Table of Contents

Color Inserts

Title Page

Copyrights and Credits

Table of Contents Page

Cast of Characters

Previously

Lenny Recaps: Lenny’s Battle Records

Chapter 85: The Strength of the Empire

Chapter 86: Sales

Chapter 87: Journey Through the Empire

Chapter 88: A Job in the Empire

Chapter 89: A Defensive Battle

Chapter 90: A Retreat

Chapter 91: A Summons

Bonus Story: What Would You Take to a Desert Island?

Afterword

Newsletter

Previously

When Adele von Ascham, the eldest daughter of Viscount Ascham, was ten years old, she was struck with a terrible headache and, just like that, remembered everything.

She remembered how, in her previous life, she was an eighteen-year-old Japanese girl named Kurihara Misato who died while trying to save a young girl, and that she met God…

Misato had exceptional abilities, and the expectations of those around her were high. As a result, she could never live her life the way she wanted. So when she met God, she made an impassioned plea:

“In my next life, please make my abilities average!”

Yet somehow, it all went awry.

In her new life, she can talk to nanomachines, and although her magical powers are technically average, it is the average between a human’s and an elder dragon’s…6,800 times that of a sorcerer!

At the first academy she attended, she made friends and rescued a little boy as well as a princess.

She registered at the Hunters’ Prep School under the name of Mile and made a grand debut with the Crimson Vow—the party she formed with her classmates.

In the midst of a customary training journey, the Crimson Vow rescued a mysterious young maiden and battled with elder dragons. While aiding some children in the mountains, they came across the ruins from an ancient civilization, which still showed a few signs of life!

After all these adventures, the Crimson Vow finally made their way back home to the Kingdom of Tils. However…

Chapter 86:
Sales

“Okay, let’s set up shop here!”

It was the third day that the caravan had been within imperial territories. As they would not be able to obtain much new information anywhere near the border, up until now they had merely proceeded onward toward the capital with only brief stops. Finally, in the current town, they decided it was time for a bit of commerce.

Of course, their goal was not to make any large-scale deals with the merchants of the Empire. That would mean their stock would be depleted in just a few transactions, and they would have no reason to head further into the country, which would seem suspicious. True, there was a little money to be made transporting goods from one Albarnian town to another, but this was not the sort of thing that was typically profitable for foreign merchants.

It would be far more logical to take one’s goods elsewhere rather than linger in a place as dismal as the Empire.

At the end of the day, the function of this caravan was to kill some time making small sales to the ordinary citizens, loosely gathering what information they could along the way. Getting intel out of nobles and wealthy merchants was best left to the pros and was not the function of these particular merchants.

“All right, drivers, please unhitch the horses and lash them to the trees over there. We will remove the wagon tarps and start setting up shop. Crimson Vow, you all keep on the lookout for pilferers who are waiting for us to let our guard down. Try not to interfere in our shop preparations. There’s a bit of skill involved, so we don’t need you getting in the—er, making a mess of—no, um, helping us out.”

Here the man had let his true feelings show, but it was true that if amateurs interfered, it would cause nothing but trouble. Even though the men were only pretending to be merchants, surely they at least had done some minimal practice beforehand and gotten some real merchants to show them a thing or two…

The design of the wagons was very well thought out. Some of the goods for sale would be taken down from the central platform of the wagon and lined up on a sheet spread on the ground. However, they could also simply remove the tarp and display a good deal of their wares on the wagon itself.

In truth, Reina had some familiarity with this type of convertible shop wagon, but it would be a bit awkward to have only one of the four of them helping out, so she kept quiet.

“As long as you all stay near enough to come back right away if any trouble arises, then we don’t mind if you go ahead and wander around a bit or take a nap while we’re doing business,” said the head of the merchants. Of course, the Crimson Vow—and Pauline in particular—already had another activity in mind…

“Let’s get the traveling shop, House of the Holy Maiden, ready for business!”

“Ho-ho-ho-HO!!”

This time, instead of their typical hunter’s call and response, the other members of the Crimson Vow answered Pauline’s declaration with a phrase that had become familiar via Mile’s stories, the catchphrase of a certain djinn. It was a powerful battle cry!

Mile then peered around at their surroundings. It was still early in the morning, so there were few people about. She waited until there was absolutely no one looking their way, and…

“Tada!”

Fwoom!

Beside and a little behind the three wagons, a large, familiar tent suddenly appeared. In front of it, in line with the wagons’ display, was a table and chairs. Mile moved immediately into the tent, likely to unload all of the merchandise. It was better to take her time and carefully select the goods to sell away from prying eyes.

The merchants did not appear surprised at all by this turn events. After all, they had already seen her in action many times while setting up camp at this point.

After a short while, a heap of wooden crates and sacks began to grow behind the table. Though they were a little ashamed to do so, the other three left Mile to transport their wares alone.

The stuff was pretty heavy, after all, and while Mile could carry these items handily, for the rest of them, that kind of repeated stooping and carrying might cause back strain.

And so, they left the task to Mile—the only one truly suited to the job. They could always help out with anything that Mile happened to be bad at, they told themselves…

While Mile was busy carrying things, the others lined up the product samples atop the long table. Unlike the varied wares of the merchants—a large variety of goods with a small quantity of each—the Crimson Vow had gone for larger quantities and a more limited range, thinking that it would be a pain to memorize the prices of too many different goods, which would also be less efficient to display.

Of course, they didn’t intend to sell their whole quantity of any item in one place, instead, selling some portion of the total in each location. Strategically, they planned on limiting sales to only an amount that would not be unnatural to sell at one time—a quantity that would not take up more than half of one wagon. That way, no one would realize that what they were carrying was inconsistent with the carrying capacity of the caravan—though of course, few people would even pause to give such things a second thought.

Furthermore, they had also been thoughtful about not overlapping with the merchants’ stock, aiming for cheaper items that would be of use to the common folk of the Empire, rather than expensive luxury goods. Of course, they had some specialty items—like the aforementioned “cheap booze”—but for the most part, their wares consisted of things like wheat, barley, and salt. This meant their sales could take place without much conversation.

After all, gathering information was the job of the merchants, not the Crimson Vow. These sales were an independent operation on the part of the hunting party, and it was nothing more than an added bonus for the merchants if their presence helped attract more sales.

Of course, they worried whether the merchants, who after all, were actually bureaucrats and information specialists, would be able to properly elicit any gossip from their customers—however, it stood to reason that they had been selected for a reason. Not every researcher was necessarily socially awkward, and thought must have gone into choosing these men for this job.

“Okay, preparations complete! Let’s open up!” Pauline shouted. The Crimson Vow’s sales began. The merchants had already begun selling—without similar fanfare.

The customers began to flow in, and despite the supposedly poor economy and low purchasing power in these parts, a relatively large number flocked over to browse the merchants’ wares. However, browse was all they did. No one asked questions or attempted to haggle. Perhaps there was nothing here that they considered a bargain by the standard market prices in the area, or perhaps they were merely window-shopping, enjoying looking at these unusual items. That said, it was important for a merchant to value even those customers who did not buy anything. You never knew when someone might return to make a purchase.

Furthermore, the real goal of these “merchants” was to talk to their customers about things other than business. As such, the men did not go out of their way to force any sales, simply letting folks enjoy themselves while they chatted about the trends and rumors in this foreign land.

“That’s surprising…”

“I didn’t expect that from them at all…”

“To think they’d be this good at customer service… I guess we shouldn’t underestimate researchers…”

“Well, they were selected after all…”

Thwonk, clunk!

“Ow!”

Reina smacked Mile and Pauline on their heads with her staff.

“What was that for, Reina?!” Mile griped.

“Didn’t I tell all of you not to talk about this stuff?”

“Ah…”

Sure enough, they had clearly established that they were not to discuss anything sensitive, even when they were alone. While it was likely that no one had overheard this particular conversation, there were in fact townspeople close nearby. Though Reina and Mavis hadn’t necessarily spilled any secrets, using words like “researchers” or “selected” was strictly forbidden.

“Forgive us!”

“That was careless!”

Prudently admitting their own fault, the pair apologized.

Chapter 87:
Journey Through the Empire

“Rolling out, right on schedule! Into the ‘Empire’…”

Everyone utterly ignored Mile’s cry.

And so the caravan set out from the inn…

On an escort job such as this, it was typical for the employers to take care of arranging the water, snacks for break time, and general meals. If the guards had to carry their own food and cookware, that would be excess luggage, on top of which it would be a pain to cook separately every time. Most importantly, disparities in meals could be a major source of unrest.

In military units, both the lower and higher-ranking soldiers all ate the same food for this same reason. It would be bad for morale otherwise. Such things were typically even specified in the job contract.

“Soup’s on!”

Yet for some reason, Mile had been pulling her own cookware and ingredients from her “storage” and cooking for the group as she always did.

She was doing this neither out of consideration for the merchants, nor as some special service, but instead because the other members of the Crimson Vow were already threatening to bite her head off at the thought of having to eat garbage travel food…on their very first night camping.

Normally, at least for the first few days of the journey, they would have fresh food to eat, after which, it was time for the non-perishables to make their debut—except when the party was able to hunt small animals or find edible wild plants. Furthermore, this caravan would be traveling along the main highway, without detours, always staying in inns when they reached town and never having to go more than two or three days camping without fresh supplies. They weren’t hurting for money, so they would never run out of food and would be able to enjoy a relatively proper meal at the end of every day…at least according to any normal standard.

But of course, this group was not normal.

Most normal caravans were composed of merchants who were accustomed to life on the road—which meant they were capable of at least basic cooking. It would not be unusual for some among them to even be able to cook more elaborate dishes or come up with recipes of their own. True, drivers did not typically cook, as it was mainly the merchants who did the cooking, but still, it usually followed that for the first couple days out of town, all members of a traveling party would have proper food. Surely, this should be the case here as well.

Moreover, it simply looked bad to have Mile cook food for the entire group at every meal. Even setting aside the burden it put on her, there was no need to do such a thing under the terms of their contract, which stipulated that, as usual, it was the employers who should be in charge of providing food. The Crimson Vow had agreed to this at their pre-job meeting. However…

On the very first day of their journey, they had been greeted by the Holy Trinity of third-rate travel meals: hardtack, jerky, and soup base with bits of crappy vegetables in it. The soup, furthermore, was lukewarm and bland, accompanied with nothing but slivers of dried fruit.

The fact that they had been served this on their very first day meant that they could expect the same every time they camped, from here on out, until the end of their journey.

Honestly, what had they been expecting from a group of emaciated scholars, really? They should have predicted this from the start. And yet…

“What the heck is this?!?!”

“Quit messin’ with us!”

“Is this some kind of joke?!”

“Are you really sure about this…?”

There was a chorus of protests.

It was not only Reina who complained but Pauline as well. Even the typically mild-mannered Mavis had veins bulging in her forehead as she fought desperately to keep her cool. Mile was the only one who seemed to remain fully calm.

After all, Mile could always produce food from her inventory in a pinch and cook it up in a snap with her own heating magic. Given that she could just eat whatever she liked, whenever she liked, it did not really matter to her what the merchants put in front of them. Furthermore, since her previous life as Misato, Mile had never been especially picky about food.

Of course, she could discern good-tasting food from bad, and she would never pass up a delicious meal. And, in the areas where she was picky, she was very picky. However, for every time that Misato enjoyed the taste of a high-class meal, or experienced joy of encountering some exquisite morsel, she had equally appreciated the finer points of instant ramen. Indeed, she was not the sort who would flip over the dinner table at the sight of some subpar cooking. Whether gourmet or cheap fare, a delicious meal or an only okay one, she could appreciate any culinary offering. As such, Mile did not appear particularly concerned about their situation. However, she was clearly the only one.

“Mile! Next time, you’re doing the cooking!”

“Huh? But we already agreed that—”

“Next. Time. You’re. Do. Ing. The. Cook. Ing!”

“Uh? But I thought we all decided… Eek!”

Mile let out a shriek as she noticed the suddenly murderous gaze of Pauline and Mavis upon her.

Thus, it was decided that for the rest of the journey, whenever they were on the road, Mile would be in charge of preparing the meals, snacks, and drinks. Pauline helped out, of course, and even Reina pitched in by boiling the water with her fireballs. Mavis was in charge of chopping any vegetables and trimming any meat.

In the end, mealtime went exactly as it always did…

Once humans get a taste of luxury, they are not wont to give it up. That was just the way of things.

“Reina, weren’t you the one who was saying we should try and get used to life without Mile?” asked Mavis, looking a bit guilty.

Reina’s reply was calm. “Well, it’s like Mile says, isn’t it? ‘That’s then, and this is now…’”

There was no hope. None whatsoever.

Steadily, the caravan approached the capital, repeating their performance from the first town at each stop along the way. As time passed, the merchants’ stock grew quite diminished, and again and again they ended up having to purchase a portion of the goods that the Crimson Vow had stocked up on back in Tils…at an inflated price, of course.

It was not as though they had only purchased cheap foodstuffs. They had also prepared some classier items to sell to the wealthy citizens of the imperial capital and other large cities, along with more items that they could pawn off on the merchants at a premium.

Indeed, they had predicted that the merchants’ stock would end up running so low that it would look unnatural for them to keep selling…or at least Pauline and Reina had.

“Gates of Babylon…”

Anything was possible with their near-infinite “warehouse”…

***

“So here we are now, in a large town near the capital!”

“Why are you telling us this? We’re all aware!”

Mile often felt as though she should make some announcement upon arriving in a town. It was the same as when she would declare, “We’re home!”—a statement of fact to acknowledge their progress.

