Chapter 83:
The Great Departure
“I suppose it’s about time. Are the two of you ready for this?” asked Marcela.
Monika and Aureana nodded in reply.
Yes, tomorrow was their long-awaited graduation day… As well as their formal induction into the All-Female Elite Imperial Guard Squad.
In the morning they would have their graduation ceremony at Eckland, and in the afternoon, their induction ceremony. Tonight was a fateful evening. The final night that they would spend in the dormitories of Eckland Academy.
Their rooms had already been almost fully cleaned out, save for the furnishings that had originally been present. Marcela and Monika had already taken most of their personal effects back to their family homes at lunchtime. Most of the cheap personal goods that Aureana had purchased over the last three years were ones that she had intended to use up and throw away anyway, so she had bequeathed the bulk of them to the commoners who would come to the Academy after her and sent the rest to the landfill. Rather than going to the bother of taking such things back home, it would be far more economical to dispose of them here and purchase new ones in the town near where her family lived.
And so, all that remained now in the girls’ rooms were a single change of uniform for the ceremony the next day, a single set of personal clothes, and whatever other luggage they would be able to carry on their backs.
Incidentally, they would be turning all of their uniforms back in at the graduation ceremony. They had only been borrowing them from the school. Every year there were plenty of people who wished to purchase theirs as a memento, but in order to preserve the supply of uniforms, this request was always swiftly denied. This of course meant that the two uniforms Adele had taken with her were a bit of an issue—but given the circumstances, the problem was waved off. In truth, there was no way to retrieve them anyway, so the school had no choice but to accept the way things were.
The three of them had discussed their plan over and over again. There was no room for objections now. They nodded at each other once more and headed off to their respective rooms in order to get some sleep in anticipation of the upcoming day’s events.
They would have plenty of time to talk from here on out.
During their long, long journey that would begin the following day…
***
“We are now setting out into a brand-new world!”
“Let’s go!!!” the crowd roared.
It was your average graduation ceremony. Of course, this was not the graduation ceremony at Ardleigh Academy, the school for royals, upper-ranking nobles, the heirs of lower nobles, and the children of wealthy merchants, but that of Eckland Academy, a school for those later children of lower nobles, middle-class merchants, and poor commoners on scholarship. There were hardly any visitors or guardians in attendance.
Or rather, there typically were not.
Typically.
However, this year, for some reason, the visitor and family seats were filled.
Why was this?
Perhaps it was because the crowd in the visitors’ seats also included Their Majesties the King and Queen, their two sons, and other ministers, representatives of high-ranking noble families, and the like.
It was all because of the miraculous girls, who were the friends of that girl , the one smiled on by the Goddess.
They were all beautiful, skilled in combat magic, friends of the third princess, and founding members of the All-Female Imperial Guard Squad, a special new unit being piloted for the princess’s protection. Furthermore, one of them was someone with whom both of the princes were smitten, a top contender for the spot of future crown princess.
Hearing that the royal family and other influential figures in the country would be present, there was no way that the families of the girls’ classmates could not attend. The chance to hobnob with the upper crust, and to perhaps speak with those girls afterward, would interest anyone. There was no noble or merchant who could pass up such a chance.
The ceremony solemnly proceeded and drew to an end. Uneventfully, just like any other year…
***
“Time to go!”
“Okay!”
Though the roles of student representative and final speaker had been pressed upon Marcela and Aureana, compared to what they were about to embark on, this was not stressful in the least. All they had to do was play their parts flawlessly and then head off to the induction ceremony.
They did not yet have their imperial guard uniforms; those they would change into once they had received them at the palace. Their measurements had already been taken, so they would not be receiving any bulky, oversized uniforms. The other guards would help them with the dressing as well. Though there had never been an all-female imperial guard unit before, that did not mean that female imperial guards did not exist. Though they were few in number, they certainly did exist, working in service alongside the male guards, which very much lowered the hurdle for this new unit’s formation. Things likely would not have gone so smoothly if it had previously been a strictly male position.
The girls each changed into their own clothes in their rooms, laying their discarded uniforms upon the beds, donned their backpacks, and quickly set out for the palace. There was no time to stop for lunch. While the visitors and families were busy rubbing elbows at the luncheon, they had to prepare and rehearse for the induction ceremony. Of course, many of the people present at the luncheon would also be present at the induction ceremony.
However, Marcela and Monika’s parents would not be attending the induction. This was only to be expected. While a school graduation ceremony was one thing, the thought of one’s parents attending an induction ceremony at one’s new place of work was unbearable.
Aureana’s parents had not attended the graduation ceremony either. They simply did not have the money to travel all the way out to the capital from the countryside just for something like that. This was the typical state of affairs for rural farmers.
***
“I wonder if this is right…?”
With the help from the senior female guards, somehow the trio managed to get themselves dressed in uniform. Today was a day of ceremony, so rather than being armored for the battlefield, they were dressed in elegant and spiffy ladies’ uniforms.
Around them were other girls, fellow inductees into the unit. They were all the daughters of nobles and high-ranking military officers, trained in martial and magical arts from a young age—or at least having received a crash course once the talk of the all-female unit came about. At the very least, they each had enough self-defense skill to shield Her Highness and buy a few seconds before the male guards arrived… Or rather, that was the expectation.
Besides the uniforms and their associated accoutrements, the members of the trio were each outfitted with two items: a sword and a dagger.
Reina and Pauline, as with hunters with a concentration in magic, favored the staff, a practical weapon that they could swing without much thought while focusing on their incantations. That said, there was nothing at all peculiar about choosing a sword, which was far more lethal, for occasions when it came down to the wire and felling the enemy was the only way to defend a client’s life. Even if the time to use the sword rarely came, and was not necessary for protecting one’s own life, it was good to have in certain instances. If they only concentrated on spellcasting, and the spell did not make it in time, or they ran out of magic, it would mean instant death. With a sword on hand, they could likely manage to run at least one enemy through.
Hunters, who fought almost every day, and typical soldiers, who battled against great crowds of enemies, prioritized protecting their own lives and safety, but this was not the role of an imperial guard. The job of an imperial guard was not to protect one’s own life. Indeed, one’s own body and life were as expendable as a single-use throwing dart when it came to defending and preserving the life of the one being protected. Such was the duty of a guard.
The dagger was but a sidearm to the sword, ready and waiting for those times when it would be too difficult to battle with a longer blade, such as in cramped quarters or underwater. These daggers were shorter than those short swords typically equipped by normal swordfighters for when their swords broke but not so short that they could be called knives. Indeed, they were just about the right length for Marcela and the girls. Though the swords were clearly too long, almost ridiculously so.
