Story 40

Several hours had passed since their return to Hobbes’s location following the completed night attack on the Orc settlement. Every member of the subjugation force, including Rei, was sleeping like a log.

Hobbes stood near the carriages, keeping watch while everyone else was asleep. Next to him, Elk sat on the ground, eating food that Rei had taken out from the Misty Ring before going to sleep.

「Hey, Elk. You’re technically on watch right now, so you should at least act like it.」

Hobbes called out to Elk while looking around from where he sat on the ground.

However, Elk gave an exasperated reply while eating skewers, sandwiches, and roasted Fangboar.

「Hey, come on, even you know how sharp Set’s senses are. With him around, there’s almost no need to worry about an enemy surprise attack.」

Elk glanced ahead at Set, who had plopped himself down on the ground, closed his eyes, and gone to sleep. Even so, Hobbes and Elk could easily imagine that he was not truly asleep and remained alert to their surroundings.

「Still……how should I put it, are you really alright eating that much?」

Elk had already eaten enough food for ten people, prompting Hobbes to mutter in an exasperated voice.

「I fought all night, after all. Once everyone gets up, we still have the huge job of taking materials and proofs of subjugation from the Orcs in the settlement, don’t we? Besides, the treasure the Orcs collected has yet to be found. ……Well, since we didn’t find anything in the Orc King’s residence at the centre of the settlement, we probably can’t expect too much.」

Elk finally finished his meal, let out a loud burp, and drank from the water bottle beside him.

「That’s true. ……Are you really fine without getting any sleep?」

「I’m fine, you can’t compare me to the other guys. Anyway, didn’t we fight continuously for three days and nights during that Kraken subjugation several years ago? This is an easy overnight victory compared to that.」

「……Listen, you can’t stay young forever. It will catch up to you sooner or later.」

「Not yet, not yet, I can’t lose to the youngsters just yet.」

Hobbes let out a sigh at Elk’s words as he also picked up a nearby water bottle.

The midsummer sun glared down on the camp, which was set up on the grassy plain a short distance from the Orc settlement. With no roofs to offer shade from the direct sunlight, staying hydrated was essential.

「It seems the Rowdy Elk is still alive and well.」

Rowdy Elk. It was a nickname given to Elk back when he was still a low-rank adventurer. Although his party, Axe of the Thunder God, was well known now, Hobbes had been a C-rank adventurer when Elk first registered with the guild. After Elk got his fingers burnt several times, Hobbes had given him that name.

Hearing the old nickname he wanted to forget, Elk furrowed his brow. Hobbes relaxed, looking at Elk with a smile that matched their stroll down memory lane.

「Stop calling me by that name already.」

Now that he was grown and married, he was not pleased in the slightest to be called Rowdy, a nickname from his younger days.

「Well, you’re certainly strong enough now. Even though it feels like only a short while ago, I’ve already retired from active adventuring. If you hadn’t been here for this request, we probably wouldn’t have been able to pull off such a reckless plan. ……Still, the young sprouts won’t ever grow if those at the top keep pushing themselves forever.」

「……Are you talking about Rei?」

Knowing it was not a topic to discuss loudly, Elk asked in a hushed tone.

「Well, there’s him too……though that kid might be an exception. I was actually talking about your son. Speaking of Rei, though, did you know? During the night attack on the Orcs, he fought back against an ambush by Dark Night’s Star and wiped them out.」

「Heh~. That was expected. ……It’s Dark Night’s Star’s own fault, though.」

「At the very least, leaving him at G rank is a mistake. Once this request is finished and we return to the guild, I’m going to negotiate and recommend that he be promoted to E rank.」

「Oi, oi, jumping two ranks at once?」

「No, three ranks.」

「Hobbes?」

「I plan to have him take the rank up test to D rank as soon as possible.」

Even for an important emergency request, going up three ranks from a single job was extraordinary. Having climbed those ranks himself, Elk understood just how unprecedented it was.

