Chapter 50:
A Rival Appears
It had been three days since the incident with the Aura family.
That day had ended up being a work day, and technically, they had still taken on a job for later, though that work was already almost done.
And so, they had set aside the following two days for rest where they could wait until Mavis was fully recovered.
Today, however, the Crimson Vow headed off to the guild to look for a new job.
“Are you all the ‘Crimson Vow’ or whatever?”
Upon entering the guild hall, they were instantly assailed by a five-unit all-female hunting party.
“Ah, yes? That’s us. Is there something we can help you with?” As Mavis replied, the woman who had spoken was momentarily lost for words, beguiled by her gentle smile.
Whoa! She really is a different kind of lady hunter, isn’t she?
Mile was dazzled by Mavis’s perennial, inexplicable way with other women.
“N-no! That’s not why we’re here! I hear that some young interlopers have been running amok around here while we were away!” said the eldest of the hunters, a woman of around twenty.
Mavis was dumbfounded. “Oh no, have they? That’s dastardly of them. The youth should respect their seniors. It’s no good for inexperienced people to go stepping out of bounds. If those people don’t start heeding the words of the elderly, then…”
Pft!
Snicker…
Tehehehe…
The other hunters in the room seemed to be trying desperately to hold back their laughter, but Mavis naturally did not notice.
“E-elderly. Elderly?”
The eldest woman was red in the face, trembling.
“Oh, is something the matter?” Mavis asked, ever so chipper.
The woman roared, “I’m talking about you aaalllll!!!”
“Ah, we thought so.” For once, even Pauline, Reina, and Mile had caught on.
“Huh?”
Only Mavis had been left out of the loop.
“Now then, I think you all owe us an explanation!”
The Crimson Vow found themselves dragged to the guild hall’s dining corner, where they were being grilled by this new all-girl party, the Servants of the Goddess.
“I mean, I still have no idea what the problem here is, or what you’re asking for. So I don’t know what to tell you.”
Since she was speaking to someone who was her senior, Mavis tried to be as polite as possible for now.
“I’m talking about how you all took advantage of our absence and stole our spot as the idols of this guild branch from right under our noses!”
“What?”
The Crimson Vow were amazed. They were amaz-eggs and bacon!
“Ohhh, you mean that we’ve just been playing around or that we haven’t been working, right? No, I can assure you, we’ve been doing work while we were here. Though our most recent break was a bit long, I will admit…”
Apparently, Mile had misheard “idol” as “idle.”
“That’s not what we’re saying! I’m talking about an idol, a perfect image, something you worship!” A girl who was perhaps the second or third eldest in the group desperately tried to correct Mile. She was likely around sixteen or seventeen…
“Huh?! If your party name is Servants of the Goddess, and you’re all images to be worshipped, does that mean that you’re disciples—nay, avatars of the Goddess herself?!”
“N-no, that’s not quite…” The Servants suddenly looked a bit troubled.
Of course, Mile already knew the answer to her own question. Even she could be a bit cruel now and then.
And so finally, the Crimson Vow sat down to hear the full story.
Citing their status as the senior party, the Servants of the Goddess paid for their drinks. At least in that regard, they were properly aware of their duties as seniors.
The Servants of the Goddess. They were a five-member party made up of all girls, a rarity among hunters.
There was Telyusia, the swordswoman, age nineteen; Philly, the lancer, age seventeen; Willine the swordswoman and Tasha the archer-slash-dagger wielder, both age sixteen; and last but not least, Lecelina, the favorably named “all-purpose” (or perhaps more appropriately called “jack-of-all-trades”) mage, age fourteen. Lecelina was still a D-rank, but all the others were C-rank hunters. However, they had only very recently been promoted…
The scene: a little farming village in the countryside, with nothing but mountains and fields and nary a good man to go around.
Three young girls who could not bear to live out their lives in such a place took their cleavers and wooden staves in hand and set out to become hunters, in search of a life of excitement and adventure.
They were fools.
Though they faced many a danger and hardship, by some miracle they managed to survive, and came across two more young girls who had similarly struck out from their village on their own. Before they knew it, they had grown to become C-rank hunters.
Normally, anyone that reckless would have found themselves wiped out by now, but perhaps they truly did have a fair bit of skill—or perhaps they were just exceedingly lucky…
There was also the fact that they had made it to a C-rank at such an unexpectedly young age, in a country that did not have anything like the Hunters’ Prep School. And they were a group of young women. Naturally, the male parties hung around them like flies—just as they did with Mile and her companions.
But then, the Crimson Vow had appeared.
They were a group of four beautiful young girls. They had two powerful mages. They had sword skills on par with a B-rank. They had less than the standard number of members. And they appeared rather ignorant to the ways of the world.
Indeed, the male parties had found a new prize to set their sights on.