However, there was not much to be done for this. The other women were all in their late teens at least, whereas the Wonder Trio had only recently turned thirteen. They were still underage girls, really.
“Okay, time to go!”
And so, with the senior guards leading the way, the new inductees of the all-female guard squad set out to the ceremony…
***
“It’s finally over!”
After a dreary ceremony and briefing, and swearing their oaths to the King, as well as to the third princess, who they would directly serve, the three girls were finally able to retreat to their room for a breather.
Though originally these rooms had been for the lady’s maids, three had been set aside for the members of the new squad, split into three units of three ladies each. Given that they would be working at her side, it made sense to have the guard sleeping as close to Her Highness as possible, so the lady’s maids relocated to a slightly farther location. Since it was for Her Highness’s safety, the lady’s maids did not complain—or more likely, they would not have dared to.
Today was for rest and free time, with basic training and practice starting tomorrow.
Or at least, that was the plan.
There was a certain saying that they all knew. A saying that their dear friend Adele had imparted upon them, one of Adele’s Words of Wisdom that Monika had so diligently written down:
Plans are things that have yet to come, and nothing’s set in stone.
Indeed, this plan was nothing more than that—a plan. Since it had not been fixed, then it was not yet settled.
Knock knock.
Then came another thing that was not part of the official plan, but as far as the girls were concerned, was exactly according to plan. There was a knock upon the door.
***
“Now then, as we discussed…” After a brief catch-up, Morena, the third princess, turned her attention to the matter at hand. Up until now, she had been relaxed, talking casually with the Wonder Trio, but now her face tightened, and her tone grew stern. “I will now be giving direct orders to you, Team 3 of my exclusive All-Female Elite Imperial Guard Squad, also known as my ‘Special Ops.’ By the name of Morena, third princess of Brandel, I command you. You will determine the whereabouts of the missing head of the Ascham household, Adele von Ascham, and return her to her homeland, our kingdom of Brandel. Go now, and pledge your loyalty to me, my faithful blades. Special Ops, code name, ‘Wonder Trio’!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
After she left the room, the girls shed their guard uniforms and left them upon the bed, just as they had their school uniforms. That way the lady’s maids could wash them and stash them away in their chest. They then changed back into the clothes in which they had come from the academy and donned their gear.
They left their new swords stacked in the corner of the room. There was no reason to take something so heavy and unwieldy with them. None of the three of them could properly use a sword, and from here on out, their number one priority would be protecting themselves, so the swords would effectively be dead weight.
The only weapons they took with them were the three matching staves Morena had purchased for them with squad funds and their daggers. The daggers could be used as reserve weapons, as well as in place of machetes when traveling through the forest, and as replacement cooking knives, so for now they decided to keep them on hand.
Naturally, the blades would also serve as something of a good luck charm to ward off anyone who might try to bother them, given that rookie mages were often vulnerable to both surprise attacks and in close-quarters combat. They might at least deter some percentage of ne’er-do-wells, who would assume that with those daggers, which they could whip out quickly at any time, they might be able to put up a decent resistance.
The staves, meanwhile, were simply basic equipment for any mage-hunter. A stave was a weapon that could be swung while focusing on incanting a spell, with a relatively low cost to brain resources, to strike at and drive back any attackers who might try to approach at melee range. Additionally, in the hands of a young girl, it did not give them the impression of being able to deliver any particularly powerful strike to an enemy, which would most certainly cause their opponents to underestimate them. In the heat of battle, this would be the most effective way to grab the cheeks of the goddess of victory and turn her smile their way.
Her preparations complete, backpack donned, and canteen attached, Marcela declared, “Our target is Adele von Ascham. Wonder Trio, roll out!”
“All right!!”
It was a very hunter-esque call—which made sense, of course, since the three of them were hunters.
Well, on the books, they were “imperial guardswomen,” but that was only in name. Practically speaking, they would be shelving that position for a little while.
A scant half a day. That had been the full duration of their brief stint as soldiers…
***
A few days later, the three walked the highway by the light of the stars, already a fair distance from the capital. Their plan was to walk on through the night and find an inn fairly early the next day.
For the sake of this, they had slept plenty the night before.
With Marcela and Monika’s families so thrilled to be making such powerful connections in the capital, it would likely be some days before they began to think it strange that their daughters had not shown their faces at home at all. Even civilians were aware of how stringent the training for a new imperial guard was.
Aureana’s family, meanwhile, would not think it strange to not see their daughter again for another year or thereabouts.
The girls had informed the guild that after their graduation they would be taking up service at the palace. Normally, this would mean retiring from working as a hunter, but the guild was thrilled to hear that they would be taking jobs now and then, just frequently enough to remain on the roster without any lapses in their registration, which would mean they’d be able to maintain their hunter qualifications. They had meticulously planned for this as well, to be certain that they did not lose their status as hunters.
Additionally, they had registered one more party member with the guild: an F-rank hunter named Moren.
She wore boy’s clothing, hid her hair with a hat, and had purposely dirtied up her face, keeping her head down so that her features could not be clearly seen. When it came time to fill out the registration forms, she just so happened to forget to write the last letter of her name. So, everything worked out just fine.
Her body was still not so developed as to give her away on that front—for better, or for worse…
This way, Morena could check in on the Wonder Trio’s balance in the guild bank, and if she found that funds were running low, she could deposit more through the capital branch. Also, they would be able to contact each other via guild post. Naturally, Morena could not be receiving letters from the Wonder Trio directly at the palace.
Of course, there was no way that the guild staff did not realize who this new F-rank hunter, Moren, truly was. At this point it was unthinkable that the Trio would recruit a man to join their team, and it was far too unnatural to go off traveling and leave a rookie behind. Furthermore, there was no one around who was not aware of their connection with Princess Morena, so they could not possibly be hoping to truly fool anyone with that pseudonym.
However, because she had registered under the name of Moren, no information about this hunter would be making it to the palace. Were anyone in the guild to leak word of the new registration, it would be as good as the guild selling out information about a member on the palace’s orders, which would be tantamount to abandoning the guild’s own basic principles of neutrality and independence. This would be a grave sin, one which no associate of the guild the world over would tolerate.
Thus, the guild would never give up this information themselves. Not without some exceptional reason.
All this said, the Trio did intend to earn the funds to support their own livelihood along the road. Because of the way the guild bank worked, withdrawing funds from their account anywhere outside of their headquarters would simply take far too much time to be useful. (At least if they opened a new account at a different branch, as long as they did not have it remitted back to headquarters, they could easily withdraw funds at any time with relative anonymity.)
