Chapter 131:
The Merchant Girl
“OH! YOU’RE THE CRIMSON VOW, right? I have a request for you!”
“Come again?” all four girls responded.
Upon popping into the guildhall, the Crimson Vow were accosted by a girl of about fifteen or sixteen, who stopped them before they could even make it to the information or job boards.
“You personally sought us out for this? Um, do we know you?” Mavis asked, flummoxed.
It was an understandable reaction. The Crimson Vow might have made a name for themselves on the old continent, but here they were a party of brand-new mega-rookies, so it didn’t make sense to be singled out like this. While they had been bringing in mountains of kills to sell, those monster parts could just as easily be purchased from the guild. There was no reason to pay extra money to handpick the girls for a job.
Plus, no one other than Hunters’ Guild personnel and the local hunters was supposed to know about the Crimson Vow’s mass deliveries, and for reasons of confidentiality, those people were discouraged from actively spreading the word.
“Oh, gee, I forgot to introduce myself! I’m Arli, a free trader.”
“Uh-huh… So what can we do for you?”
A free trader neither owned a storefront nor peddled their wares by cart or wagon. Instead, they were more of what one might call a non-store retailer. Whatever name you gave them, they were small-time, underfunded, greenhorn merchants who earned their profits through intermediaries and other means.
Any request made through the Hunters’ Guild required that the payment be deposited with the guild in advance, so even if this greenhorn merchant had little credit to her name, there was no need to worry about getting shortchanged.
Plus, no matter how much of a small-time greenhorn a free trader might be, to be handpicked for a job by any merchant was an honor for an ordinary rookie hunter, as it was testament to their skills and reputation.
Yes…for an ordinary rookie hunter…
“I want you to bring me four orcs. The reward is eight half-gold.”
“Huh?” the Crimson Vow said in unison.
All four of them doubted their ears.
“Sorry, could you run that by us again?” Mavis timidly ventured.
The girl repeated herself loud and clear. “I want you to bring me four orcs for eight half-gold. Oh, and let’s cut out the Hunters’ Guild and make this an independent request—a direct transaction between the client and the contractor!”
The four members of the Crimson Vow, along with all the hunters and guild employees who had been listening in on the conversation, couldn’t help but exclaim, “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”
“L-L-Listen, you!” Reina roared. “Did you know we could sell four orcs directly to the guild’s purchasing counter for several times what you’re offering?! Are you stupid?!”
The girl matter-of-factly replied, “No, not at all. But I was hoping you girls might be…”
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”
***
The girl made such an impression that the Crimson Vow looped back around to being intrigued. Thinking there might be a story behind her request, they decided to inquire about the specifics over in the guild’s dining hall.
A classic case of curiosity killing the cat.
It helped that the Crimson Vow took an interest in unusual requests and wasn’t hard up on coin. Any hunter who was struggling to get by would have turned her down without hesitation.
Since the name of the game was investigation, Mile took the lead.
“Why did you come to us with such absurd terms?” she asked, assuming there had to be a good reason for the girl’s behavior.
All around the Crimson Vow, the ears of the other hunters and guild employees perked up with interest.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’d make more money that way.”
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”
The same cry had filled the guildhall multiple times now, but that was only to be expected. No hunter or guild employee could keep their mouth shut after hearing something like that!
“Wh-why, you little…”
“That was too blunt!”
“Have some shame…”
“Ha ha ha ha!”
“And you had the nerve to suggest an independent contract that cuts out the guild?! That means you don’t have to pay a deposit, so we risk getting screwed over! Plus, if the request doesn’t go through the guild, we can’t count on support if we run into trouble, and we won’t get a sympathy allowance if we get hurt! And to top it off, we won’t get any contribution points! Who in the world would accept such an impractical request?!” Reina howled, highlighting all the obvious flaws with the deal. The other hunters and guild staff nodded along with her points.
The guild would lose out on its commission, too. Pitching this to a hunter one came across elsewhere would be one thing, but doing it in front of the guild’s reception desk was a ballsy move.
As unorthodox a party as the Crimson Vow was, they were definitely the more sensible ones in this scenario.
“Merchants are supposed to have integrity!”
“Well, there’s a fine line between integrity and naivety! I’d say there’s still room for negotiation techniques or white lies…”
“Mile, stop giving this girl advice on how to swindle people,” Mavis chided.
Everyone chose to ignore Pauline’s lack of self-awareness. The word “integrity” sounded somewhat ridiculous coming out of her mouth.
“Anyway, are you sure there isn’t a story here? Like, say, your family is being held hostage or your little sister will be sold into slavery if you don’t pay ten gold coins by the end of the day?”
“Nope. Nothing like that.”
The girl unceremoniously torpedoed Mile’s last glimmer of hope.
“……”
“………”
“…………”
“What the heck do we do now?!” Reina raged, pounding her fists on the table. “I can’t believe we brought her to the dining hall to hear her out. Since we’re the ones who invited her, I bet she’s planning to make us foot the whole bill! You can tell by the fact that she ordered all the most expensive stuff on the menu! No, forget it, it’s no big deal. It was going to be our treat, anyway. Still, it speaks to a serious personality defect to take advantage of someone doing you a favor and order yourself a lavish banquet like it’s nothing! Who in their right mind would commit to an independent request from someone like that?! Be responsible for once and tell her to buzz off, Mile!”
The bees were abuzz… In other words, Reina was livid.
“Don’t be like that! You and Pauline know so much about the merchant business! This is your time to shine!”
“Not interested!”
