by Funa
Seeing this, Mile muttered down inside her heart,
Ts-Tsunderenny…
After a few more days in this vein, the Crimson Vow finally ended their short break by accepting a job: escorting a merchant caravan bound for the Kingdom of Marlane, which bordered Tils to the east. Brandel—Mile, or rather, Adele’s home country, which lay to the west—was a kingdom with which Tils maintained typical, friendly political relations, but Marlane, to the east, was a kingdom with which Tils was on even closer terms.
The princess of one kingdom, popular among their people, had married into the other’s family, and in times of famine they always sent supplies to one another’s aid. Similarly, if either kingdom should be threatened with war, the other would send masses of their soldiers to the border in order to send the message that, “If you threaten a friend of our kingdom, you’ll have to deal with us, too.” In short, the two kingdoms were close allies.
Naturally, the flow of commerce between the two was great—which also meant that there were plenty of bandits to contend with. As a result, the route between the two kingdoms was also popular with hunters who were skilled in real combat. Though guard jobs often went in one direction, there were just as many that would take merchants back the opposite way, so there was no need to waste time on an unpaid return trip. To have such a steady source of income, rather than relying on the uncertainties of hunting or extermination jobs, was the stuff of most hunters’ dreams.
Indeed, it was a perfect job for a C-rank party confident in their skills, a job with no twists or peculiarities. Thus, when the party went to the reception desk to accept their duties, even the clerk had no objections to raise.
“We already have permission to leave the country, and we were only stopping by for a little while along our way, so we don’t need to stop in to say goodbye again before we leave, do we?” Reina asked, grinning.
“Oh, of course not. After all, it would be rude to take up any of the guild master’s time unnecessarily.” Pauline replied, a similarly broad smile on her face.
Mavis, however, grimaced and said, “I do wonder… Well, for better or worse, we’re just going to quietly make our exit…”
“Ahaha…”
***
Then came the day of their departure.
“We baked you some puddings and pies as a snack. Please take them with you…” Lenny said when the party came to say their farewells, handing them two bundles.
“Did you make these, Lenny?”
“Yeah…”
The pudding referred to here was not the same as the sort of pudding sold in Japan, of course. It was a much more shelf-stable food, like the Christmas puddings that are sold in other countries on modern-day Earth. The pie was mincemeat, which, likewise, would not go bad too quickly… Though once it was stored within Mile’s inventory, nothing would ever go bad at all.
“Thank you! We’ll be heading out now!”
And thus the Vow departed to meet up with the merchant caravan.
Just then, however, Mile’s head was in another place, another time.
Pudding and pie…
Unconsciously, she opened her mouth and out came a single phrase.
“…Kissed the girls and made them cry!”
Hearing this, the other three halted and stared at Mile.
“M-Mile, what are you…?”
“Hm? Oh, uh, that was just a line from a song in a story…”
“So, Miley, you really are into younger girls…”
“Th-th-th-th-that’s not it! That’s not it at all!!!”
“I swear, Mile…”
“I’m telling you, that’s not it! I’m being framed, I tell you! Framed!!!”
Yes indeed, it was a typical day for the Crimson Vow…
***
“Are the Crimson Vow here?”
“Who’s asking?”
“I’m looking for the members of the Crimson Vow.”
“And I’m asking who you are.”
No inn staffer worth their salt would ever willingly give up information about a female guest to a strange man who had suddenly appeared at their door, so Lenny stood firm.
“I’m the guild master of the Capital branch of the Hunters’ Guild. I need to speak with…”
“And have you any proof of your position? I’m not just going to turn over information about a group of young ladies to some strange man.”
Indeed, while there was no hunter in the capital to whom the guild master would be unfamiliar, it was not as though he had gone around making his name and face known to every little girl who worked at every inn in town.
“Er…”
The guild master knit his brows, but the girl did have a point. The children in town knew nothing about him, and in terms of business ethics, her argument was sound. The staff of the Guild and other young hunters could stand to follow her example.
“Hey, help me out here.”
At the guild master’s beckoning, a man who was waiting behind him came to the guild master’s side.
“I am the submaster of the Hunters’ Guild,” the man said. “I can confirm for you that this man is most certainly the guild master of the Hunters’ Guild branch of the royal capital of Tils. I give you my word.”
The guild master looked smug, as though that solved everything, but Lenny grinned and replied, “Okay then, do you have any proof of your position?”
“Uh…”
Naturally, if most of the common folk of the town had no idea who the guild master was, then there was no reason that they would know who the submaster was, either.
“W-well then, you can ask any hunter who’s staying here. They can tell you…”
“Okay, who would you like me to call? Even if you tell me that anyone will do, we won’t be giving out the names of any of our guests, and even then, if we can prove that you are with the Guild, we don’t intend to offer up information about the whereabouts or plans of a certain group of young ladies to two visitors who have no right to that information without the permission of those ladies themselves!”
“Er…”
Once more, she had a point.
