mage’s windpipe was a valuable asset.
Next time, I’ll make her some lozenges, thought Mile.
“Are you saying that your magic can reach it?” Reina asked, having recovered at least a little bit of her voice.
“Hmm. I don’t know about all that, but if we can’t reach it by attacking from the ground, then all we have to do is just get to somewhere where we can reach it,” Mile answered. “Therefore, Reina, would you please start the incantation for an attack spell? Just before you let it off, I’m going to make you fly with magic. And then, please fire your spell directly at the wyvern. We only have one shot at this, so please use the strongest spell you have!”
“Huh? Wh-what do you mean, ‘fly’? Wait a minute, just what are you…”
“Now! Hurry and start the spell! There’s no time!”
“Huh? A-all right, then…”
Now was not the time to sit and chat. Knowing this in her heart, Reina decided to trust in Mile. Even if she was talking nonsense, Mile was still a fellow party member and a reliable friend who had saved them many times before. If she couldn’t put her unconditional trust in her now, then what was their friendship for?!
Plus, she was rather interested in this alleged flying magic.
She was going to fly through the sky, free as a bird. Deep down, her heart was aflutter.
With this thought in mind, Reina began her spell. There was no choice here but to use her magnum opus, “Crimson Hellfire.”
Reina began the incantation, and when she had reached the halfway point, Mile grabbed her around both sides from behind.
“Eep!”
Reina was startled at this sudden gesture, but she was still a pro hunter, so she did not allow the flow of her spell to be broken. This was surely a part of the procedure for the flying spell, so she ignored the tickling sensation.
“Here we go! Thunderbird No. 1, prepare for liftoff!”
With that announcement, Mile swung her around in a huge circle.
“Wh-hwa-whaaaaaa-whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!”
As Mile swung Reina with all her might, finally, Reina let out a scream.
“Swingby!”
The moment that Reina had amassed enough centripetal force, Mile launched her toward the wyvern, at full strength.
“Magical Fireblaster, Reina Gun!!!”
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!”

avergea 3.2

A relieved, happy grin spread across Mavis’s face.
Mile pulled away from Pauline’s chest, grinning wide, the trails of tears still wet upon her cheeks.
Even Reina, unable to fully conceal her joy, looked on with a peculiar expression, her smile shining in her eyes.
“Now then, we had better get going. I don’t think the Crimson Vow will be splitting up for a while yet,” Reina said.
They all let out a cheer.
“Yeah!!!”
As soon as they received confirmation of their wages, per the job request, the merchant caravan began to move. Yet just as they were setting off, before they had even made it past the city limits, Count Austien and his two sons came rushing up, breathless.
“W-wait, please wait, Mavis!”
The four girls grimaced, sensing that trouble was once again on the horizon.
The merchants could not possibly ignore the count calling to them, so they stopped the wagons. With little choice now, the Crimson Vow hopped down to face the men.
“What is it, Father? I thought we had concluded our discussion…”
“Oh, yes. I fully acknowledge that. I don’t want to acknowledge it, and I don’t want to let you go, but I know I must. I won’t try and complain about it now. But there’s something else I’d like to talk to you about. Please, won’t you formally introduce me to your master?”
“Huh?”
“Your honorable master is incredibly strong. However, I don’t believe she has been formally instructed in technique, so there is little form to complement her immense physical ability. It’s regrettable—indeed, it’s painful to see! I was hoping to formally invite her into our household, so that we might facilitate a mutual exchange of skills…
“My thought was that I could instruct her in technique, and that in turn, your master could impart upon me the means by which I might attain such a superior physical form. That way, we could both become leagues stronger than we are now! Your master claims to be purely human. If that is the case, then might she still be young? If she were to wed a member of our family, then the future of the Austien line would be secure! Wouldn’t it be splendid for you and your master to become kin? What do you think? It’s a splendid idea, is it not? Now please, let me know how I might contact her!”
“Please, Mavis!”
“All we want is to be introduced!”
Waylon and Ewan bowed their heads as well. Certainly, the figure of this so-called “Master” suited the tastes of the men of the Austien line.
“Wh…?”
The Crimson Vow were stunned.
To tell the truth, they understood what the count was saying. But whether or not they thought it permissible was another matter.
From the count’s point of view, this proposal was not strange at all. In fact, this line of thought was only natural for the head of a militaristic clan.
What Mavis and the others were startled about was something else entirely.
Have they seriously not figured out who “Evening-Gown Mask” is with Mile standing right in front of them?!?!?!
Her mask from the match hadn’t even been enhanced with any sort of identity-obscuring magic.
Mile thought, I-Is this “the will of the world”? The “compelling forces” and “pre-established harmony” that (the so-called) God was talking about?!
Of course, this was not truly the case.
They were simply incredibly dense.
That was all there was to it.
Mavis managed to wave off the count’s request, telling her father to “Ask me about it the next time we meet.”
After that, the merchant caravan returned to the capital, largely without incident.
Well, at the very least, they weren’t attacked. If there were any trade routes that were attacked that frequently, anyway, no one would ever use them. And if a certain route did get that way, then commerce would grind to a halt, and the king or lords would send out a large-scale extermination force.
Normally, so as not to obstruct commerce, bandits aimed only for stupid merchants who were too cheap to invest in an escort, or weak targets that the king or lords would have no interest in. Normally.
Within the wagon, Mile and Mavis received a lecture from Reina.
“There is something that I need to say to the two of you…”
While the two of them wondered what this something might be, Reina continued.
“I’m sorry, but pickled cabbage is delicious! Especially when you eat it with boiled sausage!”
It was a completely frivolous topic.
“Or, when eaten as a snack along with ale…”
Why was she so invested in this pickled cabbage?
Not wanting to cross-examine their friend, Mile and Mavis sat quietly, listening respectfully to Reina’s sermon.
Their return to the guildhall also passed with little incident.
Theresa would be handling the report to the guild. As a result, there was no need for the Crimson Vow to do anything. All they had to do was receive the job completion approval for their escort job and collect their pay.
Theresa sneakily tried to collect pay for the job as well, but she was told that her portion would go to the guild master “because she was still on guild business.” Needless to say, she was quite vexed…
“We’re back!!”
As always, Mile called out when they entered the inn.
However, Lenny did not greet them in return with a cheerful voice, as she usually did.
Thinking this peculiar, Mile looked to the counter, only to see that no one was sitting there.
“Hm, I wonder if she’s in the bathroom?” Mile pondered, tilting her head.
Just then, the sound of pounding feet came from further within the inn, and Lenny came flying out.
“M-M-M-M-M-Miss Miiiiiiiiiiile!!”
Lenny flung her arms around her, letting out a sob.
“Wh-what’s wrong?!” Mile asked, startled.
Lenny explained through her tears.
She was at the end of her rope, and it was all thanks to the baths.
After the Crimson Vow had left the capital, Lenny went to seek out a mage on behalf of her busy parents.
Even if, proportionally speaking, magic-users were relatively rare, this was still the capital. About one in ten people was good enough at magic for it to be useful in their work, and about one in every few dozen skilled enough to earn a full-time living. With a population as large as that of the capital, there should be a fair number of such people around. Furthermore, many magic-users came from their home regions to live in the capital, meaning that there was an even greater abundance of talented workers, many of whom could be found around the local shops and factories, and at the hunters’ guild.
There was no need for them to worry about maintaining a reserve of magic when they were safe in the capital, particularly if they were a hunter. Even if they had stored away any magical energy just in case of an emergency, they should have no problem using most of it up by dinnertime or so. If they slept, it would all be replenished by the next morning, so it should have been well worth helping Lenny just to earn a little pocket money for booze and snacks.
At least, that should have been the case, and indeed, there were tons of people willing to take on the job.
However, this was where the troubles began.
The amount of water that your average mage could produce was very little.
Seeing how easily Mile had always been able to do it, Lenny had assumed that producing hot water with magic was rather simple, but in truth, it was quite a chore.
When one attempted to produce water with magic, unless another means was specified, the nanomachines in the area that the magic—or rather, the thought pulse—reached had to condense the water particles from the air. Until the temperature reached freezing, the water could not be completely extracted and would automatically be cut off at a moderate level. Therefore, people whose thought pulses had a short reaction range would not be able to produce very much water.
To obtain a larger supply, water had to be transported from a different place, typically by aerial means.
The distance of the water source also factored into this. If it was transported from the ocean, then the salt would have to be removed before it could be transferred. For particularly large amounts, this was not an instantaneous transfer, and the transmission formation would need to be maintained over a long period. Unless one gave extremely concrete instructions, the strength of the thought pulse and powers of visualization required to persuade the nanomachines to properly arrange this shot way up.
Therefore, for all but the most accomplished magicians, the amount of water produced would be limited to what was in the air in the immediate vicinity, which is to say, not very much. Once that water was removed from the air, subsequent attempts to draw water would prove fruitless, until the air currents moved to bring in new air that was full of moisture.
In other words, executing the magic necessary to draw out large amounts of water was quite difficult, and your garden-variety mage could produce only a little. That was the sum of things.
In fact, a simple way to gauge a magic-user’s abilities was simply to ask, “How much water can you produce, how many times can you do so in a row, and, how long does it take before you can draw water again?”
In conclusion, if one could only draw water from the air around oneself, it would be impossible to draw enough water to fill up an entire bath in one go. Plus, it would take some time for the moisture in the air to replenish itself, by which point the mage’s power would have dissipated. As the amount of mages the inn had to employ increased, the cost of the free food and drink they provided them had ballooned.
In response to this, the matron of the establishment had handed a hellish decree to her daughter.
“Let the magicians focus on using their powers for heating the water alone. As for retrieving it, Lenny, you can go draw it from the well…”
“I’m dying! I’m definitely going to die! Please, Miss Mile! You have to do something!!!”
“Ah…”
As far as Lenny was concerned, the fact that the bathtub was large was a curse. Filling it even halfway probably required countless trips back and forth to the well. Plus, it was not only the baths, but the reservoirs above as well, and filling them with water was quite difficult.
If things continued this way, in half a year, Lenny’s body would be strong enough for her to become a splendid hunter…
No, no, no, no, no!
The Crimson Vow all shook their heads in unison.
They truly were four peas in a pod.
For now, as a temporary countermeasure, they would partition off the baths.
One part of the large tub was sectioned off into a portion about the size of two of the bathtubs in an average Japanese household. When Mile and the others were not present, only this side would be used. It would still require a great amount of water to fill it, but considerably less compared to all the trips Lenny had been making up until then. That, combined with a little help from the magic-users, should make Lenny’s job a great deal easier.
“Th-thank you so much! Honestly, I really thought I was going to die!!”
The problem behind her ordeal had not been entirely solved, but at least when the Crimson Vow was present, she wouldn’t need to worry about it. Lenny looked greatly relieved— even more when Pauline tossed her another lifeline.
“It isn’t very efficient to use you for such a menial task when you can do so many other things around the inn, is it, Lenny? Wouldn’t it be better for you to continue your job as a receptionist and hire some orphan children to carry the water from the well? Orphans will work for cheap, and as long as they can earn enough money to buy food, then they’re happy, aren’t they? Hiring mages to produce the water must be a lot more expensive.”
Hearing this, a glimmer formed in Lenny’s eyes.
“M-my Goddess…”
And so, thanks to the black-hearted goddess, Lenny was saved from a life of pain—and a future as a beefy macho man.
“Now, that just leaves Mile…” Reina muttered suddenly, after a short rest in their room.
“Yeah,” said Mavis.
“You’re right…” Pauline agreed.
“Huh?”
Mile stared blankly.
“I’m saying that now that the troubles with Pauline and Mavis’s households are settled, that just leaves your folks, Mile. Pauline and Mavis’s situations were resolved in part thanks to you, so now it’s only right for the two of them to do something to help with your situation, don’t you think?”
“Yes!” said Pauline.
“Yeah, of course!” Mavis agreed.
However, Mile did not appear pleased.
“Oh… But, I’m being sought after by the king and princess back in my home country, you know? And if they say I have to take a husband, in order to continue my family’s line, I’ll have to give up being a hunter…”
“Well then, if you’re sure… Let’s take a break for a few days, and after that, we can start our next job!”
“Good idea. I hope we can find something fun this time!”
“That sounds good! Let’s pick something worthwhile—not something basic like goblin hunting!”
Somehow, it seemed that their previous topic had been thrown completely by the wayside.

