Giant Hunt (4)
The Soaring Wolves and Geren approached.
Not all of the Wolves had come; the rest had rushed to tend the wounded.
"Lord Roy! That was truly magnificent. You overturned every one of my expectations in a single stroke. I am in absolute awe. Ah, where does such talent even come from…?"
Shepherd had spent the entire day discussing magic with Roy and had grown quite close to him. Praise now poured from the man without pause.
"Captain. You won't have a care left in the world from now on. Not with a son like this. Why on earth did you keep him hidden from us? That was cold."
"You think the captain hid him on purpose? The boy only just had his baptism—he's that young. There simply wasn't a chance to mention it. I'm jealous myself. My own kids… aigoo…"
"Save the scolding for later and give him some praise already. He took down an ogre. A seven-year-old child. Doesn't it sound like something out of a hero legend? Even if we told people, they probably wouldn't believe us."
The words from the others were nothing but praise as well. Everyone found the situation absurd and astonishing, yet they had carefully folded those emotions away while the ogre thrashed. Now was the time for praise.
After all, the enormous ogre that had filled them with terror had been brought down by the small boy standing before them. In a way, he was their savior.
Roy looked up at the baron as if to say, See?
The baron was still heaving deep sighs.
Honestly, the man is so bad at being straightforward. He could just brag about his son to his heart's content.
Roy stepped past the baron and approached Geren.
"Teacher, I need your help."
"What? Me again? Absolutely not. Even I have trouble dealing with the lady of the territory."
"That's not it… We have to freeze the ogre starting now."
"Pardon?"
Roy immediately gave a signal—meaning they should speak in whispers so the others wouldn't overhear.
What are you doing right now? You have to take the lead, Teacher! If I step forward again, it looks wrong.
Ah, my apologies.
It has to be frozen solid. It's still hot even though it's September. If we mess this up, the whole thing will rot. I'd love to start the butchering right this second, but it's night…
Haa…
Don't think of it as a bother, please. I'll always make sure you're treated better than anyone.
When the whispered exchange ended, Roy looked up at Geren's face and beamed. To Geren, however, that smile looked like the grin of a tiny devil.
Preventing the ogre's decay was critically important. Before the full butchering began tomorrow, several measures had to be taken immediately—chief among them securing the ogre's blood, which spoiled the fastest, as fresh as possible.
Geren cleared his throat several times, then called out loudly to everyone.
"Mercenaries! We need help at once. First we must move that corpse to the butchering grounds. If we delay, monsters drawn by the smell of blood may swarm overnight. Any Wolves who still have strength left, your cooperation would be appreciated as well."
"…?"
"…!"
Shepherd and Megan, who had been watching Geren, looked at each other and nodded.
Confirmed.
As expected… Lord Roy is a genius.
They had just witnessed Roy and Geren whispering, followed by Geren requesting help from the others. Watching that sequence, Megan and Shepherd became certain their hypothesis was correct: the magic reinforcement was Roy's technique, and Geren was merely a safeguard to protect the boy.
But there was nothing to worry about. Neither of them had any intention of revealing this fact to a single soul.
"Even in the middle of all this, you…"
The baron was already thoroughly fed up with his son scrambling to secure the ogre's corpse. How in the world was he supposed to handle the boy from now on? His worries only deepened.
Still, there was something he needed to claim right away as well.
"Roy. I'm sorry, but the ogre's heart is mine."
"The ogre's heart? Well, go ahead. You lured the ogre all the way here, and Father and your old comrades bought me the time I needed to finish the spell. That's how I was able to bring it down with my own hands. Geren Teacher agrees, right?"
"Of course. We will yield the heart. It isn't used in the reinforcement magic anyway."
Roy made a point of emphasizing that he was the one who had felled the ogre—in other words, declaring that most of the spoils belonged to him. Naturally, he also secured the agreement of Geren, his business proxy.
Unseen by the others, Roy caught Geren's collar and gave it a little shake. Another signal.
"Ahem. And… we also plan to distribute the revenue generated from the ogre's byproducts appropriately among all of you. The highest priority will go toward the weapon reinforcement His Lordship desires, but surplus weapons will also be produced and sold at fair prices. Substantial profit will result from that."
"Now that is welcome news. Those weapons—we'll be able to buy them too, right?"
One of the Wolves asked.
"Of course. The Soaring Wolves will be given first priority to purchase. And the mercenaries who worked hard here will receive the next priority after the Wolves, if they wish."
"That's the best news I've heard all day. Haha."
"We only watched from the back, but if they're offering, we take it. Right, Brother Padec?"
"Quiet! This autumn isn't over yet! Drop your guard and you'll pay for it."