“We’ve done a fairly thorough survey of the rumors in the surrounding rural settlements and the attitudes of the people who live there. We’ve heard a lot about what sorts of compulsory service local lords have instituted, and current and future conscription plans… This only covers one part of the lands outside the capital, but it’s not bad as a general survey—and it does make sense to focus on the region between the capital and our Tils.

“Next, we’ll be doing an inquiry into the major cities around the capital. Unlike those little country towns, there will be nobles and authorities there with much sharper eyes, and there’s a far greater danger of encountering spies. We should be fine, since we’re just some normal traveling merchants, but it’ll probably prove dangerous for us to ask about any political or economic or military affairs directly. Everyone, be careful not to say anything imprudent,” the merchant leader warned the Crimson Vow.

This was common sense of course, but a reminder never hurt.

“Understood,” said Reina, nodding in unison with the others.

The Crimson Vow were not involved with the information gathering in the first place, but when young girls were making the sales, customers often tended to start talking of their own accord, which meant they would often end up unintentionally collecting a fair bit of information. And of course, anything good that they heard, they would report to the merchants later.

It was time for round two of the great espionage affair to begin.

***

“Huh…?”

They had set up shop in a large town near the capital.

As usual, they pulled up into the town square, and the Crimson Vow arranged their open-air stall while the merchants readied their wagons. Yet this time, the merchants were stunned to see that the Crimson Vow’s stock had changed dramatically, almost before their eyes.

Up until now, the girls had been selling chiefly cheap, or low-quality foodstuffs, but now they were displaying luxury items and more high-quality goods. They had previously shared some stock with the merchants—at a decent mark-up—but these were even more expensive items, different from those.

Naturally, they were not marketing their wares only towards nobles and the wealthy; on the contrary, they still had many items to cater to the common citizen, but even those would count as luxury items for people of modest means.

“It’s normal to change the variety and pricing of your stock based on location and clientele, isn’t it? There’s a big difference between selling to people in the countryside and people in big cities,” said Pauline. Reina nodded.

It was normal for Pauline to think like a merchant, but even Reina seemed particularly interested in all this lately, too. She was probably recalling her time traveling with her father.

The information they had gathered up until now was really only as rigorous in quality as the results of a questionnaire—vague and uncertain rumors that had filtered in from larger settlements near the capital, and the opinions of rural citizens, who knew little of centralized affairs or politics. This was nothing compared to the freshness and accuracy of the rumors they could gather here, in a metropolis so close to the capital, where there were those who had actually been to the capital, had friends or family who worked there, or might even have lived there themselves. They would not be dealing in vague rumors, but tales of concrete, lived experiences, pertaining to specific incidents.

Indeed, this town would serve as a crucial source of information—and confirm for them what sort of intelligence they could hope to gather in the capital proper.

“Let another fierce battle begin!” said Pauline, as usual.

“You’re awfully fired up…” said Mavis with a grimace.

Mile, meanwhile, beamed to hear the two playing out one of the set exchanges from her fairy tales.

Perfect! I’m getting through to them. I’m cultivating the soil to plant the seeds of my future jokes throughout the whole world!

Her ambitions were boundless.

Little did she realize that it would be more of an uphill struggle than even world domination.

***

“Imperial capital, I’m home!” said Mile, predictably.

“But you’ve never been here before…” Reina interjected, in an equally typical fashion.

So far, the group had only been gathering information from the area surrounding the capital, but it was not as though they intended to do avoid the capital itself. In fact, their previous stops had all been en route to the capital, which was their true destination from the start.

It stood to reason that gathering information at the heart of the Empire would be most fruitful in terms of quantity, relevance, and accuracy…as well as how freely people might speak. And so, they had planned their route to lead to the capital.

The countryside was fairly insular, and the people who lived there tended to be guarded around outsiders. On the other hand, city dwellers were not excessively guarded, even with people they were not acquainted with. You might expect the opposite on the logic that city dwellers tended to have more distant relationships with their neighbors compared to countryfolk, but as long as you were a little friendly, the citizens of the capital tended to warm up to strangers qiuckly.

In her previous life, Mile had not coped especially well with the sort of people who would come barging into your private life merely because they lived close by, when you had nothing in common and nothing to talk about. She disliked gossips, who exaggerated and spread all kinds of rumors. Moreover, she could not understand the philosophies of countryfolk claimed that, “It’s foolish to lock your front doors when you go out—that’s as good as saying you don’t trust your neighbors!”

During her time as Misato, she had thought that all this was just silly. However, in her current life, Mile did not mind interacting with the simple rural folk of this world.

Still, the fact remained that she meshed far more easily with city dwellers.

At any rate, the Crimson Vow had arrived in the capital.

Because they were in the Empire, this was the imperial capital. There were no opera companies or combat revues, but nonetheless, “imperial capital” was the appropriate term.

“Um, so, where’s the Combat Revue…” asked Mile.

She was met with silence.

“Uh! I made sure to teach you about this reference in one of our previous folk tales…”

The other three utterly ignored Mile, who fell into despair.

This was unmistakably the climax of their journey. Though the merchants did not plan to end their journey here and immediately head back—instead making a wider detour to continue their information gathering—the capital was the key location in this mission.

Though this was merely a job the Crimson Vow had taken on, considering the guerilla warfare they had taken part in around Amroth and their experiences repelling the invading forces in Ascham, the Empire seemed like an opponent that the Vow was going to face again and again. As far as Mile was concerned, the Empire was also the mastermind behind the incident with the farmers that she had encountered on the way back from her fairy hunting expedition. It was only natural that their work felt personal.

The first order of business was to book an inn.

Again, calculations must be made and trade-offs considered. Merchants, who had come to make money, could not book especially expensive lodgings. Still, it would be unseemly to board the drivers and guards at a separate, cheaper inn, so the perfect establishment was not too expensive but also did not have especially seedy clientele. They were looking for the sort of place that might host the clientele with whom they would like to be speaking to… Even in a place as large as a capital, the number of inns that fell right in this sweet spot was fairly limited.

“Yes! Beast ears!!!”

At the inn they chose, Mile was especially overjoyed to find a beast-eared girl at the front desk. None of the other guests seemed to find this noteworthy, addressing the clerk normally.

“Seems like there’s even less discrimination against beastfolk here in the Empire than there is back in Tils…”

“Now that I think about it, in your folk tales, empires always seem to be terrible places full of human supremacists, Mile…”

“C-careful, don’t say anything rash!” Mavis scolded Pauline.

Pauline, however, was no idiot. She has spoken quietly, making sure that there was no one around to hear her. It was fine.

The group proceeded to their rooms, one of the merchants heading out to the local guildhall to inform them of their plans to set up shop the next day, while the remainder of the group rested in their respective chambers until dinner. The merchant who had gone to the guild was sure to be back before dinner as well.

***

“Everyone, I have a very upsetting announcement to make,” Mile said, as soon as the party had filtered into their own room.

“Huh?” Reina and Mavis tilted their heads in confusion, but Pauline’s expression turned sour, as though she could already predict what Mile was about to say.

“Despite all of our careful preparations, it seems we’ll be running out of merchandise soon.”

“What?”

“But we bought so much stuff!”

Reina and Mavis’s surprise was inevitable.

“Business was just much better than we imagined. Sharing some of our goods with the merchants had a bit of an effect on supplies as well. If we had run out of goods on the way home, we could have just switched from selling things to stocking up, or focused on information gathering so as not to interfere with the merchants’ sales. After all, it would be good for us to stock up on some Albarnian specialties. However, the capital itself is not a resource-rich place, so we can’t do much buying here. There are certainly works of art and expensive industrial goods available, but this caravan doesn’t really deal in those things. Plus, it’d be odd to pay relatively high prices to stock up on goods that we can get manufactured back at home, when we would have to carry them over long distances…”

The other three were silent.

“Wh-what do we do…?” asked Mavis, starting to grow flustered.

“I mean, we don’t really need to do anything?” Mile shrugged, unbothered.

“Huh?”

Once again, Mile could as good as see the question marks floating above Reina and Mavis’s heads.

“I mean, our job is to guard the merchants and their wagons and their merchandise. There’s no reason that we actually need to be selling things ourselves.”

“Oh!”

Apparently, at some point in the process, the pair had become convinced that making sales was their actual goal. Clearly, they had lost track of their priorities.

Though Pauline had by no means forgotten what their actual duty was, she was also the one of the four who most regretted this turn of events, and so her expression was dark.

“I suppose we miscalculated. Losing a business opportunity is the greatest shame for any true saleswoman…”

“Wait! Since when did the Crimson Vow become a merchant company?!?!”

Pauline was utterly hopeless.

“Huh? What of it?”

After dinner, the Crimson Vow gravely informed the merchants that they had only one day’s worth of their own stock remaining and were met with dumbfounded expressions.

“I mean, it was guard duty that we hired you all for in the first place. It was helpful to have some young ladies doing business nearby us to help attract customers, but that wasn’t something that we asked you to do, and we hadn’t planned for that kind of support in the first place, so…”

So, what are you so concerned about? The man didn’t say those exact words, but it was clear what he was thinking.

“You’re right!”

“I knew it.”

“I was pretty sure. It makes sense!”

“I mean, that’s what I was saying…”

Each member of the Crimson Vow tried to play the whole thing off, hoping to push the responsibility—or really, the role of “idiot who said something embarrassing” onto anyone but themselves. Mile was the only one who was being truthful. Even Pauline, who had already seemed to understand this implicitly, had pushed forward anyway, convincing herself that the whole thing was a mistake.

“Well, anyway, our shop will be closing down after tomorrow. After that, we’ll just be buying up anything good that we find on the way home. Which means that here in the capital, we will devote ourselves to protecting you,” Mile said to the merchants.

“Actually, I think we’ll be plenty safe in the capital, so you’re free to do whatever you like here until we leave.”

“Huh?” All four members of the Crimson Vow were perplexed.

“I’ve checked out the general conditions in the capital, and it seems like there haven’t been any notable disturbances of the peace. Whatever it is that the upper brass in this place might be thinking, it doesn’t seem to have had an immense effect on the daily lives of the citizens yet. So, it doesn’t seem like there will be any particular trouble for a foreign merchant who has made a proper report to the merchants’ guild and sets up a stall in the city square.

“If we were out in a rural area, there might be some corrupt lord, restive locals, or general rabble who might make trouble, but no one would be stupid enough to bother some foreign merchants right in the middle of the city square, in front of temples and guard stations.”

Sure enough, the square where they would be setting up shop seemed to be packed to the brim with temples, various government buildings, and guard stations. Letting a group of foreign merchants be attacked right in the middle of the capital would be a great embarrassment to the imperial government, which meant that the man was probably right that there was nothing to worry about for now.

“So, as a thanks for all of the extra help you all have given us thus far, for the next few days you all are free to do whatever you like in the capital.”

“All right!”

When they thought about it, the Crimson Vow had to agree that it would be a sad state of affairs if some traveling merchants could not safely set up shop right in the middle of the imperial capital. If anyone were to try and start something with them, the guards and priests would be sure to leap to their aid, at the very least, for the sake of the region’s reputation…

And so, the girls cheerfully accepted…

“Thanks so much!!”

They could hardly turn down an offer like this.

“Let’s find a job!”

“Obviously!”

The members of the Crimson Vow were not hurting for money, but they had come all the way to a foreign land, and it was not a bad idea to take a job here to start establishing their reputation in this country as well.

Obviously, any jobs that would take them too far out of town to some faraway place—or involve accepting employment with other merchants—were out of the question. There was always the possibility of a sudden change of plans and the need for a swift departure, in which case, they could not risk getting injured or caught up in something strange and being unable to continue their guard duties.

Furthermore, they needed to remain reachable, on the off chance that the merchants suddenly needed them. No matter how confident they were in their safety, this was not something that a professional could overlook.

“If we’re looking for short-term jobs that’ll keep us in the capital, it’s mostly going to be the sort of things that G-rank children usually do,” Mile muttered, “or jobs for people who need quick manual labor. Moving things, loading and unloading, helping out businesses who are short-staffed. None of these would be the sort of jobs that—”

Reina tittered. “All that you and Mavis would be suited for is manual labor.”

“Wh…?”

Naturally, the pair seemed to object to this, but Reina handily ignored them. Of course, they were also teasing each other like this, so it wasn’t as though Mile and Mavis were truly angry. Besides, Reina wasn’t wrong…

“Well, let’s at least head to the guildhall and have a look at the board while we think about it. If there aren’t any good jobs, we’ll just kill some time sightseeing around the capital. There’s no need to take any jobs we aren’t interested in, anyway.”

Pauline’s suggestion was one they could all take to heart.

***

The next day, having sold out of most of their goods by the afternoon, the Crimson Vow pawned off the last dregs of their merchandise on the merchants and closed up shop. Giving their notice to the merchants, they headed off to the guildhall, where they discovered…

“There’s nothing good here,” Reina said. In truth, it would have been silly to expect otherwise. There was no way that any desirable, convenient jobs would still be left this late in the day. That said, it was unclear whether or not such jobs would have existed in the first place—that is, jobs that could be completed within the city in a short time by a C-rank party, that would be both good experience and teach them more about the Empire.

“I don’t think there are any…” Mavis started.

“No, probably not,” added Pauline.

“There’s one!”

“What are you talking about?!?!”

The three of them looked at the job posting that Mile had pointed out…

Personal bodyguard. Short-term: Half day. 4 to 6 people. Payment: 10 gold. Requirements: C-rank or higher. Women only.

“Ah…”

Reina’s expression was skeptical. There were only two possible cases when it came to a guard job that was restricted to only female hunters.