Interludes
1. A Difficult Town to Live In
In a certain town, a man who had been swindled out of his money was being comforted by his friends.
“Do you plan on just lying here and crying yourself to sleep?” his friend asked.
“Of course not!” the man answered. “I’m still in pauling right now, but even I have crimsonian friends at my side. Soon enough, I’ll make a pauline-about happen!”
In this town, thanks to one particular incident, a number of special idiomatic phrases had come into use.
“Pauling”: n., adj. lying in wait, devising; or, plotting a counterattack.
“Crimsonian”: adj. merciless, and with an inhuman level of supporting strength.
“Pauline-about”: n. a disproportionate retribution.
This town was an incredibly difficult place for anyone named Pauline to live…
2. Ambition
“Now then, please carry the water from this well to both the bathtubs and the water supply up top that I showed you before.”
At little Lenny’s directions, the six orphans before her nodded dutifully.
After much trouble, Lenny had finally convinced her parents, who were beginning to grow concerned about how long the counter had gone unattended, to let her bring on some orphans for when the Crimson Vow was out of town.
The pay was low, but for children who were guild hopefuls—particularly those who lacked the funds for regular meals—the job was a godsend. The job was not dangerous, it would strengthen their bodies, it went on for several days, and they would earn enough money to eat for a few days after it was over. Plus, even once their tasks were done, they could return at the next opportunity, and there was the possibility that more clients would start hiring orphans for similar tasks in the future.
And so, the orphans paid even Lenny, who was barely older than they were, the full respect due a client.
Their pay was calculated not by the hour, but by the task. In other words, they were paid once all the work was done. It didn’t
matter if it took them one hour or ten—the pay was all the same. Thus, several of the orphans had gathered, in order to finish the task as quickly as possible. They figured this would make their client the happiest, and anyway, the leader of their group had decided it would be too difficult for a single child to try and do the entire job alone.
Besides, completing the job was not their only aim.
“All right, everybody got that?”
After Lenny completed her explanation and left, one of the orphans, a boy of around eight or nine, who appeared to be the oldest among them, issued a reminder to the group.
“Big brother Veil’s—and subsequently, our—benefactor is staying at this inn. It pretty much goes without saying that he’s still head over heels for her, right?”
The other five nodded.
Somehow or the other, it would appear that these orphans were the children looked after by Veil, the boy who Mile used as her “sacrificial lamb” at the graduation exam.
Again and again, Veil had impressed upon the orphans that all their good fortune was thanks to a girl named Mile, and that, should anything ever happen to him, they ought to pay the favor back to her in his stead. Though he never explicitly shared his true feelings for her, they were obvious enough that even the youngest of the orphans, who were no more than four or five years old, could easily figure out how he felt.
“If we run into our benefactor, let’s take a break and talk to her. We need to try and find out her interests, hobbies, and things like that. And then, we need to tell her how great our manager is—and then mention Veil’s name. And then we say something like, ‘What?! You know big brother Veil?!’ so we can arrange a reunion. We can’t mess this up. Got it?!”
“Yeah!!!!!”
Three days later…
“This is weird… We’ve tried working at all different times, but we’ve never run into her…”
On a break, the boy who served as their leader pondered this conundrum, just as Lenny came around.
“Hm? What’s the matter?” she asked.
The boy hesitated for a bit, then ventured, “Um, I’d heard that there was an all-girl hunting party that was lodging here long-term, but we haven’t run into them at all…”
“Oh, you must be talking about Miss Mile’s group!” Lenny answered, offering the boys a smile and an explanation. “When those ladies are here, they fill the baths for us using magic. So the only time that we hire you all is when the ladies are away from the capital on business. In other words, you’ll never encounter that party while doing this job.”
Lenny had relatively few chances to speak with children her age or younger, so rather than using the formal patterns she usually employed while speaking to adults, she took a more relaxed, childlike tone. In fact, it seemed that she had purposely come by when the orphans were taking a break, just so that she could talk with them. However…
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!”
The orphan boys fell to their knees in the dirt, despair upon their faces. They did not seem to be enjoying this conversation at all.
“N-no way… All of our hopes… All of our big plans…”
“Our dreams of establishing the party Griffon’s End, and training everyone into first-class hunters, under the guidance of Veil and our benefactor…”
Apparently, these orphans had all heard Veil’s tales of Mile from their days at the prep school.
“Hm? Huh?”
Lenny only gaped at them, not understanding what was going on in the least…
3. All-Purpose Mage
“Oh, it’s Reina!”
As the members of the Crimson Vow were looking over the job request board one day, a voice called to them from behind. When they turned to look, they saw Fran, one of their classmates from the prep school, along with the three members of the Flaming Wolves, who had been their allies in that fateful escort mission.
Reina greeted them mildly. “Well, if it isn’t Fran and the Flaming Wolves. It’s been a while.”
“Oh, Fran, have you joined up with the Flaming Wolves?” Mile asked with interest.
“Eheheh, that’s correct. As you know, initially, I was in a party of our classmates, but they all turned out to be somewhat unreliable. For someone starting out, it’s a lot safer to have the guidance of people with more experience. I’ll be able to advance much quicker this way!”
Fran’s chestnut hair was cut in a short bob, from under which shone big, round brown eyes. Fran was incredibly cute—small in stature, but bright and full of energy—and had been very popular at the prep school. Additionally, Fran was a mage by profession, something that the Flaming Wolves were sorely lacking. Fran’s magical skills covered a relatively wide and useful range, from combat to healing magic.
“I’m only a newbie, but they’re taking really good care of me. I’m so happy right now!”
“Really? That’s wonderful!”
It was probably a bother for the party that Fran had left, but that couldn’t be helped. All of this was voluntary, so everyone had to pick the path that was best for them.
After they stood and talked for a while, the Flaming Wolves’ job acceptance paperwork was completed, and the groups parted. Just before they left, their leader, Brett, hung back, leaning in toward the Crimson Vow.
“Honestly, I’ve really got to thank you all. Thanks to that incident, our names got around, and we gained a lot more credibility. Now, with little Fran with us, our party has more balance… If we could get just one more mage to join, our group would be complete, but at this rate, I’m confident that it’ll happen soon. The only problem we have now is figuring out which one of us three is going to get to date Fran first and smother all these sparks that are flying, you know? Ha ha ha!”
“…………”
With that, Brett departed, leaving the four to watch him go, their expressions inscrutable.
“Ah… I wonder if those boys know…”
“From the way he was talking, I’m guessing that’s a ‘no.’”
“I’m thinking they don’t. I’d bet a gold piece on it.”
“Oh, me too! I’ll wager ten gold on that.”
“In that case, it isn’t even a wager!”
The all-purpose mage, Fran. A graduate of the Hunters’ Prep School’s twelfth class.
With soft chestnut hair and big, round eyes.
A short and slender, but bright and energetic, adorable youth.
The third son of a poor farming family, or so they had heard.
Indeed, the third son.
The four girls of the Crimson Vow prayed for happiness for Brett, Chuck, and Daryl in their next lives.

Chapter 25:
The Wonder Trio, Secret Hunters
The capital of the Kingdom of Brandel is a city that is home to two academies: Ardleigh and Eckland.
On the evening of a rest day, in one part of that city, three girls were walking together.
“I wonder if she’s doing well…”
“I’m sure she’s fine. Wasn’t it you, Miss Marcela, who once said, ‘Even if a dragon stepped on her, she would never break’?”
“That’s right! In fact, I bet she’s somewhere this very minute, saying, ‘I wonder how Marcela and the girls are doing…’”
“Perhaps so… No, I’m sure of it!”
It had been eight months since that fateful day. Marcela, Monika, and Aureana were now third-year students.
After graduation, Marcela would be returning to her home to begin her training in domestic skills; likewise, Monika would go home to help out with her family’s business, while also searching for a potential husband. Aureana, who had received a scholarship, would have to take up work in a public office in order to repay her debts. They had only one year left to lead their carefree student lives.
They were walking down a fairly narrow avenue, some distance from the city center. Though this was by no means some derelict, untraveled lane, it was not long before the three girls found their path impeded by two men. Marcela quickly glanced behind them, to see two more men standing there.
They were surrounded.
“Can I help you with something?” asked Marcela, betraying not a hint of fear.
Monika and Aureana could do no such thing. They clung to each other, clearly frightened.
“What? We just thought you gals might like to come have a good time with us.”
“If you wish to court any of us, you may send your representatives to make a formal introduction and properly petition our fathers.”
“Wh…?”
Naturally, she was not being serious. There was no way that some rogue or disgraced hunter would petition to make the formal acquaintance of the daughter of a noble. Marcela was different from Adele. Totally different.
“D-don’t screw with us, you little… Just come with us already! There’s someone who can make good use of you!”
As he shouted, the man reached toward Marcela.
“Ignite!”
“Oww!”
Aureana let off one of her spells, which were weak in power but still useful in everyday life. The spell, normally used for lighting a fire, singed the man’s outstretched arms.
“Y-you little bitch! Y’know, they told us that we only had to bring ’em the noble’s daughter! They said it didn’t matter if the commoners were dead or alive! You can regret that little trick of yers in hell!”
The man pulled his hands back and drew his sword.
“Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!!”
As he swung down his sword, Aureana’s life flashed before her eyes. Just then, Monika thrust herself between Aureana and the blade.
“Wha…?!”
The man panicked as the noble girl, who he had been instructed to deliver unharmed, had stepped in front of his blade. Hurriedly, he tried to stop his swing, but it was too late. There was an unfortunate sound, and a dull ka-shunk!
However, the sword had not sunk into the noble girl’s body. What the sword had struck was the mass of ice that had suddenly appeared in front of her.
“Wha…?”
“Ignite.”
Before the man could react, Aureana whispered the word stoically. Violently, the man’s hair flared up.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!”
As the man flailed around, trying to extinguish the flame atop his head, Aureana stared at him with cold eyes. She was angry. Incredibly angry.
“Water Ball!”
A volleyball-sized sphere of water appeared at the behest of Monika’s spell, which was truncated to only the name. It flew into the face of the other man, who was standing ahead of them, and stopped there.
“Ugh! Guhbluhbluhbluh!”
Naturally, the man, who had inadvertently sucked air into his windpipe, swung his head violently to try and remove the sphere, but the water would not budge. No matter how he tried to flick it off with his hands, or run around to shake it away, the globe would not leave his head, and eventually his movements began to grow sluggish.
In the instant that Aureana’s spell drove the man away, Marcela turned around and began a spell aimed at the men behind her. Just like Monika and Aureana, she only needed to say the spell’s name. Of course, they did not truly need to say anything at all, but when they had the time to, saying the spell’s name made it that much more efficient.
“Fire Shot!”
Two flame bullets shot out, aimed for the right shoulders of the two men standing behind them. They dropped their swords and fell, rolling. Marcela had plenty of room, it seemed, to properly aim her attack.
In the two years since the girls had first received magic lessons from Adele, they had by no means been playing around. They had spent a year and two months of that time with Adele. For the eight months after, it had been just the three of them. Still, for the sake of their futures, their research and efforts had continued.
The three girls, who were quite bright, had continued to research the principles of magic that Adele had taught them, negating their initial lack of magical power. Of course, they had not been expecting to suddenly be swung at by men who aimed to take them captive. Yet though their situation was dangerous, they could not falter: if they went easy on fiends as weak as these, they could easily be captured.
“Now then, perhaps you might tell me who it was that hired you…”
As she stood, grinding her foot into the rogue, he wailed that they had been misled, that they hadn’t been warned that Marcela was a remarkable mage, but just told to expect some stupid noble schoolgirl. They hadn’t known that even her commoner companions could use magic.
In the midst of these complaints, some nearby hunters finally came running.
Apparently, the men would be turned over to an expert for further questioning.
Later, they headed to the hunters’ guild to explain what had happened. Along the way, Aureana, who was wearing an unusually displeased expression, suddenly turned to Marcela.
“What was that all about, Miss Marcela?!”
“Oh? What do you mean?”
“When that man tried to attack me! Why would you do something so dangerous? Are you not afraid to die?! Your life is worth so much more than—”
“Miss Aureana,” Marcela interrupted. “Of course I am afraid of death. However, compared to the fear of losing you before my very eyes, doing nothing to stop it, and having to live with that regret for the rest of my life… the fear of death is nothing.”
Marcela smiled as she spoke, but Aureana was indignant.
“Please don’t toy with me! Are you saying that it means nothing if I have to watch you die before my very eyes—just to protect me?! There is nothing more frightening than that! Would you have me carry that weight on my shoulders for the rest of my life?!”
“Ah…”
With her own grave oversight pointed out to her, Marcela froze, her mouth agape.
“I-I understand now…”
“In that case, I pray that you will not do anything like that ever again!”
Marcela shook her head back and forth. “I cannot promise that.”
“Wh-why not?!”
Marcela, perplexed at why the other girl would ask a question with such an obvious answer, furrowed her brow as she replied. “Because you are my dear friend, and I am who I am—the girl Marcela.”
“……”
No matter what she said, it was hopeless. Aureana was certain of at least that much.
There was nothing to be done for it. She looked at Marcela, a splendid noble girl, suddenly overcome by a sense of honor and gratitude…
“That is about the sum of it.”
In the guild master’s office, on the second floor of the hunters’ guild’s headquarters, the three girls explained what had happened.
The guild master was sitting not at his desk, but at the table situated in front of it. His back was to his desk and the three girls were in a row facing him. A clerk, who also served as his secretary, sat diagonally behind him.
“Hmm. If some fiend were to get their hands on Lady Marcela, who is a fond associate of the third princess… Might they have had some particular aim in mind? Did they wish to curry your favor? Or perhaps hold you hostage? Well, we’ll have our experts investigate something along those lines. Honestly, though, to challenge three mage hunters so forcefully, even if you’re only D-ranks, they really must not have done their research…”
“Ahaha…”
Indeed, the three girls were now D-rank hunters.
By hooking Monika and Aureana into her “Adele Simulator” by means of a “connection system,” Marcela was able to form a “Super Adele Simulator,” in order to predict Adele’s actions. The results of their predictions were something along the lines of the following:
Where might she be?
She was still in the country: 6% chance
She had fled the country: 94% chance
What might she be doing now?
Hiding out somewhere deep in the woods 5% chance
Living undercover in some noble household: 4% chance
Working…
as a live-in maid: 7% chance
at a shop in some town: 9% chance
as a hunter: 69% chance
Other: 6% chance
And so, just in case it might help them, the three had decided to register as hunters.
Their goal was to reach a C-rank by the time they graduated. Or, at the very least, a D-rank.
By the time they graduated, they knew, Adele would definitely be a C-rank. It was unlikely, too, that she would become a B-rank or higher. Even if she had the opportunity to do so, she would want to remain at a C-rank, where she would stand out less. This much they were confident of.
Blessedly, thanks to the knowledge that Adele had imparted to them, Marcela had the magical strength of a standard mage, Monika had that of about the lowest level of mage, and Aureana had half that still. And, thanks to the fact that they could cast in their heads—which was not the so-called “silent casting” of this world, but rather Adele’s special brand of “directly visualizing the intended effect, without saying an incantation at all”—they could work magic at a miraculous speed.
Of course, in order to conceal their special talents, they purposefully took a bit of time with their workings, telling people that they learned how to cast quickly inside their heads by “practicing so hard we were vomiting blood.”
In any event, thanks to this efficient means of casting, the three of them could produce a force far greater than what one might expect, given their apparent magical strength. Indeed, their practical magical power exceeded that of the average mage. Because of this, when they registered with the guild, they were able to utilize the skip system to start out at a D-rank.
Naturally, they kept all of this a secret from their families.
The girls did not truly have any intention of living their lives as hunters.
They merely thought that, should they encounter Adele again someday, being registered with the guild would leave their own field of options just a little bit wider.
Besides, once they had the qualifications of a C-rank hunter, there was nothing that could stand in their way. When it came to seeking a spouse, there would be no greater proof of their magical ability than to say, “As a mage, I possess the qualifications of a C-rank hunter.”
No, they had no intention of living as hunters, but at least for the time being, they figured that they might be able to arm themselves with the general knowledge and skills of such, so they temporarily joined up with other novice parties to collect herbs, as well as hunting jackalopes, goblins, and the like.
And, of course, they never turned down invitations from parties of F to D-rank boys who might ask the girls to join up with them. Not even once.
The girls typically did not take on harvesting or extermination jobs, making them a rather unique party. Still, as D-rank hunters, they took on most other recommended tasks…
Such as escort missions.
They were not guarding merchants or anything like that. It was true that, normally, a C-rank party would be requested for those jobs, but students such as the Wonder Trio would not be able to take on jobs that would take them away over a long period.
Instead, the Wonder Trio was frequently requested to escort young girls, just for the day.
When the daughter of a noble or wealthy merchant could not go out because of concerns for her security, the three of them would escort her, secretly acting as guards in the guise of sisters, friends, or attendants.
Because they appeared to be merely a group of lovely preteen girls, they could stay with girls in the restroom or the bath, and even when they were sleeping. They had no need to carry weapons and could fend off a surprise attack of even several attackers—at the very least, stalling for time until help could arrive.
There were always normal guards nearby, so fending off attackers for even a short amount of time was enough, and these girls, who performed their guard duties with certainty, were incredibly treasured.
They took these jobs not only on their days off, but on weekdays as well, in which case they convinced the school to give them a pass, regarding this duty as a permissible alternative to their attending class. Luckily for them, there were those influential enough at the academy who were happy to allow this.
Furthermore, they were almost never attacked, so the girls ranked up A-grade after A-grade on their job completion reports.
As they did not often do much rummaging around on the guild’s first floor, there were many hunters who did not even know of the girls, and even when they saw them around now and then, seeing them only in uniforms, without any sort of other protection, they assumed they were clients, guests of the guild master, or the friends of family of some guild employee who had come for a visit—nothing more.
Thus, they were the guild’s secret weapon, a group of guard specialists formed eight months ago, the lovely uniform-clad girl hunters of the Wonder Trio.
As they reached a break in the conversation, the guild master took up a cup of the black tea that had been set on the table before them, and the girls picked up their cups as well.
Silently sipping her tea, Marcela’s eyes drifted to the guild master’s desk behind him, on top of which sat several items.
For some time she had been acutely aware of the four objects positioned there. They looked rather like dolls and seemed very out of place atop the desk of a guild master.
When Marcela took a closer look, she realized that they were indeed dolls, in the shape of young girls.
The four of them were each adorned with light armor, like something a hunter would wear. Two of them outfitted with swords, the other two with something like mages’ staves. They looked very much like an all-girls’ hunting party.
Perhaps they were thinking of using these dolls of young girl hunters to popularize the image of hunters and recruit more young folk?
One of the girls was a tall swordswoman, with her hair painted a golden color. Another was a mage, with brown hair and a large bust. The third of them was a short, childlike mage with red hair.
And the final one had silver hair, with a cute and amiable countenance, as well as a rather pleasant, vacant look about her…
Pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft!!!
Marcela spat. All the tea that was in her mouth was propelled directly onto the guild master, who sat before her.
Startled at the enormous spray, Monika and Aureana, who had their cups to their mouths and had just sipped in the bulk of their tea as well, followed Marcela’s gaze, and…
Pfffffffffffffft!
The secretary, who had been seated behind the guild master, pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and rushed over to him, but the guild master waved her off gently with his left hand.
After wiping his face with his own handkerchief, he carefully refolded it and placed it back into his breast pocket. He did not notice the clerk’s chilly gaze.
“W-we’re so sorry!”
The three girls apologized hurriedly—in such a way that their gazes never so much as flicked toward the desk.
They wanted desperately to ask about the dolls, but if they let on that they had such a strong interest in them, there would definitely be an investigation on the horizon.
His Majesty, the king, had not given up on searching for Adele. The girls were not so foolish as to think that he would. They were different from Adele! Different!
And so, they left the guild. On the way home…
“It seems like she’s doing well.”
“So she is a hunter after all.”
“And she’s already standing out…”
The girls could not keep a straight face.
“Pft…”
“Aha…”
“Ahahahahahaha!”

