Prologue: What It Means to Cross Paths

It was a dazzlingly clear day, yet deep in the woods, the forest canopy was so thick that only the rare crack of sunlight managed to peek through. There, my lady trudged through the undergrowth using her staff—a family heirloom—to push the dense foliage out of the way or, at times, to all-out bushwhack.

“With this much vegetation, I doubt that it’s struggling to find food. There are plenty of burrows too. I imagine that it has managed to grow quite large without needing to worry about any natural predators,” she said.

“Hmm... I suppose we can’t be too hopeful, then...” I replied.

This deep region of the forest was untouched by people. However, while there was no semblance of any man-made path, there was an animal trail through the trees: a huge, long indentation that looked as if it were made by a giant snake. While its winding course made the journey easier than expected, what lay at said course’s end was something far more dangerous.

This trail had actually been formed by a hydra, the very monster that we were looking for. Hydras were a type of two-headed lesser wyrm. In layman’s terms, they were akin to gigantic snakes. Based on the information at the guild, there was a single hydra lurking in this area. It was five meters tall, far outclassing the average hydra (and who knew how long the thing was). Given the venom and deadly fire that they could expel from their two heads, hydras were tenacious creatures that not even a strong four-member adventurer party could defeat; they’d be left with no other option but to flee.

In fact, according to the guild’s report, one such four-man party had accepted the quest to take down this hydra, but ultimately were forced to leave one of their members behind to distract the beast while the rest fled to safety.

“It’s not as if anyone lives or even comes this deep into the forest... I think they could’ve just let it be, to be honest.”

“That’s just how humans are, my lady. They fear whatever they deem abnormal. Though I will say that it would be a disaster if this hydra were to attack a nearby settlement.”

“Well, it might if it has decided that humans are a threat after this string of events.”

“That would not be ideal...”

“I think they should just have left it alone to start with. It’s not like this forest has anything worth taking,” she said. Then in a mumble, she continued, “I really don’t get humans.”

After around an hour of walking, we reached an open area.

It wasn’t a natural field, however. A burning smell filled the air. Trees that had once stood tall, thanks to being free from the influence of humankind, had been razed to the ground. The whole surrounding area had been carved out to form an open space.

“Oh!” my lady exclaimed. I could see it too.

A young man was lying on the ground. He was covered in blood and missing his right forearm. Across from him was the creature we had been searching for. With a mammoth body that was almost one meter thick, there was no mistaking it. It was the hydra.

Like the young man, the beast wasn’t moving—because it was missing its heads. They lay next to the body, eyes stuck open in death, all three huge enough to swallow a grown person whole.

“They must have finished each other off at the same time.”

“It looks that way. An impressive effort from a single fighter, but that was as far as his energy could take him.”

My lady approached the young man, crouched down, and began examining him. He wasn’t in good condition. His skin was peeling due to the venom, and his entire body was covered in scratches and burns. She looked around and found his arm lying nearby. Fang marks indicated that it had been bitten off.

“What to do...”

“It would take too much time for the two of us alone to mourn him. We should take his belongings home for him and—”

“No. How about we just pretend we didn’t see him and take credit for his victory?”

“I don’t remember raising you to be such a coldhearted person, my lady!”

What an unbelievable proposition. The young man had literally given up his life to slay this creature. His valor didn’t deserve to be stolen.

“Actually, let’s cancel that plan.”

I wasn’t so foolish to think my plea had changed her mind. I was well aware she wasn’t quite that laudable a person. Rather, my lady had prodded the young man’s dead body and noticed it twitch in response.

The man we’d assumed to be dead was alive.

“Did you see that, my lady?”

She heaved a huge sigh, not even trying to hide the disdain in her expression.

“I do hope he survives, but that’s for fate to decide, not me.”

◆

“Ngh...”

For the first time in a while, I’d experienced a nightmare.

I’d like to call it a miracle that I hadn’t screamed out while asleep, but as soon as I woke up, I knew that I wouldn’t have been able to. My body felt drained; my throat was drier than any bad dream could make it. It felt like my nightmare had been influenced by my condition in the real world.

If memory served me, I’d gone out with my allies to slay an abnormally huge hydra. But one surprise after another had ruined the strategy we’d worked out beforehand and rendered our teamwork utterly useless. I had decided to stay behind as the rearguard to allow my allies to escape, preventing the worst-case scenario of us all getting wiped out—and after that...

“Ow...”

My recollections came to an abrupt end there as I grimaced with the feeling that something was wrong. I’d been so exhausted that I hadn’t noticed before, but I had a bad feeling about my right arm near the elbow. The arm felt like it was wrapped in something...something squishy. I glanced over and saw some blue thing absorbing my elbow.

“Grh...! A slime?!”

I had no strength to fight back, which was unsurprising since I’d just woken up after falling unconscious, but this was no laughing matter. Nowadays slimes were a common sight in most towns as livestock, but wild ones were ravenous creatures who ate everything. They had strange bodies that were halfway between solid and liquid, which allowed them to dissolve anything they wanted to swallow. Physical attacks were useless; one hit with your weapon and the slime would absorb and dissolve it. As metal was easily dissolvable for them, people—lumps of flesh that we were—made for one of their favorite foods.

Their only weakness was a body part known as their “core,” but it wasn’t easy to destroy. With its somewhat fluid state, simple slashes and stabs wouldn’t work against it. The easiest and most efficient way of dealing with the core was to have a wizard conjure up fire or ice, but I didn’t have one with me.

If a wild slime got ahold of you, you would experience the most terrifying fate imaginable. After it had finished the slow process of dissolving your skin, flesh, and bones, it would slip into your body through the wound—while you were still alive—and begin devouring you from the inside.

According to alchemists, the mucus that made up slimes’ bodies contained a small number of anesthetics and hemostatic agents so that they could capture and consume their prey when as fresh as possible, meaning that they could continue to dissolve their prey while keeping them trapped but without killing them. It was nothing short of a living hell.

If you were lucky and one ate you from the head down, then your suffering would be cut short, but if one entered you via stomach or leg wound, then only one option was left to you if you couldn’t use magic: You needed to chop it off, body part and all. This was the most logical and efficient choice of a terrible selection. I knew a number of fellow adventurers who had survived but not quite in one piece.

“Dammit...”

I knew what needed to be done, but oh, if only it were that easy. I was as good as dead as an adventurer without my right arm, even if I survived. However, I unfortunately had a bigger problem to deal with right now—I was so drained that I couldn’t freely move my body. Even if I were mentally prepared to cut off my arm, my sword wasn’t nearby, and I doubted I would even have the strength to hold it if it were. All I could manage to do was wiggle my fingers.

“Hmm, looks like his nervous system has reconnected.” Suddenly I heard an unfamiliar voice booming. It was a low, masculine voice. “However, I would advise you not to move yet. It would be best to refrain from wasting any energy unnecessarily.”

“Wh-Who’s there?” I said. “N-No, that doesn’t matter! Whoever you are...cut my right arm off...”

All I could do was pray that this stranger would save me. I couldn’t see them, but I was certain they were close. As long as I wasn’t hearing things of course. But the voice surprised me with its response.

“Enough of that nonsense. I put all that effort into reattaching your arm. Do you wish to waste my three days of work?”

“Huh?”

Finally I felt the blood return to my brain. That’s right... The hydra already chewed my arm off. The memories of that came flooding back, along with the question of why I could feel my arm and move my fingers.

“Your desire to recover is understandable, but I’ll need to stay like this for another two days, lad.”

I glanced over at the quivering slime that was still on my arm. The voice had been coming from it.

“No...”

As my concern turned into fear, my fear turned into panic. Just as my brain was overheating and about to shut down...someone came out from the bushes.

“Oh, Blue. Is he awake?”

Hearing them, I—

“WAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

I couldn’t stop a scream from escaping.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaagh?!”

Then she screamed in response to me. What a disaster.

Our new visitor, who had fallen over onto her behind and was now glaring at me, was a young lady with glowing golden hair that looked like spun sugar.

“I was ready to be thanked and praised, not screamed at,” the girl bemoaned. She was hard at work chopping up some fruit, frowning grumpily all the while. The fruit was known for being incredibly sweet, sour, and bitter, and so adventurers—folks known for their extreme rationality—didn’t like to eat them. Unfortunately for us, they were packed with nutrients and weren’t poisonous, so they were a perfect emergency food.

The girl diced the fruit, put them in a small pot, then turned on the heat. After a bit, the fruit pieces began to swelter as they were stewed.

“I don’t mind you being silent if you can’t talk...” she went on.

The girl seemed upset that I wasn’t replying to her. She glared at me, then stared at the pot, then back and forth, over and over. Soon enough, a sweet fragrance wafted over from the pot. The fruit was now fully cooked and had been stewed into a thick puree. After plating it up, she approached me with a wooden spoon in hand.

“Say ‘ahh,’” she said.

I refused.

Was there anything more embarrassing than having someone say that with a spoonful of fruit puree on its way to your mouth? Not to mention that it was still piping hot.

After I continued to refuse, the girl took a step back, frowning, and returned the spoon to the dish.

“So what are...” I said, deciding that this was a good time to get some answers about this weird situation, but as soon as I opened my mouth to speak, she moved.

“Got you!”

“...you two— Wugh?!”

She forced the spoon into my mouth as if she had been waiting for that opening. The hot and sticky fruit mixture filled my mouth. I wanted to spit it out, but with her hands on my face, the food had only one way out: down.

“Gwaaargh!”

“Hah! Hah! Hah!”

Still unable to move, I was forced to receive this onslaught of food. It had cooled down a little since the first spoonful, and now I was able to taste that strange mix of sweet, sour, and bitter. With each spoonful, I was forced to pick between burning my throat or letting my tongue absorb that weird flavor. By the time the bowl was empty, I’d lost all will to fight back.

The girl maintained her displeased expression as she looked at me—who was exhausted, despite being fed food that was meant to revive me.

“I’d say that the first thing out of your mouth should have been ‘Thank you for saving me.’ Don’t you?” she said.

“After being tortured like that...?” I replied.

“Even if I concede that this could be described as torture, which it obviously can’t, shouldn’t you thank us for repairing your arm and feeding you?”

“Ngh...”

I had no response. She was right. Objectively speaking, she had saved me. But with the situation being what it was, it was hard for me to just accept that fact without question. I didn’t even know what they wanted. People sometimes kept their victims just barely alive to continue torturing them...

“Before you ask who we are, I’ll tell you that we came here on a quest,” she explained.

The girl started to eat her own fruit puree. As soon as she took the first bite, though, she stuck out her tongue with a disgusted expression.

The more I looked at her the less she seemed like an adventurer. Of course, the glinting Sphere on her right hand was proof that she was one, but her cape and full-body robe with its golden embroidery in expensive-looking thread were what you would expect the daughter of a noble to wear. Her outfit was not something you would have on when out traveling, let alone when doing battle. Even wizards, whose physical abilities were much weaker, would wear leather armor under their robe when entering a monster’s den.

The girl’s clothes didn’t have any leaves or even any dust on them. It made me wonder if she was using magic to keep them clean or if the fabric itself had the ability to do that. At any rate, her outfit probably cost a fortune.

“A four-member party foolishly tried to take down a hydra, and only three returned to the guild, bruised and battered. The quest I took on was to head to the site, find out what happened, and if possible, bring back any of the deceased’s belongings.”

She glared at me, apparently having noticed that I was appraising her myself.

The party she mentioned was mine, no doubt about it. That meant her quest had been to find out what happened and why we were defeated. It did bring me a moment of relief to hear that the other three made it safely back to town.

“So you came to a hydra’s den alone?” I said.

“I’m not alone. Blue’s with me,” she replied.

The girl pointed at the blue slime that was still wrapped around my elbow. Through its semitransparent body, I could see the raw wound on my arm.

“So you’re counting this thing as a member of your party...” I said. “What would you have done if the hydra were alive?”

I said “if,” but it was more of a surprise that the hydra was dead by the time they arrived.

“That would not have been a problem. Even if the hydra were to have still been alive and breathing, it would not have posed any threat to my lady.”

The slime was the one who replied to my question—even though I couldn’t see where its mouth was. I wanted to ask about how it could talk, but I replied instead, “I’m sorry, what? Just so you know, that wasn’t your average hydra. It had a head where the end of its tail should’ve been. The bastard had three heads.”

My party hadn’t been forced to flee by some regular old hydra. We had gone into battle knowing how its two heads would’ve moved and how it would strike. The problem was that none of us had expected that third head in the rear. The monster had been careful and hidden its tail for the first part of the battle, unleashing its trump card when we least anticipated it.

Our archer and wizard, the two back liners, had been hit with its poison breath. Without their support, our front line fell apart too, resulting in our humiliating defeat.

“Uh-huh, a surprise abnormality, was it?” the girl remarked.

“Is that right... That certainly would have been a lot for four people.”

The two of them (although it felt weird to count the slime as a person) didn’t seem all too surprised. Their reaction was like if you’d been told the reason the adventurer stopped coming to the tavern was because he’d gotten married and retired.

“At any rate, you are receiving treatment from a slime who didn’t want you to die. I would expect you to show a bit more respect.”

Or so the slime said.

“I have worked to convert my fluids into a culture fluid that promotes cell division, and over the past three days, I’ve consumed any excess cells while keeping the wound disinfected. I’m expending all my energy to help you, lad.”

I still hadn’t worked out where its voice was coming from, but I heard every word loud and clear. I wondered if someone would think I’d gone mad if I told them this story in the tavern later.

“Without us, you would have become fodder for the monsters in the forest. With the hydra dead, they will fight among themselves over this freed-up territory. Some gratitude, please,” the slime finished.

I had no comeback to this explanation. Whatever the situation had been, the fact was that these two had come to clean up our mess. I had long since realized that being wary of them was pretty much pointless—now it was a matter of pride. Whoever they were and whatever they were plotting, since I was immobile, they would have done the worst of it by now.

“All right, there are things I need to confirm,” the girl said.

She pulled out a folded piece of brown paper from her bag. I knew what this was: It was the paper the guild used for quests. It was unnecessarily sturdy, able to withstand fire and water damage.

“Height...one hundred seventy centimeters. Eye color...red. Hair color...white,” she read off, checking my appearance against what they had on file for me at the guild. “White hair is rather rare. And red eyes are only really common in Tomitoa, the eastern continent.”

“Enough about how I look...” I said.

“Oh? My apologies. Moving on then, I’d like to ask your name. It would be quite tragic if you weren’t the one I was sent to retrieve.”

Preconceptions, or whatever, were incredibly scary. Some of the worst calamities were caused by someone becoming dead set on their ideas of how something should be. These misunderstandings were particularly common when it mattered. As an adventurer, I knew that it was important to confirm someone’s identity. But...there was a reason I didn’t want to tell her.

“Hakura,” I said after a moment.

“And your home name?”

I clucked my tongue—she had asked about the very thing I didn’t want to tell her. One’s home name indicated where they were born. The guild valued authenticity when registering adventurers, so I was pretty certain my full name was written on the paper in her hands. There was no reason to hide it. The only thing that stopped me was a bad habit; I simply hated my name. But I forced the words out regardless.

“Hakura...Istilla.”

“Hm? Istilla? That’s the name of the witch of the west’s prison. You come from quite the peculiar place, lad,” the slime said.

I had always tried my best to hide where I was from since becoming an adventurer. This slime of all things—or people—was the first one to actually react to the name upon hearing it.

“There are many witches who rear people to be used as sacrifices or tools, but only few have let the ‘pens’ for their ‘livestock’ reach the size of a town. Celicelicy the Cocoon, Carnely the Venom Fortress, and Istilla the Cruel Mistress... These three are the wickedest of witches—more demonic than demons themselves. Impressive that you managed to escape from that birdcage, lad.”

“You’re surprisingly well-informed...”

Despite my desire to keep all of these details a secret, this slime was blabbing on without a care.

“Quit looking at me that way, lad. I won’t spread this information around. Albeit most people would not know of the place you hail from, you are wise to keep it hidden.”

“Dammit...” I muttered. “So, what’s your name?”

“Excuse me?”

The girl stared at me with confusion. The way she tilted her head all cutesy fitted her so well that it ticked me off.

“Why are you looking at me like you weren’t expecting this question?! I’m asking what you’re called!”

“Well... I wasn’t expecting it.”

“Don’t make me come over there and smack you, girl!”

“Huh?! I can’t heeear you! And I’m not ‘girl,’ I have a name, thank you very muuuch!”

“That’s why I’m asking what your damn name is, you absolute— OWW!”

“Calm yourself, lad. And don’t rile him up, my lady.”

I felt a rush of pain from how I’d overexerted myself yelling at her.

“Oops,” the girl muttered, looking at me. “I’m just playing around! This is Blue, my traveling companion.”

Judging from earlier context, I had figured that was what the slime was called. Not only did it have a name and could talk, it knew about witch’s towns that ordinary folk didn’t even know and had treated my wounds of its own accord. “Blue” was the name of this slime, if I could even class it as a regular slime.

“Right,” I said. “And your name?”

“That’s a secret!” she said, holding a finger over her lips before giving a wink.

I felt something snap then.

After a few seconds, the girl’s expression hardened. It seemed like she had noticed that my expression was one of genuine anger.

“I’m just kidding, joking! Please calm down! This is just standard procedure,” she said.

“Procedure? Well, how about I proceed to strike you down dead.”

“If you do that with your injuries, you’ll end up being the one dead!”

“If that means I can get away from you, then that’s fine with me.”

“That’s how angry you are?!”

It bore repeating, but I loathed my name and hated to even speak it. Now, the circumstances here meant I had to, I knew that. But I couldn’t let it slide, after all that, when the person asking my name was making fun of me. I knew she had saved my life, but that was irrelevant to her teasing.

The girl broke out in a cold sweat, seemingly terrified of the possibility that I might actually get up. “My home name is Lingreen. People call me Leen.”

“Lingreen?” I repeated.

“Yes. Surely you’ve heard of it,” the girl—Leen—said, puffing out her chest with pride.

“Well, yeah, in fairy tales.”

Lingreen was the name of the protagonist in a fairy tale that existed in all parts of the continent, although with regional variations.

“Everyone’s heard of the witch of Lingreen,” I went on.

Lingreen was known as the only witch in the world who had done good.

“A mere fairy tale it is not, lad. My lady is a direct descendant and successor of Lingreen, the first witch who lived in the far south.”

The slime, who had gripped onto my arm each time my anger had gotten the best of me, spoke (although I still couldn’t see a mouth).

“As such, I am under her allegiance. She is descended from the witch who tamed a dragon; it is no surprise that she has tamed a single slime.”

I fell silent.

Lingreen. The first witch to appear in this world. She had befriended, led, and tamed monsters—evil creatures spawned by the black dragon long ago. After receiving the grace of the blue dragon, they had slain the black dragon together. I had heard this story in fairy tale books as a kid and in the taverns as an adult when a bard was present while I had some free time when eating. I didn’t know all the details, though.

“I’ve only heard that name in tales of make-believe,” I said.

“Oh dear, your hearing really is terrible. Hello? Can you hear me?”

“How can you be so rude even now?”

“Because it’s a momentous occasion. You are the 388th person to have that reaction after I’ve introduced myself.”

“You’ve kept track...?”

This girl held deeper grudges than I realized.

“Also,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me, “you should look at people when you’re talking to them.”

I ignored her and averted my eyes. I felt a deep tenacity in her—terrifyingly so. She wouldn’t give me her full name and that meant that I couldn’t fully trust her. All the same, she did intrigue me, I’d give her that...

“Fine, Lingreen?” I said.

“I told you that people call me Leen.”

“Listen, Lingreen...”

“They call me Leen.”

We stared at each other for a few seconds; I broke first. This was embarrassing.

“Fine... Leen,” I said.

“I hate to interrupt you while you’re enjoying a pleasant conversation with this lad, but...” interjected the slime (I knew it was called “Blue” but it felt weird, wrong somehow, to call it that).

“Yes?” she replied.

“We have visitors.”

“Hm?!”

It was at this moment that I realized how exhausted I was, how much my senses had dulled. Pricking my ears, I could hear it—light footsteps on fallen leaves, an insuppressible guttural growl, dripping saliva. Just as we had noticed them, they had noticed us. They didn’t need to hide any longer. It looked like there were about ten of them.

“Dammit. Seriously?”

The moment I spoke, they showed themselves: monstrous wolves with two-meter-long bodies, stronger than any domesticated dog you’d see around town. They had long claws, even sharper fangs, and, in some twist of fate, two heads just like hydras with glittering eyes.

“Orthruses!” I muttered.

These wolves had turned into monsters due to the negative influence of mana upon them. We were surrounded. The orthruses affixed us with their intense stares, four eyes per beast. As the slime had mentioned, they had finally picked up on the scent of blood from the aftermath of the battle with the hydra.

Even when healthy and well equipped, it would be difficult for someone to deal with this many. I didn’t have my weapon nor could I move, and Leen was in no world a front liner who could draw their attention. As an adventurer, she should be able to fight to some extent, but her equipment told me that she was a back liner. Surrounded as we were, we wouldn’t be counting on her to save us.

“Run. Now,” I said.

“What?” she replied.

“You need to get as far away as you can while they’re busy feasting on me.”

We were both prey, but one of us was immobile while the other wasn’t. She would have to fight off some of them as I doubted I could get all of them to focus on me, but it was better than both of us being orthrus chow. And who knew what other monsters might come knocking in the chaos.

“Huh? Hakura... Do you want to be eaten?” Leen said, tilting her head in confusion. It pissed me off to see her play the fool when I was putting my life on the line.

“No, I’m saying I’ll be the bait so you can get away, dammit! Have you never seen an orthrus before?!”

“Hmph, do you know who you’re talking to?”

Leen’s face showed no trace of panic; she looked completely unfazed. I felt like the weird one for getting worked up now.

“Just sit back and watch, lad.” It was a voice that came from near my arm that answered my internal question. “Did you never wonder how my lady could gather food for you to eat after venturing so deep into this forest?”

“Huh?”

This obvious question had never sprung to mind since Leen had been so forthright, but now I realized: It was completely absurd for a solo adventurer to be given the job of finding out what happened to a party defeated by a hydra.

Leen picked out a single orthrus among the pack—most likely the leader, since it was the biggest—and walked toward it without a care.

“A-Are you out of your mind?”

As soon as I shouted out, the orthrus moved. One blink later and her neck would be gashed...but instead I heard a doglike panting.

“What...?”

I barely had time to process that sound before shock hit me from the scene I was witnessing.

Orthruses were violent creatures, carnivorous and deadly hunters who worked in packs. An unarmed person was their ideal snack, and that especially went for the tender flesh of this young lady before them. It should’ve been a delicious meal that they would throw down anything for.

“Now there’s a good boy.”

Yet this beast had lowered both of its heads, like some kind of domesticated puppy, and was letting Leen stroke it. It squinted its eyes in bliss. It even licked at her fingers when they got close.

“My lady is a direct descendant and true successor to Lingreen, the first witch who tamed all monsters. In other words, she is a monstermancer,” the slime explained with evident pride. “Monsters are not her enemy; rather, they show their allegiance to her. All monsters obey her. That goes for me, those hungry orthruses, and even that abnormal hydra that glutted itself with no end.”

The orthrus’s boss gave a bark, and the pack turned away from us and left like the receding tide. The tension from a few minutes ago vanished, and an unexpected silence followed.

“Apparently they were coming to see if the hydra really was gone. I told them it was dead so they were free to claim this territory, and they went off happily,” Leen said with a smile, having returned as if nothing special had happened.

“You told them? You’re making it sound like you can talk with monsters.”

“Ah yes, regular people can’t do that.”

I finally understood why this girl had come here all alone. Whether the hydra was alive or dead made no difference—she wasn’t in danger of being attacked. After all, the quest was merely to find out what had happened and what had become of me. She had set out with the expectation that I was dead and had always intended to talk to the hydra.

“It seems like we can remain here until you are able to move again, Hakura,” she said. “Lucky for us, they were understanding.” Leen flashed a beaming smile. It was an unfettered smile, a wonderful expression that was almost infuriatingly beautiful. “Now then, don’t you have something to say to me?”

I had been trying to avoid looking at her face, but Leen grabbed me and forced me to. We locked eyes. Her irises were a clear green color.

I was certain that this was the same color as the early morning dew on the leaves catching the sunlight. Her eyes glistened. They were clearer than any gem I’d seen, so much so that their unique jade color could entrance anyone who looked at them and steal away their heart.

Ever since I’d first clocked Leen, I realized that if I’d looked into these eyes when I’d first met her I would have lost, so I had avoided meeting her gaze. I felt that if I’d done so, then no matter what she’d done, I would’ve thrown my hands up in the air and accepted whatever excuse she gave. That was why I hadn’t wanted to look at those eyes.

“Thank you,” I said quickly.

“Wow, I haven’t heard such an insincere thank you in a long time...” she muttered before letting my face go.

“My lady, you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I suppose,” she said with a happy chuckle. “My eyes are pretty, aren’t they? Did you fall for me?”

It was clear that this girl was well aware of her allure. Once my body moved as I wanted, I’d knock her down a peg.

Whatever the case, my and Leen’s first meeting had begun with her saving me and taking care of me.

Chapter 1: What It Means to Live

To eat is to live. Every living thing follows this rule. To live is to give birth. All life-forms eventually follow this second rule. Life exists to pass the baton from generation to generation.

Maybe it was bad luck—bad timing. At any rate, they needed someone to blame, otherwise they would never have gotten over what happened. Perhaps that was why, in this case, no party was in the wrong.

○

“Ugh...”

“Y-You don’t have to be so glum!”

The young lad, sitting in front of my lady, slumped his shoulders with such intensity that it would dishearten any onlooker.

“I mean, it took such a long time for you to get better, the guild didn’t think you’d survived, and even I had assumed you were gobbled up. So cheer up, okay?” my lady went on.

To illustrate just how gloomy the lad was, it would be important to state that my lady—albeit over the span of a relatively short life—had shown such care for another so few times a human could count the instances on their fingers. It was quite the sight to see her, the personification of selfishness, trying with so much fervor to cheer someone up.

“Leen?” the lad finally said.

“Yes?”

“Please either shut up or die.”

“What a heartless selection!”

After the lad had woken up, it had taken five more days for him to regain the ability to walk. In all honesty, it was impressive how quickly he had recovered. Young though this warrior may still be, his Sphere had clearly integrated well with him. Then after a few days of travel, we had finally arrived back at Esma, the town where the lad had made his home base.

The lad had expected to rejoin with his allies at the guild, but what was waiting for him instead was the businesslike announcement that they’d remove the record of his death now that they’d confirmed he wasn’t dead, followed by the tragic message that his party members had already left Esma. The week had come and gone as this warrior stayed missing after choosing to take on a hydra on his own—no one would expect him to be alive. Even when my lady had accepted the quest, she had considered the chance of his survival as slim.

The young lad had valiantly fought to allow his allies to escape. If you viewed things from another angle, you could say that the remaining three were cowards who had abandoned one of their own. This would quickly affect their standing in the adventuring world, so they must have decided to flee this town as soon as possible. It was a rational decision for them to find a new stomping ground.

“Ugh, I’m starting to get depressed watching you traipse around like a deceased living dead. Do you not know where they went?” my lady said.

“Huh? Deceased living dead? Isn’t that an oxymoron...?” the lad asked with all sincerity. He scratched his head before continuing, “We discussed heading to Clovel, the port town, once we got some money. But competition’s tough out there. Our team strategy was based on our two front liners protecting the rearguard, so I dunno how they’ll cope without me.”

“Maybe they’ve already found a new front liner.”

“I will smack you.”

“Bad Hakura! Violence is baaad! Anyway, I’ll pay, so eat whatever you like. Pardon me, waiter? Can I get another serving of this?”

My lady called out to a member of staff wearing a white apron, and the waiter approached, his ears pricked. He was a canine monster known as a kobold. Completely at odds with the orthruses from the other day (it was hard to fathom that they shared a common ancestor), the kobold made a little whining sound with his cute face, took our order, left the bill on the table, then bustled to the kitchen.

“Can they really understand human speech?” the lad asked.

“More or less,” my lady replied. “Kobolds are rather smart. Teach them and they’ll learn.”

Monsters could not exist where there was no mana. Humans could not exist where there was an abundance of mana. This meant that monsters and humans thrived in separate habitats. However, “weaker” monsters like kobolds could live even in human settlements with scarce mana; sometimes they lived among the population. Thus, although domesticated kobolds weren’t too rare a sight, the fact that one was working at a restaurant and could communicate with customers as well as do simple arithmetic meant that he had been quite well educated. Not as well as me though, mind you.

Anyway, let us leave that aside for now.

“Look! Mmm, yummy spareribs! Fill your stomach and forget your woes, as they say.”

“Are you really trying to cheer me up?”

“Even I feel a bit hurt if all my goodwill is thrown back in my face.”

My lady’s compassion was like a puddle in the desert; it would start running dry before too long. However, the lad’s anger came from elsewhere.

“I’m pissed because you’re buying all this food with the money I earned from slaying that damn hydra!”

After the young lad’s party rushed into the guild and reported that they had failed the hydra-slaying quest that they had accepted, it was filed away as such. In other words, the reward money was rescinded. The quest that the guild then issued in response to this was to check on the hydra and the missing adventurer (or rather, his dead body) which my lady took on and successfully completed. In other words, the recipient of their payout wasn’t the young lad but my lady who had brought him back.

To top it off, she had brought back a trophy from the hydra. Not a head, as those were far too large to haul, but a single eyeball as proof of its demise. She had said brazenly and conclusively: “It was wounded, so I was able to fell it. I would like payment for resolving this issue too. Oh, and with a bonus too since it was an abnormal hydra, thanks!” At the end of her haggling, she had claimed the bounty—or sixty percent of it—for the hydra that the young lad should’ve earned.

This wasn’t a minor instance of stealing someone else’s valor—no, it was daylight robbery. Someone with a normal moral compass wouldn’t do such a thing, but my lady’s was somewhat skewed compared to that of the general population.

