Chapter 79:
The B-Rank Party
There was still plenty of time left for hunting and gathering following the elder dragon encounter, but the members of the Crimson Vow decided to head back to the capital instead.
“I’m so tired.”
Physically, the fight had scarcely taken a toll on Mile, but she was exhausted emotionally. It was the same feeling as those sleepless nights when you want to do nothing but lie in bed, despite not being sleepy at all…though of course once you lie down, you usually do fall asleep.
Either way, the Battle Against the Elder Dragons, Part II had been draining. The fact that they had put in all this effort for no compensation—not even any contribution points—only amplified their sense of fatigue.
“I’m tired.”
“I’m beat.”
“I am exhausted…”
The other three looked just as ragged.
“Ugh, I just want to soak in a nice bath!”
Unfortunately for Mile, unlike “Lenny’s Inn,” most places that a C-rank party could stay would not have their own baths. You could douse yourself with water from the well in the courtyard or wipe yourself down with a towel using the hot water in the basin in your room, but that was it…normally.
For the members of the Crimson Vow, who had cleaning magic to remove the dirt and sweat from their clothes and bodies, bathing was never a matter of dealing with filth or smell. Still, soaking in a warm bath could be good for the spirit, a rest for the body, and a boon to one’s beauty routine. It opened the pores, removing blackheads and other gunk…
Unfortunately, it seemed that the nanomachines regarded blackheads and the like as part of one’s body and would not remove them through normal cleansing magic if only the image of removing dirt was provided. Mile, of course, was able to adjust her image, so all the blackheads and excess keratin in her pores was cleanly removed, but the others didn’t have the awareness to do so, and Mile hadn’t advised them on the matter.
At any rate, today, the four were exhausted and wished to take a bath.
“Should we change inns? We can stay somewhere with a bath tonight…” suggested Pauline.
“C-could we?” asked Mavis in disbelief. It was rare that Pauline would actually suggest a luxury option. She must have been thoroughly drained as well.
“Then it’s decided! Tonight, we’re staying at an inn with a bath!” Reina swiftly declared before Pauline could change her mind.
Currently, the Crimson Vow were in the practice of checking out of their lodgings every morning and paying nightly. Since they never had a long-term residence in mind, their stays were dependent on their jobs, and thanks to Mile’s “storage magic,” there was no need for them to stash their luggage anywhere. Thus, despite referring to it as “changing inns,” all they were really doing was picking a different place for the night.
“Woohoo!”
Mile jumped for joy, and the four of them rushed off to find their new inn.
As they had returned without bothering to do any more work for the day, the sun was still high in the sky. In fact, it was before noon. The encounter with the elder dragons had occurred very soon after the Crimson Vow had entered the forest, before they had even reached the place where they intended to hunt!
***
“I wonder how this place is.”
The inn before which Reina now stood was a relatively expensive-looking establishment on the main street. It was not the sort of place where royalty would stay, of course. Places of that caliber cared very much about their atmosphere, clientele, and the safety of their lodgers, so no matter how much money they were willing to pay, no commoner or hunter would ever be allowed to lodge there. Such things would never be written on the signboard, but if someone outside of the accepted clientele were to come calling, no matter how many rooms were available, they would be told that there was “no vacancy” and shooed away with false courtesy.
Of course, this was the way of things in any world. Even in modern-day Japan you would find many high-class hotels and ryokan that operate the same way.
In any event, the inn before which they stood was not quite such a luxury establishment, but it was classy enough that it was sure to have a bath at least. It was the sort of place that, as hunters went, would likely be frequented only by those of B and A-rank.
And what of S-ranks? Well, S-rankers were as good as nobility. They would probably receive even finer treatment than the local barons—both due to status and volatility…
“It says here they have a bath. Let’s go with this place.”
They had stopped to eat during their search, so it was now afternoon—a bit early but late enough that the inn would have already begun taking guests for the night.
“Do you have a room for four available?” Mavis asked at the front desk. She received an affirmative, and the Crimson Vow was quickly checked in.
The staff here seemed well trained. While the four of them appeared to be rookie hunters, no one attempted to chase them off or pulled any strange faces at them. In truth, this was probably only because they were a group of four lovely young girls. Had they been a group of filthy young men or smelly old geezers, they may well have been told, “Apologies. All of our rooms are currently booked.”
Given that this was a high-class inn in the capital, it was lacking the typical young girl one might find standing at the front desk of a small, family-owned business. Instead, the clerk was a young man in his twenties…who caused Mile to give a small, “Tch!” and click her tongue.
“Why don’t we just go lay down for a bit?”
It was still too early to enter the baths, which would not open up until around dusk. Therefore, everyone gave a nod to Reina’s proposal, and they entered their room, each lying down on their own beds. They were not ready to change into their sleep clothes, so they just lay right down on top of the covers.
Still, they were all thoroughly fatigued and quickly fell fast asleep.
***
“Up, Mile!”
“Mm…”
Mile awoke to Reina gripping her shoulder, shaking her.
“It’s time to eat. If we don’t hurry up and get down to the dining room, the food’s gonna be all gone!”
“What?!”
This was quite serious. Mile, whose ration of output to consumption was rather fuel-inefficient, could not afford to miss a meal… Though it was unclear why the same applied to Reina, a mage who was small and lacking in physical strength. It wasn’t as though she were a growing girl, either.
“Hold it right there!”
Reina seized Mile as she tried to hurry through the door, stopping her to fix her bedhead. Mile gave a little smile as a faint memory of her younger sister in her previous life drifted into her mind.
Dinner was as little more expensive than usual but also a little tastier.
“Mmm, they must be using slightly better ingredients. And it seems like there are spices in here, too.”
Mile nodded approvingly as she ate her meal. It was not comprised of the sort of ultra-high-class ingredients that would be served to nobility, but it also did not come with such a price tag.
Of course, there was another reason that she was impressed. The food that Mile cooked during their camping trips was far more delicious than the fare from any normal inn or restaurant, and so the Crimson Vow did not have very high expectations of the food that came from those places.
“75 points.”
“72 points.”
“78.”
The other three whispered their quiet evaluations, not wishing to slight or belittle the inn or kitchen staff. Though Pauline’s rating was the harshest and Mavis’s the most generous, they were all generally within the same range.
Incidentally, Mile herself would never assign a point rating to a cooked dish. She was of a different mind on such matters. When it came to things like cooking and the arts, everyone who experienced them would have differing impressions, and as a result, Mile did not feel their quality was something that could be so absolutely quantified. However, she did not bother impressing this upon her friends.
“Well, well! Y’all have pretty refined palates for ladies so young!”
“Huh?”
The girls looked in the direction of this new voice and saw a group of five diners at the table beside them. The group resembled a hunting party, and a bearded man seated among them was smiling in the direction of the Crimson Vow.
“And you are?” inquired Mile.
“Ahh, my bad. I’m just a fellow hunter who happens to be sittin’ nearby. Y’all kind of caught my eye. I was surprised to see such young ladies stayin’ at an inn like this, and when I heard you being so critical of the food here, which I think is pretty good, I couldn’t help but say somethin’. Sorry about that!” said the bearded hunter, laughing. He looked to be somewhere past his 30s. The other four men and women in his party looked on warily.