Case 1: The person to be guarded was a young lady.

Case 2: The person to be guarded was a creepy old man.

So then, why had this request been left untouched?

Perhaps there were no all-female parties of four to six members. Perhaps everyone around had already been informed that this was an undesirable job. Perhaps it was not worth the pay (in terms of difficulty or danger). There were any number of reasons, really.

If the four of them took this job, they would be receiving only two and a half gold apiece. Assuming that this was just a simple matter of serving as an escort to ward off any local thugs, and that it would not take them out of the city, that was not a bad wage for a half-day’s work. That said, if it was a fairly difficult escort, where they could expect surprise attacks or assault by kidnappers, the pay was too little.

And, of course…

“Let’s find out more about this,” said Reina. The other three firmly nodded.

Obviously, the Crimson Vow were going to take the jobs. Interesting jobs, fishy jobs, “red mark” jobs…

“Whether in the pits of hell or the middle of the battlefield…”

“If you call out for us, we’re there in a flash!”

“We’ll smash through any danger or hardship and get the job done!”

“We’ll send any villains flying, even if they’re the ones paying us!”

“That is our…”

“Crimson Vow!!!”

All of the local hunters in the guildhall were thoroughly taken aback at this performance.

Chapter 88:
A Job in the Empire

“I see… So we’d be guarding a merchant’s family,” said Mile.

“Well, I guess any nobles would have their own retainers or personal troops, so they wouldn’t need to hire hunters. And normal commoners rarely have either the means or the reason to bother hiring a personal bodyguard,” added Pauline.

“I guess it’s inevitable that it would be a wealthy commoner, then—whether a merchant or some other influential person in town,” Mavis agreed.

It was true that there were some nobles who hired hunters as guards. There were cases where they encountered sudden dangers away from home or needed a temporary addition to their guard forces. On other occasions, they might need something specific: a female guard for their daughters, for example, or an escort who did not look like a guard at all. Indeed, these were just the sorts of demands that kept the Wonder Trio in business.

However, given that the one they would be guarding was not a noble, all that had nothing to do with the job in question.

“Yes. We are only able to reveal the name and details of the client to interested hunters after they have heard a preliminary explanation. Then, the details of the job itself will have to be delivered directly from the client,” the guild clerk explained. This was obvious. Of course, the guild could not go about blabbing the circumstances and movements of a merchant to someone who had not yet decided to take on the job. There was a chance that kind of carelessness might even lead to an attack of the kind the client was hoping to avoid in the first place.

“Understood. We have no issue with the general requirements of the job, so we’re interested. Please continue.”

The clerk looked rather relieved at Reina’s reply. There were very few parties who fit the listed requirements, and, as noted, the pay was not particularly high. On top of this was the fact that guarding a merchant’s family was far more tedious than escorting a caravan. Of course, it would be less boring if they were to encounter an attack, but fighting the sort of people who would attack someone with a guard escort was not worth the measly two and a half gold apiece on offer.

Thus, the job had been left untouched, but the period when escort was needed was swiftly approaching, and at this rate, it looked like it might be passed by without any takers. This was, of course, an issue for the client, and it looked quite bad for the guild.

In the case of something like a harvesting request from a merchant, usually it was not a huge issue if no one accepted the job—except in cases where it was a special medicinal herb that someone’s life depended on or something else that was needed in a hurry. An escort job was typically more time sensitive; if there were no takers, the client would be unable to go forward with their plans or forced to do something risky without the benefit of a guard, so there could be human lives at stake. Therefore, it only stood to reason that the clerk was thrilled to find a party interested in this assignment.

Still, the Crimson Vow had not yet formally accepted the request. Hearing only the preliminary explanation, without any of the details, was only enough to determine that they should not rule the job out completely. There was still a chance that they might decline after hearing the rest. At the very least, being able to get someone qualified past the preliminary stage, and sending them to speak with the client, was a win for the guild. If the prospective applicants declined once they heard more of the details, that was on the client’s head. Whether they explained the situation poorly, or whether there were unfavorable conditions in the job itself… At that point, it wasn’t the guild’s problem.

***

After conversing with the Crimson Vow, the guild clerk sent a messenger ahead and arranged the time and place for a meet-up. The Crimson Vow then headed to the designated location, where they were greeted by a trim-looking middle-aged man.

“Thank you so kindly for coming. I am Webdel of the Worrell Company, the one who issued this request. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“We’re the C-rank party, the Crimson Vow. We’ve come to hear more about the job.”

Mavis offered the man a formal greeting. At meetings like these, when an emphasis on the party’s “sincerity” was needed, Mavis was the obvious choice. Besides, she was, in fact, the Party Leader…

According to the merchant, a get-together had been set up with another merchant family for the sake of deepening the friendships between them. It was to take place on the riverbanks just outside the city gates, where they would play in the water, picnic together, and generally become better acquainted.

Apparently, they thought that eating somewhere outside of the restaurants in town and engaging in some family activities outside of their normal locations would help to strengthen mutual relations, as well as be a good experience for their children. In modern Japanese terms, it would likely be the equivalent of going camping with a friend’s family. Clearly, these merchants were not hurting for money, so it was not a bad idea to spend a bit of extra coin on deepening relationships and providing some cultivation for their children at the same time.

“Both of our companies deal in similar merchandise, so I suppose you could consider us rivals, but we consider work and private life to be separate affairs. Just because we’re enemies in the business world doesn’t mean that we have to detest one another as people. Professional competition aside, we are people of the same trade, after all, with the same worries and concerns.”

These merchants seemed to be fairly reasonable people.

This wasn’t the sort of activity for which a guard would normally be necessary. However, no matter how close they stayed to the capital, they were still venturing outside the gates, which meant that some amount of danger was likely. The other family had hired a guard as well, but apparently the notion had been put forth to hire some female hunters, so as not to frighten the girls by surrounding them with scary, craggy-faced men. Sir Webdel had agreed.

It made sense. Most hunters were coarse, crude, somewhat filthy, and smelly; not the sort of people you’d want to have nearby at a meeting such as this. It also made sense that each family had hired their own guards. Considering both the costs involved and the natural distrust that might exist as a result of their business dealings… No matter how friendly they might be outside of work, rivals were still rivals. It would be one thing if the merchants were the only ones involved, but where the safety of their wives and children was concerned, they couldn’t risk it.

“That sounds fine. Once our job duties are complete, would it be all right for us to join in the meal? Naturally, we aren’t asking you to let us eat your food—we’ll cook our own meal to eat. We can provide all of the cookware and ingredients ourselves as well. But I’m assuming there won’t be any reason for your guards to be standing around the whole time with swords and staves at the ready, right?”

“Of course. As long as you deal with any monsters or brigands that should happen to appear, that’s all we ask. Though there’s almost no chance of an attack like that in the first place…”

Obviously, it was not as though there was truly no chance of danger when one left the fortified walls of the capital, even if the merchant was right that it was quite unusual for such threats to appear right outside of the city walls. Moreover, if they had no guards, there was a chance of interference from small bands of ne’er-do-wells—even if actual bandits stayed far away. Having at least a minimal guard contingent was a way to deter even these lesser rabble-rousers from causing trouble. The Crimson Vow would essentially be bug repellant.

Hearing the merchant’s reply to Reina’s question, the members of the Crimson Vow grinned. Indeed, they were getting to kill two birds with one stone—both work and play.

“We will accept your request!” the four said as one.

There could be no other reply.

***

The next morning, the Crimson Vow joined the Worrell family in front of their shop and accompanied them to the meet-up site.

The merchant’s party consisted of Worrell and his wife, along with their five young children—two boys and three girls—as well as several servants. Obviously, even if it was just an excursion for two merchant families, there would be more present than simply the families and their escorts. The family of the head of an influential mercantile firm would neither carry their own food and cookware to a site nor cook it once they got there. Therefore, they were accompanied by servants and maids, along with a head of staff in charge of managing the attendants. There could be no errors permitted in front of a fellow merchant’s family, and it was clear they had brought their most experienced staff.

The group piled into three carriages and departed the capital through the rear gates, finally arriving at a riverbank a short distance away. The other family had already arrived, also in three carriages, and were currently unloading their supplies.

“So sorry to keep you, Mr. Galadle!”

“Goodness, no, we only just arrived. You are still here ahead of schedule!”

Sir Webdel disembarked his wagon and called out to the other merchant, one Sir Galadle. The other man was accompanied by his wife and children, some escorting hunters, and a contingent of servants as well.

As promised, the other hunters were another all-female party, a group of five women. They seemed to be older than the Crimson Vow, all in their late twenties to early thirties, based on their appearances. This was normal, of course—the posted request had specified a party of C-rank or higher, and it was unlikely that there was any C-rank party younger than the Crimson Vow.

As the two families greeted one another, the other party approached the Crimson Vow.

“You’re the guards for that other merchant, yes? You’re young! I haven’t seen you all around before. Are you on a training journey? We’re looking forward to spending the day with you. As it stands, this isn’t formally a joint assignment, but let’s try and get along!” said the woman who appeared to be the party leader.

“O-of course! Pleased to make your acquaintance!” Mavis swiftly replied, as the other three members of the party bowed their heads in unison, showing a natural deference to their seniors.

With that, the woman retreated, without giving her own name or even the name of their party. Mavis had no chance to offer this information, either. Perhaps the woman had judged that there was no need to exchange such details. Given that this was not a joint assignment, it was unnecessary to brief one another about their battle styles or go over other logistics.

Mavis simply shrugged, deciding not to correct the woman’s assumptions about them.

Meanwhile, both families’ servants had begun setting up some outdoor tables and chairs, and arranging the dishes that had been prepared back at their mansions. Apparently, the plan was to dine first and then let the children play while the adults snacked and drank and talked. Naturally, the children would be expected to remain within view, and there were servants in charge of minding them.

At this point, there was nothing much for the Crimson Vow to do beyond observing the surrounding landscape. Should a battle erupt, this kind of preliminary scouting could prove crucial.

It was still a bit early to start preparing food. The Vow’s own food preparations would be over swiftly, and it would look terrible if they were to begin eating before their employers…

***

“Huh…?”

Everyone on the riverbank looked agape at the tables, chairs, cooking table, three stoves, iron grates and kettles that came piling out of Mile’s “storage.” They were followed by meats and vegetables, seasonings, sauces, and a water cask.

One by one, the stoves were lit in a flash with Reina’s magic. One of them had a kettle atop it, filled up about two-thirds with water magic. Then, Reina produced a fireball and submerged it into the water to bring it to a boil.

Shnkshkshkshkshk!

At the same time, Mavis diced meat with Mile’s specially made cooking knife. Orc meat, venison, and other scraps. The vegetables had been stored already pre-washed and cut. Next to them were some sausages Mile had made, pickles, salad, and a few other dishes.

“St-storage magic…”

Naturally, that was the first thing that would catch a merchant’s eye.

“And such a large capacity…”

The cask alone would weigh tens of kilos. Furthermore, these girls had far more than just food and seasonings. Once you factored in the table and chairs, three stoves, firewood, and more, you were looking at a weight in excess of 100 kilograms.

The merchants, their servants, and the other hunters were all stunned silent, their curiosity plain on their faces. Yet they were clearly aware of the hunters’ taboos, and so they were bound to silence.

The members of the Crimson Vow had waited for their employers to take their seats before beginning their own meal prep. In a short while, their own food was finished, and they began to eat. Not wishing to forfeit their clients’ safety, Mile was still keeping an eye out for threats via her surveillance magic. However, she did this quietly, without telling the other members of her party. It wouldn’t do for them to think they could always rely on the convenience of her magic…

“Hey! Where’d she get all that stuff from?”

“That smells good…”

“I wanna eat that!”

No matter how much self-restraint the adults had, the same could not be said for the children. The offspring of both houses stood up from their seats, flocking around the Crimson Vow.

For a moment, both sets of parents’ faces froze in dismay at their inability to stop the gathering of children from bombarding the Crimson Vow with questions. However, they were only young children, and the hunters were a group of young ladies, half of whom appeared to be underage. It was unlikely, the parents reassured themselves, that the hunters would take offense at their children’s natural curiosity. They were, of course, correct.

“Well, this is called ‘storage magic.’ It’s a kind of magic that lets you carry lots of things around. Watch this!” Mile pulled a doll from her storage and handed it to one of the girls.

“And just why have you been carrying that thing around?” asked Reina, glaring at Mile.

“Huh? Isn’t it every gentleman’s habit to keep jerky and dolls on their person at all times in case they should come across a cat or young girl?”

“That’s horrifying! Exactly what ‘gentleman’ are you referring to?!”

Mavis and Pauline could only watch this exchange, resigned.

“Whoa! Hey, Miss, how much stuff do you have in there?” asked one of the girls.

Mile, getting carried away, replied, “Hm, well? I could probably fit a hundred of your houses in there…”

At this wild exaggeration, the merchants forgot all of their nerves and began to grin.

“That’s amazing! So what else do you have in there? I wanna see! Show us!”

“Hm? Really? Is it really that impressive? You wanna see?”

“Yeah!!!”

“Well then, I guess I have no choice! He he he he…”

Mile could never control herself in the face of a young girl’s admiration. There was no time for Reina or Pauline to stop her from—

“Well then, here we go… Hup!”

Boom, bam, kabooom!!!

A massive tent, washroom, and stone outhouse appeared out of thin air.

“Waaah! That’s so cooool!!!” The children cried out in delight.

“What the heeeeeeeck?!?!?!” The adults could no longer hold back their disbelief.

