Chapter 14
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Hunting Festival (3)
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"Then, from now on, we'll speak casually."
"Sounds good, Yujin."
"Hehehe."
In turn, it was Irene and Lucia.
They seemed absolutely thrilled at the fact that they were hearing casual speech from him.
And rightly so...
'I got that stiff guy to use casual speech with me.'
Irene thought this was a tremendous accomplishment. A man who looked like he wouldn't bleed even if stabbed with a knife, a man who had shared her bed and even asked to be called by name but had steadfastly refused casual speech until now—he had finally used it.
Of his own volition, no less!
The two exchanged glances.
'This means Yujin has opened his heart to us at least a little, right, Lucia?'
'Seems like it, Irene.'
Of course, contrary to what they thought, it wasn't entirely accurate to say "he had finally opened his heart."
Nor was it entirely wrong.
Yujin's heart hadn't been closed off to begin with, and he was receiving their inexplicable affection quite positively.
In other words, his heart was already open, so it was only half right.
Only...
The way they were pushing their agenda—planning to tackle him onto the bed the moment they saw him—was simply too aggressive.
Isn't it true that when someone is extremely biased, the middle ground looks like it's all the way at the end?
Lucia and Irene were exactly like that.
...Whether they would ever realize it themselves was another question.
Yujin's group ventured a bit deeper into the forest to hunt more monsters.
It wasn't so much that they were confident in their skills and thus headed deeper; rather, there simply hadn't been any monsters around where they'd been until now.
One might say they just hadn't found any, but that wasn't it either.
He had expanded his senses to detect monsters, but... there really weren't any in the area.
'I was planning to take first place, but with no monsters like this, it's impossible.'
Not that there was any reward for first place anyway.
...Ah, no.
There was a reward.
'Some spirit medicine, was it?'
Spirit medicine was something he, already a master, didn't need, so he'd forgotten about it. But he recalled that the first-place prize was a pretty good one.
'If I get the spirit medicine... should I use it?'
It would increase his magic power, if only by a tiny amount.
So it wouldn't make much difference whether he took it or not... Should he sell it at auction then?
But the first-place prize of the hunting festival was a gift from the imperial family.
Selling it might be considered lese-majeste. Even if Yujin, as a master, wouldn't get arrested for it, politically it wouldn't look good.
'I'll think about it later.'
The competition wasn't over yet anyway, and with no monsters in sight, it was unclear if he could even take first.
Just as he was about to expand the range of his senses—
"...Yujin. This is a bit strange."
Lucia spoke up to him.
"What's strange?"
"...There are too few monsters. To a serious degree."
"..."
"...This is a place directly managed by the imperial family. It's safe, sure, but it shouldn't be to the point where there are absolutely no monsters. Of course, I expected more deeper in..."
"So the situation itself is different from usual, making it odd."
"Yes."
Her face was extremely serious.
Yujin was visiting this place for the first time, so he didn't know the norm.
But for Princess Lucia to react like this...
'Something really is off.'
Yujin naturally turned to Irene.
"Irene, what do you think?"
She closed her eyes for a moment in thought, then opened them again.
"...I think it's a bit strange too."
"In what way?"
"Just like Lucia said, there are too few monsters. The only ones we've seen so far are those frost wolves and the giant orc from earlier."
"Right."
"And the other participants we've encountered didn't seem to have any signs of battle either."
That meant...
"The other participants haven't found any monsters either."
"Probably."
"I think so too."
...
No monsters.
No monsters...
"Usually, people say monsters temporarily disappear right before a monster wave."
"Do you think it's a monster wave, Yujin?"
Irene asked.
He shook his head immediately.
"No. This is a place directly managed by the imperial family, and since the empire's founding, it's been safely operated for hundreds of years except for a few times."
"This could be one of those 'few times.'"
Lucia, who had been lost in thought, offered her opinion.
"...What about the hypothesis that a new apex predator monster has appeared in the forest?"
A new apex predator...
"Normally, if a new apex predator appears, it disrupts the ecosystem balance, pushing out the existing monsters. Then you'd expect the displaced ones to rampage near the forest entrance..."
