“Dad, I wanna go hunt monsters!”
“Huh? Little strange to say that all of a sudden, isn’t it?”
The next morning, when we were all having breakfast together, Linne suddenly blurted out an odd request.
“Fight monsters? Like...hunting?”
“Mhm! I can’t get any quests from the guild, and Brunhild doesn’t have very many strong beasts, so I’d like to take a trip to Mismede or the Sea of Trees!”
Though Linne was quite excited, Linze seemed rather troubled by the idea. I could understand to an extent... The little girl was talking about something quite dangerous as casually as one might plan out a picnic.
“Oh, I wanna go too. It’s been way too long since I killed some magical beasts. At this rate, I’m gonna get rusty,” Frei said and raised her hand, volunteering herself for the excursion.
Hrm... Kinda figured you’d keep her from acting all reckless, but you want in too? I thought as I turned to Quun.
“Do you kids do a lot of monster hunting in the future?”
“The environment’s a little different in this time period. There are more Behemoths in the future, which has led to mass migration of monsters and beasts across the world. Stampedes aren’t all that uncommon. Linne and Frei often accompany Yakumo on excursions across the world thanks to her [Gate] spell.”
That made sense. Behemoths had a habit of scaring the local population and driving them down into places where people lived whenever they appeared.
Come to think of it, Guildmaster Relisha had said something about a small uptick in the number of monster clashes lately. The increase in Behemoths was probably on account of the atmosphere having a higher magical concentration due to the two worlds merging. With all that in mind, it’d probably be better for the world overall if that excess of monsters was put down.
I turned back to Linze, offering her a sympathetic smile.
“What do you think?”
“I think Linne’s strong enough to hold her own unless she goes up against a particularly tricky foe... But if she’s outnumbered or facing something she’s unfamiliar with, she could still get hurt. So basically...I can’t let her do this on her own.”
“How about letting me go with her, then?” Karina, who strolled over to the table and picked up a piece of fruit, suddenly interjected.
“Hunting’s my forte, after all. I can teach her the best way to deal with any prey.”
...Hunting isn’t just your forte, you know? You’re literally the goddess of hunting...
A small show of hands determined that only Linne and Frei were keen to go hunting. Elna resisted the idea, albeit hesitantly, while Quun and Arcia seemed completely uninterested. Arcia did tell them to bring back some good meat, however.
Linne then brought up the fair point that we should invite Allis, since she’d probably be a bit upset if she learned she missed out.
Obviously I’d be joining them as well. I didn’t want my kids doing something completely ridiculous in foreign territory.
“So, Linne, what are we hunting?”
“Dragons!”
...Linne, sweetie? Dragons are kind of the family members of one of my summons... And Luli’s sitting right there... She’s literally staring at me right now... Don’t put me on the spot like this...
“But dad, isn’t it okay to hunt bad Dragons that break the rules? It’s fine to hunt subspecies that can’t think or talk too, right?”
“You sure seem well versed in Dragon hunting...”
She was right, yeah. There were some Dragons that were okay to hunt. The unthinking ones were little more than magical beasts at that level of intellect.
I called Luli over to hear her take on the situation.
“I think there are a fair few Dragons near a sanctuary in the Sea of Trees. Though if it’s a real fight you want, I’d go for the Fiendrakes.”
“The what?”
Fiendrakes were a subtype of Dragons. That wasn’t fully accurate, actually... It was more like their evolution ran parallel to Dragon’s. They were incredibly strong, but had no means of communicating. In basic terms, they were unintelligent creatures with all the might of a fully-fledged Dragon.
There were many different types of Fiendrakes too. Personally, I’d fought a poisonous one before, a Hydra. It was a horrible nine-headed beast that grew extra heads back each time it lost one. If it were just a matter of strength, that’d probably fit the bill for what Linne wanted... The only issue was that they tended to be pretty tricky creatures.
I took out my phone and ran a search for Fiendrakes. There were a surprisingly large number of results. Eventually, I settled on the best spot for hunting one.
“I say we go here...in the Sea of Trees. There’s a small handful clumped together, and it’s not far from this settlement either. We can get some hunting done and make the place safer at the same time.”
I made a mental note to reach out to Pam, since she was in charge of stuff in the Sea of Trees. I didn’t want to make a fuss or anything, so I figured it’d probably be better to visit her directly with a gift.
I looked over at Linne, who was absolutely raring to go. There was no way I could back out at this point. It would’ve been far easier if I’d simply said no...but I knew that the day would come when my kids had to return to the future. Thus, I wanted them to return home with fond memories of Brunhild and their family. Fond memories such as a day of hunting Fiendrakes together with their father.
“All right... Let’s go.”
“Yaaay!” Linne cheered loudly. Frei also seemed pretty excited. Hunting wasn’t an awful hobby to have, and she probably helped out a lot of people whenever she did it... Still, part of me couldn’t help but wish she was a little more feminine in places.
Either way, I finalized the necessary preparations before taking my kids off to slaughter Fiendrakes.
Guess this is one way to bond with your kids...
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