Too Furious for Words

Justice demands power, and with power, responsibility.

At Animus Royal Academy, an institution that takes noblesse oblige as its motto, there exists a system of commissions. Unlike the requests that pass between students through the school's clubs and extracurriculars, these commissions come from beyond the academy walls. Civilians place them. Nobles place them. Even the royal palace itself places them.

The contents, naturally, run the gamut. Some ask for a needed item to be found and delivered. Others seek extra hands for labor. A few even request cooperation in apprehending a wanted criminal. But the commissions that outnumber all the rest, without question, are monster hunts.

"It's been some time since I last saw you at the Guild, Count. I'm glad you look well."

"And you, Guildmaster, seem a touch thinner than when I saw you last."

"Haha. Well, I'm getting on in years — keeping myself in shape is getting harder."

Benjamin and the Guildmaster of the Royal Capital Exterminator Guild exchanged bright smiles and easy pleasantries, and the rest of the party blinked as they looked from one man to the other.

It was true of every corner of the continent: beyond the bounds of human settlement, magical beasts swarmed without end. Against that staggering number, the knights, soldiers, and Exterminators tasked with hunting them down were always, always too few. As a result, the Guild that managed those Exterminators wielded influence of terrifying scale. Naturally, the Guildmaster of a larger city held greater power — and the Guildmaster of the Royal Capital possessed authority to rival even high nobility.

And that Guildmaster had come out in person to welcome a mere student.

Neither Felix nor Lucian for a moment imagined the Guildmaster had appeared on their account. Adventurers were, at their core, meritocrats. They did not ignore the law or social rank entirely, but neither did they look up to titles the way ordinary people did. And among adventurers, the Exterminators who specialized in hunting magical beasts took that attitude even further. Even royalty received only the bare courtesies — never special treatment.

The Guildmaster himself, a man of imposing bulk, was proof enough. The moment they had entered, he had quite literally come running — but all Felix and Lucian, princes of the realm, had received was a perfunctory greeting. With Benjamin, on the other hand, he was chatting away in the warmest of atmospheres, going on so long it seemed the conversation might never end.

Crystal, watching this, leaned toward Miya and asked in a small voice,

"Senior, did he used to work as an Exterminator?"

"Yeah. He never told me the details — didn't want me to worry, I guess. But he's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠done a lot of other things besides."

Miya was no less surprised than the others. She had never dreamed Benjamin would be received with this kind of deference.

After talking with the Guildmaster for quite some time, Benjamin brought the conversation to a close before it could stretch any further.

"Well then — the Guild has confirmed everything, so we'll be heading out at once."

"Of course. I'll have a banquet waiting for your return. I hope ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you'll look forward to it."

The Guildmaster saw them off with unflagging courtesy, and the party left the Guild behind. As they made for the city gates, a slow tension began to gather among them. It was only natural. The commission they had taken this time was one that only high-ranking Exterminators could hope to handle.

Feels good to be out for a change.

The moment we passed beyond the walls of the Royal Capital, I drew a slow breath and let it out again, tasting the difference in the air. Back when I had been working as an Exterminator — paying off debts and keeping myself fed — I had never had the luxury of noticing something like that.

Taking this commission hadn't been about getting some fresh air. Still, thinking about it, I had been getting precious little exercise lately. Maybe this had come at just the right time.

"…I know it's a little late to be asking this, but how did we even get a B-rank commission? Students at the Royal Academy can only take up to C-rank, can't they?"

Camilla's question turned every other head in the group. Now that she mentioned it, their faces said, that was a fair point.

Asking that now, of all times. Then again, we had taken the commission yesterday and set out this morning — there hadn't been a spare moment for questions of any kind.

"If you have a record of hunting a high-rank beast, or if the Guild vouches for you, even a student can take B-rank commissions and above."

"And which of those is it for you, Benjamin?"

"Both."

Yesterday, after picking up the commission at the academy's request office, I had gone to the student council room. There I had asked Felix and Lucian for a little "help" with a B-rank monster hunt. I hadn't threatened them, exactly. I had merely wondered aloud whether a person like myself might not find a warm welcome in either the commoner faction or the noble faction, and asked them what they thought.

Both of them had been only too happy to oblige. The result was the pair of miserable faces currently trudging along behind me.

They should have kept a tighter leash on their subordinates. Or better yet, they should have courted Miya in earnest. If they had, I would have thrown my full weight behind blessing the match instead of putting the fear of God into them.

I was enjoying the sight of the two princes, who could not hide their nerves at facing a high-rank beast for the first time, when Crystal — walking beside me — shoved her head in toward the map I was holding.

"We're heading to the last place the griffin was sighted, right?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Griffins fly, don't they? Can you even find one from a sighting report?"

"Of course you can."

Crystal was a genius, no question — but there was nothing strange about her not knowing something she had never done before. I had been the same, once.

"How?"

