Chapter 123
The Port City
“WHAT IN THE blazes?!?!?!”
Based on their ages, appearance, and the fact that they were applying as new hunters, at least half of those assembled had assumed that the girls were total rookies, utter greenhorns. Of course, these were the onlookers who had not taken stock of the wear and tear on the girls’ weapons and armor, or how well their gear was fitted to their bodies, not to mention the way the girls carried themselves and how they surveyed their environment—in other words, those who were below average. Sadly, this accounted for half of the hunters as well.
I knew it, thought the clerk sourly. She had been well aware that the four girls she had just attended to were anything but amateurs. Registering as a new hunter didn’t mean someone was lacking in battle experience. Hunters could be former mercenaries, soldiers, or pupils of sword masters; fallen nobles and those
from knightly families; as well as frontiersmen from the farthest, most desolate reaches of the land, who had battled every day to survive in places where monsters ran rampant.
And so, while most of the hunters and staff were oblivious, the clerk, who had spoken directly to the girls, observed them up close, and processed their application forms, knew for certain that they must have had some prior experience. The fact that they were only registering now must have meant that they had previously been operating in an area where there was no guild branch, or that they had come from some distant land which had no association with the regional Hunters’ Guild, or else that they had worked in some other profession, like as mercenaries or personal bodyguards for merchants.
Yet even though the clerk could tell these girls must have experience battling monsters, it was still a revelation to discover they had storage magic powerful enough to store a several-hundred-kilogram orc whole. Only one in every however many people could even use storage magic, and among those, only an incalculably small proportion could carry more than a hundred kilograms. Why in the world would an attractive young girl with such a rare ability aspire to be a hunter, of all things?
She could be making bank at a large mercantile firm. She could be adopted by a noble—or better yet, secure a favorable appointment at the palace. If she played her cards right, she might even be given the title of baroness. And this was by no means an exaggeration.
She could carry a whole wagon’s worth of cargo on a single horse, at high speed. She could smuggle as many goods as she liked. Even in the event of a surprise tax inspection, she could hide any materials or funds in the blink of an eye. That was not even to consider the extraordinary number of potential military applications of a talent like hers. She would have to be out of her right mind to want to be a rookie hunter!
That said, everyone had their own story. Here at the Hunters’ Guild, prying into such matters was highly taboo.
Surely, she has some reason to pursue this route, thought the clerk. It was impossible that she simply didn’t know her own worth. Of this the clerk was certain.
Then, she heard the girl chirp, “Okay! Time to finally begin my life as an average, everyday, normal rookie hunter!”
Gah! The clerk reflexively stood, screaming internally. There was still time before the girls’ badges would be complete. A number of letters had to be engraved on metal plates, so this wasn’t the sort of task that could be completed in mere minutes. Plus, there were four badges to make.
“Cover me for a minute!” the clerk called to a coworker who had been doing some paperwork behind her. She dashed away, the other staffer taking over her position without thinking too much of it. It wasn’t uncommon for the counter clerk to need coverage for a few minutes. The only thing that was unusual about this circumstance was that the clerk was running not to the restroom but to the guild master’s office…
***
“So…why are we here?” Mavis asked suspiciously once they were led to the guild master’s office, before even being urged to sit. Her confusion was, of course, warranted. They’d merely tried to register as hunters and been suddenly dragged to see the guild master for their trouble. It was like being called to the principal’s office on your first day of school.
“………”
The man before them had a rugged physique. Across his left eye stretched a scar so massive it was almost cliché—a gash that made one wonder how his whole eyeball hadn’t been torn out. If healing magic had been applied in order to save his eye, surely the mage in question could have healed the wound cleanly enough to avoid such a blemish.
Did he leave that scar on purpose? the girls wondered. That said…
It’s super cool!!! Apparently, even Pauline and Reina were starting to be infected by Mavis and Mile’s way of thinking.
At any rate, the guild master was a burly, tough-looking character, most certainly a vanguard fighter—not a rider or shortsword user but someone whose strength was brute force. He would clearly be a heavy fighter, perhaps even someone who wielded an axe. His presence spoke to his obviously lengthy battle experience—to put it another way, he had a face that would make babies cry and send women running away shrieking if they encountered him alone at night. Any weak-willed newbie would be quaking in their boots right about now.