Passersby glanced suspiciously at the three girls, who had all suddenly burst out laughing, but the girls’ laughter continued to ring out.

***

“…And that is all for the actions of Lady Marcela and company for today.” So spoke the man who had been assigned the duty of watching over the three girls, secretly guarding them from the shadows. He had made his report to an audience of the king; the first prince, Adalbert; the third princess, Morena; and the second prince, Vince; along with the prime minister and the chief guard, Bergl.

“Why did you not step in to help when Miss Aureana and Miss Marcela were in danger?!” Morena shouted angrily, having heard his full recounting.

“Ah, well, I never thought that they would actually be faced with injury or…”

“Just what did you think that guard duty entailed?”

“……”

“Never mind. Leave us.”

“Yes, sir…”

After the guard had left, the king said to Morena, “I’ll pick a new one.”

“Next time, please actually pick someone reliable!”

“Of course.”

The guard had watched over the girls since before the time they were attacked, up until they reached the guild. Of course, he could not enter the guildhall with them, so he only watched over them on their way back to the dormitory, and then, once that duty was finished, returned to the palace. Listening in on the girls’ conversation in the guise of a passerby, he had only heard as far as Aureana and Marcela’s quarrel.

“As for the mastermind of this operation…”

“Understood! I’ll handle it, don’t you worry!”

“Hm. But…”

The king was mildly fearful for Morena, who worried so deeply for Marcela and the others.

Just then, the first prince, Adalbert, spoke up. “She stood in the way of an incoming blade, all for the sake of a commoner… And then acted as though it were no large feat at all. What a truly interesting person…”

“Miss Marcela is a wonderful girl! She’s strong—and cute too…” Just like Adalbert, Vince seemed extremely interested in Marcela.

“Wh…?”

The king, the prime minister, and the others, who had been wondering which of the two boys they would set up with Adele once they found her, were completely lost for words at the sight of this sudden interest from not only Adalbert—who had never shown any interest whatsoever in the noble girls who always flocked around him—but also from Vince.

Morena, of course, could only think, Between Miss Adele and Miss Morena, I wonder which shall become my elder sister-in-law, and which the younger…

Dreaming of that lovely future, a pleasant smile crept across her face.

