Chapter 137:
Onward to the Capital
“I’D SAY IT’S ABOUT TIME.”
“You’re right.”
“Agreed!”
“Yes…”
“…sirree, Bob!” Reina, Pauline, and Mavis all finished.
“Aww, man! I was going to say that!” Mile fumed, annoyed that her friends had beat her to the punch.
“We’ve driven that joke into the ground,” groused Reina. “Who the heck is Bob, anyway?”
“Isn’t it time we found new material?” suggested Mavis.
“Probably. We’ve been regurgitating that line ever since we first met,” said Pauline. “Some people seem to think that anything can become a running gag if you repeat it a hundred times, but at this point, it’s just obnoxious.”
“Ouch…!” Mile was severely bummed out to hear her attempts at humor summarily dismissed.
“Whatever. Who cares about this kind of stupid stuff?” said Reina. “Let’s get back on topic.”
“This kind of…st-stupid…stuff?”
“Sorry, no offense! Anyway, as I was saying, it’s about time we moved on from this town.”
“You could at least try to sound like you mean that apology!”
“Argh! Get over it already!” Reina snapped at Mile, clearly out of patience. Mavis and Pauline seemed to be on Reina’s side, as they made no effort to defend their friend.
“Moving on! We decided to stay in this town for a few reasons. First: So we could learn about this continent and pick up enough cultural knowledge to pass ourselves off as country bumpkins, rather than total outsiders. Second: We wanted to save up some local currency, as well as establish our reputation in the countryside before heading to the capital. We’ve definitely accomplished our first two goals, and I’d say we’ve made a name for ourselves in this particular town. I think it’s high time we moved on to the capital. We aren’t likely to find any more interesting jobs around these parts, right?”
“Right,” agreed Mile. “At this point, it’s safe to say that the differences in language are minor enough that we can play off any oddities in our speech as part of a rural accent. We should be good to go.”
Even within modern Japan or America, regional dialects were sometimes distinct enough to render one’s speech incomprehensible to a listener from another part of the country. The language differences between the old and new continent were limited to a handful of differing pronunciations or terms, making them much more manageable by comparison.
“Good point. As Mile often likes to put it, ‘This town has nothing left to teach us.’”
“Exactly. And so…”
“Off we go to the capital!” the girls chorused.
***
“So there you have it. We’re heading out for the capital.”
The Crimson Vow had come to say their goodbyes to the Hunters’ Guild.
“NOOOOOOOO!!” shouted the guild staff and on-site hunters. Clearly, they were less than thrilled to hear this news.
“W-wait! Stop right there! Let’s head upstairs to see the guild master!” the clerk insisted, her face white as a ghost.
***
The members of the Crimson Vow were taken straight to the guild master’s office on the second floor. Clearly, the staff feared that if they asked them to wait, the talented young hunters might simply slip through their fingers.
When the clerk relayed the news of the girls’ impending departure, the guild master’s response was to shout at the top of his lungs. “They whaaaat?!”
After what had happened with the staff downstairs, the members of the Crimson Vow weren’t necessarily surprised by his reaction.
But then…
“Ack. I’m sorry for yelling, ladies. So you’re finally leaving our town, huh? Guess it was about time…”
“Huh?!” all four girls blurted out.
“Hm? What’s up?”
The girls were confused by the rapid change in the guild master’s response to their news. He appeared equally puzzled by their confusion.
Mavis faltered. “Er, it’s just…”
“You thought I’d freak out more? That I’d try to keep you here?” the guild master asked with a knowing smile.
“Well, yes.”
“How many years do you think I’ve been in the business? This isn’t the first time I’ve watched young hunters grow up and leave this town for the capital. That’s just a part of life around these parts,” he explained. “Sure, I tried to keep you girls here in the beginning. I’d never live it down if I let a promising bunch of newbies looking to register as hunters run off on me. It helps us to have folks around who’ve got high job completion rates or who bring in a lot of money. But you’re all full-fledged C-ranks now, and you’ve already made both us and the Merchants’ Guild a fortune. Not to mention, we don’t have any jobs left that’d interest you, right?”
“Um, right,” Mavis replied.
The guild master shrugged. “It is what it is. There are two types of hunters: those who just want to put food on their family’s table, and those who are chasing their dreams and aiming for the top. The former will settle down in any old town, pick out the least dangerous jobs, and make a steady living. Most of the older hunters in our town fall into that category. Hunters of the latter sort will either leave for the capital or embark on a training journey. Believe me, nobody here ever expected you gals to stick around. We’re used to all the promising youngsters taking off.”
