The Archer of Beast Woods

by Kanata Yanagino

  “Those are... beast horns. And leather.” The drinking horns they were casually using had come from horned beasts, and some of the cloaks and waistcoats they were wearing had been made from beast hide. Menel whispered to me that those were their battle trophies, an easy way for them to flaunt their power.

  We stepped inside. Heads turned, there was a moment of silence, and then chatter.

  “A young’un with chestnut-brown hair and a silver-’aired mixed elf with ’im.”

  “He’s done a hell of a lot of training. You can tell...”

  “That’s him. No doubt.”

  The first voice that called out to me was a clearly agile-looking man who was pleasantly drunk. “It’s the man of the hour himself! Wyvern Killer! What d’you want with a bar all the way out here?”

  “I have a job that needs doing.”

  “Then you should talk to the owner and pay a bit to use the board.”

  “Thank you.” I looked over to the wall of the inn and saw that there was a large wooden board hanging there, onto which numerous pieces of paper and leather had been pinned. I called out to the owner, bought several pins (that was how they charged the listing fee), and pinned up my sheet beside all the others.

  That attracted a lot of interest, and everyone gathered around to see what my job was.

  ADVENTURERS WANTED

  For search of demon-infested Beast Woods.

  Months of complete darkness.

  Constant danger.

  Safe return doubtful.

  Meager reward.

  Honor and recognition in case of success.

  — William G. Maryblood.

  And the place fell silent.

  ◆

  “Hey. Mister Hero.” The first reaction I got was a drunken and taunting voice. “We ain’t a charity. Ain’t none of us gonna go in on that.”

  The person talking to me was a thick-armed, red-faced man who looked about thirty. He was wearing a sparkling steel breastplate and had a sword on his hip in a vibrant red sheath that didn’t have a single scratch. “Right, guys?” he said, and a few people who I guessed were his party hooted back their agreement and called me stingy.

  Menel started to ball his hands into fists. I had a moment of panic, and then—

  A scruffy-looking man sluggishly wandered over.

  “Shut it, blowhards.”

  His few words silenced them.

  The man had a beard, and I couldn’t guess his age. He seemed to be in good shape physically, but looked pretty spiritless. The cloak he was wearing was scorched, worn down, and covered in scratches. The sword sheath on his hip looked beaten up and like it had some alterations made to it. But more than any of that, what I paid the most attention to was his fingers.

  They were covered in scars and dirt, and all his nails were clipped short. Once, while relating one of his former exploits, Blood had said to me:

  — When you see a swordsman, look at his fingertips. Whenever there’s something inside you making you doubt, saying drawing your weapon is a bad idea, and you wanna know, do you listen to that voice or do you shut it up? You just look at his hands.

  “It looks to me...” He spoke slowly. I guessed he wasn’t good with words. “Like you’re looking for madmen. You’re not interested in blowhards, who have manners and patience and a business smile, but not much skill. You want a bunch of crude shitheads who fear nothing. You want scum-of-the-earth madmen who will dice with death for a dumb idea.”

  I nodded. I wasn’t planning on giving them poor compensation on purpose, but the fact remained that exterminating demons in a poor area like this was a dangerous and not very lucrative job. There were still some untouched ruins still remaining, but even those came with dangers, and I didn’t want people working for me under false pretenses.

  Menel and I had both agreed that we should look for adventurers who were after honor, glory, and risk rather than adventurers who were only doing it for the money. And I’d heard that this “Steel Sword Inn” was where those kinds of people were based. So I replied:

  “That’s exactly right. That’s why I chose this place.”

  “You hear him? That’s what he wants! Mister Hero’s looking for madmen!” After he yelled this, a number of people who had been watching us from their tables rose to their feet.

  “Tch. You Strider bastards,” one of the blowhards said. “If you strike it rich out there, toss us a coin or two for once!”

  All the people with attractive equipment, like the one who had first called out to me, lightly clicked their tongues and returned to their tables. I guessed they’d been hoping for something they could profit from, and if that’s not what this was, they were clearly not interested. It was only natural that some people would put their livelihoods first and foremost.

  Those who now approached me, on the other hand, were largely uncouth people with dirty gear and a prickly manner. Most of their equipment was covered in beast hide, and they had been drinking their booze out of beast horns. These were people who would hardly give a second’s consideration to safe and secure jobs, like being a merchant’s bodyguard. They were ruffians to the core who liked the flames of their lives to burn hot, stoked with fighting, risk, and adventure.

  Yes—they were people like Blood!

  “What’re you looking for in Beast Woods?” one asked.

  “Ruins or open air?” asked another.

  “I don’t do small shit.”

  I deliberately gave them all a fearless grin. “The boss of the demons.”

  When I said that, some of the adventurers went silent for a moment. I cast my eyes over them all. “The leader of the demons that are running wild in the western part of Beast Woods. He’s thought to have beasts under him. He is our target.”

  “Big one...” the bearded man who had first spoken to me said, thinking aloud.

  “Yes, it is,” I replied.

  “Location’s unclear... It’d take some work to even find him.”

  “You’re absolutely right.”

  “And if we get ambushed while we’re searching, they’ll kill us in a blink.”