average 3.1

Upon entering the room, they were directed to sit down and served hot tea straight away.
“I’ve already heard the gist of the situation from this young lady. Now, you all aren’t thinking of doing anything strange, are you?”
“Strange? Why, no! We would never think anything like that!”
While the other three averted their gazes, Mile looked the guild master straight in the eye and added, “Just a little counterattacking, revenge, overthrowing, and annihilation! That’s it! Nothing strange at all!”
“……”
The guild master slumped back at this setback.
“The guild is ready to assist in the current matter. An area merchant has picked a fight with the capital branch of the hunters’ guild—we can’t possibly keep silent about that. We need to teach them what it means to mess with our people.”
Indeed, if anyone picked a fight with someone associated with the guild, it was as good as picking a fight with the guild itself. If the guild let itself be trifled with even once, there was no turning back. This incident was not something they could overlook.
Even the fact that the captured men had been handed over in front of the guild, rather than being taken straight to the guard’s holding cells, had been for the sake of putting on a show for the other hunters. The implication was, “If you take on illegal requests, this is what will happen.” There was no better way to reiterate the fact that it was much safer to only take on jobs through the guild.
If they went outside the guild, the guild wouldn’t be there to help them when they got in trouble.
“There’s no point in trying to stop you, is there?”
The girls shook their heads.
The guild master sighed, resigned.
“I guess it can’t be helped… Just promise me this: when you go, please take just one person from our ranks with you. They can serve as a witness afterward, and they can negotiate for the cooperation of the guild there. Plus, if the number of people in your party is different, it will be easier to deceive your opponents, which should give you an added advantage.”
While Mile worried over a reply, Reina spoke up in her stead.
“I suppose we have no choice…”
Thus, it was decided that the Crimson Vow would take a “plus-one” along with them on their trip to Talwess, the capital of the lands under the control of Viscount Boardman, and the home of Pauline’s family.
“We can take a scheduled carriage toward Talwess three days from now. Until then, we should prepare ourselves and lay out a battle plan,” Reina proposed on the way home from the guild.
Of course, it wasn’t smart to say much more than that while they were still on the road. The rest, they would discuss back at the inn.
On their return, Mile headed to the reception desk to inform little Lenny of their upcoming absence.
“Oh, Lenny, in three days’ time we’re going away for a little while. Have you managed to find a mage who you could ask to run the baths?”
“Whaaaaat?! Not yet! I’ve gotta hurry up and look then! Mommmm!!!”
The news was received with panic.
***
And so, three days later…
The Crimson Vow stood waiting at the passenger carriage station, along with a girl who appeared to be around fifteen years old.
She wore a fluttering skirt and a loose jacket, with the buttons undone. Otherwise, the girl who greeted them looked just like any normal townsperson.
“My name is Theresa. I’m from the guild. I’ll be working with you on this operation. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
“Oh! Pleased to meet you, too. Since we’ll be party allies for the time being, would you mind telling us what your specialties are?” As the party leader, Mavis had to ask this necessary question.
“Ah, of course. I’m a C-rank, backline fighter—a knife wielder.”
“Huh?”
Three of the Crimson Vow tilted their heads in unison.
It was fine that she was a C-rank hunter. If she had started as an F-rank at ten years old, and she had the aptitude and worked hard, then reaching a C-rank by the age of fifteen wasn’t all that strange. The Crimson Vow were C-rank hunters of about the same age, after all. Perhaps Theresa had even graduated from the prep school, too.
What they found troubling was that she was both a backline fighter and a knife wielder.
How could she fight on the backline while using a weapon with such short reach?
Normally, a knife was a supplementary or backup weapon, something used for cutting up hunted prey and the like. Its reach was short, and if you threw it, you wouldn’t have a weapon anymore. Therefore, a hunter whose main weapon was a knife was more or less unheard of.
“A knife? Are you s—ow!”
Just as Mile started to ask an innocent question, a kick in the leg cut her off.
“Wh-what was that for, Reina?! That hur—eek!”
She turned to complain to Reina, who had struck Mile with the toe of her boot, but when she saw the terrifying look on the other girl’s face, she let out a small shriek.
“N-never mind…”
Mile, who had raised her voice more from surprise than hurt, quickly withdrew her question.
“My primary function will be to act as an observer from our guild, as well as a liaison with the higher-ups at the guild branch in Talwess. Though I’ll be pretending to be a member of your party, I won’t be participating in any battles, nor accepting responsibility for any actions that you take. In exchange, I will not make any move to stop you all from doing anything that you choose to. You are free to act however you like,” Theresa explained. At this, the other four nodded.
They were most grateful to hear that she was acting primarily as a witness and would not interfere with any of their plans.
After that, Theresa excused herself to find a restroom before their departure. When she was out of sight, Mile asked Reina, unhappily, “What was that about earlier?!”
In a hushed voice, Reina replied, “Quit asking about her profession. It’s pretty clear what her job is if her main weapon is a knife, isn’t it?”
“Huh?”
“Just think about it. What kinds of circumstances would allow a girl to earn her keep as a knife wielder?”
Mile thought hard.
“Umm, you could sneak into places while pretending to be a normal girl, or secretly work as a guard, or assassinate someone… Or assassinate someone… Assassinate… Oh…”
Earlier, when Theresa had announced her specialty, Reina had been the only one not to tilt her head in confusion. This was because, of course, she had already pieced it together.
“Got it? So don’t go nosing around. Both because that’s the unspoken rule of being a hunter, and also because it might help prolong your life a bit.”
Mile, Mavis, and Pauline nodded, all looking slightly queasy.
After a short while, Theresa returned, and they all boarded the carriage together. Just behind them, a man boarded as well.
“Third Brother…”
No one at all was surprised.
Of course he would follow them. Everyone had expected this.
So that they did not stand out as a party of all girls, followed by a single man, they reluctantly elected to pass themselves off as “a party of six, with five women and one man.” It was a one-time party for a temporary gig. Unlike Theresa, Ewan would probably be participating in battle along with them, so they needed to let him in on their plans.
When Ewan wasn’t busy pouting, he was, in fact, a full-fledged knight. It was likely he was genuinely talented, and observing a real knight’s strategy and fighting style from a close proximity would be a useful tool in their own growth. When they thought of it that way, perhaps Ewan’s presence wasn’t such a raw deal after all.
As the carriage traveled on, the Crimson Vow chatted inside with Theresa. Naturally, Ewan elected only to listen, wary of cutting into a conversation between the girls. Of course, because other passengers were present, they could not have a particularly in-depth discussion—they were limited to “girl talk” and other general topics.
“So Miss Theresa, did you attend the Hunters’ Prep School as well?”
“No, when I graduated to a C-rank, the prep school still had yet to be established.”
“Wha…?” asked a perplexed voice.
“I was promoted in the normal progression, starting from F-rank.”
“Huh?” joined another.
How odd.
Even if one were to join the guild proper as an F-rank hunter right at ten years old, it would still take at least four years to make it to a C-rank, no matter how much of a prodigy you were. Yet somehow, when she achieved that rank, the prep school hadn’t existed? The same prep school that had been established a full six years ago?
It didn’t add up.
“When my children were born, I retired as a hunter and started working as a member of the guild staff.”
“Whaaaat?” three voices chimed in.
“And then my husband became the principal of the school, which had just been established.”
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!” came the full chorus.
It couldn’t be. She was Elbert’s wife?!
“W-w-w-wait a minute! If that’s true, Miss Theresa, just how old—”
“Asking about a hunter’s private life is against the rules!”
“Bu-b-b-b-but…”
As Mile wailed in confusion, behind her, Ewan, his face pale, crossed himself for safety.
***
It was the first night of their carriage journey.
Mile and the others had already more or less established their plans, but now that Theresa and Ewan were in the mix, they would need to go over everything once more.
As always, this took place inside the tent that Mile carried with her. Just in case, Mile put a sound-dampening magic around them as well.
“…In any case, we first need to establish what the charges are. We need to confirm whether or not what those men said was the truth. Even if they weren’t lying, they might still have taken the job from someone pretending to be associated with the company, so we’ll need to collect evidence regarding that as well…”
As Mile went through her re-explanation, Reina grumbled that it shouldn’t matter, since they already knew they were bad guys. But in her heart, she understood this as well. She had raised the same complaint during their initial discussion, but eventually consented to Mile’s way of approaching things.
Furthermore, it shouldn’t take a particularly substantial effort to confirm the details of the job request. The incident of long ago involving those thieves was one matter, but with a little questioning it should be fairly easy to confirm whether or not someone had hired those C-rank hunters. Instigating the abduction and murder of citizens from the capital was enough of a criminal act in and of itself, so if they could establish at least that much, there should be no difficulty convicting the parties involved.
Naturally, they would ask the authorities to give them the third degree, in the hopes of getting them to confess to crimes from the distant past while they were at it.
Theresa had no intention of interfering with the girls’ plans, and so she positioned herself to listen only as a precaution. For his part, Ewan agreed that it was necessary to undertake a thorough preliminary investigation, so there were no objections from either of the pair.
And so, on the fourth evening of their journey, the carriage finally arrived in Talwess, the capital of the lands of Viscount Boardman and the town of Pauline’s birth.
Though Talwess was the capital, this was merely owing to the fact that it happened to be the largest in the territory, and one that the main highway passed through. In truth, it was only of moderate size, and one would be hard-pressed to really call it a city.
“Well then, we had better find ourselves somewhere to stay,” said Reina, taking the initiative as always.
After a brief rest, they headed toward an inn.
Pauline had recommended the place on the basis of it being “the sort of inn where the clientele isn’t so great, so even if you’re sort of suspicious-looking, you won’t stand out.” There, they would rent one four-person room and two singles.
“Do you have a four-person room and two singles available?” Reina asked the man at the reception counter.
The man’s eyes opened wide in shock. This inn was not the sort of place that young girls stopped by very often. However, the rooms were cheap, and it was a place where slightly suspicious-looking people would be able to stay without hassle, so now and again they did receive female guests. Yet what the man was most shocked by was not the fact that these new guests were a party of young girls, but rather, by the appearance of the young girl behind Reina.
Short black hair spilled from the edges of her hooded visage, with only a pair of eyes peeking out from the gaps between the bandages that covered her face. Even for a receptionist accustomed to suspicious customers, this one was exceptionally suspicious. Perhaps even the most suspicious he had encountered this entire month. By a landslide.
However, this man was a seasoned veteran of his profession. While he was a tad surprised, he quickly collected himself, and replied, “We have the rooms. How many nights are you planning to stay?”
“We aren’t sure. We’ll let you know the day before we plan to leave,” Reina informed him, after which they discussed the lodging rate and amenities, and he handed over the key.
The black-haired girl, of course, was Pauline.
Her hair had been colored since before they boarded the carriage, but she had waited until after they disembarked to slip into the shadows and wrap the pre-prepared bandages over her face. If she had worn them from the start, she would have attracted far too much attention from the other passengers while they rode—something that would have been both inconvenient and unbearable, in light of Pauline’s shyness.
She could have used magic to color her hair, but this came with concerns about the spell’s longevity, so instead she decided to use dye, which was convenient and had a proven track record of being secure and combat-proof. Using dye had the potential to damage one’s hair, but Pauline, at least, would be able to repair—that is, heal—it easily. Any change in color could be mitigated by using cleaning magic to break down the components of the dye as well.
The Crimson Vow headed straight to their room to rest until dinnertime. They had done nothing but ride in the carriage, but between the harsh jostling of the road and the stress on their aching backs and bottoms, they were exhausted. Ewan seemed to be heading off to his room to rest also.
Theresa delivered her luggage to her room, and then set out again to make an appearance at the guild.
The next morning, after breakfast, they all set out together.
It would be conspicuous for a group of six to move as one, so they split into three pairs. Today’s mission was mainly one of reconnaissance, so by splitting up, they not only stood out less, but would also be able to gather more information.
The first team consisted of Mavis and Ewan, who likely would not have consented to teaming up with anyone else. Pairs two and three were Reina and Theresa, and Mile and Pauline.
As they still had yet to make a move, the chance of danger befalling anyone but Pauline was low. Therefore it was decided that she should be accompanied by Mile, who, among the other three, was the most self-sufficient. Furthermore, it would be unwise to place Theresa—who had come with the intent of having the smallest possible role as an active party member—with Pauline, as she was perhaps the most belligerent. Even the notion of having any other team arrangement was unthinkable.
As someone who was their senior had been dispatched with them, it would be questionable if that person were not treated as their leader for the duration. Therefore Theresa, though she was similar in appearance to the Crimson Vow, was selected for this role—in such a way that she would neither stand out nor truly take the initiative, remaining on the sidelines. Still, there was no sense in pairing her up with the leading actress in this production.
Theresa seemed as though she wanted to team up with Mile, but it was not her place to make that decision, so she kept her mouth shut.
And so, the three teams set out to their designated destinations to investigate.
Team Reina headed for the guildhall. Team Mavis turned toward the area where the merchants congregated. And Mile, along with Pauline—her eyes to the ground and her face hidden deep within her hood, completely obscured by tightly wrapped bandages—headed toward the residential district.
That evening, after each team had concluded their investigations, returned to the inn, and finished up their dinner, the whole group gathered in the largest bedroom.
“All right, let’s go over what everyone found out.”
As always, it was Reina who kicked off the discussion.
“First, let me give a rundown of what we learned at the guild: Apparently, the five-man band of C-rank hunters, employed now and then by the Beckett Company, hasn’t been seen around town in about ten days. The Company often employs them for tasks outside the guild, when they need someone to do work that seems shady. Judging from their names and appearances, there is no doubt that those are our guys. On an unrelated note, it turns out that the Company often hires people without hunters’ certifications to serve as their bodyguards. These are folks who specialize in guard work and nothing else.”
“What we found out in the commercial district follows what Pauline told us to a “T.” The Beckett Company is known for its forceful business practices and near-criminal tactics—which is to say that even when they do things that are blatantly illegal, they always manage to play the victim when the authorities get involved. There are quite a few other merchants who the Beckett Company has made trouble for, or who otherwise hold grudges against them. My brother here was able to get a lot of information out of the female shop employees.”
At Mavis’s explanation, Ewan looked rather proud of himself. The four other ladies listening noted the fact that Ewan had only interviewed women.
As Mile and Pauline had concentrated their energies on paying a surreptitious visit to Pauline’s mother and brother, they had nothing in particular to contribute to the report.
“So far it seems that the testimonies of the men being held back in the capital haven’t changed. If there were any new contradictions in their stories, the guild master would contact me without delay. It’s been approximately seven days since they were handed over to the city guard. On a particularly fast horse, a messenger could reach here from the capital in about a day and a half. In other words, we know that nothing has changed in five and a half days, at the very least. They don’t seem like the type who could stand up to interrogation from the guardsmen for very long, let alone withstand the techniques of the palace’s own information extractors.”
Theresa’s report clinched it: there was no possibility that the captured men had falsely accused the company president.
At first, the girls considered getting themselves into the employ of the president, who would no doubt be irritated that the men he hired had yet to return. However, as they discussed the specifics of passing themselves off as down-on-their-luck hunters willing to take on illegal work, one look at each other’s faces assured them that this would never work. So, they rethought their plan. Clearly, they wouldn’t be fooling anyone.
Well, Mile thought, the justice system here was different enough from that of modern-day Earth that even circumstantial evidence should be enough to convict them.
She had proposed frightening the man and beating him within an inch of his life. However, everyone else had declined this offer. In order to preserve the business and let Pauline and her family take back possession of the shop, they couldn’t simply fell the bad men with some pseudo-assassination.
It was a sound argument. If they went about this poorly, then they would be deemed criminals as well.
Their goal was not merely to take down the president and his crew, but to see Pauline’s family’s honor restored.
The members of the Crimson Vow racked their collective brains.
***
The next morning at 9:00 AM, just after the Beckett Company had opened shop for the day at the ringing of the second morning bell, four figures appeared outside their door.
They were four girls. From among them, the smallest, a girl of around eleven or twelve, produced a simple-looking item.
Bwooong!
Suddenly, a loud and unusual sound rang out, and the people around stopped in their tracks, turning to look at the girls.
Bwong-bw-bwooong!
After the sound had rung out, the girl cried out, “Vengeance is nigh! Vengeance is nigh! A young girl’s father was murdered, her mother and brother and the shop her father built were all stolen away! Now, her vengeance is nigh! All ye gathered, please take care not to stand in the way, nor take injury from the fearsome spells that will soon fly!”
The forty-seven ronin (minus forty-three) were making their stand at the lord’s mansion. There was no snow on the ground, but it was at least the early morning.
The spectators’ eyes were sparkling.
This was a world of few amusements. The citizens of this town scarcely ever came across interesting events, let alone ones that they would be able to tell others about for decades to come. Furthermore, the stars of the show were a group of lovely young women, and their foe was an unscrupulous merchant, steeped in infamy. It took very little effort to guess which party was in the right, and which was in the wrong.
People began to gather around, and by the time the merchants stepped out to see what was going on, a sizable crowd had surrounded the Beckett Company headquarters.
Reina, meanwhile, muttered to herself, “What does ‘nigh’ even mean, anyway?”
“What is going on out here?!”
Perhaps having been informed by his employees about the commotion outside, the president of the Beckett Company—in other words, the very man who was Pauline’s sworn enemy—stepped out of the door with some fellows who looked like bodyguards by his side. What he saw was a crowd surrounding his shop and four young girls standing before them.
“P-Pauline!”
Indeed, there stood Pauline, the dye cleansed and the brown of her hair restored with magic. Her bandages had been removed, and her face was plain to see.
“You’ve come back on your own! What is the meaning of all this?!” the president demanded, looking out over the crowd.
“This is your audience. They’ve all come to bear witness as you are captured and brought to justice…”
“Wh-what are you saying?!”
The president was stunned at these unexpected words from the usually meek and mild Pauline.
“Two and a half years ago, you hired bandits to kill my father and took over our shop using forged documents. I won’t let you dare say that you’ve forgotten that! Furthermore, you have committed another crime, and this time, there’s no hiding it: you attempted to harm citizens of the royal capital, which is under the direct control of His Majesty, the king himself. This is an attack on the king’s own ground—an act of treason!”
At these wild accusations, shouts of anger began to rise from the growing mob.
“I-I’ve no idea what you’re talking about! What proof do you have…?!”
The president panicked to hear such things said before so many people.
However, Pauline coolly continued, “Proof? Didn’t you think it peculiar that you hadn’t seen any signs of the men you hired to attack my friends, and that those same friends are here with me? That’s right, your hunters have been captured and are being questioned by the palace guard. Or, perhaps I should say, they were being questioned. They’ve already confessed everything, and right about now, the guards from the capital are probably headed this way…”
“Wh…”
Upon seeing his reaction, the crowd knew at once: Everything the girl said is true.
Pauline had purposely linked the crimes of the far past to that of the present, in the closely held hope that as long as there were witnesses to the present events, those of the past might be proved just as easily.
The president, meanwhile, finally realized that by remaining speechless, he had sealed his own fate. However, it was already too late. The recognition of his guilt had begun to spread throughout the crowd. There was no choice but for him to quash this by force. As long as he could root out the main offender in all this ruckus, he could deal with all the residual effects later, somehow or other. He had connections just for circumstances like these. He’d paid bribes just for circumstances like these.
“Seize the ones spreading these hideous rumors!” he shouted as he signaled to his guards, falling back.
The sign he had given was one that he had used many times before: Kill them.
The five bodyguards gave small nods and stepped forward. Four of them drew their swords, while one stood just a little behind them, brandishing a staff.
“Oh, so they intend to kill us to silence us! The man has as good as acknowledged his sin! Since they have drawn their blades to slay us, we haven’t a choice! To battle we must rise! We act now in self-defense!”
As Mile shouted this long-winded explanation of her actions, she drew her sword. The other three drew their weapons in turn. Reina and Pauline had already begun preparing their spells.
The bodyguards forwent any sort of needless shouts, such as, “Die, you wretches!” or, “Prepare yourselves, knaves!” Instead, wordlessly and immediately, they launched their attack. Unnecessary chatter was reserved for third-rate killers or worse, and these men appeared to be second-rate fighters at the very least. Reina and Theresa had heard that these men did not possess guild certification, but this certainly was not for lack of ability. There must be some other reason at hand.
As the battle began, Reina and Pauline concentrated all their energy on the enemy mage. As they were unaware of their enemy’s capabilities, this was a standard precautionary measure. Moreover, this was the first time they were able to take full advantage of their absolute faith in Mile and Mavis’s ability to completely shield them from the four swordsmen at the front. After all, if you were set upon by your enemy’s forward guard while keeping all your concentration on the backline, you would be killed for certain.
The two had finished their spells now, their proverbial fingers on the trigger, waiting to speak the final, simple words that would release the attacks. And then the swordsmen moved their way.
Each of the four men aimed for one of the four girls. They intended to render the girls defenseless in one blow, with their mage as a backup precaution. Clearly, they were vastly underestimating the rage, swordsmanship, magical attack power, and casting speed of these young ladies.
Nonetheless, Mavis and Mile handily took on two of them apiece, stopping the ones who had aimed for the backline fighters as well as their own opponents. They swung upward to block the attacks coming their way, then back down to disarm the ones headed for the backline, stopping the men in their tracks. In the over half a year that they had spent together, they had practiced together a fair bit. This level of synchronized movement was no sweat for the party.
Seeing this, the enemy mage panicked, and released the trigger on the spell he had prepared, letting it fly toward Mavis. It was an icicle javelin.
As they were fighting in close quarters, it was crucial that he select a spell that would not affect anyone but his intended target. Thus, a spell like this was ideal. Furthermore, because it carried its own innate kinetic energy, the icicle could easily pierce through any magical protection that might be enacted.
However, in this case, it was the wrong move.
Even if the enemy mages were kept in check, aiming at the frontline fighters, rather than the mages, left them completely free to attack.
If these were your average, garden-variety novice hunters that the men were facing, this likely wouldn’t have been a problem. For a magic-user who was confident in his skills, who had plenty of experience in combat and specialized bodyguard work, it would not be difficult to defend himself against the spells of novice magic-users even after they had already been let off. However, while Reina and Pauline were certainly “novices,” one might only call them that while mentally appending “somewhat out of the ordinary.”
“Earth Shield!”
“Icicle Javelin!”
Both of their spells were set into action, the icy spear that had been flying Mavis’s way crashing into the wall of earth that had suddenly risen from the ground, and the blunt end of another ice javelin flying toward the enemy mage.
By the time the icicle spear—or rather, the blunt icicle rod—struck the enemy mage in the gut and knocked him to the ground, the four enemy swordsmen were all rolling on the ground. The crowd cheered in a frenzy, while the president went very pale.
Just as Pauline moved to try to question the man again, a voice came from behind her.
“Well, well, what’s all this commotion about?”
The girls turned to see a hunter, who looked to be in his thirties, standing by. Judging by the sword sheathed at his waist, he was a frontline fighter. He had wily good looks that gave the impression that he would have been quite popular with the ladies back in his day, but he had a quiet demeanor and seemed to have aged gracefully. The few blades of stubble that remained unshaven from his cheeks lent him a rugged, pleasant look.
He was a veteran hunter, one who had worked his way up from the bottom. This was something you rarely saw.
Seeing this man, the hope of salvation appeared in the president’s eyes. This look told Mile everything.
I bet he’s going to say something like, “Master, please help me!”…
“Master, please help me!”
Yep, there it is.
“You girls look like hunters, but what’s going on here?” the man called Master asked. He did not seem as intent on obeying his employer’s orders as on ascertaining the circumstances of the situation.
And interestingly, he had not asked the question of his employer. Did he not trust the man? Or did he merely think it would be faster to inquire of his opponents themselves?
“We’re apprehending a criminal.”
“A criminal, you say?”
“That’s right. This man hired robbers to kill this girl’s father, then stole his business using forged documents. Later, he illegally hired a group of hunters to murder us—citizens of the royal capital—which is an act of treason,” Reina explained.
Hearing this, the man turned to the president, who was shaking his head wildly, and asked, “Is this true?”
“Sh-she’s lying! This is all slander!”
“Well, sometime in the next few days a guard wagon should be arriving from the capital, so you’ll see soon enough. What would you like to do until then?” Reina asked the hunter, casually ignoring the president’s desperate denial.
“Unlike those goons writhing around there, I was hired officially through the guild. Therefore, if you were all government officials or soldiers—or, if you were under the orders of an employer or the Crown, I wouldn’t do anything. Since that doesn’t seem to be the case, I have no choice but to keep guarding the man I’m contracted to. You’re all hunters, so you understand, don’t you?”
“I guess it can’t be helped. However, since it’s four against one, would you like to take this opportunity to surrender?”
“I can’t do that. I’m a B-rank hunter. If I surrendered to a group of four rookies, my reputation would be ruined, and I can’t allow that. In any case, I can’t exactly see myself losing.”
“I see… Well then, let’s do this.” Reina sighed, moving to brandish her staff.
Just then, Mile interjected from beside her, “Reina! This is a real match!”
“Huh???”
The other three, as usual, were stunned at Mile’s strange words.
“This isn’t a story tale! No matter how much we fight in the name of justice, bullying a weakling in front of all these people wouldn’t feel right! Plus, it wouldn’t be any fun at all for our spectators to watch!”
Seeing how the other three nodded silently in agreement, the crowd suddenly understood.
“Gotcha. Well then…”
“Wait! Wait wait waaait! What on earth do you mean ‘in the name of justice,’ and ‘bullying a weakling’?! What does that mean? Do you think I’m the problem? Are you saying I’m a ‘weakling’?!”
“Huh? You aren’t?” Mile asked, clearly perplexed.
The hunter roared, “Of course I’m not!!! I already told you, didn’t I?! I took this bodyguard job officially through the guild! If you all were working officially, through the appropriate channels, I would just shut up and hand him over. However, all I know is that you’re a bunch of random assailants acting independently on a grudge. So, I have to follow through on the job I was hired to do and defend him! Furthermore, all of my companions are off in other towns on business. I took this job on independently just to kill some time, but I’m actually the leader of a B-rank party. My individual rank is close to an A-rank! Do you understand? I’m not lying, and I’m certainly not a weakling!”
“No, the way you have to insist on that just makes you seem even weaker…” Mile said suspiciously.
“I’m NOT!!!” the B-rank hunter screamed, red in the face.
“Well now, it seems like this crowd is really heating up, so…”
“You did that on purpose!”
“Your opponent now shall be Mile, the average magical knight beauty…”
“Where?”
“Huh?” Mile, intending to ignore the hunter’s complaints and continue her spiel, let out a small sound of confusion.
“I’m asking, where is this ‘beauty’ who I’m supposed to be fighting?”
The hunter looked around theatrically, a faint smirk upon his face.
You jerk…
Mile sighed. It was her own fault for getting too into it and slipping that ‘beauty’ comment in there. However, there were plenty of people in this world who would refer to themselves as something like the “beautiful knight” or “brilliant magical beauty”… weren’t there? Even when it came from something like the “Headless Killer-Beauty Incident,” you still got from it that she was a beauty, regardless of the fact that she was headless, right? That was the sort of thing Mile had been going for.
It was the kind of declaration everyone made! You couldn’t just jump right into battle! Was this his revenge for making fun of him?!
At the thought, Mile was grinding her teeth internally.
She would harness this rage, and…
“I’ll do it.”
“Huh???”
“This should be my fight,” Pauline said, taking a step forward, while the other three looked on perplexed.
“Pauline…?”
“It’s fine. Despite how I may look, I too am a member of the Crimson Vo—”
“EH-HEH-HEH-HEM!!!”
Mile, Reina, and Mavis all let out a loud and rather forced-sounding cough, interrupting Pauline’s words.
Indeed, they had already decided ahead of time that this job was not one being undertaken by the “Crimson Vow,” but rather by “Pauline and her delightful companions.” They didn’t want word getting around that the Crimson Vow had been involved in an operation that resided in such a grey area. This was not a real job, but rather a member’s individual undertaking.
Pauline swiftly recalled this and tried to change around her words to cover for her mistake.
“…I too am thirsty for blood, as a member of the Order of the Crimson Blood…”
The other three were stunned at the overcorrection.
The crowd recoiled.
“J-just what kind of party are you all?”
The other hunter was taken aback as well.
“Today has nothing to do with our party. We aren’t here together as party members—they came here of their own accord to aid me in a personal battle. They’re just my friends… no, they’re my best friends!”
The other girls realized something: Pauline’s words were suddenly much simpler than her usual manner of speech. Someone who had never met her before would scarcely notice, but for her friends, who had known her for so long, it was clear. Furthermore, they understood what this meant.
“My name is Pauline. I have risked everything to take vengeance upon my father’s foe. And as thanks to the friends who have put their lives and their futures in my hands for the sake of my personal vengeance…”
Pauline was not speaking to her opponent. She was reciting words that she had rehearsed in advance. As she spoke, all the resources of her brain were focused on a different task.
“Go!”
As Pauline raised her staff, the hunter gripped the handle of his sword to draw it.
“Owwwwwww!!!”
The hunter screamed, pulling his hand from the handle. His palm was dripping, red with blood. When he looked down to the still-sheathed sword, he saw that the handle was suddenly covered in thorns.
“Wh-wha…?”
He reeled for a moment, but anyone who could truly be caught off guard by such a simple thing could never be called a B-rank hunter.
“Damn it! You’re a shadow-caster?! And you cast a high-level spell silently in your head, while still speaking normally?!”
As he spoke, he quickly glanced to his backup shortsword, glad to see that nothing was sprouting from that one. He swiftly gripped the handle of the shortsword and drew it.
“Hooooooooot!!!”
And with as much force as he had drawn it, he flung the shortsword forward.
“Secret technique, ‘Heat Blade!’”
Pauline shouted the name of her technique (read: spell) with a satisfied look.
Indeed, as the hunter had guessed, this was shadow-casting: a high-level technique by which one secretly cast a spell without an incantation while talking about something else and pretending not to be doing anything magical. Naturally, this was difficult to achieve while speaking to one’s opponent normally, so Pauline could only do it while mechanically reciting words that she had prepared ahead of time. Even so, it was an impressive feat.
Incidentally, the “Heat Blade” spell was a reference to the weapon used by a giant golem in one of Mile’s bedtime stories, though she had it a bit backwards as to which part got hot—the blade or the handle. As Mile heard the name that Pauline gave it, she thought to herself, Shouldn’t she be calling this “Heat Grip” instead?
“D-damn it! Well, at least I can still use my fists.”
As he spoke, the hunter tried to throw a punch Pauline’s way, but just then, he fell to his knees on the ground.
“Uh… huh? What? Why am… I…?”
And just like that, he collapsed on the ground.
“I never said that the handle of your sword was the only thing I had raised the temperature of. By slowly raising the temperature of your body bit by bit, it seems you’ve fallen right to pieces as well…”

