Chapter 6:
Fledgling Hunter
It was twelve days later. In a certain regional capital located in a country far from the Kingdom of Brandel—the land of Adele’s birth—there stood a hall, which sported a signboard etched with a crossed sword, spear, and staff.
It was not the home of a blacksmith or a weapons shop.
No, this was the hall of the Hunters’ Guild.
And in front of it, stood a young girl, alone.
Of all that she had saved, only three silver coins remained. She had used the rest of her money to purchase a tunic, trousers, boots, and a leather breastplate. After that, she had picked up a cheap secondhand sword at a weapons shop. As a normal sword would have shattered if she had swung it at full strength, she had inevitably needed to rework it.
She purchased a relatively short sword to suit her stature, then implored the nanomachines to gather iron sand from the silt of the river bed to incorporate into her blade. Iron sand, she knew, was the same material used in Japanese katana, and the new blade was strong and durable.
In order to emulate the techniques of a craftsman, she gave the nanomachines only simple, direct instructions, to be enacted with earth magic.
What she wanted was an unbreakable sword, one that wouldn’t bend or weaken. The sharpness had to be normal and the materials equalized to achieve the optimal carbon content.
I don’t care if you turn it into mithril or adamantine or orihalcum or hihi’irokane or any other rare metal , she told the nanomachines . If you need to rework the molecular structure, then go ahead and do that, too. Just make sure it looks like a normal sword!
And so, her mysterious blade was completed.
Even the girl herself had no idea what it was truly made of.
She could never have crafted the whole thing alone—it was too difficult to picture a grip or scabbard from the raw materials, so these had a standard appearance. But the blade was the sword’s real strength.
She was ready to defeat some monsters—to become a perfectly normal, average hunter. With that aim in mind, the girl opened the door to the hall of the Hunters’ Guild and stepped inside
The guild hall was empty.
It was early afternoon, hardly the busiest time of day.
There were no hunters talking, drinking, or trading stories of the day’s adventures.
The girl turned to the empty reception window. “Excuse me, I’d like to register as a hunter,” she called hesitantly.
“Oh, h-hello!” A flustered girl of seventeen or eighteen years, who appeared to have embarked on this line of work only recently, greeted her. “Um, d-do you know how to write?”
“Yes, I do.”
“All right, then. Please fill this out for me.”
The girl accepted the blank form from the clerk and moved to a registration desk nearby. She placed the form atop it, gripping the provided pen as she looked the form over. Naturally, the very first blank was for her name.
My name…
The girl thought hard.
Well, I certainly can’t use the name Adele. Not unless I run into some old classmate from the academy…
Misato was the name that she had in her previous life, but now, she needed to come up with something new.
Just then, she recalled a conversation she once had with her father when she was young. It was during elementary school, when they had been given an assignment that required them to ask their parents about the origin of their names.
When Misato asked her father about the origin of her own name, he had said this:
“Well, Misato, you know that your father’s work is all about airplanes, right? In the world of aviation, we use a measure of distance called a mile.
“There are both sea miles and land miles, but even within the category of land miles, there are international miles, survey miles, statute miles, and a number of others—all of which differ in length by country. It’s a huge pain.
“However, when it comes to the land and sea, in the aviation and maritime industries, everyone uses the same nautical mile as the main unit of measurement. The sky and sea are connected throughout the whole world, meaning it would be a problem if every country used measurements of their own.
“Unlike land miles, which follow a number of different standards, nautical miles have only one measure. If you travel once around the world, from north to south, you would go 36 0 degrees. Each mark of that latitude is 6 0 miles, and so 1/6 0 th of that will always be one mile.
“The kanji for ‘Misato’ can also be read ‘Kairi.’ And that word is the Japanese term for a nautical mile.
“No matter where you go in the world, a nautical mile is always the same. I wanted to find a name that conveyed those universal qualities, and that’s why we picked your name.’
The girl let the feather pen glide along the page, inscribing her name.
Mile.
And so, the rookie hunter “Mile” was born.
Mile filled in the rest of the fields on the form.
Gender? Female . Age? Twelve. Occupation? Magic user. Specialization? None. Seeking a party? No. Past history and commendations as a hunter? None.
She returned the completed form to the clerk at the window, who accepted it without protest. “Miss Mile, is it?” she said. “Are you from around here?”
“No, I was born deep in the mountains, but both my parents passed away. Now I have to make it on my own, and there is no other work I can do…”
“I-I’m so sorry. I overstepped… Well, let’s get you acquainted with the guild!”
The explanation that Laura, the clerk, proceeded to give her was more or less the same as what she’d heard from the boys in her class.
Hunters had eight ranks, lettered G through S.
G-rank was reserved for what were called “guild hopefuls”—children six to nine years of age who were given odd jobs around the town or tasks such as accompanying those who went out to collect herbs.
At ten years old, these hopefuls were allowed to become proper guild members, but they started out at F, the lowest rank, and could only be tasked with collecting plants and minerals; tracking birds, deer, and wild boars for harvest; and weeding out jackalopes and other lesser monsters.
At E-rank, they could take on goblins and orcs, and at D-rank, restrictions were finally removed from the hunters.
Still, D-ranks had somewhat of a lesser reputation, and though it was not unheard of for them to be offered jobs such as being bodyguards and the like, most employers only sought hunters of C-rank and above.
Indeed, C-rankers were what would normally be thought of as “full-fledged hunters,” and their ranks were the largest. Thanks to this, however, their ability levels were greatly varied—from just beyond D-rank to just before B-rank.
B-ranks were first class, and highly esteemed, especially in smaller towns in the country. A-ranks were veritable legends, while anyone who reached S-rank—the highest tier—was heralded as a hero.
However, there were but a few S-ranks, even within the royal capital.
Promotions were decided by committee, based on a hunter’s completed jobs, achievements, and contributions to the guild. However, in some rare cases, only a minimum amount of time was required to be registered before a promotion occurred.