Thankfully, the members of the Crimson Vow were made of stern stuff. Not to mention the fact that they had dealt with similar situations approximately a million times before.
Ignoring Mavis’s question, the guild master looked the young hunters up and down. He neither greeted them nor invited them to sit.
The members of the Crimson Vow only stared back fixedly, equally silent. There was no need for them to say anything. The guild staff were the ones who had called them here, so it was up to them to start the conversation. Mavis had already gone out of her way to offer him an opening. She may have been slightly brusque in her tone, but under the circumstances, her attitude felt justified. Guild master or no, the girls were not going to simply bow their heads and tolerate such unfounded rudeness.
Plus, they had yet to receive both their badges and the payment for the orc, which was still under inspection. This meant the Vow were technically not “hunters” at the moment, and therefore not under the guild master’s jurisdiction. If he met them with blame or some wild demands, they’d just leave without their badges and make their way to another town to register there. If the guild found fault with them before they had even finished their registration, that was reason enough to call their applications null and void.
Surely, if a party of four innocent young girls were to register at another branch and tell the staff there that something strange had happened when they attempted to register in this town, people would be inclined to sympathize with them. Any conclusions people might draw would look quite bad for this guild master, and much better for the Crimson Vow.
More time passed, and the guild master still did not speak. Finally, Reina broke the silence. “Okay, never mind. We’re going home. Apparently, this guild master likes to bully and toy with rookies for his own amusement, so this is no place for us to settle down. Let’s cancel our room reservation and head on to the next town. We’ll register there.”
“All right,” the other three agreed, swiftly moving to leave behind the office and the slack-jawed guild master and clerk.
“W-wait! Wait just a minute!” the guild master called frantically, apparently having finally returned to his senses. His panic was natural. Misunderstandings were sure to abound if these four went to another town and explained that he had coerced a group of rookie girls into coming up to his office. Plus, there was an even greater issue at hand…
If word gets out that I let someone who can use such a crazy amount of storage magic slip through my fingers, I’ll be the laughingstock of the other guild masters! Or worse—since our lord will certainly be very unhappy if I scare off someone who might bring immense profit to our city. Not to mention what it would do to my standing within the guild if these girls were to abandon any notion of becoming hunters in favor of some other profession…
“Wait!” he called again. “I’m sorry! Please, please just wait!!!”
The guild master pelted after them double time.
***
“I am sorry. I’m very, truly sorry!”
The guild master caught up with the girls partway down the stairs, bowing his head and imploring them to return to his office. He then called for a subordinate, directing them to bring up some of the guild’s finest tea and a tray of sweets. Finally, he ordered others to make it their highest priority to finish up the party’s registration badges.
Of course, finishing the badges didn’t prevent the girls from resigning from the guild at any time. Even if someone were to try to prevent them from leaving by arguing that they had already registered or telling them that they could not up and leave so soon after joining the guild, no one could force them to operate as hunters. If they did not take on any jobs, their registrations would expire in just a few months and they would be automatically expelled from the guild. Plus, no one could say a word if they fulfilled only the minimum requirement to stay on as hunters, simply turning in a few jackalopes once every few months—a token affiliation at best.
Meanwhile, it was in the guild’s best interest that the girls reach C-rank as quickly as humanly possible. Then, they could be conscripted in the event of a sudden monster stampede or other emergency. The fact that they could carry supplies and medicine with the utmost speed to places where wagons could not go meant that they quite literally held the lives of not only many hunters but also many townspeople in their hands.
The girls didn’t need to continue working in this town because they’d registered here. Once the registration process was done, they could leave as quickly as they desired. And yet, the guild master had acted as he had, either because he doubted the clerk’s report or because he was wary of whoever might have sent these girls into his jurisdiction. Or perhaps he had simply hoped to put them in their place, overwhelming them with his presence from the outset so that they knew who was boss.
If they were as skilled as the clerk said that they were, this was a seller’s market for them. They could relocate whenever and wherever they wanted. The guild master might have thought that, if he could establish his authority before they realized how much they were worth, he might be able to exert his influence in order to keep them local.