“Somehow you all just swooped right in and nailed a red mark job, got a bonus, and had a noble request you by name! Just what strings did you all pull?!” raged Philly, the seventeen-year-old lancer.
“Jones, of the Defenders of the Covenant, who I was this close to snagging, turned down my invitation to dinner, saying that a girl he ‘thought he could get serious about’ had come along!” roared Telyusia, the nineteen-year-old swordswoman and leader of the party, who was just on the cusp of marriageable age.
“And what’s the big deal, making something so terrible happen to those lovely old fellows in the Silver Fangs?!”
Apparently Tasha, the sixteen-year-old archer, had a fondness for older men.
Mile, who had never been able to really converse with any men besides her own father, and Reina, who had spent her earliest memories on the road with her father the peddler and the rest of her young life journeying with the Crimson Lightning, were both fans of men of a more distinguished age, too. Should all three of them become aware of this preference, surely the trio could all become good friends.
“And you stole the people who buy us food and give us sweets!” fumed Lecelina, the fourteen-year-old mage.
“………”
Willine the swordswoman had already spoken her piece and just glared silently.
“How could you do this to us?!?!?!” the Servants all shouted.
“Ah…” Mile’s, Pauline’s, Mavis’s, and Raina’s shoulders all slumped in disappointment.
“Oh, but—um, who are the Defenders of the Covenant and the Silver Fangs, exactly?” asked Mile.
The other three members of the Crimson Vow tilted their heads as well. The names Defenders of the Covenant and Silver Fangs did not ring a single bell with the Crimson Vow. Additionally, though the party had overheard much hearsay and gossip about the Servants of the Goddess previously, because the party themselves were not present at the time, the members of the Crimson Vow had not bothered paying attention.
They had not been speaking quietly, so among the other hunters present, there were plenty who could clearly overhear what the girls were talking about, and at this point, several of those who had been directly observing the day’s proceedings approached the girls to offer an explanation. This gesture was not merely a kindness; it was an excuse to get close to the girls, fraught with the ulterior motive of getting the party to remember their faces.
“So you’re saying that those lowly pests who tried to cut in on our job, saying that we wouldn’t be able to handle the uncertainty and danger on our own were the ‘Defenders of the Covenant’? And those suspicious guys who tried to follow us were the ‘Silver Fangs’?”
“Wh-wha…?” Telyusia was speechless at Reina’s blunt appraisal. “Jones isn’t… The Defenders of the Covenant aren’t that weak of a party!”
“Please don’t talk about the gentlemen of the Silver Fangs like they’re a bunch of perverts!”
As Telyusia and Tasha gave their furious objections, Pauline let her viper’s tongue loose. “But the Defenders did try to muscle in on a job that we took, despite not taking the task for themselves, and as soon as Mavis and Mile showed them their copper-cutting trick, they backed right off. Not only were they clearly after something, but they’re good-for-nothings as well. Or should we be interpreting that some other way?”
“Er…”
“And then, there was the party of old men that was following secretly behind a party of young ladies, keeping at a steady distance. If that doesn’t qualify as suspicious behavior, then what would you say does?”
“Err…”
Telyusia and Tasha were silent, unable to object to Pauline’s sound arguments.
The other hunters, filled with sympathy for the Defenders and the Silver Fangs, looked to Felicia, who had been the one to egg both parties on, hoping that she would provide them some sort of defense. However, Felicia remained at her seat at the counter, unmoved, not even batting an eye.
That’s No-Hope Felicia for you!!!!!
The only saving grace in this situation, it would seem, was that neither the Defenders of the Covenant nor the Silver Fangs were present at the time…
“So, are we done here now? We’ve all determined that we have nothing to do with either of those parties, and we intend to continue to have nothing to do with them.”
“Ngh… So far, you’ve recognized who the Defenders of the Covenant and the Silver Fangs are—but I need you to acknowledge that they didn’t have any ill intentions toward you! Until you can do that, we aren’t finished!”
Reina attempted to wrap up the conversation, but Telyusia, who seemed to be the leader of the Servants of the Goddess, did not appear prepared to let them off so easily. Indeed, she clearly said as much.
And then came her declaration of war.
“It’s time to show you which of our two parties is superior!”
“Yeah!” her cohorts joined the battle cry.
“Ah…”
As the tension among the Servants rose, the members of the Crimson Vow began to relax.
This truly was not a matter of which party was stronger. The reason that all the men had been flitting around the Servants of the Goddess until now was not because of their skills or their abilities—it was because they hoped to make them their girlfriends. Nothing more, nothing less. The girls had only just become C-ranks, which meant that they were on the bottom rung as far as C-ranks went. Having five girls like that in their party would limit the jobs they could take, and their individual shares of the profit would be smaller. In other words, as far as other parties were concerned, there was clearly more merit in inviting along the Crimson Vow—who had B-rank level swordsmanship, precious combat magic skills, and other talents—than the Servants of the Goddess.
