Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Volume 4

by Funa

  That said, they couldn’t leave such a suspicious object alone.

  “Did they think it would be too much of a hassle to transport that thing with them and left it there with a marker to retrieve later? They must have figured we wouldn’t be able to follow their tracks that well and wouldn’t come across it. Or else…”

  It was a trap.

  They halted in their tracks.

  It could be a trap. But it might not be. There was no reason the humans would bother carrying such a heavy-looking, awkward thing. Come to think of it, why on earth would people who were part of an investigation team or a missing persons search party, who knew nothing about the beastpeople, carry such a thing?

  “Do you think it’s something they found near the dig site? Something they wanted to take back with them? Wait. Is it, is it the thing that we’re…”

  By now, they had all reached the same conclusion.

  “We need to know! Be careful, take it down gently!”

  At the leader’s direction, several young beastmen gathered around the tree. The moment they laid their fingers on the vessel, nestled in a crook about five feet off the ground, the vessel’s magical coating disintegrated.

  Bang!

  With an explosive sound, the vessel shattered. Its contents flew everywhere.

  The vessel itself was made of nothing more than earth, and so it was very thin; the coating on the outside had been the only thing keeping it from self-destructing. Without it, the vessel would have long since shattered under the weight of its own contents before the heat and internal pressure could even rise to the appropriate levels.

  The vessel itself posed little threat to the beastmen.

  Its contents, however…

  Flop.

  Plop plop.

  Several of the twenty silently fainted at once.

  Some of them stood wide-eyed, foaming at the mouth. Others wet themselves in a fit of incontinence. And those who had the misfortune of getting it into their mouths…

  Hurk!

  Gaaaaaaah!

  Many lost the contents of their stomachs. Others, try as they may to cover their noses and mouths, were struck with a severe bout of the runs as their minds went hazy.

  “R-retreat! Grab the fallen and get out of here!” the leader directed, once he had vomited until there was nothing left but bile. “If we leave them here, they’ll die!!!” The beastmen who had wanted to run immediately mustered their self-restraint, rushing to their fallen allies’ sides and dragging them away.

  The men who had been doused in the mysterious goop smelled horrendous. This was far beyond what the beastmen, with their sharp noses, could bear. They vomited as they carried their fallen comrades, their faces moist with snot and tears, doing their best to stay conscious. It wasn’t long before those carrying the fallen couldn’t bear it. They soon collapsed themselves.

  “Take off your clothes! Breathe through your mouths and stay awake!”

  The sooner they got their goop-soaked clothes off, the better. After that, they just had to get away as quickly as possible.

  Tracking and capturing the humans as soon as possible? That was out of the question now. It would be several days before their sense of smell recovered, not to mention the exhaustion that came with vomiting and carrying their allies..

  Fighting people? While they were so exhausted from puking that they could barely even stand straight?

  “We need water, immediately,” the leader said. “We can get back to the dig site after that.” He pointed them in a new direction.

  If they returned like this, everyone at the campsite would be ruined as well. That was how horrific the smell was.

  The leader, face twisted in anguish, muttered. “This is the work of a demon…”

  At that very moment, countless tiny beings—invisible to the human eye—who had been thrown from the exploded vessel, flew at top speed to the nearest water source, wailing all the way.

  ***

  The recovery party returned to camp after midday. The remaining beastpeople refused to let them approach the huts, so after putting a fair bit of distance between them, the recovery party shouted their report. After hearing this, the commander of the beastmen assembled a new team.

  If their enemy was going to employ such dirty tactics, they weren’t going to fight them fair and square. The second group, an interception team, was a group of twelve, selected for their agility.

  At least, that was what the commander would say if anyone were to question him. In truth, while they assumed the strength of the escapees to be low, they just couldn’t afford to spare any more fighters. Certainly not if they all came back like this.

  Several of them had returned the day before with a startling number of injuries. Now, twenty more men were out of commission. Excluding those with more specialized skill sets and jobs—such as lookouts, scouts, and camp guards when things were dire—most of the residents were laborers or support workers. Their fighting forces came from a very shallow, very limited, pool, indeed.

  It was unthinkable to send out laborers, women, or youths who had been brought along for miscellaneous tasks. No matter how weak their enemies might be, they couldn’t take such a risk.

  Plus, the proud beastmen would never send all the able-bodied young workers away and leave the older, the injured, and the women to fend for themselves. To do such a thing would be a failing for their race, and that wasn’t something they could even consider.

  It would probably take the half-blind, fragile humans—who were also dragging along non-hunters—two days to make it through the forest. Half a day had already passed since they fled. However, if a small group of beastmen went after them at full clip, they could overtake the humans without much difficulty. The humans would have to sleep eventually; otherwise, they wouldn’t have the strength to go on. The beastmen had gotten a full night’s rest, and could easily go a day and a half without sleeping. A few short breaks were enough for them.

  With all this in mind, the commander sent out the new team—after being pressed again and again by the first team about the “place they must absolutely avoid.”