The children immediately began to amuse themselves running in and out of the structures that had appeared, while the other members of the Crimson Vow’s shoulders slumped at having been unable to prevent this outcome.

“Hey, I want some of that,” said one little girl, pointing to the meat and vegetables and sausage grilling atop one grate.

“Coming right up!” Mile exclaimed, with all the gusto of a waiter at an izakaya, and loaded a plate full of grilled meat, vegetables, and sauce. Clearly, there was no way she could refuse a request from a little girl.

“It’s so good! This is sooo good!!!”

Seeing this, the other children crowded around Mile at once.

“Me, too!” said one boy.

“Me, three!” said one girl.

“Me, four!” chimed another lad.

Mile could not have been happier.

“Can we have some of this, too?” asked the first girl, pointing not to the barbecue but the food atop the table. It was filled with other dishes and desserts that Mile had prepared beforehand.

“Sweets, sweets, have some sweets!” said Mile, in a phrase one was certain one had heard somewhere before. The little girls dug into one dish after another.

Meanwhile, the first girl’s mother watched, agape, as her daughter gobbled down Mile’s creations. “Chelnet is so picky about her food and won’t eat vegetables, but she’s eating up every last bite…” the mother muttered to herself.

Meanwhile, the other hunting party appeared to be utterly petrified. They had not intended to eat during a job that would be over in just a few hours, and battling on a full stomach was dangerous, both because it slowed one’s movements and might exacerbate the effects of any gut injury. Wisely then, they had not eaten before this job either. Now, they were stunned at how wonderful-smelling and delicious-looking the Crimson Vow’s meal looked—and more importantly, at what an absurd amount of space Mile seemed to have in her storage. Naturally, the merchants and those who guarded them were of the same mind.

This was storage far outside the realm of common imagining.

The merchants’ children, who had been given plenty of wonderful things to eat, were completely ignoring the dishes made by their own skilled chefs in favor of the foods prepared by these youthful hunters.

The parents had completely halted their conversation and sat in silence, but the children were still full of spirit, forgetting all their manners and chattering about the meal, their cheeks still stuffed full of food.

At this rate, it was impossible to say if this excursion had been a success or a failure…

Twitch.

Though she was surrounded by clinging, chattering children, and looked to be having the time of her life, Mile’s expression suddenly sharpened.

She was still smiling, but her eyes were not. She instantly put away the food, the chairs, the table, the tent, and everything else, and told the startled children, “Go back over with your parents for a bit, okay?”

The children were all quite young, but they were not stupid. They had grown up watching their normally kind parents’ faces grow severe when it came to talking business and seen their hardened expressions when they refused to back down from a deal. Thus, the bulk of them immediately picked up on Mile’s sudden change in demeanor and the serious look in her eyes.

Ah! Something’s going on…

Indeed, Mile’s demeanor closely resembled that of their father’s, whenever urgent news arrived during a quiet family moment. Experienced with such things, the children only nodded in understanding, the older kids taking their younger siblings’ hands and returning to their parents.

“Please prepare yourselves for battle!” Mile shouted to the other party.

The Crimson Vow still had no idea of these women’s names, or even their party name. If they had accepted this job as a joint assignment, they would have made some self-introductions, or told one another about their specialties, or gone over plans for procedures during a battle situation, but in this case they had not done so. They were simply two parties hired by separate clients who happened to be in the same place at the same time. Had the members of the Crimson Vow asked, such a conversation might not have been out of the question, but the other party did not appear to be interested in this kind of collaboration, so they had left it alone.

Perhaps the others simply felt that there was no point in making any accommodations for a group of rookies, or else they assumed that there would be no credible threats right outside of the capital. They might encounter some jackalopes or a few local ruffians at most—but in this job, they didn’t expect much more than that.

Judging by the fact that the Crimson Vow had ascended to C-rank at such a young age, and having seen Mile’s absurd storage magic earlier, they likely assumed that it was on the merit of this magic that they had achieved their rank—which made them the sort of party valued more for their utility than their combat prowess.

Indeed, the value of a little girl who could carry several carts’ worth of luggage would be incalculable for any merchant, high-ranking party, or even army platoon. Imagine how many people would flock around her, wishing to hire her and promising to protect her…

With that in mind, the other party rightly assumed, it did not matter how skilled she was in combat. It would not be surprising to see her on detail with a B-rank, or even an A-rank party. She was an immensely valuable little girl, both in terms of her rarity and usefulness.

So certain of this was the other party that they had already judged that the Crimson Vow’s battle strength would be nothing to write home about. However, seeing the confidence of Mile’s warning, and thinking it best to obey the commands of a girl who could wield storage magic so handily, they raised no objections, swiftly taking their positions, weapons in hand.

Indeed, any hunter who could not work out what was going on at times like this would not live long.

“Everyone please huddle up and keep your backs to the river!” Mile said to the merchants and company as she took up a battle stance.

After a short pause, a group of around twenty men appeared. They had a crude, filthy appearance and were not wearing the sort of garments one would expect to see on anyone walking the streets of the capital. Their expressions were uncouth, and they wielded cheap swords, spears, and bows in hand.

Indeed, there could not be a more stereotypical group—these were bandits, with a capital “B.”

That said, it was a truly rare occurrence to be attacked so close to the capital, especially given that they were not even part of a cargo-laden caravan. The only thing these men could be aiming for was a kidnapping.

However, the Crimson Vow cared little for the bandits’ motives. All they had to do was get the job done. And so…

“Fall back! Get over here, and just protect us!”

“Huh…?”

The other party was bewildered to hear their employer’s command. Similarly confused expressions appeared on the faces of the Webdel family, who had hired the Crimson Vow. And while the members of the Crimson Vow themselves held back their utterances of shock, the emotion was clear upon their faces.

“Wh-what…?” stammered Sir Webdel of the Worrell Company. He looked on in confusion as the members of the Dilabolt Company huddled together at their patriarch Sir Galadle’s command.

“I hired you lot to protect us. That’s what was in the job description. I will not have you ignoring that to defend any unrelated parties. If you all leave our sides to try and protect anyone else, we will file a suit with the guild for your egregious nonfulfillment of contract in the face of an enemy!”

“Wha…?”

This was unthinkable.

The company of hunters hired by the Dilabolt Company looked shaken.

In times like this, it was only natural to combine the strengths of everyone present and work together to take down the enemy. What would be the point of purposely dividing the combat forces? From the looks of them, these bandits could be easily crushed by a combined effort.

The problem here was that what Sir Galadle was saying was not necessarily stuff and nonsense.

Had this been a joint job, the calls made by the one designated battle leader would take precedence over any other orders. Furthermore, in battle, the calls made by any of the hunters, rather than the client, would take all precedence, provided that all actions were taken for the sake of defending clients.

Yet here, Sir Galadle’s assertion that the other hunters would be in breach of contract if they did not prioritize the protection of his company was not entirely wrong.

If this were a joint job, and all of those they were meant to protect were currently present, then they could have easily ignored such a ridiculous command. However, this was not a joint job. When it came down to it, their employer was Sir Galadle, head of the Dilabolt Company, and their job was to defend the members of the Dilabolt Company—no more and no less.

The party leader was troubled.

They would be fine, of course. They had made their way to a C-rank, soon enough to rise to B-rank, and there were five of them. Even if they were to sustain some injury themselves, they would be plenty able to protect their employers, and they could at least keep up the fight long enough to kill or gravely injure enough of the bandits to send them packing. Surely, the bandits would not wish to see too many of their own men killed, so it was unlikely they would keep fighting to the point of mutual destruction.

That said, it was peculiar that there would be an attack here in the first place, where there was little of value present, and there were guards around…

The main issue here was the other merchant family and their guards. They were young, unfamiliar faces. These young ladies, who had just risen to a C-rank due to special circumstances (namely, their party member’s storage magic), had gotten carried away and set out on a journey that they were not yet skilled enough for, accepting a guard job that should have been relatively safe just to earn a bit of money for the road. They had just four members, presumably with modest battle skills. No matter how shabby these bandits might be, they would be helpless in the face of such numbers.

Still, it would be inappropriate for them to ignore the job they had accepted and break the terms of their contract in any way. It would be one thing if it merely delayed their promotion to B-rank, but if they were to put aside their obligation to protect their employer in the face of the enemy, there would likely be significant consequences. There was no telling whether the hunters’ guild would take the extenuating circumstances into account, and they might see even harsher treatment from the merchants’ guild. Would they have to risk their own futures for the sake of these strangers?

There was still one way to save the other party. They just needed to get them to come closer and join forces with them. Which would mean leaving their employers behind…

Or, they could surrender. It was an embarrassing thing for any hunter to do, but in the face of an overwhelmingly superior enemy, the right of a combat leader to issue a surrender would always be recognized. Even if they had been hired as guards, it was clearly absurd to compel anyone to fight to the death with such a disadvantage in numbers.

It was not as though the other merchants would lose their lives, anyway. The bandits would probably just make off with any valuables, and perhaps kidnap the girls. They were so close to the capital that the city guards would arrive soon, and there was no way that the bandits, trying to lead the girls away on foot, would be able to escape. It was possible they might even just take the valuables and run. The others could see everything that was happening, so there was no point in killing the merchants and risking harsh punishments at the hands of the law.

As party leader, this hunter’s job was to think not only of herself but of every member of their party. She agonized, unable to make the choice that she truly wished to make but knowing that she had few options.

“W-we are going to prioritize the job we were hired to do! Everyone, to the Dilabolts’ side!”

“Wh…?”

For a moment, the other hunters’ eyes went wide, as if in disbelief, but in times like this their leader’s word was absolute. There were not enough lifetimes to pay for what would happen if they started a quarrel now.

Thus, they all swiftly followed orders.

I’m sorry…

Though they might wish to work as allies, in this moment, they were but two separate parties working for two separate clients. This was clearly foolish from a tactical standpoint, but given their contract, their client’s word was their command. It was a tricky sort of order that even the guild would be hard-pressed to call faulty or outrageous. Furthermore, their choice was between their own futures and a group of young out-of-towners, who they had never seen before.

Perhaps she was making the wrong call here—perhaps even one she would regret for the rest of her life. Even so, there was no other choice she could make. She would bear this burden, and she would do so alone. The rest of them would simply have been following orders. This was her duty as a leader, after all…

“Huh?”

The veteran hunters were bewildered as they watched the bandits completely ignore the Dilabolts and head straight for the Worrell Company, guarded by the young ladies.

It made sense, when the enemy was divided in two, to focus all your battle strength on the weaker half and wipe them out first. Yet normally, would they not start out with some kind of threatening demand, such as “Hand over your valuables!” or “Give us your girls!”? In this case, they said nothing, merely heading for the Crimson Vow and their clients with weapons drawn.

It was as though they were attacking with the intention of a slaughter… There was no money to be earned from that. Why…?

As the veteran hunters went pale, they heard a carefree, almost chipper, voice.

“Okay! Let’s do this!”

“All right!”

“Firebomb!”

“Flame Rondo!”

“Fire Shot!”

Kaboom!

Bwoom!

Fwoooo!

“Gyaaaaaah!!!”

Chapter 89:
A Defensive Battle

“BUT IF YOU DO SOMETHING that stupid, isn’t that just going to prompt a war with someone else?! Even if you temporarily beat down these colonies of demi-humans—never mind the other clans settled inside the country—you’re going to get demi-humans rushing in from the surrounding countries, and maybe even humanoid armies from other nations, wanting to defend the ancient treaties and prevent having a demi-human war spread across the continent. Plus, the elder dragons have formed their own pacts, and if they get angry as well… This is suicidal! And then, despite everything going on here, the Empire wanted to start messing around in the Kingdom of Brandel? What the heck are you all thinking?” Mile raved.

Sir Webdel shrugged his shoulders, a troubled look upon his face.

“I mean, from what I’ve heard, it sounds like the demi-humans were the ones who picked this particular fight… Very recently, at that. So really, this is an emergency change of plans, to halt the, er, preparations that were being made regarding other countries…”

“Whaaat?!”

It was clear that Sir Webdel was mincing his words in order to avoid saying anything like “aggressive” or “invasion.”

Typically, it was the humans who went after demi-human settlements, looking to claim some fertile lands or rare treasure. It was uncommon for their fellow humanoids, the elves and dwarves, to get involved in conflicts of this type. Perhaps because their birth rates were so low, owing to their longevity, they had little interest in expanding their territories and instead prioritized the protection of their current settlements, which meant they were not so fond of war…

Demi-humans mounting a war effort was as good as unprecedented. It really only happened in exceptional cases, and often as not, it turned out that humans were the root cause—forcing demi-humans to take action when their people were snatched by slavers, treasures stolen from their clan, or their kin killed by invaders.

Thus, the members of the Crimson Vow were quick to conclude that the people of the Empire must have committed some truly heinous crime in order to incite the ire of the demi-humans.

Seeing them coming to this conclusion, Sir Webdel shook his head. “No, I mean, that doesn’t seem to be the case… Not this time, honestly!”

He had as good as admitted that this was typically how things went.

“Very recently, the demi-humans have suddenly started invading lands that aren’t part of their territories and forcibly driving out the humanoids who live there. It does seem that they’ve at least allowed them to take their belongings with them, but this is clearly an act of aggression, in violation of the old treaties.”

It was a little odd to refer to beings who lived within the bounds of the Empire as “invaders,” but much as the demi-humans might dwell within the imperial borders, by rights, they were not truly citizens of the Empire. They had no military obligations, nor tax obligations, and they weren’t even obligated to obey the Emperor’s edicts. But in exchange, they also forfeited all rights to official protections.