“………”
Although the guild master was smiling, he still looked a little disappointed. Maybe even sad.
“Did you already swing by the Merchants’ Guild?”
“No. That’s next on our list.”
“Ah… Well, whatever they say, don’t let it get to you.”
“Huh? Uh, sure.”
***
“NOOOOOOOO!!”
When the Crimson Vow shared their news with the clerk at the Merchants’ Guild, they were met with a chorus of protests—not just from the clerk but from all the guild employees and merchants present.
It didn’t seem to matter that the Crimson Vow had not intended to make a general announcement. At the Hunters’ Guild, they were among colleagues and partners, so it had felt only fitting to bid their farewells to the room at large. Here, however, they had no personal connection to the merchants and had chosen to deliver their message to the clerk alone. Still, this was the result.
Apparently, word had already gotten around of the Crimson Vow’s role in a certain mass delivery of premium fish and sea serpents. A few of the guild members had already been keeping an eye on the party and had no trouble confirming their suspicions when the latest catch had arrived.
This was no surprise. It would have been impossible to pull such a dramatic stunt and hope to escape the eyes of a group of merchants intent on tracking the flow of every penny in town.
“Wait! Stop!!”
Unlike at the Hunters’ Guild, the girls were not brought to the guild master’s office on the second floor. Instead, as soon as the guild master was notified, he came bounding down the stairs, begging them not to leave. He was a potbellied man in his late forties, the perfect portrait of “moderately successful merchant.”
That was, in fact, an accurate description of who he was. He was fair, honest, capable, and just a little bit crafty. Exactly the right kind of person to work as the guild master of a Merchants’ Guild.
“Don’t go! Please don’t go!!”
Barreling down the stairs, he used his momentum to fling himself at Reina, evidently under the impression that she was the party leader.
The Crimson Vow groaned with dismay. Suddenly, they understood what the other guild master had been warning them about.
The dramatic difference in reactions between the Hunters’ Guild and the merchants was indicative of the differing roles of the two institutions. The Hunters’ Guild was established as a sort of mutual aid society for hunters. It certainly needed to turn a profit in order to provide generous benefits to both its staff and members, but its primary goal wasn’t to bring in bottomless riches. It was there to protect hunters and facilitate their activities. Thus, the organization would never tie hunters down out of sheer self-interest.
In contrast, the purpose of the Merchants’ Guild was to facilitate the activities of its participating merchants…the crux of which was making a profit.
And so, the Merchants’ Guild wanted only one thing from the Crimson Vow.
“I’m begging you, don’t leave our town!!”
Yes. That.
The guild master got on his knees and wrapped his arms around Reina’s waist. She desperately tried to shake him off, but she couldn’t quite seem to wriggle free.
“Get off me!”
A potbellied, middle-aged man clinging to a teenage girl was a scandal just waiting to happen. Feeling profoundly disgusted, Reina tried everything she could think of to extricate herself, but not even whapping him on the head with her staff could get him to let go.
“Shoo! Shoo! Oh, wait, I know!” Reina grinned as she was struck with a brilliant idea. “I’m just a rank-and-file party member. I don’t have the authority to make any decisions. Mavis over there is our leader!”
“Huh?” said the guild master and Mavis in unison.
And then, the guild master turned his pleading gaze on Mavis.
“R-R-R-Reina, how could you?!”
Mavis shot her fellow hunter a look of wide-eyed astonishment, clearly horrified that her so-called friend had not hesitated to throw her under the bus.
In that moment, the guild master launched himself at Mavis. And while Reina had the option to beat him back with her staff, Mavis couldn’t very well do the same with her sword.
“No! Stay back!!”
***
“M-my apologies…”
“You should be sorry! Accosting a young girl in public?! Have some shame! Er, well, not to say that you should be doing it behind closed doors, either…”
In an attempt to keep things civil, Pauline was speaking on behalf of her fellow party members. Honestly, it wasn’t clear whether this had made much of a difference. Then again, Reina and Mavis looked absolutely furious, so it was probably better not to let either of them do the talking.
Reina losing her temper was an everyday occurrence, but it was unusual to see the mild-mannered Mavis seething like this. Still, her reaction was to be expected. After all, she was an unmarried noblewoman. Had her family witnessed that little incident, her father and brothers likely would have flown into a rage and cut the guild master down where he stood. Violating an aristocrat’s personal space was a serious offense…which wasn’t to say that it would have been any more appropriate if the girl were a commoner, of course.
