Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter SS1

Bonus Short Stories 

A Strange Request 

“Rentt, can you see it?” 

In the dim forest, hiding between the short vegetation, my current client leaned in and whispered to me. He was an artisan named Dylas from a town called Kikal. 

I looked to see what was up ahead. “Yeah, doesn’t look like there are any problems right now. This is a strange request, though. I know crystal wolf pups are supposed to be cute, but they’re still monsters. Well, they’re fine as long as you approach them with caution, I guess.” 

What I saw was a monster. Inside a large, hollow tree lay a wolf bigger than an adult man. The translucent crystals all over its body glittered like jewelry, giving it a mysterious beauty. This monster was called a crystal wolf. 

Cuddled against the large wolf’s stomach were three smaller ones, about the size of cats. They were wolf pups. These had clearly just been born, and if I had to guess, they were drinking milk from their mother. Unlike their parent, they had no crystals yet, but they would grow them as they got older. 

Crystals from a crystal wolf were valuable in advanced alchemy and blacksmithing, and the guild had recently received a request to obtain some. But these were powerful monsters that called for an adventurer of at least Gold-class. In other words, they were too much for me. I wouldn’t take such a risky job. You might wonder, then, what I was doing here. 

“We’ve confirmed that they’re safe, so let’s give them some space. What about the guys I told you about in town? How are we doing as far as where they’re at?” Dylas asked. 

I sniffed for the scent of blood and got a general idea of their location. “It should be fine. I don’t think we’ll have to do anything about them. I think they’re injured, and even if they aren’t, neither of them would stand a chance against a crystal wolf.” 

“But you heard what they were saying in town, right? They want to snatch some crystal wolf pups. I just can’t tolerate that. They’re not even doing anything. I know they’re monsters, but they deserve respect.” 

Dylas and I had overheard a couple of adventurers talking about this in town. There was nothing especially strange about it. I couldn’t even call them evil. This was normal for adventurers. But Dylas couldn’t accept it. I could kind of understand how he felt. If these were goblins that made their living attacking humans, that would be one thing, but these crystal wolves hadn’t harmed anyone. Crystal wolves would sometimes even clear away other monsters in their territory, so if anything, they were beneficial to humans. 

Not only that, but this crystal wolf was raising children. Dylas knew this, so he told me that he wanted to stop the adventurers from hunting them. As to why he told me in particular, we just happened to be in the same location and were both put off by what these adventurers said. Dylas got the sense I would understand and take his request, according to him. And I did, so it turned out he was right. 

“Well, I took the job, so I’ll see it through,” I said. “Besides, now that I’m actually seeing the pups, I’m feeling pretty sympathetic. Oh, there they are.” 

We followed the scent of blood until we found the two adventurers from town. They didn’t look that strong. My guess was that they had only just become Bronze-class. Stealing crystal wolf pups at their level was a little much. And it looked like I was right about them being injured too. 

I thought we might be able to ask them to leave without a fight, so I came out of hiding. 

“Who are you?!” one of the men asked. 

“Calm down, I’m an adventurer too. Look, I’m Bronze-class.” 

“Looks like it, yeah. But why are you here? You after the crystal wolves too?” 

“You too, eh? Well, that was my intention, at least.” I forced a bitter grin. 

“What, did something happen?” 

“I found their den, but there were footprints from several male crystal wolves around it. I didn’t see that ending well, so I decided to turn back. Maybe you two know this already, but I figure you’ll appreciate a warning. Most crystal wolves are raised by just their mother, but sometimes other wolves hang around to protect them. That makes them immensely more dangerous to approach. Going after the pups is way too risky. I won’t stop you if you want to try, though, so I can tell you where their den is. What do you think?” 

If I simply told them to leave with no explanation, they would just argue, so it helped to make a courteous offer as well. I also didn’t make up what I said about crystal wolves. When there were other wolves guarding the mother, they could be exceedingly dangerous. Had I lied, the adventurers could have returned to town, done some research, and found me out. Then they would just come right back here, making this all pointless. 

The two adventurers discussed what I told them. Then they slumped their shoulders and said, “Thanks for the warning. I don’t think we want to risk it.” 

