Snow Begins to Fall
The next morning, Adelaide and I rose right on schedule and sat down to breakfast.
With nothing left to cook at the inn, we headed back to the same Porona restaurant we'd visited the day before.
As always, I ordered the meat set meal. Adelaide, apparently not in the mood for the spicy stir-fried meat, ordered the same thing.
The night I'd spent with Adelaide had been a pleasant one. We hadn't made a racket or caused a scene, but the evening had been lively enough in its own quiet way. Through the night, we'd kept our voices low so as not to bother anyone, chatting away in soft tones.
Most of it had been idle talk. Adelaide would ask about a hunter's work or about my experiences, and I would answer — that was the bulk of our conversation. She seemed to prefer listening to me talk more than sharing stories of her own.
When I asked why she kept asking questions instead of talking about herself, she answered:
"I just like the sound of your voice."
I found that odd, but people have their preferences, so I let it go.
Our conversation continued at the restaurant. Before the food had even arrived, Adelaide picked up a fork and knife and launched into a detailed explanation of how meals were conducted in the royal family. Watching her clumsily demonstrate etiquette and gestures in a place like this was thoroughly amusing.
And we weren't the only ones making a bit of a spectacle of ourselves. The restaurant had opened early, and besides us, half a dozen other people were already seated and eating. A few of them looked like hunters.
The attention we'd drawn yesterday was still there today. People kept glancing at Adelaide and me, whispering among themselves about who we might be. Adelaide never once seemed to notice. Looking at it now, it wasn't that she was dense — she simply treated it as one of the ordinary facts of being a princess.
I ought to get used to stares like these myself by now. Thinking of Fiore's celebrity-like life as a Master Hunter, I figured I was headed the same way. But then again, Fiore was beautiful, and she'd made a name for herself as a city's mascot hunter. I, on the other hand, was just one hunter among many in Antico. Even as a Master Hunter, I probably wouldn't be dealing with endless handshake requests.
I was lost in these thoughts, trading conversation with Adelaide, when someone interrupted.
"Excuse me…"
It was a man wearing a hat with a monster feather stuck in it. Judging by the armor covering his shoulders and midsection, he was a hunter. The man — I hadn't even noticed him approach — asked us:
"Are both of you hunters?"
I answered for us.
"Just me."
He nodded and looked at me.
"Ah, I see. Then — are you Hunter Alice, by any chance?"
"Yeah, that's me."
At my answer, the man smiled and said:
"Nice to meet you. I'm a fan. I saw you during that special subjugation request."
"…You were watching back then?"
He meant the time I'd taken down the ancient Alberoelva in Antico. The man nodded.
"I was up on the wall shooting arrows."
Even if he was a fan, I didn't quite understand why he'd walk up to our table like this.
"So… what do you want?"
"If you don't have anything going on, would you maybe take a request with me?"
He said it with a pleasant smile. I looked at Adelaide. She'd been listening quietly, and now she just shrugged — the gesture of someone who wasn't a hunter and had no opinion on the matter.
It's hard to turn down a smiling face, but I didn't particularly want to team up either.
"Sorry. I'm planning to rest for a while."
"Ah — you were gone from town for a while. Have you been taking requests this whole time?"
"Yeah."
"I was hoping to get a little advice…"
I pointed at Adelaide with a fingertip.
"Sorry, but I've got a prior engagement with her."
"Or would you at least join us for a meal? I've got a companion with me too…"
He was a bit persistent. Looking to get friendly, huh? I looked at him through a strange silence. Honestly, turning someone down three times was starting to feel rude. I was just thinking a meal might be fine when Adelaide stepped in.
"Would you mind leaving us be? Frankly, this is a bit uncomfortable. The two of us were planning to spend the day together."
She said it with a gentle smile. Her smile was warm, but there was steel in her words.
"Ah… yes, I'm sorry."
The man didn't press further and left. Once he was gone, Adelaide dropped the smile and brushed her bangs back. Her languid gaze settled on me.
"You can't answer every one of these people one by one. Just shut them down honestly."
"…Is that so?"
I touched the corner of my mouth. Adelaide watched me and let out a short laugh.
"Well, most people couldn't lay a finger on you anyway, so I suppose it's fine."
The food arrived soon enough. We were hungry, so we finished quickly and headed to the Association.
Adelaide needed to meet the Association President so they could return to the capital together. I had business there too — I needed to pick up the card that certified me as a Master Hunter.
As we stepped onto the first floor of the Association, Adelaide said:
"You should get your card first."
She wanted to see the Master Card herself, apparently. I got in line behind the people receiving requests at the counter. The line wasn't long. I stood there blankly, replaying yesterday's conversation, and before I knew it I was face-to-face with the counter attendant.
"Ah, Hunter — it's been a while."
"Yeah, it has."
It had been a long time since I'd taken a request in Antico, so it had been a while since I'd seen this attendant too. Her name was Selene, I think. I glanced at Adelaide beside me, then turned back to Selene.
"I'm here to pick something up."
