Catching Monsters
Catching Monsters
The Fontaine Territory is barren.
Being a border territory touching the Demon Realm, it lacked fertile land.
It is surrounded on all sides by rugged mountain ranges and forests teeming with monsters.
The history of the Fontaine Territory began with people gathering and building strength on a narrow strip of land, barely cultivated while dodging the threat of monsters.
That is why Count Fontaine-nim fully supported the profession of hunters.
His resourcefulness, which was practically a war against monsters, cultivated the potential of the Fontaine Territory, just as previous Lords had done.
The heart of the Fontaine Territory, also known as the Hunter's Territory.
The Lord's office.
A single sheet of parchment lay on a dark brown wooden desk.
Count Alberto von Fontaine scanned the writing.
A report had arrived from the hunter dispatched as the hunting ground manager in the northern village.
The handwriting was neat. It was as if it were written by someone who had received formal education in the city.
He was a hunter who started from the bottom, yet he was a man of great insight.
'It was a vacant lot I had just left sitting there because I had no immediate use for it.'
The traces he discovered while searching the hunting grounds could not be simply overlooked.
Multiple types of monsters had gathered in one place.
If someone ignorant saw this, they wouldn't understand the significance of monsters gathering in one spot and would just brush it off, thinking, "Oh, there are just a lot of monsters."
"A Monster King might have appeared, huh."
Monster King.
The king who leads monsters.
A focal point that organizes monsters into groups, regardless of their species.
However, the meaning of "Monster King" is quite broad.
Even a monster leading two or three others is called a Monster King.
Therefore, the title "Monster King" itself evoked more annoyance than a sense of crisis.
However, the more Alberto read the report, the more his brow furrowed.
"More than ten, you say?"
Monsters strictly follow the logic of power.
If ten monsters had gathered, one had to assume that an entity with enough power to control those monsters was leading the pack.
Two or three is fine.
It just means there's a slightly stronger monster.
Once it exceeds ten, the severity flips 180 degrees.
If it can rule over ten monsters, it can lead twenty, even a hundred, and if those gather, it can possess a "force" worthy of a true king.
To stop a snowball that has started rolling, you need a brain that can look past the common perception of a Monster King and take it seriously.
An existence that could overturn the territory.
That was the Monster King.
"I was full of bravado in my youth, too."
That is why he wasn't feeling a great sense of crisis at the name "Monster King."
Nevertheless, he took it seriously because the hunter who sent the report was the leader who had led a 'Platinum' ranked party.
"If it were him, who had discovered and stopped a Monster King beforehand, he wouldn't have sent this frivolously."
Only the rhythmic sound of tapping fingers on the desk filled the office.
Objectively speaking, the possibility of a Monster King is a disaster that should not even exist, one that absolutely cannot be overlooked.
"Hmm..."
Even so, Alberto could not make a decision.
His gaze turned to other parchment documents.
Every single one of those documents contained a common word.
Monster King.
Is this really a coincidence?
Alberto had sent knights to every village, one by one, to prevent disasters in advance.
He had sent them thinking it was a simple mission to subjugate a "slightly stronger monster" leading one or two others.
"Hmm..."
If he dispatched any more knights, the defenses of the Lord's castle would weaken.
He had never seen a similar case in the history of Fontaine, nor in the history of the nation.
Whether it was a coincidence or something else.
Alberto had no choice but to make a decision.
"Call Jake."
The attendant bowed and withdrew.
I swung the axe down.
Jjeok.
The firewood split in half and fell to either side of the stump.
I cleared away the fallen firewood and placed a new log.
Jjeok.
It was a monotonous repetition.
A heavy fatigue built up in my arms, but this was just a warm-up.
On days without hunting, nothing beats chopping wood.
It's good exercise and prepares for winter.
The morning air was quite chilly, but as I moved my body, I quickly warmed up.
Jjeok.
"Yaaawn."
A long, drawn-out yawn from behind me.
I put down the axe and turned my head.
Anna was sitting on a log placed to the side, resting her chin on her hands which were placed on her knees, watching me.
She rubbed her sleepy eyes.
"Is it fun?"
"...Yes."
What's fun about this?
I'm not going hunting today.
Once you've been marked by a Direwolf, going in now is suicide.
I can't do anything until I find someone skilled enough to watch my back.
Jjeok.
The log split.
Anna yawned again, and tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
Jjeok.
A pile of firewood had built up quite a bit.
───Clop-clop.
Just then, the sound of horse hooves rang out from afar.
The sound of a snorting horse approached my front yard.
A knight approached on horseback, his silver-white armor clanking.
The knight dismounted.
"Dane, it's been a while."
"It's been almost a year, Sir Jake."
Jake.
Back when I led a Platinum party, we often faced each other as attendants when accepting requests from the Lord.
He was a knight the Lord cherished quite a bit, so to think he would grace this backwater village with his presence.
Jake tied his horse's reins to a nearby tree and took off his helmet.
"I didn't think you would come yourself, Sir."
"If it had been anyone else's report, I would have dismissed it as nonsense. The Lord sent me because he trusts the credibility you've built up."
His voice was layered with heavy trust.