Furthermore, requesting funds from their main account would mean giving away their current position to the guild members there. There was a fair amount of faith to be had in how the guild valued confidentiality. However, if there was a direct request from His Majesty himself, especially a particularly strong request, that carried quite a bit of weight. Especially if it was not a guild member’s individual information being requested, but simply the name of the branch where some money was being sent, who knew what might happen. And then, if it was not the king but their fellow party member “Moren” asking the guild for information, there was an even higher chance of that information being revealed.
Then there was the fact that, if they did request a deposit from their account at the capital branch, they would have to wait in the same town for some days until the money they requested could be delivered to them, in which time knights could be swiftly dispatched on behalf of the king or Princess Morena, and they might be in danger of being apprehended.
At least, they had the peace of mind that should they run into financial trouble, they had a reserve to draw from. There was no telling when one might be injured, fall ill, or be set upon by bandits along the road…
Upon their departure, the three of them had taken stock of the money they’d earned during their time at school. They had mainly taken jobs for the sake of training and improving their rank at the guild, but since all of those jobs had been escorting the daughters of powerful nobles and wealthy merchants, they had earned a decent amount, which they had divided up into three, each taking their share.
Marcela had deposited hers into an individual account at the Hunters’ Guild, Monika had put hers into an account at the Merchants’ Guild, and Aureana had sent all of hers back to her family in the country, which meant that the only money present in their previously emptied party account was that which Morena had prepared for them.
Along their journeys, all of their income and expenses would go through this party account. For individual needs, all three of them would withdraw the same amount at the same time, as needed. Whenever one of them needed money, everyone would receive the same share of funds.
Their imperial guard wages would be deposited weekly into Monika and Marcela’s individual accounts, while Aureana’s would be sent back to her family. This put Aureana at greater ease, knowing that the debt she owed to her family would be paid.
Should any of them fall along the road, or go missing, their families were sure to receive a decent amount of condolence pay, as well as the final reward for their daughter’s service, and Aureana’s obligation to repay her scholarship would be annulled. In addition, their families would know of their honor, that they had died in the line of duty, offering up their own lives to protect that of Her Highness. If they could at least leave money and honor behind, it might be easier for their families to accept the loss of a daughter.
The night was still young.
Even after dawn broke, they would continue walking until the afternoon.
After that, they would find an inn early.
They had waited for this day for a year and eight long months: the day when they finally set out on their adventure to find their dear friend Adele.
Their hearts churned with such emotion that merely half a day of walking was not enough to quell them.
“We’re finally doing this.”
“After so long.”
“Yes, finally…”
“Let’s go!”
“Yeah!”
***
“I wanted to go, too! Ugh! It’s not fair not fair not fair not fair not fair ! I wanted to go with them!!!”
A girl lay alone in bed, gripping her sheets in suffering.
“It’s so nice for them. They get to go off on a fun adventure. Meanwhile, once everyone finds out about this plan, Mother and Father, my brothers, the ministers and guards, and everyone else who went along with getting those three into the new guard squad are all going to scold me! Then, they’re totally going to ground me, and cut my allowance, and make me study more! This isn’t fair! I totally got the short end of the stick here! This is absurd!!!” Morena wailed.
In truth, she had known all this when she went along with the Trio’s plans, so she was really in no position to complain. She had known the risks of crossing this bridge but had proceeded in the hope of one day seeing Marcela and Adele as her two sisters-in-law.
Now, she just had to wait for the results.
Knowing this, the third princess, Morena, passed her peaceful half a day until all their schemes were uncovered.
She had no idea the extent of the betrayal the Wonder Trio were planning…
***
“This is the capital of Tils, where Miss Adele is actively registered as a hunter. Let us head to the guildhall at once.”
“Yea—all right!” Monika and Aureana began to give their usual reply and then swiftly corrected themselves.
During their time as hunters, they had practiced a number of customary hunter-like phrases. In front of opponents with any sort of awareness, it was important to act the same way toward everyone, regardless of party leadership status, so that the enemy would not guess who was in charge, never using honorific speech toward any employers save for royals or other nobles, and so forth…
People like Mile and Marcela of course could not help this, speaking politely to everyone always. However, for both of them, this could be written off as a personal idiosyncrasy and ignored.
Reina, however, was perhaps a little too brusque. She really ought to have been a bit more thoughtful in her speech.
Ding-a-ling!
As that oh-so-familiar standard issue Hunters’ Guild doorbell rang, all eyes in the room focused on the doorway. Then, everyone gave the newcomers a once over and…did not return to what they had been doing previously.
Silence fell across the room.
It was three children of around twelve or thirteen, all girls.
In fact, there were a number of all-female parties in this city, owing to the influence of a certain stand-out party… Much to the chagrin of those young men who wished to cajole female hunters into their own groups.
So, it was not unusual to see a party of all girls here.
However, a party like this, in which all the girls were underage, and there were only three members, all of whom were mages, with no vanguard whatsoever—this simply would not do. It was bad enough that they had already put together such a quantity of gear. Clearly, this meant that they were not registering as hunters now, but that they had already registered and were actively working.
On top of all that, they were unfamiliar faces, which meant that they had come from another town… Just three children, all alone!
This could only mean one thing.
“We’re the Wonder Trio, off on a training journey.”
“We knew it!!!!!”
Everyone in the building let out the exclamation they had been holding back.
Really, this was probably inevitable…
A group of all girls, few in number. Magic specialists, with no vanguard. The hunters and guild staff in this city had an inkling of where one might be inspired to form just such a party… Far too much of an inkling, actually.
They were all thinking:
If there were even two, or worse, three parties like this, I don’t think I could take it!!!
In fact, the Wonder Trio were even worse than those other girls.
There were only three of them—all mages, with no vanguard. Not even one member who could be thought of as an adult. They were three children, complete amateurs, not one amongst them who could be thought of as shrewd or bold and black-hearted. One girl seemed to be a noble, or at least come from wealth, but the other two, no matter how you looked at them, were nothing but commoners, their movements and carriage making clear that they were total rookies and would never last long in any battle, martial or magical.
They’re gonna die! They’re gonna die right away! Or else be tricked in two seconds and sold off into slavery!!!
The assembled crowd could not help but come to this conclusion. These girls seemed like such huge suckers that no one was even of the mind to try and trick them or prey upon them themselves.
A deep, profound silence spread throughout the building.
“Okay! Let’s go and check out the job board,” said Marcela.
“Yes, ma’am!” the other two cheerfully replied and followed her to the board.
