by Funa
Indeed, the male parties had found a new prize to set their sights on.
“Somehow you all just swooped right in and nailed a red mark job, got a bonus, and had a noble request you by name! Just what strings did you all pull?!” raged Philly, the seventeen-year-old lancer.
“Jones, of the Defenders of the Covenant, who I was this close to snagging, turned down my invitation to dinner, saying that a girl he ‘thought he could get serious about’ had come along!” roared Telyusia, the nineteen-year-old swordswoman and leader of the party, who was just on the cusp of marriageable age.
“And what’s the big deal, making something so terrible happen to those lovely old fellows in the Silver Fangs?!”
Apparently Tasha, the sixteen-year-old archer, had a fondness for older men.
Mile, who had never been able to really converse with any men besides her own father, and Reina, who had spent her earliest memories on the road with her father the peddler and the rest of her young life journeying with the Crimson Lightning, were both fans of men of a more distinguished age, too. Should all three of them become aware of this preference, surely the trio could all become good friends.
“And you stole the people who buy us food and give us sweets!” fumed Lecelina, the fourteen-year-old mage.
“………”
Willine the swordswoman had already spoken her piece and just glared silently.
“How could you do this to us?!?!?!” the Servants all shouted.
“Ah…” Mile’s, Pauline’s, Mavis’s, and Raina’s shoulders all slumped in disappointment.
“Oh, but—um, who are the Defenders of the Covenant and the Silver Fangs, exactly?” asked Mile.
The other three members of the Crimson Vow tilted their heads as well. The names Defenders of the Covenant and Silver Fangs did not ring a single bell with the Crimson Vow. Additionally, though the party had overheard much hearsay and gossip about the Servants of the Goddess previously, because the party themselves were not present at the time, the members of the Crimson Vow had not bothered paying attention.
They had not been speaking quietly, so among the other hunters present, there were plenty who could clearly overhear what the girls were talking about, and at this point, several of those who had been directly observing the day’s proceedings approached the girls to offer an explanation. This gesture was not merely a kindness; it was an excuse to get close to the girls, fraught with the ulterior motive of getting the party to remember their faces.
“So you’re saying that those lowly pests who tried to cut in on our job, saying that we wouldn’t be able to handle the uncertainty and danger on our own were the ‘Defenders of the Covenant’? And those suspicious guys who tried to follow us were the ‘Silver Fangs’?”
“Wh-wha…?” Telyusia was speechless at Reina’s blunt appraisal. “Jones isn’t… The Defenders of the Covenant aren’t that weak of a party!”
“Please don’t talk about the gentlemen of the Silver Fangs like they’re a bunch of perverts!”
As Telyusia and Tasha gave their furious objections, Pauline let her viper’s tongue loose. “But the Defenders did try to muscle in on a job that we took, despite not taking the task for themselves, and as soon as Mavis and Mile showed them their copper-cutting trick, they backed right off. Not only were they clearly after something, but they’re good-for-nothings as well. Or should we be interpreting that some other way?”
“Er…”
“And then, there was the party of old men that was following secretly behind a party of young ladies, keeping at a steady distance. If that doesn’t qualify as suspicious behavior, then what would you say does?”
“Err…”
Telyusia and Tasha were silent, unable to object to Pauline’s sound arguments.
The other hunters, filled with sympathy for the Defenders and the Silver Fangs, looked to Felicia, who had been the one to egg both parties on, hoping that she would provide them some sort of defense. However, Felicia remained at her seat at the counter, unmoved, not even batting an eye.
That’s No-Hope Felicia for you!!!!!
The only saving grace in this situation, it would seem, was that neither the Defenders of the Covenant nor the Silver Fangs were present at the time…
“So, are we done here now? We’ve all determined that we have nothing to do with either of those parties, and we intend to continue to have nothing to do with them.”
“Ngh… So far, you’ve recognized who the Defenders of the Covenant and the Silver Fangs are—but I need you to acknowledge that they didn’t have any ill intentions toward you! Until you can do that, we aren’t finished!”
Reina attempted to wrap up the conversation, but Telyusia, who seemed to be the leader of the Servants of the Goddess, did not appear prepared to let them off so easily. Indeed, she clearly said as much.
And then came her declaration of war.
“It’s time to show you which of our two parties is superior!”
“Yeah!” her cohorts joined the battle cry.
“Ah…”
As the tension among the Servants rose, the members of the Crimson Vow began to relax.
This truly was not a matter of which party was stronger. The reason that all the men had been flitting around the Servants of the Goddess until now was not because of their skills or their abilities—it was because they hoped to make them their girlfriends. Nothing more, nothing less. The girls had only just become C-ranks, which meant that they were on the bottom rung as far as C-ranks went. Having five girls like that in their party would limit the jobs they could take, and their individual shares of the profit would be smaller. In other words, as far as other parties were concerned, there was clearly more merit in inviting along the Crimson Vow—who had B-rank level swordsmanship, precious combat magic skills, and other talents—than the Servants of the Goddess.
