by Funa
“Company, halt! We’ll make camp here!”
The upper-ranking NCOs shouted to the front and back, and everyone assembled.
No matter how loud their voices got here, it didn’t matter. With such a large number of people traveling in a group, their movements would already be apparent to any monsters or beasts lingering in the vicinity, and none of them would be stupid enough to come pick a fight with a combat force of over fifty people. Besides, as soon as they started preparing to cook, their scent would get around pretty quick. It was pointless to even think of concealing their presence.
Though they were camping out, there was no reason for them to carry tents or the like. Their goal was to press through the forest with only the minimum personnel and equipment necessary for combat, which meant that everyone would either just trim down the grass and spread their cloaks down on top of it or wrap themselves up in their cloaks like a bedroll. If all went according to plan, the trip would be only four days and three nights—or five days and four nights at worst—so that was enough for them.
The soldiers all staked out their spots and began cutting the grass down. Several of them seemed to leave an unnatural amount of space around them, but it was likely that those men were guilty of tossing and turning, snoring or grinding their teeth, or some other unappealing habit.
Then, the hunters began to prepare their own camps.
Suddenly, the soldiers and two of the hunting parties ceased to move. Silence spread throughout the clearing.
“Wh-wh-wh-wh-what is that?” asked the captain, who was overseeing the operations and had left the preparations of his own sleeping space to his subordinates.
“Huh?” Mavis shrugged. “It’s just a normal tent.”
She pulled back the flap to show him quickly, not understanding the source of the captain’s surprise. What he saw inside were four beds, a simple table with four chairs, and a small chest, which held all their changes of clothing. The beds were not the fluffy, canopy-adorned kind favored by young maidens; they were merely plain, simple beds.
“Y-you just pulled that out of nowhere…”
“Ah, yes, well, it’s a huge pain to set it up and take it down every single time, so I always just store it like this.”
“That’s absurd!!!”
A chorus of voices echoed from all around them—the voices of the soldiers who had been listening in, accompanied by that of the captain himself.
“I-I mean, storage magic capacity is determined by a ratio of weight to volume, so…”
Storage magic users were few and far between. And storage magic, which relied more on aptitude than training, was not something that you could increase with age. As a result, it was not unusual for even someone young to be able to use it, provided they had the aptitude and ability. It was unusual to see such users, who were the darlings of merchants and nobles alike, take up such a dangerous profession as working as a hunter—but the captain thought, To each their own. That said…
“If you have that much space to waste in there, you should fold up the tent and put something else inside!!!” the captain shouted. All the surrounding soldiers nodded.
If they had known ahead of time that she was a talented storage magic user and that she was going to be wasting that much space in her storage, think of what they could have asked her to bring: blankets, meat, vegetables, and all sorts of other things. They wouldn’t have been restricted to the minimal amount of drinking water produced by the two soldiers with enough practical magic aptitude to summon it—they could have even had enough for cooking. As they thought about this, a feeling of vexation began to bubble up inside the captain.
The members of the Crimson Vow were not bad people, he knew that much. As leader of the troops, he was merely ashamed at having let the chance to so greatly increase their provisions slip right out from under his nose.
“I do have more inside…” Mile said offhandedly.
“What?” the captain replied, in a hollow voice.
“I’m telling you, I’ve got more in here. A lot of other things!”
With these words, Mile began to produce a cook surface and stove and cookware and meat and vegetables, along with all other manner of things, one after another from her storage.
“And…”
Slam!
Finally, out came a large tank of water.
Everyone was speechless, their eyes wide, until Pauline broke the silence.
“Water is five copper per cup! Bread is five copper a piece. Meat and vegetable stew is five half-silver a serving!”
In truth, if the soldiers had shown themselves to have a bad attitude, then the Crimson Vow would have made only enough for themselves and the other hunters—or else they would have charged the soldiers an exorbitant rate to milk a profit out of them. Yet, despite their expectations, the soldiers had turned out to be decent people, so they decided to charge a more conscientious price.
Five copper pieces was the equivalent of about 50 yen, and five half-silver was roughly 500 yen, so besides the water, none of it was really all that expensive. It was about the same prices as you would find at a restaurant in town.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me…”
This had been a day full of surprises for the captain.
Less than an hour later, there was a throng of soldiers gathered around the tent where the Crimson Vow had set up their stove.
Already, from the time the cooking started, there had been a number of looky-loos. They watched as the stew pot was filled magically with water, and as Reina carefully sank in a fireball, bringing it to boil in an instant. Mavis chopped the dried wood with her sword in the blink of an eye. Then Reina once again summoned up her fire magic to set it ablaze. After that, they tossed in the ingredients that Mile had chopped and seasoned their food with spices pulled from her storage. The quantity of spices they used meant that the five half-silver for the soup was more than worth the cost. They were doing them a special favor here.