To put it politely, they were simply foreigners who made their homes there. To put it less politely, they were as good as the beasts and monsters that dwelled in the woods. Thus, while they ostensibly had the same rights and privileges as humans, it would be no surprise for a fight to break out at the slightest provocation, thanks to the deep-seated bigotry and malice that remained between the groups.

And of course, this was just the kind of situation that political leaders might try to use to their advantage, whether that meant quelling conflict or stirring it up…

Without knowing the motivations of any of the relevant parties, there was little to be done at this point. Either someone was scheming or there had been a very unfortunate misunderstanding.

Still, the Crimson Vow had a guess, particularly given that Sir Webdel had named the enemy not as any particular beast or demon tribe but demi-humans as an entire race…

“Don’t tell me…”

“Could it be…?”

“It probably is…”

The four fell momentarily silent.

“So, Sir Webdel, exactly what goods does your shop deal in?” asked Pauline, casually changing the subject. “To tell you the truth, I also come from a merchant family…”

There was no reason for any merchant to hide what kind of business they did, so Sir Webdel answered Pauline’s question frankly. Indeed, he appeared almost grateful for the sudden, if unnatural change of topic, likely having grown worried himself that the conversation was treading into dangerous territory.

Mile returned to the children, to serve up another round of food.

Accompanied by some of the older kids, Mavis headed off a short distance, accepting a stick and their requests for sword-fighting lessons.

Reina handled the children who wished to learn magic.

And Pauline continued speaking with Sir Webdel about his trade…

***

“Thank you immensely for accepting this request of mine. I think this has been a good experience for the children,” said Sir Webdel, bowing his head.

“Thank you so much for your request!” the Crimson Vow replied with bows of their own.

As this had been an independent job, rather than one contracted through the guild, there was no final report to complete. They had received all of their payment up front, and so, their business was concluded.

Knowing how many rare ingredients and expensive seasonings were involved in Mile’s dishes, Sir Webdel had timidly offered up additional compensation, but Mile simply laughed and declined graciously. Though her ingredients were rare, they were things she had stocked large quantities of while passing through their places of origin. Whether they were items with short growing seasons, or those that would be absurdly expensive to transport to far-off locales, Mile herself did not view these items as particularly valuable.

Even when it came to the seasonings, any spice was the result of her hot magic, bulked up with pepper and hemp seeds and black sesame, poppy seeds, nori, ginger, and so forth, to temper the spice level and increase the richness and depth of the flavor. The nori was something Mile had harvested herself on the Crimson Vow’s trip to a seaside town. She had later processed and dried it via magic, along with sea lettuce and kombu. Gathering those ingredients took nothing more than a little bit of labor, so they were not really all that pricey. Besides, she had so much in stock that if the Crimson Vow themselves were the only ones to use it, it would take several centuries before her supply even started running out.

***

“Sir Webdel was full of surprises, wasn’t he?” asked Mavis as the party regrouped.

“Yes! Although clearly it’s not a very well-kept secret…” added Pauline.

“I’m sure that the other teams have already figured out at least as much as he told us,” Reina agreed.

Indeed, as the girls implied, if they had not already uncovered at least this much intel, then the so-called merchants, who were dealing with the nobles, espionage experts, and local agents must be immensely incompetent.

“Or perhaps, this is information that they want other countries to find out about. Should a war break out with the demi-humans, they would want other countries to know that the Empire isn’t the one in the wrong and that it was the demi-humans who broke the treaty. Plus, if it’s not something that they themselves are ranting and raving about, but information that the top brass in other countries obtains on their own… If it was just a matter of the Albarnians badmouthing the demi-humans, that might get written off as baseless rumors, but if countries are learning about this through their own intelligence agents, then they can’t complain to the Empire about making it up,” Mile reasoned aloud.

The other three nodded along, following her logic.

“So, it’s not classified, and any reasonably well-informed person would know about it… So, what should we do?” asked Reina.

The other three wasted no time in replying.

“Well, for now, I guess we should go tell our employers!”

“Once they hear about it, they’ll probably be in a hurry to go and collect information from those areas…”

“So we’ll have to take a route that will take us through there…”

“In which case…”

“Let’s get going!”

***

The moment the merchants heard the Crimson Vow’s information, they ran off somewhere in a great hurry, and after that, their stay in the capital was extended by three days. It was unclear if they were using the extra time to do their own investigations or rendezvous with other teams, but regardless, it seemed they were able to pinpoint the location in question, which Sir Webdel had not been able to name. Finally, their new destination was decided.

They were headed for the mountains, southeast of the capital.

The Empire as a whole was largely mountainous, so it did not mean much to say that they were headed into the mountains generally. Moreover, there were even a large number of mountains to the southeast.

And this was a place where few humanoids lived, but demi-human villages were numerous…

“Apparently,” Pauline explained, “Mr. Webdel’s shop, the Worrell Company, and the Dilabolt Company, the business formerly owned by that criminal Galadle, had both accepted jobs to distribute provisions to the scene of the action.” Pauline had learned this during her conversation with Webdel after the others had split off.

“In other words,” said Reina, “they were in charge of furnishing military supplies. I guess if you’re only moving within your own country, it makes sense to use civilian merchants instead of military transport units. That way, you can use that time to start prepping transport units for the next actual military campaign.”

Whereas war on modern-day Earth might involve great movements of weapons and ammunition, in the present state of this world, the bulk of what a low-ranking soldier carried were provisions along with things like arrows and spare swords.

Since they were not invading another country, these troops did not require the tools needed for laying siege to any castles or fortresses, such as battering rams, ballistae, grappling hooks, rope ladders, and the like. There was no need to carry in large amounts of food from the capital either, as they could purchase or requisition it from the nearby villages, and there was no worry of the supply caravans bringing additional provisions being attacked by enemy soldiers along the way. Similarly, staying within their own country meant the troops could count on reliable water sources, with enough drinking water available.

And clearly, no bandits would be stupid enough to attack a caravan guarded by soldiers. Were they to attempt it, the army would mobilize the next day and slaughter every bandit in the area. Picking a fight with the army, or the country’s top brass, simply didn’t make sense.

Thus, availability of supplies was not an issue.

However, these were still military supplies, intended for the army— truly the bare minimum in terms of provisions. They certainly were not carrying any top-quality beef or well-aged wine, as much as the soldiers might have appreciated it.

***

In the capital, the “merchants” had restocked, buying a number of luxury items to fill the cargo beds of the wagons, which were now nearly empty.

It would be bizarre for merchants to linger around the Empire when they had nothing to sell, and of course, running a business had proved a lucrative source of conversations and information. All of this meant they needed merchandise.

Food for the soldiers was supplied by the army, so they would not be hurting for standard provisions—hence the new focus on luxury items, like booze and sweets.

However, these goods were not especially bulky, leaving more space in the wagons than when they had departed the capital of Tils. As a result, the members of the Crimson Vow were able to kick back and relax as they left the capital and traveled into the mountains.

“So, what should we do?” asked Mile.

“What is there to do? If this goes the way it always does, we just have to explain what we can and leave things as tidy as possible,” said Reina.

“I guess so…” Mile could only shrug.

“Well, we might be able to get some results if we throw out that elder dragon errand boy’s name,” Pauline offered.

“Oh, right,” Mile joked, “Mr. ‘Better This One.’”

“It’s Berdetice,” Reina said flatly. By now she was used to playing the straight woman to Mile’s jokester.

“Still, we know that it’s not just one dragon in charge of contacting every investigation team at every ruin across the continent, right? No matter how far they can fly and how wide their territories are, that just wouldn’t be very efficient…” Mavis mused.

“Well, even if another elder dragon is in charge of this site, isn’t it good enough to let them know that we—or rather, that the humans—are aware of what they’re up to? We can let them dig their holes, and when they’re satisfied, they’ll leave without a fight. Plus, I’m sure information about our last encounter has been shared with the other elder dragons. They’d probably let the demons and beastfolk at the site know about it too, right?” said Reina.

“I guess so…” replied Mile and Pauline.

On the one hand, this conflict between the humanoids and the demi-humans did not seem like it was too big of an issue. In fact, it was probably even favorable for the Tils side if the Albarnian forces exhausted their own resources fighting within their own borders.

Sir Webdel had called this foray an emergency change of plans, which had interrupted some kind of preparations involving “other countries.” Although he had been purposefully vague, it was hard to imagine that some kind of invasion had not been in the works.

“Maybe we should just leave this one alone?” asked Mile and Mavis, who had come to the same conclusion at almost the exact same time.

Reina and Pauline looked perplexed, but once Mile explained, they both seemed to come around to her way of thinking.

“I see,” said Reina. “We haven’t accepted a job to try and resolve this conflict—and if it is resolved, that only seems to increase the odds of a potential invasion of our home countries by the Empire.”

In general, international affairs were not a chief concern for Reina, who had settled down only temporarily in Tils and did not consider it her home country. However, it did not feel good to think of the place where her friends’ families lived, along with the countless other people she had met, getting swept up into a war, and it was all the more unpleasant to think that any actions of their own could unnecessarily hasten such a thing.

“So, we’re just going to gather information and not give any help that would resolve the conflict? Wouldn’t that just exacerbate things?” asked Pauline.

The other three were silent.

To fan the flames of war would most certainly be a step too far. They had accepted no such request, and to do so would make them into warmongers.

The silence spread to Pauline as well.

“Well, we don’t know for certain that this is connected to those other incidents, and there’s no point in speculating about it now. If we spend hours thinking about it and arrive to find something completely different is going on, why, that’s just an enormous waste of time and effort—a huge loss!”

“I suppose you’re right.”

Hearing the word, “loss,” Pauline was swayed.

“Well, then, we’ll have to leave this one to chance!” Mavis declared. “That is our…”

“Crimson Vow!” the others finished.

***

Seven days after their departure from the capital, the caravan arrived in the southeast region of the Empire. This was a distance that, in any other country, even the slowest transport wagon could have covered in about five days, but travel took far more time here in the Empire, with its precipitous, poorly maintained roads and long stretches of mud that resulted from the rainy climate.

In spite of this, thanks to both the magic and might of the Crimson Vow, things were proceeding smoothly. It would have taken even longer for any normal caravan, but thanks to Mile’s skills, they never spent too long stuck in the mud or dealing with broken wheels. In this area, most parties would form far larger caravans to ward off monsters and bandits. However, the more wagons that were involved, the more broken wheels and axles, and other such delays, arose. It was not as though a wagon could simply be abandoned when things went awry, so everyone would have to halt until repairs were done. And of course, the conditions meant that wagons broke down much more frequently than they would normally.

“The roads are bad, so movement takes more time for caravans, which leads to unnecessary costs. Thus, the price of the goods rises, and there’s a higher chance of being attacked, which drives prices even higher as a form of risk management… It’s a vicious cycle,” said Pauline, giving them the merchant’s perspective.

“More importantly,” Reina added, “the Empire is vast, with lots of hills—and being a poor country without much in the way of funds, there isn’t a lot to devote to the maintenance of national highways…” As the daughter of a peddler, who had traveled in a wagon with her father since her earliest memories, Reina likely had far more of an awareness of highways than Pauline, who was the pampered daughter of a mid-scale merchant house and had never ever left home before becoming a hunter…

“Oh, over there! That looks like where the soldiers are staying!” Mile cut in, pointing at a campsite lined with sleeping and storage tents that looked as though they belonged to the Albarnian military.

“Okay then, let’s go take a look!”

“Yeah! Er, wait—shouldn’t our clients be the ones deciding that…?”

***

“What? You’re selling luxury goods, you say? Of course, that’s fine! I’m sure it’ll be a good morale boost for the troops. We don’t wanna see any gouging, though. So, you got booze and snacks? Give me your best ones first!”

This was the way things worked with troops on the front lines in this world. Not that there was anything wrong with this—it was important to let soldiers have a break in times when danger was not looming so close by, and even on modern-day Earth, there were many places where one could buy luxuries from the canteen on base or while stationed on military vessels.

Indeed, the officers here were ready to extend their gratitude to the merchants for having gone out of their way to transport these goods to such a remote, dangerous location…so long as these merchants did not try to profit too much off of their troops.

Thus, they easily received permission from the higher-ups, and the merchants opened up shop. As before, it was the other teams who were in charge of talking with the “important” people. This team was primarily in charge of collecting local rumors, and while soldiers might not exactly count as locals, troops on the ground were scarcely different from other common folk.

While their enemies were not especially numerous, the battle strength of any individual demon or beastman far outstripped that of a single human soldier. Even if the army believed that they had the advantage in numbers and weaponry, they were certain to face many casualties, and the soldiers knew that there was a greater than zero chance that they could become one of these casualties. This meant that these were men who were, quite literally, uncertain if they would live to see the next day’s sunrise.

Grim realities aside, the arrival of the merchants was a pleasant surprise. To find highly desirable food, drink, and other luxuries all the way out here, in a place like this, was something they would have never thought possible. Furthermore, there were two young ladies present, as well as two (presumably) younger girls, who reminded them of their own sisters and daughters.

There was no doubt that the “merchants” could make a few sales and get the men to talk.

“You’re working so hard for the people of this country, Mister!”

“Keep up the hard work, Big Brother!”

Their Japanese-style hospitality, drilled into them by Mile back at Lenny’s inn, could only help their cause.

And thus the Crimson Vow, who had volunteered themselves to “help out with sales,” was raking in the intel…

***

During dinner that evening, the four members of the Crimson Vow conducted a review of their findings. The merchants and the drivers listened, while dining on the food Mile had prepared for the group. Naturally, both the drivers and merchants were on the same side, so it was fine for everyone to listen in.

