Chapter 72:
Traveling
“All right, please bring them out.”
“Understood!”
At Aetelou’s direction, Mile extracted their harvest from her inventory and deposited it in the corner of the storeroom of what seemed to be a research lab.
“Wh-what the heck is all that?!” Several of the assembled elders cried out in shock at the amount the group had gathered. Of course, it was unclear if what they were shocked at was the number of things they had gathered or the absurd capacity of Mile’s storage magic.
“Lady Aetelou, Lady Sharalir, h-how in the world did you…?”
“I’ll explain more at the debriefing,” said Aetelou, waving them off, though other than the fact that one of the hunters they’d hired possessed immense storage magic, there was little she could really explain.
Hm? Mile whispered under her breath. Miss Aetelou and Miss Sharalir made it sound like they were underlings, but they seem to be treated pretty respectfully here.
In an equally quiet voice, Mavis explained. Well, they obviously get special treatment. They’re a pair of elves who came all the way out of the forest to collaborate with human researchers. The elders can’t treat them the same way that they would a young human researcher. In truth, those two are probably even older than these old-timers.
Ah, said Mile. I see…
“Oh! Would you like me to take out the copper ore as well?” she asked.
“W-wait!” said Aetelou, quickly stopping her. “Please wait to take that out until we get over to the smithy.”
“Huh? But didn’t you want everything we gathered to be put right here?”
“The floor won’t be able to take it! Plus, if you brought that thing out indoors, we’d never be able to move it again!”
The elders’ eyes darted wildly back and forth as the elves paled. They probably had no choice but to foist it off on the blacksmith for refinement. They would be able to earn a bit of money that way, too. And so, Mile placed the ore outside where Aetelou directed. With that, her job was complete.
“Thank you for all your hard work. Now, the job completion form, yes? Here is the one for the Crimson Vow, and here is the Blue Meteors’. You both did wonderfully out there. Thanks to you, we were able to gather specimens that would normally take us several trips to accumulate, as well as some other valuable materials that we can use to bolster our research funds. You have our gratitude.”
When the parties looked over their stamped and complete forms, they found they both had been assigned A-grades. The grade might be a C, or a B if they were lucky, so this was a blessed day…for the Meteors. This was normal for the Crimson Vow.
“Thank you very much!” all the hunters said in unison.
The members of the Crimson Vow turned on their heels to head straight back to the guildhall, but a voice called out to them from behind.
“Wait! Mile! Are you absolutely sure that you have no interest in quitting your job and staying with us? You can even keep your registration as a hunter if you really want to…”
The elves hadn’t given up on trying to recruit Mile. Pauline, who could stand it no longer, answered with words as potent as a powerful attack spell.
“I guess you really are exactly the same breed as Dr. Clairia!”
“Th-the same breed…? The same…as Clairia…”
Shaken to their cores, the pair shouted in rage, “Don’t lump us in with her!!!”
As their former employers stood frozen in shock, the Crimson Vow took the opportunity to leave.
“Lady Aetelou and Lady Sharalir really do hate Dr. Clairia, don’t they?” muttered one of the Academy department heads, looking upon the two associate researchers who had been paralyzed at the thought of being likened to an associate professor from a neighboring country.
“Yes, indeed,” another replied.
“We invited them here as associate researchers, thinking they might consider it an honor to be ranked more highly than Dr. Clairia. But this seems to have merely strengthened their competitiveness.”
“Elves seem to be rather prickly when it comes to their own kind. I don’t think there’s anything we humans can do about that.”
The position of associate researcher was a specialized position—the same as associate professor, but with the luxury of focusing only on research, without any obligations to the students. What the human researchers didn’t know was that Aetelou and Sharalir weren’t aware of this. The elves were under the mistaken impression that they were being treated as assistants or post-docs, lowlier than a mid-rank professor, lecturer, or general associate faculty.
Aetelou and Sharalir’s hunger to make their grand debuts would continue for some time yet…
***
“Thank you for everything!”
“And thank you for everything!”
The Crimson Vow turned in their verified completion form at the Guild and received their pay, and then headed to the exchange counter to sell the orc carcasses. Their profits were to be shared equally with the Blue Meteors.
