Chapter 98:
Mile’s Decision
“Ah!”
Suddenly finding herself standing and walking slowly toward the Wonder Trio, Mile halted, looking troubled.
“Ah! We were so close! Only a hair’s breadth away…” Marcela muttered, pouting. “All right then, one final push! Miss Adele! We were thinking, since our party is nothing but backline mages, perhaps we might go out to recruit one more member for the vanguard. What do you think of, say, a nice cat-type beast girl?”
As expected, Marcela knew every one of Mile’s weak points.
“Yeeeeeeah!!!”
Mile then practically ran over to Marcela’s side…or not.
The Trio would never actually do something like this. Their bond relied on the strong mutual trust they had formed as classmates and as dear friends. They were never going to invite some stranger into their group simply for the sake of luring Mile in with the promise of a catgirl.
Perhaps Marcela had just meant this as a joke. Or maybe would say anything to sway Mile to her side… Either way, hearing such an uncharacteristic proposal from Marcela actually brought Mile back to her senses. This was, seemingly, a grave mistake on Marcela’s part. Because she knew Mile so very well, she had gotten carried away.
“But you just said yourselves that unlike Reina and the others, who wanted to be hunters in the first place, you all had no intention of continuing to work as hunters without me, didn’t you? Hunting is a dangerous job. You could lose your life to jobs that seem easy or be betrayed by your employers… Do you really think I would be able to bear it if my friends, who have a safe and happy road ahead of them, chose a more dangerous path just for my sake? What if something happened to you?!” Mile asked seriously, her expression suddenly severe.
Marcela scrambled to formulate a reply.
“Th-that’s not… We decided to be hunters of our own free will, just like the Crimson Vow! It’s not as though you forced us into this! Besides, in a few years we’ll go back home, and we’ll all seek out proper marriage prospects. In five years, we’ll be eighteen, and even in ten years, we’ll only be twenty-three, so we’ll save up our money until then and rise to B-ranks. We’ll be able to say that we toiled tirelessly for years to bring you back home on Her Highness’s orders, so our reputations will be sterling, and we won’t have any trouble finding anyone…”
Toward the end of this speech, her voice began to weaken—and not at the thought of the three of them hunting for partners in marriage.
“Huh?”
Mile peered at her dubiously.
“What was that about bringing me back on home on Her Highness’s orders?”
“Ah…”
The faces of the Wonder Trio shared a single expression. Crap .
Mile stared silently at them. The three stared silently back.
At first, Mile had assumed that the three of them had fled the country just to meet her and been relieved to hear that they had gotten permission to set out on this journey so that they would be able to return easily when their journey was done. Unlike her, the three of them had families, expectations to live up to, and futures for themselves. And so she had been impressed, particularly with Marcela and Aureana, for arranging it so that their departure would not cause troubles for them in the future. (While Monika, as the daughter of a merchant, was fairly sharp, Mile had judged that she probably would not have been particularly useful when it came to plotting this particularly stratagem.)
Mile had been relieved to know that it would be fine for her friends to return back home.
But now it seemed there was something fishy going on…
“Bring me back home? On Her Highness’s orders?”
Crap, crap, crap!!!
The Trio began to panic. All the expression had drained from Mile’s face. They knew exactly what this meant: Mile had shifted into anger mode… jumping right to stage 2.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Did we not mention that?” asked Marcela with a fake smile, sweat dotting her temples.
“This is the first I’m hearing of this!”
“G-goodness, is that so?”
“YOUUU NEVER MENTIONED THAAAT!!!”
“Gyaaaaah!!!”
A short while later…
“There! That’s the whole story,” Marcela said in tears.
“…I see. So you want to bring me back home…”
Clearly, Mile was still peeved.
“And then hand me over to the royal family.”
“Th-that’s not it! This was only an excuse so that we could journey on our own for a few years. Politics will require the royals to get engaged, so the crown prince, who is already getting on in age, will likely be betrothed sooner rather than later, with the second prince following a few years after. As soon as that’s decided, we should be safe. Of course, normally a royal marriage would be something that only your parents or family could stop you from refusing, but your case isn’t normal, Miss Adele…”
“Wh-what’s that supposed to mean?!” said Mile, protesting at the implication that she was “not normal” somehow.
“N-no, it’s just that, you don’t have any parents, and you yourself are the head of your family, so there’s no one to force you to do anything that you don’t wish to do,” Marcela quickly explained.
“Ah, I see…”
Th-that was close!
Marcela, this time having managed to prevent Mile from escalating to the next stage of anger, breathed a sigh of relief.
“So what does all this talk about His Highness’s first wife and second wife and lover and such have to do with me?”