At that moment, Irene seemed to realize something and muttered softly.
"...No way?"
"Hm?"
"Just like Lucia said, a new apex predator has appeared. One that either devoured all the existing monsters or has such overwhelming dominance that it gathered them somewhere."
Devoured them or dominated them...
A powerful individual or a cunning group leader—two possibilities.
'It's plausible.'
But it was just a hypothesis.
All the explanations sounded reasonable, but nothing was confirmed without checking directly.
Plus, unlike their serious discussion, it might turn out to be nothing.
'I need to check it out, even if lightly.'
The moment he tried to vastly expand his sensory range—
"..."
He sensed presences approaching from this direction.
"...Presences. Three of them."
"Should we avoid them?"
"No. Let's wait."
So they waited briefly with the girls, and the bushes ahead rustled.
Out burst the Crown Prince and Northern Grand Duke, looking somewhat dissatisfied, with Sena sandwiched between them, her expression extremely unpleasant.
The two groups, suddenly face-to-face, fell into a momentary silence.
Judging that there was no benefit to exchanging words, Yujin was about to lead his group away first—
"...Yujin, no. Your Excellency the Marquis."
Sena called out to him from behind.
The forest naturally filled with a tense silence different from before.
"Whew, hello, Lady Marilsian."
He suppressed the urge to click his tongue and turned to Sena. As their eyes met, the Crown Prince and Northern Grand Duke on either side glared at him.
'...Tch.'
Not averting your eyes?
I didn't call you; your precious Sena called first, he wanted to snap, but... he held back.
"...What did you need from us?"
"...No, I just ran into you and wondered if the hunting was going well."
'...What?'
Yujin's group's expressions hardened at Sena's words.
They thought she was picking a fight by asking if the hunting was going well.
"I'm curious too. Marquis, is the hunting going well?"
The Northern Grand Duke said with a smile. Of course, his voice dripped with mockery.
'...Mocking me?'
A subtle displeasure washed over Yujin, as if they knew he wasn't hunting successfully.
Yujin, slightly hardening his expression, slowly put some distance between them.
"It's going very well, so no need to worry."
Lucia and Irene shot him glances.
'This is ruining my appetite. Let's just go.'
'Ignore them and go, Yujin.'
Reading their eyes, he nodded.
"Then we'll be on our way."
Ah, before leaving, Yujin pulled a small prank.
"Uhihihihihih—!!!"
He sent just enough killing intent toward the horse the Northern Grand Duke was riding to startle it moderately.
"Wh-what's wrong with the horse...!"
"Pfft, Grand Duke, can't you handle a horse? Pathetic for a noble."
Leaving the Crown Prince's mocking laughter behind, Yujin's group withdrew.
Whisper whisper—
'That was you just now, right, Yujin?'
Nod—
'Hehe, well done.'
After parting from Sena's group, Yujin thought.
'I didn't expect Sena to be with the Crown Prince and Northern Grand Duke.'
Irene was famous as a genius mage, and Lucia, though she stayed out of the imperial succession and lived quietly, had magic talent comparable to Irene's.
In other words, Yujin's partners had enough combat prowess to travel together safely...
'Compared to that, Sena...'
Hm.
...Has none?
No matter how he looked, she had no combat ability.
No signs of sword training, and she didn't feel like a mage with that lack of distinctive magic power.
She had the basic magic power anyone human should have... but that was it.
'...So those idiots brought a defenseless civilian on a hunt?'
...Seriously?
Can people be that stupid...?
Or were they so focused on showing off to a girl that their vision narrowed?
If not that, then...
'...Does Sena have some hidden power?'
...Maybe. Personally, his feelings aside, Sena was the romance novel's heroine, so she might have something special.
No, the odds were high that she did.
But...
What if she really was just a powerless civilian?
And what if, coincidentally, some big incident happened?
...
Whether she joined the hunting festival willingly or was dragged into it, he didn't know...
'Tch.'
He stopped thinking. For now, whatever happened, he'd try to prevent it as much as possible.
"Let's head deeper for now."
"Yes, Yujin."
"Hehe."
Irene and Lucia let out laughs.