bookworm

“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…”