I Said Make My Abilities Average! (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 24

Chapter 24:

A Triumphant Return 

“You did it, Mavis!” Reina cheered. 

“Congratulations!” Pauline continued. “Now you’re free until the day your marriage prospects run out entirely!” 

“Ugh…” 

For some reason, Mavis did not seem entirely thrilled. 

“This is all thanks to you guys, especially Mile. Thanks to that special technique, True Godspeed Blade, I was able to stand up to my eldest brother in combat, if only for a short while. And now—and now!—once again, I get to chase…my…my dreams…!” 

She began to sob so hard her words were lost. 

“Mavis…” 

This was Mavis, who was always so collected, who could grin and bear anything that might come their way. 

Reina, whose emotions were wild and volatile; Pauline, who had a dark side; and Mile, always naive, watched gently over 

Mavis, who had always watched over them, as her whole body trembled with sobs. 

After some time, when Mavis finally calmed down, the four started back to their lodgings to celebrate Mavis’s victory. 

*** 

When they returned to the inn, someone was standing outside the front door: a woman in her thirties, with a kind, soft appearance, but eyes that betrayed a strong will. She stood with a boy around ten years old. 

“Pauline!” 

“Mother! Alan!” 

It was Pauline’s mother and younger brother. 

Given her status as the lover of the apprehended merchant, Pauline’s mother had been questioned in order to ascertain whether she was an accomplice to his crimes. So that they could not conspire to corroborate each other’s stories, anyone connected to the case, including the shop’s employees, had been isolated and kept under observation, and because they were all interrogated one at a time, it had taken some time before any of them could be released. 

Theresa and Santos, who were both aware of the circumstances, were involved in the actual questioning, so no one was terribly worried. But now, they would be free and clear. After that, Pauline’s mother could act as the provisional manager of their shop until the process to officially hand the rights back over to the family was completed. 

Though she conducted herself with a strong heart, Pauline was still a fifteen-year-old girl. Even if one might be considered an adult at fifteen, life had been incredibly harsh for Pauline until now. So much so that, if she did not bury her true kindness and gentleness in shadowy depths and cloak herself in a dark shield, she would never have been able to bear it… 

However, those days were over as well. 

Leaving Pauline to sob into her mother’s arms, Mile and the others headed into the inn. 

“So, what’re we gonna do?” wondered Mavis. 

“I wonder what we should do….” Reina mused. 

“Whatever shall we do?” pondered Mile. 

A few minutes earlier, once Pauline had calmed down, she had come in with her family and offered them her thanks. Then, she told them that she would be spending the night at her mother’s home, and she, her mother, and her brother departed. 

“Now that our business here is finished, I was thinking that we should head straight back to the capital,” Mavis ventured. “But…” 

For Mavis, who had certainly made a splash in this town, their stay had been a bit too intense. 

In just the short journey between the arena and their inn, there had been hordes of hunters and throngs of young girls flitting about her. It would be impossible for her to walk around this area much longer. Besides, it would only be a matter of time before people came around petitioning her to introduce them to her master, saying things like, “Who exactly is Evening-Gown Mask?” and “She has to teach me!” and “No, she needs to join my party!” 

“It doesn’t seem like we have much choice…” 

“You’re right.” 

Reina and Mile were of the same mind and agreed to leave the following day, at the first morning bell. 

At dinner, they relayed their intentions to Theresa and Santos, as well as the innkeeper. Thankfully, Theresa replied, “Well then, I’ll go and find us a carriage.” Santos, of course, would be leaving the day after along with the guard wagon, so he would not be coming along with them. It would be rather unfair to make a coachman who had just arrived that day leave without even one day’s rest. Plus, traveling with the count’s party would be less than comfortable, so on the whole, Theresa’s offer was much appreciated. 

After dinner, the three continued to discuss their plans for what would come next. 

“If Pauline ends up staying here, it’s going to be hard running things with just the three of us. Should we recruit a new member?” 