  “It’s coming up soon. Take caution… Gwah!”

  Just as the leader of the second recovery team issued a warning, they neared it.

  “Evade! Take a wide detour!”

  A faint, distant whiff of the stench, carried on the wind, was enough to make him gag.

  Edging away from the smell and the feeling of nausea, the leader redirected the group, giving the location a huge berth. It was some time before he picked up the escaped humans’ smell again.

  ***

  Though the first couple of breaks were taken up by everyone catching their breath—and Mile enacting her plan—during the breaks afterward, the Crimson Vow was finally able to gather some information from the former captives.

  It was difficult to move well at night, so they took most of their breaks then. If they let fatigue undermine them—if any of them ended up injured—their progress would be even slower. So, when they stopped for a longer rest, Mile brought out easily-digestible food and water from her inventory to pass around. They enjoyed a light meal and conference.

  Tiffy, the guild employee, did most of the explaining. According to her, the local lord had offered a pittance to have a team investigate the strange happenings in the forest. The team was put together, comprised of Dr. Clairia, a specialist in forest ecology; her assistant, who had been invited from the royal capital; a handful of hunters as escorts; and Tiffy, the guild employee.

  Though the lord was funding it, gathering the team had been a guild undertaking. One that had been thrust on it. Tiffy insinuated it hadn’t been so much leaving things to the guild’s discretion as shoving the responsibility onto it, in the event things went awry. However, this didn’t matter to the Crimson Vow.

  Additionally, it was out of concern for Dr. Clairia, the only woman in the group, that Tiffy had volunteered to accompany them. Of course, the Crimson Vow had already
heard as much from the guild master.

  “And then, while we were in the middle of our investigation, we were surrounded by a large group of beastmen and captured.”

  “…” The four girls silently listened to Tiffy’s story.

  “And… that’s all.”

  “Huh?!”

  “That’s it. That’s how things ended up this way.”

  “Too short! That explanation was way too short!!!” the four cut in, well trained now by Mile.

  “Wh-what is it with these beastmen?! What are they doing out there?!” Reina prodded further.

  Indeed, this wasn’t something that could go unaddressed.

  “Ah, it seems they’re searching for something, although we never managed to ask them directly. We just overheard bits and pieces of their conversations.”

  What good is thaaat?!?! As a crestfallen air fell over the Crimson Vow, a voice spoke up from behind them.

  “They appear to be excavating something,” Dr. Clairia explained. “I don’t believe they’re digging for ore, but perhaps an artifact in some ruins… However, I don’t think they’ve discovered anything, and they don’t seem confident that the item they’re after is there at all. They believe it might be there. Their target is apparently an incredibly classified item, so much so they aren’t entirely sure what it is. They were likely hired by someone else, who entrusted them to work the site.”

  Mile nodded in agreement. “This is all so secretive,” she noted, “but it seems like you found out a lot about it, Doctor.”

  The scholar looked triumphant.

  “I used a special technique handed down amongst elves for dealing with humans and beastmen.”

  “Wow, that’s awesome! What kind of technique is it?”

  Perhaps because she couldn’t bear to be cruel to Mile, who looked at her with sparkling, expectant eyes, or perhaps because she wanted to brag a bit, Clairia gloated as she explained.

  “Here’s what you do. First you put your hands together and place them under your chin. Then you wet your eyes and say the following: ‘I’m boooored. Will you tell me a story, Mister?’”

  Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

  Because Clairia was an elf, she appeared no more than fifteen or sixteen. In truth, she was much, much…

  They’re terrifying! Elves are terrifying!

  All the men in the group suddenly trembled in fear.

  Elves in this world didn’t have long ears that grew out to the sides like the ones in Japanese manga. The ones with the pointiest ears might look like someone from the fabled planet Vulcan at best, and there were even those whose ears were barely any more pointed than a human’s. And so, there were plenty of cases where, if their ears were covered with their hair, you couldn’t even tell.

  There was no doubt the beastmen would have thought Clairia to be another rookie hunter or something. Just like Mile and the others had.

  Unlike the commander of the beastmen, Mile estimated it would take their party about a day and a half to reach the village on the outskirts of the forest. Such calculations were often her strong point, so long as no human factors got involved.

  The commander couldn’t help making such a mistake in his estimation. There was no way he could know the escapees were led by someone with sharper night vision than a beastperson, or that they had more than enough food and water without having to carry it themselves, or that they used luminescent markings to follow each other and never get lost.

  Plus, when Mile confirmed things with Dr. Clairia, her assistant, and Tiffy, the guild employee—all assumed to be the cause of any delays—the following transpired:

  “Are you underestimating elves? Who live in the woods?” Dr. Clairia demanded.

  “Do you know what it means to assist a professor who’s always pursuing field work?” her assistant asked.

  “You know I’m an employee of the guild, right? And moreover, just who my father is? Oh, and that I’m a C-rank hunter?” Tiffy challenged.

