I Said Make My Abilities Average! (LN) - Volume 18 - Chapter 128

Chapter 128:

The Inactive Request

“SO THIS IS THE VILLAGE that submitted the request…”

The day after accepting their new job, the Crimson Vow got right down to work. As they had set out first thing in the morning, they arrived at their destination just before noon.

“Okay,” said Mavis. “The request was submitted under the village’s name, and the commission is probably coming out of the community budget, so it’s safe to assume that the collective body of villagers counts as the client. Of course, the chief will probably be acting as their spokesperson.”

“Still, if it’s only a five- or six-hour walk to the port city, shouldn’t the villagers have gone in person instead of asking a peddler to deliver their request? If it were just the request form, that would be one thing, but they also had to trust him with the three-gold deposit for the commission. Isn’t that a rather hefty sum for a small farming community?”

These days, the Crimson Vow didn’t consider three gold—equivalent to 300,000 Japanese yen—to be a lot of money. But for a farming community that largely supplied its own food and necessities, it was probably no small sum. As the daughter of a merchant—or rather, as a merchant in her own right—Pauline found it odd that they would so readily put their deposit in the hands of a stranger.

Besides, why leave a request of such vital importance to the village to someone else? She was right to be asking questions. 

Yet Reina, another daughter of a merchant—or peddler, to be precise—had a different opinion. “Five to six hours by foot means ten to twelve hours round trip. Factor in the time for meals and breaks, and they’d have to stay overnight in a town for their own safety. That’s two days of adult labor lost, plus the expenses for one night’s lodging, food, and all that other stuff. Considering all this, it’s not strange at all that they’d send the request via an intermediary. If they’re trusting him with three gold coins, that peddler has got to be someone they trust—a reliable merchant who’s been coming around for years or a former resident of the village.”

“You think so?”

Back when Pauline lived with her parents, she hadn’t been deeply involved in their business. In contrast, Reina had accompanied her father on his travels as a peddler, where she had learned a great deal from sitting in on his negotiations. Cognizant of this, Pauline chose to defer to Reina’s experience. 

Hmm…

Unlike Pauline and Mavis, who seemed satisfied with Reina’s explanation, Mile was deep in thought.

It’s a five- to six-hour walk from the port city. If it’s that close, I’m sure they’ve submitted requests plenty of times before… I doubt this is the first one they’ve written since the village’s founding. If I had to guess, they make at least one request every few years. And since they’re dipping into the precious village funds to do it, one would expect the chief to drop by the guild during his trips to the port city to find out how to write a request or what the current going prices are. It’s not so far that the chief wouldn’t make the trek from time to time, whether it’s to transport wheat for the annual tax or to make a petition to his local lord…

Something about it didn’t sit right with her, but she had no hard evidence to back up her suspicions. On the surface, it was nothing more than a request from a farming community plagued by pests, and assuming there were no deliberately sinister intentions at play, it was a perfectly ordinary job for novice C-rank hunters.

Thus, Mile chose not to argue with Reina, either.

***

“Welcome to our humble village.”

The members of the Crimson Vow were talking with the leadership team in the village chief’s home. But it wasn’t going as hoped…

The chief himself was gloomy and made no effort to mask his disappointment with the hunters in front of him. The rest of the village officials in attendance were in similarly low spirits.

It was understandable, really. They had paid three gold coins for the commission, scraping the bottom of the village’s meager budget, and all they’d gotten for their trouble were four little girls no older than their own grandchildren. It was only natural that they felt disillusioned. 

But it was too late to complain now. Since no age limit or gender restriction had been specified on the request, the guild had assumed there was no problem with the party and allowed them to accept the job. If this had been an escort job, the terms of the request might have stated that the final hiring decision would depend on the results of an interview—after all, no merchant would want to hire a group liable to ditch them and run at the first sight of a monster, or someone with a countenance so villainous that they looked like an undercover bandit. Alas, the villagers had no such luck.

“I understand your concerns, but I assure you that we’re an established C-rank party. Besides, if we’re unable to complete the request, the job will be considered a failure. We won’t get paid, and your request will be passed along to the next taker.”

The village chief looked relieved at Mavis’s reassurances. The girls were used to being underestimated at first glance, so none of them were particularly offended.

“Now, I’d like to go over the specifics of the request…”

All the guild had confirmed for them was the broad strokes—basically, that no one other than the Crimson Vow was willing to undertake the quest.

According to the village chief…

“There’s a place known as the Forbidden Forest a short way from this village. Lately, the monsters that live there have been invading our village and attacking our livestock. Each time, exactly one animal is killed during the night, and its carcass is discovered the next morning. That’s a big enough problem on its own, but if this keeps up, there’s no telling when the next victim will be human. We ask that you exterminate the monsters and make our village a safe place to live. No need to bother with the jackalopes or orcs, but we want every breed of wolf completely eradicated.”

So went the story.

Jackalopes and orcs were probably excluded because the village needed them for their meat and resources. Orcs were a bit dangerous, but those were nothing compared to ogres or wolf monsters. An orc would never come all the way out to the village anyway, and occasionally taking one down would replenish the village’s food supply.

“Aww, man…” the girls whined.

The situation had turned out exactly as they’d feared.

Even when they had discussed the worst-case scenario, they hadn’t really believed it would come to pass. Imagine their surprise to discover that the village’s request really was this outrageous.

It would be a little more understandable if this request were from a malicious individual trying to trick hunters into working for free, or forcing their hired help to go to extremes by dangling a breach of contract over their heads. As a legitimate request from an entire village, though? It was downright unbelievable.

“Do you seriously expect us to exterminate every single monster in the forest? For three gold?”

“You’re out of touch with reality.”

“Go ask your local lord, jeez!”

Mile, Pauline, and Reina each had a scathing comment to make.

Mavis, for her part, laughed dryly. “I wonder how many years this is going to take… Ha ha ha…”

“You little ladies already accepted our request, so we expect you to follow through! Otherwise, we’ll consider it a breach of contract!”

“Nice try. The guild instructed us to drop the quest and come back if the details of the job were unreasonable.”

Even a softie like Mavis wasn’t about to put up with this treatment.

It was bad enough if they were the only ones getting a raw deal. But if they went along with something like this, the villagers might get it into their heads that stupider hunters could be duped into working for free if you played your cards right, or that they could tell anyone, “The party we hired last time accepted these lousy terms.” That would spell trouble for future hunters. There was no room for compromise.

“Let’s get out of here, girls!”

“Yeah!”

Everyone rose to their feet at Reina’s command.

“Very well,” said the village chief. “We’ll drop a few of the terms.”

The girls ignored him, simply walking out of the room.

“Huh? Where are you going?! Didn’t you hear me? I said I’d drop some of the terms!”

The Crimson Vow clearly weren’t of the mind to stop.

“Wait, h-hear me out…”

At that, Reina paused and looked over her shoulder. Her expression was flat. “We ask for reasonable terms, and you demand ten times more than what’s fair. We refuse, so you say, ‘Let’s meet in the middle. That’s a good compromise, isn’t it?’ Except that’s still 5.5 times above the standard. We’re not stupid enough to listen to a grifter like you.

“Rest assured, we’ll let the guild and other hunters know exactly what kind of request you made of us for three whole gold. From now on, only hunters who can appreciate what you’re looking for will bother coming out to your village—well, if such stupid hunters even exist. Heck, we only took this on because we felt bad that your request had been ignored for so long. It was supposed to be volunteer work. Who knows how long it’ll be before a party like ours comes along again?”

“………”

The village officials trembled, their faces white as sheets.

Reina turned back to the door. Her companions, who had stopped to wait for her, made to leave as well.

“St-stop! Please just hear me out!”

After pulling himself together, the village chief repeated his earlier words. However, no hunter was about to trust a client who had downplayed, disrespected, and made unreasonable demands of the party he had hired. Though he had already deposited the payment with the guild, things could get messy if he refused to sign the completion certificate. If the Crimson Vow made the facts of the case clear, they would probably be paid in full eventually, but they preferred to avoid the trouble altogether.

In which case, the simplest solution was to call off the job. Since money had yet to change hands, the cancellation would be considered the fault of the client, which would make the tedious back-and-forth with the guild that much easier for the Crimson Vow. Of course, to account for the inconvenience caused, they would still have to deduct a penalty fee and the travel expenses from the village’s deposit. Based on past cases, it was safe to say this would likely entirely deplete their funds…

The Crimson Vow wasn’t doing this out of greed. It was their duty as hunters to pocket as much money as possible to prevent this from happening again, as well as to set an example for the neighboring villages. The “deposit” that a client had to leave with the guild in advance of the job’s completion existed for precisely such situations.