Here they had forgotten to give their more hunter-ly reply, but well, that was no big deal at this point.
The three then looked hard at the job board.
Unlike Adele, the members of the Wonder Trio were not idiots. And so, they were plenty aware that they were unusually young for C-rank hunters, that both their numbers and job balance were quite poor, and that any hunters and guild staff who did not know them would look strangely upon them, without hesitating to pick a fight. So, the atmosphere that arose upon their arrival at the guild did not surprise them too much. Or at least, they could accept the awkward silence…
I wonder how long they’re going to stay like that… the three thought.
Still, they were a little shaken at just how dramatic the response had been.
The three of them had departed from the capital of Brandel in the middle of the night and headed straight for the capital of Tils. Naturally, during their last visit, they had gotten Adele to reveal the name of the town where she was registered. And of course, after leaving the palace, they had hurried right there, not stopping to do any hunter work, only walking and sleeping at inns in town—rinse and repeat.
Along the way they had stopped in a larger town to purchase garb and armor more appropriate for mage-hunters, in the hope of at least not giving off the air of being total amateurs. The starting money that Morena had provided them with was plenty for this.
Their matching daggers were a bit superfluous, but it was not strange for them to have them on hand in place of knives, or as an emergency melee weapon. Plus, they could just say they were charming souvenirs of them pooling together their money when they first formed the party and all purchased the matching set together.
Truth be told, those daggers were engraved with the seal of the imperial guard, and each girl carried a letter of duty regarding their mission to search for their fellow countrywoman, signed personally by the royal family (read: Morena). However, short of extenuating circumstances, they did not intend to reveal these to anyone.
If they were to do so, it would no doubt become a Big Deal, and moreover, it would mean the possibility of revealing their current location to Princess Morena.
Their main weapons, of course, were the staves, which had been billed to Morena as a necessary expense.
And so, despite the fact that they were a completely normal rookie party—albeit one whose membership was on the young side, with not enough people and poor job balance—the atmosphere in the guildhall was rather egregiously awkward, so the three of them continued gazing at the job board, not daring to turn around…
Oy. Are there any bad jobs left on there?
No, all of the high difficulty ones have been taken. There are no red mark jobs like rock lizard hunting or wyvern extermination left, either. There are no particularly difficult or dubious jobs left there that a C-rank party could take.
Good!
So went the surreptitious conversation between the guild employees.
“There’s nothing here…”
“Yep, no good jobs here.”
“Guess we’ll just do some dailies?”
Their main goal was to meet up with Adele. Then, after working together for a bit, they would travel together. This was far too close to their homeland, after all.
However, since they did not need to search around for information on Adele’s whereabouts, there was only one thing to do: wait until they met up naturally.
The chances of running into her on the first try, stopping in at the guild at such a strange point in the day, were quite low. Plus, for a group of strange hunters to show up and immediately start sniffing around for other hunters would raise suspicions with the locals, which would be sure to get them into a conflict.
They could ask the guild staff about her, but whether by some secret code or unspoken agreement, the staff would not share any information about other hunters. Asking about her would just put them unnecessarily on guard. And so, the Wonder Trio would take on monster exterminating jobs, which they needed more practice at anyway, and wait until they could encounter her by chance.
It might be days before they saw her, but they had waited nearly two years to get to this point, so a few days more was nothing to them. In the meantime, they thought it might not be bad for them to try out killing orcs, something they had yet to do.
So far, their only real hunting experience was goblins and kobolds and jackalopes, each of which they had only done a few times and always in tandem with other parties. Really, it was a bit embarrassing for a C-rank party.
That said, they were still nervous about hunting down orcs with just the three of them, as they had never done so before. Typically, going up against a power-type opponent with no front line was as good as suicide… Typically .
“…Oh?”
Marcela, whose vision was rather sharp owing to her wide eyes, noticed a group of five young men around their late teens, who had been loitering near the job board for some time… Or, more importantly, she noticed the job card that one of them was holding.
“Excuse me, could I take a look at that?”
“O-of-of-of course!”
The boy, about sixteen or seventeen, stiffened up nervously and quickly shoved the card Marcela’s way.
It was rather pitiful to assume such an attitude toward a girl so much younger, but considering that she was also a beautiful girl who had the whole guild’s attention and a “high-class” aura suggesting nobility, he really had no choice but to hand the card over unconditionally. She had the sort of soft, elegant grace that was not to be found among the girls he grew up with, plus she was smiling at him as she made her request.
“I knew it. This is a request for harvesting orc parts. I thought I noticed the word ‘orc’ on there. What do you gentlemen think? Would you accept this job together with us? We are just starting out and don’t have any experience with orc hunting. Naturally, we’d be learning on the job from you, so we wouldn’t require any of the pay. Yes, as long as you just allow us to take as many of the parts as we can carry, that should be enough.”
With only three of them, even if they felled an orc, they would just be able to carry back a small portion of the parts (meat, etc.) with them. The same likely went for the young men. There was no way that only five or so men could carry an entire orc back out of the forest. In other words, letting the Wonder Trio take some of the parts would be no loss of profits for them. On the contrary, having three mages on hand could prove quite useful, in terms of enjoying increased battle strength, not worrying about drinking water and cooking fire, and having healers if anyone was hurt. Any party would kill to have just one mage in their group.
And… and …they were all beautiful girls.
“Gladly!!!” the men all shouted.
Who could have expected any other reply?
Those lucky bastards…
All of the other young hunters glared jealously.
Even if you guys die, you can’t let harm come to a single hair on those girls’ heads!!!
The glares of the senior hunters and guild staff were like daggers, but this was probably to be expected.
With all eyes in the guild on them, the Wonder Trio and the party of young men, the Crane’s Spray, sat down at a table for a little meet and greet.
“We’re the Crane’s Spray, C-rank party. Though, we actually just became C-ranks. We’ve got a heavy tank, a light tank, a swordsman, a lancer, and an archer-slash-light tank, so we were really thinking it would be good for us to have a mage, too…” said the party leader, looking greedily at the Wonder Trio. He should have suspected that his desire was half in vain, for it was likely the Trio were only stopping in town amidst their training journey and would not be staying forever.
However, this was not some provincial city but the royal capital of Tils. It was not fully out of the question for these girls to decide to make this place their headquarters. Additionally, it was clear that they could not continue on as a party of just three mages forever. They would either have to combine with another party or else split up and join other parties individually. There were more than enough parties that would be happy to have a mage, after all.
And there was not any reason that the party in question couldn’t be them, the Crane’s Spray. Not any reason in the slightest.
