by Funa
How thoughtful of her, Mile thought… until the men began to scream, just as loudly as they had when they had caught fire in the first place.
“Eurgaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!”
That was when Mile remembered.
Come to think of it, I guess the idea of a crimson “Ultra Hot” attack came up when I was talking with Pauline about water magic attacks.
However, “hot” didn’t just mean “heated.”
Indeed, this “hot” was more of a “spicy.” Furthermore, this was “Ultra Hot.”
It seeped into their eyes, their noses, their mouths, and the burns on their scalps. They were trapped in a living hell, where they could neither scream nor even see. They completely lost the will to fight.
Seeing this, Mile realized that there had been no point in cutting their armor off after all.
The leader and his cohort continued to fight desperately in order to fend off Mavis’s attacks. Judging by the screams of their companions, which rung out as though from the depths of hell, they had a fairly good idea of how well things were going for them. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do about it.
Ka-cling ka-cling!
The two men’s swords were struck out of their hands for the umpteenth time.
“Pick ’em up,” Mavis commanded, expressionless.
The two were already at their wits’ end.
She could have killed them at any point, but again and again she struck their swords down, and then forced them to pick them up once more. They were close to despair, but they had managed to hold out hope all the while—until now. They had hoped that their companions might render the mages defenseless and come to their aid, or that they might capture the mages and use them as hostages. Then they would have been able to turn the fight around. The bandits had been biding their time, holding on to that hope.
However, that chance had been extinguished.
Of course, if they thought about it, they could see it made sense. If there had truly been a danger of the mages being taken captive, this knight would not have taken her time fooling with them. Her allies were completely safe. Only with that firm conviction would she be able to sit around tormenting the men. She was as good as a cat, toying with a pair of mice.
And sooner or later, she would get weary of them and strike the final blow…
Even if they were fortunate enough to get in a hit and turn the fight around, those mages, who were strong enough to take down their three companions in an instant, were close enough that they might turn their aim toward the bandits’ leaders. Yet given the obvious difference in their strength, it was unlikely that the bandits would even get that decisive blow in the first place.
If one were to look up the word “despair” in the dictionary, there would be an image of this scene right next to it.
“Please, spare us…”
The two had finally lost the will to rearm themselves and collapsed to the ground where they had stood.
“We had no idea you were so strong! We were told that you were a new C-rank party, all girls in your teens, so it would be an easy victory… We were deceived!”
The leader spoke through tears, but in truth, the report had not been incorrect. It had just left out several critical details.
“My, don’t you think that it’s a bit selfish to ask that only you two make it out of this unscathed?”
The leader whipped around as a voice came from behind him.
“It would be unjust if you didn’t suffer the same fate as your companions, wouldn’t it?”
The bandits followed Reina’s gaze to see their three companions, wheezing, but unable to scream, burns covering their now-hairless scalps.
“Ee…”
Both of the men cringed.
“W-we’ll talk! We’ll tell you anything you want!”
“That’s fine for you to say, but didn’t you already tell us everything, just now? You took on a request from someone connected to my family, that is to say, the owners of the Beckett Company, and attacked us in order to send me back home. What more could you possibly have to say that would qualify as useful information to us?” asked Pauline.
“Er…”
The leader was lost for words. What a fool he had been! They had intended to kill the girls after having their way with them, save for Pauline. Even if they released them after incapacitating them enough that they could no longer work as hunters, it wasn’t as though they lived in the capital—the girls would not have known their names. Either way, as long as they took Pauline away from the capital, there would have been no danger of their true identities being found out…
For them to give away both their employers’ and their own motives so freely, they were truly scraping the bottom of the barrel. Even a party still amongst the lowest of C-rank hunters after over twenty years should know better than that.
“Pauline, head back to the guild and let them know what happened. Tell them that we require an escort wagon, if you would. Since we were attacked by C-rank hunters, the guild should cover the cost. It’ll be easiest to explain if the one who they were after goes.”
“All right. Got it.”
After Pauline had left the area, and they had tied the crooks up, Reina turned to Mavis and Mile.
“Now then, let’s discuss how we launch an attack on Pauline’s household.”
“Ah, yeah. I figured it’d be something like that, since we sent Pauline off. Right, Mile?”
“Huh…?”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
Apparently, this thought had not occurred to Mile at all.
Chapter 22:
The Counterattack
“Pauline will probably try to say something like, ‘This is a matter for me to settle on my own,’ but now, it’s become a problem for all of us. Even if we hadn’t been attacked…”
“We’re allies, bound to the soul!”
At Reina’s prompting, Mavis and Mile chimed in to complete their motto.
“That’s right, the ‘Crimson Vow’!”
The conference of three determined, as a party, that they were set on invading Pauline’s home. Even if Pauline were to object, these group decisions were a matter of majority rule, so there could be no arguing it.