"Which is exactly why we need better gear, isn't it? From the look of things, weapons made with that ogre will be better than what we've been using."
The atmosphere was warm and lively—until it froze solid in an instant.
"Roy, you little—!"
Anna, who had been up on the hill, had finally shown herself.
"Mother. I have done nothing wrong."
Roy brazenly struck first.
"What nonsense is that! Is this the latrine you claimed you were going to?"
"As a dutiful son, when I learned Father was in danger, even the business I was already finishing went right back in. So I ran here in a hurry!"
A few people burst out laughing at Roy's remark, only to clamp their mouths shut at once. Anna was glaring with eyes like axes.
"At your age, staying put is how you help! Just thinking about what would have happened if Father and everyone here had failed to bring down the ogre is horrifying."
"Um… Mother? I was the one who brought the ogre down."
"Is that what you say while your mother is scolding you? What kind of ridiculous joke is that—"
"Sister-in-law. Lord Roy really did bring it down."
"What?"
"It's true. If not for Lord Roy, far more people would have died or been injured."
"What are you talking about…?"
The Wolves called Anna "sister-in-law," yet they always attached the honorific "Lord" when speaking of Roy. That alone showed how thoroughly today's events had earned the boy their recognition.
Anna and little Anna clinging to her side, on the other hand, could only stare in blank disbelief.
Roy…? No, how? Are they all teasing me together?
From the hill she had not been able to tell whose magic had felled the ogre. She hadn't even realized it had fallen to magic at all. She had only found it deeply strange that the rampaging giant monster had suddenly started thrashing around in the mud.
"It can't be…"
Anna looked to her husband, the baron. He kept his mouth tightly shut, face weary.
"It's real?"
No matter how many people Anna scanned, every last one of them was acknowledging that Roy had brought the ogre down. She simply could not accept the reality.
"How did you…?"
"I-It's all thanks to having an excellent teacher."
Every gaze turned toward Geren. He wore a bitter smile, looking thoroughly put-upon.
Only Anna stood dazed for a long while, staring at her son.
"Roy… that enormous monster…"
"Sister-in-law. You've done something truly remarkable. Who would have guessed a genius like this would be born in Greenhilt."
"Sister. My sincere congratulations. I should have said this on Lord Roy's birthday, but I simply can't hold it in. Lord Roy is going to become a truly great mage."
Roy quietly took a step backward. The way they kept heaping praise on him—genius this, genius that—was getting uncomfortable.
A genius… With this level of mana I'm nowhere close. I still can't even summon that one.
Still, it didn't feel bad. He had been on the verge of a serious scolding from Anna, yet the matter had resolved far more easily than expected, leaving him oddly lighthearted.
So that settles one problem, at least.
Now he would be able to produce intermediate or higher-grade mana solution, which meant he could craft far more reliable charms. And that finally gave him the grounds to request of the baron the long-cherished freedom he had waited seven years for—free outings from the manor.
His skill had been more than adequately demonstrated today. If the baron still refused on grounds of danger, Roy need only demonstrate a charm's effect and convince him that way.
True freedom…
Meanwhile the baron was nursing schemes of his own.
The matter he had been turning over since Roy's baptism. The reason he had personally taken the field the moment he learned of the ogre's appearance. And the brand-new plan that had just occurred to him—using all of this to bring Roy under perfect control.
Father and son each held very different thoughts inside.
Just then Fabre, looking as if he had done nothing but run all day, came up and spoke.
"Captain. Aren't we doing that thing today?"
"What thing."
"Ah, you know. The old tradition. Anyway, it was the captain's son who did it, so it's as good as our own work, right?"
"……"
The baron heaved another deep sigh. But every one of the Wolves was looking at him with expectant eyes, so he had no choice. He drew Triumph.
The mercenaries nearby also turned their gazes on him. He raised his voice.
"We, the Soaring Wolves, have felled the giant monster ogre upon this land!"
"Waaaaah!"
The unsettled atmosphere ignited in an instant. Everyone drew their weapons, thrust them toward the sky, and roared. Even the watching mercenaries, swept up without realizing it, shouted along with the Wolves.
"We felled the ogre!"
"Waaaaah!"
And at the very end, every gaze gathered on Roy. Of course they did. The one who had actually brought the ogre down was none other than the boy.
The baron spoke to him.
"No need to be modest. You say a word as well. Everyone is waiting."
"…I-I caught the ogre!"
It was a trembling, clumsy shout. He wanted nothing more than to crawl into a mouse hole and hide.
But then—
"Waaaaaah—!!"
"Roy brought it down!!"
"A seven-year-old brat took down a monster ogre!!!"
The loudest cheer yet swept through the Wolf Forest.