"More importantly, is that true? A Monster King? Are you speaking with certainty?"
"Yes. At the very least, the potential for development is high."
The Monster King was a serious matter.
"But for someone who trusts me, are you the only one here, Sir Jake?"
"Haha. Look here. The fact that I came at all means he considers it very grave."
Jake lowered his voice by a tone.
"Actually, the situation in the territory isn't very good."
"Yes?"
"Reports of similar monster clustering are pouring in from all over the territory. Most of them were probably just one or two monsters gathering, but it was a bit ominous to view it simply as a coincidence."
"So you came for a preliminary inspection."
"And to clear it out if we can, while we're at it."
Jake slapped my back with his palm.
"But Dane, when did you get married?"
"...."
His gaze turned toward Anna.
"Does she look like my child?"
"If not, never mind. Is she about five or six? Did you pick up some orphan somewhere?"
"Something like that."
I stood the axe against the wall.
"Could you wait a moment? I'll be ready right away."
On the way to the forest.
I walked side by side with Jake and opened my mouth.
"Did you set the traps?"
"I have. I hope at least one is caught in the trap."
Jake chuckled.
"Your specialty was always traps. If you snag a monster with a clever trap, there's no easier subjugation than that."
It was a hunter's basic.
When dealing with monsters, a head-on confrontation is the last resort.
I, for one, don't understand why anyone would refuse a good method like traps and insist on a head-on fight.
When I led a party that was missing a few screws, my main goal was to create an environment where they could shine.
"You were like that when you caught the Monster King before, too. You laid out twenty traps and lured them in, picking them off one by one."
"That I did."
"If we do it like that, the two of us should be enough."
This wasn't my first time subjugating a Monster King.
Based on that experience, I planned to catch this Monster King as well.
Unless Monster Kings are contacting each other over the internet, there's no way my plan will go wrong.
Besides, this time I was equipped with much better talent than before.
"But why did you bring this young lady?"
"She's a guide."
"This kid?"
I took Anna and headed into the forest.
If I were alone, I wouldn't have brought her, but since Jake is here, a hunter uses whatever convenient means are available.
Anna gauged the location of the monsters through spirits.
She couldn't detect them through the entire land outside the spirits' domain, but she could expand her detection range to a wide area.
Anna tugged on my sleeve.
I tilted my body to the side and leaned my ear in.
Whisper, whisper.
"...Monster, found."
As we pushed through the bushes, the familiar stench of beasts stung my nose.
And the sound of metal creaking.
Walking with muffled footsteps, I carefully pushed aside the bushes.
"Grrr..."
The beast's rough breathing scraped against my eardrums.
A feline monster was struggling in mid-air with its front leg caught in an iron trap.
The iron chain connected to the trap was wrapped around a tree and pulled taut, and every time the tree shook, leaves fell in droves.
"Grrrr..."
The creature's black eyes turned toward me.
"It's caught."
"Your trap-making skills are still the same."
Jake drew his sword.
The blade flashed, reflecting the sunlight.
A bluish light gathered on the blade.
Sword Aura.
The knight's sword pierced the monster's neck.
With one thrust, the monster went limp.
"It's anticlimactic, but easy is best. If I waste energy on the minions, it'll be a struggle to carry out the Lord's orders."
"Ung!"
Anna tugged on my sleeve.
She pointed somewhere urgently.
A Snake Monster shot out from the nearby grass like an arrow, opening its mouth wide toward Jake.
A large snake monster, as big as a full-grown anaconda, bared its fangs.
It bit Jake's armor.
His side was bitten by the Snake Monster, and he wrapped his arms around the Snake Monster's neck.
"Where do you think you're going!"
He squeezed its neck right there, breaking its neck bone.
"You are truly amazing."
I clapped calmly.
No matter how much a hunter hones their skills, they are just a mere trickster in front of a knight.
Unlike me, who uses all sorts of methods to catch monsters, Jake finished it with a click.
Since he covers his lack of defense with armor, the armor bitten by the Snake Monster's fangs only had a slight scratch.
The territory's tactical weapon.
That was a knight.
Rustle.
Just then, the bushes shook.
What flew rapidly into the sky was a monster in the shape of a bird.
"Coward."
Both Jake and I knew about the Bird Monster's ambush and were waiting for it to strike.
Because the most vulnerable time for an ambush is when it's prepared for and countered.
But the Bird Monster was timid.
The Bird Monster, which had been the size of a fist, flew off at the speed of an arrow.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh!
Water droplets gathered into a mass, compressed, and shone clearly.
Anna muttered something with her lips.
The compressed water mass was shot toward the Bird Monster.
The water mass, which closely pursued the back of the fleeing monster, hit it precisely.
Paat!!!!
An explosion erupted in the air.
Even just hearing the sound, a terrible rupture that would crush bones echoed through the forest.
When we went to the crash site, the Bird Monster was twitching and flapping.
Even though the Bird Monster was small and he had broken the Snake Monster's neck to kill it, she caught a monster that a knight would have to pour his full magical power into to barely kill, just by shooting a water mass hard.
"....."
Jake's jaw dropped blankly.
"Dane, what is this child?"
"...........She's my daughter."
I replied nonchalantly.