by Funa
Though the blade was shorter than average, it was not knife-sized, but rather about half a meter in length.
“Wait. That’s…”
“Yep, it’s the sword you broke yesterday. I fixed the part of the blade that was left and shaped it into this. I figured you could use it as a spare, in case your main sword broke. In a pinch, it might be enough to protect yourself…”
Mavis took the short sword and held it to her chest, overjoyed that her old weapon might still be of some use.
“Miley,” Pauline called. For some reason, she sounded rather displeased.
“Yes?” Mile answered.
“If you could always fix up Mavis’s sword, then we didn’t need to buy a new one, did we?”
“Ah…”
Everyone’s gaze fixed on Mile.
“Well, she still needs a backup weapon, doesn’t she?”
“Even if her main sword is absolutely unbreakable?”
“……”
“N-no, but she might have it knocked away, or drop it, or something else! R-right?”
As she babbled, Mile looked to Mavis for support, but the other girl looked doubtful.
In truth, of the two blades, Mile had pulled out all the stops in order to strengthen the short sword.
Since most people wouldn’t see it and it would only be used if Mavis’s main sword was lost, it made sense to put more power into it.
Mavis cleared her throat. “Well, now that we’ve confirmed the sword’s abilities, why don’t we test it out on some real prey?”
“Yes, of course,” Mile said. “But first, I thought I might try out my weapon…”
“Your weapon?” asked the other three.
“Yes. Remember how I said I have something that I’d like to try out as well?”
Mile pulled a peculiar-looking item out of storage.
“What is that?”
“It’s called a slingshot. You can use it to hunt birds and other small animals.”
“Hmm…”
Reina studied it doubtfully. She wasn’t particularly impressed by this thing, which looked nothing like a proper weapon.
Nevertheless, Mile drew a pebble from storage and loaded it into the pouch of the slingshot. In truth, this pouch had a special gimmick—it held a magnetic charge. It could be loaded with a number of small metal balls, and fire them like buckshot. Though that was a trick Mile would save for later.
She pulled back on the rubber strap and aimed for a tree branch a short distance away.
The slingshot was based on a product that Mile had seen in a magazine, long ago in her previous life. It was the sort of makeshift thing that would horrify the tool’s original designer.
In her version, Mile had barely considered balance and completely overlooked adding something to maintain its attack strength, or a wrist piece to help with stability. It was an incredibly basic slingshot.
But this wasn’t a problem as long as Mile was using it. Her drawing method was appropriate, and the slingshot was durable enough to withstand being pulled back with immense strength.
The body of the slingshot was made of a mysterious metal which far surpassed the strength of titanium. The rubber strap was carbon nanotubes, and though they had a limited elasticity, that was no matter in the hands of a near-god.
This was the slingshot that Mile held in her hands, although the way she held it would have made enthusiasts cry out in dismay and horror.
First of all, her stance was lopsided, and she didn’t draw it using the entire upper half of her body, but only with her arms thrust out before her. Her left hand held the slingshot, while her right grasped the pouch, drawn back to her shoulder. Even the strap was only stretched to half the distance that it should have been.
And then, she let the pebble fly.
Crack!
It smacked dead into the intended branch and snapped it off the tree.
Mile gave thanks for the nanomachines’ course correction.
“Whoa…”
The other girls were stunned.
“Th-this is just like your wind magic…”
“Yes, though the basic principle is completely different. I’m not using magic at all. But it’s a similar method of hunting.
“From here on, I’d rather not face as much scrutiny about the number of prey we bring in, or the methods we hunt with. Besides, if I use wind magic, there’s a chance that I might forget to hold back and make my target explode! That would be bad enough if I was aiming at a bird, but if it was a human…”
“………”
The other three were silent. It was clear from their faces that they were thinking unpleasant thoughts.
“Speaking of which, I’m hoping to use this weapon to draw attention away from my wind magic. If anyone wanted to get their hands on that magic, it would be an enormous bother—”
“L-Let me borrow it! I want to use pseudo-wind magic, too!”
Reina didn’t want to get her hands on the wind magic, which Mile had claimed would blow her fingers off, but she did want the slingshot.
“I can lend it to you, but I don’t think it’ll work…”
“What are you talking about?! If I practice, then I should be able to use it just as well!”
With a peculiar expression, Mile handed the slingshot to Reina.
“G-grrrrrngh… I-I can’t pull it!”
Reina tugged on the strap, which she had thought was rubber, but was actually carbon nanotube. Finally, she stopped, red in the face.
“Like I said…”
The slingshot’s power was all a result of kinetic energy, and that energy had to come from somewhere. Pulling the strap required an absurd amount of strength.
The strange way that Mile had fired it before was not because she didn’t know the proper method, but because she wanted to fire it that way. Using this technique, her shots had the power of a .22 caliber pistol—just enough for hunting birds and other small critters.