If the Crimson Vow reported what had happened here, no more hunters would accept requests from this village, and the guild would never again step in to convince hunters to give them a chance. It was a common fate for villages that underestimated and disrespected both hunters and their guilds.

“Not interested,” said Reina, dismissing the chief’s pleas without a second thought. “We’ve already heard what you have to say, and it was outside the bounds of what we could deem acceptable. The negotiations are off, and you’re the ones responsible for breaking our contract. Where’s the need for further discussion?

“You planned to take advantage of us because we’re young girls. You tried to trick us and pick fights with us, and now that the conversation isn’t going your way, you think you can say, ‘I take it back!’ and get a second chance? Why the heck should we trust you? Worse, you’re still acting like you’re doing us a big favor by dropping the terms. What are you, stupid? If it were a party of tough-looking men who had accepted your request, I bet you would have offered a fairer deal in the first place.”

The chief was utterly helpless in the face of her tirade.

Really, Reina was soft for even giving him another chance to explain himself. Most people would have left without another word, save for maybe a final insult or parting shot. Only a fool would try to negotiate or talk things out with an untrustworthy grifter. And yet…

“Please, little ladies! I’m begging you!!”

All the village officials present, including the chief, got down on their hands and knees dogeza-style (okay, it was a little different from the Japanese version, but it clearly and unambiguously conveyed the same sentiment), putting the Crimson Vow in an awkward spot.

Of course, they could have just left and gone somewhere else. But while the thought did cross their minds, the Crimson Vow didn’t have it in them to walk away.

***

“Do I have this right?” asked Reina, confirming the details one last time. “You want us to hunt as many of the wolves inhabiting the forest as possible. The minimum requirement is thirty, and the leader of the pack—a white one—has to be included in that number. If we fall short of thirty because the pack is too small or a few manage to escape, the quest still counts as completed provided we defeat the alpha and eliminate the vast majority of the pack. Correct? Also, if there’s been a change in leadership and the alpha isn’t the white one, then we should kill the new alpha instead.”

The village chief nodded.

The girls would hate to have the job labeled a failure and their commission denied simply because the total number of wolves had fallen to less than thirty or because the pack had disbanded and scattered. So, Reina was careful to close any possible loopholes in the terms. There was also no guarantee that the leader of the pack was actually white. The client could be lying in order to later give the quest a failing grade on the grounds that the wolf they had described as being the alpha was not defeated.

Admittedly, whether the alpha was white or grey, letting the leader of the pack get away would spell trouble. However, it was unlikely that a wolf in that position would be among the first to run. Once Mile had set eyes on the alpha, she could mark it with her search magic, and it would be smooth sailing from there.

Yes, for all their big talk, the Crimson Vow had ended up allowing the village chief to make his case. After hearing him out, they agreed to do the quest. The request was shady enough to go inactive, and here they were, having gone out of their way to accept it. The girls never had been the sort to turn their backs on someone in need. They knew they were being pushovers, but it was what it was.

“All right, now go ahead and put that all down in writing,” Pauline instructed the village chief. She was far too cautious to blindly trust someone who had tried to swindle them once before.

If he refused, the Crimson Vow certainly wouldn’t give him another chance. With that in mind, the village chief acquiesced without a fight.

***

“Well, since they apologized and came back to us with reasonable terms, we’ve got nothing left to complain about. I wish we hadn’t had to go through all this rigamarole, but oh well…” Mavis sighed. 

After receiving a more detailed description of the Forbidden Forest from the village chief, the Crimson Vow had set out without further ado. It was later in the day than the girls would have liked, but they were better off walking until it was dark and setting up camp somewhere than spending the night with the untrustworthy chief.

And so the group was walking along the narrow paths of the village, Mavis voicing her thoughts aloud. But then…

Thump.

“Huh?” Mavis said inarticulately, startled by a sudden impact.

She had been hit by a flying pebble.

Normally, if a member of the Crimson Vow came under attack, the entire party—not just the one who’d been targeted, but the other three, too—would immediately take up a defensive stance, determine the location and number of attackers, gauge the enemy’s strength, and launch a swift counterattack. At the very least, none of them would just stand there defenseless. Let alone all of them…

In this instance, however, there was nothing else to be done. After all, the one who had thrown the stone was a child of about seven or eight.

“B-but why…?” mumbled Mavis. It was an understandable reaction. 

Hunters of mid-level C-rank and below formed the lowest rung of the profession, with a fair number of idiots and ruffians among their ranks. As young women were likely to end up on the wrong side of their shenanigans, they often resented the whole occupation. Children, however—especially orphans and country kids—rarely shared that prejudice. For them, being a hunter was a dream job that was relatively easy to get into and allowed them to get rich quick. Some kids even grew up seeing hunters saving their villages from monsters and accordingly idolized the whole profession as heroic, an inspiring line of work that only the strong could pursue.

Add to that the fact that the Crimson Vow was a party of good-looking girls who had come all the way from the port city to help a village in need, and they ought to be getting showered with thanks, if anything. Why was this child throwing stones at them? 

To make matters worse, this wasn’t a playful gesture accompanied by laughter. The pebble had been hurled with a look of hatred, and it had been meant to hurt. Since it had hit Mavis’s armor, the damage was minimal. But if it had hit an exposed body part, like her head or a limb, or if it had been aimed at Reina and Pauline, who weren’t wearing much in the way of protective gear…

Even more puzzling was that a woman—presumably the mother of the stone-throwing child—hastily scooped him up in her arms and took him inside. It was almost as if she were protecting her son from a bunch of outlaws. 

Usually, this would be the moment when a mother would scold her child and make him apologize. Yet, she had acted as if she had no problem with his behavior in and of itself, and simply wanted to distance him from the threat of retribution.

And when the members of the Crimson Vow glanced around…

Several other pairs of eyes were glaring at them with the same visceral hatred and fear. Others seemed full of hope that they would get the job done.

The crowd was clearly divided into two camps.

“………”

The girls had a hunch that the village chief was still hiding something from them.

***

“What’s going on?” Reina wondered aloud.

The Crimson Vow had left the village and were headed for the Forbidden Forest.

“Some of the villagers don’t take kindly to our presence, clearly. I’m guessing it’s more than just a handful of them,” Mavis said, her expression grim. “And that group includes children.”

“It seems like more than a feud between the villagers themselves,” said Pauline. “In that case, there would be no reason to drag their children into it—or us, for that matter! We’re just the hunters hired to slay some monsters.”

“You’d think a small village would have nothing to gain from antagonizing hunters from the guild,” Mile agreed.

The pair was right. Whatever internal quarrels the village might have, there was no reason to involve outsiders…and especially not merchants or the Hunters’ Guild. That would be detrimental to the village as a whole.

“Whatever it is, it’s not our problem,” said Reina. “We’re here to get rid of whatever is attacking precious livestock and disturbing village life. Whether it’s a monster or a wild animal, we just have to hunt it down and call it a day. Local infighting is none of our concern.”

The other members of the party nodded along. So long as a request was reasonable and didn’t entail misleading or cheating the hunter, they would proceed with good faith toward successful results. 

Just as they would return malice with retribution in kind.

That was what it meant to be a hunter.

***

“Well, here we are at the Forbidden Forest…”

Allegedly, the attacks weren’t the work of a lone, stray wolf but of a whole pack. The forest where the wolves lived wasn’t far from the village; the trip was about an hour and a half on foot. However, since the girls had left late in the day, reluctant to spend the night in the village, night would fall in the forest if they were to go in now. And so…

“Let’s camp here tonight and head into the forest tomorrow,” Reina decided.

The rest of the party nodded in agreement.

Naturally, evening was time for dinner, baths, and Mile’s Japanese folktales. There were more than ten hours between sunset and sunrise. The girls couldn’t be expected to spend that entire time sleeping.

Though the Crimson Vow had set up camp on the outskirts of the forest, the barrier they had erected to shield their sounds and scents eliminated any potential danger. Without such protections, the smell of their cooking—and perhaps more to the point, the scent of “young, soft, and delicious human females”—would have attracted monsters and wildlife in droves.

***

The next day, as soon as it was light out, the Crimson Vow set out into the Forbidden Forest.

Granted, although the sun had risen, the inside of the forest was not exactly cheery or bright. It was an old-growth forest that had never been tended, pruned, or thinned, so it was dark and gloomy even during the daytime. And since no one ever ventured inside…

Slash!