“I see… This changes things a bit.”

“Yeah, in the previous incidents, they had been more covert, investigating ruins in remote places that humans didn’t visit…”

“What Sir Webdel had heard sounded like it was some warped, exaggerated half-story, but it turns out his information was fairly accurate.”

Specifically, she was referring to his report that demi-humans had suddenly occupied lands they did not normally inhabit and forcing out the humanoids who lived there. This second part in particular had rung false to the Crimson Vow, but based on what they heard from the soldiers, it sounded as though they had been overly skeptical.

Of course, the soldiers believed that they were doing the right thing for the safety of their country, so not only did they have nothing to hide from the Crimson Vow, a group of civilians, they spoke quite freely in the hope of currying favor with these young ladies. The officers, likewise, had no problem discussing their operations—in fact, they welcomed the chance to assure people that this was a just battle, for the sake of their countrymen. They would be glad to have these merchants spread the word to other countries that this was a justifiable defensive operation.

In fact, this was likely a meaningful duty for them, one which truly stirred their hearts—especially when compared to potentially shadier operations, such as suddenly invading neighboring lands or attacking private citizens for the sake of enacting a trade blockade. Even if the risk of death was many times higher, for a soldier, this was a worthwhile endeavor, an honorable duty worthy of staking one’s life on!

At least, this was the information that came to Mavis and Pauline, who had spoken to quite a few low-ranking soldiers, all of whom had been very eager to converse with them—sometimes even barging into the conversation and elbowing one another to the side.

Why Mavis and Pauline, specifically?

They were the only two who appeared to be adults, with…figures within an acceptable range.

It should go without saying that Reina and Mile were less than pleased with this.

“So, what next?”

“Obviously, we keep going and meet with the demi-humans.”

This had indeed been the group’s intention from the beginning. It would be pointless for them to have come this far and speak only with the soldiers. The other teams would have already collected at least this much information elsewhere. The only reason they had stopped here, in fact, was that they were traveling by wagon and could not leave the main road, which meant that they would inevitably pass through the military encampment. To plow right through and into enemy-occupied area without slowing would most certainly see them stopped and questioned.

They wouldn’t want the soldiers to think they were a wagon delivering supplies to the advancing enemy.

In any case, their plan was to make an appearance at the military camp, say a few polite hellos and find out what the imperial soldiers had to say about the current situation, and then continue on their way without delay.

The troops currently present had only been dispatched to face an enemy of some tens or hundreds of demi-humans, so it was not an especially large contingent. It seemed for the time being that the Empire had only sent out these forces as a precaution, out of fear that this incident could pull the trigger on a wider conflict with the demi-humans throughout the country—or worse, the demi-humans living in other countries, along with the humanoids who feared the development of an all-out war with demi-humans as a whole. At this point, the strength of the forces currently dispatched here was relatively modest.

As a result, the members of the Crimson Vow assumed that theirs would be a relatively simple task.

“Do you think the information we shared about the elder dragons, demons, and beastmen hasn’t made it to the higher-ups in this country yet?” Mile asked.

“No one would be stupid enough to purposely give an enemy useful information,” replied Reina.

“There’s also a chance they were made aware, but didn’t believe it, and assumed that it was falsified or misrepresented…” Mavis added.

“Ah…”

“But, the guild—” Pauline started.

“The guild stays out of politics,” Reina interrupted. “Even if they did try to advise, it probably still would have been written off as falsified information coming in from another country.”

Acting on unverifiable reports from an enemy territory would only welcome unrest, particularly if one did not know what to make of them. And so, it was not at all bizarre that the Empire would have ignored this intel entirely. In fact, there were plenty of governments who would purposely do such a thing. So, they could not be blamed for acting particularly irresponsibly.

“Well, anyway, tomorrow we’ll press forward!” said Reina.

“Yeah!” the other three replied, as always.

Before setting out from the capital, they had already cleared their plans with the merchants, who had, of course, already heard from the guild master about the initial elder dragon incident, in which the dragons had played mediator between the humans and beastfolk. With this background information, the merchants had believed the Crimson Vow immediately when the girls proposed that the incidents might be related.

By all rights, their investigation was completed as soon as they had spoken to the imperial soldiers and found out what the common soldier would have heard from their higher ups. However, they were happy to let the Crimson Vow make an extra stop on the way home, as it were.

“Well then, we’ll be taking our leave now.”

The next morning, the merchants gave word to the officers that they would be setting out and began to climb into their wagons, before…

“Wait! Wait wait wait wait wait!”

As the wagons began to move, an officer came galloping over at full speed, cutting in front of them with his hand outstretched as several soldiers followed frantically behind him.

“Where are you all headed? The lands occupied by the demi-humans are in that direction. The capital is the other way!” the officer declared, his face pale.

“Ah, yes. What of it?” the merchant calmly replied. Since the Crimson Vow were only guards, they left the talking to the merchants—it would be peculiar for them to respond.

“Why in the world would you civilians be heading into enemy lands?!”

“Well, I mean, they’re the enemy according to you soldiers, but we haven’t made enemies of anyone. It’s not as though the populations living in this direction are bandits. We’re just thinking of taking the long way around to the seaside through these mountains, so we can stock up on some local specialties before we head back home.”

The officer was lost for words.

To be fair, the demi-humans had not been going about pillaging. They had only taken occupation of certain areas, which had prompted the appearance of the soldiers, but currently they were still waiting on a decision from the higher-ups, out of political consideration.

Still, the soldiers simply could not turn a blind eye to a group of civilians heading right into the heart of enemy territory. Particularly when they were accompanied by a group of young ladies…

“All we have left in our cargo is the bandit’s share,” the lead merchant explained—referring to a stock of spare liquor and food that had been set aside to appease attacking bandits, who had been known to grow incensed and murderous upon finding an empty wagon. “Even if the demi-humans did attack us and try to steal our cargo, they wouldn’t stand to benefit much.”

“Still—I—” The man was still sputtering when another officer with rather pompous-looking insignia arrived.

“What’s all this racket first thing in the morning?!”

The soldier arguing with the merchants had to rank somewhere around a first or second lieutenant, but this man was clearly at least a major.

“What are you all doing to these nice merchants who came all the way out here to… O-oh my goodness, it’s the holy maidens!!!” the man suddenly cried, upon catching sight of the Crimson Vow.

“Who are you?” the four asked, suspiciously.

“I-I’m one of the ones you saved on that desperate evacuation from the Kingdom of Brandel… Wait, who is that girl?” he asked, looked at Mile.

“The donkey,” replied the other three.

“Ah…”

Sure enough, that was the only form in which she had shown herself on that occasion…

***

“So, you all wish to continue on this way?”

“Yes…”

Apparently, this officer was one of the 5,000 men who had been present during the attempted invasion of Ascham. It was a battle thoroughly lost. Though the imperial casualties had been few, the invasion was a complete failure. In fact, because it was such a thorough loss, numerous heroes had to be fabricated to lift the morale of the soldiers and citizens.

Notably, though the army had lost many of their supplies, there were hardly any human losses, and so, the operation had instead been glorified as a successful escape, or the “miraculous evacuation” of Ascham. It would seem that this officer was one of the ones who had been raised up as a hero following this event. At the time, he had been a captain but had since received a promotion…

Indeed, it seemed this man had been heralded as one of the three officers whose prayers summoned the holy maidens.

(At the mention of this, the “holy maidens” themselves could only ask, “What the heck does that mean?!” at which the officer could only shrug, “I don’t know either…”)

“So,” the officer continued, “if you go this way, you’re up against demons and beastmen. Should something go wrong…”

“We will be fine. Whether on the battlefield or in the depths of hell, if it’s for the sake of a customer, we’re there in a flash! That’s us—”

“The Wandering Shop, House of the Holy Maiden!”

Naturally, they could not give their party name here, so instead, they offered up this alternative—essentially, the same name they had used before, though with some slight alterations to fit the current circumstances.

“Guh…”

At this assertion, the officer could not help but recall the fact that they had been the ones who needed rescuing back in Ascham. After dithering over this for a while…

“Please at least allow myself and a few of my men to escort you!”

“That’ll make it more dangerous! If it’s just us, we’re nothing more than a small, guarded merchant caravan, just passing through. If we have soldiers with us, that will immediately paint us as the enemy!” Mile protested.

“Ah…” said the officer, reflecting on his own words. Clearly, he was so on edge that this had not occurred to him.

“Please, don’t worry about us,” Pauline said with a grin.

The officer could only nod hopelessly. “H… Mm-hmm, well… I wish you the best, then, truly…”

All clear! the members of the Crimson Vow thought triumphantly. Thus, the caravan was able to proceed without impediment.

Obviously, Mile having been visible in her Goddess Phenomenon form during the incident in Ascham was not much of an issue. The soldiers had only seen her for a short period of time from a distance, and at a low angle, so they had not gotten a clear view of her face, which meant that now they recognized her as nothing more than “the donkey.” It was more than likely that any other soldiers who had been present at the time would see her in just the same way.

Additionally, in this world, just as in the America of our world, a donkey was the quintessential example of an idiot, or rather, an ass. In truth, it was a bit unreasonable; donkeys looked much the same as horses, and were steadfast and hard-working. They had only really earned this reputation because they were not quite as bright as horses were, even though a horse is nowhere near as smart as a dog…

“Why do I have to be the stupid donkey?!” Mile complained, but everyone simply ignored her. She really had no right to whine, when she was the one who had gone out of her way to dress like that just for the sake of her Bremen-Fremen pun… Even though there was not a single person in this entire world who would understand the joke.

***

The three wagons proceeded up the steepening grade of the highway, their speed falling accordingly.

Just as the caravan rounded one particularly large boulder…

“Halt!”

Several men were blocking their path.

Yep, here we go…

They might not have been bandits, but they were just as expected. It was easy to imagine a number of reasons for this interruption—whether they wanted to check for spies masquerading as merchants, or look for disguised soldiers in the wagons, or simply wished for the merchants to sell them some food.

“Wh-what is this about?! We are but humble traveling merchants…”

The merchants played the part of shocked travelers splendidly.

These actors I tell ya… Or wait, maybe I should be saying, “This merchant, what a terrifying fellow!”

As usual, Mile’s mind was off in the clouds.

“What are you doing here?!”

“Well, we are merchants, so we came here for business…”

“Er…”

This man must have been a bit slow to be stumped by such an obvious answer. However, this stopped him for only a moment, before he straightened back up.

“No, what I’m saying is the roads leading here have been blocked off by soldiers! Why aren’t you surprised to see us?!”

Sure enough, the soldiers had been stationed along the highway, and indeed, these men had beastly features… In other words, they were beastmen.

“Those soldiers were only keeping an eye out for anyone doing anything illegal. That’s got nothing to do with us. Anyway, why would we be surprised just to see beastfolk like you? We merchants are happy to sell to anyone. We can’t go around getting surprised at every single customer we meet, can we?”

“Er…”

Again, the man was surprised enough that he had nothing to say. On the one hand, he was glad to know that there were merchants who would sell to beastfolk without prejudice, and perhaps even was forming a good impression of them, but theirs was not the response that he had wished to hear right now.

“Well,” he said finally. “We’re going to inspect your wagons.”

“Go ahead. We’ve sold out of most of our goods, though, so there’s not much left in there…”

The beastmen looked inside each of the wagons and confirmed that it was as the merchant said.

“A bunch of poor, shabby-looking old men and some little girls, with mostly empty wagons. Well, at the very least, I guess there’s no chance of them being soldiers…”

“Just a moment! You can’t just call them ‘old’! And it’s quite unnecessary to comment on their shabby appearance! And what’s with the ‘little girls’ comment?!” shouted Reina.

The beast men goggled at her, thinking all this was quite beside the point.

Chapter 90:
A Retreat

“Wh-what is that?!”

“A wyvern? …N-no! That’s…”

“An elder dragoooon!”

Suddenly, an elder dragon came flying straight towards the imperial troops who had been monitoring the region the demi-humans were occupying. The soldiers panicked. Obviously, in a land that had been known to be inhabited by elder dragons in the distant past, there was no shortage of rumors about squads who offended a dragon and were destroyed, or entire territories left as uninhabited wastelands after crossing a dragon clan.

Even if they were to expend most of their resources and sacrifice large numbers of men to defeat a single dragon, they would only face its kin, coming to avenge the murder of a family member. And then, it would be all over for anyone who dared fight back.

There had been numerous instances of an entire royal line being wiped out, followed by wholesale changeovers of leadership, as a result of encounters with elder dragon clans. Thus, no one in this country would ever lay hands upon a single dragon.

Indeed, if faced with an elder dragon, the only thing to do was to fall to one’s hands and knees in apology—and if that was not enough, it was best to just lay down and die, so as not to be a burden to others. This was the duty of every citizen of this land.

Yet here these soldiers stood, faced with an elder dragon. They froze in place, still as statues.

The elder dragon flew right toward them…and then landed, just before reaching the soldiers. Its landing spot was shrouded by rocks and trees, and it showed no signs of further approach.

“Are we…safe?”

The dragon had landed in the spot where the demi-humans were.

Then, after a short while…

“It’s taking off again!” a soldier who had been fixedly watching the location where the dragon had landed announced loudly.

Thank goodness! It was going back home quietly!

Or so everyone thought. Until…

Ka-thoom!

Rather than flying in the direction from whence it had come, the dragon flew toward the soldiers, and in just a few seconds it had landed before them.

“Who is your commander?”

