by Funa
If Veil could become a C-rank, everything would be just as the man said.
“As long as you can do well on the exam, anyway,” the man explained. “Even if you can’t read and write, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to pass. Still, the chances of getting in are slim—incredibly so…”
Despite the man’s warning, Veil replied, “I’ll do it!”
And so he had.
Even after he became a C-rank hunter, being able to read and write would make choosing jobs much easier for him. In addition, not being able to read and sign his own contracts and the like could be disastrous. With that in mind, every night after dinner, he returned to the classroom to practice his letters.
With the others in his dorm room, it was hard to find space to practice there, and besides, if he used the board in the classroom, he could save money he might have spent on paper and ink. It wasn’t unusual for the other students to return to the training grounds or the indoor practice area after their lessons, but no one came back to the classroom.
That was what he thought, anyway, until someone did come.
“Writing practice?”
It was an earnest, friendly girl of twelve, three years Veil’s junior, who was said to be able to use storage magic. A lucky girl who was not only smart and good-looking, but would also never want for anything. A flower on a mountaintop, blooming miles out of his league.
And yet there she was, standing before him and talking with him, perhaps due to some passing fancy of her own.
We’re classmates, he thought. They’d simply happened to meet alone in the classroom—it wasn’t so terrible for them to make small talk, was it? She was probably a nice girl who would never judge someone based on differences in status or wealth.
With that in mind, Veil turned to speak to the girl, but then…
“S-say, just hunting with a sword isn’t very effective, is it? What if I told you there was a magic you could learn that’s perfect for hunting birds and jackalopes?”
“Huh…?”
What was she saying?
***
Over the following weeks, the girls’ efforts at power leveling progressed swimmingly, with Reina, Pauline—and, to some extent, Mavis—increasing their strength by the day.
Mile didn’t bother teaching Reina and Pauline any basics, nor did she instruct them as to how to naturally convert an image into a solid thought for specific magical purposes. Nevertheless, their skills improved.
She took care to stop them both at a level that would rank them only as “advanced,” in terms of the school’s training, so that no one would be aware of their immense progress. At least, this was her intention; however, she had no idea whether their classmates and instructors were actually fooled.
As for Mavis’s sword training, there was no need to be secretive, so Mile poured all her efforts into the task. No matter what, Mavis was a still a completely normal person and the results fairly standard for the kind of intensive training Mile was giving her. It wouldn’t exactly be a huge matter of note if she turned out somewhat more impressive than most. Because her practice partner was so fast, her reactions grew quicker, and her own movements did as well. Still, she remained very much in the category of what one might call “a passionate student with exceptional potential.”
That progress, and in particular her improved reaction time, startled Elbert, but as he didn’t attribute that success to Mile, she didn’t mind him taking note.
Contrary to her fears, he paid very little attention to Mile herself beyond that first day. There were other students to attend to, and even if Mile were pressured into sword training, she would never be able to practice it seriously. Furthermore, it was out of line for a teacher to try and tamper with a student’s future profession on a whim, so it was probably just as well that Elbert found other things to attend to.
Besides, it was only in terms of power and speed that Mile’s swordsmanship was exceptional. She didn’t possess any particular talents in the realm of basic technique—not in terms of handling, footwork, or even reading her opponent’s movements. She was probably worthless and uninteresting to a sword instructor. After all, just having exceptional physical abilities did not mean that one had the makings of a true swordsman.
Furthermore, Mile did have exceptional magical ability, so it was clear to all that that would be how she made her fortune. It was easy to imagine that the two magic teachers had staked their claim, worried that interference might crush a student with great magical potential.
Even though Elbert was the principal and main instructor, he was still under employ himself. And if something went wrong, the higher-ups would catch wind of it.
***
“Spill it, Mile,” Reina pressed Mile one afternoon as they sat in the classroom.
“Huh? Spill what?”
“Don’t play dumb! I’ve been keeping an eye on you. What are you doing in the classroom with that guy every night after dinner?!”
“Er…” Mile mumbled, which only put fuel to the fire.
“Don’t tell me you’re dating, or that you’ve made some kind of arrangement…”
“We’re not, we’re not! I’m just using him as a sacrif… Er, no…”
“What do you mean? Explain yourself immediately!”
Mile explained herself.
Reina was horrified. “What are you thinking? You’re making him take a bullet for you just so you don’t stand out? I can’t believe you…”
I bet that boy has a crush on Mile… Mavis and Pauline thought, sending up a prayer for his happiness.
“Well, it’s true that you might be in danger if your family ever caught up with you, so I can’t say that I don’t understand. And since you’ve taught us so much, it would be wrong of me to complain. But still. Just keep it casual with this guy, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am…”
***
Veil, the orphan boy, was making vast strides in his magical skill, thanks to Mile’s teaching.