  “I imagine so.”

  “Long story short—this sounds like a stupid, full of risk, fun-as-hell adventure.” He laughed, as if at death. “If there’s a spot for me, I’m in. Just need food and a place to sleep and I’m good. If there’s some pocket change in it for me, even better.”

  “Me too.” “And me.” Other voices quickly followed, saying the same thing.

  “Of course. You will have them. And payment as well.”

  A cheer rose from the group.

  “But before that,” I said.

  “What?”

  I smiled and extended my hand to the man.

  “Would you all tell me your names? I’m Will. William G. Maryblood.”

  “Reystov.”

  Something that Bee had once said resurfaced in my mind.

  — Oh right, have to pick something. Of the recent songs... Reystov the Penetrator is overplayed right now...

  “The Penetrator?”

  “Get called that,” the bearded adventurer replied gruffly.

  ◆

  Those days in Whitesails went by quickly.

  “I, the Duke of Southmark, Ethelbald Rex Southmark, confer the honor of knighthood upon thee.”

  The temple’s church was majestic. His Excellency was standing at the far end, with crowds of attendees on either side. Beside him was the vice-bishop, who would bestow his blessing upon me. He had thin, kind-looking eyes and a gentle face shape that was quite memorable.

  I walked slowly towards them.

  To tell the truth, I wanted to have Bishop Bagley bless me since he’d done so much for me already, but when I asked him, he refused point-blank. He said it would cause him problems to publicly show himself being pious and having a deep connection with the gods; during his many negotiations, it was important that he be able to lead the other person into thinking he might do something a pious priest never woul
d. He was very thorough about it, even going so far as to offer half-hearted prayers in front of others and then pray anew when he was alone.

  It was a real shame. I had expressed this to the vice-bishop, and he concurred with me, saying that he, too, was disappointed such a great man would go unknown to the world.

  I found the vice-bishop to be a very nice person.

  I reached where I was meant to stand for the ceremony. The duke took a sword from where it rested on the altar and said, “May he become the guardian of this temple, of the needy, and of all who place trust in the good gods, and stand against the gods of evil and their atrocities.”

  The sword was handed to the vice-bishop, then passed to me. I put the sword into the sheath that had been arranged for me beforehand, and then, following the ceremony as I had been instructed, I drew and re-sheathed it three times. The clear sound of the sword’s motion against the sheath echoed around the church.

  The duke continued his speech. “To you, the one who will now become a knight: You must defend the teachings of the good gods and protect the temple, the needy, and all those who pray and work in earnest.”

  I dropped to one knee, adjusted my hold on the sword so I was holding the sheath with both hands, and presented him the handle. His Excellency drew the sword, and with the side of the blade, he lightly tapped my shoulders three times.

  The sword was then returned to me. I accepted it, stood, and placed it back in its sheath, the sound once more filling the church.

  The vice-bishop used the blessing of Sanctification, and a holy aura filled the air. “I beseech thee, my guardian deity Enlight, god of knowledge, that through thee our voices may be heard! May the blessing of Gracefeel, god of the flame, be with this man always and forever!”

  The god of knowledge, Enlight—he was the aged god with one eye, the god of learning, who could perceive both what could be seen as well as what could not.

  “Hold fast to your oath, respect your god’s teachings, and protect the vulnerable. May you be a light unto the world!”

  He shouted the end with arms spread wide, and cheers and applause erupted from the crowd.

  “May you be a light unto the world!”

  “God bless the birth of our new knight!”

  “May the light shine on the frontier!”

  “Blessed be the knight of the torch!”

  “Long live the Paladin!”

  And very quickly after that, the place was taken over by festivities. To loud cheers, all the influential, powerful people present gave generous donations to the crowds. This decoration ceremony had provided an excuse for a big handout to those who had suffered damage from the wyvern. That alone had made it worth it, I felt.

  An enormous feast was held. It was a whole-city event. Wrestling matches were arranged as entertainment. After I won by fall against five people in a row, my satisfied grin was the last straw for a whole group of knights who surrounded me and made me suffer the same defeat.

  “We beat the Wyvern Killer!” they shouted out gleefully, laughing their heads off.

  “You cheaters!” I laughed with them. “Menel, Menel! Come on, you fight me, too!”

  “What?! No, feck off!”

  As usual, Menel didn’t want to join in on party stuff. I dragged him out.

  “Oh! You’re the Paladin’s servant, uh...”

  “He’s not my servant, he’s my friend!”

  “We’re not friends!” Menel shot back.

  “R-Right...”

  Bee was cheerfully singing my story. She said something about how much money she was raking in. I was too embarrassed to listen.

  Tonio and Reystov seemed to be taking advantage of the feast to make connections with all kinds of new people. They never missed a trick.

  The festivities continued into the night.

  And that was how I became the paladin of this faraway land.

  ◆

  All kinds of things continued moving forward at an incredible pace. After all the merrymaking was over, I put in a formal request to Ethel and the vice-bishop and received permission to go demon-hunting. Ostensibly, I was a single priest doing some independent charity work, but I had the backing of proper authority and power. The scale of what I was now involved in was incredible, but this was the smoothest way to get things done. If there was any trouble from now on, it would probably be necessary to demonstrate my allegiance to the bishop and the duke, but that was the price to pay for my new authority. I couldn’t imagine that anything would develop that quickly, so I decided to think about that later.

