The Outpost's Ten-Captains
The outpost's ten-captains.
They held the rank of ten-captain, yes — but first and foremost they were proud knights of the royal household. At the end of the day, though, they were closer to civil servants drawing a government salary than anything else.
As with any group of people, where some suffered, others rested. The five ten-captains stationed at the Angolo Outpost were unmistakably among the former.
In that barren land they could never eat what they wanted, and even washing was a misery. Everything about the outpost lagged behind the capital.
Ten-captain Guido was scowling as he pulled on his armor. He snapped at his roommate, Lucas, with open irritation.
"So what is it this time?"
Lucas glanced at him while fiddling with his helmet.
"They say we have to move materials."
"That's hunter work. Why dump it on us?"
"Apparently it's too much for them to carry alone."
"…Tch. How much could they even have taken down?"
Guido jammed his helmet on, dropped the visor, and clicked his tongue.
"Honestly, we could hunt monsters just fine ourselves, right?"
"You're saying that even after watching what happened last time?"
Lucas shot back at Guido's swagger without missing a beat. He still couldn't forget Alice's hunt. There had been no set sequence, no fixed form to her weapon work — and yet it hadn't been wild flailing either. Years of experience had distilled every motion into pure efficiency, without a single wasted movement.
Whatever else hunters might be, they were specialists at monster hunting. That much had to be admitted. Guido knew it too.
"…Fine. I'll give them the monster hunting. But what about us? Are we supposed to take a back seat to hunters?"
Guido muttered the words, then yanked the chinstrap tight until the helmet sat snug and threw his cloak over his shoulders. Lucas knew exactly who he meant.
"You're talking about Evan."
"Yeah, that guy. He and the trainee knights did a fine job of dragging the order's reputation through the mud…"
"Don't be too hard on Evan. You can't win every fight. And he says he let his guard down."
"Let his guard down, my ass."
He'd written them off as nothing but butchers who slaughtered monsters, or so the story went. Lucas could understand the sentiment to a degree. Knights had never had much to do with hunters before; that kind of prejudice was only natural.
But out here at the outpost, Lucas had learned a great deal. Hunters were veterans who walked the line between life and death. They weren't people knights could casually size up. At the very least, they weren't mere butchers.
Lucas thought of Alice again. The smile she'd worn while facing a monster still wouldn't leave him. In his mind she was less a butcher than a berserker.
He shook his head to clear the thought, settled his cloak properly over his armor, and checked his sword. Then he waved at Guido, who was still taking his time.
"Let's go already."
"Ah — hang on. Just gotta buckle this."
Guido hung a longsword at his hip and ambled out at an unhurried pace.
Outside the barracks, the soldiers had already finished preparing for the job. They carried grappling launchers and light weapons, dressed for mobility rather than heavy combat. Beside them stood a single hunter in borrowed soldier's armor.
A lean, slender woman with pure white hair hanging loose, her face looking tired. Peach-pink eyes stared blankly at the ground.
It was Alice — the very hunter Guido and Lucas had been talking about in their quarters. This time she'd brought a different weapon: a long tachi at her waist that suited her surprisingly well.
Alice, still vacant, sensed the two knights approaching and lifted her head.
"…Ah."
Lucas inclined his head slightly in greeting.
"Good day."
Alice, still standing there in a daze, returned the courtesy.
"…Hey."
Guido, who had been silent until then, stepped forward at once at her clipped reply.
"You. Your speech is a little short, don't you think?"
"Ah, sorry. Bear with me."
Even the apology was short. And she didn't look the least bit sorry. If anything, the request that he simply put up with her casual speech left Guido so speechless he clenched a fist. The vein in his neck started to rise — then he exhaled a long sigh and shook his head.
"…Never mind. I shouldn't get worked up over something like this."
"Guido, I don't mind."
"It's not about you. It's about the honor of knighthood."
Guido stalked ahead, still fuming. Lucas watched him go and let out a quiet snort of laughter. The guy hadn't meant any real harm; he was impossible to hate.
"Is everyone here?"
Lucas scanned the area for the scribe. Biopia was checking the roster beside the soldiers. He went straight to her.
"Apologies for the slight delay. The other ten-captains are on watch, so only Guido and I came."
"That's fine. It was a sudden assignment — you barely had time to rest. I'm the one who should apologize."
"We eat the kingdom's coin. Comes with the job."
"I don't think I could manage that. My philosophy is to live as comfortably as possible, by any means necessary."
Biopia delivered the half-joke with a straight face, then efficiently laid out the mission.
"From this point on, you simply follow the hunter here — Alice — secure the materials, and return."
"Ah, well. Simple enough."
Guido laced his fingers behind his head.
"What about the soldiers' gear, though?"
"Miss Alice has agreed to serve as escort. The soldiers will be carrying heavy loads, so we didn't put them in full armor."
"…Scribe, is that really enough?"
"If anything goes wrong, the knights can step in."
Guido clicked his tongue at Biopia's answer.
"It's always real combat that matters, real combat~."
Even as he said it, he didn't actually scold the soldiers. Biopia gave him a wry look, then opened the notebook in her hand.
"Estimated operation time is two days. Supplies are over there — take one pack each."
Calling them supplies was generous. Guido opened a small leather pouch and peered inside.
"This is why I hate field duty."
Inside the little bundle was nothing but enough jerky for two days and a few Waterburst Fruits to wet a dry throat. Exactly the calculated amount — no more. Supplies weren't exactly plentiful to begin with.
Guido's shoulders sagged as he roughly tied the pouch to his belt and sighed.
"Maybe I should bring some corn…"
The mere mention of the corn they'd been eating to death at Angolo earned him a look of pure exhaustion from Lucas.
"Are you serious?"
"Do I sound serious?"