The Blue Meteors had hoped to invite them out to dinner, but the members of the Crimson Vow had refused, saying there was no reason for them to continue eating together after the job was finished. After all, they had already spent three days sharing meals. The Meteors slumped in disappointment, while the other hunters consoled them with pitying smiles.
***
“An omen to the east!”
“I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Weren’t you telling us about that ‘To-ho Pro-jekt’ or something the other day?”
Now accustomed to Mile’s peculiarities, Reina and Mavis casually ignored her. Pauline, however, was different.
“Heading eastward is a good omen, isn’t it? You want to go ahead and start heading to the next town, right Mile?”
That was Pauline for you. Only she could decipher Mile’s strange turns of phrase. Of course, even she had her limits—there was no way she could be aware of the play on words Mile was trying to make.
“Well, we already decided that this last job was going to be our final task in this town. We’ll continue on as planned. I think we’ve all learned more than enough from this place,” said Reina, glancing furtively at Mavis.
“Well then, let’s get going!” said Pauline.
The other three raised a cheer, and they were off.
***
“So, why are we taking this route?” Reina grumbled.
“I already explained this over and over—didn’t I?!” cried Mile. “I want to take this route to the next country because it interests me. And you agreed to it, too!”
“Well, I mean, that’s true…but this is a lot more inconvenient than taking the main road!” said Reina, continuing her grumbling.
The Crimson Vow were currently proceeding through the middle of the forest—rather than down the main road, where they could stroll at leisure. Of course, this time was not the first that they had walked these woods. When they first came to Mafan, they had taken on a job to drive back monsters in this very area where they now found themselves.
“Reina, don’t just keep complaining! Focus on finding things to gather! There are herbs around here that sell for a pretty good price and all sorts of high-priced culinary ingredients! Look! That mushroom right there! You can make three half-silver off that, easy!”
Mile was not using her search magic so that they could all get some practice at spotting valuable plants. Pauline had a few complaints about this, but both Reina and Mavis, who well understood the danger of overreliance on Mile’s abilities, had backed her up. Frankly, Pauline knew they were right, but she was consumed with the desire to snatch up every valuable material they could. It wasn’t as though they spent every day out in the woods where such things were plentiful.
Harvesting every single plant and animal of value in an area was generally frowned upon. That didn’t stop many people, but even so, when Pauline’s scheme was rejected—with the other three telling her that she should just gather whatever she wanted to gather herself—she gave them a verbal lashing.
“We came all the way out here into the middle of the forest! We should be gathering anything that we can—at least enough to earn our food and lodging!”
“Okay, okay,” the other three sighed.
Indeed, this was Pauline’s firm condition to accepting Mile’s plan to travel through the woods. “I’ll approve this route only if we try earning some money along the way,” she’d insisted.
“Mile, if any orcs show up, we can’t run from them! Mavis, you cut them down cleanly! Don’t let the digestive tract leak into the body, and don’t rupture the liver!”
“Okay, okay,” said the two.
“One ‘okay’ is enough!”
“Okay, okay…”
This is such a bother!!!
***
“We’ll be crossing the border soon,” said Mile.
The other three nodded silently in reply. Unless they had taken on a job that put them in opposition to another country, hunters generally had no problem crossing national borders in the middle of the forest or the mountains instead of via the highway. Except in special cases, they were under no obligation to pay taxes to any particular nation, after all. On the other hand, were any merchant to attempt such a thing, they would be charged as smugglers.
“Let’s keep going for now and wait to make camp until tonight. We should be able to make it to the edge of the forest before night tomorrow,” said Mile.
She had seen the scope of the forest from the air, so she had a good idea of how long it might take them to get across. Assuming that she was not accounting only for her own individual, unrestricted speed of movement…
The evening of the next day, just as Mile had predicted, the Crimson Vow arrived at the edge of the forest. They had caught several orcs along the way, and as a result, Pauline appeared to be in better spirits.
The party decided to make camp for the final time just inside the outskirts of the woods. If they were to make camp outside the forest, they might be seen by the nearby villagers. Their cooking fire would be easily spotted from a distance, after all. In a world where monster and brigand attacks were an everyday occurrence, few went out of the way to reveal their presence—and those who regularly did such a thing didn’t live long.
In short, it was survival of the fittest.