Had the victim been an employee of the Merchants’ Guild, the fallout would have been limited to internal concerns about sexual harassment or abuse of authority, but it was worse because the Crimson Vow were hunters, not to mention clients who had directly delivered goods without going through the Hunters’ Guild. Pauline made sure to call him out on that point, too.
“I-I really am sorry!!”
“Very well, then. Why don’t we find a way for you to demonstrate your remorse?” A beat. “Wait, never mind! We didn’t come to strike a deal this time, so there’s no need to establish dominance! I almost forgot!”
About half of the merchants present seemed perplexed by Pauline’s instinctive guile, while the other half looked impressed. Those reactions aside, they knew that his shameful display was simply the guild master’s way of fighting tooth and nail for his guild and the local merchants. Nobody felt the urge to laugh at him. On the contrary, seeing him stand up for their interests—to the point of bowing and scraping before girls no older than his own children—made them hold him in higher esteem and confidence than ever before.
Still, the guild master regretted disgracing himself in front of such a large crowd. In hindsight, he wished he’d at least invited the girls to his office.
Coming to meet the Crimson Vow instead of bringing the party to him had actually been part of his strategy. He had thought that, if the confrontation happened behind closed doors, he would have to persuade the girls all on his own. Out here, he would have the other employees and merchants to back him up.
That assumption hadn’t turned out to be wrong, exactly, but these girls were young, ambitious hunters. No number of merchants begging them to consider their bottom line or the needs of an organization they didn’t belong to was going to persuade them to give up on their dreams and throw away their futures.
***
The merchants made their attempt to convince the Crimson Vow, but even when the employees and merchants joined their guild master, they could not sway the hunters. If, say, a child’s life were on the line, that would be one thing, but the only thing threatened here was some merchants’ thirst for money.
Only Pauline, who had gone from the daughter of a merchant to a full-fledged business owner, understood where the merchants were coming from. Yet this did nothing to shift the balance in the guild’s favor. After all, she would never even consider putting herself at a disadvantage for someone else’s profit.
Finally, the Crimson Vow brushed them all aside and left the Merchants’ Guild behind.
They made the rounds of their go-to eateries, grocery stores, and blacksmiths to say their fond farewells. With that out of the way…
“Let’s take a detour and stop by the fishing village. We can stock up on seafood before we head out for the capital,” Mile suggested. “We’re not in any rush to get there, so we can take the journey nice and slow, picking up any fun jobs we find along the way.”
The rest of the party whooped in approval, though none of them truly expected to encounter any interesting requests on the road from a provincial town to the capital.
Still, it’s human nature to hold out hope for something good, no matter how low the odds.
***
“NOOOOOOOO!!”
The villagers gave the Crimson Vow a warm welcome back, only to have their hearts broken upon hearing that the girls were only making a brief stop before moving on to the capital.
The villagers were used to saying goodbye to hunters. Throughout the village’s history, it had not been uncommon for the occasional seafood-loving hunters to show up or even make a habit of visiting. They, too, always left for somewhere else eventually. (Well, a few of them hadn’t left so much as simply never made it back again, if you follow…)
Still, the Crimson Vow weren’t any old hunters. Their accents and diction were a bit odd, but these four girls had bestowed upon the village both their biggest-ever catch and the honor of hoisting the victory flag—a symbol of their triumph over those accursed sea serpents. So long as the girls stuck around, the villagers had been convinced they could relive the glory of raiding the open sea. As a result, the villagers—and especially the old men—were not taking the Crimson Vow’s news well.
But then, Mile snuck behind her party’s back and told the villagers—with the request that they keep it a secret from the rest of the Crimson Vow—that she would come back on her own eventually. She also shared that she had plans to build them an iron-hulled ship so they could make their voyage without her in the future. They would have to take care of the outfitting on their own, including rigging the mast and sails, but this promise was all it took to breathe the life back into them. In fact, they might have been even more pumped than before.
Who could blame them? Despite their hopes, they’d had no way of knowing if the Crimson Vow would ever help them out again. Now, they had been all but guaranteed a second voyage.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party were left scratching their heads over how abruptly the villagers had rebounded.
“Anyway, before we head off to the capital, we’d like to stock up on as many marine products as we can. We’ll take whatever you’ve got—fish, shellfish, seaweed, sea cucumbers, octopi, squid—you name it!”
“Uh…”
The villagers’ first response was to gape, but all of them knew about Mile’s absurd storage capacity, and the old men had spent enough time around her to likely guess that she could somehow keep its contents fresh—not that they planned to go running their mouths about that.