Shing!

Thwack!

“The prey here sure looks tasty,” the Crimson Vow remarked.

Indeed, the place was crawling with monsters and ordinary animals alike. Where humanoids were present, they tended to upset the ecological balance by hunting more prey than they could eat. Here, their absence had presumably allowed for a proper equilibrium between the populations of monsters and animals large and small.

“Orcs aren’t the only thing worth hunting around here. Deer, boar, and cattle all provide delectable game. Whether you’re eating them or selling them!”

Mile was right. Unlike monsters, which sprung up like weeds no matter how many you hunted, common animals like deer, boar, and cattle were delicious and often scarcer, meaning they could fetch a high price. Because they rarely attacked humanoids unprovoked, they were overhunted near human settlements. In remote areas, transportation was a hassle and often saw the meat damaged in transit, so there wasn’t much supply despite the high demand.

Luckily for the girls, Mile’s inventory meant they wouldn’t have to worry about transportation or preservation if they hunted a bunch of the local wildlife. And seeing as there were no other hunters or trappers around, the forest may as well have been the Crimson Vow’s own personal hunting ground.

“This place was practically made for… Hold on…” Mile trailed off, as if something had just occurred to her.

“What’s wrong?” asked Reina. She was always quick to notice when Mile was acting strange.

“Er, well… Isn’t this place named ‘the Forbidden Forest’?”

“Yep, sure is.”

“Doesn’t that imply that people aren’t supposed to set foot inside? Why do you figure it’s called that? It could be because it’s too dangerous, but maybe there’s some legend or religious taboo. Are we sure it was okay for us to come here?”

“Oh…” the other three murmured in unison.

It was a little late to be asking that now.

“I-I mean, the request was to slay the wolves living in this forest…” Mavis protested, a hint of panic creeping into her voice.

“But couldn’t we have waited in the village and ambushed the wolves when they came for the livestock? That way, we’d be sure we were fighting off the true culprits of the attacks, right? Instead, the village officials sent us into this forest to slay the wolves. In a forest this vast, we might encounter a pack that never once ventured into the village, and we might never find the one that actually did… Since I have my search magic, I’m sure we can avoid such mistakes. That’s why I had no objections to the village chief’s proposal—and I’m guessing the rest of you thought the same. But the chief doesn’t know that I have search magic, so why didn’t he have us stage an ambush guaranteed to catch the pack coming to the village?”

“Oh…”

If people were allowed in to kill monsters, it wouldn’t be called the Forbidden Forest. It would be called the Sometimes-Accessible Forest.

“So maybe the hostile villagers were opposed to us entering the forest?” asked Reina.

“Yes. Either it’s a village taboo, or they don’t want us plundering their treasure trove of valuable game and loot.”

Mavis and Pauline gave this some thought. On foot and empty-handed, it had taken the girls an hour and a half to get from the village to the forest. It would take longer if one had to carry their spoils, sure, but the townspeople were far from weak. If the cargo was worth the effort, they could endure the trek. Assuming they were allowed to hunt and gather in the forest, that is…

“Do you think we might be the exception because we’re young girls?” Pauline suggested. “Perhaps grown men aren’t supposed to make a living off the area, but it’s okay for women and children to go in on occasion and share in the bounty of the forest? If we fail the quest and different hunters pick it up, it’s very unlikely to be another all-female party. At that point, the village’s only option will be to stage an ambush, which could be why they decided to send us into the forest this time around. If it doesn’t work out, it will be treated as a failed quest and the village will incur no financial loss.”

The party considered this idea. It was true that if they failed the quest and another party was assigned, there would be no significant downside for the village other than lost time.

A taboo forest only children are allowed in… You’ve gotta be kidding me!

Once again, Mile was thinking her bizarre thoughts.

There was no point in standing around wondering about it. The Crimson Vow was a party of hunters, not researchers. Once they had accepted a request, all that remained was to see it through. Well…as long as it didn’t constitute a criminal act or a violation of the Hunters’ Code; as long as it wouldn’t hurt themselves, the client, or any other humanoid or intelligent life-form; and as long as the client didn’t lie, harbor ill will toward the hunter, conceal important information, or otherwise undermine the relationship of mutual trust. 

And then…

“I’m not seeing any wolves!”

This wasn’t a daily request for materials. While hunting the non-monsters was a delicious prospect, the job wouldn’t be considered complete unless they exterminated their main target: the wolves. That meant that, so far, they were heading for mission failure.

“Do it, Mile!” Reina commanded, breaking the forbidden seal at last.

It was time for Mile to unleash her search magic.

It wasn’t that the Crimson Vow were always relying on Mile and her special talents. It was more that, in this one instance, Reina had made the judgment call that they would fail the job without her unique skills. If they didn’t have Mile around—or if Mile were just an ordinary hunter—this request would be like playing a game on nightmare mode.

Basically, Reina had resigned herself to the fact that the only way to beat this mission was to tap into Mile’s magic. To her, this was tantamount to a public admission of defeat. It frustrated her, of course, but her own stubbornness and pride mattered less than the party’s successful completion of the job. And the villagers in need, of course.

It was a choice that Reina never would have made back when she was working alone. Then again, if she were working alone, she never would have accepted such a hopeless job in the first place.

In any event, she no longer operated as an individual hunter, or as a single party member doing her own part, but as one among the group of “The Divine Messenger and Her Merry Band of Friends.” So, as much as the idea pained her…

“Aye, aye, sir!”

Mile sent out her search magic. It wasn’t like one of those radar screens where a bar of light spins around at 360 degrees (a PPI display) but more like a sonar scan where a circle expanded outward with Mile at its center.

However, unlike sonar, Mile wasn’t utilizing sound. Rather, she had the nanomachines whiz around the circumference of the circles she created, retrieve information, and transmit it to her via direct visual signals to her optic nerves. In this respect, the Wonder Trio, who had created their own version of search magic after witnessing Mile’s, and Mavis, who had invented her own close-range, full-radius information-gathering magic known as the “Mav-ius Strip,” were far more gifted when it came to a flair for magic or the ability to invent and develop new spells. As her modern Earth knowledge should have given her an overwhelming advantage, this was a rather crushing defeat for Mile.

Regardless of whether “projecting” or “emitting” would be the more appropriate term, Mile spread her search waves—that is, army of nanomachines—all over the perimeter. To date, she had hunted countless wolf-like creatures, both monsters and regular animals, so identifying one was a doable task. It might be hard to tell the difference from a stray dog, but she wouldn’t make that mistake with foxes, tanuki, kobolds, or the like.

And then…

“I sense one wolf fast approaching… Judging by the size of the echo, it’s an adult!”

“Prepare to intercept!” Reina ordered in response to Mile’s report. “If feasible, let’s stick to blunt strikes, heat, and restraints!”

“Roger that!” the other three replied.

Their bond was long past the point where Reina needed to specify who each direction was for. The “blunt strikes” referred to hitting with the flat of a sword. Such a blow might still break a bone, but it was theoretically a method of attack aimed at capturing the target alive. “Heat” was, needless to say, shorthand for hot magic. The “restraints” were exactly what it said on the tin—binding magic.

If you wanted to get technical, Reina could also use hot magic, but none of her signature attacks were suited to live capture. Her fire and ice spells were designed to either burn or impale her opponent. If she was up against a human, it wasn’t too difficult to inflict nonfatal injuries, but it was harder to go easy on wild animals or monsters. If she held back too much, there was a real risk that they would go for the throat without a hint of fear.

Not that Reina would ever entertain such a foolish idea, of course.

***

The wolf was an insta-kill—well, without the “kill” part.

Perhaps too compassionate to inflict needless suffering, Mavis and Pauline refrained from their bone-shattering physical attacks and hot magic spells—which would be brutal for a wolf and its sharp nose—and instead left the task to Mile’s binding magic. Within moments, a lone wolf was writhing on the ground. Its mouth had also been muzzled to prevent its inevitable, incessant howling.

“Okay, we caught it alive. What next?” asked Pauline.

Reina said nothing.

“Reina…” Mavis began. “Don’t tell us you didn’t think this far ahead?”

“O-oh, shut up!” Reina snapped. “With how sketchy the village officials’ story was, I didn’t want to blindly trust them and put the poor thing down!”

She had hunted countless other monsters and animals without batting an eye, so why was this wolf getting such special treatment? It was a mystery.