Promotion fraud was absolutely forbidden, and anyone caught undermining the system could be permanently expelled from the guild, no matter their position. In the worst cases, hunters had even been known to be executed. Therefore, there wasn’t a soul who would let themselves be led astray by anything less than a king’s ransom.
Guild members were expected to settle any internal disputes amongst themselves, so long as they remained petty quarrels. In the event that a hunter committed an actual crime, they were tried and punished by both the guild and the local law enforcement. The guild members were still citizens of the town, and a crime was a crime, so violent conduct and extortion and the like were dealt with accordingly.
As the clerk continued her explanation, the hunter’s badge, which she’d apparently started making after receiving the girl’s paperwork, was completed. It was a small iron tag, worn on a chain around the neck. On it was engraved an “F” (or rather, that world’s equivalent of the letter), as well as Mile’s name, the name of the guildhall, and a registration number.
Of course, as it was not equipped with any secret functions that automatically logged monster kills, nor received urgent messages from the guild, it was necessary to bring back a trophy as proof every time one killed a monster. If one relocated to another town, it was necessary for a letter of introduction and an assessment record to be forwarded to the new guildhall before the transfer could be finalized.
In order to preserve confidentiality, the specifics of these transfers were never made public, so there was no danger of revealing one’s whereabouts.
“Should you encounter the body of a hunter anywhere,” Laura said, “please retrieve and return that hunter’s mark. We will need to contact the family of the departed and process their removal from the register. Then, once their hunter’s badge has been marked as invalid, we return it to the family as a memento. Whoever returns the tag will of course receive a humble sum from the guild as a reward. In some cases, the relatives will also offer the finder a token of their gratitude. And of course, all items found on the body at the time of discovery, including weapons and armor, become the property of the finder.”
As the clerk handed Mile her badge, she continued her explanation.
The reward money was only a pittance, rendering it unlikely that a hunter would continually “find” other hunters’ bodies without good reason. This discouraged the hunting of other hunters. Indeed, it sounded as though this system had been put in place just for this purpose, to encourage the proper return of tags rather than the theft of deceased hunter’s belongings.
Her overview then complete, the clerk turned once more to Mile and said, “Welcome to the Hunters’ Guild!”
***
That evening, Mile lay in a bed at the inn nearest the guildhall, planning for the following day.
There were many jobs for F-rank hunters. However, these were not individual requests, but rather outstanding orders, or calls for material to be gathered in the area surrounding the town. Such orders meant that new job requests weren’t issued daily, but rather, kept perpetually on the guild’s records, so hunters could hunt and harvest as they pleased without giving formal notice and then simply bring back their trophies and goods to the delivery point to collect their payment. The listing was always accompanied by the daily reward for goblin slaying or medicinal herbs or jackalope meat—whatever good or service happened to be in demand during that particular season.
Other harvested goods weren’t covered by these outstanding orders, but there were certain items for which one could always find a buyer, provided they appraised well. These included birds, boars, and deer, edible tree fruits and mushrooms, wild vegetables, ores and minerals, and many other items. They were assessed by size and quality, with their monetary value changing according to the prices set in the city markets each day.
If Mile were only taking outstanding orders and harvesting, this would save her the trouble of waking up early to pack into the crowded guild for the daily assignment of new tasks. All she had to do was go straight from the inn to the forest.
There were also certain ways that Mile, an F-rank hunter, could hunt higher-ranked monsters than jackalopes in order to earn more money. One of those ways was to join a party, but that was something Mile wasn’t considering. Another way was to hunt down monsters from higher-ranked outstanding orders.
The job ranks were largely in place to prevent inexperienced hunters from taking on jobs they weren’t prepared for and losing their lives, as well as to minimize the failure rate for jobs that the guild accepted. On outstanding orders, which were not assigned like individual requests, there were no failure rates: if you failed, you could just do it over again. Plus, the value of materials requested via outstanding orders never changed.
Of course, this wasn’t especially recommended, but as long as one acknowledged the risks and took responsibility for oneself, the guild would turn a blind eye. However, Mile had no intention of trying her hand at battling higher-ranked monsters unless they happened upon her. She was just a normal, average F-rank hunter, after all.
As for why she chose the path of a hunter, there were several reasons. Firstly, it was something that anyone could become, no matter their age or appearance. With a hunter’s badge, she could easily and openly cross territorial and national borders. Thus, in the event that her name and reputation somehow spread to other countries, she could simply move to a faraway land and start over again as a newly registered F-rank hunter under a new name.
Also, as she would only be facing monsters and beasts, it wasn’t a big deal if she slipped up in limiting her power. Indeed, if she acted alone, she could use her magic and sword abilities as she pleased without others noticing. And if something unfortunate happened, she could immediately transfer to another country. By keeping her distance from other hunters, she could disappear without a trace and no one would care.
Besides, if she’d had to tend a shop from morning until night every single day, she would’ve been bored out of her skull. Once a week had been one thing, but she’d prefer to be able to save up enough to live a peaceful life of matrimony some time in the future.
With these reasons in mind, she couldn’t think of any other career that she could possibly wish to undertake—especially considering the fact that, above all, a hunter was a completely mundane, average, normal career, one that any old dunce could do.
***
The following day, Mile woke up bright and early to hurry out on her first job.
As she could use harvesting magic, she didn’t need any bags. However, if she were to go around empty-handed, people might realize that she was doing something unusual, so she slung a bag over her back. This was only to carry her spoils. The bread for her lunch and her water skin were stored away in the loot box space, so as to keep them from being damaged. The only equipment she wore was her leather breast plate and boots, along with the mystery sword at her waist. She looked very much like a novice hunter.
She was in a remote city, so it was but a short distance from the inn to the forests where the prey lived. It would take an adult about one hour by foot, but Mile arrived in fifteen minutes. Of course, it only took her that long because she slowed down when she saw other people—and because she avoided running at full speed so as to avoid trampling the plantlife along her way.
“So, this is the Hunters’ Woods…” she mused. She had received a map and directions from the clerk, and now there was no mistaking that she had arrived.