If she were to use proper form—that is to say, pull the strap nearly twice as far—the slingshot would surpass the power of a Magnum hunting rifle. Mile would never use that kind of strength unless she had no other choice. Her sword or magic should be enough for hunting larger prey. This was her secret weapon.
After their exchange, Mavis and Mile hunted for a little while, gaining skill and confidence with their weapons.
Reina, still peeved that she was unable to use the “optimal weapon for hunting small animals in the forest,” fired off water and ice spells all over the place. They weren’t her specialty and made a mess of the hunting grounds.
In the end, though they had meant to take a day off, the girls yet again took home enough prey for a decent wage.
And they all lived happily ever after…
Chapter 13:
Pushing the Limits
“What a formidable foe!”
“This isn’t fair!”
“I don’t think we can beat them…”
“Should we retreat?”
Rookie C-rank hunting party, the Crimson Vow, was embroiled in a fierce battle. Their enemies were a horde of kobolds, about twenty of them in total. These were not strong creatures at all. However…
“Meeew”
“Cooo cooooo…”
They were adorable. Incredibly so.
On Earth, Mile thought, kobolds are hideous and evil spirits! Why are these so endearing?!
The creatures were roughly the size of a human child, with dog-like heads, and all the cuteness of a puppy. Still…
Slash!
“You jerks!!”
They had a strong attack instinct, turning them into monsters.
And, although it was true they weren’t particularly strong, this was only from the perspective of Mile and her party of C-rank hunters. It would be dangerous for the women and children of the village to take on one of these creatures one-on-one, and an adult man, or even a group of people, could be in a lot of trouble when surrounded by a horde.
And
so the Crimson Vow had taken on the job of clearing the kobold dwellings near this village. And yet…
“We can’t stop! This isn’t a standing order—it’s a real job. If we give up now, we are admitting failure on behalf of the dispatch office. We will have to pay the fine, and our reputation will suffer!”
Indeed, in order to prevent parties from failing to complete jobs for which they were not well suited—or to avoid a single party taking a number of jobs at once and leaving them unfinished—parties taking a job were required to pay a bond that was generally about 10 to 30 percent of their promised pay.
This rate varied from job to job. In the case of monster culling, or other matters that were not time-sensitive, the bond was cheap. But for jobs with a tight deadline, or ones that might cause harm to the client if left unfinished, the fee might even exceed 30 percent.
If victory was impossible, that would be one thing. However, if they abandoned a job on the basis that kobolds are too cute to kill, what would they say to the parents of children these kobolds might murder?
They were all well aware of their circumstances.
“We gotta do it! We’re C-rank hunters now—this isn’t playtime. It’s a job! People’s lives are at stake!”
At Reina’s words, the others felt a pang in their chests.
She was right. Their duty was one of life and death.
It was not only their own lives at stake, but those of all the villagers, as well as any travelers passing by.
“O raging flames of the deep, burn my enemies to the bone!”
This was not the forest, but a cliffside beside a highway. Thrilled to finally be able to use fire magic after so long, Reina let off her trademark spell.
The goal of today’s job was extermination, and none of them would have had the heart to skin the kobolds, even if their pelts were worth something. Fortunately, kobold skins weren’t particularly valuable, so it didn’t matter if they were burnt to a crisp.
Reina’s fire ripped through the spot where the kobolds were gathered, and when they tried to escape in a panic, Pauline cut them off with a Fire Wall. Mavis’s blade dealt with the rest, while Mile sniped any bolder souls with her slingshot.
On top of the ten Reina took out with her initial attack, more and more kobolds fell victim to pursuing girls, their movements slowed by the burns they’d suffered. One by one, they were eliminated.
***
“Now then, let’s have our daily review…”
The discussion was started, as always, by Reina. It wasn’t the usual private conference in their room, but rather an informal chat over dinner in the inn’s dining room. Their food was already laid out on the table.
“First of all, what was with that battle today? We got serious in the end, but early on, we were pretty messed up by the cuteness. We can’t be making a mockery of our profession!”
At Reina’s words, Mavis and Pauline hung their heads, poking at the food on their plates.
“Um, but…weren’t you the one who was the most taken, Re—”
“Don’t you finish that sentence!”
Reina slapped her hands down on the table to cut Mile off, a bit red in the face.
“Anyway, I think that we have a considerable amount of ability as a party. The problem lies with our resolve. I mean, we’re still young and inexperienced, so maybe it’s to be expected, but I’m worried people might think that we’re soft. Or that we don’t take things seriously…”
Wow, Reina really is thinking hard about this…
Mile was moved. She had been considering the same thing.
At first, Mile had been ignorant of the ways of the world. She’d thought that she could rely on her powers if something went wrong. But, even with her limited self-awareness, she had the presence of mind not to say that out loud.
The problem was that Mavis and Pauline—unlike Reina—had almost no experience. All they had under their belts was their field training, and the F-rank jobs they’d taken on their days off at the prep school.
As a hunter, so long as you earned a living with your work, you managed. Even if you were unwell, you’d still put your life on the line to earn your keep. But Pauline and Mavis didn’t have that sense of urgency and resolve yet.
