The Hunt #1
"Yeah. Surprising as it is, the real reason is that people just can't help being put off by it."
The wine tasting itself had been a success, but if anyone asked whether we'd actually cracked open a market, I would have had to shake my head.
Even granting that the flavor was excellent, the public image of dark elves was simply too poor. There was no way around it.
Helena pressed her lips together as if the whole thing pained her. I shared the regret, though mine didn't run quite as deep as hers. For the woman who had dreamed the venture up, the disappointment should have cut the sharpest—and yet I couldn't quite bring myself to feel properly wretched about it. It was more like a faint, secondhand ache, the kind you get watching someone else's misfortune.
"In the end, time is the only answer."
"Probably. We'll just have to ease it in little by little until it takes root."
Time, then. That was the answer. I nodded in agreement with Helena's conclusion. Passive as it sounded, nothing better presented itself. The smartest play was to wait until word spread that the duke himself enjoyed the wine—until people developed curiosity of their own accord.
"All right. Let's leave it there. It isn't exactly exhilarating, but we've got a plan of sorts. No point wringing our hands over it. Nothing else is coming to mind anyway, so it'd just be a waste of time."
"Fair enough."
Rumors would take care of themselves—but was there anything else we could do in the meantime? I stared blankly out the window at the falling snow and let my thoughts wander.
It was winter. The harvest was long over, and the only work left was the minor business of clearing snow from the roads. Even those odd jobs would be handled by others or by the people already staying in the territory. In practical terms, I had nothing but free time on my hands.
So if I could use this idle stretch for something—even something small…
"Ah."
"Hm? What is it? Is something wrong…?"
Helena had closed the distance the moment my mind went blank, her voice thick with concern. The way she casually looped an arm around my waist and pressed herself against me was a separate matter—but the worry in her tone was genuine. And even if she did have ulterior motives, I didn't mind. In a season this leisurely, wanting to soothe boredom through closeness was entirely understandable. Entertainment was scarce in this world; the methods for chasing it away tended to be rather primitive.
Still, for the moment, the question that had just flickered through my head took priority over Helena's designs.
"No. Nothing's wrong… I was just thinking something might come up soon."
"Come up? What sort of something?"
"Monster hunting. I was wondering if we ought to try it ourselves."
I took the hand she had wrapped around my waist and tipped my head slightly. Pulling free of her embrace would have been a shame, and this was the only way we could look each other in the eye while talking.
"Monster hunting? That's the Margrave of Riesling's responsibility. Do we really need to go that far…?"
The Margrave of Riesling. He was the count of a house that had declared neutrality for generations—a man of rather unusual bent who valued the kingdom's preservation over personal loyalty. Rumors swirled around him, of course: that his motives were unreadable, that no one knew what he was truly thinking. For my part, I found him a blessing.
He periodically entered those vast forests and quietly thinned the monsters so their numbers never swelled past a certain point. And while "loyalty to the country" in this world usually amounted to loyalty to the royal house, his philosophy stood apart from that. Dangerous as that stance could be under the wrong circumstances, it looked to me like genuine patriotism—and I respected it for that.
"…Ah. I see. You're hoping to improve people's impression of the dark elves even a little, aren't you? Whether it works or not."
"Exactly. You figured it out without me saying a word."
"Zion is my man, and I'm Zion's woman. Thoughts like that, I can read in a heartbeat."
Helena put more force into the latter half of the sentence, her face flushing. Given how much she preferred being dominated to doing the dominating, the reaction made perfect sense. Lately she'd been the one initiating more often—but her fundamental nature hadn't gone anywhere.
"What about the expedition party? How large should we make it?"
Helena let out a soft breath and, without quite realizing it, brought her lips to my ear, spilling hot air against my skin. It was the kind of temptation people only ever talked about in stories—bottomless sensuality that would not be easily shaken off.
I turned, drew her into a proper embrace from the front, and spoke slowly.
"We'll run it like a mercenary company. Include the dark elves, plus a few people to lead the group…"
"If you're going, take me with you. I'll speak to Father ahead of time. I feel bad unloading work on him, but he'll understand a little selfishness like this."
Helena stated her intention with absolute firmness, as if she had already read every corner of my mind. The fact that she'd even planned to dump the work on her father, Iss, told me she'd made up her mind in that brief span—or that she'd been thinking about something like this for a long time already.
Either way, I had no objections. There was no need for the old foolishness of getting ourselves "kidnapped" just to chase speed, and more importantly, this was a perfect stretch of free time. On top of that, having a Sword Master along would make the whole venture considerably safer. Normally, people would desperately try to stop a duke from walking into a monster den himself—but the Helena I knew was a woman whose martial power made monsters look tame. She would be careful about setting foot in a nest, of course, but there was no reason for her to be overly tense.
"What power do I have to stop you? If Helena wants to go, she goes."
"Liar."
Something about my answer must have needled her; she smiled sweetly and narrowed her eyes. The light in them said she was already itching to be held.
"The only man who dominates me, claiming he has no power… how am I supposed to believe that?"
She was heating up; pure desire that hadn't bothered to pass through her brain was spilling out unchecked. I was watching, in real time, words being formed by reflex rather than thought. People said plenty of bizarre things in life that made you wonder whether the brain was involved at all—but this was different. Her craving for affection had simply swallowed her head whole and reduced her to a creature that spoke.