According to the clerk, their speech patterns and intonation were a little bit odd, which meant it was almost certain that they were a group of country bumpkins, having just made their way to civilization from some remote locale. Manipulating impressionable young ladies such as these should have been easier than taking candy from a baby. Particularly if you were a battle-hardened veteran…
Of course, the guild master had no idea who he was up against. The members of the Crimson Vow were well aware of their own abilities and value. They were giving this town no more than cursory consideration as a potential place to dwell. If the townsfolk or the guild here got carried away and tried to take advantage of them, they would have no qualms about moving on without a backward glance—the only reasonable course of action for someone who knew their own worth.
“Well,” Reina finally said, “since you’ve apologized, I suppose we can at least have a conversation.”
“O-oh good! Wonderful! You see, we don’t get many people coming here to register as new hunters. Factor in all the folks who retire, or get injured or die, and our situation is getting pretty dire. So, when we get new hopefuls coming in, it really hurts to let them go… I was sort of hoping to figure out whether or not you really did have potential. I mean, think about it from my perspective. A party of four beauties, all with experience fighting monsters, and with a high-capacity storage magic user, to boot? Are you kidding me? How could I possibly believe that a party like that was trying to register as rookies way out here?”
When the girls did not immediately respond, the guild master was certain that the members of the Crimson Vow must understand where he was coming from. In fact, they were feeling a bit bashful. They were accustomed to being treated as oddities, not to receiving straightforward compliments—particularly someone calling them “beauties.” That said, this did considerably improve their opinion of him, so the guild master had been quite fortunate in his choice of wording. He was even luckier that all four girls realized this was a sincere assessment rather than an attempt at flattery with manipulation in mind.
“W-well,” said Reina, “I suppose that does put things into perspective…” As ever, she was the easy mark.
“Yes,” said Pauline. “I suppose we can keep this to ourselves, as a favor.” She would never promise to outright “forget” about such an incident, nor assure him that it was water under the bridge.
“While I do understand all that,” added Mavis, “what I can’t wrap my mind around is why you would go out of your way to pick a fight with four people you had just met. Why would you purposely make a bad first impression and then keep digging yourself deeper into that hole?”
Unlike the other two, Mavis adopted a polite tone that acknowledged the man’s status as guild master, even as she questioned his tactics. That was a party leader for you—or maybe, more accurately, the combined result of her personality and her noble upbringing.
“Uh…” The guild master found himself at a loss, at which point the clerk interjected helpfully.
“It’s because our guild master is an idiot with brawn for brains!”
“Oh!”
This suddenly made a great deal of sense—particularly when the clerk explained further.
The position of guild master wasn’t one a fool should hold, which was why a member of the clerical staff was typically appointed to the role. But in this case, the clerk told them, there had been no suitable candidate from that pool. This man, who had worked to earn a reputation as a top-ranking hunter and was loved and respected by everyone, had gotten the promotion instead. He was not especially smart, but he looked out for his juniors, and he was skilled. He didn’t have much interest in the administrative side of things, but he allowed himself to be pushed into the role, certain that others would help with the more intellectual parts of the job. And indeed, he listened dutifully and without complaint even to scathing feedback from his subordinates, who didn’t hesitate to point out his mistakes in harsh language.
It was all part of the arrangement the guild had settled on. When there was an external party to apologize to, as in this situation, someone from the guild master’s side of the issue was well within their rights to speak frankly to him, even if he was technically their boss.
***
“Anyway, the point is that our hunter numbers have been steadily decreasing…”
Once things had calmed down a bit, the guild master explained a bit more about the current situation with the hunters in the area. Talking directly to the guild master got them more reliable intel than they would from other hunters they might treat to a drink—hunters who would say anything to make themselves sound good. Realizing this, the girls made sure to exploit this moment of weakness, knowing that they had stumbled on a golden opportunity.
According to what the guild master told them, the local hunters were taking far greater losses from monsters than the members of the Crimson Vow would expect. The environment sounded more or less typical when it came to fighting against bandits. The results of such human-on-human conflict formed the expected scatter plot, decided by individual differences in strength and ability.
When it came to monsters, however, the local hunters were clearly sustaining far more damage than was normal, no matter what type of job was involved. Hunters were taking injuries severe enough to jeopardize not just their ability to make a living but even to survive as a party at all. They were regularly losing their armor or weapons, being forced to consume expensive medicine, and even losing party members to injury or death.