It was after this that they began to interrogate the bandits.
Mile used her magic to heal all of them—including the three who had become human torches—just enough that they could talk. The greater the number of bandits they could interrogate,
the greater the likelihood that one of them would betray the others.
“First off, are you truly all active hunters? Or might you be disgraced, former hunters?”
As Reina questioned them, Mile stood beside her, toying with a fireball and red waterball, which floated above each of her palms. Since she and Pauline had thought up the “Ultra Hot” spell together, she naturally knew how to use it as well.
This sight sent a shiver down the men’s spines, and they thought hard.
They had lost their weapons and armor, they were tied up tight, and in a few hours, a wagon with other hunters would be coming to the girls’ aid. It was unlikely that they would be able to escape their bonds at any point before then. Furthermore, even if they did manage to work themselves free, three of their companions were no longer able to fight. Given that they could not fight with their full forces, there was no way that they could win.
Seeing that there was no longer any means of counterattack available to them, the men had no choice but to think of some way to lessen their eventual punishments. At this rate, even if they were to escape hanging, the next-best scenario would be indentured servitude, as they worked out the rest of their lives in the mines. Of course, “the rest of their lives” might not be long, given the harsh conditions and strenuous work they would face day in and day out.
However, if they stayed on their best behavior, it was possible that they could receive a shorter sentence, in a less harrowing position, where they would be relea
sed after several years. And, if fortune was on their side, getting out of this with only the punishment of being stricken from the guild roster was not an impossibility.
If they could somehow pin all the blame on their employers, claiming that they only took the job not knowing much about the circumstances and that they had been deceived…
Realistically, there was only the smallest chance that anyone would ever buy such a story, but the men lacked the luxury of choice: they had no options now but to gamble. They would wager on that distant hope and pray that they could appeal to their captors’ good will, if even a little…
The criminals who had attacked the girls needed to engender good will among those same girls.
It was a hopelessly reckless experiment.
And so, their depositions began.
“W-we still have our hunters’ certifications! We’re all C-ranks…”
The questioning continued until the escort wagon arrived, the findings being that all the men were active C-rank hunters, and while they were already in their forties, they had not put much savings away. Now that their bodies were weakening, they were doing anything they could in the time that they still had to save some funds—including taking on illicit jobs, outside of the guild.
Of course, taking a job from outside the guild was not necessarily illicit in and of itself. It just meant that, should anything go wrong, they would not be able to receive the guild’s aid.
What made it illicit was what they were actually doing.
It was a job that asked them, among other things, to be murderers, abductors, and attack young girls in a way that would make them unsuitable for marriage. The main objective of this job—a family’s request to bring their daughter back—was not inherently illegal. It was the how of this request that presented the problem.
They were going to attack and harm young girls, injuring them so badly that they could no longer work. And then they were going to capture another girl and drag her home by force, against her wishes. Furthermore, these girls were citizens of the capital, so this was an attack on citizens under the direct rule of the Crown.
According to the men, their intention had been to ignore the details of their employers’ instructions so long as they achieved their objective—they had planned only to threaten the other girls a bit, maybe inflict a bit of pain by kicking them around, but not to put them through anything particularly horrible. Of course, whether or not this was true was incredibly dubious…
“It’s true!” the men desperately pleaded. “That’s why we spilled the whole truth and didn’t hide anything from you! We thought if you knew that our employer was the father of your friend, you could bring it to the attention of the guild or the town guards, and disavow yourself of the girl who brought this plague down on you… Really, we took this job out of good intentions! If we hadn’t taken it, some dastardly criminal might have, and things would have turned out very poorly…”
Yet there had been that detestable, vulgar laugh that the man had let out earlier. If that was acting, then he’d have had better luck making his living on the stage.
The men were able to confirm, once more, that the one who had requested this job was in fact, Pauline’s father, the head of the mid-scale mercantile operation known as the Beckett Company, which was based in the lands controlled by Viscount Boardman, some four days’ distance from the capital. This man was known for placing various unlawful job requests through back-alley means, and he didn’t care if people made a mess doing them. As long as they didn’t get caught, they got paid.
“I’m begging you, tell one of the higher-ups in the guild or the city guards! We were going to let you get away with just a few blows! I mean, honestly, we truly didn’t lay a finger on you girls. We were just on a job, a job from a father who only wanted to see his daughter back home—and that’s not such a strange request, is it? We’re all hunters here, ain’t we? You gotta help us out! Like, someday, when you girls get older, you might find yourself anxious and without savings, and then you might have to take some jobs outside of the guild! C’mon, please, give us a hand here…!”
All three of the girls’ responses were cold.
“If I’m not mistaken, it wasn’t that you didn’t lay a finger on us—it was that you couldn’t,” said Reina.