It was a dense forest, and there were no traces of other humans, so Mile let herself think aloud. Walking around in silence got a bit lonesome.
“The more experienced people go deeper into the woods or to a different forest entirely,” she muttered as she stepped deeper into the forest. “This is an area intended for novices, so of course there shouldn’t be any big, high-reward monsters around here…”
After a brief walk, she spotted a bird sitting on a tree branch. Though these woods were dim, she could somehow see it quite clearly.
However, though she could see it, there was no way her sword could reach a bird up in the top of a tree. Even so, it was a fairly large bird—if she could catch it, she would certainly be able to sell it for a nice sum. And if she didn’t, well, she might find herself going without food (her lodging, thankfully, had already been arranged).
Mile looked down at the ground, spotted a fist-sized rock, and picked it up. She wound up and pitched it at the bird as hard as she could.
Bwam!
A great roaring reverberated throughout the woods.
The bird vanished from sight. The upper part of the tree, where the bird had been sitting, vanished as well.
Somehow, she didn’t get the impression that the bird had fled.
Her vision still somewhat sharper than normal, Mile could clearly see bits of meat and feathers, and a few bloodstains, spattered against the remaining tree.
“Noooooooo…”
Several minutes later, she began walking once more, the pockets of her tunic stuffed with a number of small pebbles, each about the size of the tip of her pinky.
Something that size should only pierce them , she thought, deciding that she would aim for their heads. Mile was, after all, an intelligent girl.
However, perhaps because of the terrible roaring sound, there wasn’t another animal in sight. Without any other options, Mile resorted to picking herbs.
However, she had heard that they were exceptionally difficult to find, so she had to employ a bit of cunning. That’s right , she thought. It’s time for some location magic.
Mile was the sort of person who figured there was no point in doing a lot of hard work if you had access to a tool that might help you.
“Location magic! Show me the way to medicinal herbs!”
PROCEED SEVENTEEN STEPS BEFORE TURNING LEFT, THEN PROCEED SIX STEPS.
“What are you, a GPS??! Those are just directions! That isn’t magic!!”
WELL, REMEMBER—THE THING THAT EVERYONE CALLS MAGIC IS ALL OUR DOING, ANYWAY…
“Good point.”
Mile fell to her knees, a bit disappointed. Truthfully, she had been hoping for something a bit more magical—like a radar screen with red and blue dots, or a pillar of light that would radiate from the spots where the herbs were growing.
IF THAT IS WHAT YOU WISH FOR, WE CAN CREATE IT.
“Can you?!” Mile didn’t want to rely too much on the nanomachines, so she tried not to speak to them except when she was working magic. However, this time, she responded immediately.
If anyone were to see her, they’d probably have mistaken her for some kind of weirdo performing a one-woman show.
Before her eyes, the location magic shifted forms to a radar system—sans voice navigation. The signals seemed to be beamed directly to her retinas, and using these coordinates, Mile gathered the herbs. After accumulating a certain amount of one herb, she switched to a different variety, storing the first away in her loot box, figuring that it wasn’t smart to collect too many of the same thing.
A little while after she began gathering, the last echoes of the great boom she had instigated had finally faded, and the animals that had hidden away in their burrows and dens started to reappear.
Facing a jackalope that had appeared a short distance away, Mile drew one of the tiny pebbles from her pocket and flicked it with her fingers.
On Earth, there was a special finger technique whereby one could flick a metal ball or coin with one’s fingers in order to distract or startle an enemy. Mile’s version, of course, was different.
Whoosh!
The pebble struck the animal perfectly in the skull, piercing it right through, leaving the meat, pelt, and—most importantly—the horns undamaged. The jackalope’s sale value would be undiminished. Pleased with the outcome, Mile gave up on collecting herbs and switched to hunting beasts.
Jackalopes, birds, fox-like creatures—one by one, they fell prey to her pebbles. After a while, she stopped to replenish her stock of ammo, but was soon back at it with a vengeance.
With a spear or sword, the animals would have run before she could get too close, and the chance of actually hitting a creature with a bow and arrow wasn’t very high. As a result, normal hunters tended not to go for birds and other small animals. Then again, they would never have been able to spot them as easily as she was in the first place. Even without using location magic, Mile had an uncanny sense that allowed her to spot prey easily, one animal after another. And thanks to that, even when she missed and startled a creature away, she could still manage to fell it before it escaped her.
She continued her hunting until suddenly a giant boar appeared.
Bwoosh!
It was a huge catch.
Mile started on her path home, utterly giddy. But then, she realized something.
“I’m a mage, but I didn’t use magic even once…”
Apparently, she didn’t count the search magic she used while gathering herbs as “using magic.” Unlike combat magic, the things she had been executing weren’t exactly what one imagined a hunter mage doing—however, she couldn’t help but think of those things as a kind of roadmap.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, Mile had used neither her attack magic nor her sword.
***
Mile made her way back to the guildhall to exchange her spoils for money. Her bag, which carried but a portion of what she had gathered, was slung over her right shoulder. Thinking of future situations, Mile decided it was best not to hide that she could use storage magic. Instead, she would make the appeal that it was possible for her to hunt properly while still using it. Otherwise, she would never be able to carry all her prey.
But today, she was only going to be turning in her herbs and jackalopes, as per the standing order, as well as selling off the other meat and materials she had gathered. She headed straight for the reception window but was stopped along the way by a man’s voice.
“You have a moment?”
Does he mean to flirt with me? Mile wondered.
When she turned to look, the man—or rather, a boy of about fifteen—continued to speak, looking a bit flustered.
“Oh, n-no! Please don’t get the wrong idea! I just wanted to invite you to join our party! We’re five now, but we still don’t have enough attack power. We were hoping to gather one more person. This is all of us so far.”
Behind the boy, some boys and girls of around fourteen or fifteen years of age stood in pairs.
“I’ve never seen you around here before,” the boy said. “Did you come from some other town? Judging by that catch, you must be pretty skilled, but it’s easy to end up in a tight spot when you’re hunting solo.”