Mile took her tent out of her inventory as she always did, followed by a stove, table, and chairs, along with cooking implements and ingredients. Pauline began chopping up the ingredients to make soup.
“Droplets dance, spin, and boil! Hrah! Hwahhwahhraaah!!!”
She had placed the ingredients and water straight into the dishes and heated them there, so there was no need to ladle out the soup or wash any pots. Seeing this, Reina sighed. “This really is more convenient. I know we have to pass ourselves off as a normal C-rank party when we’re on guard duty, but I hate all the extra work we have to do…”
It was true. While they were on their last job, they had used Reina’s fireball as their teakettle instead of Pauline’s special molecular oscillation magic, thinking that it would invite too much interest to let the elves see such a maneuver.
At any rate, now that they were alone, they could use their magic freely.
“Wind Edge!”
Behind them, Mavis was using her Wind Edge to chop up some boar legs that Mile had taken from her inventory. As in Pauline and Reina’s case, she had hesitated to use this skill in front of the elves, who were very familiar with magic, given that she believed she was using a special, secret technique of harnessing spiritual power. Wind Edge was still too crude to use to cut into the belly without slicing through viscera, so she used a kitchen knife for more precise cuts. Likewise, she used a skinning knife to carefully remove the pelts, which could be sold.
Any time she got it in her mind to use her dagger for cooking or skinning, she could swear she heard a faint crying from somewhere, so she refrained.
“It’s so much easier and more relaxing when no one else is around,” the four sighed, thinking how much more constricted they felt on days when they had to worry about who might be watching.
“Mavis, we can give you a good cleaning and a hot shower later, so don’t even worry about getting dirty!” added Reina.
“Oh, thanks! I was just gonna prep enough for tonight, but I’ll go ahead and cut up the whole thing!”
Naturally, Mile had taught both Reina and Pauline to create warm showers with magic, so there was no need for Mavis to balk at the thought of getting sweaty or ending up covered in beast blood. This was a blessing she gladly accepted…as long as there were no other hunters or clients around.
***
“Let’s go.”
The next morning, after finishing a simple breakfast and completing the instantaneous work of packing up their tent, the Crimson Vow exited the forest and continued straight on. After proceeding for a short while, they came upon a path. It was probably one along which people traveled when they wished to reap the blessings of the forest, gathering wild vegetables and fruits, collecting herbs and kindling, and hunting beasts and monsters—which meant that following it should lead them to the nearest village.
The girls, of course, had no business in any village and didn’t intend to even stick around for tea. They merely wished to drop in and see what damage had been done.
The Crimson Vow had been able to obtain certain information from the guildhall at the last town where they had stayed. Apparently, while no one in the neighboring country had died during the prior monster-suppression incident, the royal army had taken a fair number of casualties, several hunters had been mildly injured, and some of the fields of the local villages damaged.
The soldiers had undoubtedly taken so many injuries because they gave their all to the battle at hand, unlike hunters, who would save their own hides and let the monsters go if things got dangerous for them. On this front, there was a clear difference between soldiers and the free agents known as hunters.
As far as the Crimson Vow were concerned, their job was done; this affair no longer had anything to do with them. The fact that they were curious about what had happened as a result of a job that they had already completed, and hoped to see it for themselves, was proof of a softheartedness that was not often praised by those in their profession.
It was something that, in the future, would do them more harm than good.
“………”
They had not yet seen anything resembling a village, but the fields were now coming into view—as well as what probably used to be more fields.
This was likely the aftermath of where the monsters had run amok. There were signs of repairs happening here and there, but it would take quite some time before the crushed, trampled fields could be restored to their former glory. As the party continued on, observing the fields out of the corners of their eyes, they noticed a group of children ahead of them.
“Are they coming back from gathering in the forest?” Mile asked curiously. “Seems a bit early for that…”
Pauline looked to her and said, puzzled, “Mile, you—or really, all of us, are not exactly morning people. We usually wake up late. Farmers all wake up at the crack of dawn and start work first thing. They go back home to eat between the second morning bell and the first midday bell, and then after their meal break they go back out and work the evening through until dark. It’s not at all odd to see them heading back home right about now.”
“Oh, so they only eat twice a day, then? Brunch and dinner?” asked Mile.
“Brunch?” asked the other three.