“We’re the Wonder Trio, also recent C-ranks. We skipped to D-rank at registration thanks to our magical ability and earned our points specializing in acting as secret bodyguards for young noble ladies, so our only experience fighting monsters is hunting kobolds and goblins and jackalopes a few times alongside other parties,” Marcela explained.
“Ah…”
At this, the Crane’s Spray seemed to grasp the situation. The other hunters and guild staff who were listening in also nodded, coming to the same conclusion…
After only a beat, a roar of anger echoed throughout the guild.
“IF YOU GO OUT ON A JOURNEY LIKE THAT, YOU’RE GOING TO END UP DEEEEEAAAAD!!!”
***
“Honestly, what were you all thinking? And why would the guild master from your registered branch let you go out like this?! Don’t tell me you left without telling anyone!”
The staff had quickly called the guild master, who, after hearing the situation, had immediately called the Trio to his office. Now, he was delivering them a thorough chewing out.
“And how the heck did you get to C-rank after only killing kobolds and goblins a few times?! You are all barely even old enough! What the heck?!”
Hearing this, the members of the Wonder Trio were at a loss. Here they were in a discussion with a guild master who seemed to have no compunctions about using slightly threatening language, not long after they had just barely scraped their way past the minimum age requirement for a C-rank. Combined with the fact that they had made their way to a D-rank via the skip system already… Even with the special ability required for a skip, seeing anyone rise to a C-rank that quickly was something that simply did not happen, except in cases like theirs, of those who attended a prep school.
Of course, there was some precedent at this guild branch because of Mile, but that was only due to the fact that this country had the prep school in place. The situations were not comparable.
However, the Wonder Trio had Aureana. There was no way that Aureana would have failed to predict such a situation and prepared a countermeasure.
“Here,” she said, drawing something from a hidden pocket in her backpack and handing it to the guild master. What she handed him was…
“Th-this is…”
Proof positive that all members of the Wonder Trio were of C-rank, penned by the guild master of the capital guild branch of the kingdom of Brandel. It had the guild master’s signature and the guild branch’s stamp. If they had forged this, it would be an incredibly grave offense.
This served not only as proof of their rank, but furthermore, it bore the reasoning behind it, namely that they had racked up an immense number of contribution points, thanks to all the important work they had done for nobles and other wealthy families, along with the fact that they were indispensable when it came to serving as secret bodyguards—proof enough that the guild master here had no right to complain.
Incidentally, upon leaving the country, the Trio hadn’t reported to the guild master or asked permission. There was no reason for them to do so. They were on a special mission for the third princess, as members of the first special ops unit of the All-Female Elite Imperial Guard Squad. They were under no obligation to report to the guild master just for the sake of appearances nor to seek anyone’s permission. This proof was something that they had received previously, for the sake of justifying themselves to other hunters who did not know them, who they might encounter along the road. Knowing that strangers might try to start something with them, they had requested it… Though, if anyone had been sent out right away from the palace to search for them, presenting it here might get them in trouble.
However, there was no reason for them to tell the guild master here anything he did not need to know.
“I see… That’s what’s going on… So you’re a proud and proper C-rank party, off on a journey… N-no, you’re gonna die! You’re definitely gonna diiiie!!!”
Indeed, the certificate made it clear that these girls were a “C-rank party specializing in escorting, whose battle specialty was gaining a momentary pause from their opponents based on their appearances, and had only battled a few times against minor monsters, never anything larger.” This was an important point, so it bore repeating.
In other words, this certificate as good as stated that the Wonder Trio had almost no combat ability.
“For the time being, you all are not permitted to take on any jobs outside of odd jobs, gathering, and exterminating small groups of minor monsters!”
“ Whaaaat? ! ”
The girls were suddenly faced with an absurd decree from the guild master. Never mind the money, at this rate, they would never gain any skill or experience.
“This is tyranny! A guild master has no such authority—”
“We do. In the event that an idiot hunter attempts to recklessly take a job beyond their own abilities, we have the right to refuse them. Even if you all were to appeal my decision, with your track record, I have no doubt that the staff committee of the guild branch and any tribunal of this country’s guild masters would back me up.”
“Guh…”
It was a total defeat.
This was the Wonder Trio’s greatest flaw, and the reason that they thought they should do something about it right away. However, if they were to be forbidden, then their case was hopeless.
“Please don’t think badly of me. Guild masters are given this authority simply to prevent inexperienced young hunters from dying a pointless death. This is for all of your sakes! Don’t look at me like that…”
Marcela attempted to give the guild master her fiercest glare, but it only came off as adorable, and so had no impact.
Marcela and Monika racked their brains for some kind of rebuttal, while Aureana thought nothing… Or rather, she had already finished thinking.
“In that case, I suppose there’s nothing we can do about it. Let’s forget about that job,” Aureana said plainly.
“Huh?” asked the other two, confused.
The guild master thought to himself, At least one of them gets it. Hopefully the other two will come around soon.
However, despite Aureana’s mild, soft, and prudent appearance, she was ferocious when it came to a battle of words and could cut down a man with a single sentence…all while looking thoroughly poised.
“So, we’ll have to just keep taking daily goblin hunting and normal gathering requests. That way, we don’t have to get them approved beforehand, and when we’re done, all we have to do is turn in the spoils for selling. It might just so happen that we encounter some orcs or ogres along the way while we’re searching for goblins, and perhaps we’ll have to fight them for self-defense and maybe even end up with some parts to turn in, but that will have nothing to do with the daily requests we’ll be taking.
“And if any of us are gravely injured when we’re attacked by those orcs or ogres, and the staff and hunters at the branch we registered with back home ask why this happened, we’ll just have to explain to them that the guild master forbade us from pairing up with a party with a vanguard specialty to accept C-rank jobs, so there was nothing else we could do, and—”
“Enough already!”
And that was how the guild master ended up red in the face, raging at a young girl…
***
“Well, that was easy.”
“I-I suppose so…”
“Ahaha!”
Aureana was grinning, but the other two looked back at her with slight twitches at the edges of their smiles.
T-to think Miss Aureana had such power…
I knew it.
Aureana was typically very mild, but when angered, her words were a veritable flamethrower. Although she delivered her speech with her usual mild look on her face, any opponent she faced would perish, both socially, emotionally, and in many other ways…
“Oh, h-how did it go?”
The members of the Crane’s Spray approached the girls as they descended from the second floor of the hall. The other hunters piqued their ears as well, curious about the results.