average 2.9

Chapter 18:
Interrogation

The captured soldiers were bound and the mages gagged and blindfolded, then knocked out with Mile’s magic. While this greatly reduced the pool of candidates for interrogation, safety was of the foremost importance.

At the outset, the enemy soldiers continued pretending to be bandits, but that meant they wouldn’t be judged as prisoners of war. Their fates would then be torture and hanging, or else forced labor in the hellish prison of the mines. There would be no chance of negotiating a return to their home country, and if their identities were discovered, their families and friends would hear only that they were criminals, engaged in banditry in another land.

It wasn’t hard to guess who was behind the operation. There was coinage of the Albarn Empire in their purses, and their armor was stamped by a famous manufacturer from that country.

On Earth, no one planning this sort of infiltration would ever carry such things, but this was a primitive world. Either way, such evidence was circumstantial, and even on Earth a criminal could claim that such items had been planted to set them up.

Still, Bart concluded it was unlikely any other country had schemed to place blame upon the Empire.

“Now then,” Bart began. “Who should I negotiate with?”

After a long pause, one man volunteered.

“…Me.”

It was the platoon commander. He’d sustained serious wounds, but survived thanks to Mile’s magic. She had used her powers to stabilize him, and while his ribs and right arm were still broken and blood still leaked from a laceration that would take a while to heal, he had recovered enough to talk.

“All right. First, would you really like for us to treat you like bandits? You’ll be handled as the most treacherous criminals, forced to live out the rest of your days as a slave in the mines, with none of the glory or honor of a soldier.”

“H-how cruel!”

“Hmm? What’s that you say? ‘Yes sir, we are bandits’?”

“Gnh…”

The commander was lost for words, his face pained. Pauline tossed him a lifeline.

“I have an idea! If they won’t cooperate, we should tell their home country that the ‘bandits’ participating in the illegal trade blockage confessed everything and received fifty gold each as a reward from our government! That way, everyone will know how brave you were. I’m sure your families will be proud.”

“Wh-wha…?”

The commander was speechless.

If that sort of rumor got around, their own government would treat them as traitors. Who knew how their families, friends, and acquaintances would see them after that?

“But if you really do tell us everything, we’ll say, ‘They never told us anything, even under torture. They may have been our enemies, but they were honorable people.’ And then, we’ll send some personal items to be handed to your families. After that, perhaps you can become informants for our country about matters concerning the Albarn Empire, enlist in our military, or become hunters and go off to another land… you could even arrange to secretly reunite with your families elsewhere. The possibilities are endless!”

“What… are you…?”

Bart nodded. “That’s a good idea. Then we can say they were soldiers from the Empire. I mean, you and I know they’re just bandits and don’t have any families to face the harsh consequences. But this would give our country a good reason to pick a fight with the Albarnians. Yes, it really would be great if we say they squealed in exchange for their own safety and a hefty reward… man, it sure is a good thing you aren’t actually soldiers of the Empire with families who live there!”

“Wh-wha…?”

Pauline and Bart talked casually, Pauline speaking as though the men might actually be soldiers of the Empire while Bart feigned ignorance, arguing they were dealing with plain old bandits. While their proposals didn’t mesh, it was clear what they were actually saying. The commander was pale as a sheet, and the other captives murmured amongst themselves.

“Anyway, we don’t really need this many prisoners, right? We can just keep those who want to cooperate and dispose of the rest. Then when we get the information, we can pin it on all of them and say they spilled the beans before fleeing to another country…” At Pauline’s words, the silence returned among the enemies and her allies.

“Y-yes, that’s true. Perhaps if we just reduce the numbers a bit…” Naturally, there was a bit of hesitation to Bart’s words.

“W-wait, this isn’t how you treat prisoners of w—”

“Prisoners? But I thought you were bandits! Besides, it wasn’t as though you actually surrendered. Even your last five men didn’t call for truce, but just begged for mercy. Well, at the very least, we won’t kill those five. Unlike you, we honor our promises.”

“……”

The enemy commander was silent when a voice rose from the soldiers.

“No! I refuse! I didn’t become a soldier just so that I could be killed as a bandit! This assignment is in opposition of our national policies! All of you know this! I don’t mind putting my life on the line to fight for my home and country. That’s why I became a soldier. But I haven’t toiled all this time just to break treaties, murder foreign civilians, and be executed as a bandit! If we go through with this, our wives and children will be ostracized as the families of traitors—perhaps even killed! Is this what our own country has sentenced us to?!”

“…………”

Surprisingly, the commander did not chastise the man. Instead, he and the rest of the soldiers all hung their heads, silent. Then…

“I refuse, too.”

“Me too.”

“The Empire betrayed us. We no longer have any duty to act on its behalf.”

The merchant party was stunned at how smoothly this was proceeding.

Please, don’t let Pauline ever turn against us… Mile thought, looking to one side and then the other. Judging from their faces, Reina and Mavis were thinking the same thing.

After several of the soldiers voiced their feelings, there was no reason for the rest of them to keep up the front. The truth was going to come out one way or another, and those who did not cooperate would take the brunt of the dishonor, risking hanging or a life in the mines.

“I’ll talk!”

“Me too!”

“Me as well!”

One after another the soldiers turned, until even the commander joined in.

In the end, everyone except the unconscious mages agreed to confess, and it was decided that only the six who’d perished would be reported as traitors. It might be hard for their families to hear, but they were in fact, “soldiers who would not turn on their country, who followed the Empire’s orders until the very end.”

The questioning continued until very late at night. The soldiers told of their current mission, the political and economic situation in Albarn, and even guessed at the reasons they’d been asked to take such a reckless action. Finally, they named merchants the Empire had sponsored to bring them food and other such items.

