Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Volume 7

by Funa

  At first, Mile couldn’t comprehend their reasoning, but as she thought about it, she concluded that this was welcome practice for them. This was how would they have to travel if she were not around, and since it would have taken regular people four days to make the journey, it was just fine. For once, they decided to be normal.

  They changed into their disguises on the morning of the third day. They didn’t want any of their acquaintances from the capital to view them in their new garb, so they hadn’t changed anywhere around the capital. However, they also couldn’t let anyone see them dressed as hunters anywhere near their destination. Therefore, they decided that it was safer to change somewhere around the midway point.

  The outfits—or rather, the roles—that they had assumed were as follows:

  Mile:The daughter of a low-ranking noble household.

  Mavis:An apprentice knight and bodyguard.

  Pauline:An attending maid.

  Reina:A traveling peddler, serving as their guide.

  Honestly, they were in rather shabby form for a noble maiden’s entourage, but there were a lot of different types of nobles and a lot of different types of maidens. She could be a fourth daughter, or a fifth daughter, or a daughter born to a mistress or concubine. Furthermore, even among those, there were plenty of girls who had the sort of qualities that meant their families would rather see them disappear—after all, this had been Adele’s position back in her family home.

  Even if this maiden did have a bodyguard, it was not particularly strange that the bodyguard in question couldn’t protect her from any harm greater than petty crooks and pickpockets in town. Plus, even if the bodyguard were only an apprentice knight, anyone who practiced the sword in earnest would put their blade and their life on the line to protect their master, meaning that no two-bit crooks were likely to come sticking their noses in. Knights were often an ill-tempered bunch, drawing their swords to cut an offender down at only the slightest provocation.

  Mile had donned a fluttering, frilly dress, and Pauline was in a maid’s outfit, though she had no apron or frilled headband. Such things would only be in the way on a long-haul journey, so they had left out the excess items. Even secondhand, such things were fairly expensive.

  Mavis and Reina were in their usual clothing and gear. Even if she were not a mage, it was not particularly strange for a young lady who was traveling by foot to be carrying a staff or rod with which to fend off kobolds and goblins and such. Thus, her weapon alone was not enough to expose Reina as a magic-user. Of course, she would still stow her staff away before they entered town.

  Incidentally, while the two of them were still wearing their usual garb, they had in fact been allotted the funds for four outfits. As a result, the party had purchased additional wardrobe items for Mavis and Reina on the Guild’s dime and stored them away in the inventory for later.

  Finally, the town of Zarbef came into view.

  “All right! Let’s do this!”

  “Yeah!!!”

  And so the curtain was raised on the stage that was Zarbef, where the traveling actresses of the Crimson Vow were about to make their debut.

  That Mile… What a scary girl!!

  So as not to blow their cover, the four of them decided to stick as close to the actual truth as possible—without revealing the fact that they were hunters. Mavis’s role remained more or less true to reality, as did Reina’s, leaving out the fact that she was a mage. Pauline was, of course, not actually a maid, but she played the part flawlessly. And as for Mile…

  “There’s no point in you even acting. Just be yourself!”

  “Wh-what? How rude! I’ll have you know that my family often said that I was ‘quite the actress’!”

  As a red-in-the-face Mile screamed at Reina, Mavis muttered to herself, “Somehow I don’t think they meant that as a compliment…”

  Incidentally, the role that Mile had chosen to embody was that of a low-ranking noble girl from a foreign land who was largely disregarded by her parents and admired hunters enormously. This would make it all right if she accidentally said hunter-ish things. People would most likely take her for nothing more than a young noble playing make-believe. As for her magic, Mile decided to pretend that, for some reason, the only thing she was good at was storage magic. That way, they were sure to entice the bandits, and they didn’t have to hide Mile’s storage abilities, which made things easier for everyone in general.

  The others had decided that they would carry their own things, so as not to rely on Mile too much, but her storage really was too handy to give up entirely.

  Finally, the Crimson Vow arrived at the hill overlooking the small country town of Zarbef.

  “All right! From here on out, it’s time for us to really embody our roles. We never know when someone might be listening in, so we can only discuss Vow affairs when we’re outdoors and can see what’s around us or when we’re inside one of Mile’s barriers. Anywhere else, we need to speak as our characters would and can only have normal, everyday conversation! Got it?” Reina directed.

  The other three nodded in return.

  “Crimson Vow, roll out!”

  “All right!!!”

  As the group triumphantly descended the hill toward the town, Mavis spoke in a forlorn manner, almost to herself, “Guys? Can we at least try to remember that I’m the actual leader…?”

  ***

  Ring-a-ling.

  As always, the guildhall had a bell attached to the front door. These were put in place so that guild employees could look and tell at a moment’s glance whether or not whoever had just entered appeared to be a troublemaker. Having a fight occur while they weren’t paying attention was not a possibility to be taken lightly, especially if that fight resulted in crossed swords. Thus, if someone who appeared to be a troublemaker entered, the employees would make a note of that person immediately.

  That said, the group who entered now looked like the sort who would cause a commotion for a wholly different reason.

