The Association President and the Princess
Adelaide was entertaining a guest who had come to the capital for the first time in quite a while.
"Princess Amylase."
The guest started grating on her nerves from the very first word.
"It's Adelaide."
"Ah, yes. Princess Adelaide. It's been a while."
"Yes, it has. Please, have some of this first."
Across from Adelaide sat an elderly man with a rather impressive build of muscle.
"Ah, thank you, Princess Adel…rice."
"I'm starting to think you're doing this on purpose, President Vincenzo."
"At my age, names aren't so easy to remember. Haha. Royal names really are too long, aren't they?"
…He wasn't even using the full name.
Adelaide looked the old man over.
He was bald, with a bushy beard in place of hair.
This was Vincenzo, the head of the Hunter Association — its president.
"Well then, don't mind if I do."
The cup looked like a child's toy next to Vincenzo's bulk.
And the formal attire he wore, so at odds with that frame, made Adelaide fight back a laugh.
Vincenzo carefully pinched the coffee cup between thumb and forefinger.
Then he took a timid little sip.
"Slurp—."
Setting down a cup that hadn't diminished in the slightest, Vincenzo savored the swallow.
He smacked his lips a couple of times and marveled.
"Oh, this tea is delicious. Bitter, yet clean on the palate, and black as night. What a curious tea."
Adelaide chuckled softly at the pure wonder in his voice.
"It's coffee, Mr. President."
"So this is that 'kopi' stuff? Well, it's good either way. Hmm, hmm. Is this what the young people are drinking these days?"
Adelaide shook her head.
"It's expensive, so not just anyone can drink it. If it's too bitter, add a little sugar."
"Heh heh, no need. It's not that bitter at all."
Vincenzo carefully lifted the cup and tossed the whole thing back in one go.
He's drinking it like that?
Adelaide flinched in mild alarm, then left her own coffee untouched and simply enjoyed the fragrance drifting gently through the air.
Vincenzo spoke to the princess as she put on airs.
"Have you heard the news?"
Adelaide tilted her head.
"Which news would that be? If it's about my wretched brother collapsing, I haven't heard a thing — though I do hope I hear it soon."
Still as close as ever, I see.
The Association President answered her half-joking, half-sincere remark.
"This concerns His Highness as well. Unfortunately, he didn't faint — they successfully subjugated Disastro, after all."
"Ah, I received that report immediately."
Adelaide recalled the briefing.
"'The hunters and soldiers fought valiantly and successfully subjugated Disastro'… wasn't that it?"
"Correct. And among those hunters, there was a brand-new greenhorn, wasn't there? That, uh… Elise?"
Catching on to who he meant, Adelaide asked casually.
"You mean Hunter Alice?"
"Ah, I couldn't remember the name. That Alli…ser?"
"Alice."
"Ah, yes. Alice apparently did something quite remarkable."
A brand-new recruit had drawn up the plan to subjugate Disastro.
That was the report the Association President had received.
It wasn't so different from the one Adelaide had gotten.
Adelaide chuckled and nodded.
"Yes, that's right. She deserves the greatest credit, without question."
When she'd first heard the story, Adelaide had clenched her fist in delight as if it were her own triumph.
It felt a bit like smacking Melchior across the cheek.
Of course, it had also meant helping Melchior's cause — but the subjugation of Disastro mattered far more than any sibling rivalry.
And with this, Melchior must finally have understood what kind of people hunters were.
Honestly, she's so precious I can hardly stand it.
When I see her again, maybe I'll give her a kiss on the cheek.
Watching Adelaide grin to herself, Vincenzo poured more coffee into his empty cup.
"That Alli, co?"
"Alice."
"Yes, Alice. Don't you think she's more than ready to become a Master Hunter? Setting aside career length and years of service."
Adelaide nodded firmly.
"How could she possibly fall short? No — in my opinion, even the title of Master Hunter isn't enough. She should be the pride of Cartadia this very moment…!"
Vincenzo reined in the princess, who knew no middle ground.