Hunters who stayed at this inn were usually B-ranks or higher, and the only C-rank parties who stayed at this caliber of inn would be those who had an honored guest with their group, ones having some special celebration, or perhaps those who wanted to live it up a bit, with some noble or wealthy person serving as their leader. There were, of course, some nobles and wealthy folk who did wish to be proper hunters, but those sorts usually aimed to cover their living expenses out of their on-the-job earnings and would never stay at a pricy place like this unless they had worked their way to a B-rank on the strength of their own talents.
The party at the table beside them was most decidedly not comprised of the sons or daughters of nobles.
It was difficult to tell their jobs at a glance as they appeared to have left their weapons in their room, but judging by their appearances, there were two men who looked to be frontline fighters, one man who was probably a mid or rear guard, and two women who were probably backline fighters. They all appeared to be in their late 20s to mid-30s and made up a very average party with a good balance. Of course, it was not a total impossibility that the beefy-looking men might be mages, while the slim and delicate looking women were actually the swordfighters…
At any rate, all this implied they were not some group of pleasure seekers but rather a truly skilled party. Plus, it did not seem they had made their overtures with any ill intent to poke their noses into the business of an upstart rookie party.
Hunters with real skill had plenty of leeway, and no need to harass or involve themselves with those of lower standing. To do so would imply that the party lacked confidence in themselves, or perhaps, that they were cowards who would be unsettled and made to feel as if they were made a fool of if they didn’t kick up a fuss.
“Sorry, this idiot of ours is always starting something. Still, it’s not good for newer folks like you to waste your money staying at places like this. Even if the other places don’t have baths, or have strange men who bother you, you shouldn’t waste your precious party funds…”
“Plus, you rated this food in the 70s, but a meal like this would normally be a huge luxury, wouldn’t it?! Besides not saving money, you’re never going to be able to bear all those long nights out camping if these are your standards! All that rock-like hard tack, and that flavorless powdered soup, and that unseasoned jerky for weeks on end… Anyway, it’s not admirable for novices like you to be overextending yourselves. It’s important to live within one’s means or at least be aware of your position!”
Two of the party—one of the women who appeared to be a mage, and another man, who was perhaps a swordsman or lancer—chided the Crimson Vow, offering advice in the manner of a helpful veteran assuming they were giving some much-needed guidance. It was almost performative, in service of their own narcissism rather than truly for the sake of these youngsters. Clearly, they liked to think how cool they were to be leading the youth.
Or, well, maybe they really did think they were offering this advice for the sake of the Crimson Vow. They probably weren’t that bad of people… Still, they looked rather full of themselves, which was a bit annoying.
Rrr…
Reina was quite bothered. These people had cut into their conversation, smugly patronizing them with advice that was totally off-base. Aside from commenting on her size, calling her “little,” or patting her on the head, there was no quicker way to offend Reina than to offer her unsolicited guidance. She couldn’t help but grow enraged now.
“Mind your own business!” she shouted.
“Wh…?”
The whole party let out a sound of disbelief. These rookie girls should be thanking these helpful veterans who were offering some useful tips. The party had become used to being treated with respect since their ascension to B-rank and had expected the Crimson Vow to be grateful to them. As such, Reina’s reply came as a shock. Meanwhile, Mavis, Pauline, and Mile, who usually took on the role of pacifying Reina and holding her back…
Grrrrrr…
They were thoroughly peeved as well.
They had just returned, exhausted, from knocking on death’s door, watching their friend lose an arm, and barely making it out of the encounter alive. And now, just as they were enjoying some fairly decent food and partaking of a bit of light conversation among friends, these people had deigned to cut into their conversation just to puff themselves up and offer some totally unsolicited advice.
Even the soft-hearted Mavis and Mile could not bear this.
And as for Pauline? Ha ha…
“Mile, are these those ‘elder troubles’ you were mentioning?”
Here was a rare display of malice from Mavis. For a party with two women around thirty, it was a particularly stinging blow.
“For hunters, ability and achievement is everything. Belittling someone based on their appearance or how they spend their money is a sign of one who hasn’t stopped to gauge another party’s true strength. This party hasn’t even bothered to think that perhaps someone else might simply be earning plenty of money and spending it accordingly. That’s a sure sign of the short-sightedness of those who can only see the world through the haze of their own egos.”
Having others judge how they spent their money was apparently something that Pauline could not abide. And as for Mile…
“The only ones who can get away with such foolish advice are children. To be in your twenties, my, my, my, my…”
She couldn’t forgive them.
Mile was quick-witted and loved wordplay. If she truly wished to cut someone down, her words would be like a californium bullet fired from an automatic rifle.
Neither luck nor timing was on the side of these hunters.
Normally, Reina would be the only one of the girls who would ever try to exacerbate a situation like this. No matter how annoying these people were, they really did not bear them any particular ill will. At best, they would usually force a smile, bow their heads, and drag Reina away.
Now, however, they were exhausted, in both body and spirit, and while their brief nap had rejuvenated them slightly, this was still a time that was precious to them, a time when they could piece together their splintered psyches with some frivolous conversation with their fellow party members. Surely, no one could have seen this as anything but a normal exchange between friends.
In other words, while these neighboring hunters had thought they were scratching a kitten under the chin, it was in fact not a kitten before them, but a fully-grown dwarf tiger. Their misfortune was such that they were incurring the tiger’s wrath.
It was as unlucky as being bitten by a stray dog. Still, they had been the ones to decide, all on their own, to come up and stick their hands in the dog’s face, so they deserved what they got.
The hunters were silent, shocked by this unprecedented response to comments they had offered without malice. The damage seemed especially grave to the two ladies of their party.
At a normal inn, this was the point where an enraged hunter would take leave of their seat, but this was a high-class establishment, and they were all people of experience. The hunters silently withdrew, perhaps having the self-awareness to know that they had over-stepped and wounded the pride of these competitive youngsters.
As far as responses to harsh words from hotheaded rookies went, this was incredibly kind and mature.
Most of the other occupants of the dining room were relatively well-to-do merchants visiting from other towns. The sight of the crestfallen hunters soured the mood for them, so they just kept their heads down and continued eating their meals.
“Oh…”
Now that their tempers had cooled slightly, the members of the Crimson Vow looked around themselves and realized that they had slipped up. They had spat inconsiderate words and made everyone uncomfortable simply because they were in a bad mood, when the others hadn’t been trying to pick a fight. To make matters worse, this was a place for dining, where people came to enjoy and relax.
“Our apologies,” said the four, downtrodden, but the hunters waved their hands lightly.
“No, we were being insensitive, too. Sorry.”
And just like that, the air was cleared, the tension between them drained away.
“Now then, as an apology…” began Mile. As she approached the hunters’ table, she drew a number of plates heaped with food from her inventory and placed them on the tabletop.
“Heating magic!”
Thinking it would be suspicious for her to produce the food already warm, she feigned reheating the dishes with magic—though of course her words were only for show, and she was not actually doing anything.
“Storage magic?” asked the first man who had spoken, with an expression of surprise. “If you’ve got storage magic then y’all can carry a lot, so of course you can make a lot… Man, I’m really sorry.”
The two hunters who had chided the Crimson Vow for their extravagance looked particularly apologetic.
It was certainly a faux pas to bring one’s own food into the dining room, but these hunters had already mostly finished their meals, and it was unlikely they would order seconds. Plus, Mile determined, this was only a bit of a sampler plate, so surely the inn staff would be able to overlook it.
In truth, Mile was a bit of a sore loser. Therefore, while she acknowledged that they were somewhat in the wrong, she was going to make sure that they were not made light of again…all while presenting it in the guise of an apology.