In which case, should they selectively invite only the members who interested them? That would launch debates about who they should bring along. Furthermore, they would incite the wrath of the remaining members of the Servants, from whom they had poached members… And anyone who would let themselves be poached was not unlikely to betray their new companions and leave them as well. And, if they did relocate, a war might break out over those girls…
Indeed, there was no doubting that such a thing could tear both their parties apart.
This meant, as long as the Servants stayed together, simply dallying with one or two of them would be fine. No matter who you got close to, it was a blessing…
However, human relations were, of course, a mushy, delicate business, and for things to go wrong was not at all uncommon.
On the whole, while a party might consider bringing in the Crimson Vow wholesale as capable party-members-slash-love-interests, the Servants of the Goddess were better candidates for “lovers you have fun with on the side.”
Even so, the general proportion of female hunters was comparatively low. Most normal young women were of the same mind as the eldest daughter back at that inn, thinking that hunters were all a bunch of broke thugs who could die at any moment. Therefore, for many of the hunters, the young ladies of the Servants of the Goddess were the best that they could get, either as prospective lovers or candidates for marriage.
If a hunter should marry one of them, no one could complain if she relocated to her husband’s party, and it wouldn’t be unusual for her to retire and live as a full-time housewife or work as the owner of a small shop or some other safe job, awaiting her husband’s return.
But then, the Crimson Vow had appeared.
They had two swordswomen who could take down an ogre in a single blow and two capable C-rank mages as well. Plus, they were young and cute, with skill spread evenly throughout the four of them. They seemed to know little of the world, and it was only natural that the men’s targeting systems would lock on to them instead of the Servants of the Goddess.
Even if the Servants should manage to crush the Crimson Vow in some mock bat
tle, their position would not change.
And of course, most of the guild staff and the other hunters knew that the Servants hadn’t the slightest chance of defeating them to begin with.
“Very well then,” Reina began. “Let’s take this outs—gnh!”
Mavis quickly clapped a hand over her mouth. “W-we couldn’t possibly! We’re all still rookies, and we couldn’t possibly be prepared to face veterans like you! It’s so obvious that even bothering to try would be moot!”
They had purposely come to a town where no one knew them. They were going to live an honest and straightforward life as normal, unremarkable C-rank hunters in pursuit of knowledge. Remembering this, Mavis tried her best to play the situation off—laying the previous copper-cutting demonstration completely aside.
Mile and Pauline were of the same opinion as Mavis, so Mile put a sound barrier around Reina’s head before she could continue to object, not wanting to earn the contempt of other hunters, and Pauline bodily blocked Reina from the other girls’ sight. Then, Mile indirectly restrained Reina with her superhuman strength. Reina struggled and kicked, but Mile’s hold was unmoved, and Reina’s flailing, along with her futile attempts at speech, were mostly ignored.
“W-well, as long as you recognize that. Now we better not see you all walking around like you own the place again!”
And then, as if they had already accepted a job for the day and were only hanging around the guild hall for the sake of confronting the Crimson Vow, the leader of the Servants of the Goddess promptly left, followed by her four companions.
Hey now, hey now, hey now!!! the guild employees and other hunters silently protested. The Servants of the Goddess had definitely heard about that copper-cutting incident from before—and they heard how they belittled the Defenders! And then there was the fact that they were so fast the Silver Fangs couldn’t keep up! And that they completed a red mark job and got a personal request from a noble! How could they know all that and accept their resignation so easily?!?!
These were girls who would leave their village with only cleavers and wooden staves in hand. Perhaps because their tempers were running so hot, they seemed to have already forgotten their conversation from just a short while before. Of course, their aim had been to prove their superiority from the start, so perhaps they had merely put anything that contradicted that “fact” out of their minds…
At any rate, the guild staff and the other hunters present all shared a single thought: Well, that’s someone else’s business. Best not to think too hard about it…
Everyone returned to their previous business: in the case of the guild employees, work, and in the case of the hunters, searching for jobs, eating, and drinking.
And as for the Crimson Vow…
“Let’s just do some basic monster exterminating today. It’ll be good practice for Mavis.”
“All right!!!”
Reina finally appeared to be thinking straight. Just like a party leader… No wait, that was Mavis speaking!
“Would you care to explain to me what that earlier business was all about?” Reina, apparently, was still miffed about being held back with her mouth clamped shut.
Clearly, Mavis really was the appropriate choice for party leader.
So Mile and Pauline agreed.
And though none of them said it, they all somehow came to the same conclusion at once.
I bet those girls are gonna be a pain in our butts from now on…
Chapter 51:
The Letter
For the next three days, the Crimson Vow concentrated only on standard daily requests. For the sake of Mavis getting some practical battle experience with her new techniques, and for the sake of doing something that would not make them stand out quite so much as their last couple of jobs, they surmised that it might be good to stick to doing more menial jobs for a little while.
Thanks to the copper-cutting scene, among other things, Mavis, Reina, and Pauline, who generally prided themselves on having more common sense than Mile, had begun to fall somewhat—or rather, quite a bit—into a Mile-like way of thinking, a.k.a. the wrong way.