We’re doomed. This was the men’s only thought: that at this point they had no choice than for everyone here to offer up their own lives to prevent the destruction of the people of the Empire. When it came to elder dragons, this spirit of self-sacrifice was so deeply engrained into every Albarnian, that even the worst scoundrels—those who would cut down handfuls, tens, even hundreds of fellow humans without batting an eye—even such scoundrels as this could not bear to be the sole cause of the death of tens or hundreds of thousands, and the cause of the destruction of one’s motherland.

When it came down to it, it would be a literal wasteland of death, one that included one’s parents and family and friends and colleagues and mentors and neighbors… Everyone you knew, and everyone who knew you—every human, nay, every single living thing—all dead. All of them perishing while cursing your name with their dying breaths…

There was no one alive who could bear such a thing.

And so, instead, they would lay down and die. There was no point in resisting. This was common knowledge among all citizens of this land.

“I am the one in charge here,” the commander said, stepping obediently forward.

His heart was already as placid as the mirrored surface of a lake on a windless day. Perhaps, now that he was facing death, he had reached a state of enlightenment. A faint smile hung on his face. Indeed, he was now nothing but a human sacrifice, offered up to appease the elder dragons’ wrath, just like the many who had come before him…

The elder dragon simply glanced at the commander and spoke.

“We have built a second home in the mountains ahead of here, which you are not permitted to approach. So long as you do not set foot in that part of the mountains, you may continue to use this road. Understood?”

“…Y-yes?”

“Un-der-stood?”

“Y-yes!”

The commander was stunned. What else could he say? If he could avert an elder dragon crisis without a single loss of life, he would be a national hero, awarded badges—no, medals, land, and likely even a peerage. At the very least, there was no possible way he would be punished or even scolded for his course of action.

“Very good. Farewell!” said the dragon as it finally took off again, this time toward the southeast.

“W-w-w-w-we’re saaaved!!!” The soldiers rejoiced, still glued to the spots where they had frozen in terror.

Hidden by her cloaking magic, Mile grinned from where she had been watching the scene.

It was all going according to plan…

***

“So anyway, there’s a pretty slim chance of the soldiers coming to this place now,” Mile cheerfully reported.

“They definitely won’t be coming!” the other three members of the Crimson Vow agreed.

The demi-humans, of course, were still stunned into silence.

“Now then, as long as you don’t pick fights with any imperial soldiers, you’ll be just fine. If you can just break off into a few groups and slip off into the night, you should be able to make it home without any difficulty. The golems won’t be bothering the soldiers either, so they should be able to live in peace…”

“It’s not just the soldiers,” Reina added. “No one is going to come here! There’s going to be an official decree not to set foot in this area in no time! Probably a decree so strict that if you put a single toe over the line, you’ll be hanged.”

“Yes, well, that makes sense. One wrong move and it could be the downfall of the entire country,” Mavis shrugged.

“Huh? Wait—then doesn’t that mean Mile made a pretty bad move in beating some elder dragons half to death—twice?” Pauline asked.

Reina and Mavis shrugged. What was done was done.

***

Kragon the elder dragon departed, and it was decided that the demi-humans would retreat in several small groups that very night.

Meanwhile, Mile called to the scavengers, instructing them to employ a number of deception tactics, such as constructing a full-scale moveable replica elder dragon tail, which could be pushed out from the mouth of the cave if any humans drew near, as well as devices to reproduce a dragon’s roar and breath. With precautions like these in place, they would be just fine for the time being.

Additionally, the event would likely cause enough of a stir among this country’s leadership that they would not be able to focus on any invasion efforts for some time. Of course, once this chaos was sown, they would not be able to do anything about it, and it was possible that this would cause more chaos as they began jumping at every shadow, for fear of an elder dragon attack… Clearly, no one would be able to march right into the area and demand that the elder dragons come out.

Furthermore, Mile had asked Kragon to pop in at the site from time to time, as a bit of an additional service. Even if he did not do anything when he arrived, a few sightings of him would be enough to establish a credible record of elder dragons being present in the area.

For an elder dragon, the distance from Kragon’s village to the site was about the same as the distance that a Japanese person living in the city might have to travel from their home to the local convenience store—in other words, not far. Considering the favor Mile had done for him with his tail, coming here once a month or so was nothing.

“All right, let’s retreat!”

Their business here was officially finished…as was their business in the Empire as a whole. Their plan now was to go back home. But first, they would continue on to the seaside, as planned, stock up on some seaside products, and travel along the coast northward, back to the Kingdom of Tils.

The Crimson Vow said their farewells to the demi-humans and set out with the merchants once more…

***

“Thank you so much for everything.”

The caravan made it safely back to the Kingdom of Tils without incident.

There, the Crimson Vow received a sincere thanks from the merchants, along with a carefully calculated additional sum for the goods the merchants had borrowed from Mile’s storage, the food shared with them, and a huge bonus. All this, along with an A-grade on their job completion report… Not that there was any other grade they could have gotten.

The guild handled payment for escort jobs in exchange for the signed completion report, so that part of their fee would not come from the merchants themselves. But in this case, it should go without saying that the bonus amounted to far more than the original fee for the job ever would have.

In truth, the job had been quite lucrative for the Crimson Vow.

“Hee hee hee, what a score!” Pauline said with a grin.

Sure enough, when Mile had made her request of Kragon, Pauline had tagged on one of her own—for some scales, and a fragment of one of the dragon’s talons.

Obviously, Kragon had been less than pleased about this, but he did not seem to have the courage to refuse her. Reluctantly, he parted with several scales, and a talon fragment.

Picking off a scale that had not been naturally shed seemed like an excruciating ordeal. And because he had begged not to have a whole talon torn off, they had compromised instead on just a small clipping. Of course, Pauline had healed him after the scales were removed, and the talon would grow back out soon enough.

Mile felt a bit bad about how down in the dumps Kragon looked after having his back nail trimmed, so she carved a cool-looking pattern into the cut talon that seemed to cheer him right back up.

Apparently, he was rather fond of his new look.

Since her time as Misato, Mile had always had a well-honed artistic skill, so with an extra sharp nanomachine-crafted blade on hand, this kind of detailed work was a cinch.

It would not do to engrave an elder dragon’s talon with a rising dragon emblem, or an ogre or manticore. That would be akin to tattooing a human with a picture of a house mouse, and not at all a suitable look for a fierce creature like Kragon. So, instead of opting for an image of any creature or demon or god, she simply carved a abstract pattern.

Plus, once Pauline had chipped off a piece of a nail that would be suitable to make a sword or knife, it was now slightly thinner, sharper, and had the look of a menacing, sinister weapon.

Mile started to really get into the groove of it when Kragon told her that every elder dragon has a special symbol that means something to them, and she carved Kragon’s symbol in reverse on his front claw.

Chapter 91:
A Summons

“A summons?” asked Pauline.

From the guild, the four scurried back to their room at the inn to open the letter. Inside, they found…

“Well, I’d say the gist of it is a ‘come and meet me behind the bleachers’ sort of vibe,” said Mile.

“What does that mean? What is a ‘bleacher’ anyway?”

Reina’s shoulders slumped. Whenever she didn’t get one of Mile’s references, she put it down to her own shortcoming. Mavis, on the other hand, brushed it aside as she always did.

“It’s a summons from the elder dragons,” clarified Mile. “Either we go to them, or they’re going to come to us.”

This was clearly a threat, but Mile did not appear to have realized this.

The others were silent.

“It seems like Kragon was just the intermediary here,” Mile continued. “It’s someone else who actually has business with us.”

Reina shrugged wearily.

“This is definitely bad news, right? I doubt they’d bother contacting us if there wasn’t something wrong, and if they had some update or announcement for us they’d just write it in the letter. Besides, if it was some little matter, that dragon would come here himself, or send some beastman messenger to meet him in the forest or mountains. The fact that we have to meet with some other dragon means something serious is going on.”

“It’s like, ‘Hey, Big Bro, those are the guys!’ right?” asked Mavis, grimacing.

Based on their interactions with Kragon, he did not seem the type, but there was no doubting that someone who outranked him was hoping to meet with the Crimson Vow about some less-than-happy matter.

“If we refuse, a gang of elder dragons is going to come to the capital, which would be a serious problem.”

“That would never fly!”

“It’d turn into the Great Human-Dragon War…”

In fact, the Great Human-Dragon War was a fairy tale depicting an all-out war between humanoids and dragons. However, it was nothing more than a work of fiction, not something that had ever actually happened in the past. Incidentally, it was a fairy tale that had been around for a long time—and for once had nothing to do with Miami Satodele.

“We had better go.”

“I guess we have to.”

“We don’t have much choice.”

“Let’s go, Pegasus!”

Who the heck is Pegasus?

Indeed, the Crimson Vow had no other choice. No matter how little they wanted to go. No matter how much they wished to ignore the letter. No matter how badly they wanted to run.

Imagine if the elder dragons, infuriated at being ignored, came to the royal capital of Tils… As long as any other choice existed, they would choose that. It was just as that merchant, Galadle, must have felt: they truly had no other options…

***

“So anyway, here we are, back in the south of the Albarn Empire, somewhere fairly close to the sea. Indeed, we are approaching the Village of the Elder Dragons!”

“Who are you explaining this to?” Reina asked wearily, as Mile proudly narrated their location—a fact of which they were all aware.

“Why did we have to come all the way out here?” Pauline grumbled.

“Elder dragons can travel this sort of distance like it’s nothing, so they probably have no concept of how much time and energy it takes other creatures to do the same,” Mavis replied.

“I guess so. I suppose it’d be a problem if they’d shown up back near the capital…”

At any rate, the Crimson Vow was back in the Albarnian Empire, now approaching the elder dragons’ village.

“They only told us to come to this vague area, but we don’t have any landmarks, and they didn’t establish a date and time… Elder dragons are pretty big, so they should be easy to spot, but they’re probably gonna send out some beastman as a point of contact, so finding them is gonna be—”

“There! Right over there!” Mile piped up, cutting off Reina’s train of thought.

As usual.

“Are you the Crimson Vow?” asked a solitary beastman, approaching the four hunters. It seemed he had been waiting here for some days, as there was a tent pitched nearby.

“Did Kragon send you?”

“That’s right. Now, could you all look to the sky and shoot up three fireballs?”

“Can’t they come up with a way for you to signal them yourselves?” the Crimson Vow asked, stunned to find themselves in this position yet again.

“Most beastfolk can’t use magic. What d’you want from us?! Are you gonna wait around while I go gather up a bunch of kindling and dried logs and twigs and get a great big signal fire going? Huh?”

“Our apologies. Please allow me to shoot the fireballs…”

Mile fired three fireballs up into the sky, and a short time later, a group of elder dragons appeared—nine of them.

“Whoa, the whole gang’s here!”

“That’s way too many!”

If this many people—er, dragons—were showing up, then it was clearly a good thing the Crimson Vow had traveled here instead of the dragons going into Tils to meet them. Having this many elder dragons show up near any human settlement would be enough to send the entire continent into a panic. Every nation in the world would probably start gathering their forces and announce a state of emergency…

Thwoom, thwoom, thwoom.

One by one, the dragons landed in front of the Crimson Vow. The nine then split into three groups of six, two, and one. One side of the group of two faced the Crimson Vow and began to speak.

“It’s been a while, Crimson Vow…”

Supreme Leader Dessler?!

Even at times like this, Mile was functioning as normal.

“But we just saw you a little while ago, Mr. Kragon…”

“It’s me! Berdetice!!”

“I’m sure you can’t tell, but I’m Kragon…” said the other half of the pair.

“If you know that we can’t tell you all apart, then just give your names from the start!” harrumphed Reina.

The dragon pair looked annoyed, but there was nothing to be done for it.

“And those fresh faces over there would be…?”

Prompted by Mile’s question, the pair finally remembered their role here. Kragon, the senior of the pair and the one who had sent the letter, introduced the others.

“Here before you is our leader, Lord Laylen. The other six here are our most elite warrior squad.”

“Oh, the group that you used to be part of!”

“Don’t mention that!”

Apparently, it was still a sore subject for him.

The other three members of the Crimson Vow sighed, stunned as always at Mile’s utter lack of social awareness. That’s not something you should ever bring up…

“Um… Can I ask something?” Mile asked suddenly.

“What is it?” Kragon replied, warmly gesturing for her to proceed.

Frankly, Mile asked the question that was on her mind.

“Umm, if you’re facing us down, shouldn’t all the warriors be standing guard around your leader?”

The group of six was silent. Kragon and Berdetice’s faces twitched in shock.

The six warriors froze in place. Then, eight dragon heads swiveled slowly towards their leader, with an almost audible creaking.

He was angry.

The leader was furious.

Mile had as good as said, “You’re about to be attacked by a group of four little human girls, so you should probably have your fellow dragons guarding you.” In fact, that was exactly what she was saying.

These were not the sort of words that a proud young elder dragon could abide…

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-wha–?”

Oh no…

She had done it. The other three members of the Crimson Vow were acutely aware of Mile’s mistake.

The other eight elder dragons’ faced twitched as well…or at least they seemed to. It was difficult for a human to read an elder dragon’s expressions.

“Cr-cr-cr…”

What’s that sound? Sounds a bit like a chicken. Come to think of it, I’ve heard that chickens are descended from dinosaurs…

“You CRETIIIINS!!!”

Ah.

The other three members of the Crimson Vow hung their heads. This was hopeless. Their conversation had broken down from the very start. Fortunately, it was time for someone older, with far more experience, to make their debut.

“Gracious leader, it behooves us to smile kindly upon the foolish words of these lower life forms.”

“Hm… I suppose that’s true.”