She had quickly realized that Veil had neither immense magical power, nor a talent for spells that were particularly complicated. Anything that required extended concentration was similarly difficult for him. So, she decided to teach him two simple spells that he could easily reproduce.
The first was air bullets.
She figured that this would allow him to hunt small animals with ease.
By avoiding complicated productions, such as summoning, freezing, and shaping water, and by eliminating the need to do something labor-intensive like making or gathering rocks to shoot, he could hunt with something that would always be on hand, no matter where he was.
It was just compressing and propelling air, but it would be enough to kill—or at least render unconscious—any bird or small animal.
Furthermore, when facing larger opponents, it would be enough to break a monster’s guard or drive them off, ensuring that the incident wouldn’t end fatally. Above all else, the spell was short, fast, and easy to use.
In their world, wind-summoning magic was common, but there were limits to this power, due to the general ignorance of barometric gradients, thermal expansion, updrafts, and rotational power due to the Coriolis force. Certainly, they had yet to stumble upon the notion of compressing and firing air, so Mile’s lesson was quite useful.
The second spell was a fatal technique: a magic blade that could cut down large prey and human enemies alike. For the sake of secrecy, and to maintain the element of surprise, the sword’s blade was covered in a magical coating only just before launching an attack, a tactic that also helped to conserve magical energy.
By coating the sword in magic, its strength was increased exponentially, and the cutting edge became exceptionally thin. It was strong, durable, and sharp: the three components of a swordsman’s dreams, made reality. Even a cheap, scrap metal sword could transform into a divine blade with this sort of magic!
As both were single-step processes, the procedures were easy to use, if a bit clumsy.
Furthermore, the time it took to actualize both spells was quite short, so the consumption of magical energy and amount of brain fatigue caused by exerting the thought pulse were both fairly minimal.
Most importantly in the context of battle, the incantations were short. They would still be reasonable to use, even during a sword fight.
With a magically enhanced blade in hand, Veil had become, without a doubt, a “magic knight.”
Time and again, Mile warned him that he was absolutely forbidden to tell anyone else about their trainings. He was to keep these techniques to himself, Mile said, threatening that if he were ever to share this magic, then both he and the people he taught would disappear. However, she didn’t bother to say who, exactly, would be responsible for the disappearances. Such details were troublesome to think of.
In truth, the air bullets were pretty easy to understand and imitate once one saw them. The magical blade, though, wasn’t something that could be figured out with a glance.
Even so, she told him to keep it a secret. If she became known for inventing all sorts of magic, there would be a big to-do. Moreover, she would hate for her techniques to be used to kill hundreds of people or somehow alter the balance of the world. Still, as long as her name wasn’t attached to the magic, maybe it wouldn’t be all that bad if a spell did spread—especially if the spell in question was something like healing magic or a technique such as the air bullets, which had non-lethal applications.
Even if Mile’s actions had some influence on the world, it wasn’t as though God was looking to stop her. In fact, the gods appeared to have abandoned all management of her world, so any influence she might have most likely wouldn’t be a problem.
Veil took the lessons he received from Mile every night and tried them out while hunting on his rest days. Then, the week after, he returned to discuss the results with Mile and receive new lessons based on his experience out in the field. Thus, while his skills didn’t grow at the same rate as her party members’, he nonetheless continued to improve steadily.
After Mile spilled the beans about Veil, he also began practicing swords with Mavis during school hours. Mavis was thrilled—not only because she had made a new friend, but because she finally had someone other than Mile to practice with. She sulked much less thereafter, so this was a positive development for Mile and the others, too.
“You know, I just realized something,” Reina said one day. “‘Veil’ and ‘Mile’ are pretty similar names, aren’t they? Is there any connection?”
“Huh? Ah, I guess you’re right… No, it’s just a coincidence. They both just happen to be short names that end in ‘L’ sounds! I mean, it would be weird to think that there is some connection between you and our classmate Nina just because both your names end in ‘na,’ wouldn’t it?”
“I guess you’re right…”
Despite Reina’s pondering, the similarity between their names really was just a coincidence.
Still, Mile wondered, what if it turned out that the person I chose to be my sacrificial lamb was actually my long-lost brother? No no no no no! Mile shook her head wildly. Don’t even think about that!
***
As the days went on, Mile’s work continued steadily, with classroom lessons and training on the weekdays, money-earning and independent magic practice on the rest days, and sword training with Mavis and Veil in between.
Her bonds with her classmates, even those outside her party, began to deepen, and though their school wasn’t a normal one, Mile soon found herself living a version of the normal student life she had always hoped for.
Even on the days when they trained fiercely, the other students thinking seriously of their futures, Mile saw it all as an enjoyable part of student life. The days passed in the blink of an eye, and soon, graduation was just around the corner.
One day near the end of their schooling, it was announced that they would be going out for some field training.