Risk management was a necessary skill set for all hunters. This was even truer for the lowest-ranked hunters, who were weak and unable to bring in much cash. Stronger hunters made more coin. Their gear broke less often and they took fewer injuries, requiring them to use fewer medical supplies in turn. The weak, however…
If they left the profession early, they’d never have a chance to get stronger. Hunters who should have been building endurance over time, building up the experience that would someday make them veterans, were retiring or even perishing while they were still in their salad days.
This was a serious threat to the longevity of the Hunters’ Guild. It meant there were fewer able fighters available to keep monster populations under control, and when the plants and animals they fed on vanished as the monsters’ numbers rose, stampedes could occur… It was a grave situation.
“Is it because the hunters are weak? Or because the monsters are strong?” Reina didn’t hesitate to get down to brass tacks. What she wanted to know, but did not say, was how the hunters and monsters here compared to those on the continent where the Crimson Vow had started. Of course, the guild master was unaware of this, and, thus, was not sure what to make of her question.
“Reina, you can’t answer a relative question without some kind of baseline,” said Mile. “When a battle is won or lost, you can only tell if it’s because of the strength of the winners or the weakness of the losers if you know what a typical level of strength is.”
“I suppose that’s true.” Reina politely withdrew. “Anyway…”
“Time for a trial!”
A trial, in this case, meant that the Crimson Vow would try their hand against an enemy, thereby assessing their mettle in battle. They would not fight with their full strength so much as test the waters—though that did not mean they might not change their minds midway and rain down their full fury if the occasion required it. They couldn’t know what their enemy was capable of until they fought them.
“So,” Reina asked, “which are we fighting? Monsters or people?”
“W-wait a minute now—” the guild master started.
“Oh, no,” Mavis assured him. “She just means that we’ll either take on some daily tasks and fight the monsters in the area, or we’ll ask around for someone who’s free to spar with us on the guild’s training grounds. We aren’t going to attack or kill anyone. Though I wonder if anyone will be up to the challenge…”
They knew very well there would be. There were those who would love to smack down a rookie and show them just how tough this profession could be. That wasn’t to mention those who might hope to cozy up to a party of all girls or the childish hunters who would want to show off their own strength by wiping the floor with a group of newbies. At any rate, the Crimson Vow certainly would not hurt for sparring partners…to start. Chances were high that by the second round, there’d be few who wished to go up against them. So, given that this experiment might end after a single battle, they had to be certain to pick someone as close to the baseline strength as possible for their first match. To that end…
“Do you think you could pick someone suitable for us?” Reina asked flippantly.
The guild master hesitated. The fact that these girls had storage magic was proof of their value but not of their combat prowess. One of their two frontliners was clearly underage, slightly built and lightweight. Any heavy attacks would blow her away in an instant. The two mages, skilled or not, could only offer paper-thin defenses against any enemy attack. Though they wore the thick fabrics most mages did, they lacked other armor.
It made sense, when you thought about it. Here were four young and beautiful girls, a couple of them still underage, with phenomenal storage magic at their disposal. That was more than enough. If they were skilled at offense or defense on top of all that, they’d already be B-rank or darlings of the guild branch in the capital—perhaps even employed by the palace or a lord or wealthy merchant.
In other words, they would never have come to such a backwater—much less be trying to register here—by mistake. The storage magic alone was enough to settle it. Even if they were total bumpkins who had somehow avoided registering at the guild until now, there was no way every last adult in their village was an ignorant fool. Every village, no matter how small, had to pay their taxes. This meant correspondence with either a tax collector or some other functionary in the capital of their fief, where their taxes—or rather, wheat—would be sent. There would have been someone with at least a little knowledge of how the world worked in the girls’ lives.
Of course, there was no real value in such speculation. Still, it did make it exceedingly unlikely that these girls were particularly skilled in either offense or defense. The guild master may have been an idiot, but this was one logical conclusion he could arrive at.
And so, he was worried. All they wanted to do was gauge the strength of the average local monster or hunter, relative to where they had come from. Perhaps an average individual would be the best choice—a middle-of-the road C-ranker, your quintessential hunter. Or perhaps he should pit them against someone of their own level, so they could understand what sort of position they would be occupying around here?