“No thank you!”
“Ha ha ha…”
Reina and Pauline were quick to reject Mile’s proposal. Unsurprisingly. Not a single merchant alive would want anything to do with this.
Even a non-merchant would feel the same way.
Of course, the Crimson Vow had planned to refuse the girl’s request from the beginning. Still, there remained the question of who would take on the arduous task of explaining their reasoning and getting it through this girl’s thick skull. At this point, they were all desperate to push that responsibility onto someone else. It should have been as simple as saying “no,” but the three girls had a hunch that it wasn’t going to be that easy… No, they were sure of it.
Meanwhile, perhaps under the illusion that none of this was her problem, Mavis just cracked a rueful smile.
“Mavis, as our party leader, maybe you should—”
“Can’t!” Mavis shot down Mile’s desperate plea in a second flat.
Even a softie like her wasn’t willing to deal with this.
In fact, her soft side was probably the reason she didn’t want the responsibility of refusing someone a favor.
And so, the Crimson Vow began to bicker over who should decline the request right in front of the client in question. Most people would have taken the hint by now.
But this girl wasn’t most people…
***
“So you’re an aspiring merchant?”
“I already am a merchant! I may be a free trader, but I’m still a member of a proper Merchants’ Guild!”
“………”
There was zero reason not to reject her outright, but somehow the Crimson Vow ended up hearing even more of what this eccentric self-styled merchant had to say. Call it morbid curiosity, or perhaps an endeavor to learn more about humanity by studying a specimen beyond their comprehension…
The merchant girl then asked, “Your party can only turn in a max of three orcs and ogres per day, right? The guild imposed a cap on you just to regulate prices and make life easier for themselves?”
“Huh? Uh, yes, that’s true…”
The girls weren’t exactly hiding it, but they weren’t going out of their way to mention this information, either, so no one but the guild staff should have known about their agreement with the guild master. And since it was a bad look for the guild to impose restrictions on hunters for their own convenience, it was unlikely that those at the guild would go out of their way to publicize the arrangement. In fact, the guild staff had probably been instructed not to talk about it.
“How do you know that?!” Reina demanded, in sharp contrast to Mile’s casual admission.
“You expect a merchant to blab about her sources?”
“Erg…”
As much of an offbeat greenhorn as she was, she still seemed to grasp the most important aspects of being a merchant. Reina, who also fancied herself a merchant of sorts after her stint as a peddler with her father, couldn’t argue with the girl’s logic.
“You could be making a fortune with your boundless storage magic, but here you are letting your talents go to waste. So let’s say, sell your vast stock of materials wholesale to me, an independent merchant who has no connection to the Hunters’ Guild… Then, you wouldn’t have to worry about the guild’s restrictions holding you back.”
“Good point!” the Crimson Vow chorused, finding her argument convincing.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!” the hunters present groaned, appalled that the girls were loudly broadcasting the guild’s confidential affairs.
“STOOOOOP!” the guild staff screamed, distraught on two counts: first, that information they didn’t want spread was being aired for all to hear, and second, that the Crimson Vow was boldly discussing a loophole in the guild’s careful efforts to fix prices.
“Get your butts over here! Now!”
That was the guild master, who had appeared behind the five girls at some point during all this, now far behind them as they fled into the distance…
***
“Give me a break!” the guild master fumed.
“Um, look, we didn’t intend for this to happen… We just wanted to hear the specifics of the request this merchant girl had for us,” said Mavis, doing her best to stress that none of this was the Crimson Vow’s fault.
“Can it! I can’t believe you were running your mouths so loudly! It’s embarrassing for the guild to be imposing limits on our hunters out of self-interest! That much should be obvious. Use some common sense!”
Unfortunately, the Crimson Vow didn’t have much in the way of common sense when it came to matters like this.
Besides, the guild really had no business scolding its own hunters under such circumstances as these. If the guild found their need to impose restrictions “embarrassing,” it was because they were ashamed of the limits of their own power in the first place.
And when Pauline pointed out as much…
“Argh! You think I don’t know that?! If I don’t take it out on you girls, the shame and self-loathing will eat me up!”
Clearly, this guild master had some unresolved issues.
“What a disgrace of an adult…”
“Shameful.”
“What kind of person screams at innocent young girls as a form of stress relief?”
“This is piling shame on shame…”
The poor man was getting bashed from all sides.
“I’m sorry for the trouble our dimwitted guild master has caused you.” The clerk who had come along earlier to advise the muscle-brained guild master stepped in again, this time to apologize to the Crimson Vow and the merchant girl. “But we would appreciate it if you all could give it a rest…”
“Huh?”
“Please. Give. It. A. Rest.”
There was a smile on the guild clerk’s face, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Y-y-y-yes, ma’am!” the members of the Crimson Vow promptly replied, their faces frozen in fear. The merchant girl said nothing.
To be fair, if her life as a merchant was riding on this opportunity, she wasn’t going to abandon her get-rich-quick scheme because some clerk had glared at her or threatened her. Even without so much at stake, no merchant would easily drop a profitable deal due to outside interference.
It was notable that none of the other merchants around had given much thought to the temporary oversupply of monster parts or the return to normal that followed. No doubt, they simply assumed that a high-ranked hunting party had stayed in town for a few days before moving on. Being the first to uncover the truth of the matter was a once-in-a-lifetime underdog victory for this girl. There was no way she was going to relinquish that advantage so easily. And so…
“Okay, how about we take our business discussion elsewhere? As a member of the Merchants’ Guild, the politics of the Hunters’ Guild aren’t really my concern.”
