by Ao Jyumonji
“Whew,” Ranta stood up and made a show of wiping the sweat from his brow. “You know what? Either way? Even if you’d shot, I think you’d have missed. Just saying. For the record. Hey? Yume? Stop with the machete. D-Don’t pull it out! That’s not funny! If you stick me with that, it’ll hurt! I’ll die! I’ll seriously die!”
“So, about our prey,” said Manato with a somewhat forced smile. “From what I hear, even close to Alterna there are mud goblins, ghouls, and other targets that even trainees can probably handle. Though, that’s just what I hear, so I don’t know for sure.”
“Goblins and ghouls...” Haruhiro thought hard. The names sounded familiar to him. He might just have been imagining it, but he had a vague sense that they were humanoid creatures.
“...Okay, then,” Shihoru spoke more forcefully than she usually did. “Why don’t we focus on those mud poplis and cools?”
When Haruhiro mildly suggested, “You mean ‘mud goblins and ghouls’...” to correct her, Shihoru’s face turned a bright shade of red and she shrunk into herself.
“Sure, whatever works,” agreed Ranta, not seeming to care.
Yume said, “That’s better,” seeming happy with the choice.
Moguzo said, “O-Okay,” with a nod.
“I guess we’ll try the woods, for now.” The priest, Manato, took the lead. Haruhiro and the others followed him towards the nearby woods.
The woods were unrelentingly woodsy. There were broad-leafed trees they didn’t know the names of, as well as undergrowth so thick they couldn’t even see game trails. There wasn’t much hard ground. It was all strangely soft, or slightly squishy. The footing was poor, which made it hard to walk.
They could hear the birds singing. When the wind blew past, the rustling of leaves was everywhere.
“Muddy gobpuddings and gulls,” Yume whispered. “Maybe they hang around the water a lot.”
As if it had become his duty, Haruhiro corrected her: “Mud goblins and ghouls, you mean.” Then he continued, “Water, huh. Where would that be? A swamp, or a spring? Or maybe a marsh?”
“Let’s go look,” said Manato.
Manato’s taken the role of leading us, but considering this is the woods, it feels like that ought to be Yume’s job instead. Well, I guess it’s okay. Is it really okay? Whatever, it’s okay.
But, search as they might, they couldn’t seem to find a watering hole. They hadn’t run into any living thing other than insects, either. They could always hear the birds singing, but where were they?
Ranta made an exaggerated gulping sound as he swallowed his spit. “...From the look of this place, are you sure this isn’t the Dead Woods, or something?”
“It’s gotta be Ranta’s fault,” Yume puffed up her cheeks and glared at Ranta. After the Tiny Tits Incident, she absolutely loathed him, it seemed. “All the critters’re runnin’ away because Ranta’s bein’ so noisy, don’tcha think?”
“I’m being quiet! I haven’t said anything for a while!”
“Just by bein’ there, your existence itself is loud and annoyin’.”
“How nice of you to say! Yeah, well, just by being there, your tits are already tiny!”
“...Mrgh.”
“Ah, my bad. That was uncalled for. Shot off my mouth without thinking. Went and spoke the unvarnished truth. Yowch!” Ranta suddenly jumped up. “—Wha?! Wh-What?! W-Woah?!”
“Huh?” Haruhiro blinked. Ranta was lifting his legs up and down, like some sort of dance. There was something at his feet, and it was trying to cling to his leg, chomping and scratching at him. It was the size of a cat, with its body covered in needle-like hair.
“A pit rat,” said Yume, looking around. “Pit rats are supposed to attack in packs, so there may be more around here.”
Shihoru let out a shriek, then threw herself into Moguzo. No, she didn’t deliberately throw herself into Moguzo: she had tried to get away from something and collided with him as she did so, apparently.
“They’re here...!” Manato swung his short staff around. “Urkh! They’re too quick!”
“Hey!” Ranta was still backing away while dancing. “H-Help me out here, guys! Helping me should be first priority! H-Help! Somebody heeeelp!”