“Hrmm…” The guild master was still pondering over this when the receptionist chimed in.
“We’ll choose a mid-grade C-rank hunter!” she declared, her tone clipped.
“Uh…” The guild master was puzzled.
“A beginner is not a good basis for comparison, as they all start out with different levels of skill, depending on their background. Plus, these four clearly have some experience with combat. There’s no point in pitting them against beginners. The stronger C-rankers can vary widely in skill, so they might be strong enough to make the comparison worthless as well. Our only choice is to pair them with a mid-tier C-ranker, whose skill levels tend to be more consistent. That way, they can gauge their abilities against that of a more or less typical run-of-the-mill hunter from this area. Plus, individuals of that level know how to hold back, so there’s no risk of someone getting gravely injured.”
This clerk truly was the ideal backup for the muscle-brained guild master. Even the members of Crimson Vow found themselves gazing at her in admiration. Though, of course, they were the ones who were going to have to hold themselves back.
“I see…” said the guild master. “Let’s do it, then.” He was well aware of his own mental shortcomings and happy to follow along with any logical suggestion that his subordinates put forward. All in all, he was a good and reasonable boss.
***
The Crimson Vow now found themselves in the guildhall courtyard, awaiting a signal from the guild master to mark the beginning of the mock battle. The assembled group comprised the Crimson Vow, the guild master, the clerk and other guild employees, and the four-man C-rank party who had been selected as their opponents for the bout, as well as a crowd of deeply curious hunters who had opted to observe the fight.
The guild staffers were there for compulsory observation. They would be dealing with the Crimson Vow a great deal from here on out, so it was important to learn their faces, as well as gauge each member’s skill so as to avoid foisting any impossible quests on them. With this in mind, the majority of them had abandoned their usual posts to gather in the yard.
The hunters, meanwhile, had a variety of reasons for being present. Some were simply bored, while others were information-gathering to help them get closer to these attractive young ladies. Still others were scheming to use the girls’ storage magic to earn more coin on joint assignments.
Today was merely a trial, not a serious battle, so no one had come here with the intent of making wagers. Of course, even if they had, no one would have bet on the Crimson Vow—which would have been a mistake, financially speaking.
The guild master had repeatedly cautioned the Crimson Vow’s opponents that they were by no means to harm these little girls. He even went so far as to say that, should it look as though any of the girls were to be injured, one of the C-rankers should step in to take the blow for them—however, given the difference in strength everyone anticipated, it should not come to that. They would be fighting with unsharpened practice swords, so as long as they didn’t swing particularly hard, any blows they landed shouldn’t do real harm. The girls were wearing armor, after all.
Plus, the C-rankers would be sure to hold back. Though they would not ease up on their speed, they would not be putting much force into their swings. While the battle might cause some light bruising, that was nothing that a little healing magic could not fix. The hunters could be measured and composed. This was the goal for them, and the reason they had been selected.
“Okay, to your positions… Ready?” asked the guild master.
The members of the Crimson Vow and their opponents all nodded firmly. The guild master was quite skilled as a referee—indeed, he’d grown more alert and efficient the moment he was able to escape his office for more physical work. He’d be able to shut the battle down the moment he judged that the situation had turned dangerous, and he wielded a sturdy dulled blade for this precise purpose.
“Ready! Set! Fight!”
This was only a mock battle, so it was not the end of the world if the match was not decided in a single round. Still, the men who had been selected as the Crimson Vow’s opponents believed it their duty to teach these young upstarts the strength of a real C-rank hunter, lest they mislead these sweet and lovely young rookies. This was one hundred percent a matter of honor. They had no ulterior motives at all.
And so, they made their first decisive moves, ready to go all out from the start.
Whoosh!
The frontliners moved abruptly into action. The midline fighter, a lancer, readied his spear. The mage in the rear began a high-speed incantation.
The two swordsmen aimed straight for the Vow’s vanguard. They planned to take out the two frontliners in a single go, after which they could finish off the rearguard mages with their two swords, an attack spell with its output lowered to almost zero, and the spear.
At least, that was the plan.