“Enooough!” the clerk and guild master yelled, matching blue veins popping out on both their foreheads.
Seeing this, the Crimson Vow determined that this clerk was just as bad as the guild master.
It was clear that this conversation would go nowhere as long as the guild and the girl refused to see eye to eye. And so, after assuring the leadership that they understood the reasons for the cap and would do their best not to inconvenience the guild, the Crimson Vow took the girl with them and left the Hunters’ Guild.
***
“So, can someone please explain to me why we’re traveling with this girl?”
“………”
Somehow, the greenhorn merchant girl, whose name was Arli, was still hanging around the Crimson Vow. And somehow, Mavis was the only one who had the good sense to think it was about time to get rid of her.
Reina and Pauline had both been seized by some inexplicable sense of duty—something along the lines of, As a would-be merchant myself, I can’t let this dangerous, delusional creature loose in the wild!
For Mile’s part, she simply thought the girl seemed interesting. Perhaps she was reminded of her friendless, socially awkward past-life self.
Granted, where Misato had trouble expressing herself, Arli had the habit of blurting out the most outrageous things, so they didn’t actually have that much in common… Still, the “friendless” aspect felt like strong enough grounds to make the connection.
In the end, Arli followed the girls all the way back to their inn.
“If you think it’s a bad idea to bypass the guild and flood the market with monster parts, I have other ways for you to make money!”
“Like what?” Pauline took the bait, her interest piqued by the mention of profit.
“We could start a delivery service! You girls are perfect for transporting heavy, bulky, and fragile goods. Just imagine, a mass transit system without the need for a wagon! Great idea, right?”
“Ah…”
“Mm…”
“Aww…”
“Huh?” Arli was taken aback by the Crimson Vow’s underwhelming reaction.
“We’re C-rank hunters, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Delivery jobs are a chore that either dedicated professionals or low-paid D-ranks and below do to make ends meet!”
“It would be downright shameful for a C-rank hunter to accept a job of that caliber. It’s tantamount to stealing work from professionals and newer hunters.”
“Storage magic means we can operate on a much bigger scale, sure, but that won’t change the rules of the industry.”
“Seriously…?”
A greenhorn merchant wouldn’t know much about the world of hunters, so it couldn’t be helped that her first idea was a bust. As for her next suggestion…
“Okay, what if you walked past a jewelry shop and stored their wares?”
“That’s a crime!”
“That’s just stealing!”
“We would never stoop that low!”
“Wow, I can’t believe I never thought of that before!”
“Pauline!”
“Pauline, please…”
Pauline’s friends shot her a frosty look.
“I-I was joking, you guys!” She rushed to defend herself, but they were all well aware that when a comment like came out of her mouth, it was no laughing matter. In a panic, she added, “Oh, come on, what kind of person do you think I am?!”
“A greedy miser.”
“A money-grubber.”
“Someone who would do anything for a profit.”
“The same kind as Arli,” all three of them said in unison.
“How could yooooou?!”
Pauline’s party definitely had her number. She sulked until Mile, worried that they had teased her too much, turned the conversation back to Arli.
“Why did you choose to become a merchant, Arli? I don’t think you’re cut out for it.”
Mile could be pretty rude sometimes. Most people wouldn’t say that to someone they had just met. If her sister from her past life were here, this was the part where she would have said, “See, this is your problem, Sis…”
“Because of my dad…”
“Oh, is he a merchant? You wanted to follow in his footsteps, then?”
“He said it was an easy way to make money without doing physical labor…”
“So he’s not?!”
“Apologize to merchants everywhere!!”
Mile was gobsmacked, while Reina and Pauline were furious.
This conversation wasn’t going anywhere.
Arli’s voice was getting lower and flatter, too. Her expression had gone blank, and she had none of her earlier pep. She was speaking more slowly and saying less.
“Why’d you get so subdued, deadpan, and untalkative all of a sudden?! What happened?!”
“This is the real me… I just force myself into character when I’m on the job. At this point, I’ve hit my limit.”
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”
Mile was right. This girl wasn’t cut out to be a merchant at all.
***
“You’re from the capital? Then why come all the way to this provincial town? Your average merchant would rather do business in the capital, I’d think,” said Mile. Reina and Pauline nodded along in agreement.
“It’s true,” Arli said. “All the savvy merchants born and raised in the suburbs head straight for the capital, leaving only the talentless hacks behind… So I figured it would be easier to rise to the top here.”
“………”
They understood the point she was trying to make. They could even understand where she was coming from on some level. But still…
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”
Understanding it and approving of it were two different things.
“Not all provincial merchants are idiots!”
“By your own logic, you’re a hack without the talent to make it in the capital!”
“And it certainly doesn’t seem like you’ve risen to the top here…”
“Ha ha…”
Arli was a force to be reckoned with. And not the type they could fight…
The whole party was starting to feel tired.
***
And the next day…
“Let’s do our best out there today!”
“Yeah!” came four voices in unison.
“……”
“………”
“…………”
“……………”
“Why do we have an extra person?!”
Yes. Four voices had responded to Reina’s rallying cry.
That was one too many.
What is this, the entrance exam for Galactic University?
As usual, Mile was thinking her weird thoughts.
“Now that it’s come to this, we have no choice but to expose the interloper in our—”
“It’s obviously Arli!” Reina cut in coldly.
Mile was devastated to have been robbed of her game of deduction.
“We’re about to go do our hunter work!” Reina began. “Why is a merchant like you tagging along?! Even if you were a hunter, there would be no reason for you to join us!”