“…A class field trip?” Mile said.
“It’s field training!” their instructor said. “What is this ‘foldtripe’ you’re talking about?”
“Oh, like camp!”
“What are you even talking about?!”
They weren’t going to be fighting ogres or anything. As many of the students were inexperienced hunters, they would be going out in search of orcs and goblins instead, in order for them to get accustomed to killing humanoid creatures. Without such preparation, there was a far higher chance of students dying in their first battle, surrounded only by their fellow rookie hunters rather than those with experience in the field.
On top of all that, field training would also give them the experience of camping in the wild.
***
Several days later, the students of the Hunters’ Prep School found themselves in a forest about a half-day’s walk from the capital. It was time for field training.
Each team—or rather, each party—would train together. As usual, however, the teams had to be reorganized in order to address the imbalance of professions among the girls’ parties. These rearrangements were left up to the students. As such things often happened when parties participated in large-scale operations, forming the parties themselves was considered good, practical experience.
While the intent was a general redistribution, complete disassembly of the existing parties would have been a waste of all the bonds the students had formed throughout their schooling. Therefore, the male students proposed that they only dissolve the girls’ teams and redistribute their members among the boys’ parties.
Of course, this plan dissolved the moment they rushed to extend invitations to the girls they hoped would join their parties.
“Wh-why don’t you come with our team, Miley?”
“No, come with us!”
“No no, ours is definitely the best choice! There are four of us to look after you!”
“All of you shut up! Mile can serve as an advance guard for our party—we don’t need any of you boys!”
“Huh? Miley’s a magic user, isn’t she? And just having you four girls in a party isn’t really enough people.”
Staring at the obstinate boys, Reina thought for second, then called to a boy standing toward the back. “Veil! Get over here with our party! If the girls from Team B join the rest of your party, they’ll have another sword user on board, so they’ll be fine without you. Team B, is that fine with you?”
“That’s fine!!”
The four girls of Team B readily accepted, miffed at the boys of Teams 1 through 3, who had ignored them all and run straight to Team C Mile. Boys’ Teams 4 and 6, as well as Team 5, Veil’s team, had remained calm and unmoving—plus, there were some cute guys on Team 5, to boot.
“Way to go, Veil!”
Though they hadn’t been able to snag Mile, the most coveted prize, the other boys of Team 5 got the chance to mingle with four cute girls, instead. It was a wise compromise.
“Now then,” said one of the girls on Team A, “we’ll divide up and join Teams 4 and 6!”
“What…?”
The five remaining girls on Team A shot the boys of Teams 1, 2, and 3 a cold look.
Team 1Boys: 5
Team 2Boys: 5
Team 3Boys: 5
Team 4Boys: 4, Girls: 2
Team 5Boys: 3, Girls: 4
Team 6Boys: 4, Girls: 3
Team CBoys: 1, Girls: 4
“How did this happeeeeeeen?!?!” The boys of Teams 1 through 3 let loose a scream of frustration.
In truth, though, they had only themselves to blame, but from that moment until the day of their graduation, half the boys in the class looked upon Veil with jealous eyes.
“How did you end up with seven teams?” Elbert said, looking rather troubled. “I thought you were just going to shuffle the girls into the boys’ teams for six parties. I only brought two extra hunters to chaperone…” Including Elbert, there were four instructors, so even with the other two hunters along, they were now one person short.
“Y-yeah…”
It was always Reina who called the shots, and among their classmates, Team C was known most frequently as “Reina’s Crew.” Still, as far as the instructors were concerned, Mavis was the leader.
And at that point, none of that really mattered, anyway.
“No problems here.”
“Leave it to us!”
Reina and Mile gladly agreed. Ultimately, it just made things easier for them.
“Well then, I’ll leave it to you!” Elbert said, trying not to let on how worried he truly was.
***
Deep in the forest, far from base camp…
“Starting today, I’m lifting the ban on using the magic I’ve taught you in front of others,” Mile said. “We’ll be graduating soon, and this magic is meant to be used in your life as hunters after graduation. It’s about time to get some real practice.
“It would be strange if you could suddenly use this magic right after graduation, so if you start now and use it a little bit at a time in front of the rest of the class, then it will look like it’s just the results of all our training. After all, you’ll have to show your full power in the official exit exams.
“Now. Showing off your magic is one thing, but—You. Must. Not. Tell. Anyone. Else. How. To. Use. It… or share the fact that I was the one who taught you! No matter what, you must consider what you’ve learned to be a secret! Do I make myself clear?!”
At Mile’s uncharacteristically serious expression, the four others nodded fiercely.
***
Slash!
Smack!
“Now me! My turn!”
“You guys…”
Pauline and Reina hunted the goblins gleefully, while Veil shied away.
He wasn’t surprised by Reina’s ferocity, as much as he wished he could be.
