by Tôwa
The reason I suddenly stumbled over my words was that I was shocked by her huge breasts, which bounced up and down with the slightest movement. She looked exactly like those anime girls that were based on cows. I couldn’t very well point out how funny it was that a cow girl would be taking care of cows, but that’s really the only way I could describe the situation. I berated myself for thinking such stupid thoughts and stared at the blue sky to get it out of my head.
“Sorry for the wait. I was just feeding the last one when you came. Let’s go then,” said Millith, setting down the bucket that had the feed in it and leading me toward the Demi-Harpies. As I followed her, I suddenly realized something: Her tail was swishing back and forth.
“Oh, sorry, did I hit you?” she said as I stared.
“N-no… I was just thinking that it almost looks like you’ve got a tail.”
“Oh, Gramps didn’t tell you? My dad’s a human, but my mom’s a monster called a Minotaur.”
“…What?”
So the tail wasn’t a moving accessory. I’d just assumed something like that existed, since there were so many magical tools here… But this was totally beyond what I could have imagined.
“My dad’s a Monster Tamer. He and my mom were seeking companions. And then… Well, stuff happened, and I was born.”
“I—I see… Sorry, I’m just surprised.”
“I think it’s pretty incredible, too. But female Minotaurs aren’t like male Minotaurs in that they’re not really that much like cows. That’s why I’m not super, super monstery… Oh, I’m sorry. Are you uncomfortable around people with horns?”
I had thought she was wearing a hat with horns on it, but the horns were as real as her tail. Those and her breasts were probably characteristics of a Minotaur, but otherwise, she was completely human-looking.
“One of my friends is a lizardman. So I don’t have anything against demi-humans or half-monster half-humans, either,” I replied.
“Oh… That’s good. Gee, a lizardman friend…”
We reached the woods while we were talking. Millith took out a flute and blew on it, and the Demi-Harpies that had been sitting in the trees came flying in our direction.
“……”
The Demi-Harpies looked frightened when they saw me. The one who’d been intimidated by Cion’s mom had gone completely pale and started to shake… I guess she was still afraid she might be eaten.
“Oh… I’m sorry, it seems they’re still afraid from when you fought,” said Millith.
“I was pretty rough with them… It was wrong to scare them into being obedient. It’s my fault.”
“When humanoid monsters are captured, they’re often put into circus-like shows, or people just strip the parts off them that can be used as materials. I think that’s what they’re afraid of.”
I had thought they’d need to be trained and tamed so I could summon them…but thinking about it that way, I realized the only goal there was to use them. If possible, I wanted them to help us voluntarily. I couldn’t really tell them we’d take time to build a trusting relationship, but I could try to tell them how I felt.
I gathered my thoughts and stepped up in front of the Demi-Harpies. They seemed afraid and eyed me timidly.
“You three gave us a hard fight. In the beginning, I thought our only choice was to kill you. And maybe it’s just my arrogance, but I won’t kill or do terrible things to monsters that are similar to humans. I promise you this: Even if I stop needing to summon you and I end the summoning contract, I will set you free, back to where you came from.”
Each of the Demi-Harpies had individuality in their appearances. The first one I fought, the one I’d jumped off the roof with, felt like the middle sister, if I thought about the three as sisters.
“…Do you understand what I said?” I asked, and the oldest-sister-looking one responded for the group with a nod. She had an indescribable allure. Her long, brown hair covered one eye and only one of her breasts. It was obviously normal for monsters to be naked, so neither she nor Millith seemed to care that one was visible, but it just seemed a little strange to me. The second oldest had hair just long enough to brush her shoulders, with an innocent, childlike face, and she was a little smaller overall than the oldest. The youngest looked like a ten-year-old girl—I decided I couldn’t stare at them even though they were monsters, so I needed to take care when sizing her up.
“You can let me know if you have any other requests. I don’t want to say it’s in exchange for that, but I hope you will help me sometimes,” I said.