“Are you sure? There’s a lot of money in it if you manage to get the pups. You can get good materials from them. They’re in high demand as pets from nobles too.” 

“I know, that’s why I thought we got lucky when a mother with pups was found in the forest. But I got hurt just getting here.” 

“Right, I see your left arm is injured. The crystal wolves might smell your blood, I guess. All the worse if you come across the guard wolves.” 

“Exactly. But we had come so far, so we trudged the rest of the way here instead of giving up. Now that we’ve heard your info though, we’re calling it quits. We’ll do the smart thing instead of getting greedy.” 

“Going back, then? Well, that’s probably for the best. Need help with anything? If I return to town and hear from the guild that you guys never made it back, it’d keep me up at night.” 

“No, I know this looks pretty bad, but I’ve halted the bleeding. And while I’m hurt, he’s doing fine. Not like there are any dangerous monsters around here aside from crystal wolves anyway. Getting back should be easy enough.” 

The taller of the two men did all the talking while the other remained silent. Even when the taller man looked to him, the short one kept his lips sealed. He did nod a lot, though. Most adventurers who used to be hunters were like this, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary. When you were hunting animals that would flee at the sound of a single breath and using only a bow and arrows, this was necessary. 

“Yeah?” I said. “Then this is where we part ways. If we see each other in town, though, maybe we can get some drinks or something.” 

“Sure, let’s do that. Thanks for the info. Bye.” 

The two adventurers left the area. In situations like these, you wanted to wait for the other group to be out of sight before you got moving yourself. Otherwise, you might present yourself as a threat. However, if you were in a desperate situation or knew that monsters were around, then both groups would want to leave as soon as possible. But there was no such danger at the moment. 

“All right, you can come out now, Dylas,” I called. 

“Sounds good,” Dylas said as he came into sight. “Wow, you really convinced them. When you said you’d tell them where the den is, I wanted to strangle you.” 

I wasn’t even sure if I could be strangled to death anyway, so I just said, “Scary.” 

“Haha, sorry. Well, either way, I’m glad that ended peacefully. Besides, they kind of seemed like normal folks. They really looked like bad guys to me, but maybe that was my bias showing.” 

“Probably. From their perspective, they were just trying to hunt some monsters. They don’t have a special connection to crystal wolves like you do.” 

Dylas’s eyes widened with shock, and he asked, “When did you notice that?” He’d never mentioned anything about a special connection with crystal wolves and thought it was odd that I mentioned it. But Dylas simply wasn't that careful to hide it. 

I pointed to the small gem on Dylas’s necklace. “That was made from a crystal wolf’s crystal, wasn’t it? I can tell.” 

“That’s ridiculous. This is green; crystal wolf crystals are transparent.” 

“I hear that when crystal wolves are pregnant, a single green crystal appears on their bodies. Few people have even seen it, though, so not many would know.” 

“Right, and I’m surprised you do.” Dylas sighed. “Yes, I got this from that crystal wolf.” 

“That’s incredible. I sure wouldn’t want to get near a pregnant crystal wolf.” They were even more dangerous then than while they were raising the newborns. 

“I raised that crystal wolf outside town when she was little. I happened to find her when she was hurt, and ever since then, she’s been comfortable with me.” 

“So you tamed a monster?” 

Dylas shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that. It’s more like she treats me as a friend.” 

“That’s still pretty remarkable. A monster like that wouldn’t typically be friendly with a human.” 

“It just happened by coincidence. Anyway, that’s why I wanted to help her and her pups. Sorry I asked this of you for such personal reasons.” 

“Most requests are made for personal reasons. Want me to tell you about a few silly ones I’ve taken? I’ve done everything from cleaning toilets to acting as a butler.” 

Dylas laughed. “I guess mine’s relatively normal compared to those, since it's about monsters.” 

“Exactly,” I said. “Now that that’s taken care of, I think we should head back to town. I want to see if those two made it back in one piece. Oh yeah, and I said I’d go drinking with them too. Dylas, you should join in.” 

“Why me?” 

“Because you got in the way of their job. You at least owe them a drink.” 

“When you put it that way, yeah,” Dylas said, nodding. “Alright, fine, it’ll be my treat. And I want to see you drinking plenty too, Rentt.” 

“I plan on it.”