“There are no problems. We recognized that we don’t have much real combat experience, and that completing any extermination jobs on our own without a vanguard would be difficult, so we requested to join forces with you all, who have a complete vanguard. Everyone is a beginner at the start. That said, if you prevent someone from doing things simply because they are a beginner, then they will never advance. Once we explained that, the guild master understood.”
This was a bit of an embellishment, of course, but really, any embellishment that allowed the guild master to preserve his dignity was one that he could not complain about.
The members of the Crane’s Spray accepted this explanation. Naturally, the other hunters seemed to accept it as well. That was, except for some of the old-timers and staff, who knew that there was no way that the guild master would have easily accepted such an explanation from a group of little girls. There was no way he’d want his branch to be responsible for the deaths of children and so would likely deny them such a dangerous job, urging them instead to go on to the next town…
Of course, the guild master was not a bad person. He merely did not wish to be connected with the deaths of young girls—not to mention having it be known that these deaths were caused by a job that his branch had allowed said children to take. It was not an unreasonable motivation.
“Anyway, that’s what happened, so everything is fine. Can we still carry on as per our earlier discussion?” asked Marcela.
“Of course!!!”
Thus, the joint orc extermination—or rather, the orc harvest, since that was really where the money was—was underway.
***
“Ah, dang it!” cried the light tank of the Crane’s Spray, as he fumbled his canteen while trying to take a drink, spilling the contents everywhere.
“Let me see that. Pure Water! All right, there you go.”
In an instant, Monika had refilled the canteen with cold, delicious water.
“Oww! Crap, I twisted my ankle…”
“May I take a look at that? Soft tissue structural repair, Heal! I think that should do it, but if anything feels off, please let me know—I’ll heal it again. If I just got rid of the ache you might exacerbate it, so I won’t be deadening your sense of pain.”
“S-sure, thanks,” said the archer.
“Think nothing of it. You are my fellow ally on this job,” Marcela replied with a smile.
“Ah, stop! Please don’t move!” said Aureana to the swordsman. Everyone else stopped along with him.
Then, she stepped in front of him and crouched down, carefully picking a single plant stalk.
“This is a really rare medicinal herb. It’s the sort of thing you don’t easily find, even if you set out to do so, and moreover, it’s one that you’d certainly overlook if you weren’t looking out for it. It’s difficult to distinguish from most weeds. Just selling this one stalk should earn us enough to pay for everyone’s dinner when this is through.”
“Whaaaaat?!”
Even though the Wonder Trio did not drink, this still constituted quite a bit of money for a rookie C-rank hunter. And to think, if Aureana had not said something, the young man would have trampled all over it.
“I think it’s about time we stopped for lunch,” suggested Marcela, as the Trio’s party leader.
The heavy tank who was the leader of the Spray nodded. This was the sort of decision that could be made between two party leaders without stopping to ask every single member’s opinion. It was really just a formality to even confirm such a suggestion as this, which no one could object to in the first place.
“Now then—”
“Earth magic, build us a stove!”
While Monika constructed a stove, Aureana collected fallen branches, and…
“Liquid removal!”
…piled the now magically dried wood into the stove, as Marcela…
“Ignite!”
…lit the fire.
During this time, Monika pulled something from her backpack and spread it out.
It was…
“A paper?” asked the members of the Crane’s Spray.
Indeed, it was a folded-up paper. When Monika opened it, it folded out into a sort of shallow dish, which she then placed into a piece of mesh that was perfectly fitted to the dish’s shape, filled with a bit of water, and placed gently on the stove.
“I-It’s gonna burn!” the heavy tank shouted, but despite being warmed right over the flames, the dish showed no signs of immolation.
Monika then put some more water into the dish, with some soup base, dried vegetables, and jerky.
“Why isn’t it burning? Magic? Does it have some kind of protective magic?”
“I’ve never heard of any magic like that! Plus, could someone keep doing magic the whole time they’re cooking?”
“No way!!!”
Indeed, such a thing was impossible.
“Huh? This is just normal paper. Though it is slightly more water-resistant than usual… That way it doesn’t burn. A friend of ours taught us this trick—apparently it’s what they do back in her hometown. It’s a priceless skill and saves you from carrying around a big heavy pot!” Aureana replied in a chipper tone.
Truthfully, this was a trick that Adele had picked up in her previous life, on a visit to a traditional Japanese restaurant with her family, and Aureana had learned it from Adele.
Mages and girls are amazing! the members of the Crane’s Spray exclaimed deep down within their hearts—though of course, neither every mage, nor every girl, was as amazing and handy as these three.
Soon, they returned to their orc hunting. Not long after…
“Orcs ahead, three of them! They’re about eighty meters to the right oblique,” Marcela said softly.
“How do you know that?!?!”
“Oh…”
The secret knowledge they learned from Adele was shared between only the three of them, as were the techniques they had developed based on this knowledge. This was another one of the things they had learned from Adele directly… However, despite them having joined up with other parties a number of times before for practice, this was the first time they were not moving through the forest alone, and Marcela had accidentally slipped.
I’m in no place to behave like Miss Adele… I am nothing like her, nothing at all! I just need to give a normal explanation…
And so, Marcela muttered:
“…That’s a family secret.”
Three orcs would not be too challenging of opponents for a veteran C-rank party, but it was a heavy burden for a group of hunters only barely C-rank. They could manage if they had several members who could take out an enemy in a single hit, but had they the power to rip through an orc’s thick meat and hide with that kind of speed, they would have become C-ranks long ago.
This meant, in essence, that they did not possess such power. In a melee encounter, where they would have to swing multiple times, cutting away at the orc’s strength bit by bit, one swing of an orc’s arm would be enough to send them flying. If they were lucky, they would be seriously injured. If not, they would die on the spot.
“Let’s retreat. We might be able to face one, or maybe even two, but with three we’ll be attacked before we can take them down. If we were lucky, maybe only a couple of us would take serious wounds, but there’s a risk of all being wiped out. It’s bad enough with us guys, but if we create a situation where you girls get hurt, we’ll definitely be regretting it later. Not that we’d hesitate to take responsibility!”
The leader of the Crane’s Spray made a firm, sensible decision. He was not the type to do something reckless just to show off in front of a group of girls. He was apparently a levelheaded, sincere person. At the end there, he had let on a bit more of his ulterior motives, but that was easily ignored.
However…
“No. We will be fine. As long as you all can deal with the first two, we should not have any issues. Melee combat is not our strong suit, but we’re fairly confident in our attack spells.”