“Fight, dread knight!” Haruhiro drew his dagger, but he didn’t know how many pit rats there were, and they were skittering around all over the place. The deadly fighting techniques he’d learned in the thieves’ guild were meant for humans, or other races with humanoid bodies, so he honestly had no idea what to do. For a start, he tried swinging his dagger down at the pit rats, but as he might have expected, he didn’t even graze one. “Animals are fast...!”
With a shout, Moguzo used both hands to lift his bastard sword overhead for a swing. Ranta was in the direction he was swinging, too.
With a cry, Ranta leapt aside just as Moguzo’s sword exploded into the spot he’d been standing moments before.
It was the ground. The bastard sword had slammed into the ground, kicking up dirt. But that was all it had done.
“M-Moguzo, damn it! Are you trying to kill me?!” Ranta finally drew his longsword. Though drawing it was all he did. He still kept running away from the pit rats. “Dammit! Dammit, dammit! My allies are trying to kill me, I’m still being targeted, nothing is going my way...!”
This dagger isn’t going to cut it. Haruhiro tried throwing a kick at the pit rats, but they easily dodged it. “Moguzo was trying to help you! Be grateful!”
“He didn’t help at all!” Ranta kicked off from the ground, swinging down with his longsword with a battle cry. “Hatred! Wha? My dread knight skill! It missed...?!”
“Don’t use skills recklessly!” Haruhiro chose one pit rat to focus his attacks on. I’ll chase it. No luck. It ran away behind that tree.
“Ugh, jeez...!”
“Marc em Parc,” Shihoru drew elemental sigils with her staff while chanting. It was Magic Missile. A fist-sized bead of light shot out the end of her staff— and impacted the back of Ranta’s head for some reason.
“Gwah?!”
“Huh?!” Shihoru opened her eyes. It seemed she’d fired with them closed. Because of that, she’d fired in the wrong direction. “...I-I’m sorry! I...”
“You bitch! I’m gonna kill you! Actually, no, just let me grope you...!” Ranta rubbed the back of his head, getting ready to assault Shihoru.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Manato used his short staff to trip him. Ranta stumbled forward with a confused grunt.
“What are you doing?!” Manato shouted at Ranta while trying to whack a pit rat. To Haruhiro’s eyes, it looked like he was using his short staff well, but he still couldn’t land a blow on the pit rat.
“I-If we could just get a little!” Yume was swinging her machete around wildly. Possibly because of that, the pit rats weren’t going anywhere near her. “If we could just get a little damage in! Master said most animals’ll run off if you can do that, so everyone do your best!”
Moguzo whacked a tree hard with his bastard sword, causing a cascade of leaves and insects to fall on him. He stood there, covered in leaves and bugs, roaring in confusion.
“This is going nowhere!” Haruhiro resolved himself to do something, dropping to one knee and lowering his posture. Not running, not moving, just waiting for the pit rats.
In front of me. One’s coming. A pit rat. Haruhiro stuck out his left arm. Go on. Take the bait. Try and bite me. This is bad. They’re only the size of a cat, but they’re damn scary. Fast, too. But I have to be patient. Patience is— And at that point he felt a sharp pain in his right shin. “Yowwwch...?!”
Another pit rat had come up from behind and sunk its teeth into Haruhiro’s right shin. When he reacted by trying to shake it off, the pit rat coming at him from the front bit his left arm. “Ouch!”
“Haruhiro...!” Manato rushed over to him, taking a sharp swing with his short staff. “Don’t move...!” With a thud and a squeal, his right shin and left arm were suddenly released.
The pit rats were running off. At an incredible speed, too. In no time flat, all of them, even the one struck by Manato’s short staff, scampered off, and there was no trace of them.
“Are you okay, Haruhiro?” Manato kneeled down next to him, inspecting his wounds.
“Uh, yeah, I guess...” His injuries weren’t serious. If I roll up my pant leg and sleeve, I’ll bet there are probably a bunch of little fang-shaped holes where the pit rats bit me, though. And I’m bleeding a bit, too. But, if that’s all, oh well. It does hurt a bit though.
“Let me heal you,” Manato brought the five fingers of his right hand to his forehead, pushing on his brow with the middle finger and making a hexagram gesture. “O Light, may Lumiaris’ divine protection be upon you... Cure.”
Light shone out from Manato’s palm. The warm light sealed up Haruhiro’s wounds in an instant. Three seconds for his right shin, three seconds for his left arm, and the healing was complete.