First, she showed off her storage magic. She had no intention of hiding it from the guild, so there was no trouble in her showing it off here. This would serve as proof positive that the Crimson Vow was not some destitute party hurting for funds.
Second, she would let them taste her home cooking. This would be proof that the evaluations they had given were not some half-hearted appraisals given by amateurs.
…All in the guise of an apology.
“What’s this ‘heating magic,’ then?” asked one of the women.
“Magic that produces heat to warm up your food,” Mile replied, purposely missing the point. She was not about to explain every little thing when she was in the market for deception.
“Well, I mean, I got that much, but…”
Sensing that Mile was not in the mood for explanations, the woman quit while she was ahead and took a taste of the food Mile had presented.
“…!!!”
The woman was speechless. Her eyes popped wide, and she moved to take another bite of the same dish, when Mile halted her fork.
“Just a taste, now! If I let you eat your fill, that would be bad for the inn’s business! Plus, everyone else still needs to get a taste, and if you fill yourself up on that, you won’t get to enjoy the rest of it.”
Understanding what Mile was saying, the woman reluctantly released the fork and withdrew her hand.
“Wh-what is this?”
“Fried rock lizard. I process the rock lizard meat and coat it in my special blend of seasonings, then cook it with hot air.”
“M-magical cooking?!” One of the men piped up this time. “I mean, using your magic to light the kindling in the hearth is one thing, but to cook continuously with magic? There’s no mage who would expend such a ridiculous amount of magical energy on something like…that… Or maybe there’s one right here?”
The man deflated as he spoke. Listlessly, he lifted the fork to his mouth and closed his lips around it.
“Wh? Uh…uhh? What the heck is this?!?!”
Suddenly, he was filled with vigor again.
“It’s so warm, and crunchy, and juicy! It’s not sopping with oil, or clumped together, or burnt and hard, and there’s just a hint of spice from the seasonings… What is this? What the hell is this?! If this is what you all usually eat, I can see just how you’d rate the food here in the 70s!”
All right, thought Mile. Mission complete!
She was chuffed at having accomplished her goal.
“Please try out the other dishes as well.”
At this, the hunters reached out for the food on the other plates.
“Wha…?”
“Th-this is…”
“Amazing!”
One after the other came the mutters of praise and wonder.
Mm-hmm, that’s right, that’s right!
Mile was so proud of herself that she was practically huffing steam from her nose, while the other three members of the Crimson Vow looked on wearily. That was when Mile suddenly realized something.
“Wah!”
While she wasn’t paying attention, the others in the room had stood from their seats and were now crowded around Mile and the hunters.
“Wh-what’s going…?”
As she faltered, a member of the crowd spoke.
“Pardon me, young lady, but could the rest of us get a taste, too? We’ll pay, of course!”
The others all nodded.
“N-no! If this starts getting out of hand, it’ll be rude to the inn staff…” Mile was midsentence when there came a voice from behind the crowd.
“Everyone here has already ordered meals from us, so we don’t mind… That is, as long as you’ll let us try it as well.”
The voice belonged to a person who was clearly one of the chefs. And judging by what they were saying, they were probably the person in charge here—the head chef, in other words.
She couldn’t refuse them, but if her food were to be criticized, she would be terribly unhappy. There was no escape…
“Er… W-well, in exchange for not penalizing us for bringing in our own food, the kitchen staff can try it for free. It will also be free for everyone else, as an apology for all the fuss we caused earlier and as a repayment for the trouble. As far as the spices and ingredients that I’ve used, I have some I can share later—though, of course, I’ll have to charge you!”
Indeed, Mile had no interest in making anyone pay for samples. This was not game that they had hunted or things that they intended to resell. As long as Mile was told that her cooking was delicious, and she could see her food being enjoyed by others, that was enough for her.
However, she was terrified of Pauline, which was why she had at least thrown in that little sales pitch at the end of her speech.
Thinking that what she had put out on the table might now be too little for these additional numbers, Mile produced some extra portions. In their down time, she had made a large supply of the dishes in preparation for times when they were on the road and hadn’t the time to cook, so her magical larder was fully stocked. All in her inventory, where it stayed perfectly fresh, of course.
“Wh…?”
The diners were all lost for words at the sight of these additional portions. They had already seen previously that Mile possessed storage magic, so it should not have been all that surprising that she had more tucked away in addition to the small amounts she had already produced.
However, what they had not noticed previously, when they had not been paying as much attention, was that the food had been pulled out fully prepared, atop the plates, somehow without spilling everywhere. Additionally, Mile had forgotten this time to apply the cursory “heating magic” incantation, so they had seen firsthand that the food had somehow come right out of storage, fully warmed.
The other members of the Crimson Vow saw this and let out a small sound of realization, but Mile herself still seemed not to have noticed her mistake. Regardless, this was not the time for the others to be pointing this out. On the contrary, that would only draw more attention to the facts of the matter. And so, they let it go, while the diners, who had various feelings on the matter, all scrutinized the dishes carefully without saying a word. After all, these were guests of a high-class establishment. In a cheaper sort of place, the dining hall might have exploded into chaos at less.
Naturally, the diners were all dying to try the food that a group of B-rank hunters, regulars of this inn, had given such high praise. However, they were not typically the sort to stand up in the middle of a meal and go craning their necks over someone else’s table. These people were not kin to the back-alley bazaar merchant or the traveling peddler. So why would they now be acting in a way that would normally be such a faux pas?
Naturally, it was because they had caught a whiff of money.
They might have been grand, wealthy merchants, high in status and reputation—they might have been the sort who rubbed elbows with nobles and celebrities—but if there was money at stake, a little faux pas or clownish behavior was nothing, so long as they never lost sight of their goal.
This was the way of any shrewd merchant.
“These spices aren’t from around here, are they?”
“This cooking technique is unusual, too. Is this a foreign cooking style?”
“Th-this is…”
Pushing the hunters aside, the other guests took their turns sampling the food. It would appear that, aside from the high-ranking hunters, the majority of them were merchants.
Local residents were unlikely to stay at an inn, and those who had come to the capital on business would typically stay somewhere cheaper. No one would rack up unnecessary expenses on frivolous luxuries when they were aiming to make money. Thus, these had to be fairly successful merchants who had traveled in from other towns for the sake of long-term negotiations, who were not hurting for funds, and who favored security and amenities over scrimping on pocket change. They would consider staying at a luxury inn a part of their job, and thus a necessary expense, in the name of protecting their status and reputation.
“Hm? This dish…”
“Oh, that’s deer intestines, simmered in spices and a seasoning called ‘soy.’”
“It’s good. It’s definitely good. But to use this much of such pricey ingredients on something like innards…”
The man, who appeared to be a merchant, was clearly stunned.
“Ah,” Mile explained, “the spices I used for that are not expensive. They just contribute heat, no flavor or depth. So, you have to mix them up with a lot of other things, which takes some intensive labor… On the other hand, it is fairly economical…”
Glint!
“Eek!”
All four members of the Crimson Vow, Pauline included, let out a little shriek at the merchants’ sudden stares. Theirs were the sorts of cutting glares that gave rise to the phrase, “If looks could kill.”