“It’s a meal that combines breakfast and lunch!”
“Isn’t that just first lunch? They call it that in your country too, don’t they?”
“Ah, yeah… Ahaha.”
Most modern townspeople in this world ate three times a day, as did nobles and academy students. Even hunters were not usually foolish enough to put their bodies in danger of overexertion by working on an empty stomach until midday or to stuff themselves with first lunch, which would restrict their movement and could lead to fatal injury—especially if they took injuries to the abdomen during their afternoon endeavors. Therefore, all four members of the Crimson Vow had led a three-meal life until that point…except for the scant few times when they had been temporarily restricted by being on the move as part of a job with other people.
When they were all alone, preparing a simple meal took no time at all. They just dined on boxed lunches or sandwiches from Mile’s storage. The party was already aware of the secret of Mile’s time-static storage magic (read: inventory), so she was free to use it without restriction.
“Well, why don’t we try talking to those kids?”
They had no intention of actually going into the village, but it should be fine for them to at least talk to some of the villagers. Mile ran up to the children, calling out to them. The children, however, froze—the older boys forming a barrier for the girls and the younger children to hide behind them. They were on high alert.
“Wh…?”
Mile was taken aback. Ever since she was reincarnated and regained her memories, and then enrolled at Eckland Academy, she had always been fairly good with children.
“Aha… Mile, could you take out two or three orcs for a minute?”
“Huh? O-okay…”
While she did not understand the reasoning behind Pauline’s request, Mile did as she was told and took three orcs out of storage. Pauline then turned to the children, whose eyes were wide with shock, and explained, “You see? Despite how we look, we’re all super-strong hunters. We’re not empty-handed because we’re here to poach your prey or steal from the village; we just happen to have a storage magic user on hand. We have plenty of other game and spoils in here too, so we don’t need to take any of the herbs and vegetables you all have gathered.”
“Ah…” said the other three.
A party of four girls who all appeared to be novice hunters, half of them underage (or so it would seem) had just emerged from the forest empty-handed and approached a group of children with foraged goods in hand. And then there was the fact that they were armed with weapons…
“Yeah, I guess that would make anyone nervous…”
“I see. So everyone in the village was safe, but some of the hunters and soldiers were hurt, and part of the fields were damaged?”
“Mm-hm… We reckoned we had to try and earn a little bit if we could, so we’ve been goin’ out into the woods to pick anything that we can eat or sell.” Thanks to Pauline’s careful explanation, the children had calmed down and told the Crimson Vow a number of things about the village.
“B-but that’s so dangerous!” cried Mile, her face paling. “Even if it’s just the outskirts, the forest is still the forest! There are monsters in there! With just a group of children, even a goblin or just a few kobolds could mean the end of you!”
The children looked at her coolly.
“Yeah, but there aren’t any monsters in the outskirts anymore. Normally, we’d never be allowed to go into the woods all by ourselves, but until the old huntsmen tell us that the monsters have come back, we’ve got special permission.”
“Hm…?”
Apparently, thanks to the stampede that Mile had caused, the battle to drive the monsters back had grown so fierce that the monsters had been pushed back too far into the forest. Goblins, ogres, and other dangerous monsters were one thing, but the counter-offensive had driven away even jackalopes, orcs, and normal prey like deer and boar, which were sources of meat, hides, horns, and tusks. Thus, the huntsmen had no choice but to delve deeper into the forest, and until the monsters returned to the area, even children were permitted to go foraging on its outskirts.
There was silence from three of the members of the Crimson Vow.
“Wh-what are you all staring at me for?!” Mile groused as their gazes triangulated on her. Of course, she had put the stampede plan into motion after discussing it with them, so they were really in no position to criticize her. However…
“Mile! Limits!”
“Common sense!”
“Discretion!”
“Nnnn…”
After handing the children a share of their spoils, which they would be able to sell for a few silver pieces, the Crimson Vow followed the joyfully gamboling bunch into town. They had no use for this village, but they did plan on staying a few nights in the next proper town they came to. It was not a bad idea to get a more regional perspective of the country before heading into its capital.
***
Cling-a-ling.
“Huh?”
The moment that the Crimson Vow entered the new guildhall, they froze in shock.
“What was that sound?”