“Awesome...” Haruhiro tried touching the spots where the wounds had been. There was blood there, but no other trace of the former injury. It didn’t hurt or itch in the least. “Thank you, Manato. You ended up being the one to drive off the rats in the end, too.”
“Thanks to you acting as live bait for them, Haruhiro.”
“Nah, the plan was to use my arm as bait, then handle them myself...”
“Sure... But, you know, all’s well that ends well.”
“This didn’t end well at all!” Ranta was acting like a child throwing a tantrum, thrashing his legs about as he sat on the ground. “What’s good about this? We suddenly got attacked by weird things! All we did was drive them off. We won’t make a single cent from it. And hold on, I’m wounded here, too. It hurts! Heal me already!”
“Oh, sorry.” Manato hurried over to Ranta.
“You don’t need to apologize to Ranta...” Haruhiro muttered to himself as he looked around the area. Maybe Moguzo had swung his bastard sword around too much, because he was sitting exhausted on the ground.
Shihoru was leaning against a tree as if trying to hide behind it. Her misfire with the Magic Missile must have been bothering her.
Yume was the only one still looking cheerful, her eyes darting around restlessly, and she burst into a big grin when her eyes met with Haruhiro’s. Haruhiro smiled back without really intending to, but this was hardly the time for smiling at each other, he felt. Maybe it is, though. Who knows?
“...He’s right, all we did manage was to drive them off,” Haruhiro sighed. “Maybe the woods are too dangerous? Like, it could be too soon for us...?”
“Yes! I live again...!” His healing apparently finished, Ranta jumped up and swung his arm around in circles. “Okay, okay, let’s get going already, people!”
“...G-Go?” Moguzo blinked. “Wh-Where?”
“Are you stupid? To find some mud gobs or ghouls, obviously! You’ve got to be kidding me if you think we’re going to just go home with nothing to show for it after getting scratched up by those pit-whatever-you-call-’ems! We can’t back down now!”
“I suppose not...” Manato thought for a moment, then nodded. “I think Ranta’s right. There’s some risk involved. Those pit rats are carnivores, right?”
“Pit rats, yeah,” Yume answered. “They might be omnivores. But, when they hunt in packs like you saw earlier, I’ve heard sometimes they’ll attack humans.”
“Well, they did actually attack us...” Haruhiro said.
“So they’re omnivores,” Manato looked downwards, stroking his chin. “Anyway, if predators like them live in these woods, there must be prey, too, don’t you think?”
“Well, duh,” Ranta snorted derisively, “Did you just figure that out now, Manato? I’ve been thinking it for ages now. That if predators like them live in these woods, there must be prey, too.”
Haruhiro gave Ranta the side-eye. “...Man, you’re just repeating what Manato said word-for-word.”
“Shove it, Sleepy-Eyes! Why don’t you go take a nap?”
“I already told you, I was born with these eyes and they don’t mean I’m sleepy! Didn’t I tell you that?!”
“Haruhiro.” Manato had a smile on his face. “Generally, you’re best off just ignoring whatever Ranta says.”
“Heyyyyy!” Ranta jabbed a finger in Manato’s direction. “Don’t go off-handedly saying horrible things like that! I’ll bet you play the good guy, but you’re really a black-hearted schemer-type, aren’t you?!”
Manato replied with a “Who can really say?” Then, after dodging the question, he took a deep breath. “Anyway, if there are no objections, let’s keep doing the best we can here in these woods.”
No one objected. Haruhiro and the others searched deeper in the woods, keeping an eye out for pit rats.
They prowled the forest until the sun started going down, but they only saw one deer. Yume took aim at it, but it ran off before she could hit it.
They saw birds a number of times. They were attacked by another pack of pit rats, but they fended them off. That was it. If it got dark out, they’d be in serious trouble, so Haruhiro and the others left the woods on weary legs.
“...What now?” Ranta asked in a dull voice. It was little surprise he was out of energy.
“There’s not much we can do,” Haruhiro said, desperately suppressing a sigh. If he sighed now, he was sure something inside him would snap. “...We’ve got to head back. To Alterna.”