They could not simply scream at a ten-year-old inn employee and get her to talk, either. Doing such a thing would drag the Guild’s reputation through the mud. Furthermore, the girl was absolutely in the right. An inn could not simply give out information about its guests without having obtained permission from those guests beforehand, and if this young girl would not permit such a thing, then it was almost certain that the master and matron of the establishment would not permit it either.
That said, the Crimson Vow were not currently present—that much they knew. From what the girl implied, if they were to name a particular person with whom they wished to speak, she would call for that someone. Given that she had not done so, they could extrapolate that the Crimson Vow were not there.
“Might I leave a message?”
“If I relay it verbally something might get miscommunicated, so if it’s important, you’d better write it down in a letter.”
“I’ll do that, then. Mind if I borrow a chair?”
With that, the guild master took a seat at one of the dining tables and began to write a letter. He was allowed to borrow a writing implement free of charge, but there was still a fee to deliver the message. The paper was not free, either, for while the paper used on this continent was not as costly as parchment, it was still fairly expensive.
“Please give this to those girls when they return.”
“Very well, we shall. As soon as the Crimson Vow returns to this inn, I will hand over your letter to them.”
Of course, she had no idea how many months it might be before she had a chance to do so, but Lenny was not about to tell the guild master that.
And so, the men headed back to the Guild.
Given that the Crimson Vow had just returned from a lengthy journey and were now resting up, the guild master assumed that they probably would not be taking any new jobs for a wh
ile. Furthermore, it had been so long since they had been in the capital that when they started working again, they were likely to take a job that was closer, rather than farther away, to allow them to get the lay of the land again. With this in mind, the guild master had not thought to confirm whether, in the several times that the Crimson Vow had stopped by the guildhall during their wanderings of the capital, they had taken on any escort requests. No matter how noteworthy a party they were, the clerk, who could not read the guild master’s thoughts, could hardly be expected to inform him every single time a mere C-rank party took on some garden variety job.
And so, the result of all this was…
“Why hasn’t the Crimson Vow shown up?!”
The next evening, the guild master appeared at the front door of the inn once again. This time, he seemed to be alone.
“I mean, I don’t know what to tell you… And we’re kind of busy with dinner right now, so…” Lenny replied, looking hassled.
The guests and diners all stared at the guild master. The guild master, who seemed to be in quite a foul mood, ignored their gazes and continued speaking. “You gave them the letter, didn’t you?! The fact that I haven’t seen them yet means…”
“Actually, I haven’t given it to them yet.”
“What?”
For a moment, the guild master stared dumbly, as though unable to comprehend Lenny’s reply.
“Wh-what are you saying?! I told you to be sure to give it to them!”
“Yes, of course. You told me to give it to them when they came back to the inn, correct? Well, I still haven’t had the chance to do so.”
“Huh?”
“Is there something wrong?”
“What?! Then, what you’re saying is…”
“Exactly. They haven’t come back to the inn yet.”
The guild master was getting flustered. “S-so, when are they coming back?!”
“I don’t know. And even if I did know, that information is not mine to share. Even if you tried to torture it out of me, I’d bite my tongue before you could make me talk!”
“Whoooooooooooaaaaa!!!”
At Lenny’s insistence in the face of the intimidating guild master, a cry of admiration rose from the inn patrons. Hearing these dangerous and biting words, Lenny’s father also came running out from the kitchen—the knife that he had just been using to slice meat gripped in his hand.
This was bad.
The guild master could see that this situation was turning out incredibly poorly for him. He bore absolutely no ill intentions, and yet here he was, looking like a villain. In front of all of these hunters and traveling merchants… This was bad—very, very bad.
“Pardon me.”
And with those words of parting, the guild master fled back home at top speed.
After the guild master left, the mood inside the inn was one of elation. The patrons fell all the more in love with the inn after seeing the dejection of the guild master, who was normally so self-assured, and the courage of a small girl willing to risk her own safety just to protect the inn’s guests. As a result, the orders for food and drink began to roll in.
“Little Lenny, come over here a minute! You’re such a brave girl—let your big sisters treat you to a feast!”
“No, no, come over here! I’ll buy you the most expensive juice on the menu!”
That juice was something that was too expensive for her to even be allowed to drink on the job. Lenny’s heart began to flutter.
“Come over here, Lenny! You can sit on my la…gwah!!”
Somewhere, a male patron was struck by a female guest and sent flying.
Out of nowhere, Lenny’s mother appeared, advising her, “Don’t you worry about keeping an eye on the desk, Lenny. Go ahead and enjoy yourself all you like.”
Then, she said to her in a quiet voice, “And while you’re at it, order the most expensive things you can. It’ll be a huge help to us.”
After all, she was Lenny’s mother…
“Oy! What’s the last job that the Crimson Vow accepted?!” the guild master roared at the night clerks the moment he returned to the guildhall.
One employee rushed to the register to confirm and then reported, “Well, it looks like they took a job guarding a merchant caravan headed for the Kingdom of Marlane. They’ve already departed.”