Mile cut in. “Well, since there was only one enemy, we had plenty of breathing room, and it didn’t really seem like it was out to attack us. I didn’t sense any sort of bloodlust, at least… Besides, even if we’re all girls and only half of us smell like iron, I find it hard to believe that a lone wolf would charge four humans head-on. For starters, wolves hunt in packs, so isn’t it standard for them to report back to the others when they spot prey? It would be weird for a single wolf to attack us on its own. That must be why she wanted to take it alive. Good thinking, Reina!”

“That makes sense!” exclaimed Mavis and Pauline, satisfied with Mile’s explanation (read: cover story).

Reina made a smug face, her nose twitching. “Th-that’s exactly what it was! Yes!”

And then…

“Okay, we caught it alive. What next?”

“………”

Pauline repeated her initial question, but Reina still had no good answer. They couldn’t exactly interrogate their new prisoner.

Despite being magically bound and crumpled on the ground, the wolf didn’t seem to think it was in imminent danger of being killed, as it pleaded with its big, round eyes instead of lashing out.

There were two types of wolves. One was a kind of monster—ferocious creatures that had come from another dimension long ago and attacked humans and livestock—while the other could be classified as a kind of animal that originally inhabited this world. The catch was that there wasn’t a clear difference between the two, since they were both ferocious creatures that attacked the same things. Generally, dark wolves were considered to be monsters, while steppe wolves were considered to be animals, but scholars disagreed as to which category timber wolves fell in. What’s more, crossbreeding had given rise to packs of intermediate species, so the lines had long been blurred.

Judging from the relatively docile behavior of this specimen, it was likely a regular breed of wolf, not a monster.

“Do you think maybe it’s an okuri-okami? An escort wolf?” Mile mumbled to herself.

“What? Isn’t that what they call men who assault girls in the middle of escorting them home?” Pauline replied, shocked.

Due to her physical proportions, Pauline often found herself propositioned by men. As such, she was very sensitive to the topic at hand.

Reina was quick to declare, “Let’s kill it and be done with it!”

Eep!

The wolf couldn’t understand human language, but it cowered nonetheless, sensing danger from Reina’s aura, tone of voice, and fiery gaze.

“No, no, no, I’m not talking about that—that’s a human expression, which when you think about it, is actually slander to wolves everywhere! I mean in the original sense of the term! Some wolves have a habit of keeping an eye on the humans who enter their territory and stalking them until they leave. Once the person is gone, they slink back to whence they came. It creates the impression that they’re protecting lost stragglers in their woods and escorting them home. With a wolf on your trail, no other monsters or wild animals will dare to come near. They know how angry a wolf can get when someone swipes its prey in the middle of a hunt. And since wolves hunt in packs, more of its kind could very well be stalking their quarry from the shadows. No forest dweller would choose to get involved with that. In short…”

As Mile paused, Mavis cut in. “It’s pretty much a benevolent guardian spirit for the humans it follows! And if the lost straggler happens to be a child, I bet the parents would be pretty grateful.” 

Mile nodded her head.

“Maybe wolves aren’t so bad after all,” Reina marveled.

“Mind you, if you stumble, trip, make any sudden movements, or raise your voice, there’s a chance it might instinctively pounce and kill you. That habit is what gave rise to the negative meaning of ‘escort wolf,’ as well as the folklore around yama-inu mountain dogs and okuri-inu escort dogs. And if it’s hungry enough, any wolf might just attack you and eat you right out the gate. Oh, and even though their name has ‘dog’ in it, both mountain dogs and escort dogs are actually wolves! Say ‘dog,’ and most people envision a pet, but a yama-inu is a kind of wolf. It’s important not to get the two confused!”

“How do you know all this?!” Reina howled.

“We only just arrived on this continent, Mile…”

“Really, Miley?”

Mavis and Pauline were equally taken aback.

“Oh, no, this is all knowledge from my homeland! I just figured that the wolves around here might have similar habits, ha ha…”

“………”

In fairness, it wasn’t anything new for Mile to know a bunch of weird trivia.

Meanwhile, the wolf wore a look of teary-eyed relief as it realized that the danger had passed.

***

“Okay, let’s try this!”

Back when Mile had first mentioned opening a chain store (not a “chain seller”), Reina had bought her a steel chain as a joke. Now, Mile grabbed the chain from her inventory, along with her collection of collars and harnesses of all sizes, which she had made and designed herself in case she ever encountered a fluffy critter of any scale—cat, dog, tiger, Fenrir, you name it. She used these materials to leash the wolf.

Incidentally, Mile’s inventory also housed a collection of underwear and clothing, which she carried around in case she ever encountered a soaking wet little girl in distress. She had a variety of child sizes but nothing for adults. Grown-ups could take care of themselves; they were hardly Mile’s responsibility.

“Just to be safe, let’s prove that we come in peace.”

And with that, Mile gave the wolf some meat from her inventory. 

Wild animals have a different palate than humans, so well-done meat might not have been to its liking. Fortunately, with just such an occasion in mind, Mile had stashed away some blue-rare ogre meat…which, to be clear, was decidedly not shorthand for “organic.”

(Going by the Japanese scale of steak doneness, blue rare was closer to raw than rare. Rare meat, while pink in the center, was still cooked through. Blue-rare meat was only seared for a few dozen seconds, and the inside remained more or less raw. One step below that was just plain blue, which was seared for no more than a few seconds and otherwise raw—in ramen noodle terms, it was equivalent to kona-otoshi or yuge-doshi levels of barely boiled—but that was essentially no different from a slab of fresh meat. If you ordered your meat rare, you might sometimes end up with a steak that was cold and raw on the inside. In such cases, never hesitate to ask for a little extra cooking time.) 

The wolf seemed to relish the blue-rare ogre steak, which was seared just enough to give off a mouth-watering aroma but still mostly raw on the inside. Seemingly unfazed at being harnessed and leashed without its consent, it wagged its tail back and forth as it devoured the meat.

Blue rare… Wasn’t there a space carrier with a similar name?

As usual, Mile was making her obscure references.

“Still, there are plenty of monsters and animals in this forest that would make a popular target for wolf packs. Why go all the way to a far-off village to hunt livestock one at a time?” asked Reina.

“Good question,” Pauline replied. “A single goat or sheep would hardly make a filling meal for a whole pack. If I were the leader, I would have my pack devour four or five on the spot, kill four or five more and drag them back home, and limit myself to doing that a few times a year. I’d make sure the humans could recognize it as a loss reasonable enough to plan for, get them to accept that it’s just the way things are, and establish a good, long working relationship. That’s the trick to getting by in a place like this.”

“Uh, I don’t know about that,” Mavis bluntly replied. “The humans are getting bled dry in that scenario. Wouldn’t that lead them to exterminate the wolves?”

“She’s got a point,” said the other Vows.

Hold on a second. The chief said the “carcasses” of the animals are always discovered the next morning, not their “half-eaten remains.” That makes it sound like the body retains its original shape… Besides, why not bring the prey back to their den for the pups and mother wolves to share?

Mile had her doubts, but she abandoned this train of thought for lack of information.

Once it was done eating the meat, the wolf led the Crimson Vow onward. Perhaps because Mile had used a harness instead of a collar, it didn’t seem to believe that it was a prisoner on a chain, but rather that it had secured the four humans and was bringing them back to its pack. Which certainly explained its brazen attitude.

Suddenly, Mile spoke up. “Oh, I’m picking up a wolf-like echo straight ahead! There’s only one of them!”

“Everyone, assume battle positions!”

***

Soon enough, there were two wolves leading Mile along by the leash in her hand.

Naturally, she had already fed the newcomer another blue-rare steak.

The sight of its companion enthusiastically dragging the humans back to their den had clearly dispelled any misgivings from the second wolf’s mind. Eager to reward such exemplary servants for their offering of meat, it, too, was all for bringing the girls back to the pack.

***

“I’m picking up a wolf-like echo straight ahead! Just one!”

“Everyone, assume battle positions!”

***

And then there were six wolves leading Mile along by the leash in her hand…

“What was the name of that story, again? You know, the one about the guy who kept picking up animal companions on his way to battle…”

“The Loyal 47 Furballs?”

“No, that wasn’t it!”

“Was it the one where they became his retainers in exchange for dumplings made from the honey of a killer bee?”

“Yeah, that’s the one! The one where they join him for ‘killer bee dango’!”

Pauline murmured, “Wasn’t that The Hero Peach and the Island of Ogres?”

“That’s it!” Reina and Mavis exclaimed.

Meanwhile, the six wolves wagged their tails, pleased to be bringing home a curious, handy unlimited meat dispenser that could be activated with a tap of a paw on her shoulder.