Sure enough, if the Crane’s Spray were alone, two orcs would probably be their limit. However, this time they had three mages. Even if they were not particularly powerful, with all three of them firing spells at once, they could greatly lessen the orcs’ attack power. They did not necessarily need to kill them with the spells. If they could block the orcs’ view, or temporarily halt them, or deliver light wounds, that would be enough. Defeating three orcs at 70% power each was far easier than two orcs at 100%. While they had three C-rank mages here with them, they ought to at least go for this much.
“Okay,” the leader of the Crane’s Spray decided after a moment of thought. “Let’s do this!”
At his words, the Wonder Trio grinned.
The joint party slowly approached the orcs. Until…
“Would you mind letting us attack first? It won’t be very good practice for us if we just stand behind and watch the rest of you attack,” asked Marcela, pressing her hands together in petition, staff tucked under her wrist.
This was no issue for the Spray. There was really no reason not to let the mages have a head start in ranged combat. The job of the vanguard was to make sure that the enemy never got past them, in order to protect the back line from the enemies who were hurt and enraged by the mages’ and archers’ attacks. The mages were the secondary line of attack, as well as support units. The archers were more versatile, able to draw a short sword in order to defend the other archers or mages, or else join in with the front line.
Up until the present, without any mages, the Spray’s battle formation had been fairly tight. Thus, the pressure was on for them as well, not wanting to pass up this key opportunity to fight alongside a mage unit.
“Of course,” the leader readily accepted. “We’ll be sure not to let them through, so you all just relax and focus on your attacks. After you land the first strike, we’ll head in. Iktor, you use your judgment on where to go. Sound good?”
The archer, given his usual direction, nodded firmly.
A few minutes later…
“There they are! Three orcs, all adults!” said the heavy tank who had taken the lead, in a soft, sharp voice, gesturing.
It seemed that the hunters were downwind of these orcs, and their presence had not yet been noticed. The members of the Crane’s Spray slipped swiftly into attack formation and moved a bit closer…
“If we get any closer than this, the chance of us being discovered will go up immensely. Can you all attack from here?” asked the leader of the Crane’s Spray. The three members of the Wonder Trio silently nodded.
Then, they nodded at each other, and—
“Soil Spear!”
“Ice Nail!”
“Water Cutter!”
“Huh?!?!”
The mages had been given the first chance to act so that they could cast their spells, and yet they had fired them off with only a single nod of the head, not even an incantation.
Monika’s spell was the Soil Spear.
In order to create a spear out of rock where there was none, one would need to transform the dirt into rock, or else have rocks transferred there from some other place; to give such specific directions to the nanomachines in the midst of battle via “unconscious thought pulse” would be a tall order. If instead, she were to think a pointlessly concrete direction, such as “form a rock spear out of nothing,” the hurdle would be even higher. Thus, using the materials already present, not overthinking the parts one did not know much about and instead requesting something like, “a sturdy spear made of earth,” would elicit a far more effective response from the nanomachines.
Aureana, meanwhile, just before casting her spell, had opened the lid of the canteen at her waist.
Water magic, typically, would require creating water from nothing, which was less than effective. However, by opening her canteen and consciously directing that its water be used, Aureana was omitting the first step. If the water was already there, forming an ice spear was easy. With her chosen spell, Ice Nail, the water in her canteen would be plenty to create several icy spears. Indeed, this was a special art that Aureana, who was relatively weaker at magic compared to the other two, had thought hard to come up with, one that would save on both resources and magical power.
The Water Cutter that Marcela had used was nearly identical to the one Pauline used some time ago to cut the shackles of the people who had been captured by the beastfolk. They had both learned this technique from Mile (Adele), so this made sense. Rather than striking with large, wide streams of water, it was a cutting-type spell, made of thin, high-pressure streams, with emery—or rather, garnet—mixed in as an abrading agent, to make the cutting power far more effective.
All three spells struck around the same time.
Ka-shunk!
Psh psh psh psh psh!
Shiiing!
“Gwruaaahhh!!”
“Wha…?”
Without even time to scream, one orc took an earthen spear to somewhere around the heart and collapsed upon the ground.
In an instant, another orc fell silently, its head sliced cleanly off. Even if it had tried to cry out, there was nothing left of it from the neck up, so this would have been futile.
The third orc took a mass of icy nails to the face, which left both of its eyes destroyed. This one was the only orc to scream, flailing wildly, but however much sharper its senses of smell and hearing might be than a human’s, with its sight now completely ruined, there would be nothing it could accomplish amidst the pain and chaos.
The members of the Crane’s Spray fell silent, dumbfounded.
“Finish it!” Aureana shrilly commanded, bringing the boys back to their senses, and they fell upon this free lunch she had provided them.
If they could not at least manage this much perfectly, they were as good as worthless, the Crane’s Spray thought, and so despite the simplicity of the task of finishing off this already-disabled opponent, they all took it very seriously, with the five of them—the archer with his short sword included—launching an all-out attack.
It was an overwhelming victory.
***
On the road home, silence hung heavy over the Crane’s Spray. So much so that their loquaciousness on the way out seemed as though it had never happened.
Still, the leader thought he had to ask, finally opening his mouth.
“Umm, so…you all said that you had hardly any experience fighting monsters…”
“Well, that’s true! We’d only hunted goblins twice, kobolds once, and jackalopes three times, alongside other parties,” said Marcela.
“Actually, it was only twice with the jackalopes,” Aureana corrected.
The boys were silent again.
“But those spells…”
Even if they did not have a resident mage of their own, the members of the Crane’s Spray were not totally ignorant about mages and magic. You never knew when a group of bandits encountered on an escort mission might have some disgraced mage amongst their number, so they had studied up plenty on the abilities of mages and practiced fighting against them.
Which meant that they knew, based on the speed, accuracy, and power of the spells that the three had used, that there was no doubt Aureana had purposefully chosen a less powerful spell purely out of consideration for them—so that they would not totally lose their chance to act. Indeed, to blind the orc and render it powerless while still leaving the body mostly intact was more than likely a courtesy to the Crane’s Spray so that they could say that they had felled at least one of the orcs. The party was fairly sure of this.
In reality, Aureana was not the strongest of mages and had fought in her preferred style of winning with technique instead of power.
“Well, just because someone is lacking in experience does not mean they are weak, does it? We have done plenty of theoretical learning and target practice, as well as thorough research on the characteristics and weak points of monsters, in preparation for just such a day as this. Yes, ever since the day we pledged we would set out to find that girl…”
Behind Marcela’s smile, her eyes burned with a strong will.
At this, the Crane’s Spray knew that there would be no chance of ever getting these girls to give up their journey and settle down alongside them, no matter how many invitations they might extend.