Mile seemed not to have figured out what exactly it was she had just said to so disturb the merchants. Even though it was Mile herself who had first cautioned them when extracting the capsaicin from Pauline’s hot magic…
Indeed, in her own pride at her cooking being well received not just by her own party members, but by high-ranking hunters and well-to-do merchants who were accustomed to eating delicious things, Mile had forgotten herself and let her guard down entirely. No matter how bright she had been in her previous life, her smarts only showed themselves in her studies. Where Mile lacked awareness was when it came to dealing with other people or gauging their emotions. For her, this was only natural slip-up to make.
“How much would you take for your entire inventory?” asked the merchants together, instantly glaring at one another with a fiendish glint in their eyes.
“I-I’m scared!”
“Please go away.”
Reina and Mavis drew back. Pauline, of course, did not say a word, but her face began to pale. Even she lacked the emotional capacity for a bloodthirsty negotiation between shrewd, experienced merchants.
“Ah, well, you’ll have to discuss the details with Miss Pauline later,” said Mile, calmly throwing Pauline under the bus without the slightest hesitation. Again, given that it was Mile, this was not surprising at all…
“I mean, man, it was really nice to get to eat something so tasty,” said one of the hunters—the first man who had spoken to the Crimson Vow, who seemed to be the party leader and had clearly picked up on the worsening situation. “Tomorrow, we’re going out on a job that we might not come back alive from. With tasty food like that, I can’t think of any better last meal, if that’s what it ends up being. It was truly satisfying. Thank you, little ladies.”
“Huh?”
Unless there was a war on, or some stampede of monsters, most high-ranking hunters never took on jobs that they “might not come back from.” On jobs like that, you were relying on luck for your very survival. Even if it was a direct request from an employer, one could simply refuse.
“Wh-why…?” Reina asked the only natural question.
“Ah, well, we got a direct request that we couldn’t really refuse. All the A-rank or higher parties are out, and the other B-rank parties seemed to have picked up on the danger of this one and haven’t shown their faces at the guild. Apparently, we’ve got some kind of emergency situation on our hands, and if it goes south, it could mean the ruin of all the towns and villages around here, the capital included—maybe even the entire kingdom. When a B-rank party gets asked to help with something like that, you just can’t refuse, can ya? We’re staking our reputation, our conviction…and our lives on this!”
They understood.
The members of the Crimson Vow said nothing, but they understood.
The rest of the members of the other party smiled calmly, continuing to sample from Mile’s plates.
More than likely, this job had been a direct request from the guild itself. The party might have simply popped into the guildhall, unaware of the current circumstances, and gotten the job foisted on them. If they had any inclination to refuse it, they could have. But when it was a matter of pride and conviction, there was no refusing.
They knew that this was a “red mark” job. Such were the responsibilities of a hunter, particularly a high-ranking one.
Reina quickly glanced to the other three. One by one, they nodded…and it was decided. Though they came from different places and different walks of life, all four of them loved an adventure.
“Just what kind of job is it?” asked Reina. Her tone did not quite befit their difference in rank, but there was no malice to it—none whatsoever.
“Well, the rumor’s gettin’ around pretty quick, so I guess there’s no point in keeping it a secret… It’s elder dragons. This morning, four elder dragons were spotted flying in the nearby forest and the vicinity. They were spotted by a large number of people, amongst which there were quite a few who were able to give concrete details. Apparently, they were definitely elder dragons—no mistaking them for some giant birds or wyverns.
“Spotting even just one of them around a nearby mountain would be a big deal, but there were four of them—four! Near the capital, no less! If we mess this up, they might not just stop with our land. So we need to figure out how to contact them somehow, have a quiet conversation with them, and safely resolve—no, damn it! There’s no way we’d be that lucky!”
Apparently even this man could not believe his own words. He collapsed onto the table, his head in his hands.
“Ah…”
Seeing this, the members of the Crimson Vow suddenly felt quite awkward. They couldn’t bear to sit by and let this party go out, wasting days and days in search of the elder dragons. To let them do so in grim spirits, prepared for death at any moment, would be far too cruel. Thus, after another shared glance, they all came to an agreement, and Mile began to speak.
“Ah, well, they’re already gone.”
“Huh?” asked the hunters.
“Those four elder dragons? They’ve already finished what they came here to do, and they’ve gone back to their village. Apparently, they just had a bit of an errand here and won’t be coming back again. We happened to come across them in the forest, and they told us.”
“Whaaat?!?!”
Many eyes stared at Mile dubiously. Of course, it was unsurprising that the others listening wouldn’t believe her. So she produced something from her inventory, an item she had retrieved from the battlefield after the elder dragons had gone home.
“Here’s the proof. Elder dragon scales and some meat.”
This time there was a cry of shock from not only the hunters but everyone else in the room—diners and staff alike. The cry could probably be heard from all the way outside of the inn.
“ M-m-m-m-meat and scales from an elder dragon?!?!?! ”
“Wait, hang on! Just what kind of encounter was this that an elder dragon would be shedding meat and scales?! That’s a really big deal, isn’t it?! Did a demon king show up and face down some elder dragon soldiers to the death?!”
It was just like the leader of a B-rank party that he would be more concerned with these questions than with the valuable items before him.
Yet of course, the members of the Crimson Vow could not simply tell them the whole truth.
“Umm, well…they were just having a friendly spar amongst themselves after they were done with their errand!” offered Mile.
The party leader, however, was not satisfied with this explanation.
“How would an elder dragon’s scale end up ripped off and half-burned in a ‘friendly spar’?! It’s not like you’ve just got one or two scales in good condition there! And what’s with that messed-up hunk of meat?!?!”
One scale had been scratched off by the dragon who had been attempting to extinguish Reina’s flames. Another had flown off when Mavis’s sword had slashed the other dragon. And one more, along with the flesh, had been shaved away with Pauline’s drill attack. This was by no means the result of a “friendly spar.”
The Crimson Vow were silent and then spoke as one. “It was a friendly spar.”
Silence fell across the room.
There was only one way to unravel this hopeless situation, Mile thought to herself. If you wanted to eliminate the source of a ruckus, you needed to cause an even bigger ruckus…
And so, Mile ripped open a hole in space-time.
“I wonder if we could sell these?” she said.
It was like the gates of Hell had opened on Earth…
***
“Ugh, I am beat…” sighed Mile.
“And whose fault is that?!” Reina screamed.
In the moments immediately following Mile’s words earlier, they had been overrun with business propositions, which were then followed by a war among the merchants themselves, which eventually spiraled into quite the brouhaha. If one could get one’s hands on an elder dragon scale in good condition and forge it into armor to be presented to the king himself, it would immediately put one’s shop on the map. Business would boom, and there would be not a single royal or noble who did not know your name…
“Couldn’t we have just taken that back?”
“Obviously not!”
The Crimson Vow were in the changing room—of the baths, of course. They had gone to all the trouble of picking an inn with a bath, and even though they had ended up in—or maybe caused… Well, either way, there had been a big mess, but it would be criminal after all that not to make full use of the amenities at hand.
Reina and Mile rushed to rip their clothes off, leaving Mavis and Pauline to leisurely remove their gear and change into their lounging outfits. Still, this did not buy them a lot of time. The other two would be along shortly. However, when the pair of them entered the baths…
“Oh, it’s you all!”
There were others already present.
In both the hunting and mercantile circles, the numbers of women were relatively few compared to the men. Thus, the baths intended for women were fairly small, though still spacious enough to fit at least seven or eight bathers at once. Presently, the two women from the other hunting party were in the bath.
Both sides had already apologized for their prior rudeness, and the Crimson Vow had provided the other party with intel so they did not go off wasting their time. At this point, things should have been good between them… Again, should have.