"Where did you even hear something like that?"
"From the dark elves. They've been through all kinds of rough business, and they've lived a long time… so they had a lot of stories to tell. Anyway, about that…"
So that was why her speech and manner had gotten so much freer lately. I should have known they were involved.
I gave up on persuasion and simply held her tight around the waist, deciding to soothe her first. If I refused her for no particular reason, her timid side would spiral into self-reproach until she sank into depression—and then I'd have to comfort her anyway. Better to give her what she wanted now.
The next day, we rode out to Ellen's lodgings to set the plan in motion. A carriage would have been too conspicuous and grand, so we brought only two horses.
Helena's expression was brilliantly bright as she rode in the morning light. Now and then she stroked her stomach, cheeks coloring. Anyone who knew the circumstances would have had a hard time knowing how to react—so I simply followed quietly behind her. I was one of the people who knew the full story, after all.
Oh, come on! I said finish it already—why are you still dragging this out?!
As we drew near Ellen's place, a noisy chatter drifted out. The raised voices suggested some kind of trouble, but the tone was bright enough that it was probably just light grumbling.
Helena seemed to reach the same conclusion; she dismounted with perfect naturalness, tied her horse to a nearby tree, and headed straight for the cabin. The growing volume of the chatter made me laugh without meaning to.
S-sorry. But even in peacetime, a mercenary shouldn't let her guard down…
We're not children—we know that much! And we know how Ellen feels! But can we please eat first, huh?! Mealtime already came and went!
R-right…
Hunger made no exceptions for professionals, as the saying went. Olivia's not-quite-complaint was perfectly reasonable, and the other women chimed in with a word or two of agreement. The result was Ellen, cornered alone and flustered—a thoroughly entertaining sight.
"Ahem. Ahem. Forgive the undignified display. I never imagined anyone would call this early…"
A short while later, having finished her meal, Ellen cleared her throat awkwardly and set out two cups of tea. It was a brew of steeped herbs, sweet and elegant on the nose, cleaner and easier to drink than black tea.
"Well, yes. We did arrive without word. We're the ones who should apologize."
Helena opened the conversation by bowing her head in apology. That only flustered Ellen into waving her hands again—but because there was no real embarrassment involved, the atmosphere settled into something far more stable.
"A-anyway… since you've come so early, I assume you have some business?"
"Yes. We hurried over because we wanted to invite all of you on a monster hunt."
"Mm?! Monsters…?"
Just as expected, Ellen straightened the moment the word "monster" left Helena's mouth. She had surely taken part in monster subjugations a few times in her life—but measured against the years she had lived, the proportion was vanishingly small. The fact that she had made her name as a mercenary rather than a monster hunter made that clear enough.
"Monsters, is it. What sudden wind blew you this way?"
"There are several reasons… but mostly, I want some fresh air. I'm still at an age where I want to be out and about."
"Mm… well, Your Grace is still plenty young. And with that level of martial skill, being cooped up indoors would be stifling enough."
Ellen nodded as if she understood Helena's carefully roundabout excuse. Wanting fresh air wasn't a lie, either—which was probably why strength had entered Helena's voice. That particular force belonged to people telling the truth.
"How far do you intend to go?"
"Our maximum target is trolls. But I expect orc hunting will make up the bulk of it. As you know, they have the strongest reproductive rate of the lot."
"True enough. Their hides are good quality for leatherwork, too… among high-grade materials, they're relatively common, so they'll be extremely useful."
Beyond the margrave's territory that we had set our sights on lay a paradise for monsters—not because the environment was kind to them, but because the place simply teemed with the things. Various monsters formed packs there and lived by the raw law of the strong devouring the weak. Even so, the orcs' fertility was something else. Even while they were busy eating one another, humans outside the ecosystem still had to stay on guard.
"Very well. When a duke comes in person to make the request, it's hard to refuse—and more than that, winter days like these are when the farmers rest."
If there had been something like a greenhouse, it might have been different—but no such facilities existed on this continent. Farming followed the seasons, and winter rest was simply part of that order. That was why Ellen nodded so readily.
"Thank you. We'll handle the camping supplies and the rest of the preparations on our end. You only need to pack light personal gear."
"Understood. How many people are you planning to bring? A small party? Or a full expedition force?"
"Just your mercenary company, myself, and Zion. I've already spoken to Father and received his permission."
It had been closer to a report than a request for permission—but permission was permission. Iss had nodded without hesitation, as if he had kept a hand in affairs precisely for occasions like this. He might have simply wanted to indulge his daughter's whim, but that was pure speculation on my part. I couldn't read Iss's mind; all I could do was guess at reasons that seemed plausible. Still, I didn't think I was entirely wrong. I had seen Iss look at Helena's bright expression—and I had seen the satisfaction in his eyes with my own.
"A small party, then. In a way, that may be the wiser choice. Both Your Grace and Sir Zion are quite capable fighters. Keeping the force small and avoiding needless casualties seems sound. Of course, that also means our share of the spoils will be modest."
"True enough. With so few people, there's a hard limit on how much loot we can carry back. Even if we hire local porters on site, that limit will still be clear."
I was reluctant to take soldiers from our own territory—but hiring people from the margrave's lands was another matter. Anyone who came forward would have already weighed money against danger, which made the burden of bringing them along far lighter.