"Yes — the branch manager already told me. Just a moment."
Selene reached down and pulled open a drawer. From inside, she drew out a card quite different from an ordinary hunter card and held it up for me to see.
Master Hunter
Alice
Unlike the plain, stiff hunter cards, this one was finely decorated with gold thread — it looked good. The murmuring around us grew louder. Amid the stir, I took the card and checked the name.
Master Hunter, Alice.
"Congratulations — you've become a new Master Hunter!"
Selene said it in a rather loud voice, as if she were deliberately trying to embarrass me in public. To be fair, it was something worth boasting about. Not just anyone became a Master Hunter. Still, I had no particular desire to show off. It might have been a little self-congratulatory, but becoming a Master Hunter had always felt inevitable to me.
I slipped the card into my coat as casually as I could and turned away. Watching me, Adelaide offered a remark:
"Alice, your shoulders are riding a bit high."
"Oh, are they?"
I hadn't even noticed. I lowered my shoulders, which had been puffed up with pride. I'd told myself it was only natural, but staying calm about it was harder than I'd expected.
I'd earned everyone's recognition, hadn't I? I'd defeated the ancient Alberoelva that attacked Antico, and I'd taken down Disastro — a calamity of the old world. At every one of those scenes, I'd been a decisive force. No one could dispute the birth of this Master Hunter.
When you accomplish something and the recognition that follows is deserved, of course it feels good. That was me right now. I was in full attention-seeker mode.
Adelaide chuckled.
"Congratulations. You've become a Master Hunter. Honestly, it feels a little overdue. If it had been up to me, I'd have pinned the title on you the moment you took down Cespiratos."
Cespiratos. The day I'd killed that thing felt like a distant past. That was how fast the time I'd been running had passed — and every stretch of it had been packed solid with incident. I'd been running so hard there hadn't even been time to look back.
Adelaide glanced at the clock above the Association counter and let out a short, thoughtful hum.
"It's about time I left as well."
The time to part had come.
Adelaide and I went to the branch manager's office looking for the Association President. The branch manager was groaning in his room from a hangover. Adelaide clicked her tongue at the sight of him.
"Branch Manager. You really ought to drink in moderation."
"It's all the President's fault… Are you looking for him? He should already be waiting by the carriage… Ugh…"
The branch manager groaned, face down on his desk. His already thinning hair seemed even thinner somehow. Watching a branch manager walk the same path as the Association President was genuinely pitiful.
"We'll stop by again another time. No need to see us off. Take care of yourself."
"Yes… I'm sorry I can't see you out…"
"It's fine. Get some rest."
Adelaide closed the door.
We left the Association and headed for the stables where the carriage waited. "Stables" was a generous word — there were no horses, just a pen of trained, docile monsters. Just as the branch manager had said, the Association President was waiting there for Adelaide.
Vincenzo, the Association President, had been leaning against the carriage in a daze. When we entered his field of vision, he turned his head.
"Ah, you're here. Alli…cia? Alicia came along as well."
"Yes, Mr. President. You're quite early. And it's Alice, not Alicia."
"Ah, Alice, was it. Well, at my age I barely sleep as it is. So — did you enjoy yourselves?"
Adelaide nodded.
"It was… quite enjoyable. Enough that I'm sorry to leave."
"Still, you have to go back. You can't stay here forever, after all."
"Indeed."
Adelaide stepped away from me and approached Vincenzo. He opened the carriage door. With those characteristically thick arms of his, he escorted Adelaide up into the carriage.
Before climbing in, Adelaide looked back at me one last time — and the regret in her eyes was plain. I smiled and waved at her.
"See you again. It was fun."
"…Yeah."
Adelaide gave me one last smile. Ending on a sad face would only leave things unfinished, wouldn't it? A bright ending is always better.
The carriage carrying Adelaide and Vincenzo set off. I watched it go for a moment, then turned away.
Suddenly, a single white speck of snow drifted down. I looked up at the sky. From a sea of endless cloud, snowflakes were beginning to fall, one by one.
"You seem rather fond of her."
"Well, she is the hunter I chose."
"A friend you trust that much, then."
"That's right."
Adelaide sat in the carriage with her arms crossed, gazing outside. Snow had begun to fall over Antico's sea of trees. One by one, the trees were putting on layers of white. Through that white, memories of days past rose up.
Vincenzo watched the outside for a while as well, then spoke.
"Friends are good. Friends. Since you've already come this far… what would you say to staying a little longer?"
"…What do you mean?"
"I didn't exactly come to Antico just for a casual rest, you see."
Vincenzo chuckled.
"I heard from the Antico branch manager — traces of a supreme-grade monster have been found on a highland where the snow never melts."
"…Again?"
"The world's ending, I tell you. Ending."
Vincenzo let out a short sigh and shook his head.
"Your Highness — why not take this chance and try your hand at it, the way the prince did?"
"…"
Adelaide stared out the window, thinking. Through the falling snow, she thought she could almost hear Diego's scream.