Becoming a Master Hunter
Every time I spoke—
"It has no eyes. Instead, it's sensitive to sound and vibration."
—Adelaide would chime in with agreement.
"Right. That's why the period when it appears was called the Time of Silence."
The branch manager would add color to the story.
"Indeed, there were such tales. When the Starving Earth Dragon appeared, monsters and humans alike all kept their mouths shut."
And Vincenzo would keep the conversation floating.
"A game of hide-and-seek with lives on the line, then. So, what did you do?"
I was feeling an enormous weight of pressure.
Is this some kind of hidden-camera prank?
Maybe Master Hunter wasn't even a real thing, or…
It felt exactly like presenting something in front of a crowd.
Suddenly I remembered my university days—the day of a project presentation. There had been a day when everyone hated presenting so much that I'd been forced to take it on. It hadn't been particularly enjoyable. It just floated up for no real reason.
Things were better now than back then.
Everyone was looking at me with deep goodwill. Whenever I spoke, reactions burst out like a vending machine. So I wasn't particularly nervous. I could tell the story with a comfortable mind.
I thought through whether my words were coherent, and spoke calmly so my tongue wouldn't tangle.
"So we rang a gong at the place we'd decided to fight."
"You used its own traits against it—to catch a creature that hunts by sound and vibration, without having to wander around looking for it."
"Yeah, that's right. We called it with that."
I moved my hands for a more detailed description.
"Disastro came up like this, from underground to the surface."
At the mention of the monster, Adelaide's interest sharpened considerably.
"How big was it?"
I pondered, searching for a suitable comparison.
"…Roughly, just the part that came above ground was about the size of this ancient tree here."
Vincenzo made an impressed sound, as if picturing the size.
"That big, and it could swallow a monster in one gulp. It's a miracle the damage was less than expected."
"Yeah."
What if we hadn't pinned Disastro down during the fight? Wouldn't we have taken far more fatal damage from a creature thrashing around unbound?
Vincenzo stroked his beard as he spoke.
"All thanks to the plan you devised, no doubt."
"…"
I kept thinking it, but Vincenzo had a tendency to praise me far too much. Was the Association President just trying to boost our hunters' morale so we wouldn't get discouraged?
What followed was a rather monotonous conversation. Explaining with my own mouth how we'd killed Disastro, recounting my own deeds—it felt like replaying the fight all over again.
I found myself thinking how we might have done better at this or that point. But what was done was done. Wishing for a better outcome when it was already over would only leave me miserable.
And so the story came to an end with Dragon Bane delivering the finishing blow.
When was the last time I'd talked this much? Used to just listening, talking nonstop on my own left my mouth bone-dry.
As I lightly ran my tongue over my lips, Vincenzo, still lingering in the afterglow, murmured softly.
"So that's it… you jammed its sensory organs so it couldn't move…"
The branch manager chimed in.
"In that brief moment… your insight is remarkable."
It was less insight and more the product of hard work.
I'd known Disastro's weakness from the start. The head that perceived vibration and sound in place of eyes. But the problem was that it happened to be the head. It was so tall you couldn't even think of reaching it with an attack, and the head never stayed still. If you tried to chase after that head thrashing and rampaging at every opportunity to smash it, your cancer cells would start multiplying.
So I climbed up myself and beat it.
Adelaide chuckled.
"As expected of my dear friend—a hunter worthy of my choosing. To fell a Supreme-grade monster through strategy and observation. I've repelled Supreme-grade monsters many times, but this is the first time one has been fully subjugated, is it not? You are truly the pride of Cartadia."
Vincenzo corrected Adelaide's words.
"More precisely, the pride of the Association, wouldn't you say? Haha."
Adelaide looked at Vincenzo with a sulky expression.
"…Both are correct, are they not?"
Vincenzo immediately backed down.
"That is true."
"So, Association President. Do you consider this sufficient to become a Master Hunter?"
"Is there anything lacking?"
What would come next was obvious.
"Of course it's possible."
And so our meeting came to an end.
Becoming a Master Hunter turned out to be a surprisingly bland affair. In the end, all it took was the Association President's approval. The lack of anything dramatic left me a little disappointed.
I handed the hunter card I'd been carrying to the branch manager.
"Come by the Association tomorrow."
"Got it."
The card would be replaced with a Master Hunter version the next day.
Would it get a little more flashy?
Well, now that I was a Master Hunter, ranks barely meant anything anymore. In anomaly exploration, a hunter card was just a way to prove your identity—I'm this kind of person. Now I could confidently pull out my card and say I'm a Master Hunter. That was probably about the only use for it. If there was anything else, maybe filling out a monster hunting encyclopedia or setting records.
Raising your rank didn't mean you could open a status window and enhance your stats. What mattered was the experience and skill you built up while climbing the ranks.