"A lot of the time they linger at the sighting location, or they pass through it on a regular circuit. And even if they don't, the place is usually crawling with tracks."

Droppings and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠feathers were the obvious ones, but there were claw-sharpening marks, remnants of a kill, and any number of other signs besides. If you went looking, you could find them until you were sick of it.

"You do need a knack for knowing what to look for, though."

"Wow. You really know a lot, senior."

"Wander around out of your mind for a few days and you'll pick it up whether you want to or not."

The difference between knowing something in your head and actually doing it — I had learned that the hard way, on just those kinds of days.

"Eek. How many days are we going to be out here?"

Crystal was not the only one who looked appalled. The possibility of camping rough for several nights had Miya and Camilla wearing deeply worried faces as well.

A professional Exterminator, even a woman, would not have batted an eye at going a few days without a bath. They would have been more concerned that the smell might tip off their target and send it running. But that was because they were professionals. These girls were not Exterminators — they were still students. Asking that much of them would have been shameless, and I had no intention of asking.

"Don't worry about it. If a griffin came close enough to be spotted by people, that means it nested somewhere nearby."

It might have judged the hunting easy in the area. Or it might have come to mate, or to teach its young how to hunt. The first of those would not have mattered much. Personally, though, a beast raising its young was the last thing I wanted to run into.

It was not some soft-hearted reluctance to harm a cub. A beast defending its offspring turned so vicious you had to rank it a full tier above others of its kind.

When we finally reached the site of the last reported sighting, I had one piece of good news and one piece of bad news for the group.

"The good news is, we don't have to worry about camping anymore."

"What's the bad news, brother?"

"The Guild's intelligence was incomplete. This is an A-rank hunt."

I turned away from my companions' stricken faces and looked down at the blood soaking the ground, feeling a familiar, unwelcome tightness. Judging by the shape and color of the feathers scattered everywhere, a griffin and some other beast had fought here.

The problem was that the griffin — a B-rank creature — had almost certainly been swallowed in a single bite, without putting up anything worth calling a fight. I had told the others it was A-rank. It might well have been worse than that.

If I had been alone, I would have simply kept tracking, killed whatever it was, and collected both the bounty and compensation from the Guild for the bad intelligence. Continuing the hunt with this lot in tow, however, was out of the question.

"We should head ba— …no. We can't."

Even in broad daylight, the sky went black for an instant. An enormous shadow had fallen over us.

I lifted my head. It was exactly as large as I had expected — large enough to have eaten a griffin in one gulp.

"A d-dragon?!"

"No. It's on the large side, but it's probably a wyvern."

It was huge enough that mistaking it for a dragon would have been perfectly reasonable. For all I knew, it was a named specimen the Guild had already catalogued.

The blue-scaled thing spotted us, wheeled once, and began ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a rapid descent. Apparently one griffin had not been enough to fill its belly.

I drew my sword, reflecting that my plan to put a scare into the princes had succeeded a little too well, and launched myself toward the diving wyvern. I meant to take its head off in a single stroke — and then a scream tore up from the ground.

"Senior—!"

Instinct, or something close to a reflex, threw my left hand up and dumped mana through it. The burst of force flung me to the right, and a mass of magic tore through the space I had just occupied, slamming into the wyvern.

I glanced down. Lucian had his staff out, shaking so hard he seemed horrified by his own hands.

"Lucian!"

I saw Felix seize his brother's arm and force it down, then let myself drop and landed on the ground. Fighting a wyvern in the air was suicide. I had missed my first strike — the only one I would get while it was still careless — and now I had no choice but to wait until it committed to a full landing.

Instead, the thing checked its dive, twitched and jerked in midair, then roared and climbed. Lucian's spell must have been a paralysis charm. Its wariness had just shot through the roof.

"And that thing's magic resistance is no joke, either."

Even in a panic, Lucian was a mage of the upper ranks. That it was already shaking the spell off told me this was no ordinary beast. Whether from intelligence or caution, it refused to come down — and then it simply changed course and flew away.

We had no particular reason we had to kill it. I decided to count that as a blessing.

"B-Benjamin. I-I'm sorry…"

Once the blue wyvern had vanished from sight, I turned around to find Lucian approaching with the face of a man who had committed an unforgivable crime. I had not the slightest intention of blaming him. A beast like that appearing at all had been something close to an accident, and if you wanted to assign a cause, it was mine — I was the one who had dragged a pack of amateurs out here to put a scare into two princes.

"It's fine. You don't need to worry about—"

WHACK!

"…it…?"

It happened so fast that no one could have seen it coming. No one moved. The only person in motion was the one who had caused it.

"You! Almost! Killed! Our! Brother!"

My little sister had just driven her fist into the face of this country's Second Prince, and she was still so furious she could not even form a proper sentence, standing there huffing and puffing as if it had not been nearly enough.

…I'm so fucked.