Spoils of the Elder Species
Elder Species, as a rule, made for excellent materials.
Even if the Broken-Horned Kespilatos had started life as a Low-grade monster, its specs had long since left Mid-grade creatures in the dust. The fact that it had been single-handedly slaughtering every Mid-grade monster on the plains said everything that needed saying. And unlike ordinary monsters, it had wielded some strange power of its own.
I took the broken horn in hand. Carefully brushing off the mud that clung to it, I felt a sensation as if simply holding the thing was draining the vitality from my fingers.
"Alice-niiim!!"
Pina came scrambling toward me from a distance, hopping this way and that to avoid the puddles. It was almost adorable. She had been careful, just as I'd told her to be. Thanks to that, we'd finished the job without her drawing the Kespilatos's attention.
"The weather cleared up like it was all a lie."
"Yeah."
When something as powerful as an Elder Species was around, the raw force it couldn't fully contain tended to warp everything nearby. Of course, Elder Species weren't the only ones. There were High-grade and Top-grade monsters that did the same. Ecosystem destroyers, plain and simple. The plains' troubles had almost certainly been this Kespilatos's doing.
"I wasn't much help this time."
"This was the kind of monster better hunted alone."
"Still…"
With monsters like that, more people didn't make things easier — they made them messier. With a large party, the aggro would constantly shift and the thing would charge in every direction, making it nearly impossible to respond cleanly. Uncontrollable situations piled up. Spinning this way and that wore a hunter down. Having the aggro locked solely on me made the patterns far easier to read.
Pina fidgeted, worrying her lip, then finally spoke up.
"I want to help you with all sorts of things, too."
"…Yeah?"
"Yes. Supporting the hunt, or something like that…"
Pina really did have a kind heart. I was fine with her just as she was, but watching her resolve herself to help me was a good look on her. She didn't need to take up some difficult weapon — a repeating crossbow was something she could handle easily enough. She was probably thinking along those lines herself. The crossbow was the weapon that had given her a terrible memory, but it was also the weapon that had helped her cast that terrible past aside.
But if she truly wanted to help me, she couldn't use my weapons. If hunters had one iron rule, it was this: never trade or share each other's gear.
"…It's fine. Pina, the way you are right now is more than enough for me."
And honestly, I didn't want her fighting. The moment I pictured her fighting alongside me, something in my chest went sour. For all my talk, I wanted to fight alone. That was why I never pushed her to take up arms.
This was my fight.
I understood how she felt, but I didn't want to receive help from anyone — or have anything taken from me. Not even from Pina. It wasn't selfishness. If anything, stepping out alone so that no one else had to put themselves at risk was the more selfless choice, wasn't it?
…That's how I see it, anyway. Mm-hmm.
"Hunting tools, securing a safe camp, hauling the gear… Just helping with things like that, I'm genuinely grateful. If I'd been alone, it would've been exhausting."
I started to reach for Pina's head, then caught sight of my palm — a filthy mix of blood, rainwater, and mud — and hid it behind my back. No way I was touching her with a hand like that.
"Leave the killing to me."
I peeled off my rain cloak, rolled it up carefully, and carried it in my hand. Too filthy to shove into a bag.
"We each just do what we're good at."
Now then. Time to start skinning.
Being an Elder Species, I had high hopes for an Essence. I pulled the skinning knife from where I'd tied it at my waist, slipped the blade into a tear in the hide, and drew it taut as I cut. Where was the Essence? Digging the knife through soft flesh, I held onto a quiet little expectation. If I'd been alone, I might have been humming. But that would have made me look like a complete lunatic, so I restrained myself in front of Pina.
"…There it is."
Nestled in the middle of the flesh, a bead that refused to come free. I carved around it with the knife and pulled the Essence out still clinging to a scrap of meat.
An Elder Species' Essence wasn't all that different from the original species'. Just as the One-Eyed Luga-lac and a regular Luga-lac shared the same Essence effect, the Kespilatos was no exception. In short, what I'd obtained was a Low-grade monster's Essence. Still, more Essences were always better.