“We aren’t much older than you, and we already have girls with us, so you don’t have to worry about being the only one. How about it? Will you think it over?”
Mile had absolutely no interest in joining a party. If she hunted with others, they would discover very quickly that she was an anomaly. Soon, the other members of the group would start leaning on her—or worse, selling information about her to a noble somewhere.
At the same time, it was pretty peculiar of her to continue standing around talking with her bag on her shoulder. She didn’t want to start a quarrel with this young man.
“Um, well… Can I go finish turning in my goods first?”
“Oh, sorry.” The boy took her request literally and said, “I’ll wait right here.”
Mile proceeded to the exchange station and handed over her captured prey, along with her name and registration number. With this information, a hunter’s deeds—even if they were only everyday tasks such as gathering meat or herbs—could be recorded on their achievement log, to be referenced in their promotions.
“Well now, little lady.” The old man at the exchange station sounded highly impressed.
“You’re young, but you’ve got a lot of skill. You got a lotta these guys, and their pelts’re in perfect condition. I’ll put a special mark down fer this.”
“Really?! Thank you so much! Oh—that’s right—I have a few more…”
She pulled the rest of her prey out of her storage space and piled everything up on the desk. The old man’s eyes went wide with shock.
“St-storage magic… And there’s so much here…”
“Oh, I—is this unusual?”
“No, er, nothin’ unusual…”
When Mile finally pulled the boar from her bag, the old man’s jaw dropped.
Yet as unsettled as he obviously was by this turn of events, the man was still a professional. When he picked his jaw back up off the floor, he began sorting out the goods.
The birds and jackalopes were each worth 2 silver coins a piece, the vulpine creature was worth 8 silver, thanks to its pelt, and the boar was worth a whole 8 half-gold! She had brought in five each of the birds and jackalopes, so altogether, her payment totaled to 1 gold, 8 silver. In terms of modern-day Japanese currency, that was roughly equal to 1 0 8, 000 yen.
Of course, it was thanks to the boar that the sum was so large this time. However, even without it, Mile would have brought in about 28, 000 yen. If she worked thirty days out of a thirty-six day month, she would bring in 84 0 , 000 yen. That was a considerable salary.
Becoming a hunter was the best decision ever!!! Mile thought.
Overjoyed, Mile left the exchange station before suddenly, she realized something.
Oh wait! I forgot to turn in my herbs…
Having stashed the herbs in her loot box rather than using storage magic, Mile had completely forgotten about them. However, as long as they were in the loot box, they wouldn’t go bad. She could just turn them in next time.
Factoring in the herbs, Mile’s monthly salary would be ten gold pieces—over one million yen.
When she returned to the boy and his party, something about them seemed a little bit odd. Some were staring blankly. Others were completely agog. It was just like the old man at the exchange station before…
“So, about earlier—” she began to say.
“Hey, you!” A man in his thirties rushed in, interrupting Mile’s words. “You can use storage magic? How much can you hold?”
Mile was utterly appalled at the man’s arrogant manner. She completely ignored him, turning instead to the boy before her. “Please allow me to ask something.”
“Hey, brat!” the man snarled.
Mile continued to ignore him. “First of all, out of all of these hunters here, why would you choose me?”
“Are you listening?!”
“To be frank,” she went on, “I am much smaller than everyone else here, aren’t I? Did you not think that might hold you back?”
“Quit messing around!” The man was indignant. The boy was flustered.
In the evenings, the guildhall was packed with hunters, so a little quarrel like this was nothing out of the ordinary. Still, everyone looked on out of idle interest to see how the newcomer would handle herself.
“You are much too loud! Please, be quiet. Can’t you see I’m trying to have a conversation?”
“Wh-what…? W-well, you were ignoring me, so…”
“Oh! Were you talking to me? I do apologize. I couldn’t believe that you would possibly be so mannerless as to butt into someone else’s conversation without even a greeting, so I merely assumed that you were speaking to someone who I couldn’t see.”
“Y-you damn brat! You think you can mess with me… W-well, fine. You’re gonna join our party. Then you can do some proper work carrying our bags!”
“Anyway,” Mile turned back to the boy. “What is it that you four normally hunt for?”
“Can you even hear me?!?!”
“You, sir, are a nuisance. If you have something to discuss with me, please wait your turn. However, if you’ve come to petition me for either a loan or a date, I must preemptively refuse. I too have the freedom to choose—”
“You little twit!!!” The indignant man drew his sword, swinging it down at Mile. The other hunters leapt to stop him, but they could never have made it in time.
Shing!
Ka-thump.
Everyone froze. Several hunters stopped in place, as though they had seized up mid-run.
The man stood still and silent, gripping the hilt of a bladeless sword. Mile held the stance of someone who had just swung a weapon. And there, clattering to the floor, was the sword’s blade—but it wasn’t a broken edge that it had. The massive blade had been cut clean off.
“Wh-wha…?”
Schwip!
With a flick, Mile returned her sword to its sheath.
A beat later, the man’s iron cross guard snapped in two.
“Ee….” He stumbled back slowly, then turned on his heel and ran.
Two other hunters, most likely members of his party, followed in a panic.
It was probable that the man hadn’t actually intended to cut Mile down; there was a strong chance that he had instead intended to stop short, just to give her a fright. However, Mile was not the sort of optimistic idiot who would assume such was the case and simply do nothing. If she hadn’t acted and he hadn’t stopped short, then she would’ve been killed.
“Now, as I was saying…” Mile attempted to return to her previous conversation, but the boy only stared at her with his mouth agape, unable to respond.
As Mile stood there, baffled, another hunter in his thirties began to speak.
“Little miss, that sword of yours…. It’s amazing… Where did you get your hands on it?”
Oh dear.
It was likely that the hunter had no ulterior motive beyond simply an interest in swords, but if people thought her sword was amazing, then they would covet it.
“Uh, I just bought it at a shop, like most people, you know? It was just a used sword from the bargain bin.”
“You’re joking me! With an edge like that?!”
