Chapter 37
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The Captain's Challenge
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“So that’s why you attacked Dink? No, that’s why you wanted to buy a live one?!”
Lucas shouted in an angry voice. Dane shook his head.
“Well, I did think about it at first, but when you said you were raising it, I gave up on the idea. The buying was for a different reason.”
“A different reason?”
Dane tilted his head. It was amazing how such a scrawny body like Lucas’s could emit such a sharp aura. River jumped into their tense standoff.
“You idiot captain! Is that how you treat new party members you just met?”
“River, this is more important than the hunting party! Can’t you understand?”
“That monster’s more important than the hunting party? Are you insane?”
“Dink is family to me! I can’t eat family!”
River’s face twisted in shock, and this time Bankers stepped in.
“Now, now, everyone calm down. He said there was another reason, didn’t he? As you can see, the horses don’t have enough strength to pull this wagon. We were thinking it’d be great to tame a monster for it when you showed up with that one, captain. That’s why Dane wanted to buy it.”
Lucas blinked rapidly at Bankers’ logical explanation, turning to look at the wagon and horses.
The horses were still breathing heavily, exhausted.
The sharp aura Lucas had been emitting vanished in an instant.
“That’s what it was? You should’ve just said so earlier…”
-Thwack!
River couldn’t hold back anymore and swung her fist again.
“You’re the one who flew off the handle without listening!”
Even Bankers couldn’t stop her this time.
* * *
Once River’s cooking started and the drinks began flowing, the one who devoured the monster meat the most eagerly was Lucas. He shoveled it in like a man who hadn’t eaten for days.
“Mmm… This is incredible. How did I not know about something this delicious all this time?”
Dane, who had been watching him quietly, asked,
“I figured you wouldn’t touch the monster meat after blowing up like that.”
“What are you talking about? That only applies to Dink. You’ve got to separate raising them from eating them, right?”
Bankers asked Lucas, who spoke as if it were obvious.
“So eventually, when you end up raising a bunch like Dink, you’ll have to eat some of the ones you raise, won’t you?”
Lucas washed down the meat in his mouth with alcohol and shook his head.
“Nah. That day won’t come easily. That’s why I left River behind and wandered everywhere with Pibitz looking for monsters we could raise, but there weren’t any. If there were, we wouldn’t have come back to the hunting party, right?”
“Then what about Dink?”
River asked.
“This one’s growth was a total fluke. And honestly, even handling just this one is a huge hassle. Dink eats an entire unit pasture’s worth of grass a day. Imagine several? It wouldn’t pay off.”
“What’s a unit pasture?”
Dane cut in. River answered instead.
“Our main clients for the pastures are hunting parties. Rich ones contract pastures to board and raise their horses. We call the pastures we rent or sell to them unit pastures. One unit grows enough grass for thirty horses a day. This whole area lives off that grass that regrows every day—it’s no exaggeration.”
“So that’s why I can’t raise monsters…”
Dane trailed off, and Lucas nodded, pointing at Dane’s underwear with his hand.
“I figured from your getup. Underwear and a kitchen knife. Trying to handle a monster like that would be reckless, wouldn’t it?”
“So you were secretly stealing grass from the pastures to feed it?”
River asked incredulously.
“No other way. It reeks of my scent so much it can’t go back to its own kind. Wandering while grazing it would mean I’d have to fend off other monsters alone, so this was the only option. That’s probably why its feet got tied up.”
“Why talk about it like it’s someone else’s problem? You should’ve just gone back to Foldtown.”
“We’re poor, aren’t we? Couldn’t force it when the bad luck was staring us in the face. Plus, I had to wait for Pibitz. She left suddenly, but she’s still my wife, right?”
“Why’d she leave?”
“Pibitz wouldn’t give up. She wanted to learn more about monsters, so she left Dink with me and vanished. No idea where she is now. You haven’t heard anything?”
“…”
Like husband, like wife. River suddenly felt the time she’d spent keeping the party together waiting for this captain was wasted.
“And I didn’t even know that, wasting my time on…”
“Ugh… Sorry to you most of all, River. I meant to pass the word along sooner but forgot. Can you forgive me?”
Lucas reflexively raised his hand to block his face as he said it. River didn’t hit him again.
“Anyway. So you need Dink to go somewhere?”
With no fist incoming, Lucas shifted to a serious expression and changed the subject abruptly.
Bankers recounted everything that had happened, point by point. Lucas showed a range of emotions openly as he listened.
“Incredible stories, every one. But I don’t get risking all that just for monster meat?”
“Meat’s the most important thing to me. And now it’s important to everyone in the world, I think.”
Dane didn’t elaborate, but Lucas got it right away. He nodded silently, then spoke in a heavy tone.
“I see. How did I not know there was a way like that?”
He suddenly stood up and stared at Dane.
“Even a name-only hunting party made it through the 2nd sector tour, and now heading to the delta? That’s all thanks to Dane joining us fresh. Considering my screw-ups, I should give you Dink. But like I said, this one’s family to me. Not an easy ask, right?”
He paused. But as he did, that suspicious, sharp aura began to rise from within him again.
Dane found himself standing to face Lucas.