“I don’t think we have much choice. Thankfully, Mile is pretty much all-powerful, so we have a pretty wide field to recruit from… Which profession would it be best for us to look for?” 

As Mavis noted, the pool of candidates was incredibly wide. 

If Mile fought as a backline mage or slingshot user, them they could recruit a frontline fighter, or, if they recruited a mid- or backline archer or another mage, Mile could continue to act as a frontline fighter, as she had thus far. Since Mile could use healing and utility magic too, they didn’t even need to worry about getting someone with the same magical talents as Pauline. 

Mile: the wild card of their deck. 

Still, they were all a bit concerned. 

Would someone who knew of Mile’s usefulness—no, her talents —become blinded by greed? 

Would someone who learned the abilities of these supposed novices and realized the differences between the trio and themselves be crushed or start thinking strange thoughts? 

Could they simply teach Mile’s “magic improvement tips” to someone whose true character they didn’t even know? 

They couldn’t teach that person their secrets and then have them leave. 

“Hmm…” 

The three of them thought deeply. 

Just then, Mile piped up. 

“Um, what do you think of asking around among our former classmates?” 

“Oh…” 

Indeed, many of their classmates from the Hunters’ Prep School still lived within the capital. Because their class had been gathered from all over the country, most of them had returned to their hometowns after graduation. This was only natural, as they had left their families and friends behind. Even as a matter of national policy, no one would think of locking the graduates up within the capital, preferring to distribute promising young hunters equally throughout the country instead. 

Yet for the most part, those who were originally from the capital, as well as those who did not have anyone to care for in other regions, had remained in the city. 

When one spends half a year in a group of just forty people, one tends to get well acquainted with the rest of the group. The girls knew a lot about their classmates, and likewise, those classmates knew quite a lot about their group. This, of course, included the fact of Mile’s mental shortcomings, such as they were… 

Of course, there were some individuals that they wouldn’t want to team up with. However, excluding those, it wouldn’t be so bad to reach out to some members of their class. That way, they could truthfully remain “a party of fellow classmates.” 

Indeed, now and then, they saw some of these classmates around the guildhall and elsewhere. Yet unlike the Crimson Vow, who had recklessly gone it alone with a party of only novices, those classmates had mainly entered into parties comprised of more veteran hunters. That said, it seemed there were many of these cases where the veterans were of the mind that they were “helping newbies to become full-fledged hunters,” and treated them mainly as apprentices. Thus, those newbies’ shares of the profits were considerably lower. 

Those veterans had likely been in the same position as the newbies in their younger days, so this was not a particularly cruel move. That was simply the way that such parties were devised. 

Still, if the Crimson Vow were to reach out to any of their classmates who were in such a situation, it was possible that said classmates would be happy to join them. They might not be the most interesting choice, but perhaps it would be better than feeling overlooked. 

“I’m a little worried,” said Mile. “In our party, there isn’t anyone besides Pauline who has a good sense for money and commerce and negotiating. With someone around who had the calculating heart of a merchant, there was no fear of us getting swindled, but now…” 

“Ah!” Just then, the face of a certain person floated through all of their minds. 

It was the face of a ten-year-old girl, who was fairly adorable, yet also calculating, and even callous. In the boobs department, too, she would be a suitable replacement for Pauline—at least, in a few years’ time. 

“No, no, no! Absolutely not!!!” That was the group’s consensus. 

At any rate, that girl had no combat ability, and she was already employed—at her family’s inn. 

The three appeared calm as they discussed Pauline’s departure, but on the inside, they were by no means unworried. 

The half a year at the Hunters’ Prep School. 

The exciting and harrowing days spent afterwards, as fledgling hunters. 

In the dorm or in the inn, the four of them always roomed together. 

There was Mavis, the only daughter of a noble house, who was raised having little contact with those outside of her own family. 

There was Reina, an orphan, who never knew her own mother and whose father, her sole blood relative—along with the Crimson Lightning, the hunters who she traveled with—had all been taken from her. 