What do I do? Ah, wait!
“Um, could I borrow your sword a minute?”
“Hm? Oh, well, sure…”
The man detached the sheath from his waist and handed it to Mile, who fastened it on her left side, beside her own blade.
“Now, could I kindly ask someone to toss a copper piece into the air?”
“I’ll toss it!”
A curious crowd began to gather around Mile, and one of the hunters spoke up, pulling his coin purse from his breast pocket to produce a single copper coin.
“Here we go! And…hup!”
Shing! Snap!
Mile swung the man’s blade quicker than the eye could see, then thrust her left hand into the air.
“Here you are.”
Mile stretched her palm out to the man who had lent her the sword, revealing two clean-cut halves of a copper coin.
“N-no way…” He stared at it, dumbfounded. “W-with my sword…?!” The man plucked the coin halves from Mile’s hand, staring at them in a daze, his disbelief clear.
“You see? It has nothing to do with the sword. It just takes a knack.”
Was this girl serious? Everyone present in the hall, hunters and clerks alike, were confounded by Mile’s pronouncement.
However, as members of the guild, they were forbidden to launch an inquiry into another’s past or abilities. Invasive questions were frowned upon, so they merely watched and listened intently.
Mile returned the man’s sword, glad to finally get back to her conversation with the boy. “So. You were saying something about having insufficient attack power…”
“Y-yes! Right now, we have a sword-wielder, a spear-wielder, and a bow-wielder, as well as two mages, one of whom can use attack magic. The other’s more skilled at utility and healing magic… Anyway, things can get a little dicey in close-quarters combat, so we were thinking it would be nice to have one more decent swordsman to act as a rear guard…” This boy, presumably the leader, stumbled over his words as he attempted to explain the situation politely. Nevertheless, Mile understood his meaning.
“But, um, I’m a magic user, so…”
“Whaaaaaaaat?!”
This time the surprised shout came from the hunters behind them as well.
“B-but that sword—? And that thing you did earlier…”
“Oh, well, even as a rear-guard magician, sometimes enemies slip past the front lines and end up in front of you, right? And sometimes you get attacked from behind. So at the very least, I figured I should be able to use a sword well enough to protect myself, should that happen. I’m really a pretty half-baked swordsman.”
Bang bang bang bang bang!
Mile heard a strange sound behind her and turned to look, only to see the swordsman-like fellow she had been speaking to earlier banging his head against a wall. Had he eaten something bad? What was all that about?
Yet unlike the flabbergasted advance-guard swordsmen, the rear-guard magic users appeared somewhat relieved. If there were really a swordsman who was also able to use such a rare, high-level skill as storage magic, then there would be no point at all in having magic users of their level around. On the other hand, having an excellent mage who could also cross swords with the best swordsmen… That was thrilling.
“S-sorry… We figured you were a D-rank hunter, just like us, so…”
“Oh, um, D-rank? Wouldn’t having a two-rank difference make things difficult?” Mile had been trying to come up with a good reason to refuse, and now, the rank gap would provide her with an out. She had assumed that the boy and his party were also E or F-rank, so, really, this was a fortuitous surprise.
“Two? Ah, you’re a B, huh? That makes sense, what with the storage magic and your sword skills. You look rather young, but I assume you must be an elf or a dwarf? Please, forgive my rudeness…”
“Oh no, I’m just a plain, average, ordinary human. I only became a hunter yesterday. I’m an F-rank.”
Ka-thak!
Thwump!
Smack!
Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!
A variety of noises resounded behind her.
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?!”
Mile was startled at the sudden ferocity of the voices behind her.
“Come on, even so…”
“There’s no such thing as an F-rank like you! Why didn’t you put in a skip application when you registered?!”
“Huh? A skip application? What’s that?”
At Mile’s blithe response, the hunters looked still more horrified, and at the front of the hall, the officials’ faces went pale.
“Someone call the guild master!”
At the command of a man who appeared to be a veteran hunter, one of the guild officials ran frantically up the stairs.
“Little miss, who registered you?”
“Umm, she was a lady with blonde hair, about seventeen or eighteen years old. I think her name was Leira? Or Lorrie…?”
“Laura! Damn that girl! This is ridiculous.”
Mile shrank back. This seemed to be becoming quite a to-do.
“Is there a problem…?”
“Don’t you worry, little miss. You’re not in the wrong here. The guild master’s coming to sort this out.”
After several minutes, the official who had run up the stairs returned with the guild master in tow. It had probably taken some time to fully explain the situation. After all, it would have been unthinkable for the master to meet with someone he had no prior knowledge of—especially now that a problem had arisen.
The guild master who descended wasn’t the tall, beefy sort that Mile had imagined, but rather the kind of man you might reasonably mistake for a regional bank manager. Perhaps, she thought, he had been selected for his managing ability rather than his combat skills.
“Is this the young lady in question? Where is Laura, anyway?”
“Yes, sir. This is her. And Laura is off today, but I’ll go fetch her straight away,” replied a nearby clerk.
The guild master nodded, then turned to Mile. “My apologies. It appears that one of my staff has slipped up, but I’d like to try and get this sorted. Would you mind coming with me for a moment?”
“Yes, of course,” said Mile.
The veteran hunter who had spoken up before chimed in. “Mind if the rest of us sit in on this too? We wouldn’t want anybody pulling the wool over the eyes of this innocent little lady. Gotta make sure she knows that this was a guild slip-up and not a reflection on all us hunters.”
The guild master nodded, and the veteran called over two other older hunters. Together, they all moved into the meeting room.
As they sipped tea, Laura, the receptionist from yesterday, arrived breathless, her face very pale.
“First off, let’s confirm Laura’s side. You were the one who registered this girl, Miss Mile, yesterday. Is that correct?”
“Y-yes…” Laura nodded, her face still ashen.
“And at that time, did you tell her about the skip applications?”
“N-no…”
“Why not?”
“W-well, she was newly registering at twelve years old, so I assumed she was just a beginner…”
“And what do the guidelines say?”