Lucas smiled pleasantly, sensing Dane understood without words.
“Good instincts.”
“I had a similar thought myself. Plus, you owe me one.”
“Still holding that ankle grab against me?”
“World’s hard if you’re too forgiving.”
“Good outlook. I need to check too. If you really pulled off all that, if it’s okay to send River to the delta with you, if you’ve got the strength to handle Dink. Reasons enough?”
* * *
River got pissed again when the captain suddenly challenged Dane to a duel, but Lucas wouldn’t budge this time.
Dane nodded and said,
“If that’s what it takes to convince you, fine. I’m curious too. It’s okay.”
Lucas grinned in satisfaction and drew his longsword. The smooth blade caught the moonlight clearly.
“Is the captain strong?”
Bankers asked River, sitting a good distance away from the pair.
“Yeah. Word is he’s stronger than Kemora one-on-one in Foldtown. But compared to Dane…”
Dane’s abilities were incomparable to a human’s. Neither thought Dane would kill Lucas, so Bankers and River just watched without worry.
The two faced each other with blades drawn.
Dane thought: This feeling—it’s been a long time since facing Father with swords on Mekel Mountain.
The opponent looked insignificant. No muscle or bone to boast about. Yet a 5th rank, and oddly strong impression. He wanted to test it.
Lucas’s eyebrow twitched up slightly. The aura emanating from him pricked sharply.
‘Something’s there.’
No reason he couldn’t take him down. To confirm, he’d do what he could. Dane moved first.
He stomped the ground with a thud to close the distance instantly, stretching his body long. His body tilted diagonally. He pulled his hand gripping the cleaver back as far as possible.
The power flowing through his body pooled at his fingertips, condensing without surging forward.
In one breath, he planned to graze Lucas’s cheek. Then he sensed it at the same time.
‘He’ll stab first!’
Dane’s eyes widened. He projected Lucas’s body and read it. Muscles twisted and contracted like waves, signaling the attack. A split second.
‘Shoulder?’
He twisted his body to dodge the longsword’s trajectory, dropping low. With the cleaver, he slashed at the opponent’s thigh.
‘Huh?’
That’s what he thought he did. But Dane got grazed too. Lucas’s sword, aimed at the shoulder, unexpectedly shifted downward with the movement, lightly scoring Dane’s thigh.
Then it softened and came slashing down from head to toe again.
The sword’s path was mystical. The arm angle and muscle movement pointed one way, but the blade dazzled the eyes in two directions.
Dane instinctively set his blade’s course. No block. No dodge. Strike first. This time, he was faster.
-Shing!
The cleaver stopped dead just before Lucas’s throat. The longsword descending on Dane’s neck halted awkwardly.
In that fleeting moment, if they hadn’t stopped, Lucas’s blade wouldn’t have reached before Dane’s neck came off.
The bout ended in too short a time. One got the answer he wanted; the other was confused.
Lucas lowered his sword first.
“Completely lost. You’re the real deal?”
“You’re strong too.”
Dane sheathed his cleaver. He meant it.
“Gotta be at my age. Can’t even guess how much stronger you’ll get. How old are you?”
“Old enough. First time sparring someone to this level.”
Until now, the only human Dane acknowledged was Walter. He knew Father hadn’t shown his true strength. It was obvious just from what he saw.
But this guy? How with that body?
“Doesn’t make sense. How’d you cut me?”
Dane tilted his head as he said it.
“…Saying that after a perfect win. You’re crueler than you look. Then why’d you stop the blade?”
“Didn’t want to kill you.”
At Dane’s words, Lucas relaxed and plopped down where he stood, complaining on.
“I could cut you because you fight like a beast. Monsters and beasts go all-out on every attack. Get what I mean?”
“All-out, so I got cut?”
“Your physical abilities are superior no matter how you look. Most opponents are superior to me. So to survive, you need technique to overcome that, right?”
“That’s what swordsmanship is?”
“Yeah. Trained desperately. Every motion mixes feints and truths to exploit. Didn’t you see?”
“Even so, that speed with that body…”
“Tried splitting power momentarily and exploding it at one point. You seemed to read my moves instinctively and react. Of course, you were so fast I lost naturally. Yeah, that’s it. Technique’s useless against overwhelming power, right?”
Dane had trained only to attack faster and stronger. Projecting the opponent’s body was enough.
If the monster’s physical edge was greater, he’d trade flesh and bone for the kill. With regeneration, he didn’t hesitate.
“But think the other way. If you had a technique only you could use, wouldn’t you be way stronger than now?”
“Stronger?”
“Yeah. Not everything you need to cut in this world is a monster, right?”
Lucas said flatly, as if reading Dane’s mind.
‘Technique…’
Dane fell into thought.
As their conversation quieted, River and Bankers approached.
“Satisfied now?”
River asked Lucas. He looked up at her from his seated position and nodded.
“Yeah. Checked. Dane can feed and care for Dink just fine. Hell, enough to take you too, River?”
River’s face flushed red. Watching her, Lucas paused as if choosing words, then forced a smile and declared calmly.
“So I’ve decided. As of this moment, the Lucas Hunting Party is disbanded. Didn’t ask your opinions this time.”