In the Kespilatos's case, the Essence trait let you perform a single horn attack that inflicted bleeding. The Kespilatos had originally been a Low-grade monster, so like the Galori's Essence, it had started with no special performance at all. Then the Elder Species version launched, and it got special treatment — a unique skill. The effect was minor, sure, but a little better than having no unique skill at all. In practice, using common techniques like enhancement or Shield Burst was still more efficient than relying on Essence-exclusive skills.
That made three weapons I could socket Essences into now. They were rare enough that I hadn't seen one in ages — nothing since the Galori.
I pinched off the clinging scrap of flesh, wiped the blood from the surface with a cloth. Essences didn't need any special processing beyond that. The three broken horns I wrapped in cloth and packed away. Leaving them scattered on the ground would have been a waste. Elder Species were good for more than just Essences — specialty materials like these were useful in their own right.
I'd come out ahead more than I'd expected. Who would have thought a commission under the princess's name would lead to hunting an Elder Species? Compared to the Mid-grade monsters I usually took down, there had been something different about it — a real sense of thrill. Every time a horn whistled past, I'd felt that electric jolt of standing right on the edge of death.
And at the end, when I took the Kespilatos's life and my focus finally loosened, leaving my body momentarily limp — crude as it sounds — I'd felt a satisfaction I couldn't put into words. The pleasure of knowing that even an Elder Species was no match for me. Had the corners of my mouth been twitching upward the whole fight? With no one watching, I couldn't say.
…Well, who frets over their expression mid-fight? That's not a hunter — that's an idol.
"Shall we head back?"
"Yes. We've gathered the materials, so let's go. The Brivido Plains… they were such a bright place all along."
"Of course."
With the Broken Horn dead, the bleak atmosphere that had blanketed the Brivido Plains was gone. The monster corpses riddled with holes were still there, of course. But once the other monsters learned the Broken Horn was dead, things would return to normal soon enough.
The Kespilatos pack that had followed this one as their leader would manage fine without it. They would simply go back to their old way of life, looking out for one another and surviving however they could. Too much breeding would be a problem of its own — but I couldn't exactly massacre every Kespilatos, so all I could do was hope the carnivorous monsters kept their numbers in check. The anomaly that was the Broken Horn had been dealt with. From here on, it was nature's business. There was nothing left for us humans to decide.
Late that evening, Pina and I returned to Ampianura. We looked like a pair of half-drowned rats, but the job had been done properly, so there was nothing to complain about. We went first to the Association district and reported the successful commission to the attendant.
"Hunter! You did it! Of course — even the Broken-Horned Kespilatos was no match for the Slaughterer! If you can tell us the specimen's location, the Association's research division will collect it. The carcass is in the Brivido Plains, correct?"
"Uh… yeah. That's right."
"Understood! I'll notify the Association right away, Hunter!"
The word Slaughterer raised goosebumps along my skin. It didn't sound good. Too cringeworthy, maybe. The kind of sensibility that made hunters slap weird nicknames on people and parade them around — I still didn't get it.
The attendant wasn't the only one celebrating. I sought out the hunter who'd given us the research materials — Ampianura's pride — partly to thank him, and mentioned that we'd taken down the Kespilatos. His eyes, ringed with deep dark circles, lit up as he practically bounced with excitement.
"Wow — oh! Finally, I won't have to stand watch day and night! As expected of Antico's Slaughterer — a new light for us all. Thank you. If my materials were of any help, I'm truly glad. Just as you protect Antico, I'll… become an even better hunter than I am now, and protect Ampianura with everything I have. Thank you."
"…Yeah. Do your best."
Hunters all seemed to have a talent for making people squirm. Overwhelmed by the relentless praise, I fled the Association district. This kind of atmosphere really wasn't for me.
"Alice-nim, Alice-nim…"
"Hm?"
"I — I really want to get back to the inn and wash up! I feel like the smell of rotting corpses has soaked into my skin…"
"…Right."
Pina patted herself down and sniffed. With all those corpses nearby, it was no surprise the stench had clung to us.
…Ah. This smell is actually serious.
And with the rain on top of it, the odor radiating off our bodies was almost vibrating. We scrambled back to the inn and stripped off our clothes on the spot. Before either of us could even ask who was going first, we were both bare. Maybe we were of one mind — neither of us told the other to go ahead. We just wanted to get clean as fast as possible.
