by Funa
As the girls suspected, the villagers reported that a number of parties, as well as a dozen or so soldiers from the regional militia, had taken stabs at felling the wyvern, but all of them had sustained grave casualties.
Though the wyvern naturally defended itself from people who attacked it, outside of that, it rarely harmed anyone, most often simply grabbing the cattle, horses, or sheep it had decided to hunt that day in its claws before flying away. As a result, there had been no casualties among the villagers to date.
Because of this, the villagers did not personally fear the wyvern. However, having their livestock carried off at regular intervals meant that they could not make a living. For the village, this was still a matter of life or death.
And so, they had devised two plans. The first was to take the oldest, thinnest animal they had, and place it somewhere conspicuous in order to minimize the damages. The second was to chase the wyvern away, in order to protect all of the livestock. However, the first plan was not a long-term solution, as they would still be losing more and more livestock, which would hurt the village in the long run. And as for the second plan, if it went poorly, the wyvern might decide to switch its prey from livestock to humans. Whichever path they chose, it did not change the fact that the village’s prospects were looking dim.
“Hm? Cows and horses? Are wyverns really that big?”
Mile was utterly shocked.
Her surprise was not unreasonable. In order for birds to fly, their bodies had to be as lightweight as possible. They simply could not muster the power to fly while lifting something exceeding their own body weight.
Though clearly wyverns were not birds, just how immense would they have to be in order to fly carrying an entire cow…?
“What are you talking about? They taught us all about the standard monster sizes at prep school…” Reina groaned, exasperated.
Mile replied, “No, I do remember that much, but there are different types, so… Anyway, I didn’t think that they would be big enough to fly away with a horse or cow! If they were a bird attempting to carry prey that size, they would have to be…”
“But birds can’t use magic.”
“Huh?”
“I said, birds can’t use magic, can they?”
“Magic…?”
“Dragons use magic to fly. Wyverns have large wings, so that’s one matter, but do you think that something with a body as large as an elder dragon’s could fly with their wings alone? Plus, things like dragon’s fire would have to be magic, wouldn’t they? Just how exactly did you think that all worked?”
“Maybe inside their bellies they have some kind of organ that works like a fire sac…?”
“Absolutely not!!!” the other three shouted in unison.
The villagers behind them nodded, too.
In her previous life, her father would have said something like, “They’re awfully dis-organ-ized.”
In that same life, Mile would have been ashamed by this ripe old dad joke, but thankfully, she had no friends back then, so he’d never had the chance to embarrass her in front of them.
That was perhaps the only benefit to not having any friends…
There was no doubt that there existed a subset of monsters that was capable of using magic, such as fire-breathing dragons and dire wolves that could leap with a force unimaginable on Earth. However, Mile had always simply assumed that those creatures were capable of such things because they lived in a fantasy world. She had never thought to question it very hard.
While yes, wyverns were still within the class of things that might reasonably be able to fly, it was an absolute mystery that elder dragons could do it, given their immense bodies and tiny wings.
In reality, these creatures surpassed humans in that, though they could not form the words with which to craft magic through complicated spells, they could merely “think intensely about their desired result” and make the same thing come about. And of course there were many that held immense magical power.
The (so-called) God had said of the nanomachines that “they react to the thoughts of living things and bring these desires into reality.” Not just “humans,” but “living things.”
That was when Mile recalled the very first time she spoke to the nanomachines. They had told her, “INCLUDING HUMANS, THE AVERAGE CREATURE IS SET AT A BASIC LEVEL 1.”
Returning to the conversation at hand, the Crimson Vow continued to listen to the villagers’ stories about the wyvern.
Putting all of their stories in order, the situation was, in brief, as follows:
Starting about two and a half months ago, the wyvern had begun appearing once every twelve days, taking with it a single cow, horse, or sheep each time.
At first, everyone was too frightened to do anything, but after it showed that it was no threat to the humans, they began to grow a bit more optimistic, and on subsequent visits they mustered all their courage to try and protect their livestock. Still, every time they faced the angry wyvern, their determination evaporated.
Perhaps realizing that the villagers lacked the basic means by which to attack it in the first place, and could only huddle together to defend themselves as it chased them off, the creature did not launch any deadly attacks. Instead, it appeared to be toying with them.
At first, when they informed the area guild branch and the local lord about this, the lord appeared uninterested. However, once he heard that the wyvern was appearing at regular intervals, his attitude changed.
Indeed, if encountering the wyvern was a sure thing, he could secure important battle practice for his troops, increase his reputation as a lord, and make the strength of his army known across the land, all at relatively little cost.
Plus, protecting his lands from harm was a lord’s duty, in the first place.