Instead, the two members of the vanguard sunk to the ground, having caught tempered blows to the flank. Then, the other two members of the party were caught by the dampened magical attack. Their opponents’ strength was soon abundantly clear—at least to the hunters fighting them.
“WHAT IN THE BLAZES WAS THAT?!?!?!”
For the umpteenth time, a familiar scene played out yet again.
The guild clerk’s voice was hollow as she whispered from her place on the sidelines. “I knew it…”
The faces of the men they had just bested were frozen in a silent, stunned rictus. As mid-range C-rank hunters, they were fairly confident in their abilities. And yet, they had just been essentially slaughtered by a group of young, female rookies in front of all the guild staff and many other hunters. It wouldn’t be surprising if their spirits had been broken beyond hope of recovery.
“So, what do we think?” asked Mavis.
“They’re normal,” said Pauline.
“Super normal,” Reina agreed.
“I’m still not convinced,” said Mile. “Should we go again?”
After a hushed discussion, the Crimson Vow took their positions, ready to begin another round. Naturally, the men were not going to reject the opportunity to redeem themselves in a rematch.
“I guess we got sloppy,” said their leader. “These girls are a bit better than we figured. This time, let’s do this seriously. No holding back. Attack pattern six, boys—no letting your guards down. Got it?”
“All right!!!”
With that, the C-rankers readied themselves once more.
Again, the guild master gave the signal. “Ready! Set! Fight!”
Shing! Shing! Crack! Bwoosh!
Shunk! Shing! Crack!
Boom!
Ka-boosh! Pyoom!
Blades clashed and were deflected. Though the sparring swords they used had dulled edges, they were still made of metal—and yet, they cracked under the force of the Crimson Vow’s blows. At the same time, the girls effortlessly intercepted the attacks of their opponents’ mage, allowing just a few spells to get through—only to also deflect those just before they struck, rendering them powerless.
The men were still and speechless once more, and the spectators were equally dumbstruck.
“WHAT IN THE HELL WAS THAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!”
Again came the usual shouts. These capable C-rank hunters had just been annihilated. Anyone who could do that should have been an upper C-rank, close enough to scrape the edge of a B-rank. This should never have been possible for four rookie girls in their teens—even more so considering that half of them were underage (for most assumed that Reina was young enough to be in this number).
The gears in the guild staff and hunters’ minds were turning so swiftly one could almost see smoke coming out of their ears.
Were these girls spies from an enemy nation? Impossible—they stood out way too much to be undercover!
Had they been trained from a young age, having come from a line of knights or famous mages? Four young girls, all of them beautiful? What were the odds of that?!
Or perhaps, did they come from some absurd, improbable backwater, or some wild and magical land? No, they were dressed properly, in gear well fitted to their bodies, their looks and their movements refined, almost like nobles…
They were young, lovely, well groomed, and their battle prowess was as notable as their appearances. And yet, they somehow knew nothing of the world.
Those assembled could draw only one conclusion.
Everyone patted their fists into their palms. Yes, there could be but one explanation:
“They’re elves!”
“We are not!!!”
A typical human would have been flattered—honored even—to be mistaken for an elf. After all, they were all beautiful, eternally young, and far stronger than they appeared to be. Not so for Mile, who had been told too many times how much she “smelled” of other races…
***
After that, the Crimson Vow fought against several other parties who wished to try their luck, kindly preserving the honor of the first party from total annihilation. Not that the members of the Crimson Vow were concerned about anyone’s reputation—they merely continued battling anyone who would face them for the sake of gathering information. A larger dataset made for more accurate inferences. Still, they did vindicate the first party in the process.
“So, what did you think?” asked the guild master, once the Crimson Vow had returned with him to his office.
“They were normal,” said Mile.
“Pretty normal,” said Mavis.
“Normal,” said Pauline.
“Very normal,” agreed Reina.
The guild master was lost for words. The same was true for the clerk, who had once again joined them, perhaps worried what might occur if the guild master were to handle this alone.
They were silent because the events of the day had confirmed some things for them. These girls were fully aware of their own strength. They were incredibly strong, even for wherever they came from. And as they had already insisted, they were not elves. They probably weren’t even dwarves or some other race but actually normal humans.
“S-so you’re saying that the hunters here are about as skilled as the hunters wherever you came from?” asked the guild master, collecting himself.