“What?! Damn it, then that was all for nothing! That little girl should have just said so from the start!”
Guarding merchants heading for Marlane was a fairly standard job for this branch. If he just waited a bit, then would take a similar job from Marlane bound back for Tils, and they would be back in the capital. He had made a complete fool of himself for absolutely no reason.
That said, if he had just checked in with his staff before he had even gone to the inn, then this whole thing could have been avoided. He was the one who had assumed, of his own accord, that the Crimson Vow were still taking a break. The fact that he had failed to take even the simplest of steps to confirm whether or not this was true meant that he had been the agent of his own unmaking here. He had no one to blame but himself.
“Damn it.”
Looking as though he had just swallowed a bug, the guild master scrunched up his face and stalked up to the second floor.
Thus, the day that the guild master and the scheming noble pair learned the truth came just a little too late.
***
“Where is the Crimson Vow?!”
A few days later, someone new appeared at the inn. This time, it was a young girl.
Not again…
Lenny was beginning to grow a bit fed up with this. The usual exchange unfolded.
“N-no way! I traveled all the way to Vanolark, in the west, before I lost their trail. Just when I thought I’d found them again, and I was certain they had turned around and were heading back to Brandel, I got all mixed up in the confusion of that invasion business, and after I found out that they were heading back here, I came all the way back myself. When will they be back, at least?”
The exchange proceeded in Lenny’s usual manner.
“Come on, you can tell me at least! So untrusting!”
The last time they had met, Dr. Clairia had been quite moved at how splendidly Lenny comported herself in the presence of adults, but this time, the professor seemed to even forget that she was an adult herself, behaving instead like a spoiled child. Clearly, she was at the utter limits of her emotional stamina.
Yet Lenny would not be budged.
Seeing that this conversation would get her absolutely nowhere, Dr. Clairia dragged her feet off to the Hunters’ Guild once more.
***
“Gosh, I mean, we’d heard rumors, but this is really…”
The merchants were in excellent spirits during their campground dinner, eating their fill of high-class cooking, the likes of which should have been impossible for any traveling merchant in the midst of a journey.
The drivers and other guards ate equally well. On the battlefield, when armies came together for meals, everyone ate the same things—officers and foot soldiers alike. It promoted a feeling of solidarity, above all else.
Yet on a journey such as this, where normally all one had to eat was easily preserved foods, like hardtack, dried meat, and rehydrated vegetables, how was it that they were dining on such a luxurious meal?
“Now, now, this is only possible thanks to your allowing us to step away from our duties for a bit to hunt. It’s thanks to your flexibility that we can enjoy a fresh, proper meal as well.”
Indeed, as Mile said, the merchants who had hired the Crimson Vow had given them permission to leave the caravan behind for a short while in order to do a little bit of hunting and gathering…using Mile’s location magic.
After a short while, they had returned, toting deer and vegetables and fruit, as well as freshwater fish caught from a nearby stream. In terms of Japanese cuisine, these fish would have been equivalent to something like river salmon and char.
M
ile and Mavis did the prepping, and then Mile and Pauline did the cooking, while Reina oversaw the process as a whole. In this way, a meal came to be, much to the pleasure of the entire assembly. It was still the usual rustic style of cooking favored by most hunters, but with a few extra touches inspired by the delicate presentation of Japanese cuisine. They used plenty of flavoring, and the cookware and tableware were of the kind that you might use at home—no leaf plates and twig forks in sight.
The merchants had offered to give them some extra pay in return for this service, but as always, they declined. It would have been one thing if the meal had been prepared from the ingredients that Mile already had in her inventory, but as everything they used had been caught while they were already on the job, it would feel wrong to accept twice the money for doing the same amount of work. Even Pauline insisted on this. Apparently, doing such a thing would sully the coin, or so she implied.
Of course, the merchants were more than aware of this. Even so, they had to at least make the offer. The merchants had their own code as well and prided themselves on the policy of rewarding extra work with extra pay.
Judging by what the merchants had said, it seemed word had begun to spread throughout the Guild that if you hired the Crimson Vow as guards, you got to eat delicious food along the way, so when the Vow had applied to work as their guard, they had leapt at the chance. Naturally, they knew of Mile’s storage magic as well and had asked for her to store a few of their valuables and easily damaged items, too.
This time, the caravan was not the hodgepodge sort cobbled together from many different companies, but a mid-sized assemblage of twenty-six wagons, all in the employ of a single firm. The merchant in charge was not the head of the company, but the man who was in charge of the company’s shipments. Along with him were several subordinates, the drivers, and sixteen guards, including the Crimson Vow, who made up the rest of the convoy.
Because this caravan had departed directly from the capital, there was not a hunter present who did not already know of the Crimson Vow. So rather than belittling them or trying to pull anything funny, they simply struck up random conversation with the girls. Even this was rather annoying. Reina and Pauline warded off the chattiest members of the group with their coldest gazes, and as a result, there were no injuries. However, the softhearted Mavis and chatty Mile had their ears talked off.