Unless a state of emergency had been declared, it was a policy that the guild could not issue its own job requests. In this case, as long as there had not been a request from the lord himself, there was, fundamentally, nothing they could do to act. They were not a charitable organization, and without anyone to pay the fee, no hunters would take on the job. It was not the guild, but rather, the lord or the Crown who was expected to be in charge of eliminating things like wyverns.
Unless there was an emergency, the guild acted only once a job had been filed. Such was the nature of things.
However, a rule of thumb also existed that indicated the guild should be informed of the appearance of a strong monster, for, if all the hunters within the region were to combine their forces, they could likely outdo even the regional army. It was with this in mind that the villagers contacted the guild.
The lord had dispatched an extermination force of eighteen soldiers, including combat mages, archers, and javelin throwers, who could bring the wyvern down to the ground, as well as lancers and swordsmen who could strike it once it was down.
Normally, excluding those who were A-rank or above, or perhaps the highest of B-ranks, your average soldier was stronger than a hunter with the equivalent years of experience. Therefore, this should have been more than enough soldiers to comprise an extermination force.
Even though they did not have a veteran hunter experienced in fighting wyverns along as an advisor, no one would complain about a team that strong being sent out to fight a single wyvern.
And so came the day of the wyvern’s next attack.
The villagers were instructed to remain in their homes for safety’s sake, and when they emerged, several hours later, what they saw was a bedraggled band of soldiers and a group of equally bedraggled mages, desperately using healing magic to patch up the more dire wounds.
The seriously wounded: six soldiers. The mildly wounded: five soldiers. MIA: a single cow.
About half of the seriously wounded were in such a state that the healing powers of these mages, who specialized in combat spells, would not cut it. Later, they would require multiple treatments from mages who specialized in healing. Of course, once they returned to the capital
, there would be healing specialists who were in the lord’s employ, mage hunters who specialized in healing magic, and clinics that served the common folk, as well as those healing mages who had stepped back from the front lines for the sake of aiding the elderly. Once they arrived in the capital, those soldiers would be fine.
Still, an enemy who they assumed could be dealt with easily had wiped out their extermination force.
Moreover, the wyvern had clearly been holding back, toying with them. If it hadn’t, there was no way they could have escaped with zero deaths on their hands.
While their commander was flabbergasted that his soldiers had taken so many injuries, he judged that, while they had not defeated the wyvern, they had at least driven it away, saving the village from further injury. Thus, their duty was complete. He reported this to the villagers, and the news put a spring in everyone’s step.
Even if the wyvern decided to use villages in other territories as its hunting ground, that would be a problem for that region to deal with, and no further concern of theirs. Or so their hearts told them.
The villagers were relieved. No longer would the wyvern bring despair to their doorstep.
And then, twelve days after the battle against the soldiers, the wyvern reappeared.
In other words, the wyvern clearly had no thoughts such as “I lost” or “My opponent is a threat” running through its head. It had completely overlooked those weaklings who had come to harass it and flown home with its head held high and its prey in its clutches. It hadn’t the slightest reason to avoid this prime hunting ground from here on out.
The villagers had made no special arrangements and watched in panic as the wyvern took the youngest, most valuable of their heifers. Once again, they hurried to inform the officials and the guild, but the lord’s reaction was less than favorable, and so after that, one party at a time, the hunters began to appear.
They heard from the hunters that rather than sending out more troops, the lord had issued a request to the guild for the wyvern to be exterminated.
As far as the villagers were concerned, it did not matter who felled the wyvern. If the lord was willing to pay for someone else to do so, then they were all the more thankful for that.
However…
The first party. The second party. The third party.
One after another, the hunters failed.
They even heard tell that there were hunters who tried to face the wyvern at other locations as well, and that already, several other parties had been forced to retreat due to their injuries.
Fortunately, though there were many who had taken injuries, the villagers had yet to hear of anyone being killed, likely because, as always, the wyvern was only playing with them, holding back its true power. The wyvern could easily afford to do so, after all.
And then, just when it seemed that all the hunters nearby had been defeated, and none had appeared in the village for some time, the Crimson Vow had suddenly arrived.
“It’s all more or less as we predicted. Nothing really stood out to me in any of their stories. Except for one thing…”
“Yeah, you’re right. Everyone acted as they were equipped to, and handled themselves accordingly.”
“Indeed. It’s just that…”
The four came to the conclusion as one:
“The wyvern is way too strong and way too smart!”
Indeed, that was the only thing that was particularly strange.
“I guess it makes sense that the request didn’t have the full details on it when it made it to the capital.”
Yes, just as Reina implied, there had been no extra information written on the job request slip. After all, most of the “facts” were still confined to the realm of rumor, while the rest would have been inconvenient for the client to relate.
Lying on a request was strictly forbidden, and intentionally withholding crucial information was taboo as well.