They would need to repeat all this when they got to the capital, but it was possible they might be silenced along the way, and it was worth getting a full confession immediately.

According to the commander, there were no more traitors in Amroth, but they didn’t know if he was telling the truth. Even if he was, there was always the possibility the commander hadn’t been informed of other units.

After some time, the mages returned to consciousness. Their earplugs were removed, and the commander told them everything that had been discussed up until that point. After that, they nodded in agreement.

Since the hunters couldn’t exactly take away the mages’ weapons, they would have to remain blindfolded and gagged for a time. Nothing could be done to prevent them from casting silently, but at least the power of any such spell would be drastically decreased, and with their eyes covered, it was unlikely they’d be able to choose an appropriate magic.

The prisoners were monitored to make sure that they didn’t attempt to cut their own ropes, and if any of them made a sudden move they’d be cut down in an instant. Their gags were only removed to allow them to drink water, and even then only for a few seconds under careful supervision.

After the interrogation, it was time for dinner.

The prisoners received none. Human beings could live without food for up to several days. And how could merchants, only a day away from their destination, be expected to offer food to a group of prisoners twice their number? Especially when they were at least a day behind schedule.

It did cross the minds of some in the party that there was probably more than enough food within Mile’s storage space. However, freeing the soldiers’ hands would give them the chance to launch a counterattack. On top of that, once the soldiers were handed over, they’d probably be questioned countless times, and the hunters weren’t keen to share too much about Mile’s abilities.

And so the merchants and their associates were the only ones to eat. The soldiers had had only a light lunch and no dinner, and all their stomachs were rumbling.

Mile pretended to carry supplies from the wagon, while in reality she pulled meats, fruits, and vegetables from her loot box to prepare for the meal. Reina lit the fire, Mavis did the slicing, and Pauline prepared hot drinks.

As always, the four of them were extremely handy.

***

Very late that night the hunters were napping, arranged to protect the six wagons still parked against the cliff.

The merchants slept in the second wagon, while the prisoners and bandits were bound hand and foot under the watchful eye of their guards. They weren’t given even a single blanket, mostly because there were none available. Sufficiently fatigued, human beings can sleep under any conditions. Just going a night or two without sleep wouldn’t kill them, either.

They had captured every member of both groups—the targeted bandits and the “bonus” bandits—so the chances of being attacked during the night seemed low. But, with all that had occurred, the hunters weren’t stupid enough to sleep without leaving someone on watch. Anyone foolish enough to do so would most certainly die, and the gene pool would be the better for it. All the same, capturing the bandits had given them a sense of relief and the mood was light.

To improve their night vision and protect themselves from being spotted, the watchmen could not light a bonfire. Unfortunately this made fatigue more likely—particularly for watchmen who’d just been in a life-threatening battle.

The highway was to one side of the wagons and, beyond that, a rocky plain.

Anyone coming off of the highway would be easy to spot. However, there was still the possibility of enemies hiding in the shadows, approaching without their notice.

And now, exactly six such figures crept close.

Among the group was an individual who appeared to be their leader. At his signal, they stopped and readied their bows. So as not to stand out against the night, each arrow was painted pitch black. Was this a dye? Or were they coated with some sort of poison?

The leader raised his hand. The moment it dropped, half a dozen arrows flew at the watchmen in front of the carts.

Cling! Cling! Cling cling cling!

“Wha?!”

Thoroughly stunned, the leader raised his voice. This was a big mistake. But it was understandable. All the arrows they’d fired at the watchmen had bounced back in mid-air.

That was not the only surprising thing.

Flaaaaash!

“Waaaaaaaaaah!!!!”

An unthinkably bright flash of light outlined their forms, nearly blinding them. It disappeared again in an instant, but afterward the men could see only darkness. Their night vision was gone.

It was a sign of their good training that, after the unexpected scream, they tried wordlessly to regain their stances. But it was clear there was no point in lowering their voices at this point. Their existence had already been made known, and they wouldn’t be sure-footed again until their eyes re-adjusted to the darkness. Under the absolute dark of a clouded sky—without city lights or even stars—eyes exposed to such a bright light would take several minutes to recover.

The panicked men heard a voice. The voice of a very young girl.

“Aha! It looks like the barrier troops have arrived!”

Barrier troops.

Army units that watched over the other units from behind, charged with entering the fray if any of their men attempted to retreat, flee, or surrender without permission. Normally, their job was to compel their men to continue to fight. However, these barrier troops had had a slightly different purpose.

Their duty was to track down survivors from the merchant parties that the blockade troops had attacked and quietly annihilate them. With the merchants’ guards wounded and with no means to fight back, they would kill each and every survivor.

Even more than those enacting the blockade, these troops were charged with slaughtering innocent people—something any normal soldier would likely be unable to do. In the end, the deeds were recorded as an action of the blockade units.

The existence of the barrier troops was a shadowy one. They were nowhere, and they did nothing. That was the sort of fighters they were.

If any of the blockade platoon was taken captive or turned traitor, they would be terminated right along with the enemy. This was the role that they took on today.

They were a specially-trained, elite group, and swore an oath of absolute fealty to the Empire—doing any dirty job without batting an eye. This was the nature of the so-called barrier troops.

This time however, they didn’t quite live up to their reputation.

Judging that their opponents were no more than a small-scale caravan with a few guards, the barrier troops had planned to attack the survivors of the blockade on their way to Amroth. Each one of them could take on several guards, so they’d simply move alongside the party to confirm the outcome of the battle and save themselves the trouble of doubling back.

That would have been a sound plan under any normal circumstances.

But this time, the party they were mixed up with was anything but normal—something the barrier troops couldn’t have known.

No matter how long they waited, no merchant survivors appeared, and thinking this suspicious, they’d turned back and stumbled upon an unbelievable sight.

Had their troops been vanquished in battle? Or had they betrayed the Empire, hoping to be granted asylum?

Either way, the barrier troops’ sworn duty didn’t change.

To keep them from talking, they would murder everyone. That was all there was to it.

“I did think it was curious. According to the commander, their instructions were to incapacitate the guards, then steal the cargo and let the survivors go. However, up until now, the number of survivors has been zero. No bandit would bother attacking a merchant who’d already been robbed and was running away on foot…”

Mile’s voice was completely flat. It was a strange tone that Reina, Mavis, and Pauline had never heard before—monotonous, without inflection.

Still, it was unmistakable.

…She’s angry…

Yes. Angry.

Mile was very, very angry.

“Now then, what will you do? Will you surrender, confess everything, and become our prisoners? Or…”

“Kill us!”

It seemed they’d suddenly learned how to talk. Once they had been found and threatened, there was no point in avoiding the matter.

The men’s vision had slowly begun to return, a fact that Mile was already well aware of. At the same time, the guards had taken up their weapons and moved into position. Including Mile, there were twelve of them.

The leader of the barrier troops looked stunned.

They had battled forty soldiers. Even if by some miracle they’d managed to win, they should have been in a shambles, on the verge of total ruin. The barrier troops never expected to find all twelve hunters standing before them in good health.

Perhaps, thought the troop leader, the caravan was a trap from the start, and there are fifty other fighters hidden under the wagons’ tarps. Perhaps these twelve are the only ones to make it out unscathed.

For someone who hadn’t actually seen the battle, that would be a reasonable assumption.

Furthermore, for these troops, who were the elite of the elite, it was reasonable to assume that it would require little work to vanquish the hunters, even if the party were twice the size of their own.

For an average C-rank hunter, fighting against a monster was one thing, but against an elite soldier, the difference in power was absolutely overwhelming.

For an average C-rank hunter.

“No one lay a hand on them.”

“Huh…?”

Everyone was shocked at Mile’s sudden command. Everyone except for the other three girls of the Crimson Vow, who all took a step back quietly.

Dragonbreath and the Flaming Wolves hesitated for a moment, but seeing the complete calm of their fellow hunters, realized that there must be some plan. They joined the line behind Mile.

Once she was certain all of her allies were a safe distance away, Mile muttered magic without an incantation—that is to say, one that could be cast simply with the name of the spell.

“Sand Wall.”

Though the land was rocky, that didn’t mean there was no sand beneath them. Mile knew that even if there wasn’t, the nanomachines could break the rocks down into something suitable.

A strong wind circled Mile and the barrier troop leader, creating a sandstorm wall.

This was not a method of attack, but a way of obscuring her companion’s view of the battle. This had become the sort of situation where Mile intended that.

“Come,” said Mile, holding out her left hand.

Even the barrier troops, accustomed to hardening their hearts against anything and everything, looked suddenly angry.

“Don’t provoke us. You’ll regret this foolishness!” one of the men shouted, drawing his sword and swinging it down at her.

Mile whipped her sword out and back into its sheath in one smooth movement, cutting the man’s blade clean in two.

“Wha…?”

As he stared in disbelief at the remains of his weapon, Mile struck him in the side.

Snap, snap!

Something broke. Obviously, it was not Mile’s sword.

She had no interest in a man who would take his eyes off of his enemy in the middle of a battle. The man crumpled to the ground and passed out from pain, and Mile shifted her gaze to the enemy leader. She offered out her hand again.

“Y-you little…”

Whshh!

One of the others stepped in from the side and swung his sword down in a slashing attack. It came without warning. It was weak and cowardly. This was not a game or a practice match.

And yet…

Cling!

Though there should have been no time for her to defend herself, Mile’s sword rushed up to block the blade, knocking it from her attacker’s hands. He pushed back, but his blade couldn’t move hers by even a millimeter—like striking an iron bar at full strength.

“Gaahh!”

The man bent over and wrapped both arms around his body, unable to retrieve his sword. Perhaps he was not merely numbed. Maybe his muscles, ligaments, or bones had been damaged.

With a horrible cracking sound, Mile kicked the man in the shin. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground, and flame came flying toward her.

It was a fireball. They had silently cast the most basic, easy-to-use combat spell of any power. Apparently the caster was wearing the same gear as the swordsman, to hide the fact that there was a magic user in their midst.

Using her empty left hand, Mile plucked the ball of flame out of the air and tossed it away. It was an incredibly flippant gesture, performed without expression.

“I-Impossible!” the leader shouted in utter disbelief.

The mage who had sent the fireball stood stock-still, speechless. All the learning he had cultivated through his decades as a mage had just been thrown out the window.

At last the leader realized that tossing attacks at Mile was hopeless. The remaining soldiers attacked all at once. Mile flipped their swords back easily. At first, the men didn’t lose their blades, but their sides were left almost completely open and a blow from the side of Mile’s sword sent their weapons flying.

The flustered mage began another combat spell, but Mile was at his side in an instant, knocking him unconscious in a single blow.

The fact that he’d advanced with the melee fighters to hide his identity, instead of staying on the back line, had backfired. Then again, even if he had been on the back line, the results probably would have been the same…

As the sandstorm dissipated, Dragonbreath, the Flaming Wolves, and of course, the Crimson Vow, anxiously rushed over to Mile only to find six enemies writhing on the ground. Now it was their turn to stand stock-still, speechless.

“Come on! If we don’t hurry up and interrogate them, we won’t have any time to sleep!”

Though it was a very Mile-ish thing to say, her expression was harsh, and her voice still sour.

***

It was nearly morning when they finally got back to sleep. In the end, everyone except those assigned to watch slept until almost noon.

When they finally woke and began preparing a meal it was time for lunch, not breakfast. As they cooked, a man on horseback passed by. He appeared to be a hunter, and he was riding from Amroth in the direction of the capital.

“That must be one of Fargus’s messengers. We’ll probably see another one soon.”

Just as Bart predicted, soon enough another horse appeared and passed them by.

“One should be going to the guild, the other to the palace. The rest will be traveling by carriage or on foot so that they don’t stand out. We’ll have those who are fast, but noticeable, those who are slow, but more subtle, and those in the middle. I wonder which of the three will make it there.”

Sending out six messengers, including some on horseback, would be quite the expense, but now was not the time to mention that. The messages absolutely had to be sent, no matter what. That took priority. Besides, the hunters expected that their expenses would be covered in addition to their reward.

Later, twelve riders on horseback approached. The group was split roughly in half between hunters from the guild and soldiers from the local lord.

“Looks like you made it!”

As they arrived, a man in his forties climbed down from the first horse, smiling.

“I’m Connelly of the Amroth Regional Forces. We’ve been in a bind since the merchants stopped coming though. We’ve looked for them ourselves, but not been able to catch hide or hair of them. News of your victory comes as quite an embarrassment. Nevertheless, you’ve saved us! Our lord is normally rather thrifty, but he likes to open his purse for those who do great deeds. You should all expect a nice reward!”

Bart was relieved to hear the lack of resentment in the man’s tone. It was not unheard of for situations like this to result in bad blood.

Next, an elderly man approached. “I’m the master of the Amroth guildhall. You’ve all done excellent work. And although this job wasn’t specifically advertised as an extermination task, we’re going to treat it as a standard bandit-slaying job and pay you anyhow. Of course, you’ll also be getting seventy percent of any profits from forced labor deals.

“Now, the escorting wagons probably won’t get here till evening, so we’ll head out again tomorrow morning. They’ve got food and such in the wagons, so don’t you worry about going hungry. There’s plenty to drink, too. We’ll stay sober enough to keep watch. You all should relax a little.”

A cheer rose from the Flaming Wolves—over the reward or the promise of a drink, it wasn’t clear. At this point, they probably wouldn’t have cared if they were never paid a copper so long as they could get their hands on something to drink.

“We’re grateful. But there’s something I’d better explain…”

Bart filled the riders in on the details.

The rest of the day passed without much else of note, and the support wagons arrived before nightfall. The Flaming Wolves had their fill of food and drink, while Dragonbreath partook only of the food. No matter how many fellow hunters or friendly soldiers were present, they were not foolish enough to get drunk.

Pauline’s birthday had passed and she was now fifteen, so besides Mile, all of the Crimson Vow were officially adults—not that this country had any age restrictions for drinking in the first place. Still, the girls did not drink anything beyond a bit of wine with dinner.

The merchant party hadn’t slept at all the night before and went promptly to bed after their meal. Dragonbreath seemed to be rotating shifts to keep watch.

The Crimson Vow knew that they’d be fine as long as Mile put up her barrier and alarm magic, so they all climbed into their tent and went to sleep as usual. They were all exhausted, and there’d be no excerpts from the Altered Japanese Folktale series tonight.