“ Wh…? ”
Had she even been listening this entire time?
Both the Wonder Trio and the Crimson Vow were utterly floored at Mile’s complete naivete. Apparently, she had never once considered the possibility of becoming a prince’s bride herself. Mile had clearly imagined that the royal family and other nobles were only after her for the sake of her abilities and her supposed connections with the Goddess—that they might hope to keep her as some sort of caged bird in the name of protection. Of course, this was the same sort of logic that had brought Marcela to the conclusion that the princes would only ever be interested in her as not even a secondary wife, but some sort of concubine.
It was true that Mile was nothing but a paltry viscountess, with no support whatsoever, and Marcela the third daughter of an impoverished baron. Neither of them was of the standing that would normally be invited to marry into the royal family, so it probably was not wrong of them to assume this.
But that was under normal circumstances.
Now’s our chance!
Reina was not about to let this opportunity slip through her fingers. The flow of conversation had been interrupted as everyone paused to marvel at Mile’s total lack of insight, which meant this was her time to strike. Mile was wary of the Trio, so Reina was ready to make her play!
“Mile, have you forgotten the vow you made with us? The one we all swore to each other, that our friendship was unbreakable?!”
A shot to the heart! Reina thought, huffing triumphantly. However, before Mile could reply, Marcela launched a counterattack.
“Oh, but according to what you said last night, didn’t that vow include something like, ‘Even if our paths should one day part?’ In other words, it won’t matter even if life takes you in different directions?”
“Ah…”
This could be a fatal blow to the Crimson Vow!
Indeed, Marcela’s interpretation was correct. Reina, Mavis, and Pauline grumbled, but they had no good comebacks. Then, Pauline said…
“Could the same not be said of you all? Now that the wonderful days you spent together at the academy are over, shouldn’t you now walk your own separate paths, always carrying that precious friendship inside your hearts? Can you not see how it might be unfair to those companions who walk your new path by your side, if you abandon the road that lies ahead of you just to go chasing after a friend who has gone a different way?”
“Ah…”
A piercing blow back to the Wonder Trio!
It was a marathon match, carrying on until both sides were spitting blood, an endless battle where all their spirits were being steadily worn bare, with nothing to show for it…
Seeing this, Mile stepped in to mediate.
“Please, stop fighting over me!”
“GIVE IT UUUPPP!!!!” retorted the other six, in the same peculiar accent Mile sometimes employed.
Finally, they had reached a consensus on something.
“Anyway, we aren’t the ones who will be deciding this. It’s up to you, Miss Adele. Now please, tell us clearly, which of our groups do you wish to be with?!”
It was Marcela who finally issued an ultimatum, forcing the decision on Mile. Of course, she said this with the utmost confidence that Mile would choose the Crimson Vow.
And then…
“I’m sorry,” Mile turned to the Trio, her head hung, a look of regret upon her face.
The three fell silent. A short while passed without any words. Moments like these always felt like an eternity, just a handful of seconds stretching out into infinity. Such moments were always far, far too long…
“Well, I figured as much,” Marcela shrugged.
“Huh?” chorused Mile, along with the other members of the Crimson Vow.
“It’s fine, I get it. You’ve given a million and one reasons why you should not accompany us, Miss Adele, but not a single reason why you should not be with the Crimson Vow. Plus, I cannot imagine you making any other choice, if you’re considering our futures along with your own,” said Marcela with a grin. “I can understand that. It’s because you’re that sort of person that we became friends with you in the first place. You always put other people’s needs above your own. If there was only one piece of bread left, you would lie and say you had already eaten, and give it all to someone else. That is how ridiculously kind you are, which is why we… Wh-why…w…”
Marcela sniffled loudly, before finally beginning to cry, Monika and Aureana following right behind her.
“Wahaaaaa…”
Mile, now sobbing as well, embraced the three, forming a teary huddle.
Reina watched the four of them uneasily, unable to even gloat about her victory, until Mavis tugged on her sleeve, and the two of them and Pauline quietly exited the room.
When Mile and the Wonder Trio appeared in the dining room for dinner, all their eyes were bleary, as though they had continued crying for some time. Regardless, they still managed to pack their stomachs full of food.
After that, at the suggestion of Reina, Mavis, and Pauline, Mile relocated to the Trio’s room.
They had booked the room for the three of them, it had four beds, and the Crimson Vow thought it considerate to at least let Mile stay with the Wonder Trio for the time that they were in town.
***
“Well then, let’s begin!” Mile announced.
The Wonder Trio nodded.