“Come on, Hakura, you can only eat when you’re alive. Why not splash out a little?”

“And how do you not see that you being the one lecturing me about this only ticks me off more...”

“If I hadn’t gone to find you, you would’ve been gobbled up by orthruses by now. I’m the one who was kind enough to search for food, feed it to you, and look after you. What’s wrong with receiving a reward for that?”

“You could at least have a shred of guilt, dammit!”

The pair’s argument continued thusly for a little while longer. I was looking forward to receiving the bones from my lady’s spareribs when she was finished, but it looked like that would have to wait.

“All right, time to go,” my lady said after the meal.

“Oh, yeah? Take care,” the lad said, looking positively drained as he waved a hand. It seemed that he had yet to fully grasp just how brazen she was. I envied him.

“Stop being silly, Hakura. You’re coming too!”

“What’re you gonna make me do now?”

“Are you really going to try and go at it solo?”

“I’m telling you not to talk like you assume I’m gonna just up and follow you!”

A vein started to bulge on the lad’s forehead. My lady had a habit of speaking without consideration for the other person’s opinion. Conversations with her often ended up like this.

“Yes, but Hakura, I doubt any other party would welcome you after this incident.”

“Urk...”

My lady didn’t sugarcoat things, and it appeared she was correct. The lad tried to respond, but he just couldn’t seem to find the right words as his mouth merely flapped open and shut.

Adventurers were pack creatures. The typical party had four members, two at the absolute fewest, and numbers ballooning to dozens or even hundreds if they were with a large caravan or part of some greater community. The reason was risk reduction. Quests invited danger, so having more allies allowed adventurers to cover for each other. Many working together could often defeat a single foe.

Humans weren’t perfect, so they would task others with what they couldn’t do, task themselves with what others could not.

Adventurers were pragmatic folk who would put their lives on the line to fight monsters or dive into dungeons in pursuit solely of fame and riches. This absolute pragmatism led them to value efficacy and utility.

As a result, the guild would rarely give jobs with large rewards and sufficient risk to match to a solo adventurer (only in cases like my lady’s). If you were going solo, you’d typically be stuck doing unsatisfying, low-reward jobs such as delivering goods between towns, scaring off wild dogs, or checking up on defenses.

Adventurers were the arms and legs of the guild, so even losing a single one could be very damaging. The guild had therefore created a system by which adventurers were categorized and could be sorted into parties. Various plans were considered to increase the adventurers’ rate of survival and success so that parties might be disbanded after one job or maybe continue ad infinitum.

For the young lad, however, his party members were still alive, and so it was understandable that he wanted to rejoin them. As things stood, it would be difficult for him to join another party. Of course, it made logical sense for him to pair up with a party for the short term, but fostering a rapport of trust between comrades would be far from easy in such a brief relationship. Fights would erupt over payment splits and personal views on risk versus reward. My lady keenly knew this sore point and poked at it hard.

“I’m planning on going to the port town after clearing around three or so more quests. How about we form a temporary party until then?” she suggested.

After a long and pensive pause, the lad finally replied, “How are we splitting payment?”

“Me ninety, you ten.”

“Not even the shadiest crook would offer rates that crappy!”

I couldn’t help but agree. But my lady continued to smile as she went on.

“I’m just joking! Let’s see... How about eighty-twenty?”

“What the hell are you factoring in to deserve that much of the share?”

“Well, I can already clear just about any quest without you, Hakura.”

The lad let out a pained oof.

The majority of quests entailed defeating monsters. Whether to procure resources from where they lived, or whether to simply slay them, it was common for monsters to be fought for jobs. That was why adventurers stocked up on weapons, honed their skills, and trained before they went out. Being an adventurer meant battles to the death.

Then there was my lady, who could win over any monster, without question, without needing any combat capabilities. She didn’t need to fight, and she didn’t need to worry about failing any quest. Given her ability to deal with monsters on her own, anyone who journeyed with her ended up making no contribution to actually completing the quest, therefore their share of the reward was small.

All the same...

“Then you don’t need me,” the lad said.

His response was expected.

“I’m capable of handling monsters, yes, but I’m powerless when it comes to humans,” she replied. “And look, I’m just so young and cute. Plus, I have a great body too.”

The lad looked at her in exasperation before turning to me.

“Don’t bother, lad. This is just how my lady is.”

“So you’re asking me to be your bodyguard against bandits and the like?” he said after a short pause.

“Not only that. Setting up the campfire, carrying belongings, and staying on watch is easier with two people, no?”

My lady wanted more manpower. It was a logical request. The young lad, for his part, was a warrior—the responsibilities she was asking of him were things fledgling adventurers did.

“You’re askin’ me after all this to do stupid grunt work?! Hire a chore boy, dammit!”

His response was completely expected. I was a knight, so I understood how he felt—his pride must have been sorely hurt by what she said. My lady had a natural gift for angering people, made worse by the fact that her intentional jibes were always logical.

My lady stood in front of him and raised a finger.

“I know I already used a little today, but if you agree to come with me, I’ll give you the remainder of your payment for defeating the hydra. You need money, don’t you?”

This time, the lad froze up.

“While we’re together, I’ll pay for our lodging, food, and transport,” she went on. “If crooks attack me, then you’ll save me. If you do a good job, I’ll reconsider the payment split.”

In the fight with the hydra, the lad had lost all of his gear as well as his weapon—every adventurer’s lifeline. His face was frozen. I imagined he was weighing his pride with the utilitarianism of the situation.

He wasn’t a complete rookie, so he likely had some savings. If he cashed them in, he could hopefully get back on his feet. However, people usually saved money for a reason. Using all of it meant setting oneself back from that goal. Unfortunately for the lad here, a good weapon that could survive a beating was expensive. A weapon’s capabilities contributed significantly to one’s fighting ability, and one’s fighting ability played a huge role in whether one would survive. At the end of the day, there was nothing more valuable than your life.

The payment share that my lady offered was enough to buy a full set of gear with change to spare. It was sixty percent of an amount originally for a party of four. In other words, the reward that the lad would be getting was far more than he would’ve got originally.

“You know what...” he said.

“Yes?” she replied.

“Did you steal my paycheck just so you could make this deal?”

“I did!”

My lady wasn’t a heartless criminal, but she wasn’t a person of character either. In short, what she demanded was a thank-you for saving the lad’s life.

“All right. That’s fine.”

Reasonably speaking, the lad had come out on top here, but he didn’t seem too pleased about being led around by her. I understood how he felt and she was definitely doing this on purpose. He had every right to make that disgusted face, as if he were chewing on bugs.

“Then our negotiations are complete! I look forward to working with you, Hakura.”

On the other hand, my lady was positively jolly. Personally, I valued her mood more than the lad’s.

I was beginning to wonder when she would give me those bones, though...

◆

Buildings emblazoned with the logo of a crossed sword and staff were a common sight worldwide. Everyone called them the “guild,” but that was only a nickname. I didn’t know what the official name was. The guild was an international organization that supervised and managed adventurers—folk who made a living from the quests that the guild issued. With buildings dotted across the globe, the guild dispensed various quests daily to solve people’s problems, such as defeating monsters, procuring goods, protecting caravans, or simple physical labor.

Both Leen and I were adventurers, meaning that our lives revolved around the guild. We needed to obey orders from them; their policy was our policy. Despite these impairments, there was an incredibly high number of adventurers.

The biggest city in the area was Clovel, a port town to the east. Esma, where we were now, was a connector between Clovel and other places. From what I could remember, Clovel had a population of over thirty thousand. More people meant more problems and that also meant even more adventurers.

“Ugh, what a pain... If only something could get rid of about half of them,” Leen said.

“You scare me sometimes...”

Which is why, when we headed back to the guild after eating to pick up a new quest, we were met with a huge line of adventurers all with numbered tickets.

“Looks like about a thirty-minute wait. Why don’t you go check out some equipment? I can keep our place in line.”

“This is probably the place in town where the most crooks and thugs are. You sure you’re fine being alone?” I said.

Leen stood out. When we had been here earlier to get her payment and even now, people were snatching glances at her—leering gazes from half of them—from afar or when they passed by. I didn’t want to admit it, but she was one of the most beautiful people I’d ever seen. It’d been dark in the forest, so I couldn’t get a clear look at her, but out here in the light of day, I could see just how pretty she was.

Leen’s skin was pale, but not sickly pale, which was rare for adventurers, as they often got tans from working outdoors. Her hair, which I’d merely thought of as a bit unique, glittered like golden thread in the sunlight. It was surprisingly fine and bounced with each step she took, its smoothness evident at a glance. Most adventurers ended up covered in dirt and grime; I’d never seen any woman adventurer manage to keep their hair this well maintained.

Then, above all else, there were her large eyes. While I was trying my best to not look into them, I doubted there was a single other person who would refuse to face her and avert their gaze. That was how deep and dazzling those eyes were—it was as if they were imbued with a curse or something. I feared that if I stared too long into them, I’d lose every last part of my humanity and be ready to throw myself on the ground before her.

I wondered if they thought she was a noble daughter who, for whatever reason, was making a request of the guild. That made more sense based on her appearance. I’d believe it. Nothing aside from the emerald-green Sphere that glittered on the back of her right hand indicated that she was an adventurer. Actually, as a matter of fact, this was the first time I’d seen a Sphere of that color before.

While I may be complimenting her here, in our short time together I’d learned that her personality was undeserving of even a single compliment. It taught me that the heavens really did try to balance positives with negatives when making people.

“Hakura. You were thinking something incredibly rude, weren’t you?” Leen said.

“My lady, I believe that the lad and I were on exactly the same wavelength.”

“Really? That means...you must like me!”

“How the hell can you do a 180 to be that optimistic?!” I exclaimed.

If someone asked me if I liked or hated her, I’d choose the latter without a moment’s hesitation.

“D’aww, you’re making me blush!”

“Since meeting you, the number of times a woman has annoyed me enough that I genuinely wanted to smack her has far outnumbered what it was before.”

“If you’re going to be so insistent,” Leen said, leaning over and peering at me, “then say it while looking me in the eyes, okay?”

Dammit... I turned away. I couldn’t do it.

I snuck a side glance at Leen and saw that she had the most triumphant grin I’d ever seen.

“Anyway, where’d the slime go? Could’ve sworn I heard its voice just now.”

I was trying to change the topic, but I was genuinely curious. I hadn’t seen it since we left the restaurant, so I wondered if it had gone to the inn.

“I’m here, lad. Down here.”

“Where?”

“Here. Down here.”

As Leen said this, she spread open her cape and pulled down at the collar of her robe. I saw the valley between her pale breasts and immediately looked away. What was with this girl?

“Heh heh...”

Leen laughed at me with squinted eyes. She was messing with me.

“Oh, Hakura, you’re so adorable. Do you get all nervous when it comes to women?”

“Shut it.”

“Or maybe you’re a virgin?”

“Shut your trap! What about you, huh?!”

“I am a modest and virtuous young woman, to the delight of all my obsessive male fans.”

“I have so many objections, but who’re you calling virtuous...?”

“Anyway,” Leen said, changing the subject, maybe with some self-awareness that she had overstepped things, “Blue is here. I can’t exactly walk around town with him.”

Apparently the reason Leen had flashed me her cleavage wasn’t because she was a pervert, but to show me a necklace with a blue gem on it. It looked like a colored stone at first glance, but upon closer inspection I could see the movements of a liquid and two dots that were looking at me.

“I didn’t know you could get so small,” I remarked.

“I’m on low-energy mode, thanks to my lady.”

“Transmutation magic is a required subject for a wizard. Albeit I can’t use it on myself...”

“And you can use magic...?”

It made sense why she wanted a front liner now. Anyway, it would be annoying having to deal with nosy people if she came into the guild with a monster in tow.

“Whoa, it’s Hakura! You’re alive!”

“Hm?” I turned around after someone called out to me. “Oh, it’s you, Jiray.”

Jiray was a kid from Esma who worked at the guild doing miscellaneous tasks. I’d see him every time I came to the guild, so I got to know him a little. A lot of the more seasoned adventurers were middle-aged, which is why I think there were more chances for us to chat, as we were relatively close in age.

“What do you mean ‘oh, it’s you’? I was worried sick ’cause I heard you died out on a quest! Aglora and the others left town and all.”

“Where’d they go?”

Jiray knew me, which meant he knew my party too. However, he merely shook his head at my question.

“Dunno. But Clovel’s about the only place around here to go, no? Nothing good down south, plus the Unica Festival’s coming up.”

“Yeah...”

If I also considered them possibly leaving the continent, then Clovel was the only destination with departing ships.

“Anyway, Hakura, who’s the pretty girl with you? She your girlfriend?”

Jiray evidently cared more about Leen than my well-being. He had been sneaking glances over at her for a little while now.

“Hee hee, thank you. Your name’s Jiray?” Leen said.

“Sure is! I’m Jiray Esma. Nice to meetcha, beautiful lady.”

“And my name’s Leen. A pleasure to meet you too,” Leen replied before looking at me. “Did you hear that, Hakura? If you give me nice compliments then I won’t be grumpy or mean to you.”

“So you’re admitting that you’re grumpy and mean?” I said.

Apparently my opinion didn’t please O beautiful Miss Leen, for she ignored me.

“But I’m not his girlfriend,” she went on. “We’ve formed a temporary party.”

“Uh-huh, that makes sense... Hakura’s not a good enough man for you, Miss Leen.”

“Wanna take this outside, kid?” I said.

“I love how honest children are,” Leen said with a chuckle. She looked like she was on cloud nine after being fawned over and praised for her looks. I felt my own mood sinking. If anything else happened, I’d yank that bouncing hair of hers.

“Hey, don’t treat me like a kid! As of today, I’m an adventurer!” Jiray said, evidently displeased at how Leen regarded him, as he held up his bloody and bandaged right hand with some pride.

“You got a Sphere fitted?” I said.

“You bet I did! I finally got enough money. Took long enough!”

Spheres were oval-shaped gemstones, about four centimeters long, which were embedded into the back of your right hand. They proved you were an adventurer as well as marked your allegiance to the guild. They also played the biggest role in facilitating the guild’s expansion across the world to supersede national constraints.

A Sphere integrated itself into your nervous system, became a part of your body, and drastically increased your physical abilities. Your strength, dexterity, endurance, recovery, and reflexes improved, essentially making you superhuman. This created a world of difference between the haves and have-nots. Adventurers obtained sturdy bodies, which allowed them to swing weapons far too heavy for the average person, recover from lethal strikes from a monster’s claws, have heightened senses, and survive in extreme heat or cold. And some people, like Leen, could use magic.

Take one step outside of a town and a person would immediately be in danger of monster attacks. A Sphere gave them the strength to defeat these creatures that they wouldn’t have otherwise.

An unimplemented Sphere was clear and colorless, but once fitted, it would eventually change color depending on the holder. They could be red or blue, deep or pale, or even undergo more unique transformations. Apparently no two spheres held the same color, and the guild kept a record of every adventurer’s color along with their personal information. The guild could see where you became an adventurer, what jobs you’d taken, who you’d worked with, and what you could or couldn’t do.

Money management was also one of the perks of Spheres. Through the guild, you could withdraw any money you earned from anywhere in the world. This money was accessible to only the owner, aside from fringe cases like inheritance.

The production and development of this useful tool was kept a complete secret by the guild and they retained sole ownership of the rights. That meant that no matter the nation, if they wished to gain access to the benefits of a Sphere, they needed to cooperate with the guild.

Anecdote over.

In short, you needed a Sphere to become an adventurer. Despite their secret production methods, you could buy clear Spheres at any guild. Of course they were pretty expensive, but not outrageously so, as kids like Jiray could buy one after doing grunt work for long enough. A good sword was far more expensive. After obtaining a Sphere, you needed to cut a shallow opening in the back of your right hand, insert it, and then bandage up. After a few days, the Sphere would bond with the wound, finally making you an adventurer. Once it had acclimatized with your body, you would start to feel the physical changes.

“Is that right? You just got it fitted today, did you?” Leen said.

“Yep! It kinda hurt, but I’m tough so I was fine,” Jiray replied.

As Jiray beamed, Leen reached out and stroked his head while smiling warmly. Even the most rambunctious kids would blush upon being treated this way by an older pretty lady.

“Well done, kiddo. Good job!”

“I-I told you not to treat me like a kid!”

“My apologies.”

Jiray averted his eyes, cheeks bright red.

I pulled out the only personal item I had left to my name—a knife in an old sheath, which was still stowed safely in my pouch as it wasn’t used for combat—and handed it to Jiray.

“Hakura...?”

“It’s a parting gift. From me. You’ll have to buy a lot at the start, so try and save money where you can,” I said.

It wasn’t for fighting monsters, but it was a good knife regardless.

Jiray took it, and his momentary look of confusion turned into a beaming smile.

“Thanks so much, Hakura!”

The kid had his own dreams, his own goals he wanted to achieve as an adventurer.

We adventurers were pragmatists. We only did things that were to our own benefit—such was the ironclad rule—but even we coldhearted folk wanted to give a helping hand to newcomers taking their first foray into our field. Just as someone had done for us in the past, it was our responsibility as seniors to do so. After all...

“Hey, kid, didn’t realize it was your first day! Here, take this.”

An intimidating fighter gave Jiray a bag with a sandwich inside.

“Gah ha ha ha! Do your best out there, little man!”

The attendant at the register who never so much as broke a smile gave a loud guffaw.

“You got guts!”

“Would you like me to show you the ropes?”

Two women patted Jiray’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Jiray looks happy,” Leen said.

“That he does,” I replied.

The new adventurer was welcomed by his fellow senior adventurers, acknowledged by them, and given words of encouragement. With an embarrassed smile, he thanked everyone before leaving the guild.

“I hope he’ll be okay,” Leen said.

“Me too,” I replied.

After all, Jiray didn’t yet know what was going to happen to him.

When appointing someone as an adventurer, the guild would merely inform them about the pain from the incision and tell them to be patient until the Sphere settled and the effects finally began to show.

A Sphere connects itself to the nervous system of an adventurer. In other words, it creates new nerves that attach to the existing system. The result of that, in simple terms, is that it hurts like dying itself. In about half a day, Jiray would be assaulted by a burning sensation around his Sphere that would feel like his flesh and bones were melting, accompanied by an excruciating pain as if each of his pores had opened up and were sucking in acid. Over the course of the week, this sensation would spread all over his body. It wasn’t uncommon for people to die from the shock of it all. And if that weren’t bad enough, the physical transformation would put a heavy strain on his muscles and bones, bringing a full-body pain over several days that was far worse than any growing pains.

I, Leen, and the other adventurers had given Jiray not merely our congratulations, but something else—looks of pity, which he hadn’t picked up on. The reason we pragmatists did something that could only be deemed illogical was because we all knew the pain he would go through. This compassion was the least we could do for someone who was about to experience hell.

◆

I was broke. No, that wasn’t entirely true—I had a little money plus my savings—but I was still essentially penniless. What little I had would be gone after only two or three nights at the cheapest inn.

I just didn’t expect my regular weapon shop to have a mithril sword. To top it off, although it was a double-edged blade, it wasn’t completely symmetrical, leading to a discount due to the craftsperson’s own sense of pride. It was thirty percent cheaper than market price.

I had no choice but to jump on this deal, so I bought it. It was a bit shorter than average, but it fit my fighting style well so I appreciated it. I convinced myself that you couldn’t make any concessions when it came to your own safety.

Unfortunately, thanks to my big splash, my other gear ended up being a bit shoddy. I didn’t even get any armor, just some gauntlets, a cape, and some new clothes.

“I gotta make some money... Hey, bandits? Come attack us... Please...”

“Don’t look over here hoping they’ll come after me!”

Leen seemed disgruntled—understandably.

“So what quest did you take?” I asked.

When Leen finally reached the guild’s counter, she spent an entire hour deciding which quest she wanted, paying absolutely no heed to the crowd behind her.

People choosing which job to take was one of the reasons why the guild ended up getting so busy, but it only took ten minutes at most. Despite the positively prickly tension in the air, she had remained cool through it all. I, on the other hand, had been so nervous, wondering who would throw the first punch, that I didn’t see what she ended up going for. Well, she spent ages deliberating, so she must have picked something good. After all, with Leen, we could take on even the fiercest of monsters and receive a worthy payout for it...

“A quest to exterminate some kobolds,” she answered.

“You better be kidding, or I will murder you, so help me out.”

Leen sighed. “I didn’t realize you were so picky about jobs, Hakura.”

“Well, tell me why the hell I have to go and defeat some stupid kobolds!”

If I said that kobolds were pretty low down the food chain, maybe you would understand just how weak they were. As long as you had a sturdy piece of wood, you could kill one—no need for a Sphere. As seen with the one that was working in the restaurant, kobolds were pretty smart, and these “domesticated” ones could be spotted from time to time in bigger towns. Although you needed permission and the right forms to enter places with them, they were far smarter than dogs and quite helpful. They were a rare breed of monster that existed as a reliable and friendly neighbor to people.

At any rate, a village that had a local watch wouldn’t have to worry about wild kobolds.

They were mild-mannered and cowardly monsters that, at the sight of a human, would rather run than attack. They were smart, so they knew that they were weaker than people. The reason the guild put out quests to eliminate kobolds was because they sometimes ransacked fields in search of food. As I said, they were smart, so the usual monster-prevention methods or traps didn’t work on them.

They were tricky monsters that didn’t threaten people’s lives so much as their way of life.

Which is why I shouted, “This job’s for total rookie adventurers!”

“Yes. Usually,” Leen replied with a pensive expression. If this girl was able to think, then I imagined something must be giving her cause for concern.

“You were thinking something rude just now,” she added.

“Nope.”

“Anyway, they’re acting strangely.”

“Which means?”

“These kobolds have been attacking people.”

One full day of walking from Esma could be cleared in a quarter of the time with a carriage. We were heading to Rydea, the village that had sent the quest, which was famous for...

“Look at those orchards.”

The slime was literally wrapping its blue body around one of the bright-red fruits from Rydea. I could see the skin of the fruit dissolving before my very eyes.

“Wow! Think we can take as many as we like?” Leen said.

“You still have room for more after all you ate?” I replied.

Leen had eaten three portions of spareribs, four pieces of bread that required two hands to hold, and now she was chowing down on some fruit as she spoke. I was a big guy, but even I couldn’t eat that much. What was going on with her stomach?

“Are you really saying that? I merely went through a period of time where I couldn’t eat as much as I liked, that’s all.”

“My lady always eats this muc— Gwegh!”

Leen sat down, putting her full weight onto the slime (in the middle of its meal). She didn’t bounce right off, so I supposed it made for the ideal cushion...?

“And we’re traveling by carriage,” I said. “You sure you’re not gonna gain weight?”

“D-Do you have no manners whatsoever?!”

“If you want me to be polite, then at least act like you’re deserving of it.”

“You...! I’m fine! I’ll burn it off with exercise.”

“If you ask me, you weigh more than you did be— Bwugh!”

Leen adjusted her sitting posture, causing the slime’s death throes to come out in return.

“I’m fine. Plus, any food goes straight here,” Leen claimed as she crossed her arms with pride, her breasts—draped in her billowing cape—rising above them. She looked at me with a face that said, “How about that?” All I could respond with was a huge sigh.

“I wish you’d act a bit cuter, you know...”

“Ngh?! Says the one who took one glance at them and went bright red just this afternoon!”

“I need to thank you for really lowering my expectations of women in the short time we’ve known each other.”

“What do you know about me after only ten days?!”

“That you’re grumpy, rude, and a glutton. I know that much, 110 percent.”

“Excuse you?! Blue, I have an order for you! Punish this foul man!”

“Uh, your slime’s currently being crushed by you.”

“B-Blue?! What is going on? Hakura! How dare you!”

“It’s literally all your fault!”

With no one else in the carriage, our discussion ended up getting rather heated. The carriage driver, listening to us, let out a raucous laugh.

“Gah ha ha! You two really get along, huh? You’re like a little comedy duo,” he said.

“Ngh... If you’re watching and laughing, then you owe us a tip!” Leen said.

“How can you be so cheeky all the time...?” I said.

“Listen to me, Hakura. If you want to be like me, you first have to understand that the world revolves around you.”

“Lad, she’s being utterly serious.”

“I realized...”

Apparently the guy couldn’t hold it in anymore and spent a good ten seconds laughing as he slapped his knee.

“What type of place is Rydea?” Leen asked. Considering the situation, it was quite a natural segue into a conversation. The driver took one of the fruits from his carriage—something he was going to sell, most likely—and bit into it before talking.

“Hm? Oh, it’s a peaceful little place. People are friendly and the food’s good. You get some real good fruits around here—sweet things called eriché—so the cider they make is also pretty damn sweet, but it’s real popular.”

“Ooh, cider! I didn’t realize they had that too. Hopefully we can find a good inn.”

“You really think about nothing but food...”

“Rude! The quest is my focus. With a local quest like this one, they’ll be bound to give us some local produce as a reward for fixing things up for them.”

“That better not’ve been why you picked this quest...”

Leen turned away and started pretend whistling. This girl...

“But yeah, Rydea’s really been going through it,” the man went on. “They’d just got through a real busy period, and now they’re dealing with monsters? As you said, girlie, I’d be real glad if things could get sorted out.”

“A busy period? What happened?”

“Well, y’see, this year’s Unica Festival is being held three months earlier, so they needed to harvest their fruit to ship off to Clovel earlier too. The fruit ain’t fully ripe, though, so they couldn’t get as much produce at as good a quality as they wanted. The adults and even the kids were going all around the forest outside the village grabbing what fruit they could and shipping it off. I’d been going back and forth between Esma and Rydea myself for the past little while.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a tough time.”

“I thought every last adventurer was heading to Clovel. You two go against the grain, huh?”

“Well, I’d like to be there as soon as possible too...”

I glared over at the reason we’d ended up in Rydea, but Leen had a hand on her chin with her eyebrows raised pensively.

“Hmm... The worst-case scenario is possible...” she muttered.

“What’s that mean?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing. We should look around first when we get there.”

Leen tossed the fruit’s core out of the carriage. Birds flocked down from the sky to peck at its remains.

From afar, I could see a two-meter-high wall made of wood and stone. It didn’t look like a reliable defense against monsters, but it would suffice for the monsters that dwelled around here. It had to have, otherwise another monster-extermination quest would’ve popped up before the one for the kobolds.

The gate opened for us. The guard looked exhausted, but his face lit up when the driver told him that he’d brought along some adventurers.

Everywhere I looked, I could see rows of vibrant fruit-filled trees. All of them held erichés, and it seemed like the village itself was part of the orchard. The fruit here looked far tastier than the ones used in the puree Leen had given me.

The driver would spend one night in Rydea for his work and said we could hitch a ride back with him if we finished up our quest before he left tomorrow. That meant we couldn’t afford to sit around twiddling our thumbs, so we quickly headed to where the village chief lived.

“A pleasure to meet you. I am Dego Chief Rydea.”

The one who came out to greet us was an old man. Even though he was at least in his sixties, he stood with a ruler-straight back. The fact that he had the title of “chief” in his full name meant that this Dego was, naturally, the village chief. That revealed to us that the quest hadn’t come from any individual in the village, but rather the village as a whole.

“A pleasure. I am Leen and this is Hakura. We have come from the guild to fulfill the quest.”

Leen did a curtsy. I looked at her with shock. Who knew she could act so politely?

“You seem, uh, rather young,” the chief noted awkwardly.

No, that was an understatement. He was belittling us. But I didn’t blame him; we were a party consisting of a lady with a slime in her arms and a young guy. Adventurers could avoid being judged too much on appearance thanks to our Spheres, but your average villager didn’t know that.

Even if I was aware of that, I wasn’t sure about Leen—but when I looked over at her, she still had a simple smile. Even though she didn’t hold back when talking to me, it seemed she had the common sense to at least follow social norms for the person who issued a quest.

“Do not worry. I am a specialist when it comes to monsters, and Hakura here is a skilled warrior who single-handedly slew a hydra. Please be at ease—as if you were safely traveling via airship.”

The village chief eyed her incredulously, but we had already come this way. It didn’t matter how he felt—we were the only ones he could rely on right now.

“Shall we discuss the details of the quest? From what I have read, the kobolds around here have attacked people, is that right?”

At Leen’s encouragement, the village chief nodded and ushered us to sit down.

In short, the story was this.

Kobolds had lived outside of Rydea for a long time. The villagers hadn’t bothered them much and they had existed in peaceful cohabitation—the kobolds never entered the village and wouldn’t so much as approach it even if the villagers were working outside its perimeter. Sometimes a young, curious kobold would make use of their dexterity to climb over the village wall, but they would often freeze up when they found themselves surrounded by people. No injuries occurred during these episodes, but it was a bit of a hassle to escort the kobold out of the village.

Other incidents included one time a few years ago when the villagers had needed to dump a lot of their fruits—there had simply been a surplus despite how many were preserved into jams or made into ciders—and the kobolds had snuck off with everything. That night, the villagers had been kept awake by their howling deep in the forest, but a few days later, the kobolds had left a pile of beautiful stones where the fruits had been—or so the story went.

Once a baby kobold had been abandoned—the villagers never found out why—and had been raised by the village before being released back into the forest. At any rate, the villagers and the kobolds lived side by side.

However, that relationship had changed recently. About two weeks ago, some kobolds, with terrifying looks on their faces, had attacked some people on sight. No one knew why. Regardless, the villagers realized that they couldn’t just take these attacks sitting down. They formed a hunting squadron—well, five adults armed with farming tools—and went out, thinking it would be an easy job.

Only two returned. Three had gotten lost when their party was attacked and were still missing; odds of their survival were low. One had had his throat torn out in front of one of the survivors. As one survivor looked back while running away, he witnessed the kobold eating the body.

The two survivors said they had never seen kobolds act in such a violent, savage manner before. It was frightening how little fear they showed in front of the villagers.

