bookworm

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.