The middle sister wrapped the youngest in her shaking wings, but they seemed to listen to what I had to say because the eldest stepped up toward me, pressed one hand to her chest hesitantly, and nodded.
“Good… Right, then we have a deal. I’ll mostly have you use Lullaby when I summon you. You should probably do regular voice training,” I said.
“…”
““…!””
The eldest nodded, and the other two looked surprised, but then all three bowed their heads to me.
Looking at them, I suddenly realized something. They couldn’t speak, but that didn’t mean they were incapable of expressing themselves. And they were called Demi-Harpies.
Is it possible…that these girls are demi-humans?
“Oh, how nice. Do you understand what voice training is? It’s singing practice, but don’t put me to sleep! All right, next is equipping them with an accessory that will respond to your summoning stone. Which would you like to go with, Mr. Atobe?” asked Millith. The choices were earrings, necklaces, bracelets, or anklets… I thought it might be better to have the three choose their preferred accessory. They probably had their own preferences, and it was always good to let them choose that.
I asked them to choose one, and the eldest picked a pair of earrings, the middle one took a bracelet, and the youngest selected an anklet. All of them were made of a silver metal, and the bracelets and anklets had leather on the inside where they contacted skin.
“This is the summoning stone. Here’s some earrings you can use with it, or a bracelet…,” said Millith. The summoning stone wasn’t very big, and it was fitted into metal to make a pendant, so I could attach it to myself there. The item information was displayed on my license as the following:
♦Summoning Pendant: Monster Trio♦
> Can summon DEMI-HARPY I
> Can summon DEMI-HARPY II
> Can summon DEMI-HARPY III
> Slightly increases evasion.
> Additional effects available as Trust Levels increase with contracted monsters.
So it even has effects as equipment. I wonder how I can raise their Trust Levels?
“Ms. Millith, can I ask you something?”
“Oh… Um, you can just call me Millith. Being called Ms. makes me feel a little uncomfortable; you don’t have to be that formal with me.”
“Oh… Right, Millith, then. How can I raise a monster’s Trust Level?”
“You can give them presents or work with them for a long time; there’s quite a few different ways. Different monsters like different things, so you’ll have to observe them to find out what to do.”
If that was the case, the first thing I could do was give them some equipment, though I wasn’t certain they’d like that. I asked Millith’s opinion, telling her that I was hoping I could give them something that covered their chests and she could give them some clothing that they’d be able to wear even though they had wings. I gave her the money for the clothes and left the ranch.
Having done that, I’d be able to use the summoning stone to call them at any time. With more trump cards, we ought to be able to manage from here on out. I thought about it as I hurried back to meet with my friends.
CHAPTER 4
To Save Those Who Could Be Saved
Part I: The Shrieking Wood
I came out of the ranch, thanked William for his help, and headed toward the entrance of the Shrieking Wood. There was a pla
za in front of the labyrinth entrance, where Seekers were waiting for one another and discussing strategies. The door to the labyrinth was covered in thick ivy vines. The only person I saw there was Louisa, who had come to see us off.
“Should you receive any contribution points from this expedition, you will be officially approved to advance to District Seven,” she told me. “As I explained previously, your party can receive approval at any time, regardless of the outcome of the test.”
“I understand. We’ll come back without letting anything go wrong so we can make sure we keep going up in rank,” I replied.
“Please be careful… There is already another group in the middle of their test. I would appreciate it if you could check in with them if you happen to see them. They are skilled themselves, but I am a little concerned, since a Named Monster has appeared in the labyrinth.” So even Louisa was concerned about Polaris. I told her that I’d like to look for them in the labyrinth if possible, then the party passed through the ivy-covered door.
The other side was cloaked in fog. Louisa had told us that the fog would thin if we kept moving forward, so we all walked ahead.