In which case, should they selectively invite only the members who interested them? That would launch debates about who they should bring along. Furthermore, they would incite the wrath of the remaining members of the Servants, from whom they had poached members… And anyone who would let themselves be poached was not unlikely to betray their new companions and leave them as well. And, if they did relocate, a war might break out over those girls…
Indeed, there was no doubting that such a thing could tear both their parties apart.
This meant, as long as the Servants stayed together, simply dallying with one or two of them would be fine. No matter who you got close to, it was a blessing…
However, human relations were, of course, a mushy, delicate business, and for things to go wrong was not at all uncommon.
On the whole, while a party might consider bringing in the Crimson Vow wholesale as capable party-members-slash-love-interests, the Servants of the Goddess were better candidates for “lovers you have fun with on the side.”
Even so, the general proportion of female hunters was comparatively low. Most normal young women were of the same mind as the eldest daughter back at that inn, thinking that hunters were all a bunch of broke thugs who could die at any moment. Therefore, for many of the hunters, the young ladies of the Servants of the Goddess were the best that they could get, either as prospective lovers or candidates for marriage.
If a hunter should marry one of them, no one could complain if she relocated to her husband’s party, and it wouldn’t be unusual for her to retire and live as a full-time housewife or work as the owner of a small shop or some other safe job, awaiting her husband’s return.
But then, the Crimson Vow had appeared.
They had two swordswomen who could take down an ogre in a single blow and two capable C-rank mages as well. Plus, they were young and cute, with skill spread evenly throughout the four of them. They seemed to know little of the world, and it was only natural that the men’s targeting systems would lock on to them instead of the Servants of the Goddess.
Even if the Servants should manage to crush the Crimson Vow in some mock battle, their position would not change.
And of course, most of the guild staff and the other hunters knew that the Servants hadn’t the slightest chance of defeating them to begin with.
“Very well then,” Reina began. “Let’s take this outs—gnh!”
Mavis quickly clapped a hand over her mouth. “W-we couldn’t possibly! We’re all still rookies, and we couldn’t possibly be prepared to face veterans like you! It’s so obvious that even bothering to try would be moot!”
They had purposely come to a town where no one knew them. They were going to live an honest and straightforward life as normal, unremarkable C-rank hunters in pursuit of knowledge. Remembering this, Mavis tried her best to play the situation off—laying the previous copper-cutting demonstration completely aside.
Mile and Pauline were of the same opinion as Mavis, so Mile put a sound barrier around Reina’s head before she could continue to object, not wanting to earn the contempt of other hunters, and Pauline bodily blocked Reina from the other girls’ sight. Then, Mile indirectly restrained Reina with her superhuman strength. Reina struggled and kicked, but Mile’s hold was unmoved, and Reina’s flailing, along with her futile attempts at speech, were mostly ignored.
“W-well, as long as you recognize that. Now we better not see you all walking around like you own the place again!”
And then, as if they had already accepted a job for the day and were only hanging around the guild hall for the sake of confronting the Crimson Vow, the leader of the Servants of the Goddess promptly left, followed by her four companions.
Hey now, hey now, hey now!!! the guild employees and other hunters silently protested. The Servants of the Goddess had definitely heard about that copper-cutting incident from before—and they heard how they belittled the Defenders! And then there was the fact that they were so fast the Silver Fangs couldn’t keep up! And that they completed a red mark job and got a personal request from a noble! How could they know all that and accept their resignation so easily?!?!
These were girls who would leave their village with only cleavers and wooden staves in hand. Perhaps because their tempers were running so hot, they seemed to have already forgotten their conversation from just a short while before. Of course, their aim had been to prove their superiority from the start, so perhaps they had merely put anything that contradicted that “fact” out of their minds…
At any rate, the guild staff and the other hunters present all shared a single thought: Well, that’s someone else’s business. Best not to think too hard about it…
Everyone returned to their previous business: in the case of the guild employees, work, and in the case of the hunters, searching for jobs, eating, and drinking.
And as for the Crimson Vow…
“Let’s just do some basic monster exterminating today. It’ll be good practice for Mavis.”
“All right!!!”
Reina finally appeared to be thinking straight. Just like a party leader… No wait, that was Mavis speaking!
“Would you care to explain to me what that earlier business was all about?” Reina, apparently, was still miffed about being held back with her mouth clamped shut.
Clearly, Mavis really was the appropriate choice for party leader.
So Mile and Pauline agreed.
And though none of them said it, they all somehow came to the same conclusion at once.
I bet those girls are gonna be a pain in our butts from now on…
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