“Th-that we should explain everything to everyone…”
With this misstep confirmed, the guild master held his head.
“She listed her occupation as magic user, didn’t she? Why didn’t you confirm her skill level?!”
“Well, she was carrying a sword, so I figured that even if she said she was a mage, the sword was her main means of combat and her magic was fairly weak…”
“You idiot! She bested Matthew with her sword in one blow, and she can use storage magic! That’s the skill of a B-ranker at the very least! You would’ve made a person like this sit around for years collecting herbs and hunting jackalopes! What the hell were you thinking?!”
“I-I wasn’t…” Laura, now in shock at the magnitude of her mistake, was on the verge of tears.
Truly, it was all quite understandable. The difference in earnings and reputation between an F-rank and a C or B-rank was as considerable as the difference between straw and gold. Her mistake would have sentenced a promising new recruit to sacrifice valuable years of their life, an irreparable act, and one that wouldn’t have occurred had Laura not decided to follow her own judgment instead of the guild regulations.
“Um…” Mile interjected timidly, still not grasping the gravity of the situation. “I’m okay staying like this…”
“Do you really think that’s possible?!?!”
The attending hunters stirred in anger.
“Do you know what kind of precedent it would set if the guild just let a mistake like this go?! Think about the other hunters! Since when have there been any F-rank hunters who could use storage magic?!”
As Mile stared blankly, one of the hunters elaborated. Storage magic was a fairly high-level magic, so the people who could use it were few. With such magic, you could carry large quantities of spare armor and weapons, food and water, and of course, collect materials and prey, so your rate of earnings increased several-fold. If you were able to use said magic, others would defend you with their lives, even if you were weak in combat. It wasn’t unreasonable that you would be able to join C through A-rank parties.
Thus, if you could use storage magic, no matter how poor your other abilities were, you would be authorized as a C-rank at minimum. And so, given that Mile could use other magic fairly well also, as well as being particularly handy with a sword, it was only reasonable that she would be invited to join parties of B-rank or higher.
“So then, could I just re-register?”
“If that were possible, this wouldn’t be such a problem.”
This time, the guild master explained. Apparently, in the past, there had been many nobles and dependents of such who tried to forcibly have their ranks raised, whether by bribery or influence. In order to prevent this, the rank promotion rules were firmly set, so that once a person registered, they could not re-register at a higher rank. Generally speaking, anyone who unregistered only to re-register again was placed at the same or a lower rank than before, as in the case of a retiree getting back into the business of hunting.
Early promotion was an option, but there were still obstacles. A minimum number of years participating in the guild were required, and exceptions were incredibly rare unless one was a hero acting in a time of national crisis.
Even if the guild was able to arrange such a thing quietly, thinking they wouldn’t get caught, the risks were too high and the punishments too severe: no one would ever dare put themselves in such danger. If one official, or even one hunter, slipped up, and word got around to the wrong people, it would all be over for the guild.
This was part of the reason why new recruits were to have their skills and abilities confirmed at time of registration. If it were found that their background or abilities qualified them for a rank skip, then it would be reported to the guild master, and that recruit would be tested before the guild officials and several high-ranking hunters, who collectively would decide the individual’s rank.
It was not uncommon for soldiers and knights to become hunters after retiring, as well as former court magicians driven out of their homes by civil war and other conflicts. Obviously, not everyone started at F-rank.
Even Mile, as things stood, should have started out as a C-ranker—even though that was the last thing that the girl herself wanted.
“What the hell do we do?”
“I’m really fine like this…” Mile insisted.
“YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!” The veterans all roared, ignoring the troubled guild master’s attempts to quiet them. Mile shrank back.
If she could net ten gold pieces a month, there would be no complaints on Mile’s part; however, the veteran hunters could not stomach the thought of someone like her wasting all her time on fetch quests and other menial tasks, day in and day out. Plus, an F-ranker would be excluded from the roster of important folks who were called upon to respond when a great monster appeared, when the guild was asked to escort someone important, or when hunters were needed to participate in a disaster relief effort.
All in all, the guild wasn’t prepared to let someone who would be useful in these tasks sit around for years, frittering her time away. In particular, it was hard to overlook Mile’s storage magic, which could be used to bolster logistical support in transporting goods and help guildhalls in other cities during emergency situations when they might be lacking in personnel. True, the hunters couldn’t overrule the word of the guild master, but it was nonetheless a matter of grave importance, one which would have an effect on their very lives in times of emergency.
“What about the prep school in the capital…?” Laura offered softly, her face still pale and her head hanging.
“THAT’S IT!!!” The guild master and one of the hunters leapt from their seats.
The other two hunters seemed to have no idea what they were talking about. Naturally, neither did Mile.
***
The Hunters’ Prep School.
It had begun operating in the country’s capital only six years before. The school was an experimental institute, designed to impart the knowledge and technique required of a novice hunter in just half a year, allowing one to attain a D or even C-rank upon graduation. It had initially been proposed by a nobleman from a hunter’s background, who was concerned by the fact that, due to the years of participation before one could become a full-fledged hunter, even the most talented candidates were limited in how much they could achieve before reaching an age for retirement.
“Whether they’re noble or commoner—or in certain cases, even slaves—anyone can enroll there without obstacle. Because no one is accepted without a guild master’s recommendation, the program has a high success rate; it’s part of every guild master’s duties to scout for new recruits. They stake their own reputations on these referrals. However…”
“However?”
“If the person a guild master refers is ever judged unfit to attend the academy, the student will be expelled at once. And the guild master who recommended the student in question will be looked at very critically by the higher-ups and should abandon any hope of promotion…”
As one of the hunters explained, Mile glanced in the direction of the guild master, who seemed quietly pleased, his eyes sparkling.
“I believe in you, Miss Mile…”
His eyes were no doubt those of an optimist.
***
And so, Mile consented to relocate to the country’s capital for enrollment in the Hunters’ Prep School. She got the impression that if she didn’t, Laura, the clerk, would probably be fired, and that the guild master—though his position was secure—would still face some kind of penalty.