And yet…
They couldn’t help it. They truly couldn’t, not when they were faced with that head-on, right in front of them.
Reina and Mile were silent, hanging their heads peevishly. Given that all present were women, of course, the other two could easily guess the reason for this behavior. They averted their gazes, a bit awkwardly, before one said, “W-well, you know, you two are still growing girls, so you’ll soon…”
“I’m sixteen years old!” Reina shouted.
“Our apologies,” both replied, and all fell silent.
Time ticked on, awkwardly and wordlessly, until…
“Reina, Mile, you two don’t need to rush so much!”
Mavis and Pauline had arrived. At which time, a certain item became obvious. Or two items. This time it was the older pair who, after ogling Pauline momentarily, hung their heads.
Here was Pauline, clearly no more than fifteen or sixteen, just barely an adult. And then, here were the both of them, surely around thirty years old.
Everyone in the room went quiet, including Mavis and the rather discomfited Pauline, as a heavy air fell over the bathing chamber…
Previously, in the dining room, there had been quite the commotion, between the hunters clamoring to get more information about the elder dragons and the merchants hoping to purchase their salvaged spoils.
The hunters were all right with hanging back. The Crimson Vow were by no means a rival party, and it seemed that the job they had taken on—grimly resolving to prepare themselves for failure, and at worst, total annihilation—was now rendered moot. As a result, they didn’t mind being made to wait a little while… Still, it was not as though they intended to cancel the job. They had already accepted it, and this new information they had acquired about the elder dragons was information they obtained themselves during the course of their efforts. Now, all they had to do was go into the forest to look for proof to verify the Crimson Vow’s information. If they were lucky, they might even bring back a leftover scale fragment. Combined with their pay for finishing the job, this would be a decent—or rather, a pretty good—harvest for them.
They would be able to get more details about the location from the Crimson Vow later. The mountains were a little far, but there was no chance of anyone getting there before them.
The real problem here was for the merchants.
Enemies. Enemies. Enemies.
They were surrounded by enemies, every one of them. There were countless enemies, and only one tantalizing treasure.
A wyvern or an earth dragon was one thing, but there was almost no chance of them ever even encountering an elder dragon. And if they were to encounter one, fighting them would be out of the question. They could speak human tongues, and they were far more intelligent than humans, with tough, massive bodies, magic beyond human imagining, and powerful streams of dragon’s breath. Plus, to even lay a hand on an elder dragon would mean incurring the wrath of an entire clan of them, which would spell ruin for their country. Humans would need an apology and explanation from the elder dragons to all of humanity, yet how could any explanation be given, when all the lands had already been razed?
Of course, now and then, when something was the fault of an elder dragon, they would just ignore the whole thing—or on rare occasions, even offer one of their scales as a sign of their apology. However, such things happened only once every few decades, or even centuries—so rarely that such tales may as well have been apocryphal.
And yet here they were: an elder dragon’s scales.
Once picked from a dragon’s body, they lost all magical potential, their strength gone with it. However, they were still sturdy and lightweight. Most importantly, there was value in their prestige and rarity. Thus, the scales themselves, or armor made with them, carried an absurd cost.
Under such circumstances, it would not be surprising if these merchants were to come to blows, but they were not common street vendors. They were upper-crust, shrewd businesspeople and would never fight one another in such a ridiculous manner.
“………”
The room was silent, as the merchants all glared wordlessly at one another, while the Crimson Vow and the B-rank party quietly left them behind.
“Could you come up to our room later? We’d like to get a few more details from you about that location. We need to at least be able to give the guild a reasonable explanation. We can offer you a reward, of course, and plenty of drinks and snacks while we’re chatting as well,” said one of the women, just as they were all thinking of leaving the baths.
“Don’t worry about the money. We’ll take the snacks and some fruit juice, though,” Reina replied. She was not concerned about earning pocket change over something so small, and Pauline did not appear interested in interjecting either. Apparently, she wasn’t so much of a miser when it wasn’t a matter of their jobs or the goods they sold.
After having a brief chat in the hunters’ room, the members of the Crimson Vow returned to their chambers to find…
“Guh!”
…throngs of merchants, waiting outside the door for them.
“Let’s move to a different inn tomorrow.”
“I guess it really isn’t good to stay somewhere outside our usual budget.”
“Cheap places really do suit us better.”
Though they had gone to some trouble to find this inn, having slightly better food and being able to take a bit of a soak wasn’t really worth it in the end.
Still, the party wasn’t ready to sleep quite yet.
“Miiiile…” came three lilting voices.
“I-I’m sorryyy!”
***
The next morning, the B-rank party finished their breakfast and then set out. Naturally, they were headed to the forest in pursuit of their assigned duties. After that, they would head for the mountains to the location the members of the Crimson Vow had described.
No matter how much information they had received from the younger hunters, just sharing that same report would not be enough to fulfill their job requirements. They had to at least go to the mentioned location and fully ascertain that the elder dragons were completely out of the picture.
However, there was a big difference between not knowing anything and having enough information to go out with an accurate knowledge of the place where the elder dragons had been “sparring.” The difference between learning exactly the thing that they intended to and aimlessly wandering around the forest was like the difference between heaven and earth. They already knew what they were going to report and were just going out now to confirm it, so the success of their job was as good as promised.
Plus, considering what the Crimson Vow had told them, there was a chance that, if all went well, there might still be some shards of elder dragon scales lying around at the site. The chance wasn’t even a small one. No matter how tiny a fragment they might find, they could expect it to fetch a pretty high price. It was an elder dragon scale after all—an elder dragon scale !
Naturally, the merchants had thought the same thing and had asked the Crimson Vow for details of the location. However, they had refused to describe it to them, saying that the merchants would only disrupt the site, and cause trouble for the ones who had been assigned to investigate. For this, the hunters were deeply thankful.
Yet after the older hunters departed, a predictable scene unfolded at the inn.
“So, about our discussion last night…”
The members of the Crimson Vow found themselves surrounded by merchants.
“Ah yes, of course…”
With the permission of the kitchen staff, Mile set up shop in the dining room once breakfast concluded.
“Now, as we said last night, it’s one per person of the fractured and the burned ones. The complete one, and the nearly complete ones, are off-limits!”
“ Gngh …”
Though all the merchants grumbled with disappointment and regret at all the fuss they had caused the night before, they could not expect an elder dragon’s scale to be handed over unconditionally. On the contrary, that was the sort of behavior that might cause the price to jump.
Thus, to make up for Mile’s careless words—and after receiving a promise that no one would speak of this incident henceforth—the Crimson Vow had agreed to sell one each of the splintered and burned scales—in other words, the damaged goods, which were as good as garbage to the Crimson Vow but were still elder dragon scales. They were not common items, nor would they be fetching a common price.
Even if just one scale would not be sufficient to craft a buckler or any such item, there were still myriad applications—as an armguard, part of a breastplate, as a lightweight concealed knife, and so forth. Plus, armor aside, they could be useful in charms and ritual tools. In truth, an elder dragon’s scale was more valuable in terms of prestige than practical use.
The Crimson Vow, of course, were not going to hand over the few precious perfect specimens they had. They would never sell such items to merchants of this caliber or even to the guild. If they held onto them and had the chance to hawk them directly to some high-ranking noble, they could expect literally another “0” or two on the price they could fetch.
There was no limit to how much someone might pay for such an item if they wanted it badly enough. That was the sort of goods these were.