"Heh heh, Your Highness, you're laying it on rather thick."
Adelaide reined in her excitement.
"Ahem. My apologies. We do share a certain connection, after all."
"How is she? Strong?"
Vincenzo flexed his arm, showing off his biceps.
"Not in that way — but she has a different kind of strength."
"Hooh, is that so."
Confronted with those monstrous muscles, Adelaide's eyelids twitched, and she let out a sigh.
"And as I tell you every time I see you, strength isn't everything, Mr. President."
"At my age, if I don't exercise, everything starts creaking right away."
Adelaide tipped her coffee cup.
"Still, perhaps it's time to ease up on the workouts. At this rate, you'll grow muscle in your head."
Vincenzo tapped his temple with a finger.
"Wouldn't more muscle in the head make me smarter?"
"……."
Adelaide didn't even bother to reply.
Vincenzo looked a little hurt.
After finishing her coffee, Adelaide spoke.
"So you intend to appoint her Master Hunter right away?"
"That's my opinion, yes."
"Wonderful……."
Adelaide smiled.
So she became a Master Hunter after all.
It feels like only yesterday that I placed a named request with Alice — and already so much time has passed.
She wanted to go see her that very instant.
But she wasn't so shameless as to abandon her royal duties and simply walk out.
"How do you plan to handle the appointment?"
"Well, as you know, an appointment isn't much of a ceremony."
Adelaide nodded at Vincenzo's words.
Becoming a Master Hunter amounted to little more than updating one's hunter card and circulating the news among the hunters.
Hunters as a profession were scattered across the land rather than gathered in one place, so assembling everyone for a formal investiture was complicated.
"What matters more is a personal meeting. Judging whether this hunter is truly worthy of the title of Master… that's the real point."
Vincenzo intended to go meet Alice himself.
Adelaide envied him for it.
She was stuck at a royal desk all day, buried in paperwork.
For a moment, she found herself envying Melchior.
When you thought about it, Melchior had been remarkably lucky.
Dispatched to the wasteland, only for a top-tier monster to appear — and then he managed to take it down safely, elevating his own standing even further.
Thanks to that, the princess had a splitting headache.
She had thought catching Cespilatos put her in the lead — who could have imagined he would close the gap in a single stroke like that?
Then Vincenzo asked her.
"Would Your Highness care to come along and see for yourself?"
He was inviting her to accompany him on the visit to Alice.
Adelaide blinked.
"……Is that all right?"
"Sitting around doing paperwork all day gets dull, doesn't it?"
He was right. She had been itching to get out for a while now.
Adelaide nodded.
Vincenzo laughed heartily.
"Perhaps you should mention it to His Majesty once."
"……Very well."
Adelaide touched the corner of her mouth.
An outing, after so long.
Fortunately, the workload hadn't been too heavy of late — a silver lining.
Diego, I'm counting on you.
Somewhere, she thought she could hear her younger brother Diego's scream.
Sister, where are you going, leaving me behind—.
It was the voice of her own conscience.
Adelaide deliberately ignored it.
Her little brother was no different from her older one.
Pina and I left Angolo at once.
Noah stayed behind, saying she wanted to dig deeper into the wasteland.
For the sake of my past, apparently.
I didn't stop her. It would only pile on more unnecessary misunderstandings… but when someone said they were doing it for me, I could hardly tell them not to.
In exchange, Noah said this to Pina:
"Take good care of Alice."
Pina nodded vigorously.
Not that I was asking for anything particular.
I was the kind of person who found strength enough simply in knowing someone was beside me.
After leaving Angolo, we headed back to Antico for the time being.
The branch manager had told us to return to Antico first, after all.
Is the Association President coming in person?
I rode in the wagon, watching the trees lining the road.
Winter was nearly here.
The trees had shed their elegant coats of leaves and stood bare. When the snow fell someday, they would dress themselves in pure white once more.
A chill wind blew in from outside, so I shut the window.
Then I rubbed my arms. Even that brief brush with the cold had dropped their temperature.
"It's a little cold."