“Say, don’t you think they’re a little too friendly with humans? I thought wild animals didn’t get attached to people so quickly. Especially not regular wolves, who typically have a predator-prey relationship with humanoid hunters,” Mile mused aloud.

Mavis knew something about this from having grown up in a family of knights, who kept dogs and horses. “Monsters never get attached to humans, but the same isn’t true of animals,” she said. “When an animal is extremely friendly upon first meeting, it usually means one of two things. One is that the animal is already used to being around humans. Maybe it had a previous owner, or maybe it has a human friend who helped it learn to love people. The second possibility is that it’s meeting a human for the first time and has no feelings of hostility, as it sees the species as neither friend nor foe. Granted, even in those cases, it’s common for animals to perceive the person as either an intruder on their territory or a potential snack and attack regardless.”

Based on the information they had, the first option seemed unlikely. Assuming that the chief’s explanation was accurate, at least…

However, the latter scenario didn’t seem much more plausible. Would wild wolves really treat the soft, tasty-looking creatures they had discovered in their territory as friends rather than prey? The girls didn’t look convinced.

“Oh!” Pauline seemed to be having a eureka moment. “What if they don’t recognize Miley as human? Maybe they picked up on her strength and immense magical power with their animal instincts, realized that such a fearsome creature is better to have as a friend than a foe, and decided to treat her with respect. And since the three of us are Miley’s underlings, or maybe even prey she’s already caught, they can’t lay a hand on us, either.”

“That’s gotta be it!” yelled Reina and Mavis, the puzzle pieces falling into place.

“Excuse me?!” Mile fumed.

The six chained wolves cavorted and barked with joy. They didn’t have a clue that they were prisoners…

***

“Looks like we made it…”

Although they were still far from the center of the forest, as Mile’s words suggested, they appeared to have reached the heart of the wolves’ territory. It was easy to guess as much from the way the six wolves were acting, along with the location pings of the other wolves on Mile’s search magic.

“Their base is a cave, I take it. It doesn’t look that deep. It’s not a ruin or anything—just a naturally formed, shallow cave that they’ve made their home. Is it normal for wolves to live in caves, though?” Mile asked.

“Well, caves aren’t that ubiquitous, so not every pack can find one to live in,” Mavis responded.

“Still, doesn’t it hurt to sleep on rocks, and wouldn’t it be a shame to lose body heat to the ground in the winter?” Pauline chimed in. “If it were me, I’d much rather spend the night curled up on a patch of grass.”

“What would you do if it rained?”

“If you’re exposed to the elements, the wind can sap your strength and body heat, and you have no defenses against hostile animals or monsters.”

“But unlike us humans, wolves have fur…”

A strange debate was unfolding.

“C’mon, you guys can argue about that later!” Mile yelled. “I enjoy these mental exercises as much as the next person, and it’s good for hunters to be curious and inquisitive, but meeting with our ‘business partners’ comes first!”

The girls were quick to apologize. “Sorry…”

Mile didn’t get angry often, but when she did, it was terrifying. With how long the group had been together, they knew that much. 

“But you’re the one who brought it—gwah!”

Just as Pauline was about to say something ill-advised, Reina stomped hard on her foot, causing her to yelp.

Pauline, it seemed, had yet to learn her lesson.

***

“Okay, time to meet the final boss…”

With the six wolves dragging her along by the chains attached to their harnesses, Mile headed into the cave, and the rest of the party followed close behind. 

If Mile got serious, she could have stopped the wolves by digging her heels into the ground, but unless she really made an effort, it was easy for them to drag a lightweight like her along, no matter how strong she was. In any event, she wasn’t interested in stopping them.

Out of nowhere, a few more wolves popped up and started tagging along.

Of course, there were even more lurking in the cave ahead. But the Crimson Vow didn’t seem to mind this. If worse came to worst, they could easily handle a mere twenty or thirty wolves. Compared to the all-out defensive battle they had fought in the Albarn Empire, this job was a walk in the park—and it certainly helped that the wolves didn’t seem particularly hostile.

The cave did, in fact, turn out to be quite shallow, maybe twenty to thirty meters deep at most. The passageway was so small in diameter that the hunters had to walk in rows of two if they didn’t want to crouch down. If they spread out any further to the sides, they risked bumping their heads on the sloping ceiling—especially Mavis, who was the tallest of the group.

“Huh?” Mile cocked her head to one side.

At the far end of the cave sat a wolf. Judging by the placement of the others around it, this was clearly the leader of the pack—the big boss. Plus, it was white. If this wasn’t the alpha, Mile was going to feel cheated.

However, the white wolf was smaller than the rest. The difference in size couldn’t be attributed to an individual quirk. And it wasn’t female, either. This wolf was definitely a pup.

The white wolf seemed flustered by the arrival of unexpected visitors. The reproachful look it gave the six wolves who had dragged the Crimson Vow to the den clearly said, Who the hell are these people?! or Don’t bring weird stuff home with you!

Unperturbed, the six wolves pulled Mile over to where the white wolf was seated. The rest of the hunters stayed where they were, so it was only Mile and her canine friends who approached the leader.

As they came to a stop before the white wolf, the first of the six wolves that Mile had captured—or depending on who you asked, the first of the wolves to secure her—walked up to Mile, stood on its hind legs, and patted her shoulder with its paw.

“Ah, coming right up!”

Just as before, she responded to its begging by taking a blue-rare slab of ogre meat out of her inventory—and since time didn’t pass in there, it was still hot off the grill and smelled delicious. She placed the meat in front of the white wolf.

“………”

The white wolf regarded the offering with suspicion, which was only natural. For an animal that knew nothing of inventories, the spectacle it had just witnessed was puzzling—perhaps even alarming. 

Still, the meat set out before it looked and smelled delicious. Given the circumstances, it was definitely being offered as a tribute. To refuse to eat it would be to refuse the bounty its underlings had provided, thus bringing shame upon them and rejecting harmonious relations with this strange creature. As the leader of the pack, it would be an unwise move.

And most importantly, the meat smelled so darn good…

Nom!

The white wolf got up and took a bite of the meat offering. And then…

Gobble, gobble, gobble!

The wolf scarfed down the rest in an instant. Mile moved a step closer, and it stood on its hind legs and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Ready for seconds, huh?”

Mile pulled out an extra serving of steak.

The white wolf gobbled it up.

Tap.

Gobble, gobble!

Tap.

Gobble, gobble!

Tap.

Gobble, gobble!

The same scene played out again and again. Once the white pup had finally eaten its fill, it nuzzled Mile’s leg.

“Ooh, it likes me! Just look how soft and fluffy it is! Such a cuddly little furball! I’m in fluffy paradise!”

Mile was over the moon!

She crouched down to pet the pup, but it pulled away from her.

“Ah…”

Mile was devastated.

The pup turned to its companions and gave a little woof. And then…

Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble!

The entire pack of wolves pounced on Mile at once and began pawing at her shoulder, hoping for another helping of meat.

“St-stop! I mean, part of me is happy to be drowning in fluff, but I need you to back ooooff! Besides, you adults have some pretty coarse fur! It’s not soft like the pup’s, and it sorta smells! Ahhhh, but those little pawsies feel so good! I can’t tell if this is heaven or heeeeell!!”

Her voice cracking, Mile was buried under the deluge of wolves and disappeared from sight. The other members of the Crimson Vow just shrugged at one another.

“Say, when a wolf nuzzles someone…” Reina began.

“Uh-huh. It’s meant as a statement that this human belongs to them,” Mavis replied. “They mark the person with their scent to stake their claim.”

“And that little bark…”

“If I had to guess, that was the leader signaling to the rest of the pack that it’s eaten its fill, and now it’s everyone else’s turn.”

“Yep—called it!”

An infinite meat dispenser. With just a tap on the shoulder, she would hand you a free steak. Lo, the magic uchide-no-kozuchi mallet had sworn allegiance to the boss of their pack. (She had done no such thing.)

The whole pack was having the time of their lives. Even the wolves standing watch outside had returned for the big feast.

Since wolves could neither drink booze nor give drunken lectures, the entire celebration was focused purely on the act of eating. Unsurprisingly, Mile hadn’t prepared quite enough blue-rare ogre steaks to meet the demand, so she soon ran out. She stepped out of the cave to do an emergency restock, using Reina’s fire magic to lightly sear some raw ogre and orc meat from her inventory.