Guido didn't want any more corn either. He was past sick of it — one more bite and he'd throw up.
The soldiers finished collecting their own packs. Alice took the last remaining supply pouch, then stood at the front and looked over the soldiers and the two ten-captains.
"…Let's go."
Guido still couldn't stand how short she kept her words. Map in hand, Alice set off at a measured pace along the path they'd come by. Her usual leather armor was being washed, so she'd borrowed a set of kingdom soldier's plate. The unfamiliar fit left her constantly adjusting — tugging at a pauldron, loosening a sash.
Guido watched her back and clicked his tongue, then muttered to Lucas.
"She can't sit still. Does she hate the armor that much?"
"Guido, don't you think you dislike hunters a little too much?"
"It's not that I dislike hunters."
Guido's brow furrowed.
"It's just… it feels like she's looking down on us."
"Hmm. I don't know about that."
Lucas shrugged, then smiled.
"Maybe she's just focused on her work. And you saw it yourself — that skill when she faces a monster."
"…Yeah, I already said I admit that. I just don't like her."
Guido lowered his eyes.
"She just shows up out of nowhere… and gets the royal family's favor, of all things."
"Jealous, by any chance?"
"Of course I'm jealous. Lucas, you're not?"
"Sure, I am. But what can you do about it?"
Lucas laughed lightly.
"Still, she didn't exactly come out of nowhere. I hear she was already a celebrity in Antico. Though I get why you feel that way."
There was a reason Guido had come to this harsh, endless wasteland with the prince. Knights were the elite few who endured brutal training to protect the royal house. The finest among them became the knight-commander — and Guido was the universally acknowledged prodigy tipped as the next one.
He and Lucas had come here to protect Prince Melchior. In Guido's mind, the royal favor should have been theirs by right. Mature Lucas had no attachment to such things, but Guido still burned with a younger man's fire.
"…Hey, hunter!"
Guido called out to Alice. She stopped mid-stride and turned her head.
"…What?"
"If a monster shows up on the way, I'll handle it."
Alice chewed on the words for a moment, lips working.
"It'll be dangerous…"
It sounded so much like she was looking down on a knight that Guido bristled.
"You seem pretty full of yourself after taking down some knights last time. Don't underestimate us."
"Ah. Right…. Sorry."
Alice blinked, then looked ahead again as if she'd already lost interest. But her eyes were trembling.
Did I do something wrong? He's been grumbling behind me this whole time — does he just hate me…?
Is it the casual speech after all? When am I going to fix that…
Alice kept a calm exterior while privately fretting herself into knots. Of course, Guido had no idea what was going on inside her head — and that very indifference scraped raw against his pride.
Fine. I'll show her with skill.
Knight or hunter, it made no difference. Before a monster, both were only human. What decided victory was experience and technique — and in that department, Guido was confident. He'd fought monsters more than once while securing the perimeter during the outpost's construction. All this endless watch duty had left him itching for a fight. Perfect timing.
Lucas, watching from the side, asked him,
"You sure about this?"
"Real combat matters, right? Real combat. Standing watch all the time, my edge is getting dull."
Guido rested a hand on the longsword at his hip. The bright vermilion essence set into its pommel gleamed. The royal house bestowed essences on fully fledged knights; Guido's was a Kakari essence. He ran a thumb over it and muttered,
"Gotta keep the hands from going stiff."
"…You battle maniac."
Lucas snorted and shook his head.
They walked for some time — and then, just as Guido had hoped, a monster appeared.
"H-hiiik…"
"M-monster…!"
—Shrrr.
A spiny tree lizard — the Thorn Lizard, Acanthodis. The creature had buried itself in the sand and now poked only its head and forelegs free, flicking its tongue as it watched them warily.
Like the ancient Alberoelva, the Acanthodis bristled with sharp spines. Unlike Alberoelva, though, it could neither regenerate them nor fire them — and above all, it was only a mid-tier monster. It wasn't particularly aggressive, either. Even that posture in the sand wasn't an ambush; it was simply absorbing moisture from the ground.
Docile or not, a group this size walking past was bound to provoke it. Alice waved the unarmed soldiers back.
"…Everyone, stay well clear."
"Fall back."
Lucas pulled the soldiers away from the monster. Alice set a hand on her tachi and fixed the Acanthodis with cold eyes. She had never intended to spare it.
A chill killing intent rolled outward. Alice gripped the hilt, ready to draw — and the Acanthodis felt it, rising from its sand heap.
—SHYAAaa!!
It opened its small mouth and hissed a warning. That was when Guido strode past Alice to the front.
"Hold it. I've got this."
"Ah…"
Alice let out a soft sigh. She sheathed the tachi again and eased her stance, looking faintly disappointed.
Guido did not so much as flinch with a monster right in front of him. If anything, he was brimming with confidence, cracking his neck left and right as he walked forward. He drew his sword.
The Acanthodis still didn't move, only glared at him.
—SHhrrr?
"First time seeing a monster like you. Don't hold it against me."
Even if it weren't me, that hunter would have killed you anyway.
Guido flicked a glance at Alice. Their eyes met. She stood with her arms folded, watching him with what looked like genuine interest.
That killing intent…
When Alice had let it loose, he'd tensed up without meaning to — and a competitive fire had boiled up right after. So beating a full knight like Evan hadn't just been luck after all. He wanted to test himself against her. Not that he could draw on a hunter right this second.
Guido decided to pour all that rising battle-lust into the monster instead.
Let's drop this thing first.
He shifted his longsword. The Kakari essence set into the pommel flashed. He would show them that knights were not greenhouse flowers.
"Watch carefully."
Guido charged the Acanthodis.
Alice watched him go, and thought,
…If you don't know, you learn the hard way.