“She’s right!” Pauline chimed in after Reina, her mood decidedly foul. “Plus, now that I think about it, you’re a merchant and a money-grubber! That’s stealing my whole gimmick! Are you out to jeopardize my position?!”
Oh, she didn’t notice the overlap until now… the other members of the Crimson Vow thought. And she admits she’s a money-grubber.
What’s more, Reina was also a self-styled merchant. If there were three merchants among five girls, their personas would start to blend together. Thanks to her strong personality, Reina didn’t seem too concerned about this prospect, but Pauline, who considered herself plain and unremarkable, considered it a huge dilemma.
Of course, as their resident big-boobed, black-hearted money-grubber, Pauline’s party considered her a strong personality in her own right…
“Well, I guess it’s not a problem for us if you come along. We’ve already advertised our storage magic to the rest of the Hunters’ Guild, and the only reason we were ranked so low before was because we were new registrants. We hunt orcs and ogres every time we go out, so everyone knows we have the skills of an upper C-rank to a B-rank… In fact, we are C-ranks now. If there’s a problem here, it’s whether you can brave the danger of the hunting grounds we like to frequent.”
Mile claimed Arli’s presence wouldn’t be a problem; however, the other members of the party weren’t so sure. It was a bad idea to let an outsider discover the true nature of Pauline’s hot magic—or rather, that it was possible to extract the pungent component known as capsaicin and use it for spells. Information like that was the trifecta of profitable, reproducible, and attractive to money-grubbers. But this had not occurred to Mile.
“Huh?” Fortunately, Arli had her own concerns upon hearing Mile’s description of the party’s hunting grounds.
Arli, who had apparently started out as a farmer’s daughter and worked her way up to merchant, obviously had no experience fighting monsters. There was no question that even a goblin or a kobold could take her out in a heartbeat. And the hunting grounds where the newly C-ranked Crimson Vow were headed was not the kind of newbie-friendly area where only slimes, goblins, or kobolds would appear. It definitely wasn’t a safe place to bring an ordinary girl who wasn’t even a hunter.
“O-on second thought, a merchant’s job is to buy and sell game and materials! Interfering with the work of those in another industry would be wrong of me!” Arli babbled, back in the “peppy” mode she supposedly adopted to act like a proper merchant. “I’ll be here eagerly awaiting your return!”
***
“What are we gonna do about her?” Reina grumbled as the group headed for the forest.
“I’m not sure how to answer that,” said Mavis, her expression equally pained.
“If we don’t want to cause problems for the guild and its hunters, we can’t break our promise to the guild master. Which means we also can’t exploit a loophole in the agreement by selling to the Merchants’ Guild or a small business. Even if we decided to do something like that, we’d just sell our stock directly. There’d be no reason to make her the middleman and give her a cut of the profits, right?”
“Yes, precisely! We already have a business manager—me!” Pauline seemed unwilling to back down on that point. “Besides, she’s just a small-time merchant who came to us hoping to take advantage of Mile’s storage. What do you think will happen if we take pity on her and let her exploit us like that?”
“All the small-time and greenhorn merchants in town will flock to us…” Mile sighed.
“No, worse,” Pauline shot back. “All the merchants and regular old money-grubbers will come swarming in. Why shouldn’t they? We’d be as good as a magic mallet that spits out super-profitable materials with a little pestering. If we don’t want to get dragged into trouble, we shouldn’t supply goods to anyone but the Hunters’ Guild, irrespective of any promises we’ve made. We should also avoid direct dealings with the Merchants’ Guild. I’m sure they’ve settled on a division of duties with the Hunters’ Guild, and they can’t resist the pressure from the more influential merchants. The Merchants’ Guild doesn’t enjoy the same freedom as the Hunters’ Guild.”
“Whoa…” Mile’s eyes widened, but she seemed to buy Pauline’s explanation. “So you’re saying we should totally ice Arli out and refuse to give her the time of day? I’d feel kind of bad about that. Didn’t she come to us after picking up on something that none of the other merchants did, convinced that her livelihood hung in the balance? I feel like we should honor her powers of investigation with at least an Outstanding Effort Award or a Passionate Performance Award, if not a Zojirushi Award…”
“As usual, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Reina, exasperated. (Though at least this time she could understand most of it—apart from the mysterious “Zojirushi Award.”)
“It doesn’t seem like any of the other merchants have caught on to us yet, so what if we helped her make some coin just this once before cutting her off?” Mile proposed.
“You’re too much of a pushover! Whatever our intentions, no merchant would let a perfectly good moneymaker go without a fight. She’d follow us around for the rest of our lives!”
That was a pretty convincing argument coming from Pauline.
“This is a problem,” said Reina.
“Quite a dilemma,” said Mavis.
“A real pickle,” agreed Mile and Pauline.
Were the average hunter to be plagued by someone who sniffed out their secrets, followed them around, and hounded them relentlessly, they would speedily dispose of their stalker in a discreet and efficient manner. Obviously, the Crimson Vow had no intention of doing that. And so…
“I stand by my earlier idea. Why don’t we give her a one-time wholesale of something valuable as a special gift, then say, ‘This is the first and last time. If you don’t like that, we’ll cancel the sale and cut you off now’? And we make it clear that we won’t be taking requests from anyone else after that, either,” Mile suggested.
“Hmm, maybe it’s not the worst idea… We don’t have any real obligation to do it, but I know you have a policy of rewarding hard workers. Sure, I’m fine with that. If we run into trouble afterwards, we can always just leave this town for the capital.”