They were in the woods near the capital. It was an unpopular choice of hunting ground, which meant it was sparsely populated; thanks to its proximity to the capital, it had been overhunted, and any animals and monsters that might serve as game, as well as herbs and wild vegetables, were exceedingly rare.
What were Mile and the Trio doing here then?
“First off, let’s do a barrier for self-protection. It’s defensive magic that could protect you even from being pelted by a thousand heads of lettuce—the ‘Lettuce Power Barrier!’”
Mile had decided to impart upon the Trio some of the spells that she had developed since parting from them, which she thought might come in handy—and even possibly save their lives. Though this time, of course, she would firmly insist they kept these spells secret.
First up was the barrier. After that, she taught them several other useful spells.
Combat magic was something that they could develop on their own through extended study, so she had no intention of helping them with attack spells now. Instead, just as she had at the Academy, she focused on support spells. She had been surprised to find out that they had discovered search magic all on their own, but it turned out that because they had happened upon their own way of doing it, it was not especially efficient. So, she had taught them her active sonar system version, which was the most recent of her methods, along with the PPI (Plan Position Indicator) scope version. In truth, given that they did not share Mile’s knowledge of the modern technologies that had inspired these spells, the fact that they could come up with anything even remotely close was admirable. She also taught them the PPI method so that they could utilize it when they needed to focus their scans on a specific bearing or to perform a so-called sector scan. Using the best method for the situation was a mark of a pro, after all.
And also…
“Finally, I’m going to pass along to you my inventory magic. It’s a similar magic to storage magic, but it’s fundamentally a very different type of spell. Unlike storage magic, there are those who can easily use it when taught, as well as those who will never be able to do so, no matter how hard they try. Furthermore, allowing anyone else to know about this magic could have huge repercussions, so it must be kept an absolute secret—you must make others believe that it is normal storage magic and nothing more,” said Mile.
The Wonder Trio nodded sincerely.
Mile could barely think about the suffering the Trio had gone through in carrying all their own luggage or the fact that they had put up with becoming so filthy along the road. So, she had resolved to share this magic with them, too, to make up for the fact that she could not travel with them.
The Wonder Trio, surely, would never betray her. Even if they did, she would not regret sharing this magic with them. Indeed, she had thought carefully about her choice, and no matter what effect it might have in the end, she would not regret it. On the off chance something should go wrong, she could always utilize her superior authorization level to instruct the nanomachines to deny them, so it would be possible to stave off disaster. These were Mile’s thoughts.
“Now, let me explain how it’s done…”
When Mile used her inventory magic, she was issuing concrete directions to the nanomachines, who would then store and extract the items—and while prompting the nanomachines to make a phenomenon into reality could be considered a type of magic in and of itself, strictly speaking, it was a bit different from standard magic. In order to successfully use an inventory in this way, it was necessary to be of a Level-3 authorization or higher, so that one could directly communicate with the nanomachines. In addition, one needed to understand collapsing the space-time continuum, such that time was not a factor, in order to be able to use an extradimensional space as a storage unit.
And so, how exactly was Mile able to convey this to the Wonder Trio?
Because she had previously laid the foundations.
As she had in the past, Mile was able to successfully run recruitment, via her “exclusive” nanomachines—the ones who always stuck by her side.
She issued her terms: Recruiting nanomachines for exclusive attachment to Marcela, Monika, and Aureana, to synchronize with their thought pulses at a high degree of affinity. Length of contract is the life spans of the three. This position entails storing and retrieving items whenever any of the three of them expresses intent to access their inventory. Furthermore, when they wish to confirm the contents of this inventory, you will project the collated list directly onto their retinas in an easy-to-read format.
Naturally, she had been flooded with applicants.
Mile had framed this as a request, but for the nanomachines, a job like this was an immense luxury. To be able to follow a particular individual for their entire life was the ideal means of staving off their boredom. The nanomachines who fulfilled this duty were to be permitted the sort of enjoyment that was otherwise impossible for their kind, so it was only natural that there should be a rush of volunteers for the position. Given how many nanomachines responded, there were many of them who had the aptitude and affinity most suitable for the role. Those individuals were chosen, and a great number appointed as the Wonder Trio’s “exclusive” nanomachines.
Already, when imparting the principles of magic upon them, Mile had explained the nanomachines to the Trio in terms comprehensible to the people of this world, calling them the “spirits of magic.” She had explained the various principles of this “storage magic” to them in a similar fashion, massaging her wording so that they would be able to convey the correct concepts to the nanomachines.
Mile also outlined clearly and concretely her expectations for the nanomachines as to how to respond to the members of the Trio when they used their inventory. In other words, a firm guideline had been established, so that even when the Trio’s thought pulses might be unclear, the magic would still operate as intended.