Guild doorbells normally made a deep, resonant sound—not the dainty noise they had just heard. Seeing the four standing stock-still, the other hunters and guild staff grimaced. Apparently, every new hunter to show up at the branch had the same reaction.
“There was a fight a little while ago, and the Guild standard bell got caught in the crossfire. It broke. We’ve got a new one on order,” said a middle-aged hunter standing nearby.
“Th-thank you very much,” Mavis replied.
I knew it, Mile thought to herself. They’re all the same standardized bell! I did think that it sounded the same everywhere we went…
The other three all nodded approvingly, as though they had been thinking something along those same lines.
Starting over, Mavis, the party leader, turned to the room and gave a formal greeting.
“We are the C-rank party, the Crimson Vow, registered to the capital guild branch in the kingdom of Tils! We are currently on a training journey. It’s a pleasure to make everyone’s acquaintance!”
“Pleased to meet you!” said the other three in turn.
From around the room came a number of brief replies, some ohs, and a few words of praise. These hunters seemed to be a friendly bunch, which put the members of the Crimson Vow at ease.
Next, the girls went to check in with their old friends, the information board and the job board.
“Monsters have disappeared from the outskirts of the forest near the border, so fulfilling hunting requests will require traveling farther than usual into the forest. Beginners should exercise caution, it says.”
As Mavis read the information off of the board, the faces of the three members of the Crimson Vow twisted. Apparently, they had made things a bit difficult for the local novice hunters—and for the villagers and soldiers, but they weren’t overly concerned about that part of the equation. This country was the one that had started the cycle of harassment to begin with, so they were in no position to complain. They’d been the one to cause trouble for the people of Marlane, the kingdom they had last resided in, and there had been injuries and even deaths amongst the local soldiers and hunters near the border. Worse still, it had all been done intentionally, with malice aforethought.
Indeed, this kingdom should feel grateful that they had the consideration to make sure that none of the soldiers here had ended up dead. If anything, the farmers of this kingdom should be holding their own government responsible…not that any of them were actually in a position to do so, of course.
It was just, well, the forest was probably an important source of earnings for the fledgling hunters who had yet to make C-rank. And so, the way the Crimson Vow had done it was a little—maybe just a tiny bit unkind—particularly when the four of them thought back to their very first paying jobs during their time at the Hunters’ Prep School.
As for the hunters who had been hired by the royal army to help drive back the monsters overflowing from the forest and had gotten hurt… Well, they had made an independent assessment of their own abilities and taken the job for pay. Some amongst them had probably even helped driven back monsters in the forest before. Hired mercenaries could not complain about being killed by enemy mercenaries—it was as good as in their job description.
There were no other items of consequence posted on the information board. They moved to check the job board, but there were no interesting or unusual jobs there, either. Even if there had been some, they had probably already been snapped up by local hunters.
“There’s nothing good here,” said Reina.
“None of these pay well,” griped Pauline.
“I don’t think any of these would be good training or experience,” muttered Mavis.
As always, the trio’s complaints were rather presumptuous, but they were young people on a journey of learning, on the hunt for experiences that would facilitate their growth. Knowing this, the more senior hunters, who remembered such a time in their own youth, could only look on with a wry smile.
Hm?
Suddenly, Mile noticed one of the hunters, who was eating over in the dining corner, staring at her.
I wonder what that’s about…
Not once did the thought occur to Mile that someone might just think that she was cute—even though that was probably all it was.
Could there actually be someone who I’ve met before in a town that I’ve never been to? O-oh no!
Much as it seemed inconceivable to Mile, who was bad with faces, there were people in the world who had access to a ridiculous cheat code that allowed them to remember anyone they’d met even once. Mile could not even begin to fathom such an ability. For her part, she had trouble remembering faces even after having met someone a number of times. She was convinced that it was the same for most other people—that they, too, had to distinguish people by their clothes or what they talked about, rather than their appearances.
D-d-d-d-don’t tell me—did they see me in my Goddess Phenomenon form? Could there be someone who was a hired hunter in the monster-driving force…who also possesses the legendary cheat code to remember the face of someone they’ve only met once?
Sweat began to drip down Mile’s temples.
Meanwhile, the man, a hunter in his late twenties, realized that Mile had noticed his gaze and was staring back at him. Seeing that she appeared to be terribly shaken, he became even more frantic himself.