There was Mile, who, in her previous life, had no one who she could call a friend, and even in this life, had been separated from the very first group of friends she ever made. 

And then, there was Pauline, who’d been living her life like a wounded beast. 

They were all starving. 

They all wanted. For friends. For companions. 

And then they found each other: allies bound at the soul, the Crimson Vow. 

It was the four of them. 

They were true companions. 

If they lost one of them, they could replenish their numbers with another. 

But it wasn’t that sort of equation. 

They knew this. Yet none of the three could bring themselves to say it. 

Pauline had her own life, and her own happiness. 

Her desperate wish had finally come true, and she had achieved her foremost aim: to live together with her family, and protect, along with her mother and brother, the shop that her late father built. 

This was just the same as Mavis aiming to be a knight, and Mile seeking a normal happiness in life—important goals, which they would never give up on, which no one could stand in the way of. 

And so, after a time, as the words hung in the air without anyone working up the nerve to speak them, they all slipped into bed, and the conversation ended, unfinished. 

The next morning, the three girls collected their things from the inn and headed to the guildhall along with Theresa. 

The carriage that Theresa had arranged for them was not a passenger coach or a hired cart, but a merchant’s cargo wagon… laden with cargo. 

“Our schedule didn’t line up with the passenger coaches, and hired wagons are too expensive. Thankfully, the Order of the Crimson Blood can work as guards, and one of the local merchants waiting to depart jumped at the chance of an escort.” 

Gathering a number of merchants together in a caravan saved money on fees and bolstered overall security. There was no one who would pass up the chance to employ (and pay the rate of) a group of four hunters who possessed the escorting power of a group of ten—and who could, moreover, leave immediately. The townspeople had seen for themselves that the group’s sole swordswoman possessed the strength of several C-rank hunters on her own, and judged that, by extension, any party affiliated with this swordswoman and her master would be comprised of no ordinary individuals… Of course, these assumptions were correct. 

Furthermore, if there were currently bandit spies sneaking around the town, they would be loath to attack this group. That much was certain. 

Theresa felt strange about accepting any jobs on the group’s behalf, so she had only made a verbal agreement with the merchants the night before, leaving the duty of formally accepting the job to Mavis. Therefore, they needed to swing by the guildhall. 

Since Theresa herself was a guild employee, it was important for her to do everything by the books. 

Once the job acceptance paperwork was properly finished, the group proceeded to the merchants’ guild, where their employers were waiting. 

When they arrived, they found three wagons assembled in the guild’s established waiting area. Beside them were three merchants, engaged in conversation. They all appeared to be small-time merchants, each with only one wagon apiece. 

Naturally, these modest business owners could not afford to hire drivers and would be in charge of driving their wagons themselves. 

“Looks like those are the ones. Well then, let’s hurry up and introduce ourselves. We can continue our conversation about finding Pauline’s replacement after we depart…” 

Snap! 

“Huh?” 

Grindgrindgrindgrind… 

“O-ow, owwwwww!” 

She was not truly in agony, but Mile cried out, unsettled by the phantom—or was it only emotional?—pain. 

“What is this talk about ‘Pauline’s replacement,’ huh?!” 

Mile whipped around to see Pauline, the veins bulging in her forehead. 

“Why were you trying to leave without me?!” 

Trembling at Pauline’s face of pure rage, Mile could only stare, her mouth opening and closing but no sound emerging. 

Mavis, thankfully, tossed her a lifeline. 

“B-but, Pauline, we thought you were going to be rebuilding the shop along with your mother and brother…” 

Pauline replied with a sour expression. “My mother managed the shop alongside my father. As long as she’s there, they’ll be fine. There are older employees who stayed behind and held things together for my mother’s sake, and those who quit will probably come back. Plus, since I’m the one who reclaimed the shop, having me stick around would actually cause a lot of problems. We’d be bound to get people rushing in to say ridiculous things and offering sneaky marriage proposals…” 

“Whoa.” 