The reason they had to leave was because using fire magic in that tiny cave could kill them all from a lack of oxygen. Reina and Pauline knew this without Mile having to tell them. It was common knowledge among fire-wielding mages. Mavis, too, had learned this from her time spent studying magical tactics.

Fortunately, there was plenty of monster meat to go around. After observing the huge mounds of monster carcasses left in the wake of the all-out battle for the Albarn Empire, Mile had feared that the vast majority would rot before their meat and resources ever saw use, transforming the former battlefield into a cesspool of germs and parasites. Her solution had been to stash a considerable number of the slain monsters in her inventory. In particular, she had kept an eye out for anything that looked tasty or could fetch a high price. Thus, in addition to the orcs and ogres that could reliably be sold anywhere for their meat, Mile’s inventory included a huge stock of hippogriffs, manticores, earth dragons, wyverns, and a host of other species.

Later, in her spare time, Mile had also hunted a good haul of the exotic jackalopes that had given her the slip during the actual battle. Hoping that the new breed might have more toothsome or tastier meat, she had sought a large supply for her research and cooking experiments. According to her, jackalope was the be-all and end-all of monster cuisine.

While this meant that the Crimson Vow had ample monster meat in reserve, they knew better than to sell any of it to the Hunters’ Guild or the Merchants’ Guild, be it on their old continent or the new one. Selling their endless stock would undermine the efforts of the experts and researchers who controlled monster populations by calculating the right number to cull, and could precipitate a disastrous collapse of market prices. The one exception to their policy was the first monster they had sold when they arrived on the new continent—which had been a native of their old continent, not one of the interdimensional invaders—but that was to get their foot in the door, so it didn’t count.

Incidentally, the Wonder Trio had followed Mile’s advice and stored a comparable number of dead monsters in their inventory after the battle. It was a large enough supply that they would be set for life if they sold it off bit by bit; however, they were finding that it was difficult to offload much without inconveniencing people who were making an honest living. So, much like the Crimson Vow’s, their collection was gathering dust in their inventory.

In any event, Mile had a virtually unlimited supply of meat in her inventory, plus the magic to produce as much water as needed. As long as they had her around, the pack could expand its numbers indefinitely.

Satisfied after eating their fill of meat, the wolves returned to their cave, and the white one sat back down where it had been before. Apparently, that was its designated spot.

And then…

Tap!

“Huh?”

Tap!

The wolf looked at Mile and patted the ground beside it with its paw.

“Are you telling me to come sit next to you?! What am I, your mistress?! A concubine?! Uh, not that I don’t have a soft spot for cute furballs, but I don’t want to enter a marriage of convenience based on my meat stash! I refuse to join the pack!”

“You sure, Mile?” said Reina. “This might be the one and only proposal you’ll ever get. Why not reconsider?”

“Grraaah!” Mile howled.

“I bet you’d fit right in with a pack of wolves, Mile.”

“Agreed!”

Pauline and Mavis dealt the final blows, bringing Mile down to her hands and knees. Convinced that she had gotten down on all fours out of a resolve to join them, the wolves got more excited than ever.

Poor Mile was spent.

***

“If we can’t communicate with them, we’re never going to get anywhere!”

“Tell us something we don’t know!”

“Actually, I have a feeling you could get through to the wolves, Mile…”

“True. They operate on the same mental level.”

“Oh, shush!”

The shots her friends were taking at her had Mile seething.

“So what should we do?” she asked once she had collected herself. Despite giving it some thought, she couldn’t come up with any decent ideas.

“Why don’t you ask someone…no, something to translate?” Pauline suggested.

“Huh?” Then Mile struck her palm with her fist in epiphany. “Oh, I see what you’re saying!”

Pauline had heard about the “mysterious creature that came down from the heavens” from Mile. Hence the proposal. However…

Asking the nanos to interpret for me feels like losing somehow… Oh, I know, I’ll use translation magic! Instead of making the nanos translate every passing comment for me, I’ll make it so that I can understand wolf language!

NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! IT IS POSSIBLE FOR US TO INTERCEPT, ANALYZE, AND INTERPRET BRAIN WAVES, BUT SHORT OF IMPLANTING A MICROCHIP IN YOUR BRAIN, WE CANNOT MAKE YOU INSTANTANEOUSLY COMPREHEND THE LANGUAGE OF WOLVES! IT WOULD BE ONE THING IF OUR CREATORS WERE ASKING, BUT WE DO NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO TAMPER WITH LIVING CREATURES, AND EVEN IF WE DID, WE WOULD NOT ATTEMPT IT! IT IS BETTER TO USE US AS AN OLD-FASHIONED INTERPRETER!

Hmph… Yeah, I don’t like the sound of that…

Mile hated the idea of asking the nanomachines to translate everything for her, but having her brain tampered with or a microchip implanted in her head sounded even worse.

Then another thought occurred to her.

Here’s an idea. Maybe I can call on someone else to translate…

COME AGAIN?

“I’ll have an elder dragon come be our interpreter!”

“YOU’LL WHAT?!” the other members of the Crimson Vow cried out in surprise at the suggestion.

YOU’LL WHAT?!

There came another wail—one only Mile could hear—from the nanomachines.

“You always think of the craziest things!”

“Will an elder dragon even understand wolf language?”

“I have a bad feeling about this…”

Her three companions had concerns.

“Elder dragons speak our language when talking to us humanoids, but apparently, they don’t use their conversation partner’s language when talking to animals or monsters. Instead, they detect the creature’s thought pulses—or, er, they read the creature’s thoughts with magic and beam their own thoughts back. They can’t adapt their vocalizations to the hearing range of other species, since their vocal cords are structured completely differently. It makes sense. Even if we humans could understand bird language, we still couldn’t chirp, right? Besides, no other animal or monster has a language complex enough to hold a normal conversation with us. The reason elder dragons can speak to humans without issue is because they were made that way.”

“That makes sense!”

When the elder dragons were created, their vocal cords had been tuned to allow them human speech, but the same wasn’t true for all creatures with whom they might communicate. The nanomachines had told Mile as much before. 

And then…

NO FAAAIIIR!!

The nanomachines whined in anguish as they realized the elder dragons were stealing their opportunity to show off. 

“Are you going to summon Kragon, then? Might take a while.”

“No, I’m going to try my luck elsewhere.”

Reina shot Mile a dubious look. “Elsewhere? What’s that mean?”

“Just before Kragon left, he said he was going to introduce himself to the elder dragons on this continent before heading back home. And I have the dragon ball he gave me, which is proof that I can call myself an honorary elder dragon and councilor. Do you know what that means?”

“There are elder dragons on this continent, too, and they’re friendly with the ones back home!” the girls said in perfect unison. “And the chances of them doing us a favor are pretty high!”

The prospects were bright.

“Then, without further ado…”

Do your thing, Nanos!

YES, MA’AM…

The nanomachines seemed a bit put out, but they weren’t about to refuse a request from Mile.

WE WILL CONNECT YOU TO THE NEAREST VILLAGE OF ELDER DRAGONS VIA AUDIO AND VIDEO. WE ASK THAT YOU HANDLE THE NEGOTIATIONS ON YOUR OWN.

Will do! Thanks a bunch, Nanos!

It was nice to have Mile thank them for the help, but it was still a bummer to lose their translation job to an elder dragon. Yet the nanomachines chose not to express their conflicting emotions, instead dutifully performing the task Mile had asked of them.

WE HAVE ESTABLISHED A TWO-WAY AUDIO AND VIDEO CHANNEL TO THE NEAREST ELDER DRAGON VILLAGE. GO AHEAD AND SPEAK.

A screen popped up in front of Mile. As for the image displayed there…

“Grrr! Grwah! Gorrelis! Gorlah!”

Multiple dragons were roaring nonsense, clearly caught off guard. From the looks of it, the screen had materialized just above a congregation of elder dragons.

“Whoops… Of course they’re not going to start right off with the human tongue if a mysterious screen suddenly appears overhead. Hello there! We are humanoids! Human beings! We are currently speaking to you from afar by means of magic. Do you happen to have a spokesperson?”

Mile’s greeting seemed to send a wave of panic through the crowd. 

Then, at length, one of the dragons spoke up. Evidently, he was the highest ranking among them. “How dare a lowly human address us without permission!”

“Oh, jeez,” the girls sighed.

Clearly, word of Mile or the Crimson Vow’s escapades had yet to reach the elder dragons of the new continent. So, their reaction was to be expected.

Luckily, the girls had a secret weapon.

“Excuse me, but do you know a dragon named Kragon from another continent?”