The two continued to stare at each other in frozen silence.
“What are you staring at that man for?!” shouted Reina.
“Uh, no, I was just…” Mile panicked.
The man appeared to be suffering similar taunts from the hunters near him.
The other three members of the Crimson Vow cast Mile dubious looks.
Gaaaaaaaaah!!!
In this moment, the hearts of Mile and this unknown man were entirely in sync…though neither of them realized it.
***
“It should be somewhere around here …” Mile muttered to herself, standing outdoors in the dead of night.
“Sorry to keep you!”
“Eek!” She reflexively let out a tiny shriek at the sudden voice from behind her.
“Ah—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” It was the man with whom Mile had locked eyes that afternoon, emerging from the shadow of the trees.
After that initial moment at the Guild, he had approached Mile on the pretext of flirting, stealthily handing Mile a slip of paper upon which was written a place and a time. Mile, thinking that this was a conversation she needed to have, slipped out of the inn after the others fell asleep, using her well-practiced sound and movement barriers.
She had to silence him. (Well, that was dangerous phrasing, but she had to keep him from talking, anyway!)
“I am Lycus, a C-rank hunter. Thou seemst to be quite radiant today, my lady Goddess.”
“Noooo! P-please, stop doing that!”
Mile had feigned godhood numerous times in the past, but to actually be spoken to that way face-to-face sent a shiver down her spine, or gave her goosebumps, or…something like that. At any rate, she could not bear to be addressed in such a manner.
“Please, call me ‘El.’ Of course, I normally go by a false name, so take care not to call me that in front of others. Furthermore, please don’t use my false name in conjunction with talk of my true nature!”
“Of course, Lady Visibiel.”
After some back and forth, she finally got him to agree to addressing her as “Miss El.” That was apparently as far as she would be able to push it.
“Well then, your…er…Lady…Miss El, I am honored that thou wouldst share thy presence with—”
“Gaaah! Please don’t go out of your way to speak so formally! Just be straightforward about it!”
“Oh, are you sure? I’ll talk normally then, thanks.” Even Lycus seemed to realize that his mode of address was a bit excessive.
“Now then, why is it that you called me out here?”
At Mile’s prompting, he elaborated. Initially, according to him, the military had hired hunters from this town to participate in the monster suppression. However, they had been hired on directly by the army instead of through the Guild, which meant that the pay was not as good, they earned no contribution points, and even if they were injured or killed, they would receive no support from the guild branch. Thus, as the problems with the monsters continued, the number of local hunters who were willing to sign up decreased. Currently, their only recruits were gold diggers, unsavory characters, and thugs who weren’t even hunters. There was no telling what might happen if such a motley crew were sent off into the forest without a single local to guide them, and so, Lycus had been recruited to participate at the guild master’s behest.
Naturally, this had come with a bonus fee from the Guild on top of what the army was paying.
“Honestly, when those swarms of monsters came stampeding toward us, I’d as good as given up. I thought it was all over for us. But then you came in at the last moment and rescued us! I don’t know how I can repay you! I’ll do anything! Uh, well, I mean, I still would do whatever your Greatness said, even if you hadn’t given us your favor, naturally!” he quickly added. He really was a bit too casual about addressing a goddess…
Grateful for his offer nonetheless, Mile hit the man with a barrage of questions.
“So not a single one of the hunters in this town is participating in the monster chase anymore? Ah, I guess rumors would have started flying after you made your official report to the Guild… Or, er, not rumors, but, given that the commander ordered the Guild that they absolutely must not continue driving the monsters into the neighboring land again, no matter what—and the fact that the two platoons left in the forest outskirts were in shambles, and the two who went into the forest were mostly unharmed, and the suspicious behavior of the unharmed soldiers… Well, actually, I mean, he didn’t order it so much as demand it—he doesn’t have that kind of authority—but it really was as good as a command, or rather an entreaty, which was relayed to the Capital immediately. All that gave your report some credibility? Mmm, I see…”
Given how frantic the soldiers must have been, even the Guild could not write the commander’s instructions off with a complaint that they were overstepping their bounds. The Guild didn’t take orders from the military, but here, it was simpler just to agree.