The next morning they ate a breakfast prepared by the support forces and headed out, bringing the seven bandits, the corpses, and the soldiers.

No bandits would be stupid enough to challenge such an immense force, so they proceeded at a relaxed pace, reaching Amroth safely by nightfall.

One group headed to the barracks of the regional forces, where the prisoners would be restrained. This didn’t mean they’d continue to be bound hand and foot—their restraint would now be more like a house arrest. The commander and other officers would be confined to individual rooms. The rest were divided into groups, with interaction between them prohibited to stop them conspiring or aligning their stories ahead of time. They might be cooperative turncoats for now, but there was still a chance that they’d try to escape at the first available opportunity. There was no room for negligence.

After handing the prisoners over, delivering the bandits to the guild, and deciding to leave the final calculations until the next day, the hunters and merchants headed to their final destination.

“So sorry to keep you waiting! I’m so glad you arrived safely.”

It was the customer who had requested the merchants’ services in the first place.

“As promised, I’ll be selling these for the standard price. So, I hope that you’ll…”

“Of course. We won’t be raising the cost on you. We’ll exchange them for the standard price.”

The merchants clapped their right fists to the left side of their chests in some sort of oath.

“To tell you the truth, we brought along some items beyond the requested goods. Might we persuade you to purchase any of them?”

“Oh? Well, we’re short on most stock, so I’d be happy take them off your hands. But isn’t what’s in the wagons all that you have?” asked the purchasing merchant.

The clients called to Mile.

“Miss Mile, if you would!”

“Ah, of course!”

At the request, Mile produced the goods from her storage, AKA the loot box: about two tons (as per public report) of materials.

“Wh-wh-wh-wha…?”

The merchant took several steps back instinctively, gaping at the mountain of goods that had just appeared from thin air. A mountain of goods that the merchants knew were in dire shortage. The buyer leapt at them.

“Th-these are all at the standard price, yes? I’ll buy!!!”

This merchant knew all about the bandit-killing mission. However, even though he was aware there had been efforts to organize merchant parties, he didn’t expect them to succeed until well into the future. While he had no intention of raising prices for his own profit—even this amount of merchandise would allow him to make heaps. More than anything, it would make his customers ecstatic. They didn’t have any other venues to buy from.

“That’s storage magic, right? But, for such a large amount… you’ve found an incredible person here. I’m jealous!”

A magical storage chamber that held two tons of merchandise and lasted for at least another fifty years. For a merchant, even a thousand gold pieces would not be too dear a price to pay for someone like Mile. He was truly, deeply jealous.

“No, unfortunately, she’s not one of ours. She’s merely one of the escorting hunters, and she offered to take on the extra weight. So we’ll be splitting half of our profits from this portion with Miss Mile…”

Pauline’s eyes opened wide. She seized Mile around the chest.

“D-don’t listen to them, Miley!”

“D-don’t say that, Pauline! It’s bad enough already with just Reina…” Mile slapped at Pauline, whose arms were wrung around Mile’s neck.

“What about the money?”

“I-It’s the party’s! Of course!”

Satisfied with this response, Pauline finally released her.

“One more thing, Miley…”

“Yes, what is it?” asked Mile.

Pauline grinned. “Of course, you’ll have to transport some goods on the way home, too!”

average 2.7

Around an hour passed.

“They’re here.”

The archer Vera, with her keen eyesight, was the first to spot the first enemy.

Because they’d prepared their camp so early, there was still time until sunset, and the sky was bright. No doubt the bandits had judged it would be more advantageous to strike while it was light, surrounding their enemies with overwhelming force. When it got dark, there was too great a chance of people slipping away unnoticed.

There was no need for the attackers to divide their forces, for the cliff wall behind the merchants blocked any possibility of retreat. Therefore it was about forty enemies who surrounded the caravan in a semi-circle—likely the entirety of their force. Just as Bart had predicted.

“We are bandits! Forfeit your weapons and capitulate!”

The man who seemed to be the leader gave a rather abrupt introduction, “We are bandits.” Furthermore, he did not command them to “surrender,” but rather to “capitulate.”

“Since it looks like we’ve got a fight either way, it doesn’t matter what we say, right?” Bart asked. “I want to try to get some information out of them. All right if I lob a few comments their way?”

The merchants nodded. The Flaming Wolves and Crimson Vow, who had no idea what was going on, bobbed their heads in unison.

“Well, if that ain’t the voice of the commander! Just what are y’all doing all the way out here?”

“Uh…”

Bart’s bluff hit the bull’s eye, and the commander began to stammer.

“It’s me! From the shop in the capital!”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about! W-we are mere bandits! Quit speaking nonsense. Forfeit your weapons and capitulate, immediately!”

“What d’you think?” Bart asked the others.

“Ha ha!” Mile gave a wry laugh in reply.

“Well, I didn’t get a straight response, but I think that about settles it. If we surrender, they’ll certainly kill us all. Are you all ready?”

Everyone nodded silently.

“All right. Noncombatants, retreat to the second wagon, as planned. Guards, take your positions!”

Everyone took their places as per Bart’s instructions, the merchants slipping into the second wagon, which they had already unloaded the goods from. Now they were in the very middle of wagons parked tight against the cliffs. Any arrows or magic to come flying their way would be blocked by the other two wagons first.

Mile accompanied them as they’d decided earlier, casting magic over the prisoners, bound like silkworms in the wagon.

“Beings of ether, steal consciousness away! Until dawn breaks, cover the noses and mouths of these bandits!”

It was appropriate—a sort of magic spell, if a somewhat silly one. Anyway, the nanomachines caught Mile’s meaning, and the bandits lost consciousness. This eliminated even the distant chance of them launching a counterattack. Should the time come, it would be up to the merchants to “handle” them. At the very least, Mile had absolutely no intention of doing such a thing herself.

“All right. Now, please just wait here!” Mile smiled at the merchants, before climbing down from the cart.

Before she left the wagon behind, she whispered a few more words: “Lattice power barrier with transparency!”

There was a small shing, and for just a moment, the air seemed to sparkle with reflected light.

Mile returned to where the others were waiting just as the enemy began to advance, moving in orderly formation.

Although at first they had been at least a bit bandit-like, their movements and their weaponry were uncomfortably stiff. Everything was far too efficient, far too uniform. Some of them even wore metal armor underneath their rags.

As they got within firing range, Jeanie fired off a spell in accordance with Bart’s instructions. It was not unusual for a force with inferior numbers to make a pre-emptive strike in an attempt to reduce enemy numbers, rather than waiting until they were close enough to strike with more power and accuracy. This time, Bart hoped to test the waters.

“Firebomb!”

The flames that Jeanie fired toward the enemy’s front line dissipated before they could strike.

“Well, of course a force that seems to include special ops fighters would have one or two magic users in their squads…”

In war, a standard fighting force would not include mages. Instead, magic would be concentrated into a separate, special force. Their effectiveness was far higher this way. However, a special ops squad—one that would move independently on the battlefield—had no such limitations.

It seemed that Bart had quite a detailed knowledge of armies, though it was unclear whether this was thanks to his many years as a hunter or because he had once served as a soldier himself.

“They’ve got some pretty skilled guys in there. We have four magic users on our side, but the question is, how many do they have?”

As Bart spoke, Reina began to incant a combat spell.

“Firebomb!”

Another flame bomb went flying.

“They’re just going to block that ag—” Jeanie started.

Reina’s firebomb was consumed by the enemy’s protection magic, shattering into embers. But a single foe fell.

The soldier who had taken the direct hit was blown backwards and the men to his left and right, who’d also been caught in the blast, rolled on the ground trying to extinguish the flames. The first soldier was now incapacitated—alive only by the grace of the squad’s protection magic, (which had deflected some of the power) as well as the metal armor he was wearing underneath his cheap bandit clothing.

“Huh…?”

“What?” asked Reina, as she turned around to see Jeanie staring speechlessly.

Reina had not gotten a chance to show off her combat magic at the graduation exam. The match was called before she had the opportunity. And so Jeanie was stunned. Judging by her appearance, she’d assumed that Reina was around twelve years old, the same age as Mile. Now, she discovered that Reina not only had the stalwart protection magic that she had shown at the exam, but also combat magic with a power that surpassed even Jeanie’s. She’d been certain that Reina was a support-focused magic user, with protection magic as her specialty.

“Boiling Water Ball!”

Pauline fired off the spell that she’d begun casting just after Reina. Two softball-sized globes of water whooshed through the air at a leisurely pace, looking somewhat less than menacing.

Having judged that it was not worth using their magic to intercept these jiggling water balls, the enemies stood back and watched Pauline’s spell approach, stepping back to avoid it. But the moment the spell reached them, the balls suddenly changed course, striking the soldiers on the backs of their necks as they moved away.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!”

Scalding water, well past its boiling point, spread across the soldiers’ bodies, seeping beneath their armor and clothing.

As it squeezed and compressed, the water had grown hotter and hotter due to diffusion. The moment the water moved through its pressurized loop into a space with lower air pressure, the results were explosive.

No matter how much they flailed and rolled, the boiling water blistered their skin—even their clothing wouldn’t absorb it. As the seconds passed, their burns grew deeper and more severe. Others, who’d taken the water balls—no, boiling water balls—to the face, were screaming.

Mile waited patiently.

A number of soldiers from the back line rushed to those who were wounded.

Okay, now!

Just for the sake of appearances, Mile uttered a quick spell so that she wouldn’t appear to be casting silently. Then, she closed one eye clumsily, her expression calm.

“O little eye of mine, strike electric bolts into these bumblers!”

There was a crackling noise, and the line of enemy soldiers fell in place.

It was lightning magic, and Mile had held back just enough to avoid killing them. Thus was born one of Mile’s seven special techniques, which she would later dub the “Winking Angel Shot.”

Those who had been rushing across the battlefield to the aid of the injured were most certainly magic users, attempting to use healing. And this was exactly the reason that Mile had chosen them as her target. As the mages were wearing bandit garb like the others, there was no way to tell them apart—except by their movements.

Now the number of enemy magic users should have been greatly reduced, assuming that Mile’s thinking was correct. The injured soldiers had taken the shock as well, losing consciousness—a mercy for many of the casualties, and especially those burned by Pauline’s spell, who writhed on the ground in agony.

“Wh…”

The three Flaming Wolves had taken their eyes off of the enemy to stare at Mile.

Fortunately, the enemy had stopped in their tracks, but this was still not particularly advisable.

Dragonbreath, of course, were not as foolish, and though they were surprised, they remained vigilant of the enemies’ movements.

“They’re coming!” Bart called out to the distracted Flaming Wolves.

There were only six guards with one or two mages at best. That’s what the “bandits” thought. The guards would simply surrender and then, once they’d given up all their weapons, the cargo from the wagons would be up for grabs.

They assumed it was a simple job, just like many others. Then suddenly, they were on the receiving end of a magical onslaught. In an instant, they had lost about 20 percent of their fighting force. Furthermore, half of their most valuable magic users had fallen. Their forces halted for a moment, then advanced again at their commander’s direction. This was not the leisurely pace of earlier, but a full-on rush.

If they walked slowly they’d be picked off one at a time by magical attacks. They had no choice but to attack all at once to stave off the possibility of a counterattack.

A few soldiers didn’t approach, but instead stopped some distance away. These were the archers and remaining mages. Now they were within effective range. The spear-throwers would have to continue approaching.

During Mile’s attack, Reina, Pauline, and Jeanie had prepared their next spells, and they sent them flying toward the swordsmen and lancers at the head of the assault.

Boom! Whoosh! Ka-splash!

Reina let off another firebomb, but she did not aim directly at their foes this time. Instead, she let it crash to the ground and explode, lighting several enemy soldiers ablaze.

Pauline’s attack consisted of two bursts of the condensed fireball spell she’d demonstrated at the graduation exam. One of the bursts pierced a soldier’s right shoulder, while the other struck a man in the gut. His abdomen was well guarded by armor, but the direct strike combined with the heat and the fire spreading across the soldier’s body left him writhing on the ground.

Jeanie’s spell was an ice spear. Unlike fire-type spells, that were constantly combusting with magical energy, ice spears were solid and would strike even if they were blocked by magical means.

This time, the mages did not use protection magic, prioritizing attacks over preventing casualties to their already-reduced numbers. The ice spear pierced the soldiers, and the three casters began preparing their next spells.

Mile observed the movement of the soldiers in the farther formation.

Whoosh!

The enemy archers sent a wave of arrows flying. Mile, in turn, sent a protective gust of wind in the direction of the arrows.

“Wind-ow! Wind-ow! Wind-ooooow!”

Swept off course by the wind, the enemies’ arrows crashed to the ground.

This, naturally, was because windows always crash.

The spell was not particularly shocking, though it was slightly stronger than the typical wind casting.

The barrage of arrows continued, and soon attack magic came flying toward them as well: a coordinated storm of firebombs. Not precisely targeted shots, but a large quantity aimed at causing harm over the widest possible area.

The swarm of firebombs was timed to coincide with the exact moment Mile should have been busy deflecting the archers’ previous attack. Fire rained down on the merchants’ party.

“Magic Shot!”

As Mile let off her “spell,” several intercepting bursts went flying.

The shots—each one guided by the nanomachines—struck the enemy’s firebombs, causing them to explore in midair.

“Incredible…”

The platoon commander, certain that his enemy’s back line would be easily crushed, was stunned to see their attack power.

Still, he was confident as his close-range forces entered the fray. Though their attack power was inferior to the mages, they had the superiority of numbers. Besides, there was no way that a lowly hunter could stand up to a soldier when it came to close-range combat with spears and swords.

If a melee began to rage, mixing friends and foes, magic use would be difficult. They could deal with the mages after they’d felled the front line. There were a number of tactics they could use to deal with the magic users, particularly since they too had mages on their side. True, they’d sustained a number of casualties during their approach, but these could be healed with magic afterwards… shaking himself back to reality, the commander shouted.

“Attaaaaaaaack!”

Hmm… I wonder if I could fire off one more round before we get into close quarters combat?

Mile had no intention of crushing all the enemies by herself.

If she did, there would be nothing else for the other guards to do, and besides, it would attract too much attention. No matter what, she was just a normal, average C-rank hunter, after all. It was unwise to draw too much notice to herself.