「……Are you serious?」

Or rather, are you in your right mind? Elk’s gaze seemed to ask as he stared at Hobbes.

However, Hobbes gave a slight nod as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

「Of course. What kind of ordinary adventurer has the ability to defeat a B-rank Orc King? Keeping him crawling through F rank and E rank is far too inefficient. On top of that……」

Hobbes glanced slightly further away, where Set lay resting near the carriage Rei was sleeping in.

「He is accompanied by Set, as a Griffon and an A-rank monster. It wouldn’t be strange in the slightest if he reached B rank or A rank.」

「Hey!」

Elk looked ready to question Hobbes’s sanity once more, but Hobbes merely smiled with a grin reminiscent of Elk’s own.

「Naturally, I don’t mean right away. Reaching D rank is one thing, but advancing to B rank and A rank requires broad knowledge and experience in addition to raw combat power.」

Adventurers at A rank or B rank were considered top-tier. It was not uncommon for them to receive direct requests from nobles or royalty. On such occasions, proper etiquette was required, and there were times when decisions had to be made with national interests in mind.

While Elk’s speech and manners were hardly refined, he possessed the minimum social grace required. More importantly, his wife, Min, handled all necessary formalities, so it was never an issue for the A-rank party Axe of the Thunder God. Rei, on the other hand, was clearly awkward when it came to socialising. If someone like him met with nobility or royalty, things could easily go wrong. At best, he would be scolded, but if things went poorly, he might be stripped of his adventurer status entirely. Losing a talent over something so trivial was unthinkable to both men.

「Besides……hey, Elk. Did you notice anything when looking at the Orc King’s corpse?」

「……Notice what?」

As Elk asked Hobbes, the image of the Orc King’s corpse from a few hours ago came to mind. The first thing he recalled was the neck, severed clean through and held together by only a thin strip of skin. It could not be.

「The head was lopped off in a single blow. It doesn’t take much imagination to realise the sheer skill that required. At the very least, I couldn’t have done it.」

Elk muttered as his eyes shifted toward the battleaxe at his side. Rather than a cutting edge, an axe was a weapon of destruction. While Elk could easily smash a head into pieces, producing a cut as clean as Rei’s was impossible for him.

Hobbes shook his head at Elk’s words.

「Not that. ……Though I understand what you mean. In all my years, I’ve seen cuts that sharp a few times before. But tell me, do you know what he said when I asked him his profession back in the guild meeting room?」

「……What was it?」

「A Magic Warrior. In other words, Rei can practise magic. Yet, was there any wound on the Orc King caused by magic?」

Hearing that question, Elk recalled what his son, Rhodes, had told him. Rhodes had mentioned that the Orcs attempting to circle around behind them during the battle on the east side of the settlement had been wiped out. At the time, Rhodes assumed it was Set’s doing, completely unaware that most of those Orcs had been burned to death by Rei. After all, Griffons could not use fire.

That meant……

「Oi. Does that mean Rei defeated the Orc King without even going all out?」

「Most likely. While there is a chance he used wind magic like 『Kamaitachi』, Rei’s specialty is fire magic as far as I know. Even without using his full power, he has the ability to take down an Orc King. When you add the fact that he is accompanied by Set, as a Griffon and an A-rank monster, it is only natural to conclude his combat strength easily matches a B-rank or A-rank adventurer.」

「……If that’s true, then without a doubt.」

Although Rei seemed small and slight compared to his son, Rhodes, Elk knew the power hidden within him far surpassed Rhodes’s. At the same time, remembering Rhodes’s rebellious streak and fierce rivalry toward Rei throughout this request, a mischievous grin spread across Elk’s face.

(Having a rival like that isn’t a bad thing. If that rival is a wall too high to easily scale, it will force Rhodes to grow as an adventurer. There’s a chance he might break if he can’t overcome it, but he is my son, so he’ll manage somehow.)

As those thoughts crossed his mind, Elk felt a touch of envy toward his son for having such a rival.

