by Funa
“You all get that too, don’t you?” he continued, glaring at the beastmen. “After we’ve worked so hard to make peace between humans and beastpeople, this might start conflict all over again! If it does, a lot of folks will die. Hundreds, thousands of people. Women and children. And it’ll be all your faults! That’s right, you’ll be killers of humans and beastpeople, women and children! Is that what you’re after, you warmongering idiots?!”
Beastpeople’s expressions were difficult to read, but in this case their feelings were perfectly clear. They were stunned, confused, guilty, and a bit offended.
“You’re wrong! We would never want to do anything like,” a young beastman started, but their leader cut across him.
“Shut up,” he snapped. “Don’t say another word! I order you as your commander. From now on, no one speaks to the humans without my permission or the elder’s!”
Naturally, the clan elder would only get involved if the leader didn’t make it home alive. If he didn’t, his subordinates wouldn’t talk to humans for the rest of their lives. Thus was the authority of their leader’s commands when they operated as a team or pack. As long as that authority extended to the elder, even if they returned and found their elder deceased, they would simply wait until a successor was named and freed them from the leader’s order.
Even if their entire clan was annihilated, they wouldn’t be free from the order. Not unless they integrated with another clan and that clan’s elder released them from the order. The binding effect of the leader’s words was that strong.
“Ah…” The leader of the escort hunters slumped in disappointment.
“It’s no use. These guys aren’t gonna say another word,” Reina said. “Even if we torture them, once it gets to be too much, they’ll probably kill themselves.”
“Whaaat?! Are you serious?!”
“There’s nothing we can do. That’s just how beastpeople are!” As much as Reina might protest, this didn’t seem like it would pan out in their favor.
“Let’s leave ’em all here,” said the escort leader.
“Whaaaaaaaat?!?!” The Crimson Vow were floored.
They had gone through the trouble of capturing them, and they were a valuable source of information. It was obvious they should take at least two or three of them back to the capital as prisoners. It might even have a favorable influence on their compensation.
“B-but why?! We should take some of them if we can. At the very least, one,” Pauline complained.
However, the leader would not budge.
“You’re saying you want to bring this whole bunch of uncooperative beastmen along all the way to the capital?” he asked. “That’s going to be a whole heap of trouble in and of itself, as I already said.”
“Because of rescuers, false accusations, or a dispute?” asked Mile.
“Yeah, exactly.” The leader nodded. “They aren’t going to say anything anyway. And if they kill themselves, who’s going to take responsibility? Will you?”
“Er…”
The Crimson Vow were out of arguments. They valued their own hides, after all, and couldn’t bear that responsibility.
“P-please wait a minute!” they said before separating themselves from the rest of the group. They launched into hushed conversation…
“Sorry to keep you all waiting!”
Several minutes had gone by. The Crimson Vow finally finished their conference and returned to the others.
“All right, we agree to leave all of the beastmen here, alive,” said Mile, representing the group.
A sense of relief rippled through the escorting hunters, Tiffy, the guild employee, and the beastmen. Apparently, their conversation had been a little concerning to the nine other hunters, as well as Dr. Clairia and her assistant.
“By the way, Mr. Beastman,” Mile stated, addressing their leader. The others were forbidden to speak, so she had no other option. “Am I right to believe you are as eager to avoid conflict as we are?”
The leader nodded.
“In that case, please vacate the dig site before any human troops arrive and put everything back in its place. The local lord might make a fuss about ‘trespassers’ in his territory, but that’s nothing to worry about. How soon do you think you’ll be able to pack up and leave?”
“…No idea.”
“Huh?” Mile was perplexed by the leader’s reply.
“Nothing we can do about it. If we find something, who knows how long they’ll want to keep searching. If we don’t find anything, who knows how long it’ll be before everyone finally gives up and leaves. Nothing’s been decided, either way, and we haven’t been given further instructions…”
“Ah…”
Perhaps because he understood Mile and the others wished to avoid conflict, the leader of the beastmen had let a bit of information slip, but it wasn’t much of a treat to hear.
“Guess there’s no choice. Reina, Pauline, I’ll leave the bone breaking to you.”
The two of them nodded and approached the restrained beastmen.
And then…
Snap!
“Gaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Snap!
“Gwaaaaah!!”
The task that Mile had requested was underway.
…Indeed, the “bone-breaking” task.
Primarily, their legs.
“Wh-wh-what are you doing?!?!” the beastmen’s leader screamed in panic.
A sense of calm had overtaken him when he saw a little girl of the same mind had taken charge. That calm had shattered when he saw an unthinkable deed being performed under that same little girl’s orders.
“Well, I did say ‘bone-breaking.’”
“N-not that! I mean, yes, that, but that’s not the point!!!”
Mile stared at him, not understanding his angle.
“Huh? Well, I figured,” she said as if this were all perfectly normal, “if you could get everyone to withdraw quickly, we would let you go back right away. But since that won’t be possible, then it makes sense to delay you from getting information to your allies for as long as possible. So I’m having them break your legs to slow you down.”