The life of a merchant was, the other three thought, a frightening one. 

“In any case, it’s better for everyone if I’m not there. My little brother is officially the successor, but his position would be weakened if I stuck around. I won’t be near them, but if any evildoers try to lay a hand upon my family or the shop, I can be the mysterious long-lost daughter who appears—along with her plucky friends. That’s enough for me.” 

“………” 

Whether Pauline was mincing words, or whether all this was true, they could not be certain. However, it didn’t really matter either way. 

Pauline was still sulking a bit, her cheeks puffed out. 

But then, Mile flung her arms around her, burying her face into Pauline’s chest, and her pout began to waver. 

“Nn…” 

Tears formed in the corners of Pauline’s eyes and slowly began to flow, marking her cheeks. She wrapped both arms around Mile’s back and squeezed her tight. 

“Uuh, wuh, wahh…” 

A relieved, happy grin spread across Mavis’s face. 

Mile pulled away from Pauline’s chest, grinning wide, the trails of tears still wet upon her cheeks. 

Even Reina, unable to fully conceal her joy, looked on with a peculiar expression, her smile shining in her eyes. 

“Now then, we had better get going. I don’t think the Crimson Vow will be splitting up for a while yet,” Reina said. 

They all let out a cheer. 

“Yeah!!!” 

As soon as they received confirmation of their wages, per the job request, the merchant caravan began to move. Yet just as they were setting off, before they had even made it past the city limits, Count Austien and his two sons came rushing up, breathless. 

“W-wait, please wait, Mavis!” 

The four girls grimaced, sensing that trouble was once again on the horizon. 

The merchants could not possibly ignore the count calling to them, so they stopped the wagons. With little choice now, the Crimson Vow hopped down to face the men. 

“What is it, Father? I thought we had concluded our discussion…” 

“Oh, yes. I fully acknowledge that. I don’t want to acknowledge it, and I don’t want to let you go, but I know I must. I won’t try and complain about it now. But there’s something else I’d like to talk to you about. Please, won’t you formally introduce me to your master?” 

“Huh?” 

“Your honorable master is incredibly strong. However, I don’t believe she has been formally instructed in technique, so there is little form to complement her immense physical ability. It’s regrettable—indeed, it’s painful to see! I was hoping to formally invite her into our household, so that we might facilitate a mutual exchange of skills… 

“My thought was that I could instruct her in technique, and that in turn, your master could impart upon me the means by which I might attain such a superior physical form. That way, we could both become leagues stronger than we are now! Your master claims to be purely human. If that is the case, then might she still be young? If she were to wed a member of our family, then the future of the Austien line would be secure! Wouldn’t it be splendid for you and your master to become kin? What do you think? It’s a splendid idea, is it not? Now please, let me know how I might contact her!” 

“Please, Mavis!” 

“All we want is to be introduced!” 

Waylon and Ewan bowed their heads as well. Certainly, the figure of this so-called “Master” suited the tastes of the men of the Austien line. 

“Wh…?” 

The Crimson Vow were stunned. 

To tell the truth, they understood what the count was saying. But whether or not they thought it permissible was another matter. 

From the count’s point of view, this proposal was not strange at all. In fact, this line of thought was only natural for the head of a militaristic clan. 

What Mavis and the others were startled about was something else entirely. 

Have they seriously not figured out who “Evening-Gown Mask” is with Mile standing right in front of them?!?!?! 

Her mask from the match hadn’t even been enhanced with any sort of identity-obscuring magic. 

Mile thought, I-Is this “the will of the world”? The “compelling forces” and “pre-established harmony” that (the so-called) God was talking about?! 

Of course, this was not truly the case. 

They were simply incredibly dense. 

That was all there was to it. 

Mavis managed to wave off the count’s request, telling her father to “Ask me about it the next time we meet.” 

After that, the merchant caravan returned to the capital, largely without incident. 