“We have lived alongside the kobolds for generations,” Dego said. “We have never overstepped each other’s boundaries, never tried to take each other’s land. Aside from the occasional accident that happens between neighbors. But this? As the village chief, I needed to decide on a response.”

The village chief had a pained expression. It was clear that he didn’t want to do this.

I glanced over at Leen. She was deep in thought, hand on her chin. I was surprised that she possessed a brain capable of such high-level function. As I stared at her, she glared at me, as if reading my thoughts. She was amazingly sensitive to criticism...

“May I ask something?” Leen said.

“Yes, anything,” Dego replied.

“From what you’ve said, the kobolds’ staple food are the wild erichés. Now, the carriage driver who took us here told me that you hadn’t been able to harvest as many fruits as usual for the Unica Festival. Due to that, everyone in the village went outside the village to make up for the shortage. Is that right?”

We had only just heard this story, but it was clear to me what Leen was trying to say: “Isn’t it your fault that the kobolds are struggling for food?” This was the logical conclusion. It made sense that a normally docile creature would suddenly turn violent and attack people if they didn’t have enough to eat.

Dego shook his head. He didn’t seem too bothered, almost as if he had expected this line of questioning. “Yes, it is true that the festival will be earlier this year, and we had to venture beyond our part of the forest. This is something that has only happened a scant few times in Rydea’s history. However, we are well aware that we are benefiting from the bountiful harvest of the kobolds’ forest. We are well aware of what she gives us. We never did anything like pick every fruit from a single tree. We made sure to leave enough fruit for them. We only took a small portion of the forest’s bounty.”

“Is that right?” Leen said. “Well, the trees we saw on our way here seemed full of fruits.”

“Indeed. Our village’s erichés have been bred over generations to produce a splendid crop, but even the fruits that grow in the wild are exceptionally bountiful and grow quickly. They say that the water quality must be good around here.”

Despite Dego proudly recounting stories about his village’s crop, he seemed gloomy somehow.

“So, you want us to just kill every kobold we see?” I asked.

“I do. I want you to cull them so that they will no longer harm our village. The guild should have already told you what I can offer for this. You came all this way, so I’ll treat you to some local dishes and make sure you have somewhere to stay.”

“Ooh, food!” Leen said.

“No hesitation when it comes to that...” I muttered.

Dego had an expression that was halfway between a smile and an exasperated frown, but he didn’t comment. All he said was, “We raise our chickens on erichés so their meat is ever so slightly sweet. Our local specialty is to sprinkle some simple herbs and salt and bake them in an oven.”

“All right! Let’s go clean up shop, Hakura.”

“The weirdest things fire you up...”

“What? No, no, I was always at one hundred percent—now I’m just at one hundred twenty!”

Throughout the entire conversation, Dego never once asked us if we were capable of hunting down the kobolds. He knew how easy a target they were for adventurers.

Villages that were located near thriving towns were pretty active in their own right. They had inns for travelers, local delicacies to draw in tourists, and various other things that visitors could spend their money on. Rydea was the sort of village where their unique selling point was a pretty powerful hook, but as we walked around, the atmosphere was positively somber. I wasn’t sure if this was because they’d just finished up the big job of delivering huge amounts of their stock to the festival or because they were uncertain of when their once-docile neighbor might show up at their door ready to take them down.

“To double-check, we are dealing with kobolds, right?” I said. “Just to let you know, I won’t be happy if we end up having to deal with werewolves instead.”

A common cliché of failing quests was having to confront a stronger monster than you expected. I’d never seen a real werewolf before; only heard of them from a poet.

Leen’s outtake of breath—which sounded like she was mocking me—was answer enough.

“If werewolves lived around here, there wouldn’t be a village left to visit,” she said. “Anyway, werewolves don’t eat humans in most cases. They are not very tasty.”

“Is that right...”

That was a fact I didn’t want to learn. I hoped it would never come in handy.

“Wait, in most cases?” I said.

“The Serenia Pack who live in the northern continent of Altarina hunt humans as part of their coming-of-age ceremony.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll make note not to take one on.”

“You’ll be fine, Hakura. Go, go, Hakura.”

“I don’t need your half-hearted cheerleading. And anyway, you don’t know how strong I am.”

“Strong enough to defeat a three-headed hydra all by yourself,” Leen said with a teasing smirk.

I scratched my head in response. “I don’t actually remember how I beat it. I think it was some kind of miracle, and I beat it by the skin of my teeth.”

I’d been fighting for my life, doing all I could not to die. I knew it seemed ridiculous, but the fact was the hydra had been dead. I must’ve beaten it—that was the only logical conclusion.

“It might’ve been a miracle, but I think it’s rather incredible that you managed to beat it even if you ended up immobile afterward. From what I know, hydras aren’t the sort of monster humans can take on with a sword alone.”

“Well, we had an axe, a bow, and magic too...”

Our party had been pretty orthodox, with an axefighter, swordfighter, archer, and wizard. I was also pretty confident that we worked well as a team.

“Allow me to rephrase that,” Leen said. “A hydra isn’t the sort of monster that humans should take on. What led you to accept that quest? It was just a hydra deep in the forest—couldn’t you have left it alone?”

“Why else do adventurers brave danger? For fame and fortune.”

“You don’t seem like that type of adventurer, so that’s why I ask.”

I wanted to snap back with, “What do you know about me?” but I knew it would just devolve into another petty argument, so I bit my tongue.

“Even if I’m not, I needed to follow the majority opinion of our party. Plus...”

“Plus?”

“Nothing,” I said after a momentary pause. I was about to tell her that I wasn’t sure if that hydra had even been born via natural means, but at this point it didn’t matter.

“Hmm...” Leen muttered. “I’m not too interested in your rank, but do you mind telling me anyway, for reference?”

An adventurer’s rank was a simple method for the guild to tally how strong an adventurer was in their category. You were sorted into various classes by what you could do: fighter, brawler, archer, and healer. For adventurers who had various skills, they were sorted based on their best one.

There were eight ranks, G at the bottom and S at the top.

Rank was what decided the scale and rewards of the quests you could take on. It was also impossible to fake, as your Sphere was used to verify your rank with the guild’s records.

Ranks G to D were for fledgling adventurers. Anyone who reached C rank, was considered a decent adventurer; about seventy percent of adventurers were this rank. Just under thirty percent were the skilled and experienced folk in B rank. Veterans, in other words. You didn’t meet many people who were A rank. At that point, you were a seasoned veteran with name recognition. Adventurers craved fame, fortune, and prestige, so A rank was usually the ultimate goal for most of them. Only a few S-rank adventurers existed in the entire long history of the guild, and they were practically legends.

Second anecdote over.

“I’m a B+ rank fighter. You got a problem with that?”

I was in the “just under thirty percent” group. There were other things aside from my combat abilities that were being graded here, but we could forget about that for now.

“I see... So you are strong then, Hakura. I’m glad that I’ll have such a reliable person around.”

“Why! The hell! Did you! Hire me! As your bodyguard?!”

“Dunno, just felt like it...”

“You ‘just felt like it’?! And now I have to cater to your every whim?! Put yourself in my shoes for a moment!”

Hunting kobolds was perfect for G-rank adventurers. This was the sort of quest that rookies like Jiray could handle. It should be clear why I was flipping my lid right now.

Leen chuckled. “Looks like I can take it easy. I can leave all the bloody work to you, Hakura!”

“Well, that was the agreement, but, ugh... It ticks me off hearing you phrase it like that. By the way,” I said, glaring at the emerald-green Sphere on Leen’s hand. “What’s your rank?”

She wasn’t a frontline fighter, and she didn’t seem like a healer or wizard either... She was able to transmute her slime, but I doubted her magic had any combat capabilities. So what was she classed as?

“It’s a secre— Wagh!”

I couldn’t stop myself from reacting before Leen finished speaking. Of course, she wasn’t showing any ill will toward me, but just seeing her wink and act all cutesy yet again, I couldn’t let it slide. My hand moved with a will of its own and grabbed her head. Thanks to her head being so small, I was able to get a good grasp. If I put all my energy into it, I could even crush her skull.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!”

“Whoa! How could I? My hand moved of its own accord!”

“Are you listening?! That hurts!”

“I’m sorry, Leen. The girl in front of me was just really getting on my nerves...”

“My head! Owie, owie!”

“My lady, please! You don’t want people to stare!”

“Please stop this!”

“Tell me your rank!”

“Let goooo first!”

Oh yeah. I hadn’t grabbed her consciously, so naturally I hadn’t let go of her yet. I had a bad habit of losing my temper. It was something I needed to watch out for. Leen had sacrificed herself to teach me this valuable lesson. I felt a smattering of gratitude for her and my grip tightened.

“This isn’t— Wagagagack!”

I was satisfied with myself for being able to feel this way. In fact, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to thank her—I was thinking it, after all.

“Leen... Thanks.”

“Wagagagagagh...”

“Because of you, I remembered something important.”

“Lad! Listen to me, lad! Please let her go! She’s making sounds a lady of her age should not be making!”

The slime was most correct. I released her.

As soon as she was free, Leen lifted her staff up with incredible speed and swung it at me with all the power she could muster. A dull sound echoed. The staff was made of wood, but it seemed tougher than appearance would suggest. I blocked her blow with my scabbard and we were locked in a push.

Leen was panting with incredible intensity.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take that long! You were just so annoying, but please, I’m really sorry, so stop looking at me like that!”

Leen’s green eyes were bloodshot and glazed with anger. She had a demonic look to her. Her arms weren’t too muscular, but with the boost her Sphere provided, they were a deadly weapon. If her staff had hit me on the head, I might have been in danger. I needed to defuse the situation. I was an adult, after all.

“Your thoughts are on full display.”

“Stop reading my mind,” I said to the slime.

After Leen and I glared at one another for a while, she decided she wasn’t winning the battle and took a step back.

“I’ll be eating your chicken at dinner tonight!” she said with a huff.

“Making amends through food? That’s just like you.”

“I won’t ever forget this, you hear me?!”

“And you really hold grudges against anyone who’s slighted you...”

“I’ll forgive you for making me look down on you, so be grateful!”

“You have a weird way with words...”

I’d never heard of this kind of logic before.

Thus, our pointless little spat was over. But I hadn’t forgotten that she had breached adventurers’ etiquette by not giving her rank after asking someone else’s. It was like not telling someone your name after asking them for theirs, so I wasn’t completely in the wrong. Funnily enough, both of these had been done to me.

“So. What’s your rank?”

I flashed my hands to Leen, indicating that I might actually crush her head this time if she avoided the question any longer, and she let out a trickle of sweat before giving a heavy sigh.

“EX. There’s no ‘monstermancer’ category in the guild, after all,” Leen said.

EX referred to someone who was uncategorizable or nonstandard. It was a rank given by the guild when they didn’t know where to place someone. It made sense for Leen who despite her (seemingly) low combat abilities was not the foe of any monster.

“You really are a unique case,” I said.

I had finally received a satisfactory answer, so I decided to end this discussion. We had to get to the real matter at hand.

With the big scene we’d caused, I didn’t notice that someone had been watching us the whole time. In hindsight, I realized that we could have saved ourselves a lot of pain if only we’d dealt with it at the time.

◆

Because it was used by the villagers, the forest was far more well-maintained than you might imagine from the word. It even had a main path going through it. Of course, a number of animal trails cut through it, but the terrain was far smoother than where that hydra had lived.

“The mana is thin here. Makes sense considering that the villagers head out here to collect fruits,” I said.

Just as humans need oxygen to survive, monsters need mana to survive. The stronger the monster, the more mana required. If the air was thick with mana then you would likely run into strong monsters and vice versa—monsters tended to avoid places with little mana. They wouldn’t immediately die, but the risks were too great. Apparently it was similar to how we humans suffered from altitude sickness when climbing tall mountains.

It was almost inevitable that human settlements ended up in places with thin mana and few monsters. Well, apart from the kobolds—“weak” monsters who could live alongside people in the forest near their village.

“First time I’ve heard about kobolds attacking people, though,” I muttered as I used my scabbard to hack at the vegetation in the way. That was just how harmless (directly at least) kobolds were to humans. It would’ve made more sense if hungry kobolds had stolen the fruits from the orchard, but apparently that wasn’t the case in Rydea.

“Hakura, do you know what kobolds eat?” Leen asked.

I thought for a moment. Kobolds were pretty common monsters. Like I said before, you’d spot domesticated ones in town every now and then. Yet I’d never seen any of them actually eating. I assumed they would eat meat.

“Meat, I guess?”

“You’re half correct.”

“How can I be half correct?”

“Some kobolds eat meat. Some eat fruit.”

I wasn’t sure exactly what she was getting at. I gave Leen a puzzled expression and she pondered for a moment.

“Simply put, kobolds are omnivores. They eat anything with nutrients—obviously you won’t find them eating dirt or anything like that. They’ll eat meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, berries, roots, and so on. Of course, their diet isn’t as wide-ranged as slimes’ are.”

Leen looked at the slime in her arms.

“I see,” I said, also looking at the slime in Leen’s arms.

“If you have something you wish to say, then say it.”

Putting aside the champion omnivore—able to eat even inorganic things like metals or even poisons—we returned to the matter at hand.

“However, kobolds’ dietary habits are quite singular, and that’s one of the primary reasons why they can be domesticated so easily. Hakura, have you heard of ‘imprinting’?” Leen said as she raised a finger.

I wasn’t terribly interested, but it beat whacking through the undergrowth in silence, so I decided to play along to kill the time.

“Uh, isn’t that where chicks think the first thing they see is their mom or something?”

“Yes, that’s a type of imprinting. For birds, it’s to stop the chicks from leaving their parents’ side. For kobolds, it’s similar but different. You see, the first thing a baby eats after being born, and anything like it, becomes their staple food for the rest of their life. For example,” Leen said, pointing at the fruits above us, before continuing, “if a kobold ate an eriché first, then they would only eat fruit. Kobolds have evolved to be able to adapt to the food that is readily available in their environment. Their organs change to be able to digest it. They physically cannot digest anything that is outside of that category.”

“What do you mean by category?”

“It’s a rough grouping, but if we take our kobold that ate an eriché first, then they would just about be able to eat vegetables as well as fruit. But they wouldn’t be able to eat meat or fish. They’d throw it back up. This evolutionary quirk has meant that they are efficient at absorbing the nutrients of what they eat, so they don’t excrete much and have small appetites. Of course it does vary among individuals.”

“Huh. Weird little guys.”

They can eat anything right after being born, but once they do eat something, they can’t eat anything else.

“That’s why kobolds don’t tend to attack humans,” Leen said.

“But people have been attacked here,” I replied.

“The reason the kobolds had never been interested in humans until now was because they didn’t view them as food. In other words, if kobolds have started to attack humans with the aim of eating them, then something has occurred to alter their eating pattern.” Leen counted on her fingers as she continued, “Kobolds breed all year round. Only two or so are born in each litter, but the gestation period is only one month. They are weak monsters, so they become easy targets for animals or other monsters. They survive by giving birth often.”

One of the laws of nature was that the strong eat the weak. The weak kobolds had developed that answer in response to this law. Thinking about it now, humans were the foremost animals who did the same thing. The amount of mana varied from place to place, but it existed all over the world and was poisonous to humans.

“Usually a kobold will give its child the food that it eats, which means that the eating habits are passed on,” Leen went on. “However, if there is some kind of food-related issue when the child is born, then they may find a new staple food.”

“In other words...”

“Yes,” Leen said, answering my thought. “If a kobold that eats humans gives birth, then that child will also learn to eat humans too.”

I finally understood why Leen had taken on this job.

It bore repeating, but kobolds weren’t all too dangerous. Some people might not even classify them as monsters, as they were about as dangerous as a hungry, wild animal. However, just like any living thing, kobolds needed to eat. If they were thrust into an environment where they couldn’t do that, then they would search for food with intense desperation.

If Leen’s explanation was correct, then even if a human-eating kobold had come into being through luck, this trait would be continuously passed down to their young. Kobolds bred quickly. If they continued to multiply at the rate they did, then things would get out of hand.

“My lady, what will you do this time?”

Leen still made a difficult expression at the slime’s question. She hummed for a moment before saying, “I’d like to be able to take the middle ground, but I just don’t know how things go with humans.”

○

“Hakura, Hakura!”

“What?”

“Grab that for me!”

“How much are you gonna eat?!”

My lady was pointing at a particularly red and ripe eriché. The other trees were filled with fruits, but this one was at the end of a drooping branch. It was just about low enough to be able to pick with a tool and no ladder.

“Use your own staff to knock it down. It’s long enough!” the lad said, looking at my lady’s staff. It was a fine item with a large gemstone embedded at its tip. It was every bit as expensive as it looked.

“Excuse me? You’re asking me to use a family heirloom of the honorable Lingreen line to knock down fruits?” my lady replied.

It would be prudent to point out that during the short time my lady had known the young lad and even long before then, she had been using her honorable staff, Emerarylle, to strike at branches and clear undergrowth.

“I didn’t buy my sword to knock down fruit either!”

“You miserly man!”

“It is low enough that you could jump and grab it,” I pointed out.

“Isn’t it a bit more embarrassing to be jumping up to grab fruits at your age?” the lad said.

“Fine, fine. You leave me no choice but to never ask for your help again, Hakura. You suck!”

“How old are you...?”

As my lady said this, she started touching the tree’s trunk. I was well aware that she didn’t know the meaning of the words “give up.” If you tried to find them in her personal dictionary, you would only see the words “tenacity” and “perseverance.”

“What are you—”

Before the lad could finish his sentence, a sharp crack filled the air. My lady had given the tree a good kick. There was a rumble, a rustling of thin leaves, then the tree itself let out a cry. Birds of all sizes scattered from the branches. The tree had been shaken by a kick from an adventurer—branches and fruit began to rain down. There was an indentation where my lady had kicked the poor tree. This was a little too much.

“Yaaay! Look at all the fruit!”

“Why the hell did you do that?!”

“Huh? I had to resort to natural destruction because a certain someone wouldn’t help me out!”

“Don’t you dare blame me! You’re the one who disturbed the peace and quiet of this place!”

The young lad watched my lady pick up a single piece of fruit from the countless that had fallen and clean it on the hem of her skirt. He could only slump his shoulders. This was a good opportunity, so I decided to indulge in one too. Nice and red, it had ripened sufficiently and was in the perfect condition to eat.

Eriché grew and ripened quickly. Over the span of one year, depending on the weather, they could be harvested every three to four months. With multiple harvests each year, the situation must have been quite dire to have resulted in a poor harvest for the villagers of Rydea. However, ripening quickly meant that they rotted quickly too. Eating a fresh eriché was a luxury you could only enjoy nearby. Often they were salted, sugared, or dried—most of the work that the Rydean villagers did was after harvesting. This was something we could only indulge in now.

“Hakura, what are you doing?” my lady said.

“Huh?”

My lady had picked me up mid-meal and moved into the undergrowth nearby. She crouched down as she gathered something and put it in the bag on her waist.

“Don’t just stand there! Come over here,” she said.

“Why do I have to listen to someone who acts so haphazardly?”

The young lad obviously didn’t understand what my lady was trying to get at, but he obeyed anyway. He entered the undergrowth and looked back from a distance at the tree she had kicked.

“So. What’re we doing here?” he asked.

“Just watch. Oh, do you want one, by the way?”

“Sure,” he replied after a short pause. He then bit into the fruit. “Ugh... This is really good...”

“It’ll rehydrate you, so that’s two birds with one stone! Aha, look—one has come.”

“Hm?”

Before my lady finished eating her second fruit, the monster came. Peering around and walking with light steps was a kobold. From its size, it was probably fully grown.

The young lad nodded with admiration as he looked at my lady.

“I see now. You wanted to draw out the kobolds.”

A number of fruits had split when they hit the ground, sending a sweet fragrance wafting out. The kobold scanned its eyes around as it gingerly reached out for a fallen eriché with a quivering paw.

“All right, time to hunt,” the lad said, hand on his sword. Just as he was about to stand up, my lady grabbed his arm in a panic.

“Hold on! What are you about to do?” she hissed.

“What’s it look like? I’m going to hunt that kobold,” he hissed back.

“You’re barbaric! A barbarian! Just be quiet and watch!”

The lad complied with a sour expression. As we watched, the kobold picked up a bunch of fruit in both arms and carefully made its way back on the path it came.

“Okay, let’s tail the kobold,” my lady said, standing up once the creature was out of sight. The lad nodded in assent.

“I get ya,” he said. “We’re going to find out where they live, then exterminate them all. I shouldn’t have expected less from a seasoned pro.”

“No! No, no, no! You barbarian!”

“Huh?! Then why’d you just watch it leave?!”

“Please shove a little bit of common sense into that empty brain of yours! I said that kobolds have a fixed staple food! A kobold that’s collecting fruit won’t eat people!”

“Yeah, I remember that, but...”

“So why go full-on barbarian swordsman, then?! Meathead.”

“Enough with the barbarian crap! And anyway, this stuff’s pointless.”

“Excuse me?” my lady said, pulling as confused a face as the lad had moments ago.

“The quest is to exterminate the kobolds—not find out why they’re attacking people. If we don’t kill them all, then the quest is as good as failed.”

The villagers didn’t care why there had suddenly been an outbreak of man-eating kobolds. The reason was simple: It wouldn’t be a problem once all the kobolds were wiped out. The young lad had a point. Adventurers were pragmatic types—they wouldn’t do anything pointless or resort to any unnecessary measures. They would only do what their quest asked of them and only stick their necks into business they were tasked with. They operated on a completely different standard than my lady.

“My job is to maintain a balance,” she said.

“What’s that mean?”

“To maintain a balance between people and monsters. My role is a neutral arbiter, and I cannot be swayed in one direction or the other.”

“Says who?”

“My role, I suppose.”

The lad scrunched up his face. He looked at me, seeking an explanation. I understood how he felt. Nothing the lad had said was technically wrong.

“Listen, I want you to do as I say,” my lady went on. “Don’t attack any kobolds, okay?”

The one in the wrong was my lady—at least according to human logic.

“Fine. You are my employer, so sure.”

The lad didn’t look like he was fully on board, but it would be unpragmatic to defy his employer. I wondered if the way he scratched at his white hair was a tick.

“So how’re we going to chase that kobold? It’s already vanished,” he said.

“I can follow its tracks.”

My lady squatted down and examined the earth. She was identifying which areas of the ground and grass had pawprints on them. Not even ten seconds had passed before she gave a look to the young lad and started walking. She must have figured out where the kobold had gone.

“This ability helped me out when I was looking for you too, Hakura. Amazing, huh?”

“Well, thanks.”

“Did you say that with any actual gratitude?”

“That ran out long ago.”

◆

I needed to slow my pace a little to match Leen’s gait. We were following tracks that even she was having some difficulty spotting, and that meant we walked for a solid ten minutes without making all that much progress.

“Hmm, I think that’s the place,” Leen said, pointing at a dead end—a cliff face. It looked to be about three meters high. I could probably scale it if I tried, but Leen wasn’t pointing at the top—she was pointing at the ground. It didn’t seem like there was anything there to me.

“Where?” I said.

“Wait a second. I’m just checking.”

Leen looked around us, cleared at the brush, and stared up at the tree branches. It appeared to me like she was just acting at random, but I assumed there was a method to the madness. There was nothing for me to do.

“You find my young lady’s actions strange, do you not?”

I wondered if the slime would’ve been in the way, because it had approached my feet.

“Not too strange. She’s just looking for tracks, right?” I said.

“I’m not referring to that. Why do you think that she took on a quest to eliminate kobolds?” The slime and I watched Leen, who had stopped to think about something, before it went on, “Kobolds appeared that ate people. They breed quickly and they’re tricky because they pass on their eating habits. However, that is all. If you think about it, this problem will sort itself out eventually without our assistance.”

“If Leen’s explanation’s correct, then I don’t think it’ll be that easy.”

“It is that easy. That’s why my lady decided to come out here, I think.”

The slime shook its body. I wondered if this was how slimes sighed...

“It’s as you say, lad. This sort of quest doesn’t need an adventurer such as yourself on it. If we were to judge whether this was logical or illogical, it truly would be in the latter camp. Yet my lady is putting in an incredible amount of effort.”

“Seems like it, yeah,” I said after a short pause.

This quest was for rookie adventurers, so the reward wasn’t all that much. The lengths we were going to didn’t correspond with the payment. If I were forging my own path, then I wouldn’t have taken it on.

“I just don’t understand her.”

“Hm?”

“She won’t tell me her full name, I don’t know what she wants, she brings along a talking slime. Her powers are crazy. She’s totally materialistic. Her actions don’t make any sense. My biggest question is—”

“Why she hired you?”

“Yeah.”

Leen had an incredible power that allowed her to prevent any and all monsters from regarding her as an enemy. Every adventurer in the world would be foaming at the mouth over its potential. I wasn’t very smart, but even I could think of numerous ways to turn a profit from it. She didn’t need to be in the dirt and the dust as an adventurer. Why did she do a dirty barter with me and then choose to take me along?

“She asked me my rank a while ago, but she must’ve seen my stats when she came to find me. So why?”

“Yes, she did know.”

The slime shook its body again. I felt that its eyes (or the two cores that looked like eyes) narrowed.

“My lady picked you knowing everything. I think she knows you better than you know yourself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll find out one day. I think my lady is better suited than me to tell you. First, watch her and see for yourself what she is.”

I looked back at Leen. She had finished her pondering and was now rustling in the undergrowth on all fours.

“Found something?” I called out.

“I did. Look here. See the results of my search and praise me for my hard work.”

“Wow. So amazing.”

At the bottom of the grass near the base of the cliff that Leen had moved aside was a small hole. It was just wide enough for a child to stick their head inside and maybe crawl inside. It would be dangerous to try, though, as they’d probably get stuck halfway and be unable to crawl back out.

“Wild kobolds live in holes like these. A smaller entrance means it’s harder for any predators to find and enter.”

“I see. They’re pretty smart.”

Killing all the kobolds would be a bit of a problem if they hid in this hole.

“So what now?” I said. “You must’ve had a reason for letting it run off.”

“I did,” Leen said. “I’d like to first talk to the kobold inside.”

“I can’t fit in there, just so you know.”

“Neither can I. Blue?” Leen said, tapping her slime who shook its body from side to side.

“I don’t want to get covered in dirt.”

“I didn’t know you cared about stuff like that,” I said.

Well, I wouldn’t want to be around a muddy slime either. The only solution I could think of was destroying the nest outright. Unfortunately I couldn’t dig it up with my sword. I’d need to borrow a shovel or something.

“If we can’t go in, then we make him come out,” Leen said.

“Huh?”

She went around touching the nearby trees like she was looking for the right one. Eventually she stood in front of one whose branches were starting to decay.

“Here, I guess?” she said.

She tapped the ground a few times with her staff.

“Whoa!” I said.

Suddenly the gemstone at the tip let out an enveloping ball of green light. It resembled the way a wizard’s Sphere glowed when they used magic, but this was a far deeper and intense light.

“So?” I added.

Even after the light vanished, nothing seemed to have changed. Leen wiped the sweat off her brow as if she’d just finished a job.

“Listen up. A kobold’s nest has a small entryway, but it’s large enough inside so that their mate and children can live there. They choose to make their nests among tree roots so that they can have a decently sized space inside.”

“Which is why it’s hard to draw them out, like you said.”

“Right. That is why I’m getting someone to dig them up.”

“GRAAAAAGH!”

Just as I was about to ask “Who?” a terrifying scream came from the nest.

“What the hell?!”

I could hear a rustling sound from something scurrying and the cracking sound of something snapping.

“GRAAAAOW!”

Finally, a single kobold popped his head out. I couldn’t really tell the difference between them, but I imagined it was the one that had been gathering erichés.

“Growr! Growr!”

I’d never paid attention to the emotions of monsters before, but it was evident that this little guy was panicked and afraid. What had happened?

My question was answered almost instantly. A few seconds after the kobold had clambered out of the hole, another creature poked its head out. First came a long nose before the earth around the nest came crumbling away. It was a surprisingly flat beast, over a meter in length, with two claws and a strangely long nose.

“That’s a giant mole!” I said.

These monsters were pretty much exactly what their name suggested. They dug large tunnels under the earth and sometimes caused damage to roads and fields.

The giant mole stared at Leen. Actually, they didn’t have eyes, so I guess its face was positioned in Leen’s direction. She pulled something out of her leather bag and placed it on the ground. The giant mole then slowly gobbled it up.

“The hell was that?” I said after a protracted silence.

“I relied on this little guy’s aid. He was sleeping underground. You see how that tree’s starting to decay? That’s because this guy had ripped up its roots to make his den.”

“I’m not asking how you found it...”

The kobold was curled up in a ball, terrified after his home had been decimated by a giant mole out of the blue.

“How about that? Behold the power of a monstermancer, of Lingreen the first witch’s true successor,” Leen said, puffing out her chest.

Now then, Leen was a monstermancer. That meant all monsters would listen to her. That left me with a single question.

“Why didn’t you just order the kobold to come out of his nest?”

Leen fell silent at my question. She nodded a few times before squatting down to pat the big mole.

“Well, we got there one way or another,” she said.

“Don’t you feel a little bad for him?”

The kobold must have been terrified, as he still showed zero sign of being able to stand up. I wondered why I had to feel sorry for the damn thing.

“Well, giant moles are carnivores and they both live underground so you often get giant moles digging up kobolds’ nests before gobbling them up.”

“Then no duh that kobold’s scared!”

This kobold had suddenly received a visitor that was one of its predators when he should’ve been safe in his nest. He was probably experiencing an indescribable terror right now.

“Seeing as he’s scared, let’s win his favor by making it seem like we saved him,” Leen said.

“Are you a demon or something?!”

However, Leen stared oddly at me as I shouted my feelings.

“Aren’t you the demon, Hakura?”

“I doubt I could recover if you genuinely called me evil after comparing me to yourself!”

I hadn’t done anything! Well, apart from agreeing to exterminate all the kobolds without question.