The four of us rose from our seats. With our business concluded, the gathering dissolved.
Adelaide stretched, as if sitting so long had left her stiff.
"Well then, now that the talk is over…"
She approached me, reached her arms over my shoulders from behind, and leaned her weight against me. Never mind the sweet scent—the subtle pressure crushing down on my back made it hard to breathe.
What are you doing? This is embarrassing.
Adelaide laughed as she spoke.
"Shall we go out and have some fun?"
Vincenzo chuckled heartily, hands clasped behind his back.
"Haha, Your Highness. Off to play, are you? I've come to Antico for the first time in a while myself, so I plan to rest a bit."
At the Association President's words, the branch manager smiled awkwardly.
"We cleaned thoroughly knowing you were coming, President. Why not take a look around?"
I could practically see the subordinates sweating as they scrubbed everything clean. No wonder the Association, usually so bustling, had looked a bit cleaner.
Vincenzo shook his head at the branch manager's words.
"Again? I keep telling you not to stand on ceremony like that. This is why I hate going places as I get older. Everyone seems so uncomfortable because of me."
"It can't be helped, can it? Isn't that the weight of the position?"
"Bah, tsk tsk. The position is heavy? What's heavy is the exercise equipment. Shall we go for a round a little later?"
"Yes, let's do that."
Are you sure you came here to rest?
The conversation between the branch manager and the Association President left my head spinning. Those two lived in a world that smelled of sweat.
Vincenzo opened the reception room door and gave Adelaide a slight bow.
"Then, Your Highness. Enjoy yourselves."
"I will."
Adelaide, still leaning against my back, gave a little wave of her hand.
Once the branch manager and Association President had left, only the two of us remained in the reception room. Adelaide casually shifted to the side and naturally threw an arm around my shoulders.
I looked at her and asked.
"So what do we do now?"
"Heh. Well…"
Fingering her lips in thought, Adelaide soon snapped her fingers and said,
"Then why don't you show me around Antico? It's quite far from the capital, so I've only been here once as a child."
"…I don't really know it that well either."
Adelaide replied coyly.
"Is that so? Then we'll explore it together."
Her bright smile was the complete opposite of Melchior, who always maintained a blank expression. Of course, Adelaide's way was better. Melchior barely changed his expression at all, just raising and lowering the corners of his mouth. Compared to that, Adelaide was easy to read.
Leaving the reception room, we immediately went down the stairs and out of the Association.
Unlike when she walked around the capital, the princess wasn't wearing a hood this time—she strode along with her back perfectly straight, utterly unashamed. Drawing in a deep breath, Adelaide exhaled through her nose and hummed, clearly delighted by something.
"The air in Antico is so clear. Completely different from Sperita's."
"Yeah."
Sperita was one thing, but compared to the wasteland I'd been in, Antico was a noble—no, a king. Plenty of trees, and the wind was clean without a single grain of sand. It even came with the scenic beauty of an atmospheric forest.
Looking up at the towering ancient trees, Adelaide pointed a finger at the branches.
"Most of the trees are bare. A pity I couldn't come when they still had leaves."
Trees that had lost their leaves now, their colors faded. But someday, when spring returned, buds would sprout one by one, and they would become a beautiful woodland once more.
I knew the beauty of Antico when the trees came fully alive. It was the first landscape I'd seen upon arriving in this world. It was rather a shame that Adelaide, who lived in this world, still didn't know that beauty.
So I said to her,
"Come once before summer."
Adelaide tilted her head at my words.
"…Before summer?"
"They look like dead trees now, but once the leaves bloom, nothing is more beautiful."
They were just resting for a while. After holding their leaves upright for months on end, they had every right to be tired. But once winter passed and warm spring returned, they would bloom in full glory again as if nothing had happened.
"And summer gets pretty hot."
I didn't spare Adelaide any advice. Antico's summer was, frankly speaking, hell. When it rained it was so humid you felt like you'd steam to death, and on windless days you could understand exactly what it felt like to wither and die under the sun.
"So early spring, ideally."
As a princess, Adelaide probably didn't have many people she could call friends. The reason the siblings bickered yet remained close was probably because they shared the same worries. She would strive to appear as the perfect princess to everyone. The same would surely be true of the prince.
As a friend to that princess, I said,
"Let's walk around together then."
Adelaide blinked at my words. After a moment of sudden thought, she smiled brightly and linked her arm through mine.
What is this, some kind of phalanx formation hint?
"Then shall we enjoy winter before spring arrives?"
Adelaide's crimson eyes curved with delight.
I flinched at the detailed sensation against my arm and nodded.
Excuse me, your chest is touching me.
I tried to subtly pull my arm free, but Adelaide refused to let go. I was, it seemed, a person with insufficient resistance to this sort of thing.
L-let go, I said, let go—