“What we’ve got on hand ain’t gonna cut it. We’ll rally our forces for a fishing trip and scrape together as much as we can this evening and first thing tomorrow morning. The women and kids can spend that time gathering up shellfish and seaweed. You girls’d better spend the night! We’ll make tonight your big send-off celebration!”
“If you insist,” said the Crimson Vow, cheerfully resigned to this slight delay.
The girls should have seen this coming. Sure, this was a fishing village, but the residents had no way to preserve perishable goods, so they couldn’t keep a huge inventory of seafood on hand at all times. Any bulk orders would need to be placed several days in advance.
“As for the fish,” Mile piped in, “we’d rather have different types than the ones we caught last time. We’re looking for some smaller species to fill the gaps in our stock.”
“………”
Even assuming the four old fishermen already had their suspicions about her abilities, Mile definitely shouldn’t have said that. She had as good as confessed to the entire village that the Crimson Vow’s half of the haul was still sitting unsold in her storage and that those fish still hadn’t gone bad.
Uh-oh! thought her fellow party members, flying into a panic. But then…
“All right, folks, let’s get crackin’!”
“Aye aye, sir!”
Huh?
The villagers’ attitude hadn’t changed whatsoever.
On second thought, maybe the Crimson Vow didn’t have anything to worry about. From the moment the villagers saw Mile take out that enormous pile of fish and sea serpents, they knew that her storage was something out of the ordinary. A few additional perks wouldn’t make much difference in their eyes. It was comparable to learning that someone you thought had a fortune of fifty billion yen actually had a net worth of sixty billion. Most people wouldn’t think anything deeper than Oh, huh.
The category of things that transcended common sense had no upper bound. S-rank hunters were a good example of this—no one could wrap their heads around the idea of skills greater than theirs. Besides, the villagers were aware of the taboo on cross-examining hunters, and not a single one of them had any intention of betraying their benefactors—particularly since they knew that the girls would never come back if they leaked their secrets.
In short, Mile’s slipup was no problem.
Yes, no problem at all…
***
The next morning, the Crimson Vow hit the road, the villagers waving goodbye in the background.
“We appreciate the hospitality!” Mavis thanked the villagers on behalf of the party.
Mile’s inventory was now filled with all the things they hadn’t managed to catch on their previous voyage: fish smaller than fifty centimeters long, a variety of shellfish and seaweed, octopi, and squid.
The squid and octopi apparently didn’t sell well in the port city, so the fishermen were grateful to the party for taking those off their hands. Granted, when the girls followed up with a request for some sea cucumbers, even the villagers had looked a bit disgusted.
In any case, the Crimson Vow’s current stock was enough to tide them over for their journey further inland.
And if they did ever run out, all Mile had to do was use her cavorite magic to fall horizontally and come back for more.
“We’re finally off to the capital, huh?”
“This is the start of a new legend!” crowed Reina. “We’re going to make a name for ourselves on this continent and work our way back up to S-rank!”
“Uh, won’t that mean we have to leave again?” Mavis pointed out.
“Oh,” all three of her companions gasped.
“G-good point,” Reina conceded.
Mile and Pauline, meanwhile, couldn’t keep a lid on their desires.
“But I want a chance to show off! I want kids to go crazy over how cool I am!”
“I want to get rich!”
Reina had already accomplished her dreams of becoming famous, publishing a memoir, and making sure the Crimson Lightning went down in history.
Mavis, too, had easily surpassed her modest dreams of knighthood. She had achieved the highest title and honor a knight could aspire to, and one which no one else had ever been granted: a personal appointment by the divine messenger herself. Plus, her social standing as a countess and renown as a savior of the world far outstripped the accomplishments of an ordinary knight. When it came to status, reputation, and title, she wanted for nothing.
As such, the looks Reina and Mavis shot their companions were a bit on the judgmental side.
It was the Crimson Vow’s policy to make their journeys on foot, seeing and hearing all the sights and sounds of the road and keeping themselves open to any adventures that might occur along the way to the capital.
The girls did have the option to take a passenger carriage, but it would have been inconsiderate of their fellow riders to spend the whole trip chatting, and too many of their go-to topics would lead to conversations they couldn’t let anyone else overhear.
Besides, traveling by carriage would be dull and take the fun out of their adventure.
“It certainly is exhausting to do so much walking, though,” remarked Pauline. She was on board with the party policy, but it was still a physical strain, even with the majority of her belongings stowed in Mile’s inventory. Imagining what it would be like to carry her luggage on her back like the average traveler was, frankly, appalling.