Well, at the very least, they weren’t attacked . If there were any trade routes that were attacked that frequently, anyway, no one would ever use them. And if a certain route did get that way, then commerce would grind to a halt, and the king or lords would send out a large-scale extermination force. 

Normally, so as not to obstruct commerce, bandits aimed only for stupid merchants who were too cheap to invest in an escort, or weak targets that the king or lords would have no interest in. Normally. 

Within the wagon, Mile and Mavis received a lecture from Reina. 

“There is something that I need to say to the two of you…” 

While the two of them wondered what this something might be, Reina continued. 

“I’m sorry, but pickled cabbage is delicious! Especially when you eat it with boiled sausage!” 

It was a completely frivolous topic. 

“Or, when eaten as a snack along with ale…” 

Why was she so invested in this pickled cabbage? 

Not wanting to cross-examine their friend, Mile and Mavis sat quietly, listening respectfully to Reina’s sermon. 

Their return to the guildhall also passed with little incident. 

Theresa would be handling the report to the guild. As a result, there was no need for the Crimson Vow to do anything. All they had to do was receive the job completion approval for their escort job and collect their pay. 

Theresa sneakily tried to collect pay for the job as well, but she was told that her portion would go to the guild master “because she was still on guild business.” Needless to say, she was quite vexed… 

“We’re back!!” 

As always, Mile called out when they entered the inn. 

However, Lenny did not greet them in return with a cheerful voice, as she usually did. 

Thinking this peculiar, Mile looked to the counter, only to see that no one was sitting there. 

“Hm, I wonder if she’s in the bathroom?” Mile pondered, tilting her head. 

Just then, the sound of pounding feet came from further within the inn, and Lenny came flying out. 

“M-M-M-M-M-Miss Miiiiiiiiiiile!!” 

Lenny flung her arms around her, letting out a sob. 

“Wh-what’s wrong?!” Mile asked, startled. 

Lenny explained through her tears. 

She was at the end of her rope, and it was all thanks to the baths. 

After the Crimson Vow had left the capital, Lenny went to seek out a mage on behalf of her busy parents. 

Even if, proportionally speaking, magic-users were relatively rare, this was still the capital. About one in ten people was good enough at magic for it to be useful in their work, and about one in every few dozen skilled enough to earn a full-time living. With a population as large as that of the capital, there should be a fair number of such people around. Furthermore, many magic-users came from their home regions to live in the capital, meaning that there was an even greater abundance of talented workers, many of whom could be found around the local shops and factories, and at the hunters’ guild. 

There was no need for them to worry about maintaining a reserve of magic when they were safe in the capital, particularly if they were a hunter. Even if they had stored away any magical energy just in case of an emergency, they should have no problem using most of it up by dinnertime or so. If they slept, it would all be replenished by the next morning, so it should have been well worth helping Lenny just to earn a little pocket money for booze and snacks. 

At least, that should have been the case, and indeed, there were tons of people willing to take on the job. 

However, this was where the troubles began. 

The amount of water that your average mage could produce was very little. 

Seeing how easily Mile had always been able to do it, Lenny had assumed that producing hot water with magic was rather simple, but in truth, it was quite a chore. 

When one attempted to produce water with magic, unless another means was specified, the nanomachines in the area that the magic—or rather, the thought pulse—reached had to condense the water particles from the air. Until the temperature reached freezing, the water could not be completely extracted and would automatically be cut off at a moderate level. Therefore, people whose thought pulses had a short reaction range would not be able to produce very much water. 

To obtain a larger supply, water had to be transported from a different place, typically by aerial means. 

The distance of the water source also factored into this. If it was transported from the ocean, then the salt would have to be removed before it could be transferred. For particularly large amounts, this was not an instantaneous transfer, and the transmission formation would need to be maintained over a long period. Unless one gave extremely concrete instructions, the strength of the thought pulse and powers of visualization required to persuade the nanomachines to properly arrange this shot way up. 