“Anyway, they don’t obey me unconditionally. I bribed this guy, after all.”

“You did?”

“With food. I got him to emerge from his nest in exchange for a meal.”

Leen put her hand back into her bag and pulled out a caterpillar that was the size of her hand.

“Waaaagh!”

She had so kindly made sure I could see the damn thing by thrusting it in my face. It was so gross I couldn’t help but scream out.

“Waaah! Why are you shouting?!”

“Anyone would after being shown that thing! Where’d you find that?!”

“It’s a large-spotted venomous moth larva! They’re not venomous until they’ve turned into moths, so don’t worry about touching it.”

“That’s not what I was asking...”

“It fell down when I kicked that eriché tree. I used my foresight to collect it. I’m always one step ahead, I’ll have you know!”

Leen huffed and puffed as she threw the caterpillar—a mix of pinks and purples that looked incredibly poisonous if you asked me—at the giant mole. Apparently it had eaten its fill or realized it had finished its job, for it lazily returned back into the kobold’s nest.

This kobold had just lost his home. Would he be all right? No, wait, why was I worrying about a silly kobold?

“Okay, we successfully captured our target. Smooth like butter! I’ll allow you to compliment me, Hakura.”

“Hold on,” I said after a pause. “You asked me to cut down the fruit with my sword.”

Leen had kicked that tree because she wanted to, not because she needed to. This whole rigmarole had been completely by chance.

Leen silently nodded at my remark and slowly looked back at the kobold.

“I, um, never meant to scare you like this...” she said to the monster.

“You liar.”

“And look, everything’s all fine now, right? Right? Um, hello?”

Leen had started to wave at the kobold while grinning, but he flinched before letting out a small cry. Apparently it wasn’t all fine. Even if Leen could communicate with monsters, she had really gotten off on the wrong foot.

“Whyyy? I made sure he was safe!”

“He was safe until you forced him out of his home from the inside out.”

“He should be glad that I showed him his home wasn’t safe.”

“Say that to the kobold barely able to breathe because he’s so scared.”

As we exchanged this harmless back-and-forth, Leen took a small step closer to the kobold.

“Waaaaaaaaack!”

However, the kobold leaped to his feet with all the energy he had before dashing off at full pelt. Leen had outstretched her hand but let out a small squeak at how fast he was. The kobold had identified us as the enemy, and this had been the most logical move for him to make. Maybe I ought to praise him for his quick thinking.

“Wackya?!”

As he dashed past me, I stuck out my scabbard, causing him to trip up. He was going so fast that he tumbled right back down and landed face-first into a puddle.

“Wow... You’re mean, Hakura.”

“I was helping you out!”

The kobold wobbled as he tried to get up before falling over again. Either he had been hurt or...

“Hm?”

No, he wasn’t hurt. The reason was his movement had been impaired. He wasn’t in a puddle—no, the “puddle” had grabbed his feet.

“Forgive my impudence, kobold.”

“Waaagyaaah!”

“Hold still! Don’t struggle!”

“Hey, I’d act the same way if I was caught by a slime,” I said.

I had acted that way. In the kobold’s mind, he was about to be eaten.

“Nice one, Blue! Hold him down!”

Yeah, from the kobold’s perspective, this was a full-on disaster. It was pitiful how he shook with each step closer Leen took.

“Wait!”

Just as Leen was one pace away, an unfamiliar voice came ringing through the forest.

At the same time, the kobold’s ears twitched and it let out a low growl as it bared its fangs.

“Hm?” I murmured before turning around.

There I saw a young girl. She looked to be about ten years old, had brown hair in a three-strand braid, and was wearing the simple outfit that most village girls wore. She was your average, run-of-the-mill girl.

With a serious expression, panting heavily, and a hand placed upon her wheezing chest, she approached us.

“H-Hold up,” I said.

“Don’t bully Rudolf!” she yelled. “He’s not a bad kobold!”

“I said hold up.”

“If he’s done something bad, then I’ll apologize for him! So please, stop bullying him!”

“All right, I get it, so calm do—”

“Waaaah! Rudolf! He’s DEAD!”

“It’s okay, stop crying! Pleaaaase!”

Seeing the girl begin to bawl her eyes out, the kobold—or Rudolf, as his name seemed to be—started to growl.

“Enough of that. Stop struggling!”

“GROOOOWR!”

Rudolf couldn’t move, but squirmed this way and that. I could sense his anger on me, from his glare and from the intense aura coming from him. It said: “You will suffer if you do anything to her.”

“I won’t harm her, so come on... Jeez...”

As I watched my trousers getting soaked by this wailing girl’s tears and snot, I could only let out a huge sigh.

○

“My name is Tetna Chiefia Rydea,” the girl said. “I’m eleven years old.”

Once we had found a clearing nearby, we sat Miss Tetna down and asked her to introduce herself. “Chiefia” was a title given to women who were related to the chief, so that meant that she was a family member of Rydea’s village chief. Perhaps she was his granddaughter?

The kobold in question—Rudolf, that is—had gone close to Miss Tetna’s side, evincing his desire to protect her.

“My name is Leen,” my lady said. “This is Hakura and this is Blue. It’s nice to meet you, Tetna.”

My lady flashed a kind smile. Miss Tetna still looked a bit nervous, but she nodded while slightly lowering her guard. My lady had a nice face so was good at pretending to be a gentle older sister type at times like these.

“Blue?” she asked.

“As my lady said, my name is Blue. I am a slime. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

I could tell that my lady had sensed what I was thinking, so I introduced myself instead. A key strategy to avoid discussing something is to move the conversation swiftly onward.

“H-He talked! Th-The slime talked, Rudolf!”

“Yes, well, I am somewhat different from your average slime. I will not harm you, so please be at ease.”

“Wow, that’s amazing!”

“Grrrl...”

The young lad made a surly face as he looked at Miss Tetna hug Rudolf’s head—it made sense given his trousers were so soiled by her tears and snot.

“So then, why did you come all the way out here?” he said. “You must’ve heard that there are people-eating kobolds on the loose.”

After being asked this by someone practically scowling at her, Miss Tetna put her guard up once more, closing her heart after we had worked so hard to open it. Maybe we should have the young lad keep quiet for this exchange.

“Don’t worry, Tetna. Hakura looks scary, but he’s surprisingly nice and...” my lady said before gasping. “Hold on. Hakura, have you ever been nice to me?”

“Nope.”

He answered with zero hesitation.

“Okay, Tetna. Let’s have a little chat over there, just between us girls. We can leave that scary boy on his own!”

“Excuse me?” the lad said.

“Okay,” Miss Tetna replied.

“Oh, come on!”

“Please try to relax your face, lad. I can understand how you feel, but this is not how one should act in front of a child.”

As I said this, he made an even surlier expression. It was the face of a youngster who understood what he was being told was correct but didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“Um... Did you two come here to...get rid of the kobolds?” Miss Tetna said.

“At the heart of it, yes,” my lady said. “But don’t worry, little Rudolf is fine.”

“Really?”

“Really. I’ve never told a lie in my life.”

“How can you say that when I’m right here?” the lad said.

“Watch your expression,” I said.

Miss Tetna made no effort to hide her fear and went to hide behind Rudolf. The young lad was clearly in the wrong here.

“Please, Hakura. She’s just a little girl, so try and smile, please? You’re such a child.”

“I don’t want to be told that by the most childish person in the world.”

The young lad was looking over at Rudolf, who was protecting the quivering Miss Tetna. Rudolf’s bravery was winning out over his own fear. He had a strong backbone. However, the young lad wouldn’t yield. I could tell that his furrowed eyebrows weren’t my imagination.

“Haven’t you considered why she might be trying to protect a kobold in these circumstances?” he said.

Miss Tetna moved to her own rebuttal in the face of the lad’s exasperated tone.

“B-But...Rudolf’s not a bad kobold!”

“This isn’t about good or bad, it’s about whether he’s safe or dangerous. The village chief’s granddaughter is hiding a kobold after they’ve started eating the people of Rydea! It puts Dego in a terribly difficult position.”

The lad’s comments were too logical for a child of her age. Of course he wasn’t wrong. He was utterly correct. His rationality was befitting of an adventurer.

“The chief was the one who sent the squad who failed to hunt the kobolds. If the people found this out, then they might burn his house down.”

“Hakura, please,” my lady said.

“We were hired to sort out these problems, and yet you’re ready to destroy all—”

“Hakura!” my lady shouted. It had been a while since I’d seen her opt not to resort to violence.

The lad eyed her with what could only be called a glare before he fell silent.

My lady—who had hidden behind Miss Tetna and also fallen silent—crouched down and brought her into an embrace before she spoke to the lad in an appeasing voice.

“She’s crying, so let’s stop with this, okay?”

Miss Tetna’s whimpering echoed through the trees. Rudolf glared at the young lad—yet he remained silent.

“Lad, you’re not wrong. Take it from me.”

“Your encouragement isn’t helping...”

The lad wasn’t so heartless as to continue interrogating the girl after that.

“I’m not sure what the whole picture is, but we are adventurers. We will solve this. We won’t let the situation get any worse,” my lady said.

She stroked Miss Tetna’s head and smiled warmly. Everyone in the Lingreen family had beauty that completely contrasted with their personalities, and that beauty was hugely beneficial in times like these. It was one of my lady’s few positive traits.

“All right, we need to get you home quickly or your mommy and daddy will start to worry. Leave the rest to us, okay? We’ll make sure no one harms Rudolf.”

I could tell that this time at least my lady had no ill will. That was for certain. Even though her humanity was questionable, she wasn’t so cruel as to needlessly hurt a young girl.

“My daddy’s...gone...”

However, these few words caused the dam holding back Miss Tetna’s tears to break. I would like to think that no one was to blame here.

“My daddy... The kobolds... They... The kobolds...ate him...”

However, no one could prevent the chill that came over the atmosphere.

Miss Tetna’s father must have been Dego’s son or son-in-law. In either case, he was next in line to be Rydea’s leader. If a problem arose and the current chief was late in his years, then it made sense for the younger, healthier heir to lead the charge to fix things. That must have been how it went for the kobold situation too. Miss Tetna’s father must have led the small group of villagers, weapon in hand, into the forest to hunt the dangerous kobolds. But he never came home.

If we had stopped to consider the situation, maybe we would have realized this. There had been a reason the chief had not given details on the victims.

No one could say anything.

In Miss Tetna’s eyes, the young lad had hit her with the adult logic that her father had been killed due to her grandfather’s poor management skills, and now she was choosing to do something as unthinkable as protect a kobold. Realizing this, the young lad had lines across his brow and an expression that screamed discomfort.

“So then why are you so dead set on protecting Rudolf?” I said.

“B-Because Rudolf is...my friend... He’s been...my friend...for years...”

Miss Tetna was hugging Rudolf in her small arms. He licked her cheek as if trying to console her.

It would have been completely natural for this young girl to shun the kobolds. To despise them more than anything. And yet, she was trying to protect one. She knew that if the villagers found out about Rudolf, his life would be in danger.

“Rudolf’s not a bad kobold! The bad ones are...the others... They... I...”

“It’s okay, I understand,” my lady said. She hugged both Miss Tetna and Rudolf together. “Don’t worry. We will get revenge for your daddy and keep Rudolf safe too.”

“You choose the path of thorns yet again...”

“Well, that’s how it always goes,” she replied.

Although this was business as usual for us, it must have been news for the young lad.

“Hey, Leen? Let me be serious for a moment,” he said.

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“How are you going to get the villagers to accept this? The people of Rydea don’t care about how some kobolds eat different things or how some are safe even though others will gobble them up. The kobolds are the ones that attacked and ate the people of their village, so all the kobolds need to be exterminated. Which is why we can’t guarantee...that ko—”

I wondered if the young lad had trouble calling monsters by the names they were given. He called me “slime,” after all. He paused, unsure whether to use the name Rudolf, before continuing.

“Which is why we can’t guarantee that Rudolf won’t eat people. Or are you saying you can give the villagers an answer that’ll convince them?”

The lad was completely serious, no trace of humor in his voice. This question came from him as a human, as an adventurer.

“If we can’t, then we should give up on this quest,” he went on. “It would be better to leave it to someone who won’t question the job and can mindlessly kill. If you tell me where the kobolds are, I can eliminate them all in one day.”

The young lad spoke with perfect reasoning. The thing adventurers feared most was failing a quest and the subsequent reputational damage. In other words, the guild would begin to doubt that they were an adventurer who could clear quests issued to them. This was an easy task of hunting kobolds. It didn’t matter what the circumstances were—failing this quest was far more difficult than completing it. Failure would more or less mean they would never be able to work in Esma again. If that wasn’t bad enough, the guild also shared information with its branches on other continents. There was a good chance that they would be demoted in rank.

There was only one real way to fail this quest. Any decent adventurer wouldn’t lose to a kobold, so that meant that they could only fail the quest if the one who issued it, the village chief, deemed them incapable of completing the task. What would happen to these adventurers if they said “There are good kobolds too so we decided not to kill them” to the village folk who had lost family members and were seething with rage? It wasn’t an explanation that would be accepted without fuss.

“Indeed,” my lady said, taking this matter completely seriously. “I think I could convince them about sixty percent of the way.”

“Sixty percent? Based on what?”

“The problem is I don’t understand humans.” My lady’s expression was utterly serious. She wasn’t joking—she had merely spoken her true thoughts. “I understand the reason. I comprehend what happened. Sufficient evidence should be on its way soon enough. That’s why I was looking for Rudolf.”

Neither the young lad nor Miss Tetna understood what my lady was getting at.

“What are you—” the lad tried asking, but his question was interrupted by the crunch of paws on earth.

◆

Their eyes were bloodshot. Their fangs were bared. Their tongues lolled out. They were slight creatures, but their claws were sharp and at the ready.

If I had appraised these guys without awareness of the situation, I wouldn’t have thought that they were even kobolds. If someone had told me they were some subspecies of goblins, I would’ve believed them. That was how abnormal the kobolds that appeared before us were.

Three of them started snarling at one another, communicating through growls and pants. They were armed with a sword and two axes. Although their weapons weren’t as high-quality as the ones adventurers used in battles, they were ample enough to kill their target.

“N-Nooo...” Tetna let out a frightened, quivering cry. She pointed at the one with the sword and went on, stuttering, “Th-That’s...”

I knew what she was trying to say—the kobolds were armed with weapons from three missing villagers. They must have looted them.

“Leen, you can understand all monsters, right?” I said.

“Yes, although it mostly works on instinct,” she replied.

“What are they saying?”

“They’re acting like I do when a whole roast pork is placed in front of me.”

“Thanks for the clearest explanation you could’ve given.”

The next moment, they all charged at us, weapons raised. They didn’t even spare me a glance; they beelined for Leen who was still holding on to Tetna and Rudolf.

“Waaah! Huh...?”

Tetna screamed, but quickly calmed down.

The kobolds whinnied in pain. Immediately thereafter, all three of them collapsed—two with missing heads and one with missing limbs—in front of Leen.

As I sheathed my new sword, I said, “I left one alive. Happy?”

“Yes. There’s something I wish to ask.”

This was something I’d noticed with Rudolf, but kobolds surprisingly had tunnel vision. They didn’t even glance at me as they dashed past, which had allowed me to easily cut them down. The one that was still alive was howling partially in pain and partially because it didn’t know how this had happened to it.

“As expected of a mithril blade. It’s light, quick, and sharp.”

“Quite. They do require one’s life savings to purchase, though!” Leen said.

“Compliment my sword skills first, c’mon...”

“Wow, Hakura. You’re so amazing.”

“If you don’t pay me extra, I will smack you...”

As we bantered, Tetna seemed utterly confused.

“Huh? U-Um... What happened?”

These man-eating kobolds who had suddenly appeared out of the blue had terrified Tetna. They had killed her father—the man she depended on the most—and were monsters that were unbeatable in her mind. And yet I managed it.

“They may look scary, but they are still only kobolds. An adventurer... Hakura won’t lose to one,” Leen said as she stroked Tetna’s head and gave her another reassuring hug. “He’s strong enough to defeat a hydra, after all.”

Without any of its limbs, the kobold would die from blood loss before long. We needed to interrogate it sooner rather than later, but...

“Are you sure you should let a kid see this?” I asked.

The two heads, which had breathed their last, the four dismembered limbs, all the blood—this was a scene definitely not suitable for children to see.

“I’m okay,” Tetna said. She must have realized the danger was gone, for she emerged from Leen’s arms with a smile on her face. “I help with processing the livestock.”

“You’re one tough kid.”

I considered patting her on the head, but it wasn’t my style nor my role either. I drew back the hand that I had half reached out and looked instead over at Rudolf. He was close to Tetna, as if protecting her, and was growling at his groaning fellow kobold.

“Why’s he growling so much?” I asked.

“I’ll ask that too.”

Leen crouched down next to the limbless kobold and started making some strange noises from the back of her throat. It was the same pitch as her speaking voice, but rather unpleasant to listen to, like it was scratching at my ears. It didn’t sound like a language to me.

However, the kobold replied with a frenzy of growling itself. A conversation was clearly happening. As the strange growling back-and-forth continued, Rudolf howled loudly as if to drown out the injured kobold.

“R-Rudolf?! What’s the matter?” Tetna said, holding him back.

“It seems that Rudolf also has his own shared history,” Leen said.

“R-Really? Rudolf?”

“Grrrwl...”

Rudolf seemed ready to leap out and attack. It wasn’t normal. I didn’t really care about their relationship, but I didn’t want to allow even the small possibility of him harming Tetna, so I put a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Leave this to Leen. You continue protecting Tetna,” I said.

“Grrf...”

I didn’t think he’d understand me, but contrary to my expectations, Rudolf drew back his claws and hushed his growling.

“Huh, he understands me...”

“Every knight desires to protect their princess. I feel the same way,” the slime said as it consumed another eriché. I wondered if the fruit had been found nearby, or if it was one of the ones that Rudolf had made off with.

“You’re saying she’s a princess and you’re her knight...?”

“Plus, Rudolf is a gallant male. When Tetna appeared, he showed no fear toward you, did he not?”

“He did run off at full speed, terrified, after he was forced out of his home, though.”

“It wasn’t the wrong decision for his survival. A man’s worth is valued on whether he can put his life on the line when it matters.”

“Uh, why is a slime teaching me about a man’s worth...?”

I didn’t mind this stupid discussion since we didn’t really have anything else to do.

While Leen and the kobold continued their strange conversation, Tetna held on to Rudolf with an uneasy expression.

“Rudolf is smart. Really smart,” she said.

It took me a good ten seconds to realize that she was talking to me and the slime. Maybe she wasn’t expecting a reply, for she went on without waiting for our responses.

“We found Rudolf three years ago when he was a baby. He was crying all alone at the entrance to the village.”

A child being separated from their parents was something that occurred with both humans and monsters. It was hardly uncommon. Considering how weak kobolds were, a kobold child should have been easy prey for any monster or animal. However, Rudolf had been lucky.

“I gave him an eriché and he stopped crying. I realized he was hungry. I asked what we should do, but then I saw Rudolf’s mommy and daddy outside the village.”

“Brave lot, huh.”

According to Dego, the people of Rydea had coexisted with the kobolds in the past. Rudolf’s parents must have either been used to the villagers or thought that they wouldn’t be killed even if they got close. Whatever the case, they had pooled together what courage they had.

“Me and daddy took Rudolf back to them. He was reunited with them and he returned to the forest,” Tetna said as she stroked Rudolf’s head. “After two weeks, Rudolf started leaving erichés by the village gate day after day.”

“Do baby kobolds grow that quickly...?”

“As my lady said, kobolds breed quickly. That also means that they grow quickly. Although they have short lifespans.”

“Really? How short?”

“Ten years thereabouts. Similar to dogs.”

“Yeah, daddy told me that kobolds grow bigger quickly. Me and Rudolf started playing together soon after that. My family kept it a secret. I came home muddy a lot, though.”

Tetna’s home must have gotten quite dirty. As someone who was taking part in that right now, I felt my ears grow hot.

“When I got lost playing in the forest, Rudolf always led me back to the village,” Tetna went on. “When we climbed trees looking for erichés, he would find the yummiest ones and give them to me. They always tasted best when I ate them with Rudolf.”

Rudolf made a little whine in his throat, voicing his agreement. From our perspective on the sidelines, they seemed like a lovable pet dog and owner. If the situation were different, I’d probably crack a smile at how charming it was.

“Which is why...I know Rudolf wouldn’t do anything bad. Everyone’s saying we can’t let the kobolds get away with what they did. They say we should kill them all. They say they’re all ungrateful.”

“No real surprise, to be honest.”

“I didn’t want any adventurers to come. You’re going to kill Rudolf too, aren’t you?”

“If I was here alone, then yeah, probably...”

Tetna’s own personal feelings aside, the villagers probably didn’t view Rudolf as being much different from the other kobolds. Every single one of their kind was a traitor. They had lived side by side before, both enjoying the bounties of the forest, and the villagers had never routed out a single kobold. It was easy for their question of “Why?” to transform into rage. Tetna had lost a family member, yet she was able to trust Rudolf for the reason that he was her friend; the villagers would think of her as the least logical of them all.

“Why did this happen? It’s not just Rudolf... I met Rudolf’s mommy and daddy. His friends too. They’re all so cute and nice...”

“Where are they now?”

“I don’t know. Only Rudolf knows where they live.”

I glanced over at Rudolf. I didn’t have a clue what he was thinking, but I could tell that his downcast expression was one of sadness.

What had happened in this forest? Why did the kobolds start attacking people?

I glanced over at Leen, who was still conversing with the kobold.

“Growr! Growr!”

A louder bark than before emerged. Tetna flinched and Rudolf stood up, claws out.

Leen said something and the injured kobold barked its own response, ignoring Rudolf and us. Even I could tell that its expression was one of happiness. Still on the ground, it nodded a few times and stuck out its tongue to try and curry favor with Leen.

Leen made her own whine and stood up. She lifted up her staff and placed it on the kobold’s head.

“Grak...?”

I heard a muffled crack of something breaking before silence.

Leen sighed.

“You seem exhausted, my lady. Were you able to obtain their location?”

The kobold’s head was crushed, and I couldn’t tell what its expression was anymore. It had seemed to let out a bark of joy just a little while ago, but now it would never speak again.

Tetna and Rudolf were speechless. I was too. The only one who seemed fine was the slime who bounced over to Leen.

“Yes. I worked out where these kobolds’ nest is.”

“That’s all well and good, but...what did you say?” I asked.

That kobold had shown a far wider range of expression than Rudolf. It had seemed incredibly happy.

“Nothing important,” Leen replied with a sigh. “I just said that if he told me where his nest was, I would save him.”

◆

“Are you sure you want to come?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’m worried about Rudolf,” Tetna said.

Rudolf whined.

“And I’m worried about you coming with us...”

Tetna was holding Rudolf’s paw and sticking close to Leen. All this meant was that I had more people to protect.

Of course, I had no intention of letting kobolds best me, but there was no guarantee that another monster wouldn’t show up. The only people who declared that something was one hundred percent safe were either idiots who had never faced unexpected danger or the goddess herself.

However, Leen seemed completely unbothered.

“Now, now, don’t worry, Hakura,” she said. “We can’t just send her home on her own. Tetna and Rudolf will be safest with you.”

And on she went.

“Says the one who ruined the nest where he was safest...” I said.

“Hmph, just so you know, if I hadn’t shown up, then Rudolf would’ve been in danger!”

“Because a giant mole would’ve eaten him?”

“No, no, no! I asked the giant mole to excavate the nest!”

“Excavate the nest...?”

We decided to actively ignore Tetna, who had parroted what Leen said word for word.

“No, what I’m saying is, why do you think those kobolds came to Rudolf’s nest?”

“’Cause they heard him screaming?”

“Wrong, wrong! Think before that! They had picked up on Rudolf’s scent! I used the fruits from that tree to try and mask his scent and protect him!”

“Then we didn’t have to force him out of the nest. We could’ve waited.”

“That was that, this is this.”

I could tell that she simply was trying to justify her actions after the fact.

“Tetna!”

Suddenly a raspy voice echoed through the trees. It wasn’t a loud voice, but it was strained and panicked. It was a voice we knew well.

I glanced over at Leen and her expression had changed immediately. She clutched her head in her hands with a face that said, “Oops!”

“Grandpa...?”

If there was any doubt as to who it was, Tetna’s exclamation enlightened us. In front of us were Rydea’s village chief and two young men with weapons in hand.

Dego left his men behind and approached us, or more specifically Tetna, and the first words out of his lips were filled with anger.

“I was wondering where you were and I find you here! Tetna! How many times did I tell you not to go into the forest?!”

His infuriation was completely understandable. While it was hardly a surprise, it seemed that Tetna had snuck out to go and find Rudolf without telling anyone. If my own granddaughter had come to me with such nonsense about going to the forest to meet with a kobold, I’d probably raise a hand and maybe even tie her to a chair to stop her from running off. Yes, Dego was right to be mad, but still...

“Leen?”

“Yes?”

“I have a bad feeling about where this conversation is headed.”

“As do I.”

Just as we reached a mutual conclusion, Dego looked at Rudolf, who was next to Tetna, with a strained expression.

“Tetna, you step away from that creature now! This instant!”

My prediction had come true. Tetna was quivering at her grandfather’s enraged voice. She held Rudolf to protect him and yelled back with tears in her eyes.

“Wait, grandpa! Rudolf’s not like them! He’s a good kobold!”

“Not like them?! Those monsters killed your father! How can you not see that they’re dangerous?!”

“Rudolf wouldn’t do anything like that!”

“Tetna!”

As Dego took another step forward, much to my surprise, Tetna pulled Rudolf and hid behind me.

Seriously?

Predictably, Dego glared at Leen and me. I knew what he was going to say, and say it he did.

“Explain yourselves, you two. We posted a quest at the guild asking that you hunt down the kobolds.”

The dam holding back his rage seemed to be breaking. He forced the seething words out through gritted teeth.

“I don’t think you should be acting quite so aggressively when we’ve found your granddaughter and kept her safe,” I said.

“I thank you for that,” Dego replied before looking at Rudolf behind me. “However, I want you to do the job you were tasked with. Slice the head off of that kobold behind you. If you do not, then we can no longer trust you.”

As our client, Dego was giving us one final chance. If we disobeyed him, he would cancel the job and recruit other adventurers to complete it in our stead. We would then be branded incompetent adventurers who couldn’t even hunt down kobolds. Considering my future prospects, this was something I wanted to avoid.

I silently placed a hand on the sword at my waist. It wouldn’t even take a second for me to push Tetna aside and dispatch Rudolf.

“Why won’t you believe Rudolf, grandpa?! You played with him! You were happy when I told you I’d made a friend!” Tetna screamed.

She was crying and the emotion in her voice was clear. Even I could tell that this girl didn’t want to lose her friend after already losing her father. Such was a child’s selfishness. That was how their logic went.

Dego’s logic, however, was correct, which is why he said what he said next.

“Why can’t you see what I’m saying? The kobolds betrayed us!”

The side who had stopped being the peaceful neighbors first were the kobolds—despite the fact that they had a relationship of mutual trust and nonviolence.

“You’re wrong there,” Leen said, finally breaking her silence. Her voice wended its way through a crack between their angry voices. “The ones who betrayed first were the humans. It is fine to be hurt and upset, but you shouldn’t deny reality.”

Her comment came at the worst possible time and only served to fan the flames. However, before the chief could fully digest what Leen had said and develop resentment toward it, she continued as if this were the perfect time to bring up what she did next.

“Follow me,” she said. “I will show you what is happening in this forest.”

Because Leen walked with such conviction, all we could do—me included—was follow her without saying a thing. However, Dego’s anger hadn’t been quelled. Tetna held Rudolf’s paw, staying at a distance from her grandfather and the other two villagers.

“Lad?”

The slime appeared out of the blue at my feet and whispered at me.

“What?”

“My lady said sixty percent, but I think it’s closer to thirty percent.”

“What is?”

“The probability of her being able to convince the villagers.”

“I’m surprised it’s as high as thirty.”

I replied, a little fed up, but the slime spoke what was probably its true feelings.

“That’s why I want to tell you, lad, that you should strike if you feel it is right to do so.”

“Strike what?”

I decided to seek clarification, and the slime made a sound that I thought was a sigh. It wasn’t really the right time to ask where it was letting that air out from.

“Rudolf. That will annul your agreement with my lady, but you shouldn’t lose your livelihood just because you’re following her.”

“I’d always intended to do that.”

I didn’t know what Leen was thinking, but I wasn’t going to follow her down a path that led to my self-destruction. Not only that, but Rudolf, as he held Tetna’s hand, looked so helpless that it would be easy to kill him even now.

We ended up taking care of Dego, so the two villagers headed back to Rydea, in part to tell everyone that Tetna had been found.

After we had walked for around ten minutes, we reached a small hole that seemed to be the nest Rudolf had lived in. In other words, this was the nest of the kobolds who had attacked us.

“So, what’s the plan? You gonna bust up this nest too?” I said.

“I am!” Leen said with a big smile as she struck the ground with her staff. “Come on out, moley!”

This time, the giant mole came out of the ground at Leen’s feet as opposed to the nest. I wasn’t sure if it was the same one as before, but it obeyed Leen’s command and used its sharp claws to dig up the kobold nest.

Rudolf watched a repeat scene of how his own home had been destroyed and curled up his shaking tail. Dego and Tetna looked back and forth at Leen and the giant mole with a shudder of fear.

“What is inside?” Dego said.

Despite his fear, he wasn’t able to merely watch this in silence until it finished. His perplexed gaze was trained on me.

“I dunno,” I said. “She’s my employer. I don’t know the details.”

Although my position still wasn’t properly defined, I spoke my true feelings.

“You just don’t understand,” Dego said.

My words must have seemed awfully irresponsible, as Dego hung his head low while clenching his trembling hands into fists.

