The Capital Grandheim
The capital. Grandheim.
We had finally arrived, and now the gatekeepers were checking our identities.
Wolfgar and I both had monster hunter licenses. His had come through while I was away. The problem was Seranea.
She had used a Magic Tool to change her face, and she had nothing that could prove who she was. Not that everyone in the world carried identification. For that kind of system to work, you'd need a ledger of every person ever born, and that was impossible. So people without papers existed in plenty. In cases like hers, you either needed someone to vouch for you, or you paid a fee.
"Next."
The gatekeeper called Seranea forward. She flinched, her face tight with nerves as she approached. Given that the Silent Blood was hunting her, there was a real chance the man might know something.
"Hm?"
The gatekeeper raised an eyebrow at her.
Did he figure it out? Are the capital's gatekeepers just built different?
The thought had barely formed when he leaned in and muttered to me.
"That's a frightening face. Is she some kind of mercenary?"
So he was just startled by the face the Magic Tool had given her. Even I had to admit it was a vicious-looking one.
"You've got guts traveling with someone like that. I'll knock three coppers off. Try not to get yourselves misunderstood out there."
Decent guy. I paid the reduced fee without a fuss. We weren't short on money, but there was no reason to throw it away either.
"W-what was that about?"
Seranea asked, still tense.
No point telling her the truth.
"Guess your face was his type."
"Ugh. What a weirdo."
Even she thought so. It was Leksan's handiwork — a masterpiece of destruction.
Either way, we passed through the walls without incident and stepped into the capital. The sight that met us pulled a gasp out of me before I could stop it.
"Whoa! There's no end to all these people!"
Wolfgar, who came from even deeper countryside than I did, was just as stunned.
A wide avenue. Carriages streaming along it without pause. Strange, elaborate buildings and old-fashioned streetlamps. And towering over all of it — the people. I had never seen this many human beings in my life.
"Are you both from the countryside?"
Seranea asked, looking genuinely curious. There was a quiet little note of smugness in it too. Most people wouldn't talk like that once they knew they were dealing with a mage. Whether that was just her nature or something common to the Silent Blood, I couldn't say.
"We're from Laoren."
"I am the proud Wolfgar of the proud Mount Wolfhal!"
"That's the far northern countryside."
Raoren County was the biggest city in its region, and she was calling it the sticks to our faces.
"Have you even been to Laoren?"
"Looking at the two of you, I don't need to go to know."
Damn it. I had nothing. My tongue wasn't sharp enough to defend Laoren.
"Still, a place like that must be peaceful. No one clawing at each other with their eyes on power."
Maybe it was all those years living as Silent Blood. Seranea had the face of someone who had watched too many people drown in their own greed.
"That's not how it is."
That was just a city-dweller's fantasy of the countryside.
"The further you get from the capital, the less the royal family is watching — so people fleece each other even harder."
Fewer eyes meant more people running wild. As long as the local lords padded the tax shipments with a little extra, the crown usually shrugged and called it a provincial matter. Which meant even more people who had thrown their own sense of justice in the dirt. Jefran had been a perfect example.
"So it's all the same in the end."
A bitter look crossed Seranea's face. She had spent her whole life at the center of power, and she looked thoroughly sick of it.
"Seranea. Do you want to get away from all that?"
"…I wonder. What is it that I actually want?"
She gazed quietly out at the heart of the city. The people hurrying past looked bright enough on the surface. But every one of them would have something gnawing at them on the inside.
A peaceful life at the center of power. And a life of endless suffering in the struggles that power demanded. People on the outside longed for it. The ones on the inside were sick to death of it. A thoroughly ironic existence.
"I don't know either. I just think figuring that out is one of the important parts of being alive."
So I had no answer to give her.
"Haren, Wolfgar. Is there something you want from life?"
"I'm gonna be the strongest warrior and monster hunter in the world!"
Wolfgar answered without a shred of hesitation.
"A life where anyone can live with justice."
Seranea tilted her head at my answer. It wasn't the kind of thing you grasped in a single breath.
"When someone stands up to injustice, I want them to be able to speak my name — and prove that justice is real."
"Your name? You mean even people who aren't mages could invoke it?"
"Yeah. I know it sounds ridiculous."
I knew how hollow it was. People were cruel. Even among monster hunters — men I'd thought had some pride — there had been someone like Trenba. Human malice turned up everywhere you looked. Wiping it out was a fantasy.
"No."
But Seranea didn't dismiss it.
"I think that's a goal worth seeing through."
Maybe because she had lived in a world where justice didn't exist at all. She wanted mine to come true.
"Shouldn't we be heading to the capital's monster hunter guild?"
Wolfgar asked, digging in his ear. He was getting bored. We couldn't stand at the gate forever.
"Let's go."
The Grandheim Monster Hunter Guild. Time to pay a visit to the largest guild in the Runheim Kingdom.
Laoren was the most prosperous city in the north. After today, I had no choice but to admit it was the countryside.
Grandheim was so vast it made Laoren look like a joke. The streets were a maze, and the buildings stood packed together without end. The population spilled over everywhere you looked — every shop we passed was packed. People here, people there. It finally sank in just how many souls the Runheim Kingdom actually held.
"Urgh. I think I'm gonna be sick."
Maybe it was the crowds. Wolfgar sagged beside me, one hand over his mouth, wobbling like he might throw up any second.
"Ah — too many people, so you're getting dizzy? Wolfgar, is your eyesight especially good?"
"I-I can spot game on the mountain across the valley."
"That would do it. Your eyes are so sharp that far too many people are flooding into your field of view."