“Boys in pain, all in vain, huh...” muttered Yume.
Haruhiro said, “Who’re the boys in pain?” in order to correct her usage of the saying, but then realized they did have four boys in pain here, and couldn’t suppress a sigh.
“S-Still!” Shihoru started to say something, but then hung her head, as if she’d run out of steam. “...A-Actually, it’s nothing.”
Someone’s stomach rumbled. It was Moguzo.
“...I’m hungry.”
“Once we get back,” Manato looked to each of them. “Let’s hit the market and get dinner somewhere first. I know a cheap place where we can stay the night. It’s a lodging house for volunteer soldiers in the west of town. You can stay free if you have your badge, but they charge money to trainees. Still, it’s cut-rate. If we rent just one room for the guys, and one for the girls, twenty copper will cover all of us.”
Ranta scoffed. “Maybe we oughta camp out. Since we didn’t bring in a single copper coin.”
“No, we should save that as a last resort,” Manato said firmly. “They may be shared, but the lodging house has baths and toilets. I think the difference between having those things and not having them is pretty big. Especially for the girls.”
Shihoru clutched her staff tight, nodding repeatedly without a word. Yume agreed, saying, “He’s right.”
“You won’t die from not having a washroom or bath,” Ranta muttered, but he was the one most likely to get annoyed and start complaining if they had to do without.
“I’m with Manato on this.” Haruhiro raised his hand, and Shihoru, Yume, and then Moguzo followed suit. Ranta clicked his tongue disapprovingly, but didn’t oppose them any further.
And so, their first real day as volunteer soldier trainees quietly came to a fruitless end.
8. Stubborn
Yume was crouched down, leaning against a thick tree. Haruhiro crept up and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. She turned around, covering her mouth with her hand as she caught herself starting to talk.
“How did it go?” Haruhiro asked quietly. Yume nodded in response, making hand and finger gestures. Maybe she was trying to communicate something, but he couldn’t make sense of it at all. Since deciphering it seemed too difficult for him, Haruhiro leaned out from the shadow of the tree to look.
It was there.
This was the afternoon of what was, effectively, their second day as volunteer soldier trainees.
Haruhiro and the others had come back to the same woods as yesterday, and they had finally found a spring. And that was where it was.
It was about the size of a human child and scrawny. Its skin was yellowish, wrinkly, and caked with mud. The little tufts of hair growing on it looked like seaweed, and it had pointy ears. It was facing away from them at the moment, so he couldn’t see its face. It didn’t seem to be wearing any sort of clothes, though there was a string around its neck.
It was a mud goblin.
It was crouched over, drinking from the spring. They could hear the unpleasant slurping sounds it was making.
Haruhiro took a deep breath and looked behind him, trying his best not to make any noise. The other four, Manato, Ranta, Shihoru, and Moguzo, had their heads poking out from some trees not far away, and they were looking to him. When Haruhiro gave a big nod, they all nodded back.
We finally found some prey. Let’s do it. We’re doing this. We have to. What’s the signal? We never did decide on one. How am I supposed to let everyone know?
Haruhiro decided to try raising his right hand.
This is bad. I’m getting tense. Or, rather, I’ve been pretty tense all along. Listen. Just do it. Yeah. Let’s kill this thing.
When Haruhiro made a downward swinging motion with his hand, Ranta charged headlong forwards with a battle cry. Haruhiro couldn’t help but think he was an idiot. When he looked back to the mud goblin, it had jumped up surprised and just finished looking their way.
“I-It’s running away...?!” Haruhiro yelped.
“There!” Yume loosed an arrow. It missed. The mud goblin had tried to flee off to their right, but the arrow stabbed into the ground in front of it. It let out a cry of surprise and faltered.
“Nice one, Yume!” Haruhiro unsheathed his dagger and rushed in. What the hell? I’m here first. This doesn’t feel very thiefy, but I’ll have to do it. Don’t want to let it escape.
Mud goblins. Mud gobs. They have nice, round eyes. But they’re ugly. It has a face like an old lady who hasn’t bathed once in her entire life. Its teeth are all black, too. And its tongue is purplish. It’s not wearing anything other than the string around its neck. Well, it’s buck naked. And unsteady on its feet.