“You don’t understand that feeling of helplessness when something you’ve built up comes crashing down. The anger from being betrayed by something you trusted. The sadness of losing someone you loved... We were different species, but we were supported by the same natural bounties. I thought we understood one another.”

There is nothing scarier than a hatred that had used to be love. I wondered who it was that had said that.

“He was a bit unreliable at times, but he was a good son. He was well-studied, and he was brave. He stood up in order to lead this village. And that son of mine didn’t come home. Do you know how that feels?”

I couldn’t say anything.

Betrayal. Trust. These two things were the height of irresponsibility.

The former was commonly done by adventurers; the latter was only unconditionally given by fools.

Trust needed a “why.” It could only stand firm through clear reason and logic. Without them, we could not turn our backs to anyone.

“All the same, Tetna believes in Rudolf,” I said.

I hadn’t had any intention of saying them. If I were acting like a pragmatic adventurer, then I should have stayed quiet and given a noncommittal answer when I was forced to speak.

Dego looked at me wide-eyed. I ignored my internal reasoning that told me to shut up and continued to speak without much thought.

“Tetna knew that her father was eaten by the kobolds, she knew the danger, yet she still came out here all on her own to stop us and to protect Rudolf.”

This was awfully uncharacteristic of me. I shouldn’t have been saying these words. They held no meaning, no logic.

“What do you—”

Dego’s patience must have reached its limit. He threw his staff aside and grabbed my shirt. I knew what he was going to say: “What do you think you know?” But before he could finish his sentence, the sound of something crashing down echoed all around.

“I don’t know how you feel,” I said. I ignored his hands and looked over at the nest whose walls had crumbled down. “But I do know what’s going to happen next.”

I think.

○

What we saw was the most beautiful scene the world had to offer, but one that was also painted over with a cruel brush.

“Chief, Hakura, this way, please,” my lady said. “And you, Tetna...” My lady paused, the unspoken words of “I think it might be better if you don’t see this” lingering in the air.

Miss Tetna shook her head and grabbed Rudolf’s paw as she said, “I want to know.”

She was trembling—her shoulders, her hands, and I imagined her heart too.

“I always wondered why. I believed that Rudolf... No, not just Rudolf—I believed that all the kobolds were our friends, so I want to see and know.”

Despite that, this young lady was bravely facing forward—so that she could reinforce her heartfelt beliefs.

“I want to believe that this is a mistake... That we can be friends!” she said.

“Tetna...” the village chief said. He reached to stroke her back, but could do nothing more.

It was Rudolf who squeezed Miss Tetna’s hand back with a little whine.

“I know, Rudolf. I’m okay.”

These two trusted one another. The adults—and perhaps we ourselves in other circumstances—had laughed at this trust, called it foolish, and rebuked her for it.

“Don’t worry,” my lady said. “I won’t do anything that would force you to betray Rudolf.”

Kobolds’ nests may have small entrances, but their tunnels were quite deep. My lady carried me, and we ventured into the nest. At the end of the small tunnel was a single kobold lying on her back. Her limbs were thin and spindly, but her stomach was bulging. It was evident she was pregnant.

“What is...”

The kobold was wheezing and hadn’t noticed our arrival, let alone the fact that her nest had been destroyed. Either she was concentrating with such intensity or she didn’t have the wherewithal to take in anything else.

The lad, Miss Tetna, and the village chief were all silent. They didn’t know why, now of all times, they were being shown this scene.

After a series of particularly high-pitched yelps, a kobold emerged from her lower region, and following it came two more. The birth of new life should be a moment of celebration. Those frail creatures, their fur still slick, toddled to their mother on wobbling legs.

The mother let out a hushed, guttural whine. The pups responded to it with soft howls of their own. And then, they approached their weak mother who had just given them life...and bit into her throat.

“Huh?” Miss Tetna couldn’t help but let out a squeak. However, it failed to stop the sight unfolding before us. Soon followed the sounds of crunching bones. Without even looking at us, they began their meal. Their soft claws and half-emerged fangs tore at the fur and skin of the creature that gave them life and ate the exposed flesh underneath.

“What are they doing?”

Miss Tetna was about to rush forward, but Rudolf grabbed her hand and held her back.

“Rudolf, why?” she went on. “Look at them... Why are they doing this?”

The mother’s body twitched and spasmed, her tongue lolled out, but despite what was happening to her, she gathered her brood toward her. It wasn’t an act of defiance; she seemed to encourage them to eat to their hearts’ content.

Before long, the mother breathed her last. The newly born children still continued to eat her body.

“No... How terrible,” the village chief said.

“What’s going on, Leen?” the lad asked.

My lady, unlike the two flustering men, wasn’t fazed in the slightest. Her face didn’t betray any emotion—instead, her brow was furrowed.

“Did you know this would happen?” the lad went on.

“I told you that I had an idea of what was going on,” she said, exasperated as usual. “The kobolds around here ate erichés as their staple food. Because of how plentiful the fruits are in this forest, they were able to happily eat the wild produce without needing to steal any of the humans’ crops. This was thanks to having more than enough food and how, despite being monsters, they were able to maintain distance with Rydea.”

“Th-That may be, but—”

We lived together in peace was probably what the village chief wanted to say.

“If that was true, then why is all this happening?” the lad said.

My lady raised a single finger. “Well, that’s because the people of Rydea took too many of the forest’s fruit, obviously.”

The village chief roared in anger at my lady’s comment. Feeling that he was being blamed, his expression turned dark.

“We have never taken all the fruit of the forest! We know that the kobolds...no, that all the creatures of the forest rely on the fruits to live. While it is true that we took the ripe fruit which could be sold, we left an ample amount!”

Despite the village chief’s outburst, my lady replied in a gentle voice, as if educating a clueless child.

“Kobolds are smart creatures. They have the ability to consider the knock-on effects of things. They’re not like goblins.”

“I don’t need you to tell me that!”

However, my lady bluntly chimed in once more before the chief could continue and say that he knew that.

“Kobolds are smart enough to realize that if the fruits, ready to eat, were taken by the people of Rydea, that meant that they would have less to eat. They are smart enough to sense danger. For example, although it seems like there’s enough fruit left here—”

Miss Tetna gasped—as the one who had been closest to a kobold, she had realized where the sentence was headed.

My lady went on. “They will believe that once the fruits have ripened once more, then the humans will come and steal them yet again.”

The village chief’s expression hardened. I could hear the incredulous whisper that fell from his lips.

“What did the kobolds feel when they saw the eriché trees with so obviously fewer fruits? Kobolds are smart enough to not fall prey to the optimistic line of thinking that ‘the humans came into our forest, took all this fruit that they had never even touched before, but look, there is still some safe fruit left.’”

The villagers had been trying to consider the kobolds when they had harvested the fruit of the monsters’ forest. They had intended to only take but a small portion of the forest’s bounty, but they hadn’t given a second thought to how the kobolds might interpret this action.

“The people of Rydea have lived alongside the eriché trees of this forest for many years, and I do believe that you left enough fruit to not upset the ecosystem of the forest.”

The sound of flesh being feasted upon echoed in the background as my lady spoke.

“If this forest was home to other monsters, not kobolds, then I don’t think this would have happened. They wouldn’t have noticed that the number of fruits had decreased across the forest. After all, fighting over food is something that happens when that resource runs out.”

The slurping sound of blood. The rustling of the wind in the trees behind. A single eriché, ripe for the picking, fell to the ground with a thud. The monsters glutting themselves on the remains of their mother paid it no heed.

“Because kobolds are so smart, they were able to feel fear. They were able to come to the conclusion that if the same number of fruit was to be stolen again, then they wouldn’t be able to feed their pack. In the end, the packs fought for territory.”

“F-For territory?” the village chief parroted, the surprise evident in his voice. My lady didn’t miss his words.

“You didn’t even realize there were multiple packs of kobolds living here, did you?”

Miss Tetna raised her face with a gasp. Even after growing so close to Rudolf, she hadn’t noticed this either. To the people of Rydea, the kobolds were mere monsters who lived in the forest—they hadn’t spared a single thought to their social structure or ways of life. It had been so normal that they had only ever taken it at face value.

Just as the kobolds weren’t aware of the villagers’ harvesting seasons, the villagers likewise knew nothing about the kobolds.

“So...the ones that attacked us belonged to the pack that lost this turf war?” the young lad asked.

“Yes,” my lady replied. “The ones who won took all the erichés for themselves, thus claiming the remaining fruit. Rudolf was part of that pack.”

Rudolf gave a small bark at the mention of his name. He was probably agreeing with my lady.

She went on, “The pack that won the fruits could continue living as they had been, but those who lost were unable to. The kobolds of this forest even hydrated themselves via the fruit—without it, they were pushed into a corner.”

Kobolds’ eating habits were decided through imprinting. Kobolds who ate erichés could not even comprehend anything else as possible food. But they were still living creatures—if they did not eat, they would die. The kobolds who lost had to resort to desperate measures.

“You’re saying that the kobold parents sacrificed themselves so their young could eat?” the lad said. “Like something that crazy would happen! They’d try hunting or something before that, wouldn’t they?”

“They had spent generations eating fruit that simply fell from trees before them—they hadn’t learned how to hunt or anything like that.” My lady paused and looked over at Miss Tetna and Rudolf, who were still holding hands. “Plus, the kobolds had a history with the humans. The humans were different, of course, but they were neighbors who hadn’t harmed them. For the kobolds of the forest, other living creatures weren’t things to be attacked, they were things to live alongside. That was why, without hunting, they only had one choice of what to eat.”

The kobolds imprint as follows: They do not perceive anything apart from whatever they eat first as food.

Without erichés to eat, the new generation of kobolds were left only with the option to starve and die. However, they needed to live on—not as individuals, so they could survive as an entire pack. In order to feed the next generation, they had to provide some sort of food in place of the erichés.

“If a kobold sacrifices herself to her young after giving birth, then she can keep her litter from dying. Maybe the kobolds brought dead kobolds together for their young. At any rate, the kobold young ate their older fellows and were able to live on. The new kobolds didn’t know the taste of an eriché. They were the first generation of kobolds who only knew the taste of meat.”

The mother didn’t even look like a kobold anymore. The young were so voracious in their appetites that they were licking even her entrails that had spilled out onto the dirt.

Miss Tetna nearly gagged.

“Now then, how do you think these kobolds—the ones who transitioned to eating their own kind as food—viewed the other pack of kobolds that had the fruits all to themselves?”

These kobolds had already, by the course of nature, regarded the other kobolds as a food source. Of course, the erichés would grow back with enough time, but for these kobolds it was too late—the fruit wasn’t food anymore. By the time that the trees had replenished their branches with enough fruit for everyone, the damage had already been done.

“Unfortunately, the result of this cannibalism was that the population of kobolds had dwindled so drastically that now there was a different kind of food shortage. They were hungry and desperate for something else to eat, so another type of foodstuff appeared in the forest.”

These kobolds had eaten their parents. This meant that there was no one left to teach the new generation of kobolds about humans. Without this exchange of information, the humans merely looked like prey worth hunting.

“An attack by a group of kobolds, rabid with hunger, would be dangerous even for a healthy human. And indeed, that did happen.”

The children continued their meal. The mother’s skull was cracked open and now they were lapping up what was inside, even devouring the small pieces of bone that were left.

Had Miss Tetna’s father met his end that way? Had he been eaten alive, or had the heavens given him a small dose of mercy and allowed him the sweet respite of death before that? We had no way of knowing—even if any bones were left, they wouldn’t be enough to identify who they belonged to.

“Grrwwl...?”

Finally, it happened. The man-eating kobolds noticed us. It was quite a sight. Their fur was matted with blood, their eyes were mad and wide as if they didn’t have eyelids anymore, hot and foul breath came from their mouths, and red droplets dangled from their tongues.

Who would believe that these monsters were kobolds? The nervous and charming faces characteristic of them were nowhere to be seen. These things before us were nothing but carnivores—hungry monsters who ate their fellow kin.

“Leen, are they...?”

“Beyond saving.”

My lady cut the lad off with her conclusive statement.

“It’s too late for them. They cannot be remedied nor can they live alongside other kobolds again. These creatures can only exist by cannibalizing their fellows, so nothing can be done for them.”

The young had finished their meal and were now approaching us with steady steps.

“Kobolds are not strong enough to hunt in the long term. Once or twice is possible, but it cannot be kept up for longer than that.”

Their heads swayed slightly on their weak necks. A growl rumbled in their throats to reveal they were still hungry; they licked their lips to convey they wanted more.

“Most importantly is the fact that Rudolf and the other kobolds cannot forgive what the cannibals have done. Their packs will go extinct if their numbers dwindle too much, after all. They have passed their breaking point as animals.”

The typical female kobold gave birth multiple times. If the children ate their mother upon being born, there was no hope for their population to recover.

Kobolds were clever creatures and could band together to fight against outside enemies. However, these cannibalistic kobolds were no longer part of that group. They were the enemy. Kobolds were weak creatures. Their meek and charming temperaments were what allowed them to live alongside humans as their neighbor. However, these kobolds no longer fit that description—they had eaten people. They had stolen their future to merely survive; they had stolen their present to live for a moment longer. They had lost the trust they had fostered by eating humans. They had lost their lives because of a desire to simply live.

“Were we...wrong?” the village chief muttered, doing his best to force out the words.

No one was able to answer him—not even my lady.

◆

The cannibalistic kobold children looked at one another as they growled something in conversation.

Tetna was shaking, unable to do anything but watch them.

“Were we...” she said with a hoarse voice, clinging to Rudolf as she fell to her knees. “Were we the bad ones? Is this...all our fault?”

If the people of Rydea hadn’t done anything, then the kobolds before us probably would have been good neighbors to them.

It wasn’t even worth imagining, but there was also the possibility that if Rudolf had been on the losing side during the turf war, his children would’ve ended up in the same position as these kobolds.

“R-Rudolf, I’m sorry... I’m sorry. So, so, sorry...”

The little kobolds’ discussion must’ve come to an end, as they were slowly approaching us. Their eyes were directed at Tetna and Rudolf beside her. Even I knew why—they were eyeing them as food. They were getting ready to eat them.

“Grrrwl...”

Despite how vicious these kobolds appeared, they were children and Rudolf was grown. There was no way he would lose to newborn pups.

The reason these kobolds had ended up attacking people was because they were unable to eat what they were “supposed” to. Many other kobolds must have been devoured by the man-eating ones. As Leen had said, many of Rudolf’s friends had been lost to them and so he, too, had good reason to hate these cannibals, to want to kill them. As if proving this point, he bared his fangs and pushed Tetna away before stepping forward.

“Rudolf, no! Don’t!”

This was probably the first time Tetna had seen Rudolf act like this. He had always been so weak, so calm, so kind, but at the end of the day, kobolds were monsters. If it came time to fight, they would fight; if it came time to kill, they would kill.

“GRROWWR!”

I wondered what this growl sounded like to Leen, who could understand monsters.

“Hakura?” she said.

“Yeah?”

“Please.”

I didn’t need to ask what.

“Got it,” I said.

Just as Rudolf was about to leap forward, I lightly struck him over the head with my scabbard. He yelped and his momentum stopped. He blinked through the pain and I spoke to him.

“Hunting the kobolds is my job. You stay back,” I said.

This wasn’t like me at all. An adventurer fights and slays. This kind of tiresome work wasn’t my job.

“H-Hakura...” Tetna said.

All the same, I couldn’t just stand back and do nothing.

“Sorry, you lot.”

Although I said this, I still wasn’t sure who was in the wrong.

In the past, the villagers didn’t think badly of the kobolds. They gave them the same respect they gave the natural world and kept their distance. However, this was something the people had decided for themselves; it had no meaning to the kobolds. They didn’t understand what the villagers were doing, misunderstood their intent, and had ended up pulling the trigger for a terrible tragedy.

With fewer resources to go around, the kobolds weren’t in the wrong either. They had to do what any living creature had to—they sacrificed what they needed to in order to protect their family and their friends. The parents who gave themselves up to their offspring and those same offspring who ate their parents—neither were in the wrong. They simply did what they had to do. They found something that was food and ate just as everything else in the natural world did. That was what living entailed.

Leen gave her own whine. I didn’t know what she had said, but the baby kobolds paid no attention to me as they rushed toward her. As they passed by, I gave no hesitation as I swung my sword. It sliced through them as smoothly as through a tree branch. Their newly born bodies were simply too soft. With their heads and legs severed, these newborn kobolds—individuals whose births should have been celebrated—died.

“What do we do?” Dego finally said after watching the entire bloody saga in this nest unfold from start to finish.

Leen and I looked at one another.

“We were rash and foolish... I understand now that the cause of this...lies in that.” However, Dego didn’t go so far as to say that he wished to change the current situation. “But it will be a difficult task to get the villagers to accept this. They have lost a lot too. We cannot tell them how to feel.”

He wasn’t wrong in that pinning all the blame on the kobolds instead of accepting the situation was far more pragmatic. This was why the slime estimated that Leen only had around a thirty percent chance of convincing them. It wasn’t logic that was the problem here, it was emotion; it was a nigh impossible task to change how someone felt.

“And so,” Dego said, “I want to ask you to continue with your task of exterminating all the kobolds of this forest.”

“What?”

In Leen’s eyes, Dego’s words were nothing more than defiance. Despite knowing that they were the cause of this mess, he still craved peace and security. He wanted to force the responsibility of their loss onto someone else. In situations like this, the “someone else” always ended up being the weakest party.

“Excuse me? Please don’t joke about this!” Leen exclaimed. This girl who was a worse room reader than even a kobold was furious.

“Please understand, I don’t want this either. But as the village chief, I have a responsibility to protect my villagers’ way of life.”

Leen could only stew silently. She began smacking my shoulder.

“Why are you hitting me?!”

“Because I can’t hit our client!”

Wow, I didn’t realize she was capable of compartmentalizing that. Unfortunately, this minimal amount of good conscience wasn’t enough to change the situation. It seemed like Dego realized he couldn’t convince Leen either, for he looked at me.

“Please, adventurer. Don’t betray my trust. Complete the quest I asked of you.”

I fell silent.

I, Hakura Istilla, had the right to choose whatever option I wanted. I could either walk down the path of self-destruction by following Leen’s unpragmatic emotion or I could opt for the rational choice as an adventurer and sever my relationship with her. This was the deciding moment.

“Grandpa,” Tetna said. She was holding Rudolf, who was on his knees. “I don’t want you to do this. You know, right? Rudolf has always protected me.”

“I do,” Dego said after a pause.

“So what’s wrong with that? Why do you need to kill Rudolf?”

“Have you forgotten that they stole my son, your father’s life?”

Tetna looked pained. “That wasn’t Rudolf, though! He didn’t do anything!”

“But he’s a kobold. How can you be so certain that the same tragedy will not happen again?”

Rudolf let out a powerless whine. Even if he couldn’t understand what was being said, he could understand where the conversation was going based on the situation.

“Rudolf?”

Rudolf gently pushed Tetna away and walked up to me. He then got down onto his knees and proffered up the back of his neck to me.

I couldn’t say anything.

This kobold... No, Rudolf really was smart. He knew what people wanted of him. He knew that no amount of struggling would allow him to defeat me. He knew that when Tetna protected him, it caused tension with her family. He was fully aware and realized that accepting his death and giving up his life here would amount to giving up all of his fellow kobolds.

I still couldn’t speak.

He was doing what the mother of those kobolds had just done. Rudolf was giving up his life for Tetna.

“Hakura.” Leen’s voice struck my eardrums. “Rudolf and his kobolds have given up a lot. Any more and balance cannot be maintained.”

“Balance, huh...” I said.

The lack of foresight on the part of these humans had invited a dispute among the kobold packs, which in turn had resulted in cannibalism. Both the humans and the kobolds had equally lost friends, and the cannibals who were responsible would be culled. Both sides were experiencing pain, both had suffered. At this point, the scales were pretty much balanced. However, a certain someone was oblivious to this and was trying to put more weight on his side.

Ahh, screw it all.

“I don’t care about that,” I said.

I didn’t care about this stupid balance stuff. I was an adventurer—this didn’t concern me.

“Don’t!” Tetna screamed as I pulled out my sword.

I threw it to the ground.

It hit the earth with a dull metallic thud.

“So that is your answer?” Dego said.

I could tell he had half given up. A big sigh escaped his lips. However, this hadn’t resolved the situation. If we failed this quest, then other adventurers would come in our place to hunt down the kobolds. It was simply a matter of time before the deed was done.

“Fine... I’ll follow your policy. So that the villagers can live in peace.”

It seemed like no one understood what I was trying to say. Leen, the slime, and even Tetna seemed confused. Dego looked puzzled, as if I’d avoided the question entirely.

“What I’m saying is that we need to find a way outta this without killing Rudolf,” I said.

“I don’t get what you are trying to say,” Dego replied.

“Do I really have to spell this out?”

I had already made my choice. Now that I knew there was no going back, much to my surprise, I felt invincible. That included grabbing this thick-headed village chief by the collar and shouting at him.

“The one who lost her dad, the one who would then lose her friend because you said so, then have to hold a secret for the rest of her life unable to tell anyone the truth—is your granddaughter, you idiot!”

If Dego wanted to kill all of the kobolds to placate his villagers, then who would be the one to experience reciprocal pain in order to maintain this balance? It was obvious: the weakest party. If all the kobolds were exterminated, then the villagers would naturally say, “Thank goodness, now we’re safe. We no longer have anything to worry about.” They would tell Tetna, “Aren’t you happy that we finally avenged your father?” These villagers would go about their lives, happy that revenge had been taken without even knowing that they had blood on their own hands. Tetna would be the one who would have to live the rest of her life with the guilt that they had betrayed their neighbors, the kobolds.

Dego looked at Tetna. She was clutching Rudolf close with tears in her eyes, her small body shaking.

He started to cry himself.

“You’re not calm enough to realize even that. But I know why. You were the first one to lose a child to all this.”

I let Dego go and he slumped to his knees as more pained sobs escaped him.

The one who would be most difficult to convince was Dego. He was the ruler of the village and had lived alongside the kobolds longer than anyone else. Their betrayal was unforgivable to him. That was why he wanted the kobolds to be at fault. He wanted them to be the villains without a trace of reason. Leen’s truth had been simply inconvenient for him.

“Hakura, please,” Tetna said as she walked with small steps to Dego and put an arm around his shoulders. She looked up at me. “Please forgive my grandpa.”

“Hey, I’m not mad or anything.”

I had let myself get carried away and said the things I’d bottled up. I awkwardly averted my eyes.

“I don’t think you’re convincing anyone,” Leen said.

She appeared right before me and was staring at me with narrowed eyes. I looked away, but she pushed her face even closer to mine.

“I mean, look at how scary that face you’re making is,” she went on.

“Is it?”

“It is. But I’m a little happy.”

The smile she flashed was so much like the one she had given back in the other forest when we’d first met.

“If you’d gone the route of extermination, then I would’ve had to punch you in the back of the head.”

Is that right? Well, thank goodness I wasn’t hasty...

As we chatted, Dego appeared to calm down a little. He slowly raised his head and although his eyes were red after crying, unbecoming for his age, it seemed like he had regained his composure.

“What should we do? We have lost others, not just my son. Believe me when I say that arguing that only a number of the kobolds are to blame will not be enough to convince the villagers.”

Dego had a point. If we followed through on this train of thought to find out who was in the wrong, then it would end up on the village chief who had made the misguided decision to harvest the fruits before they were ready.

“Chief, I gotta say that you’re the luckiest guy in the world,” I said.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Because you have the world’s one and only monster specialist at your service.”

As I said this, Leen gave the most beaming smile possible.

“I’m glad to see how well you understand that,” she said, striking the ground with her staff.

○

What happened next will become a tale told for generations in Rydea. The scene I witnessed went a little something like this...

“GYAAAARGH!”

The villagers fell into a panic as they heard a yowl—frequent these days, but terrifying nonetheless—from outside the village walls.

“What’s going on?”

“Oh no! It’s the chief!”

The panic started to spread. Their chief had headed out with some bodyguards to search for his granddaughter, but now here he was, injured and stumbling into the village.

“W-We were attacked!” he shouted. “Tetna’s in danger! She’s in the deep part of the forest!”

With such a dire situation on their hands, the entire watch group needed to set out. Five of the strongest members fetched their weapons and led the charge toward the location in the forest.

“What’s going on?!”

A terrifying sight awaited them when they arrived.

They could see a single kobold. It was one they knew well—a small creature that seemed so powerless. His fur was covered in blood and he was panting. Yet he refused to yield. The reason was the young girl who was behind him.

“Rudolf, that’s enough! Give up and run away!”

However, Rudolf the kobold would not budge.

Instead, the young girl’s plea was answered by the growls and howls of three kobolds that were almost double the size of Rudolf. They didn’t resemble him at all—these were cannibalistic kobolds. They barked as they bit and scratched at him before he pushed them back. They were like flesh-eating demons.

The villagers had no idea what to do in the face of this unfathomable scene. However, events progressed without any heed to them. The man-eating kobolds gave a howl and behind them appeared a pack of over twenty more.

Rudolf must have realized he wouldn’t stand a chance against so many. He held Tetna to shield her from the incoming assault. With his back turned to them and his tail curled, he tried to do everything he could to hide her from them.

“Rudolf!”

Tetna’s cry only served to make Rudolf hug her even tighter to protect her from harm.

“Wh-What do we do?”

“We need to save Tetna!”

“But look, the kobolds...!”

As the villager stalled, one individual kobold walked through the pack to stand at the front. Due to the lack of food, most of these man-eating kobolds were small, but this one was different. Perhaps three times bigger than Rudolf, it had its tongue lolling out, fabric wrapped around its waist, and a slightly rusted longsword in its paw. It didn’t even look like a kobold. If someone who didn’t know better saw it, they might mistake it for a werewolf.

It was clear that this was the leader of the pack. If one were to name it, it would probably be classed as a high kobold.

“No...” Tetna muttered weakly, seeing the fabric wrapped around the high kobold. “Daddy...”

“Growr!”

Before the young girl could parse the questions in her mind—why was this kobold wearing her father’s clothes, why was it holding a weapon, who had been the one to kill her father?—the high kobold licked its lips and raised the sword high. Tetna’s small body must have looked like an irresistible meal. Just as the kobold was about to swing...

A chorus of howls cut through the air—a rallying cry that pierced the scene.

The man-eating kobolds must have been taken aback. Whereas it sounded like mere animalistic howling to the humans, to the kobolds it was a message filled with rage.

“We made it in time! Everyone—charge!”

A ringing voice echoed through the forest, and with it, dozens more kobolds entered the fray. However, these weren’t man-eating kobolds—no, they were the kobolds that the villagers knew well. This was Rudolf’s pack.

They didn’t so much as glance at Tetna or the villagers, but with growls and snarls, they moved into formation seemingly to protect them from the man-eating kobolds.

“Attack from the right! Have them cornered!”

The one leading the charge was my lady. With her staff in hand, she struck the ground, and in response to this rhythm, the kobolds moved in tandem.

“Y-You’re the adventurer! What’s happening?!” one of the villagers said.

Their confusion was understandable. They believed that the kobolds were traitors, and yet they were protecting the village chief’s granddaughter and now fighting. And why was this girl leading them?

“Isn’t it obvious? We’re hunting down the evil kobolds who attacked the villagers!” she said with a charming wink.

With their numerical advantage, the kobolds under my lady gave no quarter as they overwhelmed the other kobolds. Putting aside their violent temperament, the other side were malnourished and underfed, whereas the party under my lady was sustained on the bounty of the forest. When it came to a full-on clash to the death, it wasn’t even a contest. The man-eating kobolds could only swing their claws and fall and scatter.

“Waaargh!”

Rudolf’s pack obeyed my lady’s orders and challenged individual enemy kobolds in a group, never going into a one-on-one battle. With this, the man-eating kobolds didn’t stand a chance; they could only watch as they were defeated one by one.

“GYAAARGH!”

Seeing his allies falling, the high kobold was quick to act. As the leader of the pack, he was strong and intelligent. He had turned to flee, realizing they couldn’t win. Indeed, this ability to make spur-of-the-moment decisions was probably what had kept him alive this long.

“Hey there.”

Unfortunately for the high kobold, he had merely run from the frying pan into the fire.

“And goodbye.”

The young lad blocked the man-eating kobolds’ escape and used his mithril sword to mercilessly slice them all down. As heads thudded on the ground, the pack tried to turn back the way they came, but a wall of kobolds obstructed the way.

It was the surprising teamwork between human and monster that allowed them to corner their prey.

“You’re the only one left,” the lad said.

The last of the man-eating kobolds alive was the high kobold.

The man-eating kobolds had killed the armed villagers and feasted upon them. This had all been nothing but chance and luck, with their victory being a miracle. No matter how hungry they were, they were still nothing more than simple kobolds. They were among the weakest of all monsters—this was a fact that remained unchanged.

Rudolf and the other kobolds that lived in this forest were averse to conflict by nature and had zero combat experience. They didn’t even have a natural enemy to fight with. When the cannibalistic kobolds appeared and they realized they were the next target, they simply turned tail and fled without a moment’s hesitation.

The simple reason behind their survival was that Rudolf had his nest near the village—so that he could meet with Tetna—and the other kobolds fled to nests that would be difficult to ferret out.

Because of that, the cannibalistic kobolds no longer had a means of securing food, and thus had ended up killing humans. However, the fact was they had been struggling since the beginning, and the emaciated state of each kobold was enough to show how underfed they were.

“We just need to show that the kobolds are the villagers’ allies, right? Then we should put on a little show.”

My lady had said this, and she was capable of making it come true. Using her abilities, she could lead the kobolds, order them to move as she wished, and bring about the desired result. Miss Tetna was the poor girl who had lost her father in this tragedy. We needed to show that Rudolf and the kobolds would protect her no matter how much they would get hurt. However, the village chief was fully against having his granddaughter be the bait.

Miss Tetna, for her part, agreed in an instant.

“I believe in Rudolf.”