Plus, though they had kept this a secret from Mavis, the other three members of the Crimson Vow had agreed to hold on to the most beautiful of all the scales. It would be a gift to be handed over to Mavis on the day that she finally became a knight, or if the day ever came that she returned home to be married.
Even with her new left arm, Mavis did not have the strength of a fully-grown, well-trained man. Thus, though she wielded a blade colloquially known as a “hand-and-a-half” sword, which could be used either one or two-handed, she typically wielded it two-handed and was unable to use a shield. However, the day might come when a shield was a necessity for her, and wielding a shield made with an elder dragon scale would be huge boost for her image. Even just having the scale should be useful to her. Such was the conclusion that the three had come to together.
Had the artificial limb been on her right arm, then she would easily be able to grip the sword in her right hand alone, equipping a small buckler on her left arm, but there was no point in talking hypotheticals, and it was a bit late for her to start trying to wield a sword left-handed.
I’m sure if I contacted that one dragon and asked him to pick off a few scales, he would do it. It probably doesn’t hurt that much to just pick them off with your claws…
Mile truly was a rather terrible creature.
After each of their customers picked out their one scale, shelling out the money that they kept on hand for just such a once-in-a-lifetime chance, the merchants left the inn as well. They all seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, likely ready to wrap up whatever business they had come to the capital for in the first place.
“I’m betting they’re all running off somewhere to get more cash, so they can camp out and wait for those hunters to get back. They probably want to buy the rest of the scales off of them, once they gather them up. I’m sure that party won’t be selling anything until they’ve gotten them back to the guild as proof, but after that, they should be able to market them as regular goods, so my guess is the merchants will try to negotiate and lock in a price before they’ve made their report. If it’s found out post-report that they have those scales, the merchants will find themselves with even more rivals.
“That said, those guys are veteran B-rank hunters,” Pauline mused. “I’m sure they know that the more merchants are interested, the higher a price they can fetch, so I doubt they’ll go along with that…”
She was right, of course. The Crimson Vow was not hurting for money, and even those damaged goods fetched them a fair bit. Plus, given all the commotion of the previous night, selling off the scales was worth it to keep the merchants quiet, earn a bit of favor, and make their amends. By getting an exorbitant profit from them for only a tiny damaged sliver…
Hunters without such intentions, in different circumstances, would charge even higher prices.
“That’s none of our business. Best of luck to those merchants,” said Reina. On that matter, that was that.
***
“Um, for the new requests, let’s see…”
The members of the Crimson Vow stood before the job board in the guildhall. There were no other hunters currently present, but this was not surprising.
“Guess we were a bit late,” said Mile.
In fact, it was already well past the second morning bell. The only parties who were not already out on jobs at this hour were mostly those who had appointments to meet with clients or dawdling sloths. New jobs were posted at the first morning bell, so obviously nothing good would be left by this point.
Given how exhausted the party had been the day before, they had not gotten any hunting work done…though they had still made quite the haul on the spices and the damaged scales.
Yet even so, it felt awkward to take off another day in a row, which meant that, though they were already massively late, they thought they should at least pop in at the guild. Even if there were no good jobs, they could just take some standing requests and or do some gathering. So they thought, as they stared, a bit dazed, at the request board…
“Huh?”
In spite of the late hour, they noticed that a new job had just been posted up by the guild employees. Naturally, their eyes were drawn to it immediately. Other hunters came crowding around as well to see what was going on.
“Earth Dragon Extermination: Requested A.S.A.P. 20 gold. Hunted parts may be sold.”
“Whoa!” the four members of the Crimson Vow shouted.
An earth dragon. They were nothing compared to elder dragons, but still, they were dragons. A twenty-gold reward regardless of the number of hunters was fairly low for such a rare target, but considering what the hunted spoils could be sold for, it wasn’t a bad rate. The principle was the same as in those countries where those in the service industry were paid little but could more than make up for it in tips. Diners in Japan would never put up with being asked to pay employees’ salaries, but unlike the Japanese people, earth dragons would not complain about this, so it was fine.
At any rate, this was the sort of job that would normally be taken by four to five parties together, which meant pay of around one gold for each individual, plus sales profits. All in all, it was decent, or in fact, pretty good. And if the Crimson Vow were to take the job all on their own…
Suddenly, the girls noticed several hunters and guild staff chattering around them.
“You don’t see earth dragons very often. Wonder if it only came out now because of those elder dragons.”
“Probably. The timing is way too good to be a coincidence.”
“And here we thought we had enough of a problem on our hands with just the elder dragons… Damn it! Everyone but those B-ranks, Tomorrow’s Glory, who took that investigation job, has been too chicken to show their faces around here. Buncha cowards.”
Apparently, the local B-rank parties, usually a prideful bunch, had not been into the guild for fear of being stopped by the guild staff and roped into a direct request to investigate the elder dragons. They could, of course, refuse such a request, but under the circumstances, it would mean a blow to their general reputation and pride. As such, they had probably intentionally avoided coming in. The hunters that the Crimson Vow had met the day before were the only exception.
The veteran C-rank parties present could only complain about the absent B-rankers, for they would have no more interest in taking on a job better suited for higher-ranking parties. The guild, likewise, would never be so reckless to directly request that a C-rank party go out hunting earth dragons.
“Hmm…”
Mile looked at the location written on the job slip and then looked at the map to confirm—though to call such a crude caricature a “map” would make Mercator roll over in his grave. In any event, the drawing indicated a completely different location from the forest they had previously visited.
“Do you think maybe the elder dragons were on standby out there? They had no way of knowing which way we’d go when we left the capital until the beastmen sent up their signal, so they were probably waiting for us in the wrong spot,” Reina mused.
“Ah, that’s true,” Mile agreed.
In fact, this seemed to fit with the direction the elder dragons had come flying in from.
“So then, should we do it?” asked Reina.
“Yeah!”
“There is no way that you all will be taking this job,” declared the clerk, when the members of the Crimson Vow approached to inquire.
“Huh? Why not? The posting didn’t specify any ranks,” Reina replied.
It was true enough that the job had listed no such requirement. It was a case of, There are no restrictions on rank here, so if you’ve got the guts, take the job. You may or may not get yourselves killed, but that’s entirely on you. Thus, it was a job that even the Crimson Vow, at a C-rank, should have been able to take. And yet…
“This is a job for several parties to take on together—like, maybe three B-rank parties and one veteran C-rank party… We’re not expecting a single novice C-rank party to take it on alone, so you can’t just claim it for yourselves!”
It was rare to see a clerk of the Hunters’ Guild, someone expected to be calm and collected, in such a rage.
If one were judging by the age range of the Crimson Vow, it would make sense to assume they weren’t especially skilled. The fact that they were only C-ranks was reason enough to doubt them.
Reina’s temper was rapidly souring, and Mile’s face cramped as she heard the time bomb starting to tick down, when there was a voice from behind.
“What if we took on the job with them?”
The members of the Crimson Vow turned around to see a familiar face before them.
“Mister Gren!” three of them cried.
“Who?” asked Mile.
Just as in her previous life, she was terrible at recalling faces.
“We’re the Roaring Mithrils, A-rank. Could these girls take the job if we take it with ’em?”
“Y-yes, of course!”