“That’s correct. I don’t think the average level of strength is any different. The hunter ranks here do keep going up from C, right? To B, A, and then S?” Mile asked, just to be sure.
“Y-yeah, S-rank just means higher than A-rank. And there’s nothing higher than that,” the guild master confirmed. Apparently, there was no SS, SSS, or EX rank on this continent, but it seemed the logic behind the rankings was more or less the same as what the Crimson Vow were used to. Was it simply the case that humans were more or less the same wherever they lived? Or maybe it was just that this place had been settled when there was still communication between both continents…
“Which means…”
“It isn’t that the hunters are weak…”
“…but that the monsters are strong.”
The guild master looked relieved to hear this. It reflected well on his own people, who were fighting hard against monsters far more powerful than those where these girls had come from. It wasn’t a matter of the local hunters being weak. Instead, they were putting up a valiant effort against monsters stronger than those in other regions. For any hunters, and for a guild master in particular, this would most certainly be a point of pride.
“Well then, I suppose we should test the monsters next,” Reina suggested.
“We can take on some dailies and work our way up, from jackalopes through orcs and ogres,” said Mavis.
“Sounds good. We’ll need to do some testing, so best to just stick to dailies, where we don’t have to worry about quotas,” Pauline chimed in.
“Agreed!” said Mile.
If they took on a standard job—as in a job posting with an individual client—there would be limits to what they could do. They’d have to hunt down specific prey to fulfill the job requirements, after all. But if they focused on daily requests, where the guild would purchase any herbs and meat from them at a fixed market price, quotas were irrelevant. They could do as they pleased, with no risk of breaching contract by failing a job.
The guild master made no move to interject here. Having seen for himself that the Crimson Vow’s skills were at least on par with high-tier C-ranks, he knew they wouldn’t be caught flat-footed by a stray ogre.
“I guess we’ll call it a day for now,” Reina concluded. “Anything else you need from us?”
“N-not really. Your badges should be done soon. I assume y’all won’t be making any plans until you find out how strong the monsters here are, so you can do what you like in the meantime. But don’t overdo it! The monsters around here might be way stronger than y’all are anticipating. Find out what you need to find out, but err on the side of caution until you’re used to fighting the monsters we’ve got in this area. Do not push yourselves and do not underestimate these beasts! Got it?”
The man was obstinate in his reminders, but the members of the Crimson Vow did not take offense. This was merely a sign of how much he worried for their safety as newcomers. In fact, they were even a little touched that he would bother to give them this warning. He might be dismissed as just a crotchety old man, but the girls gave him a proper thanks, bowing their heads respectfully as they departed.
The guild master, who had taken them for a headstrong, brusque, unmannered bunch, was surprised by their reaction. However, when he expressed this to the clerk, she made it clear she’d expected no less from the young hunters.
“Surprised?” she started. “Those four are incredibly well mannered. You can tell from their posture, their actions, their demeanor, the speed with which they respond to questions, their knowledge, their social graces… If they were harsh with you, it’s because of how you acted toward them at the start. They’ve almost certainly had to adopt a rough attitude because of all the times their ages and appearances have caused people to underestimate them. They’re all fundamentally educated, polite, and skilled in conversation. Frankly, they are so well put together that I doubt they would even pose a risk of embarrassing themselves if they were invited to a noble’s manor…”
“What?!” The guild master was flummoxed, but, of course, the guild clerk was right. Mavis and Mile were the daughters of nobles, and Pauline, coming from a merchant household, had received a fair bit of education in her upbringing—not to mention the six months all four of them had spent as countesses. Some of that time had been a living hell of governesses and lecturers who had been dispatched from the palace breathing down their necks, instilling in them the etiquette necessary to not embarrass themselves as nobles. A hell that seemed to stretch on forever…
It had been less painful for Mavis, who had received similar instruction already. Mile hadn’t suffered too much, either. Although she had only received such training until the age of eight, she was just as gifted in her powers of comprehension and recollection as she was in her physical might and sense of balance. Yet Reina, though she had much self-taught knowledge, had never received a formal education, and Pauline had limited physical strength and shoddy reflexes to work with. For those two, it was a nightmare—particularly when it came to dancing and other refined movements. Ensuring that the four of them could dance was an urgent matter indeed, considering how many parties they were sure to be invited to with dance floors onto which they might be beckoned by princes and other members of the upper crust.
