Didn't I Say To Make My Abilities Average In The Next Life?! Volume 9

by Funa

  “Please, we just want to see it for a few minutes. Oh, please!”

  “Just a peek! Just a little peek!”

  “Just the tip is fine!”

  The volume and tone of their requests left Mavis at her wit’s end. She looked in Mile’s direction, but as she appeared to be engaged in some disagreement with Reina, asking her for help seemed out of the question.

  “Hrmm…”

  Mavis grumbled in displeasure, but she was a people pleaser—no match for the dwarves and their desperate petitioning. If Mile explicitly denied the dwarves’ requests, she would have no choice but to obey, but Mile was currently not available to refuse them.

  “Please, oh please!!!” the men all shouted as one.

  “A-all right, then…”

  If she wasn’t on the battlefield or facing down an opponent, Mavis could be incredibly weak-willed.

  She removed the sword, scabbard and all, from her hip and handed it to the dwarves. Thankfully, she had not used her dagger in front of them, so they made no requests to see that. They probably had paid it no mind at all—a backup weapon was reserved only for emergency use, and one wouldn’t normally relegate a pricey, legendary blade to such a role.

  “Hm hm hmmm…”

  One of the dwarves drew the sword from its scabbard and stared at it intently, while all the others around him scrutinized the blade at point-blank range.

  “The main component appears to be steel, but there are other metals mixed in as well. I can’t figure out the origin of this reddish-brown hue that gives it its golden tint…”

  As the dwarf holding the sword spoke, the others nodded.

  “And what was that radiant effect that we saw? Judging by its appearance, it doesn’t look capable of the cutting ability that we saw—what was that about?”

  “You’re right! Hmm…”

  Just as in the case of the dagger, the sword’s cutting edge, which had been sharpened by the nanomachines, had already been cloaked in a camouflaging coating… Thanks to this precaution, the blade looked exactly the same as before it was magically sharpened—like nothing more than a normal, reliable sword that you could swing to your heart’s content.

  “Where did you get this? Who forged it?”

  “Didn’t you say that you just wanted to look?!” Mavis grumbled, annoyed that the dwarves had gone back on their word. However, her complaints were of no concern to the group of smiths.

  “What is it made of? What’s the material ratio?”

  “What temperature was it fired at?”

  “It was definitely glowing that one time, wasn’t it? What was that?”

  Mavis found herself surrounded, facing down a maelstrom of needling questions.

  “Ah, uh…”

  She would have kept her cool in the midst of a swarm of ogres, but dealing with a horde of greasy old dwarves was far outside of her comfort zone.

  “I-I have no idea! I’m not the one who forged it!!!” she screamed desperately, and even the dwarves suddenly seemed a bit sorry, as though they knew that they might have gone a hair too far.

  “Th-then at least tell us where you purchased it from!”

  Of course, being sorry and giving up the chase entirely were two separate matters, and these men would gladly sign away half their life spans for a chance to grasp a new, previously unseen technique that might bring their skills to grand new heights.

  “Uhh…”

  It was around then that Mile and Reina finally took notice of the commotion. Matters concerning Mile and Mavis’s abilities were matters that the Crimson Vow were sworn to conceal.

  “That’s confidential information for hunters. Please don’t inquire any further,” said Reina to the dwarves surrounding Mavis, even as she ground her knuckles into Mile’s temples.

  Hoping to further confuse the matter, Mile added, “That is a family secret, passed down through a noble line. If you keep pressing her to make her reveal her secrets, we may have to take appropriate measures.”

  Hunters’ confidentiality.

  A noble family’s secret.

  And the “appropriate measures” to conceal that secret…

  This could mean nothing but an immediate gag order. The dwarves may have been total fools for their love of smithing, but they were not so foolish as to fail to recognize that.

  “………”

  They understood exactly what the girls were saying. After all, the existence of a sword such as this could overturn world order. If they knew of such a weapon, the army, nobles—even the Crown would stop at nothing to get their hands on it. The Crimson Vow would be dragged in and forced to reveal the sword’s secrets.

  Of course, if they played their cards right, the power of the sword meant that the Crimson Vow would never lack for employment and could maybe even earn titles. Therefore, the dwarves thought, there must be a reason why they contented themselves with being mere hunters. There was no telling whether it was by their own choice or as a result of some familial decree, but it was no surprise that it was taboo to speak of the sword’s origin.

  Nevertheless, there was no way that they could possibly forget the existence of this superior blade, now that they had come to know of it. The looks of distress upon their faces made this clear—as well as the fact that this was not a disappointment that would pass, allowing them to wake up the next day and give their all to their work in the smithy.

  Guessing this, Mile reluctantly added, “I suppose we have no choice. It’s clear that you won’t be able to focus on your work unless I tell you a little bit about the blade… However, you are absolutely forbidden to speak a word of this to anyone else. If you let even one syllable slip, we’ll have no choice but to silence everyone who has heard what I am about to say. If you can accept those terms, I will continue. Anyone who does not wish to hear should leave now—and keep your ears shut.”

  “Really?!” the dwarves cried excitedly.