The leader seemed to perk back up at this advice from the leader of the battle squad… Clearly, he was a simple sort.

I wonder if it really is true that elder dragons are smarter than humans.

Doubt began to bubble up in the backs of the Crimson Vow’s minds. That said, as Berdetice had previously explained, this leader was a juvenile, and possessed the characteristic ailments of youth, one of which was that he was all too confident in his own abilities. Obviously, he was convinced that he was a smart and powerful elder dragon, one who would rule the world and guide the fools who dwelled upon it—but perhaps this was more of an individual condition. Especially since he was no longer an adolescent but still seemed to behave in a thoroughly juvenile way…

Calm once more, the leader began to speak again.

“Now then, let’s get down to the crux of the matter. For repeatedly daring to oppose we elder dragons, you lot will be sentenced to death.”

Clearly, there had been no point in calming him down, if it was going to come to this.

Hey, Nanos. How many feet up in the air do you all exist?

Realizing their situation was hopeless, Mile began a covert conversation with the nanomachines. Because in her previous life, her father had worked in the field of aviation, Mile (or rather Misato) had grown accustomed to referring to heights in feet instead of meters.

THERE IS NO MEANING IN US EXISTING IN LOCATIONS WHERE THERE ARE NO LIVING CREATURES TO RESPOND TO. THEREFORE, WE DO NOT EXIST ANY HIGHER THAN BIRDS AND WYVERNS FLY.

But you could go even higher than you are now?

YES, OF COURSE! AT YOUR COMMAND, LADY MILE, WITH YOUR LEVEL-5 AUTHORIZATION, WE CAN DISPATCH A TEMPORARY AERONAUTICS TEAM OUTSIDE OF OUR ESTABLISHED SERVICE AREA. FURTHERMORE, AS IT IS YOU, EVEN IF WE SHOULD EXIT THE AREA WHICH CAN BE DIRECTLY REACHED BY YOUR THOUGHT PULSES, WE CAN CONTINUE TO MAINTAIN YOUR PREVIOUS COMMANDS. AND OF COURSE, NEARBY UNITS CAN TRANSMIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS TO THE UNITS MAINTAINING THOSE COMMANDS, AND…

So you’re saying I can send conditional commands to nanomachines tens of thousands of feet up in the air…

THAT’S CORRECT.

Okay, in that case, anyone who’s free right now, up into the air with you!

With that, a number of nanomachines sped toward the sky.

Up, up, and away…

“I don’t get you all! First the dragon Wence comes rushing in, then Kragon and company launch a one-sided attack on us, and still we helped you deceive the Empire to stop a war between them and the demi-humans! You should be thanking us! Why is it you have to kill us? This doesn’t make any sense!” Reina argued, indignant, as the other three nodded along.

However, the leader of the elder dragons did not appear to be paying the Crimson Vow any mind.

“Have you no sense?! You must face the consequences of your own actions, for daring to spit in the faces of the great and powerful elder dragons! Would you not squash a mosquito or fly that buzzed around your face without a care?”

“………”

Mosquito or fly?

If that was how the dragons saw them, there was nothing they could do.

Berdetice and Kragon seemed to think of humans as defenseless lesser life forms, while that young girl dragon, Shelala, seemed to regard them on the level of kittens. This leader, however, considered them nothing more than irritating insects. Clearly, it would be pointless to try to reason with him. He had not come here to talk, after all. He had come seeking the satisfaction of watching the Crimson Vow squirm as he handed down their death sentence. He’d brought them all the way out here because it would be unwise for so many dragons to show up near a human settlement and also because it would simply be a bother for him to make the trip. Everything was going exactly as he had intended.

Of course, the Crimson Vow had anticipated this might happen. Even Kragon had warned them of the possibility. So, naturally, they had not come unprepared.

Ultra-Super Deluxe Hot Magic activate… Crimson Inferno, Full Power!

Burn, heart of mine, tremble, my spirit… In the name of Mile, and in my own, I, Mavis, command you! Beloved sword of mine, to your original form!!!

Mavis gripped a capsule of micros within her pocket.

In the name of Kurihara Misato, Adele von Ascham, and Mile, I command… Nanomachines! Je vous commande!

Oil, thickener, compressed air… Blazing firebomb, ready fire!

As Reina made her protest, the others began silently preparing their attacks. Once she was finished, she joined in on the preparations as well.

“Gracious leader, please wait a moment! Harming defenseless creatures without reason goes against the teachings of our elders!”

“They’ve only lived but a handful of years—they are mere infants! Have some mercy!”

Berdetice and Kragon tried to stall him, but the leader had no intention of listening. He was already beyond all admonition or advice. “Silence! Now then, kneel before me and beg for your lives—though I have no intention of sparing you!”

The Crimson Vow resigned themselves to what they had to do. The dragons might speak the human tongue, but there would be no communication with this one.

Despite the thorough thrashing that Berdetice and Kragon had received at their hands, both dragons had still shown the members of the Crimson Vow kindness later. However, something told the hunters that these two were simply more inclined to indulgent compassion for lower life forms. Just as a human might throw their arms around a dog or cat who had saved them in a pinch…

Now, Berdetice and Kragon looked resigned. The six warriors seemed troubled as well, but none of them were ready to risk their own position by admonishing their leader for the sake of four lesser creatures’ lives.

Even if Berdetice and Kragon stayed out of the fight, as per their agreement with the Crimson Vow—and even if the leader only stood by on the sidelines, they’d still be up against six elder dragon warriors. And, unlike the one-by-one battle of the time before, this would likely be all six of them, all at once…

This is hopeless.

The four signaled to each other with their eyes, silently agreeing to abandon all efforts to resolve this peacefully.

All that remained was…

“Goodness, what an ignorant little brat. So spoiled and pampered by all the adults around him!”

“I don’t envy your task, dear babysitters. I can imagine just how you feel…”

“I suppose even elder dragons can be fools…”

“Should we chop off your tail, too?”

“Eee!”

At Mavis’s threat, a certain dragon instinctively clutched his own tail.

If battle could not be avoided, it was advantageous to rile up one’s opponent. Even if one couldn’t unsettle the actual combatants, it might help at least a little to rob their commander of any rational decision-making capabilities.

“Wha…? K-kill theeeem!!!”

The six warrior dragons immediately took thudding steps towards the Crimson Vow.

“Perfect. We’ve got a leader there who just senselessly ordered our deaths, and six of his warriors are coming directly towards us. I’d say this is legitimate grounds for self-defense!”

Indeed, just as Mile was implying—even if they killed the young leader now, they could plead self-defense, meaning the rest of the dragons probably would not declare war on humanity in retaliation. Elder dragons, after all, were a wise and compassionate race—save for those youths possessed of an unshakeable belief in elder dragon supremacy, of course. If they reflected on the manner in which they had failed to educate or guide this leader “beloved by the spirits of magic,” it would be clear to them that the elder dragons were at fault, not the humans, who had merely reacted to their attack. Indeed, the Crimson Vow hoped they might even give them a few scales in apology—though this was the sort of thing that only happened once every few decades, or centuries.

And so…

“It’s no holds barred!” Mile announced.

Without even a word of acknowledgment, Reina and Pauline fired off the completed spells they had been holding. Mavis pulled the micros from her pocket and swallowed them in one gulp. To save her popping capsules one-by-one, this time she had been provided with a special large vial, containing three times the usual amount of micros. The bottle was colored red, indicative of the risk… Three times the dose, after all, was serious business.

In fact, Mile had been incredibly hesitant when Mavis first requested such a large dosage, but she could not refute Mavis’s point that, “There’s no point in me dying just to avoid damage to my body, is there?” Plus, if she maneuvered her now artificial left arm to reduce the load on the rest of her, then she should be more or less fine. Only because of this was Mile willing to reluctantly oblige.

“Blazing firebomb, fire!”

“Crimson Inferno!”

“EX True Godspeed Blade Third Form, ‘Dragon Guillotine’!!!”

“Phaser Beam, fire!”

Ka-shoom!

Bwooow!

Ka-slash!

Pew! Pew! Pew!

And thus, the Great Human-Dragon Wars were underway…

Bonus Story:
What Would You Take to a Desert Island?

“Hey, everyone, if you were going to wash up all alone on the shore of a desert island, and you could only have one thing with you, what would you take?”

“Here we go again with the out-of-nowhere nonsense …”

As usual, Mile had brought up some inscrutable line of questioning out of the blue. And as usual, Reina and the others went along with it. Truth be told, Mile sometimes asked these sorts of questions specifically as reference for the books that she secretly wrote under a pen name. Her knowledge from her previous life, combined with the far too many novels she had read, made it well-nigh impossible for her to craft plausible stories entirely on her own.

And so…

“A sword!”

Who could have expected any other response from Mavis?

A sword was the obvious choice for the swordswoman, but Reina and Pauline were mages, and did not actually need their staves for casting magic. The staff was nothing more than a weapon for beating away approaching monsters or enemies who fought at melee. If they wanted a staff, they could just cut down a tree branch on the island and make one.

And so, Mile wondered what the pair of them would choose…

“A boat!”

“Bzzt! Bzzt! Pauline!” Mile waved her hands around in front of her chest in exasperation.

This phrasing was one that Mile used often that everyone had come to understand that this meant something along the lines of, Out of bounds, try again.

“The Kingdom of Balmore!”

“Bzzt! Bzzt! Reina! If you bring along a whole country, that’s a populace of hundreds of thousands—millions! Then it’s not a desert island anymore! You wouldn’t be surviving, you’d just be living normally and could buy whatever you wanted in town!”

Before her reincarnation, Mile herself had read novels where the main character was reincarnated in a fantasy world. In some of those books, they could do whatever they wanted from the get-go, regardless of only being able to take one thing with them through their reincarnation. Sometimes, they were even reincarnated with an intergalactic heavy cruiser, controlled by humanoid computers—which of course came with androids shaped like cute girls to serve the main character as navigation terminals.

“The night is heavy. Er, shut up! Morning and noon are heavy, too!”

The other three stared speechless as Mile carried on her one-woman routine.

Just then…

“Oh, I know!” said Mavis, hitting her forehead in a d’oh gesture. “There’s one single thing you could take, that if you had it, you would never want for anything…”

“Huh?” asked Reina and Pauline, while Mile peered at Mavis, intrigued.

“So, what is it?”

“Mile!” Mavis replied.

“Huh?”

“It’s you, Mile. If I had you, I’d never have to worry about food. If my sword broke, you could fix it, and if I got bored you could tell me fairy tales. You know so many stories and games, and I wouldn’t even have to worry about stray dragons. It’s perfect! You only need one Mile per household. With the right preparations, she never causes any trouble, she’s compact, so there’s never any difficulty finding somewhere to store her, and she’s light and easy to carry,” Mavis explained.

“That’s true!” Reina and Pauline agreed immediately. It was pretty brilliant.

However…

“Gaaah! I said you’re going there alone. Alone! Also, are you saying that I’m a ‘thing’ you can just take with you?!?!”

“I mean, we always say it’s ridiculous how useful you are…”

“Shut up!”

Mile was fuming.

A month later…

“Oh, hey, Miami Satodele’s got a new book out… Something something… My Life on a Deserted Island with an All-Powerful Sorcerer Girl?”

Mile had adopted the plotline wholesale.

Afterword

Long time no see, everyone. FUNA here! We’ve finally reached Volume 12 of Averbil!

Indeed, the official abbreviation of this series’ title isn’t “Heikinchi” (Average), it’s “Noukin” (Averbil)! Searching for “Heikinchi” gets you way too many unrelated hits, which is a marketing problem, especially with the anime.

A: “What should we do about the voice levels in here?”

B: “Huh? The ‘Average’ ones?”

A: “Oh, average them then. Got it!”

B: “Huh? What the heck was that about…?”

MILE: “You’re just imagining that!”

REINA: “This is totally fake!”

Guarding some false merchants, the Crimson Vow head into the enemy lands of the Empire. As usual, they end up embroiled in chaos, and then, once again, face those certain foes! A fearsome new battle begins! A battle that will decide the fate of the world…

MAVIS: “Hey, the Nanos in the manga version kind of look like Wapuro from Agedama, don’t they?”

REINA: “There you go saying something that no one else understands again…”

PAULINE: “Or like the Father from Space Family Carlvinson…”

REINA: “They don’t! Not one bit!”

The anime will be airing soon, being broadcast to the whole country—and the world! Please watch the first few episodes! Then, you can decide if you want to quit or watch all the way to the end.

Please look forward to Volume 4 of the manga adaptation and Volume 1 of the spin-off manga as well!

The fifth volumes of Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement and I Shall Survive Using Potions!, the other two series in my Flat-Chested Teen Girl Trinity, were also released recently, with the fifth volumes of the manga versions of both following soon after. Thanks for letting me tack the continued serialization of these other FUNA series onto the announcement of the Averbil anime’s release! I won’t give up until I see my other works animated as well!

Indeed…

I am yet another step closer to my dreams…

Right, right, that reminds me—there are now Wikipedia articles for both FUNA and for Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Compared to all the detail in the Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! article, the FUNA page is pretty bare bones…

Next, we just need articles for the other two series. I mean—not that I’m demanding that anyone make them for me or anything…

Finally, to the chief editor; to Itsuki Akata, the illustrator; to Yoichi Yamakami, the cover designer; to everyone involved in the proofreading, editing, printing, binding, distribution, and selling of this book; to all the reviewers on Let’s Be Novelists who gave me their impressions, guidance, suggestions, and advice; and most of all, to everyone who’s taken these stories into their homes, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

We will meet again in the next volume. Just keep on believing…

—FUNA