  Bishop Bagley supplied me with a number of priests, including Anna, who could use benediction and was versed in all kinds of ceremonies, from celebrations to funerals. The priests all had a wealth of experience, reliably making up for the areas where I was lacking. I felt so indebted to Bishop Bagley that I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to fully pay him back.

  Tonio seemed to have used the festivities surrounding the knighting ceremony to collect donations and contributions for my work. He’d gathered together lots of carts and wagons, agricultural and workshop tools, textiles, consumables, seeds for commercial crops, and animals cured of their injuries and diseases. And he’d found workers to manage them all.

  Tonio laughed and said, “I might be able to start up my own trading company soon with all of this.” I nodded enthusiastically, thinking that I would very much like him to do that, and he said with a mischievous smile, “I can look forward to receiving your business, then.”

  I put the ruffian adventurers I’d contracted to work as convoys guarding our purchases, and we all returned to Beast Woods. That was the start of yet another hectic period.

  I dropped by each of the villages we’d visited on the way to Whitesails, giving them a further round of medical treatment and having Anna help me organize religious festivals. With help from Tonio, I lent out draft animals and various kinds of tools in exchange for providing us shelter; I also allowed the villagers to buy them from us and pay in installments.

  When there were reports of demons or beasts, I had Reystov and some of the other adventurers form a party and go out to hunt them. Reystov in particular was incredibly skilled; by and large, the corpses of the beasts he brought back had been penetrated straight through their most vulnerable spots, just as his nickname boasted.

  Just out of curiosity, I asked him, “Can you do that to a wyvern?” and he replied gruffly, “If it’s within sword’s reach.”

  That wasn’t all. When there were disputes between the villages, I mediated them. When there were crimes in a village, I asked for the help of the priests and we held trials for those involved, so the matter would be solved as fairly as possible. I hadn’t originally been planning to do so much, but Tom, the elder of the village I’d first helped when a dispute arose, asked me if I’d help him out again since I’d done it once before. I couldn’t say no. And as my reputation spread, other villages also started to request my help to handle disputes that were getting out of hand, and I found myself with more and more to do. That’s how I ended up I traveling all over the place, doing all kinds of work.

  When I heard about a village I hadn’t come into contact with, I got someone from the village we were currently in to introduce us and forge a connection, and then I’d do the same thing there. Bee really came in handy for making friendly first contact with unknown villages and whenever we had some message we needed spread around. I got the feeling I was paying for that with all the embellished stories she was also spreading about me. Maybe I needed to think of it as the cost of doing business.

  Of course, if I kept on doing this kind of thing, I’d quickly find myself in debt in the literal sense. But while that was true, the livestock and agricultural tools that I’d lent out and sold off to the villages hadn’t gone anywhere; they remained in the village as valuable community property, and were visibly accelerating the villages’ development and production. These villages were essentially nothing more than places where vagrants
had gathered together, so for many of them, just a plow, an iron axe, and a hoe would be tremendously valuable additions. And if we made that a plow and a horse to go with it, and threw in a ten-piece set of metal farming implements and other tools, work efficiency would jump up dramatically. If that improved, there would be more fields giving greater yields. With greater yields, the people would be able to repay their debts to us, and they’d become able to afford to purchase goods.

  In parallel, I and the adventurers would be clearing Beast Woods of the dangerous demons and beasts, making the area safer. As the area became safer, merchants would be able to go to and from the villages without the need for heavy escorting, which would lead to a burst of commercial activity. The Fertile Kingdom’s authority didn’t extend here anyway, so it wasn’t like there was going to be a toll for them to pay. They could do business here freely. And with more merchants coming in and out, the villagers could buy things with currency. Their improved production capacity should lead to them obtaining all kinds of things with money. Before long, an increasing number of those places would start dabbling in commercial crops in their desire for cash, anticipating demand for them from the city. And once money and goods started changing hands, neighboring areas would naturally become more interconnected for the sake of commerce. Access and transportation would improve. This was what Gus lovingly called “living money,” money that moved around and made itself useful.

  “And then one day, perhaps we can climb back out of the red,” Tonio said, while doing some estimates on his abacus. “That is, if you and I are both still alive.” That was definitely something I was aiming for, living at least long enough to get back out of the red.

  Of course, we had only just gotten the ball rolling, and not everything was going according to plan. Often, people would try to engineer things so they’d keep all the profit for themselves, or intentionally default on everything they’d borrowed. I tried to contain situations like that as much as I could. Usually, this was by getting help from Anna and the other priests, who knew about law and how to persuade people, but some of the scarier-looking adventurers were also effective deterrents. Fortunately, in the short span of time that we were involved, there wasn’t anyone dangerous enough to try something too disruptive. Even if a person like that was lurking somewhere, it was probably natural that they hadn’t tried, in a way. If you did something like that in place like this, you’d find yourself surrounded and beaten until you became tree food.