  When someone new entered the hall, it was not only the staff who looked over to evaluate them but the gathered hunters as well. As was their habit, everyone in the hall had done so, and in this case, guild staff and hunters alike came immediately to the same conclusion:

  They’re sitting ducks!!!!

  There was a girl who appeared to be a low-ranking noble, with an endearing appearance but a rather vacant look on her face.

  There was a large-busted maid.

  There was a fierce-looking redhead.

  And last, there was a gallant, but rather meek-seeming young swordswoman.

  It was plain to anyone that the four of them would be easy marks. Obviously, they had come here to place a request for an escort. With a young noble maiden like that, so oblivious to the world, one could probably get her to cover all sorts of additional expenses along the way, if one played one’s cards right. Obviously they couldn’t overdo it while on a request placed through the Guild, but should the girls happen to place any “additional requests” along the way, why, then that was another matter entirely. Thinking this, some ill-behaved C-rank hunters ogled them, eyes glinting. For some reason, however, instead of walking straight up to the request counter like the hunters thought they would, the girls walked toward the job board and halted before the information board beside it.

  “Mistress, it seems that bandits have been preying on the travelers in this area. Perhaps we should hire on an escort here,” the swordswoman proposed.

  The hunters watched, grinning.

  However, the noble maiden then replied, “Oh? But shouldn’t you be able to handle a few bandits? If we were to hire someone, wouldn’t you be ridiculed as a coward?”

  No way no way no way!!! everyone retorted in their hearts.

  The maiden then turned to her maid and said, “Besides, Pauline, I know you’ve been training in the yard with mops and brooms during your breaks and on rest days. With that ‘Maid-Style Killing Arts,’ or what have you…”

 
No way no way no way no way no way no way!!!

  What the girl was referring to was probably some sort of calisthenics or game. Internally, the hunters and employees immediately rejected the young maiden’s logic, though they could not voice their objections aloud. For some reason, the maid seemed rather proud of herself.

  “What are you all carrying on about?!” asked the redhead suddenly. “The master of the house placed me in charge of this team, so I’m the one who will be making decisions about our travels!”

  There was no way that a girl of no more than twelve would have been placed in charge in lieu of the seventeen or eighteen-year-old swordswoman or the fifteen or sixteen-year-old maid. The girl had to be much older than she looked, the hunters thought—maybe an elf or a dwarf, most likely. The total washboard that was her chest confirmed this. Actually, as she was not short and stubby in the manner of dwarves, it was far more likely that she was an elf, or at least someone with elven blood.

  At any rate, it seemed that the noble maiden had hired someone with sense as her guide for this expedition. So, everyone in the room thought, one could expect that she would have had the sense to hire a guard for them as well. However…

  “Like I’d waste our money on something like an escort! I get to keep a third of any money we save, and we aren’t going to throw it away on something like that!”

  Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!

  Their leader was valuing her own profits over the group’s safety—in a situation where her own life might be at stake! Hunters across the Guild were flabbergasted.

  “Whatever. It doesn’t look like there’s very much good information here. Let’s get going… Oh!”

  Midway through urging the group on, the redhead looked as though she’d had a sudden change of heart.

  “We’re running low on money. Milady, get over here!”

  Though she addressed the young noble with an honorific, there wasn’t a hint of respect in the redhead’s tone. It was plain to see where the true power lay in this team…

  The group of girls then headed to the game exchange counter.

  “Bring it out!” ordered the redhead to the noble.

  Honestly, it was becoming less and less clear which of them was the mistress and which the servant.

  “Ah, o-on it!”

  However, the noble maiden complied without complaint, as though this was how things always were between them.

  “C’mon out, orcs! Let’s go!”

  Boom!

  Suddenly, two orc corpses appeared before her.

  “Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!” A cry rang through the room.

  “Sh-she’s got storage magic… And such a large capacity…” one of the hunters stuttered out.

  Indeed, the fact that this girl could store not only one orc, but two, put her in the upper echelons of storage magic users, a quite sparse group to begin with. Even if she were a powerless, utterly useless girl otherwise, the fact that she could rival the carrying capacity of an entire wagon on her own more than made up for any other flaws. Even for a merchant or noble, the uses of such a girl were endless: she could hide away confidential documents or cargo when suddenly set upon by tax inspectors, she could smuggle illicit goods…

  Once again, a thought occurred to everyone in the guildhall at once:

  A golden goose…

  “Is it possible for non-hunters to sell things here, too?”

  Misrepresenting oneself to a guild employee was a punishable offence. However, Reina was not telling a lie—she had merely asked a question, never implying that she herself was not a hunter.

  “Y-yeah, that’s fine.”

  Normally, the one in charge of the exchange counter was some gruff old man, and this Guild branch was no exception. If a woman were put in charge of the exchange counter, as with the other stations, you would start getting idiots who came in trying to intimidate a higher exchange rate out of her. Therefore, the job was usually entrusted to some tough-looking old fellow who had retired from hunting due to age or injury. Even so, no matter their age or health, such men would have no trouble putting a greenhorn in line with a little short-term violence—in fact, this was a prerequisite for the position. No hunter would ever dare oppose or disrespect the chief of exchange.