  Naturally, the ‘what’ referred to his position as the guild master…

  After some thinking, Mile deemed it difficult for the escapees, who, on top of being exhausted from their imprisonment, had made their escape in the dead of night, to make it all the way to the village on only a series of short rests that were little more than a breather. Even if they could stay awake the whole time, their fatigue would only grow. Their attention wavering, people would begin stumbling and probably eventually sprain something. If that happened, their rate of travel would decrease immensely.

  They had no choice but to stop for several hours, have a bit of food, and get some real rest.

  Should the beastmen find the trap and lose their sense of smell, and thus their tracking skills, they would have to return to the excavation to form a new team. They would lose about half a day. Even if the trap didn’t work that well, it would still take them several hours to fully recover their sense of smell.

  In truth, the trap turned out to be far more effective than Mile imagined, but she had no way of knowing this.

  In any case, for now, the escapees and the Crimson Vow had to put as much distance behind them as they could before their fatigue reached its peak. They had no other choice.

  After walking through the night, and through to sunset the next day without the beastmen catching up, they finally stopped for a proper meal and a good, long sleep. The following day, they intended to leave as soon as it was light enough to do so. They would ignore the village on the outskirts of the forest and head for the regional capital, where they should arrive by dusk.

  The way things stood, the village wasn’t safe for them, not while so many beastmen roamed the forest. Rather than put the villagers in danger, it was much better for them to go straight to the capital.

  The former captives ate their fill of their first hot meal in some time and then laid down to sleep. All except for Mile, who had been casually pulling food, folded tents, blankets, and such from her inventory. And the loli-grandma—that is, Clairia—who stared at the half-eaten food left on the dishes and noticed how fresh all the vegetables and meat had been…

  Chapter 30:

  A Fearsome Fight!

  The Sunrise Battle

  It was before sunrise, when the skies were still murky.

  Mile had already woken everyone and prepared a hasty breakfast of hardtack, dried meat, and rehydrated soup. She now made preparations for their departure.

  “They’re here,” she said quietly. “Twelve people behind us. It doesn’t seem they’ve actually spotted us yet.”

  “How do you know?” asked the leader of the hunters.

  “Are you going to violate the Hunters’ Code and ask about my skills?” Mile chided.

  “Erk… S-sorry,” he apologized.

  Unlike with Dragonbreath, whom they had previously been partnered, she had to be strict about these matters.

  Well, with a party like the escorts of the investigation team, a bunch of serious sticklers who would take on such a tough and non-lucrative job like this, she had to be this way.

  “We’ll have to defend ourselves. We’ll leave the direction of the investigation team and the other parties up to you. Please make sure no one is killed or carried off. Minor injuries are okay within reason,” said Reina.

  “N-now just hang on! What the heck are you planning to do?! Besides, I should be the one to direct everyone,” the leader complained.

  “And just what do you plan to do, when you don’t even have proper weapons?” Reina asked. “We accepted a job to locate and rescue the investigation team. Therefore, in order to save you all, we need to defeat these enemies. The job you took is to protect the scholars, isn’t it? So you need to stay behind and protect them.”

  “Wh…” The leader, being treated so lightly by Reina, who was a child in his eyes, was dumbfounded.

  She was right, however. There was no way wooden swords and spears would be reliable against enemies outfitted with metal weaponry. Fighting monsters would be one thing,
but in a battle against beastmen, they would have to fend off attacks with all their might. A proper clash would see their wooden arms shattered into little pieces.

  “Th-the two frontline fighters could lend us your swords…”

  “You really think we’d hand over our beloved swords to strangers just before a big battle?!” Mavis raged.

  “Guess you’re right…” the leader agreed, his shoulders slumped. Apparently, even he was aware of how ridiculous he sounded.

  “Don’t need to worry so much. Just yesterday, we fought off eight of those beastmen on our own,” Pauline added.

  “Wh-what?”

  The leader’s eyes widened in disbelief. He had assumed the girls had managed to make it to the huts by slipping through the beastpeople’s surveillance network, managing not to run into any enemies along the way.

  “We haven’t any time,” said Mile, interrupting. “If they spot us, they’ll try to surround us. We can assume they’ll want to capture every one of us, to keep any information from getting out. It’s too late for us to run now, so we’ll stand here and face them.”

  “Understood.”

  There was no more time to stand around and talk. The leader gave a reluctant nod.

  ***

  “There they are! It looks like they’re already awake and on the move.”

  “I see…”

  The humans had been moving more quickly than expected, so despite hurrying along, the beastmen had yet to catch up with the escapees. However, the interception team still overtook them before they could leave the forest.

  For a short while, there had been signs they were drawing near. They had assumed, should all go well, that they would strike while their enemies were still sleeping. But the humans had awoken before dawn and were already making preparations.

  Granted, attacking their enemies in their sleep wasn’t a tactic the proud beastmen preferred. However, this wasn’t an ordinary fight. They were recapturing escaped prisoners and would use any means necessary to secure them. For the sake of their allies back at the dig site, they couldn’t allow the humans to get away.