In those cases, if the client meant anything malicious by their omission, the deposit would be seized, and they would face the penalty of increased deposits and handling fees for any requests filed in the future. Furthermore, if the client’s omission put hunters in danger, they would be judged by a government official independent of the guild. In that case, it could become an incident of “attempted murder via willful negligence.”
However, in this case, the fact that the request was to “eliminate one wyvern,” as well as the general danger of the situation, had not changed. The fact that the soldiers had been defeated and the hunters had failed amounted to nothing that required special disclosure. If the opponent was not actually a wyvern, or there were multiple wyverns, that would be another matter entirely.
But in this case, it was simply that the wyvern was strong, or perhaps that the soldiers and the hunters were weak. No one could know for certain, so they had no responsibility to go out of their way to include this information in their request.
Plus, if the hunters did any investigating, such things would be easy enough for them to confirm for themselves.
If everyone were to share prolific details of indeterminate veracity on their request forms, their job acceptances would grow scarce, and those who would take on such clients would have more than enough information to try and negotiate a rate increase.
If the lord had included a note about the systematic nature of the wyvern sightings, the number of takers for the job might have increased; however, if they did so, it would also have awakened suspicions, inviting questions which would be inconvenient to address, such as, “Why is it so systematic?” “Why doesn’t the military handle it?”
“So, the question is… what should we do?”
“Normally, the only choice would be to face it head-on and bring it down.”
“Yeah. There isn’t really any other way…”
As Reina, Pauline, and Mavis had all suggested, even if the wyvern was a fairly intelligent creature, and even if there was something else at play, “exterminating the wyvern” was still the task that the Crimson Vow faced.
The Crimson Vow were neither royal spies nor official investigators. Without any special authority, they had no right to take on that sort of task.
The task they had accepted was simple: defeat the wyvern. That was all.
Later, they went back over the information that they had gathered from the villagers. However, since no one had been brave enough to peek around the battlegrounds where the soldiers and hunters faced the wyvern, and no one had been stupid enough to interrogate anyone who was injured and preparing to retreat to the capital as soon as they could, the particulars of the previous battles were unclear.
The local guild branch likely would have investigated all of this, but what the guild master would not have expected was the fact that there was nothing special to report.
They probably already knew that the wyvern was strong, but that much could be guessed from the failed hunters who came back with nothing more to report than the fact that their enemy had been a powerful one. If there had been something else to report, like the fact that there were three wyverns, or that this one could breathe fire and shoot laser beams from its eyes, then that would have been a different story…
Once their information-gathering mission had concluded, the Crimson Vow ate their lunch-slash-dinner at the saloon and retired to the inn.
Aside from Mavis and Pauline, who ate comparatively little, the villagers were agog to watch such small girls wolf down such large mountains of food. However, they had gone without lunch, and whenever a hunter could eat, she should always eat her fill. Particularly while they were in a completely safe place, where there was no worry of them cramping up from a full stomach.
Pauline and Mavis were a little embarrassed to be eating while the watching villagers were not, but Mile and Reina did not even appear to notice.
Reina would have written it off as nothing, since even while they were eating they were still on the job. As for Mile, she was merely hungry, and did not think anything of it a
t all.
Apparently, compared to her previous body, in this life Mile’s body was not very fuel-efficient…
***
The following morning, a single cow was taken from the village to the top of a short hill, a little bit away from the village, then fastened in a clearing of trees.
Naturally, the Crimson Vow was there as well.
If the Crimson Vow were to stand alone atop a hill, that alone might have been enough to attract the wyvern’s attention; however, on the off chance that the wyvern were to develop a taste for human flesh, it might become a problem. They could not deny the villagers’ request to send a cow up as an offering as well.
Perhaps the villagers were considering the girls’ safety. If a cow, which was far more appetizing than a human, was present, and if the girls handled themselves properly, then it wasn’t impossible that the wyvern might simply grab the cow and fly right away. In that case, of course, they would not have succeeded with the extermination; however, compared to the possibility of the still-young girls becoming martyrs and seeing one or two of them dragged away by the wyvern, losing a single cow was nothing. So thought the kind-hearted villagers.
Once the cow was secured in the clearing, the villagers headed home, and the Crimson Vow waited silently for the wyvern to arrive.
Because their quarry was flying in from far off in the sky, it wouldn’t have been a problem for them to speak in quiet voices, but as hunters, they were trained not to speak while waiting to ambush a target…
As it happened, they were not alone. A courageous youth, who was “incredibly fond of cute girls,” was watching stealthily from behind a tree, waiting to run and alert the village the moment the wyvern flew away, should any of the girls sustain serious injury.
He was the sort of youth who, so far unsatisfied with the rough country girls of the village, would face any danger for the sake of a “pure and beautiful” young maiden. He was not bad-looking, and was often seen caring for children, but for some reason he had not been very popular with the women of the village. Perhaps that was because the only children he took care of were always young girls…