Thanks to Mile, they were blessed with combat prowess superior to that of an average rookie C-rank hunter. However, that meant nothing when compared to the strong will and experience of a veteran.
The battle against the Roaring Mithrils had not been a real fight; it hadn’t even been a game. No matter how you looked at it, it was a test. There was no sign that the Roaring Mithrils even recognized it as a real match.
They were just doing their job—carefully holding back their power and creating opportunities for the newbies to shine, drawing out their full strength. They had merely let a little of that strength slip through the chinks in their armor. If the Roaring Mithrils had really meant to fight, they’d had more than enough chances.
“So, I’ve been thinking. What if, just once, we faced a formidable foe that wasn’t concerned about status?”
“Huh…?”
The other three were surprised, but Reina explained.
“If we only keep hunting the low-ranking monsters that D and C-rank hunters take on, and only accept jobs of that level, it’ll be too easy. There’s no challenge. Won’t that end up dulling our senses? If that happens, then one day we’ll slip up, and someone is going to end up dead—or at least seriously injured—because of it.”
“……”
Mavis and Pauline were silent. Mile already knew her own mind, so she hung back, watching.
“Now, I’m not saying that we should do reckless things all the time. All the lives in the world wouldn’t be enough for that. But just once we should do a job where we can barely scrape by unscathed so that we know our own limits. From then on, we can choose our jobs based on that knowledge. I’d say that the jobs we choose on a daily basis should be at about 70 percent of our reasonable limit.”
“All right. Let’s do it!”
“I’m in too!”
After thinking on it a while, Mavis finally agreed. Pauline nodded.
It seemed that both of them were unsatisfied with the current state of things as well.
“All right then!” Reina said. “Tomorrow, let’s take a good look at the job postings at the guild and make all the necessary arrangements. The day after tomorrow, our real career begins.”
“Okay.”
“Got it.”
“Hey, um, I didn’t get to voice my opinion yet…” Mile said.
“But, you do agree, don’t you?”
“W-well, I suppose I do, but…”
“Then it’s fine!”
“Sure. I guess.” Somehow, Mile was still a bit dissatisfied.
The girls chattered on. “If we use this as a chance to take on higher level jobs, our earnings will increase immensely. Then we can move to an inn with a bath, not a cheap old place like this! Once we graduate from this dive, we’ll be in the big time! I mean, we never meant to remain at a cheap place like this in the first p—”
“Will you stop calling us cheap?! This inn isn’t a ‘cheap place.’ We made it cheaper for you!” Lenny shouted from the other side of the reception desk.
Indeed, this was the same inn that Mile had stayed at for her first six days in the capital, before she moved into the prep school dorms.
“Wasn’t it you who came to us, begging, ‘Oh, we’ve just graduated and we’ve got no money, could you give us a cheaper rate until we’re earning a steady wage’?! So we gave you the unprecedented rate of three gold a month for a four-person room, regardless of whether or not you came back every night! We hoped that you’d give us the image of being a safe, comfortable inn that young girls could be happy to come home to…but here you are, shouting ‘cheap hotel, cheap hotel!’
“Whenever you’re in town, please eat your meals here! That’s the profit we need! And since being known as a safe inn to stay at
is great for drumming up business, please don’t stay in your room all the time! Come down to the first floor and mingle with the other guests! Was that not the agreement we made when we negotiated the rate?!”
Little Lenny, the innkeeper’s daughter, was only ten years old. And already, she had all the presence of a matriarch.
“Please forgive uuuuusss!!!”
***
After that, the Crimson Vow did their part—wandering around the first floor to make conversation with guests when they didn’t have anything else to do.
It was Lenny who had persuaded the master and mistress of the inn to give them a discount in the first place, talking about their “marketing potential.” Whether or not other fledgling female hunters would receive a discount in the future hinged directly on the girls’ performance.
For the sake of all the female hunters that came after them, they had to prove their worth, even if it killed them.
“H-hello mister, is this seat free?”
With a tray full of food in hand, red-faced and trembling, Mile smiled at the man.
“You don’t have to do all that, Miss…”
Lenny watched in disbelief, while Mavis, Reina, and Pauline went utterly pale, realizing that they might be next.
***
A bit before noon the day after, the four girls made their way to the Hunters’ Guild.
Because the hall was crowded in the early morning and they were looking for jobs that started the following day, they decided to hang back until things quietened down.
Besides, if people saw still-green Crimson Vow looking to take on a high-level job, the other hunters would rush over to stop them. That was a hassle they would rather not deal with. No matter how good people’s intentions, they weren’t interested in being lectured over something they had already set their minds on.
“Ugh, there’s nothing good here…”
Reina looked over the job board, pouting.
It looked like the day would be a wash. They had no choice but to take a low-stakes job—one that would not cause trouble for the client or anyone else if they failed. That is to say, the Crimson Vow could not possibly be linked to a loss of life or the loss of a great sum of money.