“…Since it’s a ‘forest,’ I imagine we won’t have a great range of vision. Everyone, stay on guard,” I said. In front was Cion, who had keen senses of hearing and smell. Behind her was Elitia and Igarashi, with Theresia behind them, right in the middle of the formation. Behind her was Suzuna and Misaki, and I brought up the rear. Thanks to my Hawk Eyes, I could get a bird’s-eye view of our party, so I was still able to see what was happening in the front of the formation even though I was in the back.
“…Arihito, this labyrinth…feels more ominous than the other ones,” said Suzuna.
“Yeah, I sort of feel it, too… Like a monster’s gonna jump out at any moment,” I replied.
“W-well, you could say that about the other ones, too, so stop giving me the heebie-jeebies. I think what Suzuna meant is that it’s just more cramped than before,” added Misaki.
“R-right… Sorry about that. But we still can’t let our guard down,” said Suzuna.
Apparently, the test was held in a different labyrinth every time, so it was actually an option to wait until the conditions changed so we wouldn’t have to go into this creepy forest. The only problem with that was that one of our goals was to check up on whether or not Polaris was all right, so it wasn’t really an option we could consider.
“Eek?!” shrieked Igarashi, who was in the second row on the righthand side.
“Whoa… Igarashi, what happened?”
I looked and saw that her feet had sunk into the grass. She hadn’t noticed that there was a pool of still water and stepped in it.
“Geez, that scared me… Sorry for raising my voice.”
“That’s just the kind of place this is,” agreed Elitia as she wiped off Igarashi’s feet. “Now that I look more closely, I can see little pools of water all over… We need to be careful not to splatter mud everywhere.”
I thought that was awfully considerate of her. At the same time, I was considering how it might mess up our ability to react to danger if we succumbed to Fear in this unknown situation.
“Igarashi, sorry to ask this, but could you use Mist of Bravery? I’d prefer to have a way to null Fear other than to just use battle cries to pump us up.”
“Y-yeah… Sure. Right, it’s not just monsters that inflict status ailments; there’s environments that’ll do that, too…”
Just as Igarashi went to activate her license, Cion reacted to something.
“—Bowww!”
“EEK! …N-no, it’s fine. I have this… Mist of Bravery!”
♦Current Status♦
> KYOUKA activated MIST OF BRAVERY
There wasn’t a problem with her activating it immediately, since Cion wouldn’t react like that to nothing. When Igarashi did activate it, exactly as the skill description implied, a thick steam-like substance wafted from her body and wrapped around the party.
“…Does this skill turn a Valkyrie’s sweat into mist…?”
“Ellie, don’t say that so seriously! This is, like, magic turned into a physical thing or something like that!” snapped back Igarashi.
“Igarashi, that’s not important right now! We’ve got company!”
“…!”
The next to react was Theresia. We looked at what was coming from the dense forests to our left and were all lost for words.
♦Monsters Encountered♦
FEAR TREANT
Level 4
In Combat
Dropped Loot: ???
DIRTY MUSHROOM
Level 2
In Combat
Dropped Loot: ???
DIRTY MUSHROOM
Level 2
In Combat
Dropped Loot: ???
These enemies were well suited to a forest labyrinth. One was a tree monster, and the others looked like the kinds of mushrooms that must have been growing on its trunk.
Level 4… This is probably one of the more difficult labyrinths in District Eight.
The Fear Treant could move its roots like feet, and in the shadows of the otherwise normal tree, there was a face-like something formed from knots and holes. It had the sort of twisted expression that would make an appearance in a haunted house to scare little kids. But while it might’ve been able to scare children, there wasn’t anyone in the party who’d be afraid of that… Or so I thought.
“—GWWOOOOOOHHH!”
♦Current Status♦
> FEAR TREANT activated TERROR VOICE
> ELITIA and MISAKI were FRIGHTENED
> FEAR status resisted due to KYOUKA’s MIST OF BRAVERY
“Hyaaaa—?!”