Therefore, for all but the most accomplished magicians, the amount of water produced would be limited to what was in the air in the immediate vicinity, which is to say, not very much. Once that water was removed from the air, subsequent attempts to draw water would prove fruitless, until the air currents moved to bring in new air that was full of moisture. 

In other words, executing the magic necessary to draw out large amounts of water was quite difficult, and your garden-variety mage could produce only a little. That was the sum of things. 

In fact, a simple way to gauge a magic-user’s abilities was simply to ask, “How much water can you produce, how many times can you do so in a row, and, how long does it take before you can draw water again?” 

In conclusion, if one could only draw water from the air around oneself, it would be impossible to draw enough water to fill up an entire bath in one go. Plus, it would take some time for the moisture in the air to replenish itself, by which point the mage’s power would have dissipated. As the amount of mages the inn had to employ increased, the cost of the free food and drink they provided them had ballooned. 

In response to this, the matron of the establishment had handed a hellish decree to her daughter. 

“Let the magicians focus on using their powers for heating the water alone. As for retrieving it, Lenny, you can go draw it from the well…” 

“I’m dying! I’m definitely going to die! Please, Miss Mile! You have to do something!!!” 

“Ah…” 

As far as Lenny was concerned, the fact that the bathtub was large was a curse. Filling it even halfway probably required countless trips back and forth to the well. Plus, it was not only the baths, but the reservoirs above as well, and filling them with water was quite difficult. 

If things continued this way, in half a year, Lenny’s body would be strong enough for her to become a splendid hunter… 

No, no, no, no, no! 

The Crimson Vow all shook their heads in unison. 

They truly were four peas in a pod. 

For now, as a temporary countermeasure, they would partition off the baths. 

One part of the large tub was sectioned off into a portion about the size of two of the bathtubs in an average Japanese household. When Mile and the others were not present, only this side would be used. It would still require a great amount of water to fill it, but considerably less compared to all the trips Lenny had been making up until then. That, combined with a little help from the magic-users, should make Lenny’s job a great deal easier. 

“Th-thank you so much! Honestly, I really thought I was going to die!!” 

The problem behind her ordeal had not been entirely solved, but at least when the Crimson Vow was present, she wouldn’t need to worry about it. Lenny looked greatly relieved— even more when Pauline tossed her another lifeline. 

“It isn’t very efficient to use you for such a menial task when you can do so many other things around the inn, is it, Lenny? Wouldn’t it be better for you to continue your job as a receptionist and hire some orphan children to carry the water from the well? Orphans will work for cheap, and as long as they can earn enough money to buy food, then they’re happy, aren’t they? Hiring mages to produce the water must be a lot more expensive.” 

Hearing this, a glimmer formed in Lenny’s eyes. 

“M-my Goddess…” 

And so, thanks to the black-hearted goddess, Lenny was saved from a life of pain—and a future as a beefy macho man. 

“Now, that just leaves Mile…” Reina muttered suddenly, after a short rest in their room. 

“Yeah,” said Mavis. 

“You’re right…” Pauline agreed. 

“Huh?” 

Mile stared blankly. 

“I’m saying that now that the troubles with Pauline and Mavis’s households are settled, that just leaves your folks, Mile. Pauline and Mavis’s situations were resolved in part thanks to you, so now it’s only right for the two of them to do something to help with your situation, don’t you think?” 

“Yes!” said Pauline. 

“Yeah, of course!” Mavis agreed. 

However, Mile did not appear pleased. 

“Oh… But, I’m being sought after by the king and princess back in my home country, you know? And if they say I have to take a husband, in order to continue my family’s line, I’ll have to give up being a hunter…” 

“Well then, if you’re sure… Let’s take a break for a few days, and after that, we can start our next job!” 

“Good idea. I hope we can find something fun this time!” 

“That sounds good! Let’s pick something worthwhile—not something basic like goblin hunting!” 

Somehow, it seemed that their previous topic had been thrown completely by the wayside.