  There was not a single dwarf who left Mile’s side. On the contrary, all of the smiths in the village gathered around—along with the fighters whose jobs had nothing to do with smithing, the huntsmen, the woodcutters, the miners, the farmers, and everyone else. Only the mothers seemed to keep their distance, perhaps for fear of their young children accidentally letting something slip.

  “First of all, the power you witnessed did not come from that sword,” said Mile.

  “What?” After this collective exclamation, the square fell still. In the midst of the silence, Mile turned to one of the men who had been on the recovery team. “Would you lend me your sword?”

  While he did not understand the reason for her request, the dwarf did as he was asked, unhooking the scabbard from his waist and handing it to Mile.

  “What you saw was a type of magic. Like so.”

  She hooked the scabbard onto her left hip and drew the sword smoothly with her right hand, gripping the blade near the guard between the thumb and pointer finger of her left. Then, she slipped her fingers down the blade.

  The sword began to glow with a golden light. Sure enough, it was the same gimmick as the “Light Beam Blade” technique she had used in the fight with Gren of the Roaring Mithrils. The body of the blade remained as it was, covered on the outside by a magical coating. The magical blade that formed over it was only a molecule’s width in thickness.

  A clamor of shock rose from the dwarfs.

  “Mavis, a stone, please! As big as you can lift with both hands!”

  “On it!”

  As directed, Mavis lifted a suitable rock nearby and threw it handily in a smooth parabola toward Mile.

  “Secret Technique, Stone Splitting Blade! Hiyaaah!!!”

  Mile swung the sword as lightly as though she were cutting through cloth, and the rock fell to the ground, split cleanly in two.

  “Th-the rock… A real, live rock. The sword cut right through it…”

  “A clean cut, midair, with no support, without even fracturing… I-Impossible…”

  “Th-th-th
-th-that was one of our swords… A sword that I-I forged… Oh…oh my gods…”

  “You can increase the cutting strength of any sword by putting a bit of magic on it. As I have just demonstrated, even the blades that you forge can withstand a move like that when strong magic is applied. They could even compete with Mavis’s sword.”

  “Whoooooaaaa!!!”

  A cry of joy rang out, and all the dwarves began to chug their ale. The festival was becoming more and more disorderly…not that it wasn’t already an excuse to drink to begin with.

  Meanwhile, the members of the Devils’ Paradise and the Fellowship of Flame only stared at Mile, not believing her explanation in the slightest.

  Well, it’s not a lie, thought Mile. It’s all the nanos’ doing, so it is basically a magical effect. The sharpness of the blade and everything are all thanks to magic! Yep! No doubt about that!

  After the banquet, the representative of the merchants approached the guards to inform them that they would be prolonging their stay.

  “We’ve made progress in our negotiations about purchasing the dwarven metalwork. We’ll still only be able to buy half as much as usual, but we should be able to get the pieces for their original prices. So we were hoping to extend our stay until the day after tomorrow…”

  Staying on longer meant more pay, so the hunters gladly accepted.

  The following day, while the merchants did their buying, the Crimson Vow did a bit of sightseeing around the village. Mile took a particular interest in inspecting the forges and distillery, as well as making inquiries of the girls of the village in the interest of gathering intel.

  “Mile, what are you going around asking all the dwarven girls about?” asked Reina.

  “That’s a secret!” Mile replied. Clearly, she was hiding something.

  The truth was that Mile, who suspected that her own stature was at the median of humans, elves, and dwarves, had become curious about the growth rate of dwarven girls and busied herself gathering the pertinent information to calculate the average dwarven height.

  Even though having this information would make no difference in the long run, it felt like something that she simply had to do… A maiden’s heart is a complicated thing.

  ***

  “Let’s roll out!”

  With a signal from the merchant leader, who served as the transport manager for the caravan, the group left the dwarven village of Glademarl behind.

  If nothing unforeseen occurred, the route and campsite selection would be left up to the merchant leader’s discretion. If they were attacked by monsters or bandits, their plans and movements would be determined by Wulf in his capacity as the guards’ leader. From here out, every decision they made would require weighing pros and cons, and considering the safety of cargo, money, cart, horses, and even humans. In this last category, their own lives would be the chips with which they wagered.

  Even we might one day be the leaders of a guard force. In fact, if it’s a little caravan of just two or three wagons, we might even take it on solo, meaning that day could come as soon as tomorrow. Wulf is the veteran here. We need to watch him carefully and learn from what he does. Joint missions are always an opportunity for novices to learn, after all. As the leader of this optimistic bunch of rookies, I need to toughen up, and—

  As Reina straightened up, deep in thought, Mavis called out, “Um, you do know that I’m still the party leader, right?”

  “Oh. Did I say that out loud?”

  “I could see it on your face!”

  “Hold up!”

  Sometime after noon on the first day of their journey, one of the merchants who was doubling as a driver shouted out to the rest. When everyone stopped their carts and gathered around, they found that one of his wheels had somehow gotten stuck in a ditch. Such occurrences were not at all rare on a sorry excuse for a road such as this, which saw very little traffic.