That was more than enough reason for Rudolf to fight. My lady asked him where his fellow kobolds were, and then she visited each nest and—using force—convinced them to join the fight and follow her orders. After all, she was a monstermancer and no monster was an exception.

The village chief would be able to defend the kobolds if they had protected Miss Tetna. All that was left was to create a situation where the villagers could realize this for themselves too. Who could suggest killing all the kobolds when they watched these same kobolds protect one of their own?

“Grrwl...”

In front of the high kobold was an adventurer and the corpses of his fellow kobolds. Behind was a pack of kobolds who he was supposed to have eaten.

“Grrrr...”

The pack of kobolds circled the high kobold so that he couldn’t escape, their anger on full display. The high kobold was very evidently panicked and flustered.

“The cannibalistic kobolds are victims too, in a way, but you are different,” the lad said to the high kobold even though he wouldn’t understand. “I know you had to resort to eating your fellow kobolds, but I doubt you were suffering so much that newborn pups had no option but to eat their parents.”

This had been calculated after my lady had checked the nests and compared the size of the packs with the size of the forest in order to calculate how many kobolds there would be.

The lad went on, “According to Leen, you’re smart enough to not be ignorant of that.”

“Grrr!”

The high kobold had no way of comprehending the young lad’s words, but he could sense his hostility. He gripped his sword firmer.

“Look how big you are. How many kobolds did you eat? You’re raising them for yourself, aren’t you?”

The reason the kobolds had to resort to eating humans instead of merely other kobolds was simple. The strongest one of them all had taken all the food—his fellow kobolds—for himself.

Female kobolds typically gave birth to large litters. The obvious answer had been to breed more food. By taking control of that process, a single kobold had managed to hoard all of the “food” for himself and grow bigger and bigger. That kobold was this high kobold.

As his fellows grew hungry, he alone glutted himself, exacerbating this terrible situation. However, it was because he was the biggest and smartest kobold that he knew.

“You eat humans too, right? Then come at me.”

He knew that he couldn’t win against this adventurer with the sword he wielded.

The final cannibalistic kobold used all of his kobold brains to think and come up with a solution. He let out a number of howls.

His answer: to eat. He was a kobold who ate other kobolds—which meant the mass of bodies before him was a buffet. He moved to feast on his fellows who until just a moment ago were ready to join him in eating their fellow kobolds. He was running on pure instinct now, with no consideration to the fact that they had once been part of his pack. He made a series of growls and barks.

What future would have awaited these creatures if they had managed to continue to live on? No one would ever know the answer. Before the high kobold, with his fangs bared and ready, could even begin to start feasting, the lad swung his blade quickly and sliced his head clean off.

◆

I woke up feeling a cool breeze on my face. The sun was just starting to rise and it was still dark outside.

The village held a party in the plaza last night, and it had been a real blowout. They’d offered endless servings of fruit cider and chicken; everyone drank and ate like they were trying to forget the nightmare that had finally passed.

I learned a few things at the party. The first was a stark reminder that Leen’s stomach was a bottomless pit. The second was that a little bit of booze was enough to knock a kobold to the ground, wasted.

I heaved an exasperated sigh.

Everywhere you looked, there were villagers crashed out on the ground and kobolds curled into little balls next to them. The more conscientious women and some more of the responsible folk had headed back home after sufficiently enjoying themselves, so the ones lying out here were the real wasters.

“Hakura.”

It was Leen. I had made my way to the well for some water, only to find her there already pulling up the bucket. To my surprise, she scooped up some in a cup and handed it to me. I downed it and felt the chill go down the throat as my body rehydrated.

“Good morning. The chicken and the alcohol were so delicious, weren’t they?”

“That’s what you have to say?”

As I watched Leen stare back at the site of the party with twinkling eyes, I wondered just what percentage of Rydea’s budget this girl had single-handedly consumed. I felt bad just thinking about it.

“Yes, but not only that.”

“Huh?”

“I suppose that in this situation, I should be saying ‘thank you.’”

I fell silent.

“Why’re you making that face?”

“I’m just shocked to learn that you know how to say thank y— Holy crap, that’s cold!”

Leen had just chucked her cup of water all over me. Of course—this was the type of girl she was.

“Even I can say thank you a few times per year!”

“Per year...?”

Leen coughed. “If I’d been on my own...I wouldn’t have been able to protect Rudolf.”

“I wasn’t going out of my way to protect him.”

“Yes, but Blue said that you were free to betray me, didn’t he?”

“So you knew, huh?”

I didn’t remember the slime being quite so blunt.

Leen sighed and said in a clear but hushed voice, “I really don’t get humans! I don’t understand why the village chief didn’t change his mind after seeing what I showed him, and I don’t understand you either, Hakura!”

“Me too?”

“Yes. It was a bit of a surprise to see you so angry. It would’ve been easier for you to just obey Dego, wouldn’t it? You were against my initial plan, after all.”

Everything she said made sense, but I couldn’t be bothered to give a definite answer, so I just turned away with a huff.

“C’mon,” I said, “it would’ve left a bad taste in my mouth to just kill the kobolds and reach the result that way.”

Maybe it was my imagination, but Leen’s expression clouded over, almost as if she were worried about me. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You know, I was concerned about you,” she said, puffing her cheeks up like a small child would.

“I was making amends.”

“Amends?”

I didn’t really want to talk about this, but I’d rather avoid having to deal with the weird atmosphere if I could. I turned my head away, left with no choice but to explain my feelings.

“I didn’t want to make her cry.”

I didn’t have any strong feelings toward the kobolds. If my client told me to kill, then I’d kill; if they told me not to kill, then I wouldn’t kill. But it was a stupid mistake on my part to have let Tetna cry. If the villagers wanted to make amends, then it would be an act of bad faith if I didn’t help them accomplish that. It was, well, a matter of balance.

“I think I understand you a bit better now, Hakura,” Leen said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

As I turned around to answer her, I caught a glimpse of her eyes. I knew that meeting her gaze would mean defeat, but I couldn’t help it.

Leen looked at me and...didn’t laugh. No, she flashed a happy smile befitting her age. It was unfettered, honest, and natural.

“You’ll get mad at me if I tell you, so I won’t.”

I think it was the first time I’d seen such a genuine smile on her face.

◆

These are the events that followed, although they’re kind of a pointless story to tell.

Even though the driver who’d taken us to Rydea had also joined the party and drunk plenty of booze himself, he seemed completely sober. He loaded up his wares, brought all the luggage together, and in no time at all, we were ready to leave.

“Thank you so much.”

Those who came to see us off were Dego, Tetna, and, standing beside her swishing his tail, Rudolf.

“I will find the right time to tell the other villagers the truth of what happened,” Dego went on.

At this stage, only a few villagers actually knew why the kobolds had ended up eating humans. Leen and I had helped convince the rest of them, for now, of the white lie that it had been pure chance that a pack of vicious kobolds had cropped up.

“Leen, Hakura,” Tetna said, holding Rudolf’s paw as she always did. “Thank you. This way, Rudolf and I will be able to stay friends.”

Rudolf let out his own little whine.

“I didn’t do anything to deserve your thanks. Plus, the real struggle comes next.”

Tetna nodded. “I’ll face it. I’ll work with Rudolf, his children, and their children. I’ll make Rydea a place where that will be normal.”

Dego made a half smile at Tetna’s statement, but as the chief, I imagined he was hoping she would work hard for their village’s future.

“Hey, Rudolf?”

“Krwl?”

“You keep her safe, got it?”

“Ruff!”

Things would probably turn out okay. As someone with minor involvement, that was all I could hope for.

“All right, time to go!”

The carriage finally started to make its slow departure. Soon, Rydea faded out of sight.

“But man, that really wasn’t worth the cost,” I said.

“Huh? We got to eat and drink so much, though! If you ask me, we made a killing. We got lots of dried erichés too, so we won’t be short on snacks for a while!”

“Eating really is your number one priority.”

As the carriage trundled along, we basked in the warm sunlight, our bellies full.

Leen let out a long breath. The combination of factors must have been perfect, for they’d lulled her right to sleep. She really was someone who moved at the beat of their own drum, utterly oblivious to danger. But I figured it was my job to keep her safe.

“Hey, slime?”

“What is it, lad?”

“Something’s been bothering me,” I said.

I waited a moment and looked at Leen, confirming from the flittering of her eyelids that she was asleep, then spoke in a hushed voice so the driver wouldn’t hear.

“I will listen to your query and answer it if I am able.”

The slime’s voice came back to me—it didn’t move, remaining a steadfast pillow under Leen’s golden tresses.

My question was based merely on my imagination—a simple theory I’d put together with the pieces of information I had been given. All the same, I needed to ask. It would affect my overall policy going forward.

“If I’d mercilessly hunted down the kobolds and completed the quest that way, what would have happened?”

The slime didn’t reply for a few seconds.

“What’s the silent treatment for?”

The slime moved its body, and its eyes—or at least the two cores that resembled eyes—faced me. Leen mumbled grumpily in her sleep, maybe sensing that her pillow had shifted.

“Lad... What would have happened is exactly as you imagine.”

This whole episode had been caused by a disturbance in the harmony between the villagers and the kobolds. Just like how the humans didn’t know about the kobolds, the kobolds didn’t know about the humans. One of the rules of nature is that the strong eat the weak, and this was indeed something Leen didn’t deny. It was true that the humans were the root cause of the debacle, and by the time we arrived at Rydea, the villagers had already paid that price dearly.

We had eliminated the “disturbance”—that is, the cannibalistic kobolds—in order to fix things. In Leen’s case, her intent was always to bring back harmony. Killing all of the kobolds would have tipped the scales that were finally balancing.

“The cannibalistic kobolds aren’t the only ones that eat the kobolds,” I said.

Kobolds were a species that made up for their weakness by breeding often. Therefore, it was a simple leap of the imagination to realize that there were other species that ate kobolds as primarily food. However, their primary predator existed deep in the forest away from human eyes and human society. The reason these creatures never made their way to where humans dwelled was because there were many kobolds scattered throughout the forest, from the shallow areas to the deep areas, and they had merely acted as a natural buffer. Assuming that was the case, then the other possible future that could have happened came into view.

It had been a close shave. The kobolds had started hiding away, going near fewer parts of the forest.

With the festival fast approaching, the villagers didn’t have enough fruits to deliver, so they chose to enter the forest and take the wild fruits there. If that situation had continued, then eventually the kobolds of the forest would have disappeared. Their predators then, having lost their prey, would have to search for a new food source—venture into areas of the forest they hadn’t been to before. Maybe head to areas with thin mana, unsuitable for monster habitation but suitable for humans...

If you don’t eat, then you die. That is what it means to live. This was a basic tenet that Leen had chosen not to explain to Dego.

If she gave all the facts, explained every truth, and offered a solution that would resolve everything, but her client still chose to prioritize their own convenience without accepting the results, then she wouldn’t be able to achieve that harmony.

Rydea had avoided destruction by a hair’s breadth.

As for Leen herself, she was breathing peacefully once more, probably happy that her pillow had repositioned itself well.

“But lad?”

The slime spoke while playing with an eriché pilfered from the village.

“Yeah?”

“It was rather burdensome, no? Every quest will be like this if you stay with my lady.”

“Hah!”

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. That was something I knew.

“Yeah. It was a massive pain in the ass.”

I let my emotions draw out the answer.

The slime said nothing more.

This was a G-rank quest with a paltry reward, but it had probably been one of the most exhausting quests I’d been on. That was how my first quest with Leen ended.

Chapter 2: What It Means to Die

Today, it was lurking outside the village.

Leston is a small village, so when we run into an issue that we can’t solve right away, the village chief and the others spend a long time passing responsibility between each other under the name of a “meeting,” and always conclude that asking an expert for help is the best answer. As such, we often end up hiring an adventurer.

To do this, our two choices are Esma, which you can get there and back in a day on a fast horse, or Clovel, which takes three times as long.

Leston is a rural village. We get passing merchants from time to time who will buy our local produce—leatherwork or other things made from cows—but the money we earn just barely supports our daily life. The demand for our leather goods is decided by factors outside the village’s control, but we don’t have anyone who can travel to the big towns to observe the latest fashion trends.

All the people with important roles are more than satisfied with that and even quote the goddess’s scripture to say that luxury is a sin, but I think they’re just afraid of any major changes.

Fortunately for us, there are hardly any monsters around these parts. That might be due to the lucky fact that we’re surrounded by a river. At any rate, all the adults have taken it for granted.

As for the older folks, they claim that the only monsters around are kobolds, and even sometimes mock other villages where they build outer walls and work to maintain them.

Because our village is like this, whenever a monster does appear, it’s treated like an emergency. Of course, if it were a kobold we could throw stones at it, but that thing has the shape of a human.

It has a body with flesh peeling away, exposed bones underneath, and eyes that are falling out. A human who should already be dead. A corpse that should not be able to move. It doesn’t come close, but it stands outside of the village at a distance, just staring.

“Come home soon, Allen...”

Even the village chief, who usually moves at such a leisurely pace, reacted differently in this case. A horse had been sent off to Esma, but it had been a few days since then. The fact that they hadn’t come back meant that people were starting to panic, fearing that help might never come.

We didn’t have any way to get rid of that thing. The reason being, well...

○

“Really? Living dead?”

On the morning of the second day after we’d returned to Esma, my lady went to the guild in search of a new quest. That had been her first response to the staff there.

“Yes, spotted around Leston. It’s a small village to the southeast of Esma, in the opposite direction of Rydea.”

The lady working the reception at Esma’s guild today was Miss Erifell. She wore glasses that framed her slightly drooping eyes and was dressed in the standard guild uniform. She was the personification of a serious, hard worker who was impervious to smooth talk or a handsome face—in other words, the polar opposite type of person to my lady.

In the time that we had stayed in Esma and took on a number of quests through her, Miss Erifell must have cottoned on to my lady’s abilities, for she passed on the most troublesome quests with the most businesslike and flat tone possible. My lady had recently started coming to the guild at times when she noticed that Miss Erifell was absent, but after arguing to get the reward for slaying the hydra and taking so long to pick the quest in Rydea, the receptionists at the Esma guild swapped in Miss Erifell whenever they saw my lady walk through the doors.

It appeared that Miss Erifell had been officially appointed as my lady’s personal receptionist. You could say that she had been given quite the difficult role.

“But why do I have to do this? Isn’t it a job for a priest or church knight? They’re always going around razing forests or villages or what have you.”

Dealing with undead creatures—such as the living dead, skeletons, and wraiths—was not usually in the wheelhouse of your average adventurer.

Exorcising the dead was done via Purification, a type of magic under the goddess’s domain, which is why problems of this nature were usually brought to the church. The undead were a type of monster, so it fell under my lady’s specialist remit as a monstermancer, but the truth was that the guild and the church had a very antagonistic relationship, so whenever schedules clashed, problems would also arise.

In reality, my lady was the rightful successor of the first witch Lingreen, and the church detested witches. They were wholly incompatible. Due to this, unless there was an untenable problem, my lady’s policy was not to involve herself with the church. I was in full agreement with her.

However, Miss Erifell answered in the same emotionless tone as before.

“They don’t have enough staff, I’m afraid. The only members of the clergy at the Esma church are unbaptized sisters who do not have the ability to purify. The church knight stationed there is also currently away.”

“Really? Again?”

Church knights were the crux of the church’s martial might, so they often left the towns they were appointed to. It was rarer to see one actually there. Hearing my lady’s miffed response, Miss Erifell looked over...but not at me. She looked at Hakura Istilla, the young lad who was standing behind my lady, not saying a thing.

The young lad had messy white hair and bloodred eyes. He wasn’t too terribly tall, but he looked rather muscular when next to my lady. Right now, he was yawning as if this matter didn’t concern him one bit.

“Lilliette,” Miss Erifell said. “It’s a trading city to the west of Esma. The news is that there was a witch trial over there.”

Upon hearing this, the young lad suddenly choked. My lady frowned grumpily and lightly kicked him in the shin. It made a good sound as he gave a muffled cry of pain, but that wasn’t worth thinking about all too much.

“Due to that, the Carbuncles have been on the move, and so the church knight left Esma to help with the convoy. That is why we are running short on help.”

The Carbuncles were an organization of holy women, and hearing their name uttered caused my lady’s mood to drop even further. It isn’t worth going into detail as to what her history with them was.

Miss Erifell for her part had maintained the exact same expression and hadn’t altered her gaze at all. She was still looking at the young lad while he was massaging his shin.

“One might say that you are the cause of this, Hakura,” she went on. “Isn’t that right, Witch Hunter?”

This statement caused me and my lady to look at the lad. He was crouched down, still holding his shin, and he averted his eyes, trying to avoid meeting any of our gazes. My lady didn’t say a thing.

“No, hold on, it’s all one big misunderstanding, listen to me!” he said, the words spluttering out.

The successor to the first witch shuffled a reasonable distance away from the lad.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve just remembered an errand I need to run...”

“You don’t have any errands more important than getting a quest at the guild, do you?!”

“For what purpose did you make contact with me?!”

“You! Made contact! With me!”

“Oh, right!”

One of my lady’s bad habits was that she often spoke before thinking, and tended to forget any facts that were inconvenient to her.

“But how come you kept it a secret?” she went on.

“What did you want me to do, reveal that to someone who told me she was a witch’s descendant the second after we met? You would’ve abandoned me and I would’ve died for real!”

Despite all the caution and critique he threw upon this, it was a surprisingly well-calculated, adventurer-like way of thinking.

“Don’t be rude! I wouldn’t abandon you! I’d finish the job myself and bury you afterward!”

“Well, now I’m damn glad I kept my mouth shut!”

Miss Erifell watched the pair scream at each other for a little while before she loudly clapped her hands together.

“Can we cease this silly banter now, please?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the pair replied in unison.

There was nothing scarier than a taciturn woman getting genuinely angry. Miss Erifell then put some documents on the table.

“You will have to pay for food out of your own pocket, but we will add extra to your reward once you have completed the quest.”

“We haven’t said we’d take it on yet, though...”

“All right, then how about these? You could kill rats in the sewers. You could farm ores in a mana crystal cave. You could lay out fairy-warding lanterns. I have many I could give you.”

“Those are all quests for rookie adventurers!”

Having her choices limited in this way, my lady merely groaned for a short while.

“Leen?”

“What is it, Witch Hunter?”

“Quit that. I wanna ask about the reward. Is it worth the effort?”

My lady looked at the paper and let out a huge sigh.

“To be honest...it’s a good price. But it’s going to be a huuuge pain in the butt.”

“Perfect. We’re doing it then.”

The two of them had agreed that my lady would handle the practical aspects of the quest and the lad would act as her bodyguard. Adventurers generally operated with pragmatism at all times. It didn’t matter if the job would be a pain, for the core of the work would be undertaken by my lady. It made logical sense for the lad to want a job that would pay well.

“Very good, I’ll process the paperwork. You may head out to do the quest whenever you’re available to. I pray for your safe return,” Miss Erifell said.

It didn’t matter how big or small the quest was, these words were the standard greeting the guild staff gave to all adventurers.

“Miss Erifell?” my lady asked, staring at her with narrowed eyes.

“What is it?”

“That necklace looks awful.”

My lady’s gaze was fixed on the leather necklace around Miss Erifell’s neck. Despite her well-put-together outfit, it was true that the necklace seemed almost shoddily made and clashed fiercely with her overall fashion. However, to comment on someone’s appearance like this was just plain mean-spirited.

“I am aware. What of it?”

However, the steel-hearted woman didn’t rise to such a cheap provocation. After saying this, she looked down at her paperwork and implicitly conveyed that the matter was closed.

“Hmph!”

“Whoa!”

The recipient of my lady’s rage was the young lad. It seemed her second kick didn’t hit its target.

▽

“Good morning, Krauna!”

“Good morning!”

It was cold when I had awoken this morning and prepared myself decently enough to go out. I greeted the other villagers I passed by in the street as I walked toward the plaza to get my daily water supply. There I saw the wives of the village, despite the early hour, having a little meeting by the well.

“Have you heard? Apparently a monster ate someone in Rydea recently!”

“How terrible! We often get kobolds here too.”

“Oh, don’t believe that hogwash. What I’ve heard is that actually...”

The women were always lively and chatty. Their conversations jumped from one topic to another without ever slowing down.

“Good morning,” I said. I got a smattering of greetings in return.

“And good morning to you too, Krauna.”

“You’re as beautiful as ever. Ahh, I wish I was young like you!”

“I’m green with envy!”

Whenever I gave a simple hello, this was the sort of response I got. I smiled awkwardly and did a quick curtsy before lowering my bucket into the well.

“Whew...”

The early morning water was deathly cold. I couldn’t stop a sound from escaping me as I labored. This happened almost every time. Unfortunately, I didn’t have leather gloves like the other women, the kind designed to keep your hands safe from the cold water. A few passersby chuckled and shot me some comments as they watched.

“I always feel sorry for you, Krauna. But soon you won’t have to worry about getting your hands cold.”

“Yes, that’ll be over when Allen returns.”

“My husband said that he’s a talented young man. Not much longer to wait now!”

Their smiles contained a degree of wistfulness at seeing their younger selves reflected in me, but also the joyful anticipation that a young woman like myself would soon join their ranks.

“Yes, I can’t wait to receive a pair of gloves of my own too,” I replied.

In return, I got enraptured squeals and their excitement on my behalf.

Leston was supported by the leatherwork made from our cows. Gloves were a particularly special item. You see, sons would learn how to make gloves from their parents, and then make a pair for the woman they were going to marry. In a case like mine, where my fiancé wasn’t from this village, he would have to learn how to make a pair of gloves from scratch by apprenticing with someone. My hands would remain bare until his work was acknowledged to be up to a good enough standard.

“Come home soon, Allen...”

○

My lady loved to talk. When the two of us had traveled alone together, I had been the one to reply to her whenever necessary, but ever since the lad had joined us, that role had been passed on to him. She would speak as freely as she wished and the lad would respond minimally. Their conversations usually flowed smoothly, but today that wasn’t the case at all. The exchange that had happened earlier at the guild was probably to blame, but out here on the empty road, only their footsteps echoed.

“Hey, Leen?” the lad spoke up after an extended period of silence.

“What is it?”

“I gotta ask why you’re walking so far away...”

Usually, the lad would slow down to accommodate my lady’s gait, but today, she was the one walking with big strides. The lad occasionally needed to jog in order to catch up. Then, when he bridged the gap, she would move forward in order to get some distance and restart the cycle once again.

I imagined that this had very much tired out the lad. He was a rational adventurer, and so he probably wanted to solve this utterly irrational scenario.

“Fine, fine,” he said. “You can tell me what’s got you so upset.”

“Do I really have to spell it out?” my lady spat back without turning around before throwing m— Gwegh!

“Whoa!”

I collided with the ground and bounced off without scattering.

“Uh, the only things I can think of that seem to piss you off are not getting enough food and not getting enough sleep!”

“Th-There are other things! My emotions change like the breeze!”

“That’s not something to boast about!”

I agreed with the lad, but my lady huffed with a frown.

For my part, I felt like I very much had the right to air a complaint or two, but as neither of them were even looking at me, I decided that I would just watch how the scene developed.

“You see, I’ve had my fair share of bad run-ins with those fellows who call themselves witch hunters.”

Witch hunters were exactly what their names suggested.

Along with the first witch, Lingreen, witches had existed in this world since time immemorial. Unlike magic, which had been codified due to human intellect, or alchemy, which had come into existence after much trial and error, witches were capable of utilizing the logic from the world of the other side to alter the laws of this world. Most witches used their power for their own selfish ends. In these cases, sacrifices were common.

The reason was that the witches’ power was also the power of demons. In order to bring about its effects, they needed sacrifices. In the War of the Witches, which had taken place almost a millennium ago, a huge calamity had occurred, resulting in an archipelago—located in Corsueny, the southern continent—being wiped off the face of the map.

It would be best to ignore the fact that another monstermancer in my lady’s lineage from a few generations prior had been heavily involved.

The church was ultimately the one who had decided to proactively seek to eliminate witches. The Carbuncles that Miss Erifell had mentioned were an organization managed by the church that specialized in witch hunting. They would use any and all measures at their disposal to rid the world of witches. It was a difficult endeavor, so it was, albeit rarely, passed onto adventurers via quests.

“I just wanna say that I’m sorry for not mentioning it.”

The lad did honestly look apologetic. It was a rare sight from him, but he seemed a little ashamed.

“You know where I’m from and... Uh... Hey, slime?”

As always, the lad didn’t want to use my name. Whereas it was uncommon to refer to a human as “the human” or an elf as “the elf,” I was the only slime here. I decided to answer him nonetheless.

“You are from a witch’s den which shares its name with the ancient witch Istilla.”

One’s home name referred to their place of origin or the location they had made their abode. As most adventurers were travelers, by design, their home names were from their actual hometowns. Most villages and towns were named after either the person who established it or their chief. For example, Esma was named after Esma, who was the person that initially established the town; Rydea was named after Miss Tetna’s ancestor who was also called Rydea. However, it was rare for somewhere to have been continuously ruled by the same person for over two millennia. These places were almost always witch’s dens.

The lad’s twisted expression was probably because the place brought back some unpleasant memories.

“I only got out of there through sheer luck,” he said. “I hate witches.”

It was perhaps only natural that this emotion had led him, even if by a roundabout way, to become a witch hunter.

“That same luck was also what led me to get a chance to defeat a witch,” he went on. “This was back when I was working on my own. It happened a few times, and before long, the guild asked me personally to take on some quests.”

There were few adventurers who could say they had successfully felled a witch. Since the guild divvied out jobs that they felt were suitable for their adventurers, it made sense that this had been the outcome.

“It’s not like that’s my main thing, but you can see why I didn’t say anything.”

“Then why did you decide to come with me?” my lady replied.

“Because you created a situation where I couldn’t really say no...?”

The conditions that my lady had suggested to the lad had essentially been a threat. I figured my lady had probably forgotten this, but...

“Yes, I did think that I wanted to bring you along with me, no matter what measures I had to take.”

“Hey...”

...it seemed that she was fully aware.

“Well, you had other options at your disposal. You could have used your savings or borrowed money. You’re a B-rank adventurer too, so you can put your Sphere up for collateral.”

It was true. The guild had a system that allowed adventurers, if they passed the relevant checks, to borrow money depending on their track record. Of course, it was based on trust and so the young lad could use extenuating circumstances to buy some more gear and chase after his former party.

The lad stayed quiet for half a minute or so. My lady had a short temper at the best of times, but she had noticed the lad was choosing his words carefully so she waited patiently.

“I was curious,” he finally answered.

“Oh? About my beauty?”

“Jeez, where does your endless self-confidence even come from?”

“From my cute face, bountiful bosom, and beautiful eyes.”

The lad was stunned speechless. This level of pride was par for the course when it came to Lingreen women.

“That’s not what I mean. In the fairy tales I heard, the first witch was said to be the only witch in the entire world who was good.”

My lady sighed. “Well, yes, that’s right...”

“Seriously...?”

The lad swallowed down the many things he wanted to say before heaving a big sigh.

“I always thought that if there really was a kindhearted witch, then I’d like to meet her. Every witch that I’ve come across acted like they were permitted to do whatever they wanted as long as it advanced their goals. They were all corrupt.”

“And, Hakura? What is your definition of a good witch?”

My lady didn’t think that she was a particularly good person, so she said this with a slightly forward posture.

“Well...” The lad averted his gaze from her and placed a hand over his mouth as he spoke. “They take on quests that are a pain in the ass and hardly worth the effort and go on to help save some kobolds, I guess...”

“Wh-What’s that supposed to mean?!”

My lady swung her leg once more, but the lad cleanly evaded it. She was losing one win to two losses.

“But you yourself, Hakura...”

“I what?”

“Nooothing.”

My lady picked me up and walked off with a huff. The lad followed behind.

However, her footsteps weren’t as rugged as before and her pace had returned to a speed where the two walked in sync once again.

“Anyway, the agreement’s that I’ll be your bodyguard until I join up with the others. I’m an adventurer. I follow my contracts.”

“Well, naturally. Contracts matter more than all else.”

This was one of the important rules of this world that was the same whether you were an adventurer, a witch, or a monstermancer.

▽

“I’ll be back in no time. Tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.”

Allen had reassured me, but still, as the one left behind, I couldn’t help but feel worried. To be honest, I got anxious whenever he wasn’t by my side.

“Or do you want to come with? This horse can carry two.”

“But that’ll wear out the horse, and if we don’t find a clergyman or someone who can help, we’ll be stuck out there for multiple days. An extra person means double the expenses.”

If I had allowed myself to be honest, I wished to go with him. A part of me didn’t want to find a priest. I wanted a reason to spend as much time as possible with Allen. Of course, I knew that, whatever the truth might be, people would think I was capitalizing on the village’s peril to just go around having fun with him. We might lose our places here.

Allen was a former adventurer. He had done the journey between Esma and Leston countless times by now. He was well-known there and he knew exactly what to say and do in order to get the guild to work for him. I knew that choosing Allen was the most logical choice, but...

No, the timing was just bad. That was what had caused me to be more worried than necessary.

“I’m more concerned about the village. I hope there is only one of them,” Allen had said.

“But it can’t cross the river, can it?”

“No, so you should be safe as long as you stay in it. I told the chief to make sure he doesn’t lower the bridge except in extenuating circumstances.”

Leston was surrounded by a river, so it was immensely difficult to enter or leave it if the bridge wasn’t up. While the river was shallow and slow enough for lighter people to swim across, that thing would never be able to come into the village, even if it came close. That was what Allen, a seasoned adventurer, had claimed. If that was his opinion, then all I could do was believe him.

“Allen, crouch down.”

“Hm?”

“Just listen to me.”

After a moment of confusion, Allen did what I said without question. He fell to one knee. I placed a thin string around his neck and our lips touched for a moment.

“You lonely soul,” Allen had said.

“You made me this way.”

The leather necklaces of Leston were given to wish the other party a safe journey. Allen touched the necklace I made with his fingertips and smiled.

“All right then, I should get going, Krauna.”