“I have no objections.”
“If everyone else agrees, I don’t mind.”
Reina, Mavis, and Pauline were all on board with Mile’s plan.
“What if we sold her one of the rare, high-level monsters in Mile’s storage?” Mavis proposed. “That wouldn’t affect the market price of the other monsters, and it would probably bring in enough profit for her to rent a small storefront. Maybe then she’d be satisfied and concentrate on running her shop.”
“No way,” Reina argued. “She’d demand that we fork over more of those high-profit monsters and latch on to us harder than ever. Plus, the other merchants would come swarming as soon as they heard about it. We need to make it something she’ll know is a one-time thing.
“Worse, if people find out we’ve killed such high-level monsters before, they’ll get on our case about where and when we hunted them, the Crown will send an investigation team to look into it, and the whole thing will turn into a big to-do. Since a lone monster can’t just appear out of thin air, they’ll assume there are at least a few dozen packs living in the area. As a natural consequence, it will become public knowledge that we killed them, and that we did it as a party of four young girls with no backers aside from the Hunters’ Guild. And when that happens…”
“Oh man…”
Reina didn’t have to finish that sentence.
“Plus,” Pauline added, “if the regional or royal army is sent in, the local population is agitated, and the operations of hunters in the area are restricted, all to deal with the threat of some high-level monsters that don’t even exist, we’ll be disrupting the lives of an inordinate number of people. If it comes out later that we were lying, we’ll have to pay exorbitant damages, and we’ll be taken into the custody of either the Crown or the local lord and put to work however they see fit.”
“Good point. Though at least it would serve the kingdom much better to keep our handy four-man cell as compliant combat slaves than to send us to the mines,” Mile said with her usual optimism.
All four of them agreed on this before losing themselves in thought for a time.
“Oh, I know! How about a sea serpent?” Mile suggested. “That way, no one would ask where we hunted it or if there are schools of them around. And since the materials don’t appear on the market, we wouldn’t have to worry about a price collapse. No matter how many of them we hunt or how the price fluctuates, no one else would be inconvenienced. And if she wants more, we can tell her to go hunt one herself, ’cause we refuse to brave that danger again.”
“Great idea!” the other members of the party concurred.
Sure enough, no hunter alive would brave the open sea in a tiny fishing boat just to hunt sea serpents, so the only time the materials were ever in stock was when a dead one happened to wash up on the beach, and by that point, most of its flesh and skin would have rotted or been eaten by marine life, leaving its bones and teeth as the only usable resources.
Even that only happened once every few years or so. Sea serpent materials were exceedingly rare.
Everyone knew where to go to hunt the creatures. Yet it was far too dangerous a hunting ground, and far too dangerous a prey, to tell a hunter to go back there and slay some more.
“I like it. The only question is, how do we get out to sea?” asked Reina.
The other three froze. “Ah…”
Sure, they had slain a bunch of sea serpents with ease one time, but that was because they had Kragon for transportation and the ship as a platform to fight on.
They didn’t need Kragon, but they did need a ship. Mile could fly if she had to, but that still left the other three, the fight, and the retrieval of their catch to worry about.
It was hard to imagine any fisherman lending his boat for such a risky venture. A boat was a fisherman’s fortune. It was perhaps as valuable as a house in a prime urban location would be to a modern Japanese person.
A fisherman’s boat was his very soul. A precious asset to pass on to his son when he took over the business. Who would take that out to sea to indulge the nonsense of some little girls from out of town who wanted to hunt sea serpents?
Only a fool would agree to something like that.
***
“All right, I’m in!”
“How stupid are you?!”
By some miracle, an old fisherman had taken them up on their reckless proposal. He was about sixty years old, give or take.
“I’ve lived a long life! I was already thinkin’ of taking my partner out for a voyage instead of withering away and burdening my loved ones. My son just built himself a new ship, so he gave me back my old faithful. It’s no loss to anyone if a battered old geezer and a battered old boat go down together! And to do it alongside four pretty ladies is a luxury not even the highest of nobles could afford. I’ll ascend straight to heaven, no doubt about that!”
Sixty was pretty old in this world. Appendicitis and pneumonia killed people all the time, and more died in childbirth than in war—both babies and mothers. Plus, poor nutrition meant that people aged quickly. A fisherman’s skin was especially prone to cracking and wrinkling from decades of exposure to the tides and sun.
Anyone who could live to this man’s age and leave behind children and grandchildren would have no regrets. Indeed, it could even be joyful to escape the ugliness of old age through a glorious end.
“No fair, Viral!”
“I want that job!”
“You don’t even have a boat!”
“Please, take me with you!”
When the old men who had overheard their conversation began to crowd around them, the situation quickly got out of hand.
The Crimson Vow had returned to the first fishing village they had visited after arriving on this new continent. Upon arrival, the old men from the welcome feast had gathered to say hi, providing the perfect opportunity for them to ask around to see if there were any foolhardy fishermen who happened to own a boat. This was the outcome.
“We’re not heading off to our deaths! If you’re looking to die, please do it on your own! As young girls with bright futures ahead of us, we have no interest in going down with you!”
“Wa ha ha, fair point!”
“Wa ha ha ha ha!” roared the whole crowd.
And so the girls secured a boat and a helmsman.
But at what cost?
