by Funa
“Honestly, though, are your expeditions always this dangerous?” Mile asked suddenly, finally voicing the question that had been on her mind. Even accompanied by hired guards, they were still young…for elves, anyway. If these two women kept traveling to such dangerous places, they would probably die sooner rather than later, long life spans or not.
“Mm, well, we usually go to places where our races—elves, humans, and dwarves, that is—rarely tread, so we have no way of knowing the area, or accurately judging the degree of danger,” Aetelou explained. “We don’t normally encounter more than ten or so goblins or orcs at once, so if we hire about ten guards, it’s not all that dangerous. We can use attack and support magic ourselves, after all. I suppose if the monsters send out a hunting party of ten, and they all get wiped out, they might think to send a greater number the next time… Hm, that is a bit troubling. I guess we’ll have to hire even more guards next time.”
“I see,” Mile said.
Then Graf spoke. “That was my fault.”
“What?” the two elves asked.
“I made a miscalculation in my commands. With the forces we had, we should have been able to handle even that many orcs without serious injury. My first mistake was putting only my party on the front lines and relegating the Crimson Vow to staying behind to protect our clients. Because of that, our frontline forces were insufficient, and once we entered the melee, we lost any hope of magical support. Honestly speaking, and given that our clients could use attack magic, I should have appointed only Pauline, who excels at both healing and support, and Mile, who can use a sword and cover close-range defense, to guard our clients while Mavis and Reina joined up on the front lines. Reina could fire off precision shots while Malawenn devoted himself to support.”
Graf had clearly thought this through at length, as he continued, “I didn’t account for our clients in combat because I regarded them merely as individuals to be protected. I slipped up again with Mavis. Even though I saw her skills for myself back at the Guild, I thought that they were merely a bit of showmanship from a young maiden, and that a real battle would be too dangerous for her, so I hesitated to have her come up front. I’m sorry.”
“What?!”
The members of the Crimson Vow let out a cry of shock.
“Wh-wh-whaaat happened to you?! Did you eat something weird?” cried Reina rudely.
“The only thing I’ve eaten since last night is the food you gave me!” Graf retorted. But really, one could not blame Reina for her surprise. After how he’d behaved on the first day, she could have never imagined such self-awareness from him.
Come to think of it, she thought, the old guy back at the game exchange counter at our home branch called it. He used to say that even though male hunters often look down on women, or try to push odd jobs off on them, that’s just their immature way of flirting. When it really comes down to it, they’ll put their lives on the line to protect those same ladies…
Graf said it was a lapse in judgment. He’s probably the sort who believes you invite ruin if you put female soldiers on the front lines, because the male soldiers will act recklessly to protect them. In our battle against the orcs, he tried to make his own team take on too much, prioritizing our safety above theirs, which left the Meteors with too many orcs to take on…
On their last two missions, the Devils’ Paradise and the Fellowship of Flame had both been pressured to accompany them by the receptionist, which probably also meant that they were the best parties in town for the job—judging not only by their skills, but by their manners and conviction. (At least, if you put aside the Devils’ motivations and preferences.) The Blue Meteors, meanwhile, were a garden-variety example of a C-rank party from a provincial town. They were skilled, driven, and a little bit crafty.
The Crimson Vow had been mostly paired with especially skilled parties in the past. There was a lot for them to learn from working with completely average hunters. They realized now that, no matter how weak your opponents, there were numerous variables that could change the tides of combat. And they realized how difficult it was to give commands to another party whose abilities you did not know.
We’ve got a long way to go, thought Pauline, Mile, and Mavis, their hearts filled with humility.
Deep down, even Mavis had truly believed that that the Crimson Vow was already as strong as a B-rank party. All they had to do was to finish out the requisite amount of time as C-ranks and fulfill their other requirements, and they would be promoted, easy-peasy. However, even if they could surpass B-rank in momentary bursts of offensive ability, they were still far from being B-rank hunters in terms of experience and ability to strategize.
Considering this, even Reina fell deep into serious thought.
***
“We offer you our deepest gratitude for all that you did for us. Without the selfless actions of Sir Rattle in particular, I may not have made it home alive. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Unlike Reina, who was too shy to properly give her thanks, Mavis, an aspiring knight, could offer honest words of praise and gratitude to another without any affectation. Mile was equally sincere, while Pauline could utter honeyed words without batting an eye, her philosophy being “Flattery doesn’t cost a thing.”
Once they arrived at the rendezvous point for the wagon, the group dug into a simple lunch of sandwiches that Mile had taken from her storage, accompanied by fruit and soup that had been prepared with a tiny fireball. Incidentally, Aetelou and Sharalir, having seen that it was Reina and not Mile who had produced the fireball, could only look on with blank faces, a kind of hollow laughter bubbling up from deep in their chests.
After the meal, Mavis once again expressed her sincere thanks to the Blue Meteors.
“No, really—you saved us from a bad situation, too. Our own poor judgment put us in danger. The crisis that arose as a result is our fault, and it’s only natural that we should protect you girls,” said Graf humbly.
“If word got out that we let the girls who were traveling with us get hurt, it would cause us major problems down the road,” added Rattle.
Hearing this put the Crimson Vow in good spirits, and Mile and Pauline chimed in with compliments of their own.
“No, seriously, you were amazing! Most men would never be able to throw themselves in front of an orc’s blade to protect a lady!”
“It’s enough to make a girl fall in love at first sight!”
“Mile! Pauline! Hold it!”
They had overdone it. Or rather, they were having a bit of fun at Mavis’s expense. Perhaps encouraged by their words, the Meteors shared a collective wink.
Then, as leader and representative of the party, Graf launched into a short speech. “We know that the Crimson Vow is currently in the midst of a journey and that eventually you’ll be returning to your home country. So how about this: why don’t we, the Blue Meteors, travel along with you for the rest of your trip? We’re all completely free, with no offspring at home or parents to look after, so we could settle down in your home country when all is said and done.”
“After all, you really don’t have enough frontline power. With us along, your balance would be better, and the party would be more secure.”
“That’s a great idea!” Rattle and Kesbard immediately offered their fervent support for Graf’s proposal.
And then came the obvious, immediate reply:
“No, thank you!”
“B-but why? You all were just showering us with praise. What went wrong?!”
A triumphant look spread across Mile’s face as she offered up a famous turn of phrase: “In the end, you were all just shooting stars. No matter how brightly you shone, you were destined to fall…”
“What the heck are you saying?!?!” the Blue Meteors shouted and then hung their heads, heartbroken.
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 int
o 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.
