bookworm

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.