“Safe travels, Allen. Come back as soon as you can.”

◆

A relatively large forest separated Esma and Leston. The main road takes you the long way around it, but our job was to find any living dead and eradicate them both in Leston and on the way there, so we were trudging right through. The woods were too dense for a horse to comfortably travel through, let alone with a carriage, so we ended up walking. It was the fastest route and would probably take us about a day.

“Hey, Leen?”

“Yeff?”

As she walked on the overgrown path, Leen was very unbecomingly stuffing her face with the sandwiches we’d got in Esma for our lunch today.

“Whaf if it? I’m nof giffin’ you any.”

“I’m not eying your food. And don’t talk with your mouth full!”

Leen hastily swallowed the mouthful of sandwich. “Then don’t talk to me when I’m eating!”

“Well, yeah, maybe that’s my fault...”

“If you think that, then at least try and act a little remorseful.”

All it took was a couple of words to trigger this full-blown rigmarole. I took out one of my sandwiches and gave it to her. She chuckled with a beaming smile as she unwrapped it.

“So, my question,” I said. “Wouldn’t a witch be to blame if living dead are cropping up?”

I immediately got to the point before she could start eating.

“A witch? Why do you think that?”

“Because witches use skeletons as their minions and stuff, right?”

The witches I’d fought had dug up skeletons from gravesites and used them to do their bidding.

“So that’s why you think they’ve brought some corpses back to life, huh...”

Leen posed pensively for a moment. While thinking, though, she pulled out the sandwich and started munching on it, so I decided to eat what was left of mine too.

This square, toasted bread with a thin slice of cheese and salty bit of ham was far too luxurious a meal for a journey like this. The thing I’d learned about Leen from our short time together was that she had terrible spending habits, especially so for food. Well, I couldn’t really complain seeing as her wallet was paying for my own food as well—even if she had eaten a portion of that.

“Hakura, have you...ever fought...a living dead before?” she said in between bites and chews with no reservation toward this donated food. I decided to answer her honestly.

“I’ve fought a few animals-turned-living-dead. Never encountered human-shaped ones,” I replied.

“I see, I see... And how did you go about eliminating those?”

“I’d chop off their head before crushing it. When it stopped moving, I just left— Whoa?!”

Leen had whipped out a low kick, which I avoided by a hair’s breadth. That was the fourth time today!

“Don’t dodge!”

“Your kicks hurt, dammit!”

“Because I’ve got pieces of steel on the toes of my boots.”

“Are your boots meant to be lethal weapons?!”

Someone had told me once that although you might fuss over your equipment, when your job involved so much walking, you couldn’t skimp when it came to decent footwear.

“What you did is the worst thing you could have done when dealing with the living dead! If you messed up, you could’ve caused a disaster!”

“Everything seems like a disaster when I’m working with you...”

“I’m being serious, Hakura!”

“Yeah, and so was I...”

I was a bit annoyed because she’d answered my question with a question, but before I could say anything else, she pointed her finger at me.

“I suppose, yes, there’s a preconception that witches are always involved when it comes to the undead. However! The living dead aren’t the same thing as skeletons and the like.”

“Really?”

Undead, living dead... They both seemed the same to me. They were corpses who moved—who had forgotten to die.

“Then allow me to explain the difference. ‘Living dead’ does not refer to the corpse—it refers to the parasite that causes them to move.” Leen crouched down and plucked up something from the soil. In her hands was a thick-capped mushroom. “They’re related to myconids.”

“Myconids?!”

Myconids were walking mushrooms that occupied the lower levels of dungeons or forests with enough mana. Most adventurers had encountered at least one. They didn’t attack you directly, but they could spray poisonous spores, so if you made one wrong move dealing with them, you could land yourself in some serious trouble. If you were against just one, you could drink an antidote, but they were a pain because they often appeared alongside other monsters. However, I couldn’t see what linked them to the living dead. Well, I supposed they both liked dark and gloomy places...

“Mushrooms are made of mycelium. You can say, really loosely, that they’re related to mold. Now, the living dead are actually a type of parasitic fungus, like cordyceps. Do you know what a cordyceps is?”

“Yeah, I’ve seen quests for them from time to time. They’re fungi that grow inside bugs, right?”

“Yes. Cordyceps will infest an insect, and similarly, the living dead—by which I mean the fungal part—infests the brain of the corpse. It doesn’t matter if it’s a human or an animal or a monster. The mycelium will connect to the nervous system, allowing them access and control over the body. In that sense, they are the same as the undead in that they’re both moving corpses.”

I had simply viewed monsters as monsters—nothing more. I had never given a second thought as to why or how they moved.

“The mycelium is then able to spread from the brain to the muscles and organs as it takes over its host. That’s why the body ends up decaying quickly with flesh falling off, eyes falling out, and skin festering,” Leen continued.

“So that’s the truth behind the living dead I’ve met?”

“Yes. As they are technically living creatures, they want to increase their numbers. In order to do that, they need more corpses to take over. They like humid areas and they instinctively hunger for flesh. Not that there’s much point in them doing that since their host’s metabolism has stopped already.”

“Aha, that’s why they scratch and bite.”

“Exactly. They can only attack based on instinct. Since they’re fungi, they struggle in dry areas and high temperatures. They can’t infest living creatures, so if you get scratched, you just need to deal with it properly and you won’t have an issue. And they can only move via their host, so if you injure them enough to immobilize them, you just need to wait until they die. However, going this route will cause the mycelium to emerge through the skin. If there is another uninfected corpse nearby then the fungus will migrate and spread.”

“Wait, so you’re saying the way I killed the living dead...”

“Even if you crush the host’s head, this doesn’t kill the mycelium. With the right conditions, they will be able to find a new host and live again. An easy, surefire option is to just burn the body.”

“So the church’s method was right all along...”

I felt she had been a bit rude to them when we were in the guild before leaving today.

“Yes, but burning down an entire village just because there was one living dead is clearly overkill!”

“Oh yeah?”

Leen started rotating her hand in the air as she spoke, seemingly getting very into this lecture.

“The interesting thing about them is that even if they act independently, they can share information over long distances.”

I’d brought up the topic, so I wasn’t completely uninterested. It was a perfect way to pass the time on a boring walk. Leen shared some more facts about the living dead, but soon enough the conversation shifted to another monster.

“You mentioned skeletons earlier, right? These monsters can actually be categorized alongside golems,” Leen said.

“Golems?!”

I ended up reacting in the same way as before. In my mind, they were nothing more than giant lumps of rock. They often guarded doors or chests in dungeons and were sturdy bastards who wouldn’t stop moving until you destroyed their core or physically incapacitated them. Wild golems had apparently originally been created by alchemists but could no longer be controlled. What linked them to skeletons?

“So are you saying skeletons are artificial creations too?” I asked.

“Well, they’re made from bones, so it’s a bit odd to describe them as artificial, but they’re a cheap type of golem where you can simply reappropriate the parts. They have a core inside them that allows them to be moved in the way they’re programmed. Unlike the living dead, they don’t retain or reuse the memories of their lives. They don’t have brains.”

“Wait, wait... I’ve seen skeletons pull themselves out of the soil at gravesites and stuff.”

“Well... This is a bit of an old anecdote, but wizards in ancient times used lots of slaves to create dungeons, right?”

“Right.”

“But when the job was done, the slaves were buried alive, right?”

“R-Right.”

“The cores were put in their bodies beforehand, so when they died, their flesh would slough off and they would turn into moving skeletons.”

“Right...”

“So when they come back to ‘life’ as skeletons, they end up wandering the dungeon to carry out their order to kill any intruder. Of course, sometimes they end up escaping. Then, in the past, talented alchemists or witches made their own skeletons. However, this time they would give them the ability to replicate their core and pass it on to other corpses. There are more of these ‘wild’ skeletons than you think.”

So it was the fault of ancient alchemists that we had to deal with skeletons.

“Wraiths are a bit different, though. They’re born when the thoughts of the deceased get entangled with mana and their consciousness ends up taking on a life of its own. Now, when this consciousness attaches itself to a corpse, wights—a separate type of monster—are born. These monsters are quite tricky. If you’re unlucky, they might use magic. Not only that, but from the outside they look just like skeletons, so you need to watch out.”

At this point, Leen was an open faucet. All the same, I couldn’t help but voice my own question.

“Does your power work on golems and stuff too?” I said.

Of course it depended on how you defined a monster, so if Leen was right, I doubted if skeletons or golems could even be described as living creatures.

“Yes. My monstermancy works on any and all monsters,” she said with a conclusive tone. “To loop the conversation back around, it’s possible to define the undead as corpses that are reanimated using mana, which borders on darkness. This includes the living dead, a skeleton’s core, wraiths, wights... That is why they share the same weakness: Purification magic. They are all the same to the church.”

They seemed identical, so they were all categorized together, and to top it off, the method of dealing with them was the same too. It made sense. If they were to explain it, it was merely the miracle bestowed upon them by their goddess that allowed them to purify any and all evil.

“That is why people hastily assume that appearances of the living dead means that a witch is lurking behind the scenes. Of course, it isn’t a certainty either way.”

This long-winded explanation was all to assuage my trifling initial concern.

“I see. That’s good then.”

I wasn’t sure if this emotion I felt was relief, but I sighed and set aside those thoughts for now. I needed to focus my energy toward clearing this quest, so I opened up the map they had given us.

“Hmm... The path’s gonna get a bit windy,” I said.

Due to all the changes in elevation, there were lots of rivers and marshes in this area. While we could just muscle through the water and shave some distance, we had luggage that we didn’t want getting wet, so we needed to take longer routes when necessary.

“And this is Leston over here...”

In the left corner of the map was a village with Leston written next to it. It had one particularly identifying feature.

“Look at that—surrounded by a river,” Leen said. “Oh, Blue? Is Leston known for any good food?”

“They are known for their leatherwork. Because of that, they have a lot of beef dishes. I believe it is customary for them to roast a calf whole on auspicious occasions.”

“We need to get to Leston before the day is out, Hakura!”

“Don’t change the conversation!”

“Slurp...”

“Quit that!”

Her professorial tone had vanished in an instant, with her bottomless hunger being all that remained.

“Well, with a river surrounding the village, the living dead won’t be able to enter it, so Leston should be all right,” I muttered.

However, as soon as I said this, Leen’s eyes boggled.

“Really? Why’s that?” she said.

“Because living dead can’t cross rivers.”

From my perspective, this was common sense, but Leen was acting like she’d never heard this in her life.

“Hmm, they are weak against holy water, but not regular old water. Like I said, they’re a type of fungus, so they actually like damp conditions. You get living dead fish sometimes!”

“That right?”

“The ones that can’t cross water are high-level undead like vampire nobles, but they don’t really leave Chaos Burne. Well, it makes sense. They can’t even leave the dark continent due to the sea stopping them.”

“But this is common knowledge for adventurers! I’ve leaped over a river to shake them off my tail before.”

Leen placed her free hand on her chin and stopped walking.

“Hmm... I suppose there are variations in monster habits depending on the region, but living dead just aren’t that type of monster. All I can think of are...”

“Are...?”

“No, it’s nothing. I think this is just some kind of misunderstanding.”

Leen ultimately chose not to clarify, but it didn’t matter since our job was the same either way.

“Eh, I guess we’ll know when we get there,” I said.

▽

Today, once again, it was lurking outside the village.

I sighed.

That thing couldn’t cross the river, so it wouldn’t be able to harm us, but that knowledge didn’t cure my mood and it was still revolting to look at.

The men lost their patience after a point and fired some arrows at it, but none of them hit their mark. While it retreated briefly, it simply came back again before long. It seemed like it was watching us. Of course, I knew that it didn’t have the capacity for rational thought.

I wondered whether I should go fetch some water for tomorrow or return home and do some sewing. Just as I was weighing my options, someone called out from behind me.

“Hello, may I trouble you for a moment?”

“Huh? Wh-Whoa!”

There were a few reasons why I was so surprised when I turned around. What I noticed before anything else were the glittering eyes of the girl who was standing there.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she said.

The girl grasped the hem of her skirt and performed a polite curtsy. She had beautiful, golden hair, totally unbefitting of a nowhere village like ours. Her cloak, the type that noble ladies wore, was so at odds with where we were that she stood out like a sore thumb.

Her appearance aside, there was something else that surprised me. Leston was on high alert due to the thing lurking outside the village—no one was permitted to come in or out. So how did this striking stranger manage to get in? There was only one possibility...

Hope welled up inside me as I glanced at her right hand. Maybe she noticed my gaze, for she turned out her hand to show me the back of it. There I saw a beautiful, oval-shaped gemstone. The same as Allen’s. That meant...

As my prediction became certain, she introduced herself. It was a strange name, one that seemed completely foreign in these parts.

“But what should I call you? T—”

“My friends call me Leen,” she said, cutting me off. “I’d be happy if you did the same.”

This girl, a whole head shorter than me, gave a gentle smile.

I gritted my teeth and pulled up the bucket from the well, before Leen effortlessly took it in one hand and helped carry it to my home. She was far, far stronger than a village girl like me. Adventurers were incredible.

“The chief told me to talk to you,” Leen said after we had gotten home and I’d prepared some tea. I couldn’t help but be confused.

“Um, but why me? Someone else went to commission a quest from the guild...”

Leen’s presence here meant that our request had successfully reached Leston. But that didn’t make sense, because if it had, then Allen should be back. He should’ve returned straight here to me.

“Yes, he’s on his way, but he’ll be a bit delayed,” Leen said. “The guild needed to ask him a number of questions, so I decided to come beforehand to scope things out. I reckon...he’ll arrive by tomorrow afternoon.”

“Is that right...”

I had gotten so worked up only for that emotion to have been stamped out immediately after. But I breathed a sigh of relief knowing Allen had safely reached Esma.

“He’s your fiancé, isn’t he?”

“Urk!”

I had taken a sip of tea to try and calm myself, but Leen’s abrupt question made me gag. She flashed a teasing smile.

“He told me all about you! He said that he quit being an adventurer and moved to Leston to marry you.”

“Oh, enough of that... Allen is, well...”

I felt a rush of emotions—embarrassment and a bit of wariness that Allen had blabbered so much, but also joy to hear it being said by someone else. My cheeks were burning hot.

“Leston has a rule about accepting outsiders as one of us,” I said.

“A rule?”

“Yes. Well, more of a practice, really. Leston is famous for its leatherwork. For craftsmen, the typical sign that they’re a fully-fledged leatherworker is being able to make a pair of gloves. Until an outsider manages to make a pair of gloves that a professional deems adequate enough, then he won’t be accepted into the village. That means marriage is out of the question until then too.”

“I see... And how’re things going with you?”

“Allen’s done a great deal for Leston, so he was granted permission to become an understudy and also to marry me.”

“How romantic! I want to hear every juicy detail about how you met.”

“E-Enough of that. You’re making me blush... Don’t you have someone you’re interested in? I hear there are plenty of men in the adventuring field.”

“Absolutely, totally, one hundred percent not. Adventurers are the number one type of person that you should never date!”

“Um... Allen’s an adventurer...”

“Was an adventurer!” Leen corrected. “So what happens if the outsider is a woman?”

“W-Well, women are known for making boots. Like the ones I’m wearing.”

I lightly stamped my feet on the ground, but Leen heaved another big sigh. It seemed like a tic of hers. It was probably my fault—there weren’t many young women in the village, so I’d gotten carried away chatting. I needed to return to the matter at hand.

“U-Um, so about that thing,” I said. I peered out the window and could spot it. Its filthy flesh, its decaying body... “An adventurer can get rid of it, right...?”

Leen nodded vigorously as I voiced my concern.

“Of course. That’s why I came to Leston! I walked the whole distance.”

“Really? That’s such a relief...”

When I thought about how suffocating life here had been since that thing had appeared, her words seemed like a godsend. I would finally be free. I did wonder what she was implying by specifically mentioning that she walked, though...

“However, it will take a little while to get things ready,” Leen said. “Would you mind showing me around the village in the meantime?”

“Of course, gladly.”

I finally realized why the chief had asked Leen to come to me. He wanted me to supervise this adventurer with plenty of free time to make sure she didn’t do anything unexpected. It didn’t quite seem that he was foisting the busywork on me, more so that he was being kind and letting me chat with someone my age.

I didn’t mind at all. It made for a perfect change of pace, and although I’d only known Leen for a short time, I liked her. I wasn’t sure why, but I felt extremely relaxed when I looked into her big eyes.

“Oh, I heard that beef is your local specialty!” she said with glittering eyes.

“Leather, not beef,” I said, unable to stop myself from chuckling.

“Have you heard? Apparently a monster ate someone in Rydea recently!”

“How terrible! We often get kobolds here too.”

“Oh, don’t believe that hogwash. What I’ve heard is that actually...”

The women were always lively and chatty. Their conversations jumped from one topic to another without ever slowing down.

“Good morning,” I said. I got a smattering of greetings in return.

“And good morning to you too, Krauna.”

“You’re as beautiful as ever. Ahh, I wish I was young like you!”

“I’m green with envy!”

After greeting them, I turned and introduced Leen.

“This is Ms. Leen. She’s an adventurer. She’s come to get rid of you-know-what.”

“Nice to meet you,” Leen said with a curtsy. It was a wonderful motion, something that I wouldn’t be able to do as gracefully if I tried.

However, when they looked at Leen, their expressions froze up and they turned away. Their gazes fell on me.

“I always feel sorry for you, Krauna. But soon you won’t have to worry about getting your hands cold.”

“Yes, that’ll be over when Allen returns.”

“My husband said that he’s a talented young man. Not much longer to wait now!”

“Y-Yes, thank you.”

I couldn’t really fault them. I gave my pleasantries and took Leen’s hand to lead her away.

“I’m sorry. Everyone’s a bit on edge,” I said.

“That’s okay. It doesn’t bother me. You encounter it a lot as an adventurer.”

“Really?”

“Yes. We’re outsiders, more or less.”

Leen, who seemed pretty close in age to me, stated this with an air of certainty before laughing.

“Um, right, okay, so that’s the pasture. Although it’s not all that large.”

Leston’s lifeblood was its pasture; it was key to our output. We lived alongside it, as it comprised about half of the village’s area, and all our bulls and cows lived on it. Taking care of them was the job of Leston’s women.

Mghooo...

One of the cows started lowing.

“Oh, sorry, it’s time to feed them already,” I said.

“Was that the sound they make when they’re hungry?” Leen said.

“Yes. They moo like that. Please wait just a second.”

There was a rota for feeding the cows, but I couldn’t just ignore this. I hopped over the fence and went to check their troughs. They were filled with hay that didn’t look like it had been touched at all.

“Hm? How strange...”

Mghooo...

As I puzzled over this, the cows lowed once more.

“This isn’t just them being picky, is it...?”

The health of our livestock directly impacted the economy of the village. I briefly checked the cows, but nothing seemed particularly wrong with them...

“Kraunaaa! Are you okaaay?” Leen called from the other side of the fence.

Mghooo...

Mghooo...

Mghooo...

At that moment, all of our thirty-odd cows started lowing.

“Eep!”

This had never happened before, so I flinched. They then all started to move with slow hoofsteps toward Leen.

Mghooo...

Mghooo...

Mghooo...

“Whoa! S-Stop that!”

Leston’s cows were gentle creatures. They were calm and wouldn’t get enraged or act out without good reason. It was clear to me they wanted something. Maybe they had lost their appetite for the feed and wanted something on the other side of the fence? I didn’t know. At any rate, it would be fatal, even for an adventurer, to be crushed by that many cows. I shouted out to Leen.

“Leen, get back! It’s dangerous!”

But she just smiled and held her right hand in front of the incoming cows.

“Enough of that!” she said as if scolding a child.

Mghooo...

To my surprise, the unexpected happened. All of the cows stopped and lay down where they were.

“Have you worked with cows before?” I said, dashing toward Leen. She puffed out her chest with evident pride.

“Not cows, but something similar. Compared to monsters, animals are easy to understand.”

“Wow... Adventurers really are amazing. You don’t even look much different to me...”

“But you can do lots of things that I can’t, Krauna. We’re equal!”

I didn’t know why, but I felt strangely guilty hearing Leen say this.

“No, that’s not true... I’m useless here in the village.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I just am. The shoes I make are barely passable. I had a friend growing up who was so talented and people always compared me to her. They always called me Useless Krauna.”

“Hmm, I’ve been blessed with both genius and beauty since the day I was born, so I can’t really comment...”

“You really are honest.”

Leen had such a lovely face. Her hands were free of scars and hangnails. Her hair was long and healthy. If you tried to grow hair that long in this village, it would get dirty and damaged before long. It was almost a talent that she was able to be so honest and show hardly any ill will. This, and everything else, made me feel like we truly lived in different worlds...

“So what happened to this childhood friend?” Leen asked.

“She was so gifted that she decided to leave. I haven’t seen her in five years or so.”

“Doesn’t she come home at all?”

“She was disowned. Her parents and the chief were furious that she even suggested leaving.”

“Oof...”

Most villages prided themselves on their culture and traditions, but Leston was especially bad. I was born and raised in this village, so I’d just accepted the adults’ account of what had happened, but she really was smart, so there was probably more to the story.

“We exchange letters about once a month. There’s a caravan that occasionally visits.”

“Oh! You’re still in touch?”

“Yes, although the chief and the others aren’t too happy about it. The older generation are so hardheaded.”

“That makes it all the more incredible that you managed to get approval to marry Allen.”

“Yes, it was a real miracle!”

“Did he make a good first impression?”

“I think so. I first met him when he was in Leston on a quest and...” I glanced at Leen. She was grinning. Without realizing it, I was speaking about Allen. “Do I really have to go on...?”

“Adventurers are people who constantly need feeding. We will die without regular stories about romance.”

“Allen never told me about such people,” I said, unable to stop myself from chuckling.

Before I’d noticed it, the cows had closed their eyes and stopped moving. They were so peaceful you couldn’t even hear them breathing.

I met Allen four years ago when he came from Esma to slay an orthrus that was attacking our cows. It had been separated from its pack and would snatch away a cow every now and then from the pasture. After we commissioned a quest from the guild, he was the one who appeared.

Everyone was so surprised when such a gentle-looking man appeared. He was slender and not very tall. Even his weapon was incredibly thin. Everyone thought we might as well have asked Mister Dorn the butcher to help! His carving knife seemed far more deadly. In places like Leston, there aren’t many opportunities to see an adventurer fight, so this reaction was probably to be expected.

On that day, it was my turn to feed the cows. Yes, that’s right—we take turns. I’d wanted to skip and stay at home, but I’m glad that I went, because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met him.

Oh, sorry. I’m getting off track.

Anyway, I knew there was an orthrus on the loose, so I figured I’d finish as soon as possible and then head home. But when I entered the barn, there it was. I screamed, and then it lunged at me, almost like it was reacting to my shout. I didn’t even have time to realize my life was ending. All I could do was close my eyes in fear.

However, no pain came. I waited and waited, but nothing happened. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Allen. He had blocked the orthrus’s bite with his arm to protect me.

“Are you okay?” he asked with a smile. I can still envision his face in that moment so vividly.

Allen managed to defeat the orthrus, but he was badly injured. I told him so many times that he shouldn’t have protected me, that if he hadn’t he wouldn’t have gotten hurt, but he just flashed a smile.

Everyone in the village decided that we would take care of him until he got better. There was a lot of backlash when I volunteered for the task—they said that a single woman like me shouldn’t be doing that! But I didn’t relent—I couldn’t. Eventually the chief and the others conceded and allowed Allen to stay with me.

Adventurers really are incredible. His wound was so bad, yet he was back to normal in only a week. That was our first goodbye—but then, before all too long, Allen came back. He was on all sorts of quests that didn’t fit him, like protecting a caravan or delivering letters. I found out that he had just invented excuses so that he could meet me.

If we met in the village, then people would tease us and gossip about us, so we ended up exclusively meeting by the river, a short distance from the village.

Then, a year ago, he proposed to me.

I asked him why, and what do you think he said? Go on, guess!

“When I go away and imagine you all alone in that house, I can’t bear it. I don’t want you to feel so lonely.”

Yes, I remember every word. We held hands and went to go tell the chief. The hardheaded older generation said that he was the village’s savior, that he was reliable, that he was healthy and young, and that was the perfect marriage partner for someone without relatives like me.

Allen delayed our marriage. He said he wanted to respect the traditions of Leston and learn to make a pair of leather gloves for me. That’s why I was still unmarried and why he was still in training. But in turn, everyone in the village said they will make the wedding even more lavish when the day finally comes.

I think the thing that made me happiest was the fact that the chief gave me permission to invite my friend, the one who was disowned, especially for the wedding. You see, it was her who made the request of the guild, so she was the one who managed to get Allen to come here. She’s our cupid! I always wanted her to be a part of our celebration.

Allen said he would invite some of his adventuring buddies. Oh, and I’d love for you to be there too, Leen.

Today, once again, it was lurking outside the village.

I sighed.

That thing couldn’t cross the river, so it wouldn’t be able to harm us, but that knowledge didn’t cure my mood and it was still revolting to look at.

When I went to get water in the morning, I happened upon the scene.

“Grah, go away!”

The men of the village must have been unable to bear the suffocating tension anymore. They readied their bows and fired.

Thud.

A different sound than usual caused me to look up. That thing was there, but something was different. Today, it had a weapon—a sharp sword. It was using that weapon to strike down an arrow, causing it to splash into the river.

“What...?”

This was strange. That thing had never done this before. And where did it get that weapon from? Had it grown sentient...?

“Tch, it’s not working!” Rameo bemoaned.

He lowered his bow and walked off as if the issue weren’t all that important.

A deep fear took root within me. What would happen if that thing was left undealt with?

I headed to the well and saw the wives of the village engaging in their daily meeting. I dashed over to tell them what I’d seen.

“U-Um, just now, the living dead, it—”

“...g...d mO...nINg do tou doo, Grauna.”

“YOer as byuuuifUl az... Aghhk, I wiSH I wozzz...dou!”

“I’gh green...evgy!”

What was going on? Something was off. This didn’t feel right.

“It got a weapon from somewhere and...”

“I AAAlwaAayz fEel...”

“...thAt...AlLen...”

“MyyYYy...huzBaNd...saYz...”

A chill ran down my back. Our conversation wasn’t making sense. But that couldn’t be—they were no different than normal. Nothing was out of the ordinary. The only oddity was that thing! It had a weapon now. Was there anything else...?

Of course—yesterday someone came to the village. Who was it again? She had golden hair and beautiful eyes...

“What...?”

I couldn’t remember. Who was she? Actually, wait—was that even yesterday? Two days ago...?

“Krauna?”

“Wah!”

A voice came from behind me—it was Leen, of course. How could I forget? She then clapped her hands to her ears and groaned at my scream.

“Wh-Why are you so surprised?” she said.

“I-I’m sorry. I think I’m just a bit tired,” I said.

“No, it’s okay. Did something happen?”

“Actually, yes. Listen, Leen...”

I was about to tell her about the thing and how it knocked away an arrow with its weapon, but...I couldn’t.

“Huh?”

I was unable to speak. But I didn’t have the time for that. There was a problem. Allen said that the river protected us—that the thing wouldn’t be able to cross it. My eyes had to have been deceiving me!

Urrghhh...

I heard a terrible groan. I didn’t know what it was protesting—nor did I want to know. The problem was that I had seen it here inside the village, on the inner side of the river that protected us. When had it crossed over? I didn’t know. All I knew was that we weren’t safe.

As soon as I screamed, it moved.

“Krauna!”

Leen grabbed my hand and pulled me away.

“Wait! Stop, please!”

The thing ignored me and headed to the well.

“Please stop!”

However, it couldn’t hear my cry. It raised its weapon and slew the wives who were standing there.

That thing was always watching from the other side of the river.

That thing was always, always watching me.

That thing was always, always, always watching me and only me.

I knew the truth—all along. I’d just chosen to ignore it so I could stifle the fear festering within me.

“Grhh... Grk grhhh...”

“Graaah... Gurrgh...”

“Rgh, grhh... Rghhh...”

As usual, the wives were having a lively chat in front of the well.

“Graaarghhh...”

Just as they always did.

I fetched water, headed home, and did my daily chores. As I did every day.

Just as I always did. Just as I always did. Just as I always did.

I reached my home. Something was not there, gone. I could tell a piece was missing.

No, everything was fine, everything was normal, I was normal, I was fine.

“Everything’s fine. Yes, Allen will soon...”

“Are you really so sure?”

A calm voice cut through the air.

I turned around to see a girl. She had golden hair and green eyes. I felt like I’d seen her before. Actually, wait—I knew her. I’d met her before.

“Leen...?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s me,” she said. “I’m sorry, Krauna.”

“Wh-What’s wrong?”

Leen’s cute face was scrunched up. Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes and she looked incredibly distressed. I knew that face well. It was one I’d made countless times before. It was the face of someone who had tried to do something but failed.

“I thought there was still time. I thought there was a peaceful way to solve this, so I let things go on for a bit too long. I just didn’t expect the situation to change so quickly.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you, Krauna. It needed to be you. You were the first.”

“Leen, hold on. I don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I really am sorry.”

Leen tapped the earth with her staff.

As soon as it collided with the ground, something spread outward. It was like the ripple produced when you threw a stone into the water. I could feel a stir in the air.

“Huh...?”

As the air passed through me, I felt the change. My vision darkened, but my mind felt clear. The fog was being lifted from my brain.

“What is this? Leen?”

Leen wasn’t there.

“Where did you go? Leen, where are you?!”

There was no reply. Those green eyes were gone. It was like she had been whisked away to another world.

I was full of anxiety, but I swallowed the feeling and walked. My body felt heavy.

“Is anyone there? Hello? Anyone!”

I went to the plaza in desperation. There would be someone by the well, I was sure.

“Oh...”

There they were. Those three fussy, busybody, yet caring wives. I greeted them like I always did...

“Grhh...”

“Graaah...”

“Rghhh...”

They were chatting and laughing as they always did.