***
The fishing boat left the harbor and headed out to sea. It was a small boat with only a single triangular sail, but there was still plenty of room for the Crimson Vow to fight. All the spoils could go into Mile’s storage (a.k.a. inventory), so there was no need to worry about running out of space. The vessel was designed to be propelled by a combination of oars and sail, but thanks to the Vow’s wind magic, the sail would be playing a much larger role on this journey.
Of course, it wasn’t feasible to keep the wind magic going for the entire voyage, but it was handy to have for setting sail, docking, and other such key moments.
And as for the rowing part…
“You girls are somethin’ else!”
“Either of you wanna marry my grandson?”
“Ha ha…”
Indeed. Loath to leave the grueling task of rowing the boat to a bunch of old men, Mile and Mavis had volunteered for the job…but they were a little too good at it.
Mile’s strength went without saying, and Mavis had a mechanical left arm and a body modified to withstand the recoil of its output. This was not to mention strength-enhancing magic that went by the name of “spirit power.” The men, who took pride in their well-toned bodies despite their old age, were shocked to find that the girls’ combined powers far surpassed their own.
“There wouldn’t be a point!” Reina snapped. “No matter how good a fisherman’s wife is at rowing, she’s stuck at home taking care of the house!”
“Good point…”
For a moment there, the old men seemed almost convinced. But then—
“Wait, but what if they pass their strength on to our great-grandchildren?”
“Great idea!”
“I have no plans to get married in the foreseeable future!”
On board were the four members of the Crimson Vow and four retired fishermen, including the boat’s owner, an old man named Viral. The old men had come along to, in their own words, “balance the ratio of girls to escorts.” Supposedly, there was a “fishermen’s version” of Valhalla, where all the brave warriors who died at sea were summoned after death.
The Crimson Vow had no desire to end up in an afterlife like that, but they refrained from saying so. It didn’t matter, since they had no intention of dying, anyway.
***
As the boat headed out to sea…
“Ready the line!”
“Heave ho!”
“Huh? We’re going to use a longline to catch a sea serpent?” asked Mile, skeptical.
“Oh, nah, there’s just no telling when we’re gonna come under attack. Since we’ve made it all the way out to the open sea, we figure we might as well see what’s lurking in these virgin fishing grounds! It’s a fisherman’s lifelong ambition—his dream—to fish out on the ocean where sea serpents abound. It couldn’t hurt to make that dream come true at the very end!”
“Oh. Cool.”
Mile was somewhat familiar with the concept of male dreams and ambitions. Mavis also bobbed her head in understanding.
Of course, this longline wasn’t like the ones found on Earth, which could have a mainline anywhere from several kilometers long to over a hundred. It was a single rope a few dozen meters in length. In fact, it was an entirely different type of fishing gear from anything used in this world and known by a different term in the local language—“longline” was really just the closest Japanese equivalent.
***
“We’ve got something! Urgh… B-blast, either it’s a big one or a bunch of medium-sized fishies took the bait all at once… It’s too heavy to reel in! A little help here!”
Though only one longline had been used, several snoods were attached to the mainline so that a large number of fish could be caught at once. Instead of letting the line sit for a while before retrieving it, the men had tried to pull it up immediately after casting; however, since they were quite literally out on the open ocean, where the fish population was still abundant, they already had a significant catch. With either an unexpectedly large fish or too many smaller ones on the line, the call went out for all hands on deck.
A total of six people—the four old men, plus Mile and Mavis—struggled to pull up the mainline with all their might. There was no handy electric winch to help them. They had no choice but to put some elbow grease into it, all the while watching out for the bait hooks that had no fish on them.
Mile was strong, but she weighed very little. And since the deck of the boat was slippery and wet, it was hard for her feet to get purchase.
In short, it was difficult to exert her full strength.
With her left arm to aid her, Mavis contributed more to the effort.
Reina and Pauline were out of the game from the start. Staying out of the way would be more helpful than anything else.
***
It took an awfully long time to reel in just a few dozen meters of line.
At long last, piles of caught fish lay before an exhausted heap of old men. The small ones were somewhere around thirty centimeters, while the larger ones were over two meters long. Some had been even bigger than that, but those had been plucked directly from the sea into Mile’s storage rather than hoisted onto the deck.
The ones that were poisonous or otherwise inedible were released back into the sea, save for those whose skin and teeth could be sold as materials. These were no goblins. Even fish that weren’t useful to humans could play a role in the balance of nature, so it would be wrong to kill them for no reason.
“Whew! Would ya take a look at this?!”
“I see silver salmon, rainbow tuna, and marlins…”
“Why, I haven’t seen a rainbow tuna this big in decades!”
“I’m glad I could make a catch like this at the very end…”
“I CAN END MY LIFE AS A FISHERMAN WITH NO REGRETS!!” all four men chorused.
“Um, hello? Sorry to break up the excitement, but our goal here isn’t to catch regular fish.”
The boat charter fee, labor costs, and even the extra money to cover the hazards of the voyage had all been paid in advance, but the old men’s chances of survival were so slim that they had given the money to their families. Their loved ones had wept, but no one had tried to hold them back. There was no stopping an old man who was on his way to perform his swan song. Surely that’s what they were all thinking.
It was just that kind of world, and a fishing village was just that kind of place.
“Our catches and bait have bled quite a bit. Our guests should be here any moment now. Everyone, please huddle in the corner and assume a defensive position! Reina, Pauline, prepare for battle!”
With these words, Mile cleared the deck, storing all the catches, lines, and other obstacles that she had left out to let the old men savor the moment.
It was time for a player substitution. Reina and Pauline gave up their spot in the corner to the old men and proceeded to the center of the deck.