  The cart might have been able to break out of the ditch, given enough oomph, but now that it was stopped in place, it was going to take an immense amount of force to free it. Though the cargo it carried was not especially voluminous, it was dense, and the cart was weighed down by its contents. Though the merchants had been able to obtain little in the way of metalwork, the dwarves were not going to pass up the chance to turn a profit, no matter how meager. As a result, they had decided to hawk every little thing that they could—from woodwork to surplus wheat and anything else they could find lying around. The merchants, in turn, bought it all up, feeling very much like charity workers.

  Of course, even if it felt like charity work, they would still turn a profit. So, it wasn’t really charity. Plus, it would do neither side any good to leave a bad taste in the other’s mouth. It was all business, pure and simple. The merchants were simply sticking to their creed: “Even if all you have to carry is air, then carry it with favor and reputation.”

  Mind you, they intended to dump the excess goods at the first sign of danger…but that was none of the dwarves’ concern.

  “This is hopeless,” said one of the veteran drivers. “Even if ya hitch up all of the other horses and get ’em to pull real hard, the wheel or the axle might just break off… We’re gonna have to remove all the cargo to lighten the load.”

  The merchants appeared weary. Then, they looked to the hunters.

  “All right then,” Wulf sighed. “Handling your cargo ain’t part of our contract, but neither is wasting our time. We’ll do it for free…but half of us have to stand aside as lookouts. We’d be a laughingstock if we got wiped out because all the guards were busy unloading cargo when we were attacked. Real embarrassing for the wives and kids we left behind.”

  At Wulf’s direction, half of the hunters went to help.

  “All right, let’s have the Crimson Vow, one of the Devils, and two of the Fellowship stay behind, while the rest of you—”

  “Just a moment, please!” Mile shouted, interrupting. “Would you all mind leaving that to us?”

  “Huh…?”

  The four merchants raised their voices in surprise, but the other hunters were no longer in a position to be shocked.

  “Go ahead. Let’s see it.”

  “Thank you!”

  Ignoring the perplexed merchants and drivers, Mile issued a command to Mavis.

  “Mavis, use your body strengthening, True Godspeed Blade mode. Prioritize increasing the strength of your muscles, tendons, and bones, and suppress your muscular output some. If you grab a weak part of the cart, it’ll break, so be sure to find someplace that can withstand the cart’s weight… Actually—you two, one of you stick with Mavis, please, and one with me. Give us some directions!”

  Two of the drivers nodded, splitting up between the girls. A third stayed behind to inspect the condition of the wheel that had gotten stuck.

  “All right, that’s perfect! Now then…”

  Mile began to silently incant a gravity spell as a precaution. This way, if they were to force the cart and snap the axle, it would only be a waste of time, not a crisis. However, no one outside of the Crimson Vow could ever know that.

  Release eighty percent of the force pulling on the body of the cart!

  “Okay, Mavis, please lift it, slowly and gently!”

  “Got it!”

  And then…

  Shoop!

  “Wh…?”

  Thud!

  “………”

  “Both the wheel and the axle look okay!”

  “………”

  “So, should we get going?”

  “………”

  “Um…”

  “………”

  “So, uh…”

  “………”

  This is creepy!!!

  A very strange atmosphere had permeated the caravan.

  As the Crimson Vow busied themselves preparing dinner that evening, the atmosphere had more or less returned to normal.

  “Seriously, though. You’re ridiculously strong.”

  Wulf and the others ha
d already given up on understanding Mile, but Mavis, who was a sword-wielder like they were—and who seemed to be a kindhearted woman with plenty of common sense—was different. Learning that she, too, was one of Mile’s ilk seemed to have left quite an impression. They’re all monsters!

  Mavis guessed at their silent thoughts and ached to reply. I’m not! Don’t look at me the way you look at Miiile!!!

  For her part, Mile was able to guess this from Mavis’s expression.

  “Is that how you look at other people?!?!”

  Silence fell again. The calm they had worked so hard to restore was beginning to sour again, ever so slightly.

  “By the way, Mile…” started Mavis, a bit suspiciously.

  “What’s up?”

  “Why didn’t you just use earth magic to dig out a ramp for the cart wheel or to fill in the dip in the road? That seems like it would’ve been a lot safer and less risky…”

  “Er…”

  At Mavis’s words, Mile froze, her face twitching.

  “Moreover,” Pauline added, jumping in ruthlessly, “I would have thought that you could have just put the cart away in storage temporarily and then taken it back out a little farther down the road.”

  “Gwah!”

  At this, Mile crumbled. It made sense that the merchants, the Devils, and the Fellowship, who were not accustomed to Mile’s magical abilities, would not have thought of this, but how in the world would it not have occurred to Mile herself?

  The others looked on with pitying gazes, and the awkward atmosphere from before faded once again, for better or worse…

  Chapter 70:

  The Report

  “We’re here to give our completion report,” Mavis announced at the Guild reception window. The other two party leaders, Wulf and Vegas, stood alongside her. Each party had accepted the job separately, so they each had their own contracts. Naturally, the clerk at the desk was Leutessy.

  Perfect! These girls made it back safely once more! All thanks to me and my genius in sending the Devils’ Paradise and the Fellowship of Flame along with them! I am the Crimson Vow’s savior!