For Pauline, even riding in a carriage would take a toll. A stagecoach had no suspension system and no proper padding on the seats, and they would be traversing an unpaved road, which meant that both her butt and insides would suffer. At the end of the day, she really wasn’t cut out for traveling.
“Should we build a rickshaw so I can pull Pauline along?” Mile suggested.
Pauline rebuffed her. “I wouldn’t be caught dead embarrassing myself like that!”
She may have been shameless when it came to money, but even she had her pride.
***
“We’re finally set to arrive at the capital tomorrow evening. Now that we’re getting close, maybe we can find an inn instead of camping?”
“Hmm. It wouldn’t hurt to gather some up-to-date information on the capital from our fellow guests,” said Reina. “Any outbound travelers ought to know what was going on there up until yesterday. I’m sure they’d be willing to share if we buy them a pint of ale or something. I vote that we go with Mile’s idea. Any objections?”
“I’m all for it.”
“Me too.”
By group consensus, the Crimson Vow decided to spend the night at an inn a day’s journey from the capital.
For the record, yes, we did skip past the whole journey from the port city to this point. Although the Crimson Vow had hoped for adventure, all they had truly experienced were their usual slice-of-life hijinks—taking on requests, Mile chasing after cats and searching for inns with a little girl behind the counter—so there is no need to cover it in detail.
“First things first,” said Reina. “Let’s stop by the guild.”
It was close to evening when they arrived in town, so instead of bothering with any requests, the girls were simply planning to check the information and job boards to read up on any local news. The following morning, they would head out for the capital.
Although this town was only one day’s walk from the capital, it was far from an urban center. It was actually too close to the capital for that to be the case. With a developed, thriving metropolis right around the corner, anyone who wanted to live in the city would never choose to settle here. As a result, this town would likely be comprised mostly of older folks and those who wanted to stay out of the capital’s bustle.
Relocating to somewhere a month-long hike away could be a daunting prospect—the round trip would take a full two months, long journeys were both expensive and dangerous, and it was hard to get that much time off work. The likelihood of never seeing your family again was high. But if you lived a day away, it was easy to take a three-day vacation and visit home whenever you felt like it. This made it harder for families to dissuade their young ones from leaving town. There was no good argument to be made against “But I can come see you anytime I want!”
The end result was a smaller youth population than in towns even farther from the capital. Rapid depopulation was becoming a real headache for the remaining residents. There weren’t many large stores in the area, either, as people went to the capital for everything except groceries and cheap consumables. The shops in the city had a better selection and lower prices.
And of course, most of the full-scale, well-paid, and appealing jobs went to the Hunters’ Guild branch in the capital, leaving this town only the simplest and least lucrative requests. The majority of hunters—whether skilled veterans and prudent mid-listers seeking a stable career, or fresh-faced novices and youngsters chasing their dreams—belonged to the capital branch. The capital offered a cheaper commission fee, bigger pool of applicants, and wider range of talent, making it no surprise that people would bypass their local branch when posting requests for hunters’ labor.
In the end, the only requests that made it onto this town’s job board involved things like simple chores or vermin extermination—instances where it would be cheaper to hire a local hunter than to pay for someone to make the two-day trip back and forth from the capital.
Suffice it to say, you weren’t going to find any requests to vanquish a horde of orcs or destroy a goblin’s den on this guild’s job board. Requests like these were reserved for capital-based parties and often required several groups of veterans to team up in order to get the job done. Besides, such requests were issued by the royal palace rather than the town or its individual residents, or by the local soldiers and royal army rather than the Hunters’ Guild.
It was with all of this in mind that the members of the Crimson Vow made their way to the local Hunters’ Guild branch.
It was evening, the time of day when the reception counter tended to be flooded with job completion reports or loot deliveries. Since they were only passing through, the Crimson Vow didn’t bother announcing their entrance. Instead, they opened the door slowly enough to keep the chime from ringing, then slipped inside. This was a technique they employed when they preferred to keep a low profile. All young, female parties had a similar trick or two up their sleeve.
Once inside, the Crimson Vow made a beeline for the information and job boards. Then, after perusing their postings…
“My, you certainly took your sweet time! Do you have any idea how long you’ve kept us waiting?!”
“We knew there was a chance you might stray from the main road to pick up jobs along the way, or take the back roads and end up missing us completely, so we had to stay in this town the whole time!”
“Where in the world have you been?!”
“Whaaaat?! M-Miss Marcela? Miss Aureana? Miss Monika?! Wh-what are you doing here?!”
At long last, Mile and the Wonder Trio were reunited.
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