Chapter 77:
The Kingdom of Trist
“We should stay in this town a while,” Reina proposed and was met with agreement from the others.
The matter of the maiden all sorted, the Crimson Vow stopped in at the guildhall to acquaint themselves as usual, before picking out an inn. It was best to do this before booking a room, in case they should happen upon a job request so tasty they needed to sink their teeth in immediately. It was unlikely any such jobs would still remain at this time of day, but the Crimson Vow being who they were—the rare sorts who would snap up even a red mark job if it piqued their interest—it wasn’t impossible.
Ding-a-ling.
As they entered, they heard the familiar doorbell of the
Hunters’ Guild—nothing like that time when they stumbled across that branch with the broken bell. And then…
Stare…
All of the eyes in the guildhall focused on them. One third of the hunters looked away immediately, another third continued to check them out while pretending to avert their gazes, and the final third kept on staring unabashedly… Indeed, it was all just as usual.
How nice… the four thought. Getting such a predictable response gave them the same feeling of comfort as returning to an old favorite inn. Eliciting a different reaction might have given them pause or the suspicion that something was wrong.
“We are the Crimson Vow of the capital guild branch of the kingdom of Tils. We are currently on a journey of self-improvement,” Mavis announced to the whole room as they entered, receiving scattered responses and a number of casual waves in reply. The clerk at the counter gave a gentle nod.
No one could argue with a greeting like that. To be on such a journey, they had to be of C-rank or higher. Thus, no one would be likely to come at them saying something like, “Tch, what’re you little ladies doin’ working as hunters?” To be disparaged in a foreign land dishonored not just your party, but also the guild branch from which you hailed, and the girls would have been justified in responding with force to anyone who ridiculed them in this way. Even if the ridiculer were to be gravely wounded as a result, everyone would have to acknowledge that they’d been an idiot. The guild employees would look on with cold eyes, and no one would come to their rescue.
Thus far, the only people who had harassed them at guild branches had been those interested in their magical ability, or specifically, Mile’s storage magic. Outside of that, the general opinion was that everyone besides Mavis was “too young” to be a suitable girlfriend, while everyone besides Pauline was “too small” for the same.
Which begged the question… “Too smal l ” in what way?!
Of course, the fact that the Crimson Vow would soon be well known in these parts, with demands for their time and attention steadily multiplying. That was all part of the usual pattern, too.
“There’s nothing good here.” Again, entirely as usual.
“Anyway, we don’t need to rush into another job right now. Let’s take it easy for today, find something good to eat, and call it an early night,” said Reina.
“Roger that!” the other three chorused.
And so, the Crimson Vow left the guildhall behind.
“Wonder how this place is?” muttered Reina.
After having browsed around a number of inns, the Crimson Vow now stood before an establishment that was a little bit more high-class than what the typical C-rank hunter would book. Pauline’s tight fist kept them from accruing any truly frivolous expenses, but as a group with the leeway to make purchases that would be unthinkable for the usual rookie C-rank party, the Crimson Vow did their best to avoid inns where being a group composed entirely of young girls would cause trouble. At the same time, they avoided establishments frequented by any particularly brutish characters. Even Pauline agreed this was a necessary expense.
“Well, if it’s no good, we can just stay somewhere else tomorrow night. Why don’t we just go with this one?”
Pauline gave the okay, and they walked into the inn.
“Excuse me, might you have a four-person room available?” asked Reina as they entered.
“Welcome! Of course, we have some vacancies!” answered the girl sitting at the reception desk, who was around sixteen or seventeen. She was shorter than Mavis but a fair bit taller than Pauline.
“Tch, no good…” Mile muttered absurdly. Mavis quickly clapped a hand over her mouth.
Mile seemed to have acquired a certain sense of liberty as of late—she was strangely lacking the prudence that she’d had during her time as Misato. What she had deemed “no good” was that the receptionist was neither a cute young child nor had elf or beast ears. Thankfully, the girl hadn’t heard Mile’s remark. At least, nothing about her demeanor had changed… though it was just as possible that she had heard it and simply ignored Mile’s words. Such things were common occurrences when you worked the front desk, though it was probably rare to hear it from a little girl younger than you, instead of the usual drunk old man…
As Pauline confirmed when meal times were and took care of the upfront payments as usual, Reina busied herself bonking Mile on the head with her staff. “Why are you always like this with the girls at inns, when you’re so open-minded about everything else?”
“O-ow! Reina, that hurts!”
There was no helping it, of course. That was just the sort of creature Mile was. She was giving voice to the true desires that had lurked in the depths of Misato’s heart, so long ago…
“Listen, I’ve decided that as long as it doesn’t cause trouble for anyone else, I’m going to live my truth!”
Reina cut her down. “It’s definitely causing trouble!”
“Okay! Let’s get to the room now. It’s up on the second floor. Let’s go, let’s go!” Having finished paying, an embarrassed Pauline urged the pair along, wrangling them up the stairs.
The receptionist shrugged with a wry smile. Apparently, she had heard them, loud and clear.
“Well, this place isn’t so bad. It sucks that there’s no bath, but the rooms and beds are decent enough. If the food is garbage, we can just eat somewhere else. If the other guests aren’t weird, let’s stay here a while,” Reina proposed.
Everyone nodded in agreement. As with the capital of Tils, where they were all registered as hunters, there was no reason for them to make any long-term lodging commitments. They would be here a few days at best.
“Tomorrow, let’s get to the guildhall before the second morning bell and wait for the new jobs to be posted. If there’s nothing good there, we can just take some daily gathering and extermination requests for a bit of training. I want to give Mavis a chance to test that new technique of hers,” Reina explained with a grin.
“Okay…” Mavis looked a little uneasy, but it was only natural for the others to want to understand their party member’s abilities. And she did want to show off her new skills—she was just a little embarrassed.
“Then it’s decided! Let’s turn in early tonight!”
Even if they had made most of the journey via carriage, traveling was still exhausting. The girls always slept soundly the first night they arrived in a new town. Mind you, if typical hunters—who slept wrapped in their own cloaks in the open air—were to hear the Crimson Vow—who slept on cots in a tent—say that traveling was “exhausting,” they would be raring to beat the pulp out of the girls. As such, the girls usually kept quiet about their travel habits.
Decently satisfied with the inn’s dinner offerings, the girls gently drifted off to sleep.
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