The elder dragon appeared shaken by Mile’s question. “What? S-surely you couldn’t be the one Sir Kragon mentioned…”

He was probably addressing a fledgling like Kragon as “Sir” because Kragon’s visit would have been considered a courtesy call from a foreign clan, thus casting him into the role of emissary.

“I don’t know what Kragon told you, so I can’t say one way or another, but I am the one his clan appointed an honorary elder dragon.”

Now they would be a little more willing to hear her out. Or so Mile thought…

“Y-you mean to tell us that you are the one who vanquished a battle squad of dragons? The one who, at the behest of God, helped our brethren on the eastern continent fulfill the mission entrusted to them by our creators?! The divine messenger, Honorary Elder Dragon Mile and her maidservants?!”

“Who are you calling maidservants?!” the other girls raged.

“The same one who adorned the talons and horns of the battle squad and council to make them irresistible to females?”

“How did my personal information become an open secret?! Just how much time have you spent gossiping about me, Kragon?!”

***

“Very well. We shall come to you at once. It’s the place near Golba Village that the humans call ‘the Forbidden Forest,’ correct?”

“Yes, that’s right. We appreciate it.”

With that, Mile disconnected the call.

“Hmm…”

“What’s wrong?”

The conversation had gone smoothly enough. Mile ought to have been happy, but instead she appeared pensive.

The wolves were likewise shooting their boss’s new lover looks of concern.

“I said I’m not becoming a wolf’s concubine!” yelled Mile, more or less inferring what was going through their heads.

“Speaking of which, is it just me, or were the wolves oddly unfazed by your magic just now? You’d think they would react to a glimpse of an elder dragon, even if it was through a magic window… Maybe it’s different when the dragons aren’t actually close by, since they can’t feel their magical power or fearsome aura?”

Mavis raised a good point. Despite the screen being in their line of sight, the wolves didn’t seem particularly alarmed by anything that had just come to pass.

“Not to mention that the elder dragon knew about Golba Village and the Forbidden Forest, right? Normally, elder dragons don’t bother to remember the names of human towns and villages, or what humans like to call certain places. They stick to using their own names. And those ‘names’ are generally along the lines of ‘the town to the west’ or ‘the forest by the lake,’ so they don’t use proper nouns very often.”

“Ah…”

Of course, the other members of the Crimson Vow knew all this. It wasn’t hard to see what Mile was getting at.

“Do you figure those elder dragons have a vested interest in what goes on around here?”

“That must be why they were so willing to help us. Most elder dragons wouldn’t be so eager to act as a human’s translator, would they? Okay, excluding Kragon.”

“And didn’t he say he would come at once? Not that he would send someone over. So, instead of dispatching some lowly dragon, their highest-ranking official is going to put in a personal appearance?”

“………”

“Well, if the elder dragon will be here soon, we can just ask him directly!” Mile concluded.

“I guess so,” said Reina cautiously, only somewhat mollified. And then…

YOU ARE FRAMING IT AS THOUGH THE ELDER DRAGONS WILL BE YOUR INTERPRETERS, BUT WE ARE THE ONES WHO WILL ESTABLISH COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE WOLVES AND THE ELDER DRAGONS BY ANALYZING THEIR THOUGHT PULSES. WE WILL SIMPLY BE INTERPRETING THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE DRAGONS AND WOLVES INSTEAD OF THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN YOU AND THE WOLVES, SO THIS ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING BUT ADDING AN EXTRA LAYER OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN YOU AND THE DRAGONS. IT IS ENTIRELY ILLOGICAL.

Even with the addition of the elder dragons as a go-between, the nanomachines would still ultimately be the ones doing the translating. On the surface, however, it would appear that the elder dragons were the interpreters. They would be the ones Mile spoke to directly and thanked for the help, not the nanomachines.

The nanomachines didn’t like that one bit.

***

Thud!

Two elder dragons landed in front of the Crimson Vow and their lupine friends, who were waiting outside the cave. 

Once she saw the dragons in the sky, Mile had been planning to launch a fireball or have the nanomachines send them her location, but that had proved unnecessary, as they somehow managed to beeline it straight for the group. Perhaps they had flown in at a rather low altitude to avoid spreading panic among the humans.

For whatever reason, the wolves didn’t seem the least bit alarmed. Most animals or monsters would panic and run for their lives if an elder dragon suddenly landed in front of them, but not this wolf pack.

“Are they using some sort of search magic, you think?”

Mile found the idea questionable, but if she had managed to invent the magic, it was no surprise that elder dragons, who were more intelligent than humans, had a minimum authorization level of 2, and had accrued plenty of life experience, would be able to do the same.

The slightly larger of the two dragons—the one who seemed to be calling the shots—turned to Mile and said, “You are ‘Mile,’ I presume? As Sir Kragon tells it, you have done your part to uphold our creators’ orders, so I will not begrudge you a favor. But in exchange…”

“In exchange…?”

“You must engrave our talons and horns.”

“This again? Even here?! THAT’S THE WHOLE REASON YOU SHOWED UP?!” the four members of the Crimson Vow cried.

***

Unlike the elder dragons of the old continent, these did not put Mile on a pedestal. Which made sense. The elder dragons on the old continent had seen for themselves what Mile could do, and besides, she had been the catalyst for them to fulfill the mission their creators had entrusted to them. Plus, she had proven her status as the divine messenger before their very eyes.

These elder dragons, on the other hand, saw Mile as nothing more than a lower life-form that some fresh-faced emissary from a far-flung clan had raved about. No doubt Kragon had appeared to them to have a feverish glint in his eye, like the one that appeared when one was telling a truly ludicrous cock-and-bull story. Although they believed him on some level, they saw no reason for elder dragons like themselves to show this human girl consideration or respect, let alone deference.

Indeed, to them, Mile was no more than a pet another clan had taken an inexplicable liking to. They had playfully given her the title of “honorary elder dragon” in order to convey to lower life-forms that she had fought among their ranks and was therefore worthy of respect. Thus, she could live freely among her own people without fear of harm. But that had to be all there was to it. 

The young emissary’s horns and talons, however, were a different matter.

Those were freakin’ cool!

The fledgling had pretended to be troubled by his newfound popularity with the ladies, but the infuriatingly smug look on his face had made it clear that he was bragging.

The leader of these elder dragons wasn’t about to let the matter rest. It was a fact that the females had swooned at the sight of the newcomer’s horns and talons. There was no way he would let this opportunity slip through his fingers. Not a chance.

“Got it. We can agree to that much. Erm, should I do this one’s talons, too?” Mile asked, turning to the smaller of the two dragons.

The bigger one gave that question some thought, then replied, “Yes. Let’s make that part of the deal.”

For a brief moment, he had considered keeping a monopoly on the talon art and the female attention that came with it, but he wasn’t quite that petty. Since he often enlisted his current companion as an escort, he was rather partial to the lad. And such shows of consideration would serve to strengthen the other dragons’ loyalty.

“Okay. So, about the thing we brought you here to do…”

“Right. Zalm will handle that.”

Apparently, he was foisting the actual work onto his subordinate.

Well, that was no real surprise. It was probably the whole reason he had brought someone else along.

Hearing his cue, the smaller one—Zalm—stepped forward. “I am Zalm. I am to serve as translator for you and the Silva’s pack, correct?”

“Yes, if you don’t mind… Wait a sec, ‘Silva’? Is that what this breed of wolf is called?”

As question marks formed over the heads of the Crimson Vow, Zalm explained, “This white one here is called Silva.”

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

“WHAAAAAAAT?!”

“H-how do you know the given names of these wolves?!” Mile sputtered, having lost the plot.

“Well, it is not a given name per se. It is more of a nickname for the commander of the pack, or perhaps a title… Either way, it is what their leader is called. The Silva of this generation is still but a pup, I see. I suspect its parents died prematurely.”

“Okay, but wait! Again: How do you know—oh, I guess it doesn’t matter right now. Let’s put that aside for now and get to the translating.”

“Yes, let’s. Ask your questions.”

The larger dragon appeared to have lost all interest after dumping the chore on his subordinate. Thus, the girls opted to ignore him and concentrate on their conversation with Zalm.

“Can you ask them, ‘Did your pack go to the human village to the east and attack the livestock there?’”

“Pardon?”

Zalm made a face. It was difficult for humans to read elder dragons’ expressions, but Mile sensed that he was skeptical. 

Now if only she were that good at recognizing the subtleties of human emotion…

She didn’t think much of his reaction, figuring that he just hadn’t seen the question coming.

“Very well. One moment.”