Yet at this rate, if they entered melee combat then the casualties among her own allies would increase. And while magic could heal most injuries, death was another matter.

For now, she had to focus on doing everything she could to decrease the enemy’s fighting strength.

Some way to make the enemies weaker without standing out… Ah! That’s it!

Mile chanted a spell.

“Shave off the soles of their shoes and fill the insides with pointy rocks!”

“Gaaah!!!”

“Owwwwwww!!!”

Some groaned and grabbed their ankles, while others, feeling the pain on the bottom of their feet, cried out in a very un-soldier-like manner.

“What’s wrong with them?”

Bart was perplexed by the enemy’s sudden stop.

“What’s going on? It looks like they’ve all got gravel in their shoes or something.” Seeing the strange way that the enemies wobbled from side to side, Vera gave an extraordinarily precise analysis.

The soldiers’ shoes were the broken-in combat boots worn by most fighters. Mile knew that it took a lot of time to change in and out of this kind of footwear. In order to alleviate their pain, they would have to unlace their boots, remove the gravel, and then put the boots back on. Naturally, there was no way that they could do such a thing right under their enemies’ noses.

The soldiers would have to withstand the pain and overcome the difficulty of walking to resume their assault—running in a strange, faltering way.

This wasn’t just thanks to the pebbles in their shoes. There were also a number of soldiers whose ankles had started to ache terribly.

“All right, vanguard, roll out! Mages and Vera, please support them from here!”

They were on the verge of melee. The rear guard remained where they were, while the forward guard started to advance. The Flaming Wolves were stunned to see Mile calmly join the advance guard, having assumed that she was primarily a mage and carried a sword only for self-defense. But they said nothing about it. There was no time to waste.

A volley of powerful attack spells flew at each of the front lines. Without Mile, however, the mages on the merchants’ side were working at about half their normal efficiency, their spells dissipating on the enemies’ protection magic. Still, Mile blocked every shot from the enemy. Once the melee began, they would only be able to use precise, short-range spells, or else fire long-range magic at the opposition’s back line.

And so the true battle began.

Dragonbreath’s three vanguard fighters were strong. Bart, their leader, was a B-rank, and the other two were quite close to earning that distinction. Their promotion was near, and their power could be relied upon in all normal circumstances. They didn’t bother chasing the enemy, but instead skillfully fended off any attackers who came near.

On the other hand, the Flaming Wolves were quite flustered.

For a group of middle-of-the-road C-rank hunters, fighting against numerous soldiers was a challenge. However not long after they began fighting, the Wolves got into the swing of things, realizing that they were more capable in battle than they had thought.

A big part of this was because, for some reason, the enemies’ movements were unsteady and they were unable to put their backs into either attack or defense. The precision support that the front-line fighters received from the mages and Vera’s archery also helped. They were not striking men down in a single blow, but still managed to handle the attacks, landing a few blows themselves. Fighting like that against soldiers who greatly outnumbered them was highly commendable.

Among the mages, Reina exchanged long-range fire with the enemy back line, while Pauline and Jeanie were in charge of attack and support for those within the fray.

Only three enemy mages remained. With two of those focused on protecting against Reina’s spells, their attack reserves were quite slim. If they took even one direct hit, it would all be over. They had no choice but to focus on defense.

The one remaining attack mage sent spells toward the front line, working between shots to guard against Pauline and Jeanie. Indeed, Pauline and Jeanie had an advantage in this, as the fighting was taking place was closer to the merchants’ side than the enemies’.

Two enemy mages blocked Reina’s shots, and one fired at the Dragonbreath members fighting in the melee. Meanwhile, Pauline intercepted an attack, then joined Reina and Jeanie in incanting another attack spell. They fired the three attacks all at once, targeting each one of the enemy mages.

The enemies hastily prepared a defense spell, but whereas before they’d only been guarding against Reina, now they were facing three magic users. Furthermore, one enemy mage was still in the midst of casting, without enough time to change tack.

Booom!

The girls’ spells struck, and the enemy’s magical assault fell silent.

“I think you did it!” Mile cried as she swung her sword.

As she deflected the enemies’ magical attacks, her allies added to their support from behind.

Fighting nearby, Bart grinned. This was no time for chitchat.

If an opponent wore leather armor, you struck them with the side of your blade and aimed to break their ribs instead of killing. But with metal armor, you could strike with the blade as normal, denting their armor to accomplish the same. Since many of the “bandits” wore metal breastplates, Mile swung her sword with gusto.

Against the waves of enemy arrows, shot in spite of the danger of friendly fire, Mile merely shook her right hand, chanting a simple spell to deflect them.

Then came the rain of spears.

“Magic Shield!”

Cling clang cling clang!

The spears stopped mid-air as though they had struck a wall and fell to the ground.

Arrows rained down again shortly after…

“Those are fire arrows!”

Just as Bart said, there were fire arrows flying their way, aimed not at the fighting forces, but at the wagons behind.

This was likely a gambit to light the wagons ablaze, distracting the back line and drawing out noncombatants.

Seeing Mile make no move to intercept the arrows, which were just reaching the apex of their smooth arcs, Bart steeled himself for the loss of the wagons. But then—

Clink clink clink clink clink!

The arrows stopped mid-air, just short of the wagons, and fell to the ground like the spears before them.

“……”

Unlike with the spears, Mile didn’t appear to have used wind magic. A spell that could render defense without any kind of physical intermediary was simply unheard of.

No use in worrying over that, thought Bart. He had learned not to question the Crimson Vow.

“I’m going to go help the left side, all right?” Mile—her attempts to disguise her magic growing increasingly sloppy—asked to assist the Flaming Wolves.

“Sure. Go!”

The enemies’ numbers were steadily decreasing, and they had no magic users left. That finally gave Bart some room to breathe—and worry over the Flaming Wolves’ part of the battle. He granted Mile permission immediately. Mavis’s abilities had surpassed Bart’s expectations, and he was not particularly worried about her.

Mile rushed to the left of Dragonbreath to find the Flaming Wolves fighting a fierce battle.

Callum, one of the Dragonbreath’s swordsmen, was the closest by. He was also keeping an eye on the Flaming Wolves. For mid-level C-rank hunters, fighting that many soldiers was a tall order—even if their enemies were clumsy and had difficulty walking. Chuck, the swordsman, had been wounded and gripped his sword with only his right hand, his face twisted in pain. The movements of the other two were limited as they tried to fight while covering their party member.

Just then, an enemy soldier swung down at Chuck, his defenses were already weakened by his injury.

“Ch—”

Shing!

Before Brett, the leader, could even finish his scream, there was a loud clash as the enemy’s sword hit Mile’s mystery blade.

Shff!

Mile thrust up on the enemy sword, as if to dislodge the blade.

Pushed backwards by Mile’s overwhelming force, the soldier lost his balance. And then Chuck’s sword struck him. Because Chuck swung with only one hand, the soldier’s armor protected him from mortal injury, but even so there was a sound of bones breaking as the man fell back.

“Thanks! You totally saved me!” Chuck said in appreciation to Mile, and Brett bowed his head gently.

Mile nodded and turned to face the next enemy.

By now, the enemy had been reduced by twenty, and without their magic users they took the full brunt of the hunters’ magical attacks.

Knowing their arrows would be ineffective, the archers drew their swords and entered the melee rather than standing back, open to magical attacks. However, expert swordsmen were already dropping on all sides, so by the time the archers joined there was nothing they could do to turn the tide. One by one, they too were defeated.

At some point, the back-line mages had moved to the opposite side of the fray, surrounding the soldiers and blocking their path of escape. The enemy, now down to ten, didn’t have the luxury of ignoring the fighters in front of them to go after the mages. Even if they’d tried, at such a distance they’d be struck down by a magical attack before they could make their approach.

The enemy commander had already forfeited any possibility of retreat.

Running and leaving behind so many injured soldiers could put him in very hot water later on. No matter how elite his men were, if so many of them were captured and tortured, there was bound to be at least one who’d spill the beans. If they wanted to escape, they’d have to drag the injured along. Unfortunately, if their wounds were too severe, they’d have to silence them.

In any event, with things as they were, escape was hardly an option. Even if they managed to get away, they’d face relentless attacks until they reached the border and they couldn’t drag such a persistent force into their own lands.

There was no option but to defeat the hunters any way they could, tie up the merchants and take their wagons, unload the cargo, and then use the vehicles to carry their wounded back home. That way they could transport even those with more serious injuries, bringing the bodies of the fallen to be buried along the road.

There would be time to consider all of that after they had wiped out the hunters. It was still possible that it would not even come to that. After all, the dead had no worries.

With that in mind, the commander swung his sword desperately. With a twisted ankle and boots full of gravel, he couldn’t plant his weight and his steps were unsteady. He’d thought that he could ignore the pain because his life depended on it, but found he couldn’t summon the fortitude to focus on the battle. His strength had been decimated.

It hurt him greatly to fight his final battle under such circumstances. He wanted to rage, but knew that lamenting would help nothing.

Strangely, it seemed that his subordinates were in the same situation. He knew that no matter how far they had fallen behind in the magic battle, these were not the sort of soldiers to come to a cowardly end.

Why? How had it ended this way?

In the end, there was not such an enormous difference in power after all.

Before they even reached the melee, eleven of the enemy combatants had been incapacitated by just three mages. After that, eleven more—three mages, four archers, and four lancers—had been halted along the way. By the time the soldiers clashed with the merchant group’s front line, no more than eighteen remained. The three members of Dragonbreath, the strongest of the hunters, defended the center. Each of them took three soldiers, while the three Flaming Wolves took two apiece. Mavis took two and Mile one more, even though with such uneven numbers they were certain they’d be killed in an instant.

Yet Mavis’s special “Godspeed Blade” could kill a man in the blink of an eye. Used seriously, one slash would slice an opponent’s body through the middle, so she had only to strike the soldiers in the gut with the side of her blade. It was a lucky thing that she possessed a sword that wouldn’t break, even if used recklessly.

Mile dealt with her opponent quickly and then, with a little time on her hands, took care of one of Bart’s beside her. After that, thinking it would be rude to steal from anyone else’s plate, she moved to intercept incoming arrows. That is, until it occurred to her to aid the Flaming Wolves.

It wasn’t hard for each of the members of Dragonbreath to handle three soldiers, especially since all of them were unable to fight at full strength. Even the Flaming Wolves—including Chuck, who’d taken a blow—were fairly evenly matched against their pairs of soldiers.

By the time the archers and lancers entered the field with their swords, Bart and the two fighters from the Crimson Vow already had their hands free. They took turns, taking down one after another.

In the end only five men remained to surrender, and the commander and his captains were not among that group. They hadn’t run away. They were probably either groaning on the ground somewhere or, if their luck was particularly bad, among the corpses.

“Fargus! Loose one of the horses and take a message. Go to the guildhall in Amroth and then the local lord. Tell them to send escorted wagons and soldiers straight away! Got it? To the guild first, don’t forget!”

Bart made sure to emphasize the final order.

If the local lord knew about their enemies, there was a chance he’d try to hide it from the capital for some political reason. It was best to have insurance.

“After that, pen a letter with a summary of today’s events and send it to the capital. Write six more of the same, addressing three each to the guild and the palace, and send them all by different routes. And tell no one. Understood?”

Fargus nodded, heading straight for the horses. He was trustworthy and quick—the ideal candidate for the job.

Though the animals were really workhorses, they were trained to carry a person for a short time. They had no saddles but, even so, on horseback Fargus would be able to reach town faster than on foot. There was starlight overhead, and as long as he proceeded along the main highway, he shouldn’t have any trouble making it to Amroth by the morning.

“That was surprisingly prudent. You really don’t seem like the sort of person to take a job like this,” quipped Mile.

“I’m an oxymoron,” Bart replied tartly. “Now, let’s go collect the prisoners and the corpses.”

“…All right.”

Thankfully, while some of their party had been injured, none of the hunters had died.

Soon enough all the injuries—including Chuck’s right arm and a few other more minor wounds—were healed with the help of Pauline and Mile’s magic.

The Flaming Wolves were stunned to see how Chuck’s arm healed without so much as a bruise. Dragonbreath, however, having been present at the graduation exam to see the situation with the broken limb, were not as surprised. Either way, while seeing such wonders might normally cause their eyes to pop from their sockets in shock, by now they were too exhausted to be surprised.

The Crimson Vow had held back against the enemy, and the only soldier who perished from a direct magical attack was the one pierced by Jeanie’s ice javelin. Beyond that, there were a number of soldiers who’d sustained serious burns. The worst of them had been the victims of Pauline’s scalding attacks, so now, having their gear removed and wounds treated by the same girl was all the more heart-stopping.

Five more enemies had died from non-magical attacks. Between Dragonbreath and the Flaming Wolves, the latter were less capable of restraint, meaning there was more blood on their hands. Truly, it couldn’t be helped. The ones who remained alive were the lucky ones. There was nothing more to it.

Mile and Pauline gave emergency first aid to those who’d lost blood from cuts or stab wounds, as well as those who might have sustained internal damage. Those who’d only suffered broken bones and other simple wounds were left as they were.

Their aim was only to keep the soldiers from dying, not to do anything that would raise the danger of a counterattack. Understanding that, the prisoners didn’t complain or even make moves to remove the gravel from their shoes.

Even those who were injured were in no position to complain, as they might die without Mile and Pauline’s attentions or, at the very least, suffer long-term effects. Really, they ought to be thanking their healers.

In fact, there were a number of soldiers who did thank them. They had attacked the merchants not out of hatred but out of sworn duty, and knew that they were the ones in the wrong. Really, the fact that they’d only lost six men was something of a miracle.

Their enemies had held back, and the soldiers were well aware of that.

The guards collected the dead bodies, and prisoners were rounded up and restrained. Now, it was time for questioning. Once they dragged them to the authorities and turned them over, they’d lose their opportunity. It was best to collect as much information as they could right away. There were no guarantees that justice would be served without irregularities—like all the men somehow escaping from the hands of the local lord or mysteriously killing themselves before they could go to trial.

Mile quietly lowered her protective barrier, allowing the merchants to emerge and move the unconscious bandits. Though they weren’t supposed to awaken until morning, there was always a chance, and the hunters would all rest easier with their foes in sight.

And so the long night began.