“And also, there was that opening move, where both of you attacked me at once. That was clearly intended as a killing blow, yes?” asked Mavis.
“We don’t know what the truth is here, so we have no choice but to defend ourselves. Therefore, we’ll only be telling them the facts as we saw them. Feel free to present your own defense to the guild and the guards. We won’t be the ones to decide your charges or your sentence,” Mile concluded, as plainly as the other two.
“Th-that’s…”
The men’s faces were steeped in despair.
“If all that you’ve told us is true—and if, furthermore, you’re able to prove it, then you’ll probably get a lighter sentence. How nice for you, to get off so easily…” said Mile.
She was grinning.
Naturally, she was being sarcastic. It was rare for her to show true anger like this.
“Mm-hm. I’ll be sure to honestly attest to the skill, speed, and strength with which you both simultaneously swung your swords at me. Don’t you worry about that.” Mavis was angry. Very angry…
“Well then, until Pauline gets back with the wagon, how about we drink some tea?” said Reina.
Mile and Mavis nodded.
By the time Pauline returned, with a wagon and several knights on horseback in tow, it was nearly midday.
Considering the time it would have taken to get to the guildhall, explain what was going on, and then acquire the wagon and all the necessary people, this was actually quite speedy.
“Mavis, are you all right?!”
The first to leap from the cart was Ewan.
“Third Brother…”
Mavis gave a pained, troubled smile and Ewan rushed to embrace her.
Guess she can’t deny him… the others thought, looking on.
“So you’re the fiends who attempted to harm my dear Mavis?!”
As this noble-looking young man began to question them, the men sputtered an apology.
“N-no! We were just trying to scare her a bit…”
“What?! You were threatening my Mavis? I’ll see you hanged for this!”
“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”
Ah, of course…
Just as they thought.
The girls all nodded in agreement at Ewan’s completely natural response.
Mile and the others greeted the hunters and guild employees who climbed down from the wagon along with Pauline, then watched as the criminals were loaded on.
“By the way… why weren’t you at the inn this morning, Third Brother?” asked Mavis.
“I went out first thing to request a courier to send the letter that I penned to Father last night. When I returned to the inn, you were gone, so I rushed to the guild in a panic, but…as there was nothing I could do, I decided to remain at the guild and await your return. Then, suddenly, I overheard that demon…strably useful lackey of yours telling the guild staff that you had been attacked…”
Though he had stopped mid-sentence and quickly tried to disguise his insult, his correction was just as rude. Plus, he was speaking only to and about Mavis. He apparently didn’t care a jot for her companions.
“I-Is that so…?”
For some reason, Mavis was still hanging her head, shifting her weight back and forth. In truth, she was mortified that she had doubted her brother, even if it had only been for a moment, and she was standing there wallowing in shame. Ewan, of course, knew nothing of the circumstances, and assumed, Ah! She’s so happy to see me, she’s gone bashful! How precious!
“Mav—guh!”
Ewan tried to embrace Mavis again, but the other three girls, now very irritated, grabbed him by the collar, throttling him, and instead he could only let out a cry of
pain.
As they walked alongside the wagon, which progressed at a leisurely pace, the Crimson Vow discussed what to do going forward.
“We have to go to Pauline’s home,” Reina announced, to Pauline’s bewilderment.
“Huh…?”
“What are you so surprised for? Isn’t that obvious?”
“B-but, this is a matter for me to settle on my own…”
“There it is!” Mavis and Mile both spoke immediately. The response was just as predicted.
“Huh?”
Pauline still seemed perplexed.
“In any case, your father was the one who hired those guys…”
“Huh? But, the president isn’t my father.”
“What?” all three asked.
“I told you when I first introduced myself. My mother is the lover of the head of the Beckett Company, a mid-sized mercantile operation. Just his lover. I never said a word about the president being my father.”
“Wh-what are you saying?!?!”
A shocking truth had come to light.
And so Pauline began her tale.
Pauline’s parents had managed a shop.
Her family consisted of four people: a pair of loving parents; Pauline; and her younger brother, four years her junior. The shop was moderately sized. Beneath the head clerk, there were several regular, full-time employees, as well as a healthy number of interns, drivers, and door-to-door salesmen on the roster. Her father was sweet-tempered with his wife and children, but when it came to his business he was stern and steadfast. He never showed any greed in his transactions. Perhaps because these were such valued qualities in a merchant, the business thrived. Until one fateful evening…
On the night in question, the shop was ransacked by thieves.
The thieves bound Pauline’s family and their overnight employees, stole the contents of the safe, and murdered Pauline’s father.
Then, as Pauline’s mother sat, stunned with grief, the thieves shoved a single piece of paper her way: a “Transfer of Shop Ownership.”