The beastmen looked aghast.
“Eek… St-sto…!”
Snap!
“Gaaaaaaah!”
In this world, there was a little thing called healing magic. If there weren’t, Mile wouldn’t have concocted such a ghoulish scheme. There were aftereffects to such injuries. If you were poor and had to recuperate on your own, a clean break or simple bone fracture came with a strong chance of recovery but not a guaranteed one. There could be lasting joint problems and the like. However, with recovery magic, there was almost no worry at all. And there was a mage amongst the beastmen.
Drag…
“Hm?”
Drag drag drag…
“Huhhhhh?”
As Mile grabbed the beastman mage by the collar, he screwed his eyes shut, sure his turn was next, and preparing himself for the pain. But when he had been dragged a short stretch away, he heard a suspicious phrase.
“Fire Wall.”
“Wh—?! Eddies of magic, surge forth and defend me! Magic Shield!’”
Hearing Mile let off an attack spell, skipping any incantation, the mage conjured a shield with a brief and hurried spell. This method prioritized speed over efficiency. Some mages could cast powerful spells silently or with no incantation at all, but that was too high a hurdle for this mage. So he put his all into this short incantation.
Because Mile had so leisurely cast her spell, the wall of flame was intercepted by the shield and didn’t reach the mage. However, it continued around him, forcing the mage to continue casting his spell. He would have to keep this up until Mile’s magic ran out, whenever that was…
Both the mage and his leader knew exactly what she was trying to do.
If the mage still had sufficient magical strength, he could use healing magic. And, if he did, he could channel all that strength into healing at least one of
the beastmen and sending him off as a messenger. After that, the mage could rest a while and then heal the rest of his allies.
Even if a monster came their way, between the mage and whoever had been healed so far, they should be able to defend themselves. Plus, having one leg broken wasn’t enough to sap beastpeople of their battle strength.
It would only buy them a little time, but a little was better than nothing. It was best to delay the beastmen as long as possible.
It was for that reason Mile intended to drain the mage of all his magic.
“G-g-guhh…”
Mile drew her gaze away from the agonized mage to see Reina and Pauline had already finished off the rest of the beastmen. They grinned, looking incredibly pleased with themselves.
Incidentally, Mavis had refused to participate. She had protested, saying that for someone with aspirations of being a knight, harming an unresisting opponent was unspeakable. Reina had ended the matter with a simple “Oh, no worries,” and the matter was quickly settled before proceeding without her.
It would have been better to force Mavis to participate, in order to harden her heart, but Reina wasn’t ready to be that hard on her.
“Y-you ‘humans’…” the leader moaned bitterly.
The other beastmen were still forbidden to speak and couldn’t voice their complaints.
The way he said “humans” clearly implied he thought them more vicious than devils. Because no beastman would ever use “beast” as an insult.
“Since it’s just one of your legs, you should be better in no time, right?” Mile said. “The bone hasn’t broken the skin, so there won’t be any blood. As long as you don’t let anything know you’re injured, I don’t think any monsters would dare to come and attack this many of you. Now then, best of luck!”
After that, Mile pressed the others to make their preparations to depart, and soon after, the whole group left—leaving the twelve broken beastmen where they lay.
Of course, they didn’t forget to rescue the mage, who—his magic spent—was about to be consumed in flames, before they departed.
Nor did they forget to break one of his legs…
“…Damn those little devil girls!” the leader of the beastmen spat, although even he was aware that in this incident, they were the ones who were completely in the wrong.
They had willfully invaded human territory and begun an excavation without permission. On top of that, they had abducted and unlawfully held private citizens. Even those girls had only taken on the monumental task of finding and rescuing the investigation team, which the beastpeople had resisted with all their might. Just as the girls had said, they were behaving no differently from bandits.
Of course, they hadn’t had violent intentions and doing anything even remotely bandit-like to their captives was the furthest thing from their minds. However, that meant nothing to the captured humans. As far as they were concerned, the beastmen were as good as bandits.
Indeed, if they were bandits, they wouldn’t be able to complain if the humans had decided to kill them. In fact, they should thank those girls for letting them off with a broken leg apiece.
There were also broken arms and ribs from being struck with the flat of a sword, but those were easily fixed with healing magic. So they couldn’t truly be angry about those injuries.
The beastmen’s intentions were to do nothing that would bring shame upon their kind, so they tried to do nothing that would harm their people’s pride. Or so the leader had said to his subordinates and tried to believe himself. In truth, he was conflicted.
There was a bigger problem at hand, though: They had failed and lost to four human girls who were barely even of age.
However, they had more pressing matters to consider for now.
“Bones, get as much rest as you can,” the leader commanded the mage. “You need to recover your magic as soon as possible. If you can’t use your healing magic, we’ll be screwed!”
“Y-yes, sir. Of course, sir,” the other replied.
The real problems would come after his magic had recovered.