There was a strange silence, and suddenly Pauline realized that the soldiers and other hunters were all looking her way.
Mile, Reina, and Mavis had all performed their own little shows, so now, Pauline realized, the audience was expecting some kind of trick from her as well. Unfortunately, all of the cooking was now finished. Yet it would be rather dull of her not to do something to contribute to the group’s earnings.
After hemming and hawing for a few moments, Pauline hit upon an idea.
“Get your healing magic! Five half-silver per injury! I’ll heal you right up—all your scrapes, foot aches, and training injuries—you name it!”
Her price was ridiculously low.
It would be one thing if she were a magic user who was affiliated with their own group, but to get such healing at one of the infirmaries in town staffed by retired former hunters would be far more expensive. There was a limit to the amount of magic every mage could use, after all, so performing mass healing every single day was not possible, which drove up the demand and the price.
When traveling in remote areas, conserving precious energy stores was a necessity for mages. No mage would ever wish to waste their magic pointlessly. Thus, you normally waited to deal with everything other than the most serious injuries until you got back to town. For the soldiers of a rural fief, which could not be expected to have a healing mage to assign to every platoon, healing was just left to natural processes even after they returned home.
“Seriously?!”
The soldiers came running eagerly toward Pauline. Gaping, the hunters were just a beat behind them.
Though Mile had not imparted the fundamentals of magic to Pauline, she had taught her more efficient ways of using her healing powers to supplement her already existing abilities. Now it was possible for Pauline to continually use minor healing magic without expending too much energy. Plus, all they had to do tonight once they were finished eating was to go to sleep, so recovering that energy should be no problem.
With this many people
present, including the rest of the Crimson Vow, there was no reason to think that anything should go awry. The forest was wide, but it was not exactly uncharted territory. As far as everyone knew, there was nothing worse than ogres in these parts.
It would be one thing if this expedition were a more lengthy one, but as it stood, they were only scheduled to plumb the depths of the forest and come right back out. It was not as if there would be anywhere else for the soldiers to spend their money. Many of the men had thought of this, of course, and had left their purses at home, but now they scrambled to borrow coin from comrades who always kept their money on them rather than storing it back in their lodgings.
There was none among them who would be foolish enough to let the opportunity to get a good meal and healing for a pittance slip out from under their noses.
While all this was going on, the meat and veggie stew was completed under Mile’s direction, and so the group was able to enjoy a proper meal in the wilderness—without having any supply wagons in tow. It was a feat that, up until that moment, no soldier or hunter could ever have imagined.
“Seriously, what was with that?”
“I couldn’t believe my eyes!”
After the lively meal was finished and the members of the Crimson Vow retreated to their tent, the Devils’ Paradise and the Fellowship of the Flame all sat in a huddle, discussing.
“First of all, having that much storage space is ridiculous! She’s gotta have gotten calls from nobles and merchants—maybe even from a king himself! What’s she doin’ livin’ out here as a hunter?”
“I mean, I dunno, everyone’s got their own story. Maybe she wasn’t suited to life in court or whatever. I mean, it’s not like any of us is one to talk…but with a power like that there’s no way there ain’t B or even A-rank parties comin’ for her! What’s she doin’ in a C-rank party?!”
Pearls before swine. Coins before a cat. There were phrases of equivalent meaning in this world as well.
“Still, I can see why those other girls are such a perfect match for her.”
“Mm-hmm. There is that swordswoman. She chopped up that wood like it was toothpicks. And that attack mage—she has such exquisite control of her fire magic. And then there’s that healing mage… She can use her healing spells so easily, and so many times. I bet they’re all personal guards, hired to watch over that storage magic girl and heal her up just in case something happens. There’s no way that many little firecrackers could’ve come together just by chance.”
“You think she’s a spy?”
“Doubt it. She’s way too useful to be expendable, and if she were, she wouldn’t have been taking on jobs like this. And anyway, I really can’t see it, not with a face as stupid-loo—ahem, as, uh, pure and simple as hers.”
“You’ve got a point,” the others replied.
They were not a particularly courteous bunch.
Still, it was impressive how accurately they guessed at the extent of the girls’ abilities, even without having seen anything flashy beyond the storage magic. That was veteran hunters for you.
Of course, the soldiers were not all fools, either.
“The hell was with that storage magic? She’s like a demon!”
The commander’s aide was focused on Mile’s storage magic, but the commander himself had other things on his mind.
“Sure, there’s that, but did you see that one with the sword?! She tossed those logs up in the air and cut them into kindling with no more than two or three swipes of her blade… You lads, could any one of you cut a log midair like that, nothing holding it up?”
The men toward whom the commander’s question was directed all shook their heads.
