Hunters, Assist the Royal Family
"Hunters, assist the royal family."
That was what General Gero had told the hunters after the Lacrima Outpost was established — after three of them had frozen to death or collapsed from exhaustion during reconnaissance.
Among them, the hunter Peto had his own quiet suspicions. General Gero had surely seen those deaths as an opportunity to seize control. Nothing else explained how eagerly he had stepped forward the moment it happened. The royal forces, taking the three dead hunters as a cautionary lesson, moved with careful restraint.
And so the hunters found themselves reduced to supporting the royal family's every need. They foraged to stockpile supplies. They chopped wood and gathered timber. On days when snow fell, they scattered Thermal Powder so the paths wouldn't freeze into slick ice. They stood watch against monster attacks.
Whenever anyone protested, the general shoved the example of the dead hunters in their faces and threatened to court-martial anyone who disobeyed orders or acted unreasonably. There was nothing left to do but keep quiet.
It wasn't that they resented the work itself. This, too, could be called a hunter's duty — hunting was never the whole of it. But the hunters gathered at the Lacrima Outpost thought differently.
Why had they come to this land in the first place? To conquer a highland where the snow never melted.
This isn't why I came here.
Peto clenched his fist. In the bitter cold, his knuckles flushed red.
I wanted to be the kind of hunter who saves people, kills monsters, uncovers secrets, investigates the unknown, and takes the first step into uncharted ground.
So what the hell is this?
"This is wrong."
Is it like this in other regions too?
Peto gazed out across the highland's pure white horizon. He knew the relationship between the royal family and the hunters was strained, but he had never imagined it would feel like this.
He couldn't understand how a man who called himself a general could behave this way. The hunters might not have been systematically trained soldiers, but every one of them was a veteran who had crawled through life-or-death situations more times than they could count. Anyone who truly understood hunters would never waste their strength like this.
They had come ready to put their hard-won experience, knowledge, and ability on display. Had that really been so much to ask? They hadn't volunteered to explore the land of Anomalies just to scrub floors and fetch firewood.
Did anyone understand what it felt like — a hunter who lived to face monsters, reduced to wandering around gathering scraps while the monsters went untouched?
Peto bit down hard on his lip. Being unable to do anything left him restless and hollow. He missed the catharsis of standing against something vast and terrible.
Word had reached them that hunters and royal forces had joined hands in the wasteland and taken down a Supreme-grade monster. What, then, were they doing here? This wasn't cooperation. It was one side exploiting the other.
Peto was watching the sky as a new day broke. Having drawn the late-dawn watch at the outpost, he let out a sigh of relief — his shift was finally over. That something so trivial could bring him joy only proved how weak his spirit had grown under the endless grind of the same dull tasks.
White breath rose from the end of his sigh. Cold was creeping in from his fingertips and toes. The Thermal Powder was wearing off.
While he stood there sniffling, his relief arrived.
"Good work. Anything special?"
"Nah, nothing. You take care…"
"Yeah."
Peto shuffled away on unsteady legs. With every step, the snow crumbled and crunched beneath him. What came next was already decided: eat breakfast, go back and sleep, wake up midway through and do more of the same…
The situation left him stifled. The reason no hunter dared speak up to General Gero was simple — none of them held equal power. You needed to be at least a Master Hunter before your opinion carried any weight.
And the Master Hunters had left Lacrima to work in other regions, which only made the abandonment sting worse. Isn't someone going to show up and pull us out of this mess? Peto could only wish for it.
And the heavens answered that wish.
Peto woke from a shallow, restless sleep. Even after getting up, he felt no clearer for it. He coaxed his stiff body into motion and stepped outside.
In the lodging corridor, he came face to face with two women.
The hunters here mostly knew each other by sight, so running into two complete strangers first thing in the morning sent a jolt of bewilderment through him.
Were people like this even here?
They were beautiful — both of them — but Peto's eyes were drawn to the taller one.
Her pure white hair suited the Lacrima Outpost perfectly. And those eyes, a pink that called flowers to mind, stood out vividly against it. Even the cold, expressionless look on her face was flawless.
It was a beauty Peto had never seen before — something sculpted, almost — and he couldn't pull his gaze away. She was so unreal he half-wondered if he was still dreaming.
The taller of the two spoke first.
"Why are you staring?"
Peto snapped back to himself, blinking, and looked away. He hadn't meant to gawk so openly while lost in his own impressions.
He rubbed at the corner of his eye and scrambled for an excuse, his voice rough.
"…Sorry. Thought you might be someone I knew. Don't recognize either of you, though. I'm Peto. Who are you two?"
"I'm Alice. This is Pina."
The shorter one — Pina — dipped her head in a polite bow.
"Hello."
Her small frame, paired with light brown hair and matching eyes, called to mind a squirrel or some other little creature. The thick layers of clothing only sharpened the protective instinct she stirred.
Peto softened his tone a little.
"Ah, nice to meet you. No need to be so formal — we're all hunters here."
Pina shook her head.
"Ah, this is more comfortable for me. Please don't mind it. You're free to speak casually, though."
