The Endless Winter
I had come to the Adventurers’ Guild in search of a suitable request, only to stumble upon a rather peculiar sight. The notices pinned to the board were skewed heavily in one direction.
Monster subjugation requests, once a common fixture, had grown scarce. In their place hung simpler jobs—herb gathering and the like—filling the empty space left behind.
It wasn’t that monster hunts had vanished entirely. Only the lesser ones—goblins, wolves, and their ilk—had disappeared. Requests for rare materials and the beasts that provided them still remained.
Just then an adventurer walked up, scanned the board once, and let out a sigh. He didn’t look especially disappointed; if anything, there was a weary resignation in his face, as though this had become routine.
“Excuse me.”
“Huh?”
So I spoke to him.
“The requests on the board seem awfully one-sided. Why is that? It wasn’t like this before.”
“The winter’s dragged on too long, that’s the problem. The endless cold’s driven the other monsters to relocate.”
“Is that connected to all the herb-gathering jobs too?”
“Yeah. With the winter stretching out, wild herbs have gotten hard to find. Shops can’t stock them, so they put up requests… But if even the professional merchants can’t get any, what chance do adventurers have?”
“Hmm. Thanks for the answer.”
I handed the wary-looking adventurer a gleaming silver coin. He accepted it with a faint smile, then turned and left the guild.
I frowned at the board. I’d hoped to pick something light with a short deadline, but under the present circumstances even that seemed nearly impossible.
No wonder the number of adventurers inside the guild had dwindled.
“Oh—Ceris?”
The voice was strangely familiar. I turned toward it and saw a receptionist waving, a thick stack of request forms cradled in her arms.
I didn’t know her name, but we’d exchanged greetings often enough to recognize each other.
“Hello.”
“Back from Monster Island already?”
“Yes. Thanks to everyone, the trip went well.”
“Make a lot of money?”
“More than I expected, I think.”
“That so…”
She came over to the board and began sorting the notices—discarding the expired ones, pinning up the new. As she worked she spoke again.
“Looking for anything in particular?”
“Something light I could finish quickly, but nothing’s turning up.”
“Mm, figures. So how long a deadline are you thinking?”
“You’ll look for me?”
“If it’s in this stack, sure.”
She grinned and held up the bundle in her hands.
“I’d prefer something that doesn’t run longer than ten days.”
She started leafing through the forms. Apparently nothing matched what I wanted; she sighed and shook her head.
“Why not try the guard post instead?”
“The guards?”
“The kingdom’s put bounties on the bandits operating nearby. Bring them in and you’ll get decent pay. You’re Silver Rank—should be manageable for you.”
“Bandits? Around here?”
“Look at the weather. No one can farm, so a lot of people have turned to banditry just to put food in their mouths.”
“Thanks for the tip.”
“Don’t mention it. Drop by anytime once you’re free. Plenty of places looking for a Silver-rank adventurer.”
I said my goodbyes and left the guild.
I’d already noticed the smiles vanishing from the townsfolk’s faces, but bandits on top of that? The country’s security seemed to be plummeting just as fast as the temperature.
I followed the frozen streets until I reached the building that housed the city’s guard. Aside from the soldier at the entrance, no one else was in sight.
“What business brings you here?”
The guard addressed me as I approached. I answered,
“I heard there’s a reward for subjugating bandit groups, so I came.”
“Bandits…? You?”
My appearance clearly made it hard to believe. I breathed out a white cloud and pulled my Silver-rank plaque from my pocket, holding it up for him to see.
“This is…”
The guard studied the plaque, frowning, and thought for a long moment. Then he told me to wait a moment and disappeared inside.
Some time later he reappeared with a man who looked to be his superior.
“So you’re the one… You’re the one?”
The man looked down at me, face twisting—until his eyes fell on the silver plaque in my hand, and his expression shifted.
“Hah… You’re truly a Silver-rank swordsman? You?”
“Yes.”
“Hard to believe at a glance. If you don’t mind, may I send someone to the guild that issued that plaque to verify it?”
“Of course.”
He smiled faintly at my answer, then smacked the back of the soldier’s head.
“Go on, hurry up.”
“Y-yes, sir…”
The guard rubbed his head and trudged off, looking thoroughly cowed. The man watched him with open disapproval, then bellowed,
“I said run!”
“Yes, sir!”
The soldier jumped and broke into a sprint. Satisfied, the man turned back to me.
“It’s freezing out here. Why not come inside and wait?”
“Gladly.”
He led me to a reception room. I sank into a plush sofa and regarded him quietly until he introduced himself.
“I’m Captain Mikel of the guard.”
“I’m Ceris.”
We made small talk—mostly him asking and me answering. Where I’d been lately, what kinds of requests I usually took.
“Monster Island… That dangerous place?”
“It was a mysterious one.”