Though the fishing boat was small, there was still ample space for four girls to fight. This was especially true since the enemies wouldn’t be joining the fight on the deck; rather, the girls would strike the serpents down as they rose from the water. Mile and Mavis were also the only ones wielding swords, while Reina and Pauline barely had to swing or move their limbs at all. There was plenty of room to work with.
“Here it comes! Starboard, two o’clock, thirty meters away and ten meters deep! A swarm of long and slender monsters is approaching at high speed!”
Naturally, Mile was using search magic. Otherwise, any attack from the water would qualify as an ambush.
Letting the old men die or sinking the ship were not options. The girls had to vanquish the enemy forces before they could bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. If their opponents were ordinary serpents with sinuous bodies, that would be one thing, but if they were pointy like swordfish and strong enough to pierce wooden planks, things could get ugly fast.
Thus, Mile’s role in all this was to protect the old men and, if she detected enemies gunning for the keel of the ship with her search magic, to erect a barrier. Whatever strength she had left could then go toward killing the sea serpents.
Reina could also put up a barrier, but she wasn’t as skilled as Mile; she could only surround herself and those around her—though that would still suffice in this scenario. That said, if she put up a barrier, she couldn’t attack from inside of it, and maintaining the shield would prevent her from using other types of magic, so it would exclude her from the strike force. As such, Reina had no plans to play defense unless the enemy forced them into a precarious position.
“If it’s the same type of serpent we fought when we first came to this continent, we should be fine,” said Mile.
Sea serpents were rarely seen in their entirety, and the testimonies of the few survivors of attacks were unreliable, so the creatures had yet to be properly classified. As a result, almost all giant, slender sea-dwelling monsters were called “sea serpents,” and you had no way of knowing what you were up against until you encountered one. The smaller, serpentine ones they’d fought last time had been manageable, but if these turned out to be some wannabe Jörmungandr or what would be called Chinese dragons on Earth, they might prove too much for even the Crimson Vow.
The civilization of this world had once been quite advanced, so Mile wanted to believe that no monsters so extraordinary or mythical existed, but…
I mean, we do have elder dragons… And since the sea serpents probably came here during the interdimensional invasion long ago, it wouldn’t surprise me if some gigantic ones had been part of the initial group of monsters to make their way here. It could be that survivors or their descendants are still around—say, for example, some long-lived species of sea-dwelling monster, or a giant type that has continued to breed quietly in the unchanging sea…
Even while she was thinking all this, Mile still made sure to stay attentive to the task at hand.
“The enemy is rocketing to the surface! They’re poised to bypass the bottom of the ship and come at us from both sides! Prepare to intercept in five, four, three, two, one…now!!”
With a splash, several slender figures shot up from either side of the ship and towered overhead.
The monsters’ heads snapped forward as they lunged at the people aboard the ship.
Slash!
Chop!
Thud!
One was cut down by a sword and a Water Cutter.
Another was felled by an exploding fireball. As there was no danger of a fire spreading at sea, Reina had used her specialty magic. She was confident enough in her aim that she would never screw up and burn the ship by accident.
From the looks of it, these sea serpents were different from the ones that the Crimson Vow had fought before—their bodies were a bit fatter and they had more sinister-looking heads, with glinting eyes and sharp rows of teeth.
Slash!
Chop!
Thud!
Slash!
Chop!
Thud!
Slash!
Chop!
Thud!
The Crimson Vow’s three-man cell fired off the same string of attacks over and over again.
Every now and then, the slash of Mile’s sword was added to the mix, mostly whenever the sea serpents aimed their attacks at the old fishermen.
As Mile was responsible for protecting the ship’s keel with her barrier, it looked like she was taking it easy, but her mind was perpetually occupied with her search magic.
Sea serpents piled up one after another on the deck, while others floated on the surface of the surrounding sea. Anything that looked liable to get in the way or sink to the ocean floor, Mile collected in her storage.
On the deck, a number of sea serpents that hadn’t quite died before being retrieved were writhing and thrashing about.
Next thing the girls knew, the old men were joining the fight against the monsters, harpoons and files in hand.
“It’s too dangerous! You should stay back—”
“This is for my brother! Take that! And that!”
“You’ll pay for taking my father from me!”
“Gimme back my soooon!”
“This is the harpoon Johan left behind! I’ll take revenge for him here and now!”
“………”
Is this why the fishermen were so interested in such a dangerous fishing trip? It also explains why it was so easy to pick the members for the group, when so many people seemed eager to go…
Anyone who had been in the fishing business for decades was bound to have seen monsters stray into inland waters. And then there were those fishermen who had gotten greedy and taken their boats too far offshore.
In the same way, men who had been fishing their whole lives were also bound to have lost beloved family and friends…
Even if these monsters weren’t the same ones that had taken the lives of their loved ones, a sea serpent was a sea serpent. These men had clung to the hope that they would one day get their revenge…
They didn’t actually want to die at all. But killing a sea serpent in a final blaze of glory would be worth throwing away what little remained of their lives.
“These fishermen have waited a long time for this, haven’t they? For the day when they could finally give their lives to strike back at the sea serpents.”
No one could find the words to respond to Mavis, but the chanting of attack spells and the sounds of swords slicing through the air filled the silence.
And not a single one of the girls tried to stop the old men from putting themselves in harm’s way.
***
“It’s over,” said Mile. At her words, everyone on board finally stopped what they were doing.
Both the deck and all the crew’s clothes were sticky, slimy, and stained red with the sea serpents’ blood and mucus.