“So, is that the reason that you concealed yourself when you came to this town?” asked Lycus, his expression dark.
Mile cocked her head, unsure what Lycus was asking.
“I’m begging you! There are at least fifty people in this town who are good of heart! To destroy them all would be…”
“Is this Sodom and Gomorrah?!”
After some explanation, Mile was able to clear up the misunderstanding.
“Not even my companions are aware of this side of me, so please don’t say anything about it to them!”
“V-very well, understood! By the way, the reason that I called you all the way out here is that there is something that I absolutely must tell you at once.”
“Then next time please lead with that!” Mile stormed, unhappy with the man’s sense of timing. She had put up a sound dampening barrier from the get-go, so there was no worry of anyone coming around if she stirred up a bit of a fuss.
“To tell you the truth, I heard some people will be coming from the capital to investigate this incident.”
“Huh? But, there’s nothing to investigate, is there?”
At best, they could confirm what damages had been done to the farmers and their land. It was unlikely that testimony from hunters hired on in an emergency capacity would contain anything more informative than, “We fought to stop the monsters that came out of the forest.” That was all they had been hired to do. Other than Lycus, everyone who had been in the forest at the time had come from the capital.
“I agree, but I guess without seeing it for themselves—with just the word of the people on the scene—they can’t call off everything that they’ve been doing. It’d be bad for their honor, or pride, or something.”
At Lycus’s explanation, Mile began to understand the gist of things.
If they do investigate and decide there’s evidence to back up the soldiers’ testimony, then they might resume driving monsters into Marlane. If a higher-up gives the order, then it will be pointless for the commander who was present at the time to try and oppose it. Plus, if another unit gets put on the next mission, then those people probably won’t care either way…
Ugh, this is bad! Especially since I ran my mouth and promised the commander and the people from the Guild that there would not be a next time. What do I do?
Of course, Reina and the others shared the blame in this case. They had all agreed upon this plan ahead of time, and so it was all of them who had made that boast.
Okay, thought Mile, I’ll discuss it with the others!
Then, she returned her attention to Lycus. “I see. Thank you for informing me. Let us end things here for tonight. I sincerely hope that you will not forget that in my normal form, I am nothing more than a novice hunter.”
“Of course! I will never forget how you saved us!”
Truthfully speaking, the fact that they had even been endangered in the first place was also Mile’s fault, but Lycus did not know this. As far as he was concerned, Mile—or rather, “the Goddess, Visibiel”—had saved his life. Even putting the whole “savior” business aside, no one in their right mind would pick a fight with a goddess. At least, not in this world.
Knowing this, Mile was not particularly concerned about Lycus. She had been worried when she received the message calling her out, but the fact that she had been contacted for benevolent reasons put her a bit more at ease…
Still, I do need to do something about this.
With that thought, Mile fell into a gloom.
“Are you serious?!” Reina raged upon hearing Mile’s tale the following morning. “First of all, Mile, why did you go out without telling us?! Just how many times have you done this now?!”
“Ah, well, I told him that I’d kept the fact that I was a goddess secret from my friends, so…”
“Yeah, but that’s only something you need to tell him! That’s no reason not to tell us that you’re going to meet with him! Who knows what could’ve happened to you—meeting up with a man all alone in the middle of the night!”
“My guess would be…nothing.” said Mavis.
“Nothing at all.” Pauline agreed.
“I don’t think there’s any man in this world who could overcome Mile by force.”
“It would be impossible.”
“Now that you put it that way…”
At the pair’s assertions, Reina finally came back to her senses. “But if Mile wanted to overcome him…” she muttered.
“Yeah,” agreed Mavis and Pauline thoughtfully, as though wondering if such a thing had happened before.
“I wouldn’t!” Mile screamed. “A-anyway, at this rate, the investigation is going to turn up no evidence, and the government here might start up their harassment of Marlane again.”
Hearing the apprehension in Mile’s voice, Pauline cut in. “Would they really do something like that after you warned them so vehemently?”
Mavis, meanwhile, was of the same mind as Mile. “The people who have been ordering this harassment are honor-bound, stubborn people, and it’s not like Mile actually incited a natural disaster or anything like that. If all they have is a vague threat from a little girl dressed up like a goddess, they might just decide that the monsters’ advance missed the soldiers by chance and call it a day.”