The bathroom here wasn't particularly spacious, but it was big enough for two. I turned the tap, and warm water began filling the large wooden tub.
"Uh… this is the first time we've washed together."
"Y-yeah."
"Honestly, other than my family, I've never bathed with anyone. Because of how things were at home, I didn't have friends either. Making friends means spending a lot of money, right? So I deliberately never made any."
"Uh…"
"But it's fine now! I've got a little more room to breathe…"
When you put it like that, now I'm conscious of it too.
Come to think of it, this really was the first time I'd washed with Pina. We always bathed separately, and she came out already dressed, so unless something was urgent or she'd forgotten her clothes, I almost never saw her bare. It was awkward, after all. I'd been a man, and this body wasn't exactly something I was eager to put on display. The figure was good, but the previous owner had used it hard, and scars marked it here and there. I wasn't bitter about them, but they still drew the eye in ways I couldn't quite ignore.
Pina, on the other hand, had baby-soft skin. Where my scars made me look rough, she was completely clean. Honestly, becoming a hunter meant resigning yourself to wounds like these, didn't it? Noah had a few herself, and while I'd never seen Fiore bare, her hands had been terribly rough.
And her chest was big, too. Mine wasn't small, but… I was pretty sure I lost to Pina. I was fairly large myself… or was I? Living in this body for months now, I'd started fretting over things like that more than I cared to admit. I was certain it was the single most useless part of a hunter's body. The bigger they got, the more they got in the way!
"Wow, Alice-nim — your figure is really amazing."
"Uh, uhh…"
D-don't say things like that~.
I nodded, stumbling badly over my words. Conversations in this direction were hard for me. I tried my best not to look at Pina, but the occasional sidelong glance was beyond my control.
"Your hips are big, too…"
"Uh, uh…"
"Mine are small, so I never really think of my body as pretty. Honestly, not eating properly has a lot to do with it."
Then what's filling out your chest — air?
I couldn't keep my head straight around what she was saying. Pina, probably from the hard life she'd lived until now, had a tendency to put herself down and put me on a pedestal. I hadn't expected it to show up here of all places. Being praised like this felt weird. I thought about returning the compliment, but nothing would come out of my mouth. More than anything, trading compliments about each other's naked bodies was just strange. Between guys, this kind of thing was pure nightmare fuel…
"I'm jealous. Honestly, I… prefer a more mature look, with wider hips…"
If I weren't a guy, you'd be catching a hit for that, you know?
I suddenly wanted to hide my body from Pina. But there was nowhere to hide in here. Please, just drop this topic!
"Those scars…"
Whether she'd sensed my feelings or not, the conversation drifted naturally to the scars.
"They're from monsters, right?"
"Mm."
"Like medals? Or…"
"Marks. That I have to keep fighting monsters."
"…I see."
These weren't medals I'd earned myself. They were honorable traces left to prove a brave hunter had once existed. The hunter of the future, who never gave in until the end. I was thoroughly enjoying this hunter's life now — but for the sake of that pitiful hunter, I couldn't afford to stop.
Suddenly I remembered her voice, the one I'd heard mid-fight. In the moment I'd locked eyes with the Kespilatos, the helplessness that woman had felt had flowed into me. No — it had felt as if I were her.
I watched the mirror in silence. In the steam-filled bathroom, a pair of peach-pink eyes stared back at me with a cold gaze.
Are we… becoming one?
"Alice-nim, what's wrong?"
"…Mm, nothing."
"The tub's full. We can use it now. Let's wash up quick and do the laundry, too."
"Yeah."
Well, whatever. It wasn't that serious a problem — the serious problem right now was the rotting-corpse stench rolling off our bodies.
We sat back-to-back on stools and scooped water from the basin. After dousing ourselves once, we lathered the soap with the grim determination of people prepared to use up the entire bar. Then we scrubbed ourselves over and over with foam, trying to kill the smell. Even then it felt like it wouldn't come out, so I washed more thoroughly than usual.
Wait — this was producing way too much foam—
"…Pina."
"Y-yes? What is it?"
"I think something's wrong with this soap."
"…A-Alice-nim? You're only supposed to rub a little…"
And so we ended up completely buried in suds, and Pina's laughter filled the bathroom.
The end of a day that followed a completed commission was a thoroughly pleasant one.