The clerk seemed quite relieved. It wasn’t as though she would have any qualms about refusing the Crimson Vow; any clerk of the Hunters’ Guild was used to going head-to-head with stubborn newbies. What had so relieved her was the appearance of these saviors, an unexpected A-rank party, when all the cowardly B-rank parties had abandoned them in this time when the capital was on the cusp of crisis. All these dragons one after another were sure to cost the guild its name and reputation otherwise.
They were an A-rank party of six members. Even if they did not fully eliminate the earth dragon, it was highly possible they would beat it back, particularly when combined with two or three C-rank parties as backup. If the dragon had simply been roused from its dwelling by the elder dragons’ appearance, all they had to do was drive it back, and the danger would be eliminated. Furthermore, if they could minimize the damage of this dual dragon appearance, not only would the guild reputation not be besmirched, it would in fact be bolstered immensely. Given all this, the clerk’s relief was only natural.
“They didn’t retract your A-rank after you all lost to us?” Reina asked.
Gren grimaced.
“No. Remember, we were basically fighting with a handicap. It was a kind of scripted battle, where we tried to put on a show while avoiding hurting the students. We had to draw out everyone’s full potential, while still overwhelming them with our difference in power so that no one got carried away. It’s just that one of the two sides didn’t know they were acting. When it came to you all, though…”
At this, Gren glared at his companions. The two mages and the young swordsman hung their heads in shame. They had been wounded, nearly killed, and ultimately defeated. No matter how much of a handicap they had imposed upon themselves, for a nearly A-rank party, this was shameful.
“Oh, don’t you act so high and mighty either, Gren! Didn’t that little lady let you win?! And you lost right away to the one after her…” said a middle-aged mage, one of the two party members who had not fought during the graduation exam.
“Er…” Gren was momentarily lost for words. “W-well, that was all part of the spectacle. I’m sure that all the onlookers assumed that this was just a special favor for some promising young rookies who’d been working even harder than expected. No one could have thought that I actually lost…”
Perhaps disheartened by his own words, Gren let his shoulders slump.
“Anyway, all that said, a little while after that, we made it to A-rank. Then, we set out to settle some scores—to reflect on what you all put us through, get back up to snuff, and train ourselves a bit.”
The sort of pilgrimage he was referring to, this “settling of scores,” was not about revenge or anything as dark as it sounded. It was, as the phrasing suggested, more about settling one’s debts. Parties took these journeys for the sake of sharing news and giving thanks to those who had helped them along the way when they had taken their initial journeys as rookies. They visited people they had gotten to know, who would wish to know about their successful rise to A-rank. Naturally, along the way, there were opportunities to further train one’s selves as well, just like the first time around.
Unlike the first time, however, these later journeys would be focused on jobs with high levels of difficulty and not enough pay, in small towns and regions that were shorthanded and had only local hunters around. An A-rank party would not be hurting for money, and as they were on a journey of giving thanks, they weren’t exactly taking their earnings into account… Though of course these were special services they provided, limited to this journey alone. As such, they were a welcome sight wherever they went.
However, there were relatively few parties who were ever able to go on journeys such as these, especially when compared with the number who undertook an initial training journey. Most hunters would retire from injury, sickness, or old age before they reached A-rank…assuming they made it out of the job alive at all.
Though wait—what about S-rank? Wasn’t that as high as a hunter could go?
There were so few S-ranks in existence they might as well have been a myth. In practice, the highest rank that any hunter would hope to achieve was an A-rank.
“Well, it sounds like as long as we take the job with you all, we’ll get to do it.”
Apparently even Reina could muster a little politeness in front of such veterans as these.
“Y-yes, as long as you accept it along with us, an A-rank party, and we give the go-ahead…”
“That’s fine.”
And with a word from Gren, the dragon-hunting job was underway.
Of course, though the job was labeled as an extermination, it would be just as acceptable for them to simply chase the dragon away. Still, it was important to note that doing so would mean no extra income from selling the parts, in which case, the payment of twenty gold wouldn’t really be enough. Given that the twenty gold was not per person, but the total payment for the job, once you divided it between several parties and factored in the cost of broken equipment, injuries, and other negative factors, it would be far safer and more profitable to go out hunting orcs on country roads. Thus, the pay for this job was really in the extermination part, with the twenty gold really just serving as a consolation prize should the dragon happen to get away, or perhaps, as a thanks for their general efforts.
“Now then, let’s gather up two or three more parties. I’m sure some of our veteran C-rank parties would be happy to travel along with A-rankers!”
Indeed, the earnings on this job were sure to be good, and with an A-rank party at the spearhead, and the rest just serving as their supports, it would not be at all surprising for C-rank parties with skill and experience to be champing at the bit to join in. In fact, a number of parties who had been eating or killing time at the nearby tables stood up. This was a lazy time of day, so these were not hunters who were wolfing down their meals, but those who had a little bit of time… In other words, in terms of C-rank hunters, these were people who had confidence in their skills. Surely, they would all wish to get an earth-dragon-hunting credit on their resume to raise their reputations. However…
“Don’t need ’em,” Gren curtly replied.
“Wha…?” The clark was dumbfounded.
“Us and these little ladies’ll be enough. We don’t need anyone gettin’ under our feet. The more folks we gotta watch out for, the less effective we’re gonna be.”
“Uh…”
The clerk could only gape wordlessly. The other hunters, however, were not so easily dealt with.
“Oi, that ain’t right! Sure, we ain’t gonna try and say you A-rank guys aren’t strong enough or sit around and fuss about it. You guys clawed your way up to the top, to A-rank, so us sayin’ anything at all is about as good as howling like dogs. But no way you’re gonna say we’re less useful than a buncha little girls!” shouted one of the assembled hunters.
The six Roaring Mithrils grimaced, and Gren spoke. “You all never had any intention of joinin’ on before we offered to take the job. Even those these ‘little girls’ were about to sign up to hunt this dragon all on their own… Honestly, we’re just ridin’ these girls’ coattails here. We know they were tryin’ to do this job already. Can it be that you’re all sayin’ that these girls are lesser than you, when you only wanted to hop aboard when you saw us joinin’ in? These girls are strong . They’re still C-rank because they haven’t reached the minimum years for a promotion, but I can tell you, they’re as capable as a B-rank party.”
“Er…”
There was nothing more that the man could say after being so thoroughly shot down by someone so highly ranked. If the assembled hunters had any further objections, their only recourse would be to challenge the Crimson Vow to a mock duel, and should they happen to lose, they would never live it down. After that, their reputations would be so diminished that they could never work as hunters in this town again. They would have to leave the city and move off to some far-off country and change their party name, never to return.
“Guess we got no choice here,” sighed Gren. “You guys wanna show ’em a little somethin’? I’m sure y’all have got a trick or two up your sleeves for times like this, when folks need a little display of strength.”
“Sharp as always, Mister Gren! Mavis, it’s time for the Copper Cutter!” Mile directed.
“Roger that!” Mavis replied. “If you all could clear me some space… Yes, that’s better. Now, Mister Gren, please toss a copper coin up in a nice arc.”
The copper-cutting performance proceeded as it always did. The local hunters watched, frozen.
“Now then, could you give me one more coin?”
This time, at Mavis’s request, Gren pulled one more copper from his purse and handed it to her. Mavis pinched the coin by its edges between the thumb and pointer finger of her left hand, holding it out for everyone to see.
“And a…hup!”
Seemingly without any effort at all, she bent the coin in half.
“Wha…?”
Finally, she took the already bent coin between her fingers again, and…
“Ha-yup!”
She bent it in half again.
Silence fell around the room.