「So, as you know, Elk, the Adventurers Guild in Gilm is practically always short on hands.」

「……Well, yeah.」

Hobbes was right. Even during the Kraken subjugation Elk had brought up earlier, a coastal town had sent an emergency reinforcement request through the guild specifically for Axe of the Thunder God. The guild was perpetually short-handed. To be precise, there was a severe shortage of high-rank adventurers in C rank and D rank, while E rank and G rank had a decent number of members.

「Things are fine for now. You are still on active duty, but like me, you won’t be able to fight on the front lines forever. When our generation finally retires, though……」

「Hobbes.」

Elk paused for a second, then immediately slapped Hobbes hard on the back.

「Hey, your hairline is going to recede even faster if you fret that much, you know?」

Hit right where it hurt most, Hobbes could only manage a wry smile.

「For the next generation, there’s my son, Rhodes. There’s also Rei. Come on, don’t worry so much. There are plenty of unpolished gems out there, and the lower-ranked adventurers will come into their own soon enough.」

「You’re right……yes, you have a point. Being away from the front lines for so long must have made me sentimental.」

「Sorry to throw cold water on you, but doesn’t saying that make you sound like an old man?」

「Never mind. At least you haven’t changed a bit. ……Now then, I think it’s about time.」

Bringing the conversation to a close, Hobbes checked the position of the sun. Without clocks, one could only gauge the time roughly by the sun’s height in the sky.

「Indeed. I’d prefer to take our time if we could, especially in this heat. However, if the materials and proofs of subjugation aren’t taken from the Orcs soon, they might spoil or get scavenged by wild beasts and monsters.」

Hobbes nodded at Elk’s words, pulled the Magic Whistle from his chest, and blew into it with all his might. At the sharp sound, the sleeping members of the subjugation force began to stir awake.

 

 

Though none of them had fully recovered from their exhaustion, they ate and drank light rations provided from Rei’s Misty Ring before heading straight toward the Orc settlement.

「Rei, aren’t you heading to the settlement?」

After waking, Rei had distributed the supplies stored inside the Misty Ring. Having finished his duties, he turned toward the voice calling out to him while playing with Set.

Elk still appeared full of energy despite standing guard all night without a wink of sleep, while Min looked refreshed after recovering some of her magic power. Beside them stood Rhodes, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Only a handful of adventurers remained in the area. The two women rescued from the Orc settlement the night before had already departed for the city of Gilm alongside a small escort of adventurers, sent ahead on Hobbes’s orders to report the successful subjugation to the guild.

「Yeah. All the Orcs I defeated are stored in the Misty Ring alongside the Orc King. I figured I’d harvest the materials and proofs of subjugation after returning to the city.」

Rhodes flinched visibly at the mention of the Orc King, but having already heard the details from Elk and others, he kept his mouth shut.

「Well, that’s your call. But why not do it here?」

「……」

Rei remained silent for a few moments, but unable to withstand Elk’s stare, he let out a sigh.

「I’m not particularly good at harvesting materials. Since it’s a high-rank monster, I want to take my time and do it carefully without ruining anything.」

「Kukuku~. I see, I see. So there really are things a G-rank adventurer can’t do. To think it was harvesting materials, of all things……」

Elk chuckled at Rei’s embarrassed expression, but his smirk vanished as he spoke his next words.

「This is a great chance. I’ll teach you the knack for harvesting materials properly. Come on, pull them out, pull them out.」

「Wait, Dad!? What happens to our share of the rewards if you waste time with Rei here!」

「You can just go with Min. There shouldn’t be any enemies left anyway.」

「But!」

As Rhodes tried to protest further, Min tapped him on the shoulder.

「……It’s no use, Rhodes. Once Elk gets like this, there’s no stopping him. Let’s head over by ourselves. Fortunately, just as he said, there are no Orcs left.」

Watching Rhodes get led away, Rei retrieved the Orc corpses from the Misty Ring so Elk could show him the finer points of harvesting materials.

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