Still influenced by her Japanese sense of propriety, Mile felt quite guilty. It seemed that this guildhall had carried on its day-to-day operations just fine until she came along: the anomaly, as always.
Laura learned from the incident, as well. Had she continued in the same manner, it was possible that she could have made the same mistake again in the future, but after this lesson, it was unlikely that she would ever again follow her own judgment over the guild’s regulations.
Frankly, it worked out for Mile either way.
She was going to end up a C-rank sooner or later, so it wasn’t a big deal when, exactly, it happened. The only reason she would have been a C-ranker in the first place was because she could use a bit of storage magic, and even if that were rare, at least it would still have put her in the category of an “ordinary” C-rank hunter. It wasn’t much different from being found out to have storage magic as an F-rank, anyway.
Plus, if she went far away and re-registered with a different guildhall, she would end up a C-rank, assuming she followed proper procedures. If she lied and registered as an F-rank, she would have to keep in line with other F-rank hunters, pretending she could not use storage magic at all—which would have been more than Mile thought she could bear. She had no interest in remaining poor by her own hand.
In the end, it was really only a difference of spending half a year as a student or not. And oh, how she wanted to. She wanted to so badly!
Her life as a student at Eckland Academy had ended abruptly, but she had relished it. She had conversed with everyone—like normal. She had made friends, and they had spent time together.
How she had longed to stay! She had wanted to be with everyone until graduation. How she regretted leaving. How her heart yearned.
With that in mind, her response was without hesitation.
“I’ll go! I’ll enroll!”
***
During the three weeks after it was decided that Mile would be going to the capital, she worked—worked hard.
According to a fellow hunter, tuition, lodging, and meals at the prep school were all free of charge. Plus, the students were allowed to continue working as hunters while enrolled, so really, the work she did during those three weeks was just to ensure that she had a bit of money to fall back on.
The next enrollment period was roughly a month from when she had decided to attend the school, which left her three weeks to work, followed by an eight-day carriage ride; the remaining ten days, she would spend preparing. If all went well, she would even be able to do a bit of sightseeing and take her time getting used to the lay of the land in the capital.
As has already been mentioned, Adele’s world had six days and months that were six weeks, so there were a lot of convenient ways in which the number of days could be broken down.
Now, as Mile did her hunting and gathering in the forest, she fought with magic and her sword rather than pebbles. This work did double duty, for as she hunted, she could also practice limiting her power, a skill she would need once she returned to school.
She had, of course, kept a cap on her strength while attending Eckland Academy; however, limiting one’s strength to match that of a typical preteen’s was not the same as trying to match the power of those who would also be graduating as C-rank hunters in half a year’s time. To do all this while embroiled in sword fights and combat magic would be another challenge altogether.
It is possible , Mile thought, that they might even conduct practice battles with real, bladed swords—not wooden ones. There might be magical duels. There might even be students there who were older than her, with more experience.
She caught birds with magic.
She bested jackalopes and vulpine creatures with a finely hewn wooden spear.
And boars and deer, she defeated with her sword.
Though she tried to keep her catches no more impressive than those of any other novice, she was constantly turning in prey that left the old man at the exchange station dumbfounded, and by the time she left she had stashed seven gold coins away neatly in her loot box. Combined with her previous earnings, she now had ten gold pieces in total—about 1, 000 , 000 yen, in Japanese money.
This was more than enough to cover her travel expenses and interim lodging, as well as any other immediate necessities.
Finally, she would be able to purchase some clothes of her own, ones that weren’t hunting equipment or school uniforms.
***
And then, three weeks had passed since the discussion in the guild meeting room.
With the guild master, guild officials, and a few other hunters there to see her off, Mile’s carriage departed the city.
They would arrive at the capital in eight days.
Mile would have been able to travel much more quickly on her own, but as there was no need to, she refrained from drawing on that ability.
She was just an average, unremarkable F-rank hunter, after all.
As was only natural, the guild master and Laura shared the cost of her travel and meal expenses for the journey.
“There she goes…” the guild master murmured.
“Yes, indeed.” Laura replied.
“In six months, hopefully, she’ll come back to us as a C-rank hunter, and then it won’t be long—maybe a few years—before she reaches B-rank. She’s still quite young. I doubt that even A-rank would be out of her reach. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for the guild to have such a one among us.”
“Do you really think she’ll come back here? She won’t simply settle down in the capital?”
“Well, I’m sure she’s got family. She’ll have to come back for them, won’t she?”
“No, Miss Mile was born up in the mountains. She said that she only came down here to earn a living because both of her parents passed away. She isn’t from here, and she has no family.”
“Hm?”
“Huh?”
“Whaaaaat?!?!”
The guild master fell to his knees.
“P-please, at least let her graduate with honors so that my endorsement means something.”
He was nearly in tears.
Behind him, the several hunters who had overheard this conversation fell to their knees in disappointment.
***
The journey to the capital was a smooth one.
Mile’s new clothes were plain and cheaply made, giving her the appearance of a “typical, average” country girl.
Soon enough, the other passengers in the carriage became greatly indebted to her, as she was able to provide an endless supply of warm water whenever they stopped to make camp. Even so long after her time in the bakery, she still remembered a thing or two about customer service.
However, thanks to this skill, and the fact that she could store and produce food with storage magic, it was clear to everyone that she was someone special, plain clothes or no.
“So, you’re off to the capital, dear? Is it for work?”
“Um, actually I’m going to a prep school…”
“Ahh, you’re going to be a maid there, are you? It’s an elite school for hunters, so if you can snag yourself a good man with some potential, you’ll be set for life! A girl like you should have no trouble. In a few years, you won’t be able to keep the boys away from you!”
The woman who spoke was a bit of a flibbertigibbet, one of the passengers for whom Mile had produced warm water and venison. Mile smiled wryly at her assumption. The other passengers who overheard this exchange chuckled internally.
The idea of someone of such a young age who could use storage magic and summon that much water, working as a servant… The young woman was no doubt attending the school as a student in her own right.