The elder dragon and the wolf spoke to each other in their respective languages. Or rather, the two individuals spoke, and the nanomachines provided simultaneous interpretation via EEG analysis and tympanic vibrations. It didn’t actually matter what words came out of their mouths.

“The Silva said, ‘Nuh-uh. We honor our promise to God. There’s lots to eat here without going so far away.’”

“Knew it…”

The girls had a hunch that was going to be the answer.

“But who is this ‘God’ of theirs?! Are we introducing a new character this late in the game?! Did the Creator, a survivor of a prehistoric civilization, just wake up from a cold sleep?!” Mile yelled, but it wasn’t long before she had her answer.

“The ‘God’ to which they refer is we, the elder dragons.”

“Ah.” Mile clearly found this to be a letdown. “Gotcha.”

“We totally knew that,” her three companions said to each other, like the bunch of sore losers they were.

But Mile did not miss a beat.

“So what ‘promise’ did they make you?”

Indeed. They wouldn’t get anywhere without asking that question first. 

***

“Okay, so… Long ago, the elder dragons acted as a go-between for the ancestors of this wolf clan and the villagers?”

“Correct. Several of their short-lived generations ago, a fight broke out among the lower life-forms—ahem, between the creatures of this forest and humans—in which countless were injured and died in vain. Saddened by these events, one compassionate elder dragon stepped up to facilitate a reconciliation.”

As far as elder dragons were concerned, humans and wolves were both equally “short-lived.”

“Wow! Awfully generous of such a mighty creature to bust their butt for us lower life-forms!” 

Mile flattered the elder dragons in an effort to keep the conversation rolling, although it seemed as though there just might be a touch of sarcasm in her tone. But then…

“Yes. It was a job well done, if I may say so myself.”

“IT WAS YOU?!”

Apparently, the mediator had been none other than Zalm himself. Perhaps, like Kragon, he enjoyed the company of lesser life-forms, similar to how humans enjoyed playing with cats and hamsters…

To be sure, what was generations ago for humans and wolves would be recent history in the eyes of an elder dragon. Now, it seemed that Zalm’s superior had brought him along not as his right-hand man but because he had a stake in the matter at hand.

But Mile had another, even more salient question. “What was the ‘promise’ the white one—little Silva here—mentioned?”

“Oh, that. The humans had been gradually expanding their territory, and their development efforts eventually spread to this forest. This escalated into a bit of a spat with the forest dwellers.”

“I’d think that would be more than a spat… If both of their livelihoods were on the line, it was probably an all-out war.”

At least that was how the Crimson Vow saw it. However, to an elder dragon, it would have probably looked like little more than a squabble between hamsters.

“After I stepped in to mediate, both sides backed down and made peace. Even lower life-forms are sometimes capable of listening to reason.”

“No life-form in existence would dare protest if an elder dragon is trying to break up their fight! No matter how unhappy they are with the outcome!” Reina interjected, but Zalm ignored her. 

Mile was the only one the elder dragons appeared to respect, which was only to be expected. The rest of the members of the Crimson Vow were still classified as mere “lower life-forms.” The dragons would play with them or pry into their affairs when the mood struck, but the girls were not to address them unprompted.

“What were the terms of the truce?” asked Mile.

Zalm replied proudly. “The humans were not to build villages on forested land that hadn’t already been claimed. Their farming, hunting, and gathering efforts were to stop at the halfway point between the village and forest. By the same token, the forest dwellers were expected to remain in the forest and restrict their hunting to their half of the land in between. As a precaution, a buffer zone was established at the midpoint, which both sides were prohibited from entering. For ease of identification, the boundary was drawn across an area with rocky terrain, large trees, and other prominent landmarks, so none would stray there by mistake. It was too far from both the village and forest for adolescents to go there alone, regardless.

“The forest dwellers were made up of many different species, and they did not speak each other’s tongues. Some were predator and prey and could not coexist. It was only in the context of their collective relationship with the humans that the Silva’s pack, the wisest of the forest dwellers, was chosen to represent them. The wolves functioned as a group and passed down their own traditions—making them the most able to relate to the villagers and their ways. 

“Of course, I did not expect the problems to simply stop there, so I still come to check on the situation from time to time. I fly close to the ground after dark so as not to disturb the humans, which means only the forest dwellers are aware of my visits.

“In this way, the humans and forest dwellers have learned to live in peace. It was a job well done, if I may say so myself!”

Zalm repeated the same words as before for emphasis.

“And then the human villagers hired us to slaughter Silva’s entire clan…”

“TH-THEY WHAAAAAT?!”

“Waaah! Keep your voice down, Zalm!”

Both the members of the Crimson Vow and the wolves tumbled backward, unable to withstand the impact of an elder dragon’s roar. 

And then the whole forest fell silent.

Well, of course it did. All the animals and insects had retreated to their homes, shaking with terror.

The bigger dragon stayed where he was, apparently thinking nothing of this. Contrary to Zalm, he didn’t see aiding lower life-forms as a particularly interesting hobby, and he had no interests in act of charity. He didn’t care one way or another.

“Y-you cretins would dare to break a promise I facilitated?! A promise I devised to make the lower life-forms respect each other and live in peace as much as their station allows?! This is inexcusable!” Zalm fumed, glaring daggers at Mile and friends.

“You’ve got the wrong idea! We had nothing to do with it! We just picked up a quest at the port city branch of the Hunters’ Guild, thought it sounded fishy, and decided to check it out! Otherwise, there’s no way we would have made nice with little Silva’s pack or gone out of our way to summon you here!”

“A fair point… Mm, I shall concede to your logic. Go on.”

“Now there’s the elder dragon excellence in action! Much better than us lousy humans! I appreciate your understanding!”

Mile had dealt with her fair share of elder dragons by this point. She had a rough idea of how best to manipulate and pander to them.

She went on to explain everything: how they had accepted an inactive request at the port city branch of the Hunters’ Guild and noticed the unsettling air about the village, how there was clearly more to the story than met the eye, and how the villagers’ opinions seemed to be split down the middle.

“So the village leaders have broken the pact and seek to act against the forest, while some of their own stand in opposition? And they attempted to push Silva’s pack to extinction by submitting a fraudulent request to this ‘guild,’ as you call it?”

“Sounds about right!” the Crimson Vow agreed, nodding their heads.

Zalm’s opinion seemed to align with theirs.

“But what possessed them to do such a foolish thing? To break a pact that we elder dragons had a hand in making risks plunging us into a village-razing fury. That much ought to be obvious.”

Oh, jeez…

The whole party had an inkling of what the reason might be.

“Erm… Didn’t you say that you fly close to the ground at night so as not to disturb the humans? Doesn’t that mean that only the forest dwellers know you’re still keeping an eye on the pact, and the villagers haven’t seen you for generations?” said Mile.

“Oh…”

“Worse, there are plenty of reasons why an accurate account might have been lost over the years,” Reina pointed out. “Maybe the full story was only passed down to the clan of village chiefs, or a former chief died in an accident before he could pass the tale on to the next generation. It seems very possible that delusions, fantasies, and wishful thinking bled into the legend until it was unrecognizable…

“Still, maybe the village as a collective retained the parts about ‘not venturing into the forest’ or ‘not antagonizing the wolves, especially the white one.’ Those are the parts they’d have to teach everyone, so I guess that makes sense… But when people started to talk about prioritizing the profit to be made from the forest over a tradition that everyone had forgotten the reason for, the village would be divided among those who were for the idea and those who were against it.”

Mile nodded vigorously. “Oh! So that’s the reason some of the villagers seemed so hostile!”

“Hmm. You’re fairly quick-witted for a lower life-form. Now then, if some of the humans are determined to uphold the pact, I suppose I cannot burn their village to the ground with a single breath attack… What to do?”

Oh, crap! thought the Vow, their faces frozen with horror.

Even if they had been tricked into taking on a bogus request, the girls had no desire to see an entire village, women and children included, wiped off the map for something only a few of them had done. Zalm didn’t seem inclined to do that, but he was still an elder dragon. If something else happened to make him angry or annoyed, it would be all too easy for him to take the village out in a single breath.

Word had it that the rage of an elder dragon was a truly fearsome spectacle, and this one had every right to be mad. What was there to be done? The members of the Crimson Vow thought long and hard, but no good ideas came to mind.

In their hour of need, Reina, Mavis, and Pauline all glanced over at Mile.

“Actually, I have a plan to teach the bad guys a lesson and make sure no one ever thinks of breaking the pact again…”

Mile always did come through when it counted.