“You’ve really done good though, Mavis,” said Reina. “That ‘Wind Edge’ of yours is on par with actual wind magic! At this rate, anyone you come up against will just assume it’s normal wind magic—they’ll have no idea that it’s actually Mile’s secret ‘spirit cannon’ technique. Plus, that ‘Anti-Magic Blade’ of yours can even fend off my fireballs. You could slice through someone’s fire blasts and stab right through them! Honestly, you may as well call it the Magus Killer!”
Indeed, though Reina had been holding back her attacks as she sparred against Mavis, helping her to practice fending off magic, Mavis had still managed to rush forth, cutting through the flames and stopping just short of bringing her blade down atop Reina’s head.
While neither party ended up hurt, of course, Mavis was mildly distraught to find that her hair was a bit fried. Mile quickly repaired it with magic.
“Still, if I can only just barely keep up with a mage who’s holding back, then…”
“It’s not like anyone’s gonna be flinging around any big spells in a melee, dummy. The only time you can fire off a big spell is when it’s the very first shot or as a long-distance battering ram. In any normal battle, a mage’s focus is gonna be on elementary spells like Fireball, thinking that they can fire those off quickly and continuously. I can tell you without a doubt that the first time any new opponent sees a sword wielder suddenly deflect or cut straight through their flares and come flying toward them, that match is gonna be over in a single blow.”
“Ah—really?”
Mavis scratched her head, embarrassed.
Mile, meanwhile, pretended not to overhear the conversation. As much as Reina was impressed that the technique resembled wind magic, the fact remained that it really was honest-to-goodness wind magic. At least at this rate, there was no chance of anyone uncovering the secret of the technique, not in the slightest. However, there was the possibility that another secret—namely, that Mavis, who should not have been able to use magic, was doing so—would be uncovered.
Well, should that happen, Mavis could just say that she had a magic sword imbued with wind magic and that it could only be wielded by the one the sword recognized as its true wielder. As for where the sword came from, all she had to do was fabricate some story of a divine blessing from a “god in human form,” such as a “mysterious old man with one eye,” or a “heavenly woman who appeared from a lake.”
Naturally, no one of any stature would be willing to defy the will of the divine by trying to snatch away such an item. Believing in the existence of a divine sword meant believing in the direct interference of the gods. Moreover, anyone could find it in themselves to imagine what sort of divine punishment would be visited upon them if they tried to defy those gods and lay their hands on such a gift.
This was an undeveloped society where magic existed, after all. It was only natural that people would believe in the gods as well.
In reality, it was only because of the large-scale interference of a group of beings that might as well be gods that magic could exist at all, so a belief in the divine was probably justified.
Oh, Mile thought, but in that case, won’t people start thinking that Mavis is some legendary hero chosen by the gods?
Well, that’s fine. It’s not really that big of a deal.
It really was that big of a deal.
Such a big deal that it would cause a nationwide—nay, a continent-wide stir.
When they arrived back at the guild, Mile withdrew the day’s kills from storage and lined them up on the exchange counter.
“I’m glad we managed not to run into those hunters again today,” Mile remarked.
“Yeah, thankfully,” Mavis agreed.
The two were referring to the five-girl party, the Servants of the Goddess. The old man at the exchange counter gave a wry smile as he heard these words.
Neither of
the two parties tended to linger for long in the guild hall’s dining corner, so at least the chance of them encountering one another was not very high. Both took their various breaks elsewhere and went away on overnight journeys, and such.
“Here you go ladies, yer payment. My, you really do know how to rake it in, dontcha? Sure is a blessin’ to have capable storage magic like that, eh?”
Other hunters’ ears began to prick up at the old man’s words.
In order for the girls to be earning what they should, unfortunately, it was impossible for them to conceal the fact of Mile’s storage abilities. Therefore, it had already become public knowledge at the guild. And now, the hunters who were aware of this fact were beginning to desire the Crimson Vow more and more.
However, the copper-cutting display had left a lasting impact, and when combined with the humiliation faced by the Defenders of the Covenant and the Silver Fangs, there was not a party around who would dare to suggest that the Crimson Vow join forces with them, let alone try to incorporate all of their members wholesale. At the very least, there were no other parties around with the confidence to try and show off a skill as impressive as the coin trick nor to try and keep up with them by way of speed, if not even the Silver Fangs could do it.
Of course, this did not mean that the others had given up on trying to cozy up to the Crimson Vow entirely. There was still a chance that if they came to them not as their superiors but as a congenial group of comrades, they might convince the Vow to collaborate with them on a job.
Plus, if one became friendly with one of the Vow as an individual, perhaps one might be invited to join the party and have one’s very own harem…
The Crimson Vow consisted of only four members, and the ideal party number was five or six, which meant that they really were a man or two short. It was still possible for them to add more members. In fact, they should. And really, there was no reason why those new members shouldn’t be men. It wasn’t unusual to see parties with four men and one or two women, so what was wrong with the opposite?