“I’d like to hear more.”
Mikel listened to my adventure tales with genuine interest. A good audience always makes the storyteller more enthusiastic; he even dug out snacks he’d been saving for himself and offered them to me.
I had just reached the part where I arrived at the forest where the King lived when a knock sounded at the door, followed by a voice.
The guard who had gone to the Swordsmen’s Guild had returned. After Mikel gave permission, the man entered and whispered something to him.
My hearing, far beyond ordinary human limits, caught every word, but I saw no reason to let on.
Once he’d heard everything, Mikel waved the guard away. We were alone again.
Mikel rose from his seat and bowed his head.
“Forgive me for doubting you. I hope you’ll accept my apology.”
“It’s fine. In your position I wouldn’t have believed it easily either.”
After that we discussed the bandit subjugation. He explained how the groups had formed and who led them. We spent a long while studying a large map together before a question occurred to me.
“But Captain Mikel—why doesn’t the guard handle this themselves?”
“Because there isn’t just one or two of these bands.”
“Short on manpower?”
“Exactly. That’s why we’re borrowing the hands of adventurers like yourself.”
“Sounds like there are a lot of them.”
Mikel gave a bitter smile and continued.
“I’d prefer you avoid unnecessary killing if you can. Most of them only made this choice because they had no other way to survive.”
“Spare them all?”
“No. The ringleaders don’t need to be spared. Bring me their heads and the reward is yours.”
He handed me wanted posters bearing rough sketches. Every face was that of a rough-looking man.
I nodded, tucked the posters away, and stood at once.
“All right. I’ll be back soon.”
“Leaving right away?”
“The sooner the better, isn’t it?”
I answered his question with a light laugh and left the guardhouse.
Two days had passed since I set out after the bandits.
Finding them was easy enough. A young girl riding alone from place to place tended to draw them out on her own. Meeting the ringleaders, however, proved far harder.
I hadn’t crossed paths with a single one yet; they were a cautious lot.
“Keep moving!”
I called out to the people trudging along with their hands bound by rope. This batch numbered ten in all, and every one of them had reeked of blood when I found them.
An Iron-rank adventurer’s corpse had been discovered nearby—clearly their handiwork.
So I herded them toward the capital of the Karuma Empire. The cold had already blackened their fingers and toes with frostbite, but that was none of my concern.
“Good work out there!”
The gate guards offered a brief greeting. This being my third return today, they simply cleared the way without further questions.
Clack—clack—clack—
Nightmare’s hoofbeats and the bandits’ ragged breathing faded slowly behind us. I led them straight to the guardhouse.
After handing them over I collected the set reward. There was a brief verification that they were indeed bandits, but it didn’t take long.
“Ah—Miss Ceris. Could you wait a moment?”
I was about to leave with the payment when a guard called out to me.
“What is it?”
“Well… there’s a visitor waiting for you.”
“Waiting for me?”
I frowned. A visitor? My circle of acquaintances was small; I couldn’t think of anyone who would come looking for me. At most Su or Shu, who had left home to become adventurers, crossed my mind.
Clank—
Heavy footsteps and a vast presence approached from behind.
Clank—
Whoever radiated that immense aura was apparently the visitor with business for me. I tensed every muscle and turned.
“Are you Ceris?”
“You know me?”
The speaker was a middle-aged knight in full plate. From the condition of his gear and the pressure he exuded, he was clearly no one to take lightly.
As a swordsman he was at least Celion’s equal—perhaps more.
The knight stroked his beard a few times with a gleaming silver gauntlet, then spoke.
“I’ve heard a great deal about you. Fairy Swordsman chosen by Hairan.”
“F-Fairy Swordsman…?”
The embarrassing title threw me for only a moment before the knight said something utterly absurd.
“Your horse—Nightmare, was it? I’d like you to sell him to me.”
There was nothing to consider. I frowned and answered,
“No.”
“Seventy thousand gold…”
“No.”
“Then eighty thousand…!”
“No.”
At the successive refusals the knight’s face twisted impressively. He drew a slow breath and said,
“Listen well, Ceris. A fine horse only shines when ridden by a fine knight.”
I let out a long sigh and turned away. This was not a man one could reason with. His very presence declared it: he held firm convictions of his own and was rigid enough to believe them absolute truth.
“I’ll pay one hundred thousand gold.”
His voice drifted after me, but it could not hold my steps.
Outside the guardhouse Nightmare was waiting. He had been stamping his hooves, clearly uncomfortable under the stares of passersby; the moment he saw me he trotted over and licked my cheek.
Prrrrh—
How could anyone sell a creature this precious?
Judging by the cringeworthy nickname “Fairy Swordsman” and the knight who had come seeking me, my bandit-hunting had made me rather famous.
I swung up onto Nightmare, tightened the reins, and galloped off toward the next destination.