“Bwah—?!”
Both Elitia and Misaki were inflicted with the Fear status effect by the sudden strange noise the Fear Treant emitted, but Mist of Bravery immediately canceled it out.
So it can protect against status ailments even though it was activated in advance!
There wouldn’t be any need for it to be a mist-like substance if it was only effective right when it was activated. That meant that Mist of Bravery was the kind of status healer that could be used as protection as well.
“I can’t believe I got scared by a tree!” said Elitia angrily as her face turned red. She must have felt embarrassed by getting hit with Fear even though she was at a much higher level than the enemy.
“Eep… That sent a chill down my spine… But I’m all better now thanks to Kyouka’s sweat!” said Misaki.
“I told you it’s not sweat… Seriously!” snapped Igarashi.
I felt like the Valkyrie job had a lot more secrets than I’d initially thought, but I decided to just put that aside for now. It took a lot to build up someone’s perceptions of something, and it wouldn’t be easy to get the girls’ trust back if I ruined it with one stupid remark. More importantly, though, I really needed to focus on the battle at hand.
“GRRAW, GRAH!”
“Igarashi, Theresia, you two attack the mushroom things!”
“Right!” replied Igarashi.
The Fear Treant’s trunk wasn’t very thick, but it was easily taller than a grown human. It rushed at Cion, who was practically the same size. The two mushroom things, which were like some fungi with arms and legs, attacked Theresia and Igarashi—taking them on, one-on-one.
“—!!”
“Hyaa!”
“I’ll back you up! Let’s give it our all!”
♦Current Status♦
> THERESIA activated DOUBLE THROW
Threw two small dirks
> Stage 1 hit DIRTY MUSHROOM A
11 support damage
> Stage 2 hit DIRTY MUSHROOM A
11 support damage
> KYOUKA activated DOUBLE ATTACK
> Stage 1 hit DIRTY MUSHROOM B
11 support damage
> Stage 2 hit DIRTY MUSHROOM B
11 support damage
> ARIHITO activated MOR
ALE SUPPORT 1 6 party members’ morale increased by 11
The two dirks that Theresia threw hit one of the faceless mushroom people in its fat, white stem and poisonous-looking cap. Igarashi’s spear landed brilliantly, but—
“—Woof!”
Cion stopped her attack against the Fear Treant to let out a warning bark. Before the thought even crossed my mind, I cautioned Theresia and Igarashi.
“Both of you, pull back!”
♦Current Status♦
> DIRTY MUSHROOM activated CONFUSION SPORE to counter physical attacks
> THERESIA was CONFUSED
“…?!”
The mushroom person that Theresia attacked released a cloud of spores. I should’ve been wary of that the moment I realized we were up against a mushroom monster. Of course these things would have a special attack that used spores.
“Don’t breathe in the spores! Suzuna, try to drop it from a distance!” I ordered.
“Okay…!”
♦Current Status♦
> SUZUNA activated AUTO-HIT Next two shots will automatically hit
> SUZUNA’s attack hit DIRTY MUSHROOM A
11 support damage
> 1 DIRTY MUSHROOM defeated
The Dirty Mushroom didn’t live to see the second shot. The first arrow tore through its cap, and it collapsed to the ground and lay there, unmoving. But before Suzuna could let loose her second arrow, Theresia moved. Because she was Confused, her target became Igarashi.
“Kyouka, I’ll handle it!” said Elitia.
“Ellie!”
♦Current Status♦
> ARIHITO activated DEFENSE SUPPORT 1 Target: Elitia
> THERESIA attacked ELITIA No damage
“Gah… Arihito, do something while I’ve got her stopped…!” yelled Elitia as she deflected Theresia’s sword with her own. My Defense Support had affected both of them, and with Theresia attacking Elitia in earnest, one of them could get injured if they kept swinging at each other.
What should I do…? How can I get rid of that status ailment…? Hang on, but first…!