“Clean!”
Mile cleaned everyone up with a spell, then stowed the dead monsters in her inventory. She also cleaned the deck while she was at it.
After that came healing the old men. This part probably ought to have come before the cleaning, but it was possible Mile had good reason to prioritize hygiene, so her party members didn’t feel the need to comment.
Even as Mile cast her cleaning magic on them, the old men stood there motionless. Every single one of them was sobbing, letting tears flow freely down their cheeks…
“Would you like to do a little more sea serpent hunting?” Mile asked. “And after that, we could use the longline to catch a bunch of rainbow tuna to bring back to the village.”
At first, no one reacted to her proposal.
Gradually, however, the old men lifted their heads and wiped their eyes, the expressions on their faces warping from ones of sorrow to smiles.
“Yeah!”
“Bring it on!” they shouted.
***
A small fishing boat sailed toward a dock in a small fishing village, one so humble it could not truly be called a harbor. The boat’s triangular sail billowed in a magical wind, and two flags flew from its mast.
One was a flag indicating they had caught a big haul of fish—what is commonly known as a tairyo-bata flag.
The other was a victory flag, signifying the defeat of a sworn enemy. It had been nearly twenty years since this flag had last flown from a village ship.
Though it was still some distance away, the villagers spotted the boat returning from its raid on the open sea—along with the two flags fluttering above its mast.
News spread, and the entire village gathered at the harbor to await the ship’s arrival.
On board, Mile had loaded the deck with sea serpents, rainbow tuna, silver salmon, marlins, and all other manner of fish. As many as she could fit without sinking the boat…
And then…
“Three cheers for the raiding ship! Hip, hip, hooray!”
The villagers cheered, and the women began to head home before the boat had even docked, eager to begin the preparations for a village-wide feast.
Coastal dwellers had good eyesight. From the tairyo-bata and the piles of fish on the deck, they could see that the haul included not only their long-time nemeses the sea serpents but also a large number of gourmet fish.
At the dock, the village chief belatedly called for a village-wide feast and announced that alcohol would be served from the village’s stockpile.
A group of just four old retired fishermen and four little girls from out of town had made an all-too-reckless venture into the open sea. What’s more, they had gone looking for sea serpents, not fish.
Clearly, these were four girls with a death wish…and four old men who weren’t much different.
No one could bear to stop them, but everyone had seen the group off expecting it to be a final farewell. Yet against all the odds, they had come back alive…and come back victorious, with an enormous haul!
Tears of joy streamed down the faces of the village chief and his people.
***
The next morning, exhausted from celebrating with the villagers all night long, the Crimson Vow got ready to leave for the port city they had made their home base. The villagers had strongly encouraged them to stay for a while, but the girls had the hunch that tonight was going to be yet another feast. Since the village now had mountains of perishable fish in supply, it only made sense to concentrate on consuming those rather than going out and fishing more… The Crimson Vow decided to get out before they overindulged in the festivities.
Before leaving, Mile asked her four new comrades-in-arms, “Are you sure you don’t want to keep one of the sea serpents as a trophy?”
“Yeah, we’re sure. We can’t possibly dry such a large catch. Even if we wanted to keep one, it’d just rot,” one of the old men replied, a touch wistfully.
“Huh? Sure we can. It’s easy with magic.”
“YOU CAN?!”
Mile proceeded to dry—or maybe “mummify” would be the right word—one sea serpent for each of the men, magically draining the water from the monsters’ bodies. She took requests as to how the serpents should be posed before she began the drying process, and her ability to make them look cool without taking up too much space was a testament to her attention to detail.
After that, the Crimson Vow departed the village…
With the old men in tow.
“Sorry to impose! It’s tough to carry our share into town to sell, and it’s easy to damage the goods. With such a big ol’ haul, it’s easier to sell it wholesale to the Merchants’ Guild than to each shop individually, even if it means the price takes a little hit. We’d sure appreciate it if you little ladies would deliver these goods straight to the Merchants’ Guild for us!”
“Ha ha, I imagine so! Sure, don’t sweat it. We’re headed back to town anyway, so we won’t be going out of our way!”
Seeing as this dangerous mission could easily have resulted in the loss of their boat and their lives, the fishermen had received half of the successful haul as a completion bonus, in addition to the gold coins paid up front. If the men wanted to take their reward into town to be exchanged for coins, Mile didn’t see an issue with carrying it in her “storage” for them.
And so, all four old men, eager to brag about their exploits in town, decided to accompany the Crimson Vow. To be fair, it was dangerous to walk home carrying a lot of money, so the more people in the group, the better. The four men together should be safe. Not many would have the guts to attack a bunch of men who were quite buff for their old age, brandishing harpoons and casting menacing looks.
Poke. Poke.
Everyone was all smiles. There were no problems at—
Poke. Poke.
“What is it, Reina?! Why do you keep poking me in the back?” Mile turned around, only to find a somewhat conflicted look on Reina’s face. “Huh? What’s wrong?”
Pauline muttered, “Remind us again why we went hunting for sea serpents?”
“Huh? Well, uh, you know… Oh, right! We wanted to help Arli make a little profit as a severance of sorts, so we decided to bring her one…sea serpent…because those rarely appear on the market…”
“……”
“And as we speak, these old fishermen are on their way to sell their vast supply of fish through the Merchants’ Guild,” said Reina. “Along with a huge quantity of sea serpents…”
“………”
“…………”
“Our whole plan is ruined!” the girls cried.
The Crimson Vow had won the battle but lost the war.
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