“And then, there was that fireball the other one conjured up without even moving, with just enough power to get that pot boiling. She controlled it so easily, with just enough force so that it slipped into the water. Have any of you ever seen anyone who could use magic like that?”
Once more, the soldiers shook their heads.
“And I don’t think I even need to tell you all about that healing magic… Yeah, sure, maybe it was mostly scrapes and bruises, but I know that every single one of you was in line, and she healed each of you without even breaking a sweat. I’ve never heard of any mage who’d let all their magic get used up while they were out in the wild. Let alone for little stuff like that, not even in a battle or an emergency situation. Looking at this logically, I’d wager she didn’t use more than a half—no maybe even no more than a third—of her power to do all that. Though, hell, I don’t even know what ‘logic’ means in this situation.”
The commander was a bit befuddled.
At the very least, the unexpected powers that these girls—who they had thought would be nothing but dead weight—had shown them gave him a newfound respect for hunters as a whole.
***
The next day, when the camp awoke, a delicious smell was wafting through the air.
“What is it?”
When the soldiers roused themselves, they found before them a mountain of bread and a steaming stew pot, along with a platter of salad.
“Get your breakfast combos, five half-silver a plate!”
Today was the day of the big fight, and there would be no time for them to stop and have lunch.
It seemed they had two breakfast choices: hard tack, a few scraps of jerky, and some water—or this hot, delectable, and filling array.
There was not a man among them who had the slightest trouble deciding. No soldier would ever neglect his physical condition on such an important day just to save a few silver.
“G-gimme one!”
“Me too!”
“Can I have two portions?”
The soldiers came flooding over.
“All right, all right, no need to rush, there’s plenty to go around! Everyone gets seconds for free today—our treat!”
“All riiight!!!”
Of course, it was not the best idea to fight on a full stomach, or really to have much food in your belly at all, but at least this time they were fighting against monsters and not people, so there was no chance of them being pierced in the gut by a spear or sword or arrow. Plus, given how far they still had to travel, it was equally important that they safeguard against fatigue and hunger in this case.
And so, the soldiers ate their fill—in moderation—and set off triumphantly from the camp.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen these men so full of life on one of these jobs. I owe my thanks to the Crimson Vow.
The commander looked ahead to where the Crimson Vow walked before him and silently nodded his head.
The group was about two hours out from their campsite when the commander shouted, “This is the place! Spread out and start patrolling!”
Where they now stood was the narrowest part of the forest, which was bordered on both sides by mountains. It was halfway between the national border and the outer edge of the forest on Marlane’s side, and it was the ideal place to ambush and drive away any monsters that might come running their way.
They would cut the beasts off here and let nothing get by them. That was their primary duty.
The head of the platoon, the commander of this expedition, split the group up into four teams again, spreading them out to the left and right at intervals. They formed an unbreakable line that crossed the expanse of the area between the mountains.
The moment that any monsters that came at them, no matter how many there were, they would be repelled in the opposite direction with no chance of slipping through between the patrols. As long as they were successful in getting all the monsters turned around here, all they would have to do afterward was keep driving them back all the way to the border.
Of course, in the process, all of the ogres and goblins on their side of the line would be driven away as well. There was no way of distinguishing between the native inhabitants and the invaders, and besides, if those other scoundrels were going to drive all their beasts over to Marlane,
then what was the harm in the Marlanians doing the same?
Or so they figured, at least.
Of course, they did have to be very careful not to drive away the orcs, jackalopes, deer, and boar that the local huntsmen took as their quarries. Diminishing the number of edible beasts and monsters in the area would be incredibly detrimental, not only to the local huntsmen but also to the people of the nearby city, who relied upon such creatures for nourishment.
The neighboring country was apparently unconcerned about such matters, driving every creature in their woods, edible or not, indiscriminately towards Marlane. So when they were driving off the monsters, it was important not to lay a hand on the more valuable, edible creatures, allowing them to pass through unharmed.
It was roughly two hours after all of the teams had gotten into position that Mile, with her superhuman senses of sight and hearing, first spotted something.
“They’re coming. There’s a huge mass of monsters and beasts up ahead! But they aren’t all in one group—they’re spread out.”
Hearing this, the other three members of the Crimson Vow gave a silent nod, while the soldiers looked on, perplexed.
“Mile’s good at sensing these things,” Mavis explained. “If Mile says they’re coming, then they’re coming. Get ready!”
The soldiers appeared to still be half in disbelief, but thinking back to the incredible feats they had seen performed the day before, they silently nodded and drew their swords. Apparently, they could find it in themselves to have a bit of faith in Mile.
“They’re here!”
After a short while, the soldiers, too, began to pick up on the signs of the approaching monsters.
Reina gave a wicked grin, fangs bared.
“Let’s do this!”
“All right!!!”