"Ah, uh… right."
Alice and Pina…
Peto rolled the names over in his mind — then his hollow eyes slowly went wide.
"…Wait. You're Alice?"
"That's right."
Alice nodded.
Peto knew exactly who she was.
The new light of Antico. The monster slaughterer who had killed so many that the guild put a limit on her subjugation requests.
The hunter who had taken a princess's commission and brought down an Elder Species, who had slain the Ancient Species that attacked Antico, who had helped kill a Supreme-grade monster in the wasteland.
From the stories alone, you'd expect some terrifying, rough-hewn brute. He had never imagined she would be this delicate and beautiful.
"What brings you to Lacrima?"
Even as the words left his mouth, Peto thought the question was stupid. Obviously she was here to fill the manpower shortage — to offer support. He'd just blurted it out in his fluster. Realizing the blunder, he silently berated himself.
Alice blinked those mysterious pink eyes, then said,
"If there's a Supreme-grade monster here, I'm going to kill it."
"…R-right."
"Yeah."
She said it with complete indifference. He wanted to dismiss it as typical hunter bravado, but that calm, matter-of-fact delivery made it sound like the truth.
Then again — wasn't that everyone's goal here? Every hunter at this outpost was thinking the same thing. To get out of this wasteland, they had to find the owner of those enormous footprints and kill it.
Peto nodded.
"…Yeah. Do your best."
He yawned wide and started to walk past them. Alice stopped him.
"Hey."
"…What?"
"We just got here. We don't know anything about this place."
Her voice was soft as she made the request.
"Could you fill us in on the rules around here?"
"Sure, no problem."
Peto nodded at once. He had no reason to refuse. It meant skipping the usual grind — and more than that, it meant spending time with someone this pretty.
Alice offered a faint smile and tipped her head slightly. A small gesture of thanks.
"Mm. Thanks."
Facing that smile, Peto felt his face grow warm — and he hadn't even sprinkled any Thermal Powder.
His cheeks had flushed a little. He scrubbed at his face with one hand, trying to pull himself together, and happened to meet Pina's eyes. She was watching him steadily.
A look full of quiet dissatisfaction. Peto tilted his head, wondering if he'd done something wrong.
"What's wrong?"
"…It's nothing."
Pina fell silent. Figuring it was nothing serious, Peto didn't press.
In any case, today's encounter was a rare break from the ordinary. An unexpected turn in the unchanging routine was more than welcome — especially after days of the same work, over and over.
"So, what do you want to know?"
"Meal times, for starters."
"Meals?"
Alice nodded. Peto rubbed his chin, thinking about the hour.
"Lunch is coming up soon. It's quiet right now because everyone's working… but they'll start gathering any minute."
"What is everyone doing?"
"Well…"
Alice still seemed unfamiliar with how things ran here. Peto put on a wry tone.
"The general's working us like slaves, basically. Outpost repairs, securing supplies, that kind of thing. The rest are on perimeter watch. I was on duty this morning myself."
"What about hunting?"
Peto scratched his head.
"Hunting's just taking down small monsters for meat. That's about it."
"You're not hunting the real ones?"
"They told us to leave that to them."
A shadow crossed Alice's face. She let out a long, heavy sigh. She looked thoroughly frustrated.
"Progress is going to crawl at this rate. Taking down monsters is our job."
"That's exactly what I've been saying."
Hunters who had spent their whole lives killing monsters, treated like this — of course it left a bitter taste.
"…It might get a little better now, though. The princess is here."
"The princess?"
Peto cocked his head. A princess showing up in the middle of all this was strange.
"A princess came here?"
"Because of the Supreme-grade monster."
Same deal as the prince in the wasteland, then. Peto nodded to himself. Looking to rack up some merit, no doubt.
Still, he didn't believe a princess's presence would change their situation. She was royalty, same as the rest of them. He couldn't bring himself to hope for much.
"But will things actually change just because a princess showed up?"
"She's friendly toward hunters."
Alice spoke as though she knew the princess well. Peto, still half-skeptical, suddenly understood why.
"Ah, right. You took a commission from her, so of course you'd know."
"…You knew about that?"
"It's a fairly old rumor by now, Alice-nim. Of course people know."
Pina said it from the side as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Alice made a low, thoughtful sound and nodded.
"So does that mean we can finally start moving properly?"
Peto's face brightened a little — as if he could already see himself free of this miserable grind. Alice shook her head. She pictured the stubborn old General Gero and answered,
"The general won't fold easily. He'll say he has more experience and tell the princess to sit quietly and watch."
"Then what do we do?"
"We help her."
There was no need to ask whom. They would help the princess — Adelaide. To strip General Gero of the control he held over the Lacrima Outpost.
Growl—.
In the silence, a dying sound rose from someone's stomach. Pina and Peto both looked at the source: Alice. She had been speaking with a serious expression, and she held that same posture without a shred of embarrassment.
"…I'm hungry."
Talking so much had only made it worse. Alice said quietly,
"Let's eat first."