  Plus, hunters never knew when they themselves might fall victim to injury, and someday, they would all grow old. Even the roughest of ruffians would put on their best sweet-talking act before the influential employees of the Guild, who might someday see to their own reemployment.

  That said…

  “Yo, old-timer, how much can ya give us for… Ngah!”

  “Pardon us, might we ask you to assess these?”

  Even if it was merely an act, Mavis could not abide Reina being so grievously rude to the man and hurriedly clapped a hand over her mouth.

  “Oh please, Mister, you’ll give us a good price for these, won’t you?” Pauline’s flattery was blatant, but if it was for the sake of fattening her purse, she’d slap on a false smile in a heartbeat. However…

  “P-please, Mister!” Mile said, attempting to wink, though as she was unaccustomed to such a gesture, she ended up closing both of her eyes. Indeed, she had done exactly the same when attempting her “Angel’s Wink” lightning magic.

  “No need to overdo it there,” the old man said, grimacing. “You’re really somethin’, though. I’ve never seen anyone who could hold that much in storage before. Plus, it looks like y’all got these orcs’ heads off in one clean shot, with no other damages…”

  “Ah, well, we bought them for cheap off of a hunter who was in a bind. He had killed three of them, but couldn’t carry them all,” Mile quickly explained.

  Most of the price that an orc fetched stemmed from the difficulty of transporting it from the hunting grounds back to town. That fact alone made her argument a persuasive one, almost ridiculously so. The bulk of the hunters who overheard this began to lose themselves in wild fancies, imagining what their own profits would be if they could get their hands on someone like Mile. Of course, it would be one thing if she were a rookie hunter, but even low-ranking, she was still a noble, so the chances of something like that actually happening were more or less impossible. Still, it was fun to indulge in the fantasy.

  “All right,” said the old man, “This is what the evaluation comes to. That fine with y’all?”

  Surely enough, the coins that the old man heaved onto the counter were the standard payment for two orcs in good condition. Reina nodded, and Mile waved her hands over the coins to store them. Obviously, such a gesture was not actually necessary, but it certainly looked attractive. There were plenty present who had never actually seen storage magic used in person, so she thought it nice to put on a bit of a show for them.

  “Well then, let’s go find an inn,” said Reina. “Tomorrow at the second morning bell we’ll set out for the town of Caldile.”

  “Yea… Yes, ma’am!”

  The other three began their usual boisterous agreement and then quickly corrected themselves to a more proper manner of speech.

  Their plans now loudly and clearly announced to everyone, the four then left the guildhall to seek an inn. Once they had cleared out, a hush fell over the room. Among the quiet figures were those who were taken aback, those who were uneasy…and those who were greatly concerned.

  “So, do you think that did the trick?” asked Reina afterward.

  “Hm, I wonder if we overdid it a bit,” said Mavis.

  “Actually, I think that was just about right for ‘idiot daughter of a backwater noble and her team,’ wouldn’t you say?” asked Pauline.

  “And just who are you calling an ‘idiot daughter’?!” Mile raged.

  The four talked among themselves as they walked casually down a side street.

  “It’s important that we pick the right inn, too,” said Reina.

  “You’re right,” Mile replied.

  Naturally, the Guild was not the only place where they needed to purposely leak information. If s
omeone was going to pray on travelers, then the places that travelers frequented, such as inns and restaurants, would be the most likely places for them to go.

  The level of danger varied little by inn. No matter how high-class the establishment, it was impossible to vet every single employee and their external relations. So why would the girls go out of their way to pick a mid-sized inn on a side street?

  “Please try and pick the cheapest place possible,” Pauline implored.

  Indeed, it was nothing more than a matter of expense.

  “I’d like it if we could find another one with a catgirl…”

  “You shut your mouth! If you start creeping on some other beastgirl, I’m going to tell Faleel! I’ll tell her that you have indiscriminate taste, and that as long as there’s a beastgirl, any inn’s good enough for you,” threatened Reina.

  “Oh! You wouldn’t!” Mile panicked.

  The childish, greedy behavior that Mile displayed the day of Faleel’s rescue from the kidnappers had started to seed doubt in the young girl’s heart, but when her mother and father explained to Faleel later on that Mile had been instrumental in her rescue, the girl finally began to understand. When, thanks to an explanation from Reina and the others, Faleel came to realize just how big a role Mile had played, she embraced her all the more tightly.

  Mile, assuming that the only reason Faleel had clung so closely to the Servants of the Goddess was that she was glad to see them again after so long, began to spend more and more time in Faleel’s company. By cajoling her father, who was not a man of strong will, by reminding him of her role in rescuing his daughter, she found herself with more and more one-on-one time with Faleel—the highlight of Mile’s young life. It was as though she was trying to force herself to forget that they would very soon be parting. Thus, she could not bear the idea of Faleel thinking poorly of her in any way.

  Besides, it wasn’t like some little country town was likely to have an inn with a beast-eared girl in it, in the first place.