Taking into account…
Mile’s advance directives for the nanomachines,
The large number of nanomachines at high thought pulse affinity with the Trio, and
The detailed explanations of the inventory and the principles of magic that Mile had imparted to the Trio,
…it was possible for the Trio to use this magic for the first time ever. All three pieces were crucial here; and thus, even on the off chance that knowledge of the inventory should get out, it was implausible that anyone else would be able to use it. This ability was to be limited wholly to the Wonder Trio.
It was worth noting, too, that true storage magic was nothing more than a one-time-use sort of magic, where a person’s individual thought pulses created a small, discreet pseudo-dimensional space each time they stored something. The inventory magic, however, opened a gateway, through which items could be stored and retrieved. And so…
I don’t want to make things too complicated for you, so you don’t have to prepare three individual extradimensional planes for them. Preparing just one for all three of them to share should be fine.
Mile did not suppose that there would be very many extradimensional planes where the space-time continuum had collapsed, erasing all notions of time, just conveniently rattling around. So, she figured it would be a bit of a burden for the nanomachines to go desperately searching for three such dimensions to set aside for the use of the Trio. In reality, there were actually a fair many of them…
But the nanomachines did just as Mile directed.
And so, the Wonder Trio now understood the inventory magic. This meant that they would be able to carry around changes of clothes, soap, towels, and even washbasins and tubs with them. The three of them, who could summon water with magic as well, would now be able to preserve their clean and tidy appearances on a daily basis.
***
A week later, having spent several fun days with Mile, the Wonder Trio set off back to the Kingdom of Brandel.
They had originally departed with the expectation of journeying with Mile, in which case, braving the dangerous life of a hunter would not have been too much of a trial for them. However, without Mile, there was no point in leading such a life. Considering Mile’s position, there was no longer any reason for them not to return to Brandel—no reason for them to continue this dangerous lifestyle when they had lost their impetus for doing so.
When the Trio had announced as much, Reina suggested that they should all take a week off, with everyone doing whatever they liked during that time. Her intention had been to give Mile a week of no obligations.
That week had been packed with exciting magical lessons and practice, but now it was through, and the Trio was starting on their way home.
“As long as we have our health, one day we will meet again,” said Marcela with a soft smile.
Mile watched her friends depart, holding back tears.
They lived only the next country over. If she wished to see them, she could see them anytime…especially given Mile’s abnormal travel speed.
And with that thought, Mile was able to keep her tears in check…
***
“Are you sure you’re all right, Lady Marcela?” Monika asked, knowing the other girl had the deepest attachment to Mile of the three.
Marcela, who had been silent since they had left their friend, shook her head. “Not really…but we haven’t much choice…”
“………”
There wasn’t any choice. Knowing this was true, there was nothing the other two could say in reply.
“Plus,” Marcela added, “we’ll only have to put up with this for a few years.”
“Huh?” Monika looked confused, but Aureana did not seem especially surprised. Apparently, she could tell exactly what Marcela was thinking.
“There’s no way that the four of them will waffle around as C-ranks forever. As soon as the minimum number of years have passed, they’ll be promoted straight away. Then, once they’ve achieved their goal of reaching an A-rank, Miss Mavis will become a knight, and by then, Miss Pauline should have saved up enough money to establish her own business. In other words, the Crimson Vow will disband. Miss Reina’s wish has always been to attain A-rank as well, so she wouldn’t stand in the way of others who are simply hoping to achieve their dreams.
“Naturally, once that happens, there will no longer be any place for Miss Adele. Miss Adele, who could not possibly ever do a normal job in a normal way… By that time, I’m sure that she will have begun to feel some sense of responsibility for the lands and people that her late grandfather and all of her ancestors have looked after for so many years. In fact, I’m certain that in our conversations and correspondence we might even begin to steer her that way. So, once the Crimson Vow disbands, she will return home to us, and we can proceed according to our original plans… Yes, our wait has only been extended by a few years!”
“I-I see!”
Marcela, of course, was not the type of girl to give up easily.
“Now then, once we stop in at the guild and forward a letter, we will start on our way back home. We’ve only reported back twice, and it’s about time for us to be sending our third report. We’ll also need to meet with Her Highness in secret at an inn in the capital and compare stories so we know what to say when His Majesty takes us to task. Let’s write and tell her our estimated date of return and ask her to pop into the guild frequently to check for a letter from us with a more concrete return date.”
“That makes sense.”
“Well then…”
“Let’s roll out!!!”
And so, the Wonder Trio was on their way home, uncertain of what the future might hold for them.
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