"It is, isn't it."
Pina said softly.
This would be my first winter in this land.
As winter deepened, the days would grow colder still. I'd need to dress more warmly than usual.
Maybe I should buy some clothes when we get back.
I leaned against the wagon window and thought about how to spend the winter.
Winter Angolo had a distinctly different atmosphere from the Angolo I had known until now.
Most of the trees, save a few, had lost their leaves and stabbed at the sky in sparse, thin lines.
With the dense green canopy that normally blanketed the sky gone, I almost felt lonely.
The village, on the other hand, had put on a new face.
As I've said before, Antico is a city that lives in harmony with nature.
Bridges span between the trees, houses perch among the branches, and the whole place has the feel of an elven village out of a fantasy story.
That didn't change even without the leaves.
If anything, the village took on a transparent quality.
Stripped of anything that might flutter and obscure, it revealed its true form.
It left me with a strangely odd feeling.
…Have I been possessed by a lecherous spirit or something?
"We're back."
"Yeah."
We had fought Disastro and set foot on Antico soil once more.
Back then, Pina had been drowning in despair, talking about dying and the rest of it.
And yet here we were, alive and returned — it had all become something of a joke.
The first thing we did was claim a free room at the hunter lodgings.
And then we did nothing in particular — just sprawled out in the room and lazed around.
We had Disastro's materials, but we didn't rush off to find Matillo either.
We had time to spare. There was no need to hurry.
We had been running hard until now, after all.
Matillo was probably in his workshop tinkering with the Dragon Bane.
Having confirmed its power this time around, his revenge for Crete couldn't be far off.
So, partly to avoid interrupting him, we decided to recover from the labors of the past days.
Which meant doing absolutely nothing. A little act of rebellion, in its own way.
Everyone has days like that, don't they? Days when you just want to lie down and do nothing. I had already spent a week lying around, and somehow it never got old.
I lay on the bed, fiddling with my hair, counting the patterns on the ceiling, and wandering over to Pina's bed to torment her for fun.
All I did was poke her in the side.
"Squishy—."
"Th-that tickles!"
Tickling Pina turned out to be more fun than expected.
Aside from hunting, it might have been the only entertainment this world had to offer.
"N-no—!"
You'll learn to like this too.
I relentlessly tormented Pina as she tried to escape.
Knock, knock—.
What broke our rhythm was a knock from outside.
Pina, half-dead, shot me a desperate look.
"A-a guest! There's a guest!"
"So there is."
The mood was thoroughly ruined.
I released Pina without a second thought and stood at the door.
"Who is it?"
"Is Hunter Alice present?"
The man's voice was somehow familiar.
"Speaking."
"I'm from the Association."
That line gave me a serious case of déjà vu.
I opened the door at the familiar words.
Peeking out to check the face, I found a man I had seen before.
He was the one who had come when the branch manager summoned me after I killed Alberoelva.
I didn't know his name, but…
The man stared at me blankly, then asked a question.
"…Uh, were you in the middle of a workout, by any chance?"
"No. Why?"
"You were sweating, so…"
The glorious traces of playing with Pina.
I wiped the sweat from my cheek with my hand and answered.
"Mind your own business."
"Ah, yes sir— ma'am."
The man answered sharply and put on a stiff expression.
I opened the door fully and looked him straight in the eye.
"The branch manager again?"
"Yes. That's right, but…"
The man scratched his head with an awkward look.
"Apparently the Association President and the Princess have come together."
"Why?"
I asked even though I already knew.
"If you're asking me that…"
"What good are you if you don't know?"
The man looked thoroughly wronged.
"I-I'm just a low-level employee!"
Now I feel a little bad, hearing him put it like that.
I nodded.
"I'll get ready and head over right away."
"Yes……."
How long has it been since I last saw Adelaide?
I couldn't even remember, and I found myself wanting to see her face after so long. Well, she was pretty, after all.
Is she going to wrap her arms around my waist and hug me again this time?
That princess-style greeting of hers was always a bit much to handle.