If a person had superhuman strength, or else was some kind of expert in their craft, or perhaps knew some special trick, then maybe, just maybe, they could fold a copper coin in half. But to do so twice ? Impossible. Absolutely impossible! And just before, to slice a coin twice into four parts, midair, unsupported… Well, that was impossible, too!
“A superhuman display, as always… And if I recall correctly, you’re the weakest of the four, yeah?” asked Gren. At this, Mavis wilted slightly but nodded.
“Impossible.”
There was no other word that the local hunters could utter.
***
“So then, you all just arrived in town?” asked Mile.
The Crimson Vow and the Roaring Mithrils chatted along their trek to the location specified in the job request. The place that had been indicated was roughly two hours’ walk from the capital. It made sense that it was relatively nearby, of course, given that it was likely where the elder dragons had been waiting to ambush the Crimson Vow.
“Yeah, we’d just gotten an inn,” Gren replied, “and had told the keepers that we were an A-rank party hopin’ to get a guild discount, when they said, ‘Oh! Are you here for that dragon extermination?!’ We had no idea what they were talkin’ about, so we decided to stop in at the guild, which is when we saw you all there and decided to see what was up.”
“So then, you don’t know anything about the elder dragons…”
“Elder dragons? What elder dragons?”
Apparently, the Mithrils truly had heard nothing of the elder dragon incident, so Mile took it upon herself to explain.
“So, what the folks at the inn were talkin’ about wasn’t this job, but about the elder dragons… Seriously though, what’s with that? Are all the B-ranks around here except the one party that spineless?”
Even in the capital, there were few B-rank parties who frequented the guildhall, as most of the high-ranking parties were out on long-term jobs, traveling to train themselves, or already contracted in exclusive service. So, it wasn’t wholly impossible that they haven’t happened to stop in. In truth, even that one party had only passed through by coincidence, accepting this direct, sudden, and dangerous request, even though they hated it.
“Wise creatures like elder dragons are one thing, but earth dragons are basically big ol’ lizards. They’re really no big deal,” said Gren.
Though earth dragons resembled elder dragons in name, their abilities were worlds apart. Despite their dragon breath, their intellect was nothing more than a common lizard’s, and their hides were of the usual strength, not fortified by magic. One could more or less think of them as a larger version of a standard rock lizard.
In other words, they were mostly just big and strong, but still susceptible to traps, and if a large group were to chip away at them bit by bit, felling them would be relatively easy. Of course, that was assuming you had multiple parties of B-rank or more. Under those circumstances, as long as your attack patterns were even slightly effective, the dragon would fall sooner or later. However, if your attacks had no effect whatsoever, then no matter how hard you tried, you would get nowhere. Thus, for a C-rank party to try to take on an earth dragon alone was absolutely absurd.
The soba you get from a street vendor is soba. The soba you get from a 4-star restaurant is also soba. But even if those two things happen to have the same name, they’re completely different dishes. It’s the same way that elder and earth dragons are both called dragons, but they aren’t the same thing at all, Mile thought dreamily.
“Come to think of it, what are earth dragons like?” asked Reina.
“You guys…”
The Mithrils looked aghast.
“ Normally , when you take a job, you stop to look into the characteristics and weaknesses of your target, how to fight it, and… Never mind. This was kind of a rush job. Still, every day you should be studying at least a minimal amount of information about even the rarer creatures from the guild’s records…” said Gren.
Reina’s face reddened a little. Rather than yelling at him, however, she seemed to be reflecting on this. Perhaps she was maturing a bit.
“I mean, anyway, this is actually the first time that we’ll be encountering an earth dragon ourselves. You don’t come across earth or fire dragons very often, let alone elder dragons. There are hardly any hunters around who’ve seen a dragon and lived to tell the tale, us included. So, we only know what we’ve read about in books. It’s nothin’ like a wyvern, at least. Those guys fly, so they’re easy to spot. But even those we’ve only just seen flying by—we’ve never actually hunted one. Er, I guess that’s kinda pathetic…”
All the Mithrils, Gren included, slumped their shoulders.
“Anyway, earth dragons are basically just big rock lizards, and their senses are just as dull, so unless you hit ’em in the vitals or right in the face, attacks don’t really hurt ’em. So, we’ll need to keep hittin ’em with strong attacks in their weak points. That’s what makes this difficult for parties without a really strong offense. If you do it wrong, you get wiped out.”
The members of the Crimson Vow nodded. This would not be a problem for them, of course.
“So, normally, they live in caves or in big fissures in cliffs or in the ground. It’s that, along with the fact that they don’t fly, that gets ’em labeled earth dragons—though actually, there’s a lot of other types of dragons that don’t fly either.”
The members of the Crimson Vow nodded again.
“As for their weaknesses…”
“What are their weaknesses?” the girls chorused.
“If you cut off their heads, they die.”
“ Well, obviouslyyy!! ! ”
Gren truly was just a musclehead, in the end…
The other Mithrils bowed their heads, as if to apologize for this idiocy.
It had been a while since any of the Mithrils other than Gren, their leader, had spoken. It wasn’t as though they had reservations about the Crimson Vow, but things were a bit awkward. This couldn’t be helped, of course. Back when they were B-rank, these hunters had lost to the Crimson Vow before they had even graduated to C-rank. They were bewildered now, unsure of how to speak to these rookie girls, all under the age of twenty, who had bested them previously.
The mage, who might very well have killed Reina if luck had not been on her side, was acting particularly shifty. In fact, had Reina not possessed power at a level that was unthinkable for a student of the prep school, she surely would have been killed. From Reina’s point of view, he had attempted murder over something as trivial as the graduation exam. With that in mind, conversation couldn’t exactly be easy…
The memory of those losses stung far too sharply for the Mithrils to act high and mighty simply owing to their position. On the other hand, it wouldn’t exactly be fitting to speak to such young girls as though the Crimson Vow were their betters. And so, they had all fallen silent, with only Gren at ease enough to speak.
No, they did not think ill of the Crimson Vow—not at all. On the contrary, they could only rejoice at the fact that they had been there to witness the birth of such a promising young party, and they were pleased to continue to associate with them. But that didn’t change the fact that things were a little too awkward for conversation right now. That was all it was.
“So, you girls seen anything interesting on your training journey? Why don’t you all tell us about it?”
“Uhhh…”
Right now, the impending battle against the earth dragon was the least of anyone’s worries.
***
“So anyway, those dragons, the ones who were sparring, they told us, ‘We were just here on an errand and don’t intend to trouble any humans. We’ll be going back to our home now, so please tell the other humans that.’”
“………”
The Roaring Mithrils’ mouths hung agape as Mile filled them in on everything that had happened since the Crimson Vow had first set out on their journey, from the battle with the demons to the troubles with nobles, the fairy hunting, the kidnappers, the bandits, and the aberrant ogres. Of course, she did not tell them the full truth, so much as the revised, abridged edition that they had reported to the guild, leaving out the less savory parts about matters in Ascham and their battles with the elder dragons. Naturally, there were no insert stories or bonus chapters included, either.
“You guys…”
Gren was crestfallen. There was no other way to put it. His heart had sunk down into the depths of the ocean. On the contrary, the young swordsman and two of the mages seemed to have perked up a bit. In fact, a palpable sort of relief seemed to emanate from each of them. Well, of course we would have lost to kids like these, they seemed to be thinking. It’s not that we’re weak, it’s that they’re abnormal…
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