“I-I suppose you’re right…” replied Pauline.
“Huh?” asked Reina, “But didn’t she put on some kind of spectacle?”
“Healing magic. Bending swords. Poking holes in armor. Striking through a rock with an attack spell. It probably had a huge impact on the men who were actually there, but their superior officer might not believe soldiers who came running home with their tails between their legs, crying, ‘Our enemy was just way too strong!’ And even if they believed that a good portion of the soldiers’ testimony was true—each of those individual feats are something that a particularly powerful mage could’ve done, aren’t they?”
“W-well, I suppose an A-rank mage might be able to do something like what Mile did, if you turned it down to about twenty or thirty percent of the same power… So, if they thought that the testimony had been blown out of proportion somehow, I suppose they might conclude there was a possibility of the goddess being a sham…”
Reina was a mage, and so she understood exactly how absurdly strong Mile’s magic was. Mavis, who could not use magic (or so she thought), and was used to seeing Reina and Pauline’s fairly strong powers as well, lacked that same intuition. She didn’t quite grasp the insurmountable wall between Mile’s magic and the magic that Pauline and Reina could produce when they got serious. This made Reina realize that people who were not mages might see things the same way as Mavis.
“That would be bad…”
“This is bad…”
“This can’t be good.”
“This is really bad!”
***
“So you’re Lycus or whatever, is that right? The one who was working as the guide?”
The man who had come from the capital was a clerk with an arrogant attitude. Naturally, he was of peasant stock. No noble would ever stoop to such a job…assuming there was not some added benefit to make it worth it.
“I am.”
Lycus gave nothing more than the minimally required reply. He had neither the slightest bit of respect nor consideration for anyone who had been party to the capital’s foisting off its burdens onto the fief in which he lived. He was even less amused by a common man who conducted himself as though he were a noble.
On top of which, this man was also “an enemy of the Goddess.”
This man hadn’t the authority to coerce him—he was nothing more than a lowly messenger, after all. Lycus was not only a citizen of a different fief, but a key witness to the incident and the only local who had cooperated with the military. He had no reason to conduct himself humbly.
Of course, the clerk was only doing his job, so if he’d behaved himself properly, Lycus would have responded in turn. However, if he was going to speak to him that way, clearly belittling Lycus with his arrogance…that was a different story.
“So then, what are these little girls about?”
Sure enough, there in the conference room of the guildhall, were Lycus, the clerk from the capital, the guild master, the submaster, and the four members of the Crimson Vow.
The Crimson Vow had killed time in the days until the messenger’s arrival bolstering their resumes with short day jobs, in the name of training. In reality, they were worried that this inquiry might conclude without them, so they were trying their best to be in town whenever Lycus was to confirm his story.
“They’re hunters who were working on the other side of the border during the monster suppression.”
“What?! Then that makes them our enemies!!!” the clerk growled.
Exasperated, Lycus explained, “Hunters traveling away from their home base have no allegiance or loyalties to any one country. You could say that whoever pays them is their ally. They would be our allies if we hired them.”
“Hmph! So you’re saying they’re a bunch of good-for-nothings with no patriotism and no loyalty who would trade their lives and their morals for a bit of money? That’s as good as selling their bodies for coin!”
As the Crimson Vow overheard this, the veins in their foreheads began to twitch, but the clerk did not appear to take notice. If he did notice, then he did not particularly care.
For the most part, Lycus answered the clerk’s questions, and the Crimson Vow provided only simple follow-up replies. There was nothing for them to talk about beyond, “We battled against the monsters who were coming toward us, killed some of them, and drove most of them away.”
Having acquitted his duty to the most minimal degree possible, the clerk packed up and left, posthaste. He showed no sign of wishing to go into the forest himself to investigate.
“He doesn’t believe us, huh?”
“He didn’t believe us, did he?”
“I don’t think he believed us…”
“He who believes…will have the rug pulled out from under him.”
And so, the next day the Crimson Vow set out for the country’s royal capital.
They were not in the best of moods.
Indeed, the clerk’s insulting words seemed to have left them deeply wounded…or rather, angry. Livid, in fact.
Those insensitive words had done his own country a grave disservice, but neither he, nor his superiors, would ever know it.
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