No... Wait... They weren’t chatting—they were pretending. Words weren’t coming out of their mouths—this was nothing more than a poor imitation.

After all, how could they speak when they were missing half of their faces...when there were big holes in their throats...when their jaws had rotted?

“Waaaaah...”

Their flesh was peeling away. Their eyes were falling out. Their bones were visible. They were dead. They were corpses that shouldn’t be moving.

“Waaaagh!”

I dashed away. The sight was too repulsive.

“No, no, no... Why is this happening?!”

Mghooo...

Mghooo...

Mghooo...

That dreadful sound echoed throughout the village.

“Ah!”

It sounded almost like a whistle, like the grim reaper was beckoning people, but I knew it wasn’t that. I recognized the sound. My body instinctively took itself to where the sound came from.

“This can’t be...”

I reached the pasture. The cows were lowing. Our wonderful cows who we all took care of and who supported our village.

Mghooo...

“N-No...”

They were all rotting. Their horns had fallen off. Their snouts were red and raw. Their skin was peeling off. Their organs were falling out.

That sound wasn’t them mooing, no—it was the sound of the air moving in and out of the holes in their throats to their lungs.

I heard a terrible slopping noise. From the back of the barn, I could tell that the dead cows were slurping up something. I didn’t want to look—but I did anyway. Whatever it was that they were slurping up was unidentifiable—there was no way of knowing if it was a fellow cow or someone I had once known. It had decayed into a pile of flesh that was impossible to identify.

“Why? Why, why, why?! NOOOO!”

Nothing I knew was here anymore. No one I knew was here anymore.

This wasn’t Leston. This wasn’t my home.

Someone, help me, please...

Figures came toward me. I wondered if God had sent them here to answer my prayer.

“Huh?”

It was Mister Raun. And across from him was his son Terotta. There was the hunter Mister Heille and his daughter Nayu. There was the cobbler Mister Hunt missing the top half of his head. There was Allen’s teacher Mister Grotte with a big hole in his stomach. There was my neighbor Mrs. Lauro whose head was facing the wrong way.

Everyone in the village was here. Everyone in the village was dead.

“Gruuurgh...”

“Bwrgh...”

“Gra...na...”

“O...ay...”

“Grhhh...”

They were rotted, falling apart, dead, moving, broken, not alive, bones visible, organs falling out, eyes gone, dead, looking at me, all of them, all moving, dead but moving, all of them, I was scared, help me, someone, please, get away, don’t, please, please...

“Allen! Allen, please! Help me! NOOO!”

However, Allen wasn’t here. He hadn’t been for a long time. There was no possible way he could be here.

It was all coming back to me. Coming back to me coming back to me coming back to me.

The truth was—Allen had already...

◆

This happened about half a day before we arrived in Leston.

“Hakura?” Leen called out with a tense voice as I walked ahead.

“What’s up?”

It was clear to me there was no trace of humor in her tone, no playful banter.

“It’s there. Behind the tree in front. Watch out!”

Just as her warning came, a thin sticklike weapon struck at me with incredible speed.

“That was close!”

The thrust was aimed between my eyes. I managed to tilt my head to just narrowly avoid it in time. It annoyed me to admit this, but if I hadn’t known it was coming, I would probably be dead right now.

“Grrrh...”

I leaped out of the way to create some distance, drew my sword, and finally got a good look at my enemy. As it growled, I noticed that this tall two-meter-plus figure holding a spear in both hands was human-shaped. However, it obviously wasn’t a bandit. It was missing an eye. Most of its skin was peeling away. A portion of its side was gone and its organs were trickling out. Most importantly, it didn’t have a heart. The reason I knew this was because of the hole in its chest, so big you could see right through.

It was a living dead—and one that could use a weapon.

“Geeerh...aaawaagh...”

A raspy noise that almost sounded like words came out with its exhaling of breath. Even though it was a dead body, I could sense malintent from it.

“Hakura, stop his movement!” Leen said.

“Huh?! How?!”

“Chop off his arms or legs—but not the head!”

“You make it sound so easy!”

Its movements were so fluid that it was hard to believe it was dead. The way it wielded its weapon likewise—you could tell that at some point in time, it had cared for the weapon and used it regularly.

“You’re one of us, huh...” I said.

From the swiftness of its thrusts and the way it kept its distance, I could tell it had experience. This had once been a seasoned fighter.

“Grah!”

It stepped in quickly, as if to affirm what I’d said. In a blink, the spear tip came at me. It flew toward the right side of my chest without hesitation.

“Close.”

However—it didn’t hit me. I watched its movement and trajectory, moving my body to the side. In the same motion, I swung my sword. The spear split in two right down the center. Following the momentum, I sliced off its two arms, and in the return swing, I chopped off its lower right leg.

“If you were in your prime, this would’ve been a good bout.”

An adventurer-turned-living-dead that had access to the skills and equipment from when it was alive. It was a dangerous and deadly foe. However, it was lacking something. This corpse didn’t have a Sphere, and its muscles were falling apart. It lacked the same agility and power that it once had when alive. Things might’ve turned out differently if it had gotten the jump on me, but this was what a frontal battle had amounted to. At the end of our fight that had lasted less than five seconds, the one-legged living dead toppled over, unable to do anything but writhe and scream.

“GRAAAGH! GRA... GRAANA!”

“Oh, you can move this too, huh...”

The arm I’d chopped off was wriggling over to grab the fallen spear. What a troubling monster. Trying to kill it the regular way wouldn’t work.

“Thank you, Hakura. You made quick work of it,” Leen said.

She approached the living dead, crouched next to it, and then tapped the ground near its head with her staff.

“I gotta ask—what are you doing?” I said.

“Returning it to a sane state,” she replied.

Every time she tapped the ground with her staff, the jewel at its end flickered with light.

“You can do that?!”

In my eyes, this was nothing more than a corpse. It was too late to be questioning its vitality, let alone its sanity.

“Living dead can somewhat emulate the movements that the host was capable of in its previous life. In other words, it’s using their brain. The fact that this monster could use the spear so well is an indication that some subjective ego still remains. The person is unaware that he is dead.”

“Graaaaahhh...”

Leen kept working and the monster groaned louder.

“The brain is damaged, so that means his thoughts are basic, and he cannot comprehend all the various contradictions. Typically, living dead will repeat their daily routine endlessly or stay close to whatever it was they were most fixated on. The biggest problem is that while in this state, they will view all other living creatures as living dead.”

“Explain.”

“The living dead—the parasite, that is—wants to create more by attacking other creatures. Now, what do you think would be the best way to get the host to do this?”

“Make the host see living creatures as its enemy and attack them. Right. But wouldn’t this mentality just make the host want to flee?”

“Maybe, but the parasite has already destroyed any trace of rationality.”

“So basically, you’re saying that in this monster’s eyes, we look like living dead?”

“Not we. Just you, Hakura.”

“Why just me?!”

“Because I’m special! Didn’t you hear him? That’s why he said ‘get away’ earlier.”

Now that I thought about it, when it attacked me, it didn’t even so much as glance at Leen.

“Oh, right, so this monster thought that I was attacking you, which is why it lunged at me?”

“Exactly. I’m just so criminally cute, huh?”

“Can I sock you?”

I’d agreed to be Leen’s bodyguard, but it felt weird to be put in harm’s way just by being near her.

“Right now, I’m fixing the distortion in his mental capacity.”

“What happens then?”

“He can reclaim a certain degree of his personality from when he was alive.”

Leen’s words played in my mind and I cocked my head.

“Hey, Leen. Is this—”

Just as I was about to voice my concern...

“...rau...na...”

...it spoke!

“Urgh... Grh...”

As it groaned, it reached under its armor and pulled something out: a single leather glove. It gripped the glove tight before groaning and speaking once more.

“Who...”

“No way...” I muttered.

It was croaky, a bit distorted, but even I could tell that this was a man’s voice.

“Who...are you? I’m looking...for Leston... I need to...head back...”

Leen, still crouching, peered closer into the man’s face.

“Please tell us your name. What happened to you?”

Even from the sidelines, I could tell that Leen was asking something incredibly cruel. But I couldn’t stop her. Despite the fact that even I knew that choosing not to restore his sanity and burying him without going through this would have been the kindest thing we could have done.

Leen went on. “How did you die?”

All the same, Leen heartlessly asked this question of a man who had once been alive.

▽

Allen had returned to Leston a few days after he set out for Esma.

“GYAAAAAGH!”

A scream had pierced the air. When I headed to the well that morning, a sight most horrific awaited me. Allen was killing every last person in sight with his spear.

“G-Grrrhhh...”

I could tell from a single glance that he wasn’t in his right mind. All that blood gushing out from his chest made it obvious. I knew that with a hole that large, there was no chance that he was alive.

“Allen! Allen!”

“Don’t be stupid, Krauna! Do you have a death wish or what?!”

As I screamed for Allen, someone held me back with all their might, but I heard him. I heard what Allen had said.

“Grhhh... Kra...u...na...”

Some way or another, Allen had responded to me. He heard me.

“Kill it! Kill the blasted monster!”

At this command, the men grabbed their weapons and moved to restrain Allen. But there was no way that a group of regular villagers could suppress a former adventurer who had honed spear skills without losing anyone. With each swing of his spear, a head went flying, a chest was struck through, a throat was gouged out. And yet everyone stood firm. They needed to protect their families and their friends from this disaster that threatened to destroy the village.

“Oh, Allen... Why? Why?!”

“I understand how you feel, but you need to give it up! That thing isn’t Allen! It’s a monster!”

Allen lunged toward me, but someone stopped him. All I could do was scream.

As Allen murdered everything in his way, he looked at me. As he delicately stroked my hair, his one, single eye met mine. He smiled gently, but only half of his jaw was left. The mouth that spoke all those sweet nothings into my ear revealed the bone underneath.

“No...”

Whys circled in my head. Hows pricked my heart.

“A rope! Someone get a rope! We gotta restrain it!”

“Dammit, stop this madness!”

“You’ll pay for what you did to my dad...!”

The battle grew ever more intense. Everyone was desperate.

“Krauna, you need to run! Head to the rear of the village and get across the river. Then you’ll be—”

Mister Hunt the cobbler didn’t finish his sentence. With his hands still holding my shoulders tight, the top half of his head was cleaved away. The spray of blood coated my face.

Before I knew it, Allen—the living dead—was in front of me.

“Let...gO...”

Then...

“Let...KrAu...na...go...”

He said my name. Again. I think that I was the only one who heard him.

“No, Hunt! Curse it all!”

“Get the hell away from Krauna!”

“Allen!” I shouted. As I did, he stabbed the people approaching without mercy.

“Grgh... Stupid...fool!”

Despite his insides being run through, there was someone holding Allen close to stop him from moving. I knew who it was—it was Allen’s leatherwork teacher.

“Grotte’s got it pinned down!”

“NOW! Kill it!”

It was a one-in-a-million chance. Mister Grotte had given his life to subdue Allen, and now the villagers resumed attacking with their weapons. If Allen was still an adventurer, then it wouldn’t even be a fight, but now he no longer had the gifts granted by his Sphere. With so many people piling on him while he was pinned down...there was no way he would survive.

My body moved reflexively. It grabbed Mister Grotte and tried to pry him off.

“Grh?! Krauna, what in the—?!”

“Stop it! That’s Allen! You can’t kill Allen! Wah!”

Before any sense could return to me, someone punched me.

“What the HELL are you think— Gwugh?!”

My tiny act of resistance and the momentary opening it created was enough to free Allen.

There was no one left who could stop him. The women and the children were trying to run from the village, but for some reason, the bridge was raised and they couldn’t cross the river. And so, Allen, slowly and steadily, killed every last person in the village. Then, finally, he came to me.

“KrAUna... Wh...ere...?”

“Allen.”

I fell at his feet. There was no warmth to his body. He was so, so cold.

“Allen, Allen, Allen...”

“Krauna...”

He crouched down and held my shoulders. Our gazes met. There was no longer any light in his one remaining eye.

“Alle—”

“Where... Krau...na...?”

My throat was on fire. I clenched my teeth, but it was just so hot, so painful.

Yes, that’s right... On the day Allen returned to us, I was... I had already...

“Krauna?”

I awoke with a jolt. In front of me was a beautiful green.

“Good morning. Are you awake now?”

As long as I saw that color, my heart felt at peace.

It was strange, but I had accepted this reality. I knew what meaning lay behind Leen’s question. Yes—I had been inside a long nightmare. It hadn’t been a pleasant dream. After all, Allen wasn’t there.

“Yes... I...remEmber...everYthiNG...”

The horrible sound that came from my throat no longer resembled my voice—which made sense considering how decayed my throat was. No single part of it was still good and healthy. It was stranger, in fact, to note how clear my thoughts and vision were.

“I...am dEad are...n’t...I?”

“Yes, that’s right. Krauna, you...” Leen paused and shook her head once. “All of Leston is gone. Every last person and animal is a living dead.”

I felt no desire to reject the things she stated at this stage. Leston was a graveyard. Corpses that thought they were alive feigned normality. How long had this been going on for?

“WhY LeEn? Why diD...you cOme...to me?”

One look at me should have told her we were walking corpses. And yet, she had ventured in here all on her own and spent a number of days with me. Why had she come to Leston?

“One reason is because I can’t stop them without you.”

I didn’t understand what she meant.

“If you tell the villagers—the living dead—to stop moving, to rest, then they will all cease functioning. You can stop them from leaving the village and wreaking more havoc. Krauna, this is a job only you can do.”

I still couldn’t comprehend anything coming out of her mouth.

“And the other reason...”

Leen couldn’t answer my concerns. But she pulled something out from her inner pocket. It was a piece of leatherwork, dirtied by mud and blood. The rough way the stitches were done caught my attention.

“A... A...”

I knew what this was. It was something I had wanted for so, so long. Something indescribably precious. Something necessary in order to have a future with him.

“This is something Allen gave me to hold on to.”

Leen answered for me.

“All...en... Allen, Allen...”

“He left me a message. ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t make it back. I’ll be waiting for you at our spot.’”

“WaiTing...?”

“We gave him a burial. If you wish, Krauna, we can lay you to rest alongside him.”

Ohh...

I gripped the precious leatherwork in my hands. It had come back to me. Had I still been alive—had I not been dead—tears would be streaming down my face.

“Allen’s...gOne...iSn’t he?”

Leen was silent.

“YoU cAme to...briNG this tO me...”

I felt the fog forming again in my mind. I could tell that I wouldn’t be able to remain myself much longer. Something was squirming inside, screaming that it was hungry...

“I dOn’t kNOw...whAt happeNEd tO the viLlAge... WhAT happened...to AllEn...?”

However, I’d accepted it. I’d accepted that I was dead now. And it brought me no pain. I only wanted one thing—to see Allen. To be by his side. That was all I could ask for. My desires had caused people to die, after all. But still, this was my one final wish.

“WhAt do I...dO?”

“You need to say something for me,” Leen said.

“WhAt?”

“Tell them: Good night.”

I took Leen’s outstretched hand and stood up. My legs were rotting, barely even able to hold their shape anymore. They made a sound, but I didn’t feel any pain.

“Leen!”

A boy’s voice cut through the air. He rushed right to her side with astounding speed. His hair was white, and his eyes red... I felt like I’d seen that face before.

“How’s it looking, Hakura?” Leen said.

“I corralled them all together as best I could,” the boy called Hakura responded. He panted raggedly and looked behind him. “This is going to work, right?!”

That’s right... They’re all here. They’re coming. They’re all working together to save our village. They came together to remove the danger from our village, to drive out the enemies...

“Ahh...”

◆

I spent a few days observing the village and the living dead, which were wandering around from the other side of the river.

Leen had gone in there on her own, and I couldn’t sit still. A rotting smell filled the air and I often heard creepy groans and stuff—I was being worn down to the nubs.

It was also annoying having to deal with someone firing arrows at me daily. If Leen’s read of the situation was correct, the villagers all viewed me as a living dead, so it made sense that they’d be wary and try to scare me off. I thought they’d never hit me in a million years, but then one time I had to strike an arrow that was coming straight for me—but let’s just pretend that never happened...

When Leen finally returned, her next request was for me to run around the village, smack each of the villagers—but not too much—to render them immobile, gather as many as I could together, and continue to stay on the run.

“Dammit! She really asks for the impossible sometimes!” I muttered.

“Well, it is the most optimal solution.”

“I sure hope this solution doesn’t include me dying!”

“Of course it doesn’t.”

The slime was bouncing along beside me and helped by getting in the way of the villagers’ ankles and making them fall over, but there were just so many of them. Counting every single villager and all the livestock, I had easily struck over two hundred living dead. What made this such a pain in the ass was that they’d keep on chasing me after being angered once. They weren’t fast, but there were so many of them that I wasn’t afforded a single moment’s rest.

After I managed to bring them all to the destination Leen had specified, I turned around and yelled, seeing an entire village worth of living dead behind me.

“This is going to work, right?!” I asked.

“Yes, it’ll be fine.”

“And I can trust you, right?!”

“Of course. Probably.”

“You should’ve kept that ‘probably’ to yourself!”

The living dead by Leen’s side was a woman and had far fewer injuries than everyone else. She must have been Allen’s fiancée.

“YoU get aLong...so wEll...”

To my surprise, she could speak sensically, and she even flashed a small smile. I hadn’t expected this reaction, so I couldn’t say anything.

“TakE cAre, LeEn... ThAnk...you...”

With heavy, slow, and shuffling but steady footsteps, she walked in front of the crowd of corpses.

“Leen...”

“Quiet, Hakura.”

If someone asked that I keep my mouth shut, all I could do was comply.

“I’m sOrRy... It’s...aLL my fAulT...”

Her answer came in the form of groans from the crowd. I wasn’t sure if they were angry, denying her, agreeing with her... I wondered if Leen could tell.

“It’s tIme to slEep... We’Re alrEady...”

Dead.

After she finished her sentence, a change afflicted the villagers. Just like a sandcastle by the sea, each of them fell down, one after the other. Giving their last moo-like cry, the cow corpses, too, stopped moving. All that was left was a mass of bodies. Bodies which would forever remain still—as they ought to. That was what it meant to die.

For a minute, she stood there, frozen in place. Then she finally opened her mouth.

“Allen...”

“Yes,” Leen said.

“I want...to go to him...”

“We’ll go together, Krauna.”

“I miss him.”

“You’ll see him soon.”

“Who are you?”

“Just take my hand.”

“Okay...”

Leen grabbed that rotten, decayed hand without any trace of hesitation and began to walk forth.

Epilogue

Here lie Allen Esma and Krauna Leston. May their souls rest in peace.

We were at a riverbank in a clearing by the forest about an hour’s walk from Leston.

We had buried Mister Allen at the location where he had encountered him. After engraving a suitable stone with the pair’s names, the funeral was complete.

My lady and the lad stood side by side to offer a solemn prayer. The lad was the first to break the silence.

“You’re gonna answer my questions now, right?”

“Hmm, it depends on what you have questions about,” my lady replied.

“This whole quest! Why did an entire village turn into living dead?”

“I can tell you, but half of it will be personal speculation.”

“That’s fine. Please. I just don’t get what Allen was trying to say.”

The living dead that the lad defeated, Mister Allen, had spoken to us after regaining his sanity.

“PlEase saVe Krauna... She’s mY fiAncéE in LeSTon... GiVe this to hER. ApOloGize that I coUldN’t coMe back... And tELl heR I’m wAitiNg hEre...”

That was all that the man had been able to say before he finally stopped moving. One of the things he’d left was a quest order. These orders could be brought to guilds in order to commission a quest for adventurers to take on. Written thereon it was the name of Leston’s village chief and a few signatures to guarantee that the order was legitimate. It also noted that Mister Allen was the one to deliver it.

“He was referring to the quest order that he was taking to the guild in Esma. It stated that there was a wild dog living dead around the village and that they were requesting some adventurers to take care of it,” my lady said.

“Yeah, I saw that too.”

“The first living dead was Allen. While he was on his way from Leston to Esma, he encountered the very wild dog living dead that was the target of the quest. Unfortunately it attacked and killed him, then infected him. I imagine that he was unable to defeat it since he’d given up his Sphere to the guild after retiring from being an adventurer.”

The lad’s eyebrows twitched slightly at my lady’s explanation.

“After Allen turned into a living dead, he obeyed his newfound instincts, which caused him to focus on whatever his greatest fixation in life had been,” my lady continued. “So he embarked for Leston. As you know, Allen’s thoughts were fully occupied with Krauna.”

“Yeah, so much that he asked us to deliver her a message as he died.”

“As I mentioned before, living dead view living people as corpses and corpses as living people. To Allen, the village with all the people he loved looked like it had been taken over by countless living dead.”

“So...it was Allen who slaughtered all the villagers?”

“That’s right. And Krauna lost her life in the process too.”

“All right. Next question: How come Krauna was able to stop the living dead?”

My lady didn’t speak for a moment. Her groaning indicated that she wasn’t too satisfied with her own theory.

“My lady, it is fine to merely speak based on what you know. I am quite interested in hearing your theory too.”

“Hmm, all right. Well, living dead have this one particular trait. All the fungi spawned from a single source are controlled by the one in the host that was closest to the original carrier.”

“I thought fungi didn’t have any sort of ego.”

“This isn’t about ego—it’s about habits, instinct. Similar to how ants and bees have a social system. If every living creature acted on pure instinct and bit whatever it could, then they would just cannibalize themselves.”

“Huh, okay.”

“So they all horde around the prey that the highest-ranking member has identified. Basically, that’s why I needed you to be the bait for today.”

“So they totally saw me as food...”

“The original carrier was Allen. Then he infected Krauna, and then Krauna infected the villagers. I believe that was how the fungus spread. Therefore, Krauna was the host in the village with the highest authority.”

“Talk about a nightmare.”

“Indeed. The one tiny saving grace was that Krauna’s head was intact and she was left capable of thought. If she hadn’t been...”

She wouldn’t have been able to stop the villagers. Then our only choice would have been to burn down the village and cleanse everything through fire. What a twist of irony that the method of the church, which my lady so detested, would have become the best option.

“So all that’s left to do is hunt down the source of all this—that wild dog living dead. If Allen had been riding a horse, it might have gotten infected too. We still have plenty of work ahead of us!”

As my lady stood up, the lad grabbed her hand.

“Leen.”

“Whoa?! Wh-What is it?!”

Although these two bantered and sometimes got a little violent with one another, this type of contact was rare. My lady produced a scream that was very uncharacteristic of her as her hand was grabbed. However, the lad placed his other hand on his chin as he merely stared at the grave marker.

“H-Hakura?”

As my lady stood there flustered, the lad finally spoke.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

His words were filled with palpable anger.

“Um, what doesn’t?”

My lady knew not to wisecrack at this point. I could spot a rare confusion on her face.

“I fought him, so I can say this for certain—Allen was really good with that spear. He was a legitimate adventurer who could combine his intellect with his skills. If you hadn’t warned me, he would’ve stabbed right through my head with that first thrust. Thanks, by the way.”

“Huh? Oh, um, you’re welcome...”

My lady was pleased by this oddly honest compliment from the lad. However, the mood grew tense once more.

“Allen was a real pro with that spear even after losing his Sphere and becoming a living dead.” This came from a difference in both position and aptitude, so the lad wasn’t merely fault finding. “This was a route he must have traveled dozens of times. I honestly don’t pin him as the sort of idiot who would’ve been done in by a living dead dog he knew was out there.”

“Yes, but...the truth speaks for itself,” my lady answered.

Even after an adventurer retires, they do not so easily forget the movements that have been drilled into their body. The lad had surmised from his short bout with Mister Allen that he was a formidable fighter. As for my lady, she does not battle anyone directly. Her experience in that regard paled in comparison to the lad.

“Hmm...”

“Spit it out, lad.”

My own tone came out a bit hard, but if he continued to speak in this roundabout manner, then my lady’s temper would boil over.

“Why did we bump into Allen?”

“Excuse me?”

Yet again, my lady didn’t seem to understand the lad’s question; she cocked her head in confusion.

“Living dead act out the daily routine of the person when they were alive. They’re fixated on the things that held meaning to them, right?”

“Well, yes, their thought patterns become simple.”

“Then it makes no sense that Allen left Leston, where Krauna was!”

“Wait...”

The reason Mister Allen had returned to Leston after becoming a living dead and triggered the ensuing catastrophe was because he was searching for his fiancée, Miss Krauna. We couldn’t deny this—it had happened as a matter of fact. So, in that case, there would have been zero reason for Mister Allen to have left Leston once he had killed everything. The object of his fixation was there. In that case—had he trekked into the woods in search of something? What could have spurred him to action more so than even Miss Krauna?

“Allen had a glove, right?”

“He did. A leather glove that he made for Krauna, according to what he said.”

“But he only had one.”

The lad’s tone was conclusive. Still holding my lady’s hand, he rose to his feet and stared at the grave marker with his bloodred eyes.

The glove that Mister Allen had given to my lady—the one he wanted to reach Miss Krauna—we had buried it together with this couple that we had just laid to rest.

“Gloves come in pairs,” the lad said.

In Leston, the husband-to-be makes a pair of leather gloves to propose his love. If one of said pair had been taken away, then that would be motivation enough for the dead body to roam endlessly.

“Leen, let me ask you again.”

My lady was a monster specialist, the only monstermancer in the world. She never misjudged a monster’s habits—I could say that with confidence. However, despite all of her knowledge and skill, there was one creature that she absolutely could not predict. A creature that prioritized emotions over reason. A creature that had caused, similarly to how it had done to the monstermancers of yore, her to choose this young lad and travel alongside him. The answer, of course: humans.

A dull light glimmered behind the lad’s eyes. It was the gaze of someone who had steeled their conviction and bared their anger toward the target they had chosen to kill. Of course—the lad had suspected something was afoot all along. He was someone who didn’t miss signs of a witch, who always sniffed out the presence of a witch, and would lock his prey in his sights before beginning the hunt.

“Are you really sure that a witch didn’t cause all this?”

A witch hunter—the lad said that a chain of events had led him to being referred to in this way. However, it was impossible for one to kill for a living and not walk that path of their own volition.

“I don’t care if I’m wrong. Maybe Allen really did screw up big time and got offed by some random living dead dog. Maybe he only finished the one glove.”

My lady couldn’t answer. She didn’t have the words to deny his prediction outright.

“But if someone killed Allen, stole one of his gloves, and turned him into a living dead...” he went on.

If someone had killed Mister Allen with clear ill intent... If someone had destroyed Leston out of clear hatred...

“Then I won’t let them get away with it. This whole ordeal is far from over,” the lad said.

My lady, a girl descended from the first witch and the current monstermancer...

The young lad, a boy born into a witch’s den and saddled with being a witch hunter...

Was it truly a good thing for their paths to have crossed? At this stage, I did not know.

▽

When I came to, I was standing by the river.

“Huh?”

Where was— Oh, this was my and Allen’s usual meeting spot.

“Krauna.”

I heard a voice from behind me and I turned around.

What was wrong with me? Why was my heart beating so fast? Why did I feel so much love right now? Why did I feel such a burning loneliness?

“Oh, Allen...”

“Sorry I made you wait.”

“I wasn’t sitting around waiting... Not really...”

That was a lie. I had been waiting all this time. I’d missed you so much.

“Hey, Allen?”

“Yes, Krauna?”

I reached my hand out to him.

“I love you. Even if someone kills me, I’m sure I’ll keep on loving you.”

“I love you too, Krauna. Even after I die, I’ll always love you.”

These words assured me that, even if I was plunged to the depths of hell, I would find salvation.

Afterword

Grand Award Winner of the Second Drecom Media Awards.

When I received the email informing me that I’d won this illustrious award, my heart was pounding like crazy and I had to slap myself. The pain told me that, no, apparently this wasn’t a dream.

To all newcomers here: It’s nice to meet you. I am Damu Amato. I was told that they wouldn’t be able to read out the emoticon in my name when I won the award, so they asked me to change it. Of course, that makes perfect sense.

Thank you very much for buying a copy of Heir to a Monstermancer. You no doubt realize this by now, so yes, it’s kind of awkward to announce, but the story will continue in the next volume!

I started out writing as a self-published author. I would write a book for each event I attended, and if I wrote too much for one book, I’d split it into two volumes.

Now, this novel was released into the world as a purchasable product and I said to my editor, I: Wasn’t it a bit silly for a newbie writer like myself to debut with a work that would have a sequel right off the bat?

“No matter how I slice it, everything won’t fit into one volume... What should I do?”

“We are thinking of splitting it into two volumes.”

Wow, Drecom has really committed. That means I need to commit too. I hope you stick around.

I would like to offer some thanks. First, to my editor I, who has guided someone like me, who knows nothing about the industry, from my award to publication: Thank you so much. I won’t ever forget what you said after I sat in on the recording for the promotional video: “We’ve got ten storefronts agreeing to include their own exclusive short story bonuses.” I look forward to continuing to work with you.

To my illustrator shirabii, who brought Hakura, Leen, and Blue to life and gave their new journeys color: I don’t think I’ll ever forget how happy I felt when you said you’d continue to work on the art for the series. Thank you for all of your beautiful illustrations.

Thank you to Soha and Haiku, who supported me when the original work was independently published. It’s thanks to you two that this book exists as it does. Heeey, are you watching?

Thank you to Manaka Iwami, Chiaki Kobayashi, and Akio Otsuka, who breathed life into our three main characters in promotional videos and voice dramas. It felt like my fantasies had been given form and become reality. It was a real honor to be present during the recording.

Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family who celebrated me winning the award, everyone who supported me, everyone who has supported me since the net forum years and the time I ran play-by-post games, everyone at Drecom Media who assisted in the publication of this book, and all my readers who bought this book. To repeat myself: Thank you all so very much.

This isn’t goodbye, it’s see you next time! So that I can keep on saying this, I hope you will stay with me as long as possible on Hakura and Leen’s adventure—which is just beginning.

By the way, the next volume will feature a never-before-seen story. (Is this guy being serious?)