Nine days after departure, the carriage arrived in the capital, a day later than expected.
It rained along the way, muddying the roads, and one of the carriage wheels had broken from the strain, delaying them. However, they had still arrived more quickly than one might expect in the face of an obstacle of this kind.
Except for those who were only stopping in the capital en route to other destinations, everyone disembarked at the central station, which was located directly in the middle of the city’s main square, and began to disperse.
“Thanks for the showers, dear!”
“Let’s ride together again sometime!”
The female passengers in particular offered their thanks for daily hot showers—a luxury not even enjoyed by most nobles—while all the passengers showered Mile with gratitude in the form of leftover food or trinkets from their hometowns.
“When you become a full-fledged hunter, I’ll definitely request you by name!”
At least someone had figured out that she wasn’t just going to work as a servant…
Naturally.
“So, this is the capital…”
The city, the capital of the Kingdom of Tils, had a much quainter feel than the capital of her former home, where she attended Eckland Academy. Indeed, in terms of national power—based on a calculation involving land area, population, and economic strength—the country possessed roughly one-seventh the power of the Kingdom of Brandel.
Here too, there was an academy attended by the children of nobles and other wealthy families. If Mile were to attend this academy, she might even make more friends like Marcela. Although the place was really none of her concern, it did prickle Mile, just a little, to think about it.
In any case, she would be residing in the city for at least half a year. She wouldn’t be able to move into the school’s dormitory until three days before the first of the term, or six days from now, which meant she needed to find an inn before taking a look around the capital. In the event that anything happened, knowing her surroundings could mean the difference between life and death.
But first she needed to secure a room. The sun was still high in the sky, so Mile set out, intending to ask some upstanding-seeming citizen where to find the best lodgings before making her own investigations.
She scolded herself for not simply asking the other passengers, many of whom had been native to the city.
As always, Mile had been quite careless.
***
That evening, just before sundown…
Mile stood in front of a humble inn.
On the advice of a kindly elderly couple, Mile had narrowed her decision down to three options, based on the conditions that they had to be safe for a young girl to stay at alone, relatively cheap, and provide good meals. From there, she visited each one to inspect the surrounding area, the quality of the other clientele, and the level of cleanliness around the entrances, before making her choice. Since this would determine her comfort, or lack thereof, for the next six days, she was fastidious in this process. If she failed in this regard, she could only chalk it up to her own lack of insight and perhaps a touch of bad luck.
Mile opened the door. “Excuse me, do you have any rooms available?”
“Why yes, we do!” said a cheerful girl in response as Mile stepped inside. The girl looked to be around ten years old and sat humbly behind the counter beyond the front door. She was probably the owner’s daughter, helping out while her parents were busy with dinner preparations.
“Well then, I’d like a room for six nights…”
“All right,” the girl nodded. “Lodging alone is four silver a night. If you want breakfast, it’s three half-silver, lunch is five half-silver, and dinner is eight half-silver. Hot water is five copper for one wash basin or two half-silver for a whole tub.”
“Hm, well I’d like to try eating at lots of different places while I’m here, so I’ll just have dinner for tonight and breakfast each morning, please. I’ll take care of the water myself.”
“Ohh, can you use magic?! That’s amazing…” The girl looked a tad envious.
Mile was aware of how blessed she was in this regard. Being able to summon water would be a very useful skill for an innkeeper’s daughter.
“The food should be ready any moment, but we only serve until the second evening bell.”
Mile had learned that the second evening bell rang around nine o’clock in the evening, while the first morning bell rang at six, and the second at nine. The first midday bell rang at twelve o’clock noon, the second midday bell at three, the first evening bell at six, and the second evening bell rang at nine.
“Ah, well, then I better go ahead and eat now.”
Once she had settled in, it would be a bother to come back downstairs, so Mile decided to eat while she was yet on the ground floor.
There were a variety of meal choices, but when Mile took a look at the menu posted on the wall, she found…
Orc Steak.
Orc Meat Stir Fry.
Orc Meat Stew.
Orc Kabobs.
Fried Orc Meat.
It seemed that the owners had a vested interest in getting people to eat orc meat.
Mile stared at the girl.
“Ha ha. They accidentally ordered way too much meat,” said the girl, smiling wryly.
It seemed that Mile hadn’t much choice. In truth, she had never eaten monster meat before. As was the case with most nobles, the Ascham family had never once served monster meat at their own table. Even at the academy, monster meat had never been served, out of consideration for the many nobles in attendance.
Yet it wasn’t as though the meat was poisonous, so Mile was not especially bothered by the thought of consuming it. In fact, she expected that she would be eating like this quite frequently from now on. It was simply a new experience. That was all. And soon, it wouldn’t be a new experience at all, as hunting would provide her with many more opportunities to eat such things. Perhaps she would even try cooking some herself at some point in the future. With this in mind, she placed her order.
“One orc steak, please.”
And soon, there it was before her. An orc steak, with orc meat soup, and bread and salad on the side. The amount of meat was almost intimidating. They were probably trying to use up as much of it as they could. In appearance, it looked a lot like pork. When she sniffed it, it smelled like pork. And when she tasted it, it tasted like pork.
In conclusion, it may as well be pork, Mile thought. I was worried about nothing!
***
For the next six days, Mile wandered the city with the inn as her base, memorizing the layout of the shops and streets as well as she could. She looked down some rather suspicious lanes and back alleys too, but her clothing, which was plain by provincial standards, was downright shabby compared to the fashions of the capital, and as a result, she was never robbed or assailed. It would seem that the denizens of the slums considered her one of their own.
When Mile realized this, she bought some new clothes in a hurry. Something that would count as garb a normal city girl would wear—plain, but not too cheap, by the capital’s standards.
When she debuted her new outfit for little Lenny, the innkeeper’s daughter, she was met with an ambiguous expression.
“I mean, the materials are nice, but…”
Clad thus, six days after her arrival in the capital, Mile stepped through the gates of the Hunters’ Prep School.
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