At any rate, etiquette was not an area in which the four of them were lacking—though the clerk was just as impressive for being able to guess all of this at a glance.
***
“Oh, so this is what a hunter’s badge looks like,” said Mile, watching the badge she had just collected from the reception desk glitter in the light. The other hunters watched over her fondly. Most rookies reacted the exact same way when first receiving their badges.
The Crimson Vow might have just made it clear how strong they were, but to the other hunters, Mile was still a precocious junior—a child, really.
As was the custom on their original continent, the badge hung from a chain, to be worn about one’s neck. But unlike on their original continent, these badges were made of thin metal and were round in shape, like a disc or a coin. They had probably been designed with feedback from hunters—a circle was a logical choice, as unlike a rectangle, it had no sharp corners upon which to hurt oneself.
After that, it was time for the Crimson Vow to collect their fee for the orc.
“All righty, we should be able to give ya about this much. We gave it a pretty high grade, based on how fresh it was and how cleanly the head was removed, which meant there wasn’t anything unusable. Took a few points off since we’ll have to drain and butcher it ourselves, but since this is your first payment after registration, we threw in a little extra. Sound good?”
“Sounds perfect!!!”
There was no way for them to really judge whether the amount was fair, as they had no idea what market values were here, and they hadn’t had much time to assess the value of the money itself. Still, they could tell from the price breakdown that it was unlikely there was any funny business going on here. The old man who was in charge of the purchasing had been watching their mock battle earlier, and no one would try to put something over on a party who was getting special treatment from the guild master.
Even putting that aside, there was no purchasing manager who would dare make enemies of a hunter who possessed such immense storage magic. It was a specialized profession that required a wealth of knowledge, a discerning eye for materials, and an understanding of the current market rates of everything they purchased, as well as the ability to explain said prices to any hunters who complained. A purchasing manager also had to have the willpower to resist being bullied into raising prices, as well as a slew of other abilities. It was the sort of position a B-rank hunter who had to retire early due to injury might be promoted into after working in the processing shed for a decade or so—a position for the kind of hunter who caught the eye of the guild master or head of processing.
Mile put the coins they received directly into storage, lingering after to ask the man another question. “Um, there wasn’t anything weird about that orc, was there?”
“Huh? Well, we haven’t butchered it yet, but the guys over at the shed didn’t say anything when they were checking the severed portion of the neck, the size, and the musculature. I agreed with them when I was assessing the price.”
That satisfied Mile. Clearly, there was no visible difference between the orcs the members of the Crimson Vow were used to and the ones in the area.
The girls were quiet. They had assumed that, as was the case with the monsters that had come from the other dimension, the orcs in this area would be different from those on their original continent. And so, they had speculated—or rather, fully expected—that the fellows at the processing shed, being professionals in their field, would have taken one look at their orc and said, “What the heck? Never seen one this scrawny and flabby,” or “Is this some kind of mutant runt? Don’t think we can buy this for more than half the normal price…”
“Mysteries abound, huh?” Mavis muttered openly, repeating a phrase Mile often used in her stories.
They now knew two things: The monsters here were not physically different from those they were accustomed to, and the hunters here also did not differ much in strength. So, why were hunters in this area ending up with so many more injuries? It couldn’t be their weapons. The Crimson Vow had already confirmed the strength and performance of the local hunters’ equipment by talking to several parties and asking to inspect their gear.
“Well, now that we have some funds on hand, let’s take the rest of the day to rest up at the inn. Tomorrow, we’ll do some more thorough investigation!”
“All right!!!”
To ensure they could head straight out the next day without having to stop back in at the guildhall, they went ahead and browsed the price list for daily requests, copying a map of the area and some monster distribution data, and treating senior hunters to a few drinks in exchange for a bit more conversation. With that, their preparations were complete. No matter how confident they were in their abilities, they were still newcomers to these parts, knowing nothing about the lay of the land. Gathering as much information as possible and preparing ahead of time was critical. Their strength was one thing, but this level of prudence only deepened the positive impressions the other hunters had formed of the four newcomers.
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