They also knew that the magic those girls had used was likely only a fraction of their full power. Even if those orcs had in fact been ogres, there would probably have been little difference in the results. And if those opponents had been human, then…
“U-um, you girls, er… Uh, never mind…”
The boy began to ask if they were familiar with another particularly unusual party but thought better of it. That party had formed out of the Hunters’ Prep School here in Tils and was rumored to include both nobles and merchants, with all the members differing in age. There was no way such people would have had any interaction with a party of rookies who had come from another country.
Still, these are pretty frightening times we live in…
Perhaps it was only because the members of the Crane’s Spray were laden with as much valuable orc meat as they could carry that their feet dragged so. Or at least, that was what they would have liked to believe.
As for the Wonder Trio…
“Th-this is heavy!”
“That’s because you got so ahead of yourself in loading it all up, Lady Marcela! I told you to take less.”
“B-but, unlike your family, who are relatively prosperous, my family was quite poor! You do know that, don’t you, Miss Monika? One just can’t shake that impoverished mindset!”
Now, where did that leave Aureana—a true child of poverty, a thoroughbred pauper, from a long and proud lineage of impoverishment—if the daughter of nobility was calling herself poor?
***
“What?! They wiped out three orcs? Are you serious?!”
“Do you really think we would purposely lie to a guild master?”
“…Sorry.”
After the job completion was processed and the Wonder Trio left, the Crane’s Spray reported to the guild master.
These were rather rude words for young men who had so kindly gone out of their way to give this report, the guild master realized, and offered a sincere apology.
Naturally, the members of the Crane’s Spray had invited the girls out to dinner with them after the job, but the Wonder Trio had refused, saying, “If we go all out celebrating every time we earn any little bit of money, we’ll never accumulate any!”
“Anyway, you’re saying their magic is on par with B-ranks? And there’s three of them… But they said they were only just promoted to C-rank! And that they had hardly any actual battle experience.”
“They were bizarrely fast and could use powerful, accurate silent-cast spells. As for their coordination—they had perfect timing and no redundancy, without even discussing it beforehand. They were cool and collected. They didn’t falter or hesitate… Even if we’d been fighting against ogres, I think the result would have probably been the same. Do you think that when they applied for their skip request, the person who tested them just hesitated to make three young girls with no experience immediately into C-ranks? And that’s why they registered as D-ranks?
“Plus, there’s the fact that, as they told us, they spent two or three years as just high-status children, racking up enough contribution points to barely clear the minimum age requirement, and then managed to rank up with hardly any monster combat experience… You know, a dragon starts out strong, even before it’s ever fought anyone.”
“Wha…?”
When they first registered as hunters.
In other words, they were already strong to begin with. As strong as B-ranks…
The fact that they had hardly any combat experience was irrelevant. Even without the experience, they were plenty strong…
They had merely thought that since this was their first time, they ought to ally with a vanguard party just in case. Even though they were fairly certain they could easily take down an orc or ogre.
“Haha! Ahahahahaha! I guess it really was none of my business… All I did was annoy them and hurt their feelings.”
The guild master slumped gloomily, finally grasping the situation.
“How was I supposed to know that?! How can there be two parties of such monstrous girls?!?!”
***
For the next week, the Wonder Trio spent their days on short missions, exterminating orcs and ogres. Until…
“We still haven’t run into Miss Adele!”
“Indeed, we’ve stopped in during all the usual job acceptance, completion report, and material turn-in times, the times when people are usually socializing, and even when the place has been completely empty…”
“We’ve checked out all the inns that she would probably choose to stay at, too.”
“I wonder if she’s away from town on some long-term job?”
They had assumed they would run into her straight away, but they had yet to see her. Though they had hoped to come across her naturally, the girls were now growing a bit impatient. As excited as they were to see her again, there were limits to their ability to wait.
In light of this, Marcela made a decision.
“Let’s ask the clerk!”
Aureana and Monika nodded in agreement.
“Um, so we heard about an all-female party that works in this city—the Crimson Vow?”
Oh, here it comes…
“Yes, they are registered to this branch,” the clerk replied cheerfully, not seeming at all surprised. Indeed, the clerk had half-expected that such an inquiry might come sooner or later.
There were only so many absurdly talented C-rank parties consisting of just a few young girls around. It could not be mere chance that two such parties would appear in the same place at the same time.
They were cut from the same mold. They had to be allies or at least connected.
It was no surprise that one might assume this.
And so, it was truly more surprising that such a question or topic of conversation had not been raised before. That said, the staff had refrained from asking about the connection themselves, meaning that it remained only a fervent topic of discussion behind closed doors.
“Where are they right now?”
Normally, the clerk would not go blabbing about other hunters’ whereabouts, let alone that of a group of young girls. However, the ones who had asked were also a group of young girls—moreover, ones who could be assumed to share some connection with the party. The clerk felt comfortable speaking freely.
It was not particularly interesting information, and she was not divulging their exact whereabouts, so there was nothing really wrong with it, she likely assumed. Any other guild employee would have probably made the same decision.
“The Crimson Vow, like the Wonder Trio, is currently away on a training journey. We aren’t certain when they will return.”
“Whaaaat?!” the Trio screamed, aghast.
“Did they not finish their westward journey and return back home?”
Indeed, they had stopped in at the girl’s dormitory at Eckland Academy on both their way out and way back from their travel to the west. By now, one would assume they would have returned to this city, their base of operations. It was unlikely they would head right back out on a journey again, after just returning from one…
A rookie C-rank party’s journey of self-improvement was a wild and wonderful journey with no itinerary, which could take anywhere from six months to several years. In addition, the number of parties that never returned from such a journey was by no means few. They might find a new town that they liked, relocate, and transfer their registration there. They might achieve something great and be scouted by another guild branch. One of them might fall in love with a local and take up residence. Or they might have to retire from hunting altogether, due to illness, injury, or some other event.
Sometimes, they even lost their lives.
There was no way that Adele would perish that easily. However…
“Lower cognitive levels, abandon all common sense! ‘Thoughtlessness’ times five!”
Marcela gripped Monika and Aureana’s hands, incanting a peculiar spell. And then…
“Super Adele Simulator!!!”
The guild staff and hunters stood speechless at this bizarre ritual.
And then…
“They went the opposite way, to the east! They likely intend to return here, but if anyone meets a nice man, they’ll stay there!”
“I agree with this conclusion!”
“Likewise!”
All three were in agreement.
“Let’s go! Wonder Trio, roll out!”
“All right!!”
And so the three of them hurried out of the hunters’ guild branch in the capital of Tils.
“What was that?”
“………”
There was not a single person present who could answer that question.
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