She said it with a hand over her mouth and a thoroughly self-satisfied look.
"A country boy who gets worn out by people. How fragile."
Wolfgar's face flushed and he snapped his back straight.
"A warrior of Mount Wolfhal is not fragile!"
"Yes, yes. There will be even more people once we reach the city center. You'll manage, won't you?"
"O-of course I will."
"I'll be watching."
Was she trying to put some steel in his spine so he wouldn't fold?
No. Looking at that face, she's just showing off and enjoying herself.
Whatever else she was, Seranea had a peculiar streak.
"Are you struggling too, Haren?"
"Not really."
Through the Third Eye, the world was already a riot of flames. I'd gotten used to that chaos. A crowd of people wasn't about to rattle me now.
Seranea clicked her tongue, a little disappointed — and then a building came into view.
Everyone in heavy gear was heading toward the same place. Compared to the guild in Laoren, the structure ahead looked like a temple.
GRANDHEIM MONSTER HUNTER GUILD
It had the presence you'd expect from the most renowned guild in Runheim. And the hunters around it were a different breed from Laoren's. Even at a glance, their life-flames were burning fierce and bright.
Come to think of it — is a mage even allowed to work as a monster hunter?
Laorio, the guildmaster back in Laoren, had never said a word about it. Whether the same held true in the capital was another question.
The two magic schools already control every mana stone in the Runheim Kingdom.
If that was the case, other mages might not be welcome. Nobody likes someone sniffing around their territory. Hiding that I was a mage might be the smarter play.
But mages can sense each other's mana.
Was there any way to stop that?
Is there a way to hide mana?
I turned it over for a moment — and then something clicked. When I'd fought Sernida, I had used Instant Death Magic to cut off her mana. Could I apply the same thing to myself?
Instant Death Magic was the force that made up my entire body.
Layer Instant Death Magic thinly over my whole body and block any mana from leaking out.
Cut off the presence of mana flowing outward. I drew a light breath and let it out slowly. A thin film of Instant Death Magic settled over my skin and sealed every scrap of mana trying to escape.
"Hm. Haren?"
Wolfgar turned to look at me, sensing something.
"Did you do something?"
"You can feel it?"
"Your presence shrank. No — not shrank. It vanished."
He'd been at my side long enough, apparently. Wolfgar had been picking up my mana indirectly, reading it as presence. He was unusually sharp about that kind of thing. If he felt it disappear, the mana really had been cut off.
"I hid the fact that I'm a mage."
"You can do that?"
"Won't know for sure until I run into an actual mage."
I could check later through Sernida.
"Hm? What are you two talking about?"
Seranea — who had Sernida sealed inside her — just looked confused.
If the mana really is sealed off, though…
This would make an excellent ambush. A mage is at their most careless when they don't know the person in front of them is one of their own. Perfect for catching someone off guard. A lucky trick, but a useful one.
"Come on. Let's go in."
I stepped into the guild with a slightly lighter stride.
Inside, guild staff hurried in every direction, not sparing us so much as a glance. It looked like something had happened — except it hadn't. The hunters themselves didn't seem busy at all. And unlike Laoren, none of them paid the slightest attention to the newcomers walking through the door.
Back in Laoren, a new hunter always got someone coming over to talk. Mostly to mess with the rookies. The hunters of Grandheim didn't care about anyone. They only had eyes for themselves and their own teams.
"Haren, I think reception is over that way."
Seranea knew her way around a city, so we found the counter quickly. The reception hall itself was absurdly large — high ceilings, document shelves you needed a ladder to reach, and at least a hundred clerks working the desks. Judging by the people processing paperwork in the back, the actual guild staff outnumbered even that. The clerks' eyes were sharp and a little unfriendly. A completely different atmosphere from the easygoing receptionists in Laoren.
Luckily the line was short. When we reached the counter, the clerk spoke.
"Welcome. What business brings you to the guild?"
Her tone was as stiff as her appearance.
"We just arrived from Laoren today. Two of us to register."
"Your monster hunter licenses, please."
Wolfgar and I handed them over. She processed them quickly and stamped each license with a new seal — proof that we were now hunters operating in the capital.
"We'd also like to take missions right away."
"Missions are assigned by rank. You'll need to complete a rank evaluation first."
"Rank?"
That was new. Laoren hadn't had anything like it.
"A great many hunters operate in Grandheim, so we classify them by ability and record to prevent… unfortunate incidents."
She handed over a sheet of paper. The ranks on it were named after minerals.
"Since you and Wolfgar have only just arrived in the capital, you are currently at the trainee stage. Please proceed to that window over there for your rank test."
A clean explanation, paired with a smile that existed purely for form's sake.
"Will that be all?"
"Ah—"
"Next, please."
And just like that, we were dismissed. I'd wanted to ask about the three troublemakers. So this was a capital guild. Completely different from Laoren.
"Haren. What are we supposed to do?"
"She said we take a test."
I answered Wolfgar as we headed for the window she'd pointed out.
"You're telling me I'm Steel rank? That's garbage! You measured it wrong!"
A commotion erupted up ahead. A big man stood there with his hands clasped behind his back, and someone was in his face, shouting.
"Hey, big guy! Measure it properly! I'm Purna's rising star—!"
And then Purna's rising star took flight. He traced a clean arc through the air and tumbled across the floor.
"Steel rank."
The man who had thrown him said it like that settled everything.
I didn't know the details, but I understood one thing well enough.
"Wolfgar. They want us to prove our strength."
"Easy!"
That, at least, was familiar territory.