Do I send whoever’s leg heals up first as the messenger? What if we’re attacked by monsters or wild animals? Can someone who can barely move make it through? I guess I could have the first few stay to defend the rest and send the fourth man… No, that will delay communication by a day. What should I do…?
Thanks to the girls, who had so conscientiously broken Bones’ leg as well, the men were not left in the unfortunate circumstance of having him be the only able body, forced to end him off with some remark like, “Don’t worry about us, just go and tell them ASAP!” It would have been a hard call and one the leader would have to make. But at least the option would have been there.
Even if he regretted it for the rest of his life…
Did they have that in mind when they broke Bones’ leg? So I wouldn’t have to be troubled by it…? No! That’s impossible! Little girls would never show beastmen such consideration. They just wanted to make sure all our legs were broken. There couldn’t be any other reason.
As he thought this, the leader was suddenly reminded of the somewhat-vapid little girl and her unhinged smile.
He couldn’t help but worry. Beastpeople were, by nature, captivated by the strong. And for the sake of their young, they harbored strong, protective instincts. It was only natural that he should feel concern for Mile and Reina.
For Mavis and Pauline? Adults could fend for themselves, so there was no point in worrying over anyone who had already chosen a companion.
Mile, of course, hadn’t thought about it either way.
When she had released the mage from the fire wall, she noticed there was a leg that hadn’t been broken and took care of it on reflex.
That was all there was to it.
Why did she break his leg?
Because it was there.
Chapter 31:
To the Capital
The Crimson Vow and the eighteen rescued humans made it safely through the forest and onto the main road leading to the regional capital.
Though it was called the main road, it was a small country road, just wide enough for a single cart. Two carts couldn’t pass each other except in the designated pull-off spaces placed here and there for that specific purpose.
Just as they had planned, the group didn’t stop in at the village at the edge of the woods. They no longer had to worry about the beastpeople’s retrieval team, but they had wasted more time than they anticipated on questioning, and if they stopped in town, it was unlikely they would make it to the capital before dark. Not a single person objected.
“If only we’d had prisoners, if only we’d had prisoners, the reward would…” Pauline sighed.
“Oh, be quiet,” the guard leader yelled. “I already told you, I’ll make sure they know you all did take prisoners, and we were the ones who decided to let them go! We got a bit of information, so we can use that as a bargaining chip to raise your reward a bit! That should be fine, right, Miss Guild Employee?!”
Tiffy jolted. “Y-yes, I will give my endorsement as well!”
The guard leader, worn down by Pauline’s incessant, obstinate complaints, finally snapped. He hoped the offer was more than a baseless promise. He wondered what might have happened if his opinion wasn’t well received and suddenly recalled Pauline’s gleeful face as she broke the beastmen’s legs. He shuddered.
“By the way, Doctor, ” Mile suddenly began. Dr. Clairia looked her way.
“Yes~?” Clairia replied.
“D-do you happen to know a woman from the capital branch of the Hunter’s Guild named Theresa?”
“Ah…” Clairia made an amused but slightly weary face. “I’m not sure how many times I’ve been asked this. A lot of people assume her to be an elf or half-elf because of her youthful appearance, but both her parents are completely human. Well, I mean, maybe there’s some elf blood somewhere way back in the family line and a recessive trait just reared its head. That’s not impo
ssible. But, as far as I know, she’s a perfectly normal human.”
“Whaaaaaaat?!”
There was a cry of shock from not only the Crimson Vow, but Tiffy and the guard hunters, as well. Apparently, Theresa was well known around these parts.
Tiffy was flabbergasted. “Since it’s a taboo in the guild to pester other hunters about their personal details, no one had the nerve to actually ask her. We all just assumed she was an elf or half-elf or something…”
The secret to maintaining a youthful appearance was worth its weight in gold, especially for women. If it was just a matter of elven blood, the matter could be easily abandoned. But when it was a human who managed it, well, that was when jealousy arose.
Apparently, they had stepped on a land mine.
The city of Helmont wasn’t so far from the royal capital. The five days’ distance between them was considered “relatively short.” Plus, it was the capital; it wouldn’t be strange to see information be exchanged between guild employees.
“That woman…”
Growing frightened of Tiffy, who stared at the ground grumbling, Mile and the others hurriedly gave her some space.
The party managed to arrive in Helmont before the sun set for the evening. They headed straight for the guildhall.
A few hunters who saw them along the way rushed to the guildhall ahead of them, kicking up a fuss. They were likely acquaintances of Tiffy, the guards, or the other rescued hunters.
When they finally arrived…
“T-Tiffyyyyyyyyyyy!”
The guild master, who had been waiting in front of the building, ran toward them, arms flung wide. His face was soaked with snot and tears.
“Tiffyyy!”
Before he could embrace her, Tiffy stepped aside. Half-blind from tears, he continued rushing forth and eventually wrapped his arms tight around Clairia.
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
***
“…And that’s the sum of it,” Mile concluded.
The guild master gave an emphatic nod, both cheeks bright red and covered in stark scratch marks.