The Anomaly Hunter Wants to Retire
When bandits appear, you send soldiers. When monsters appear, you send knights. But when an anomaly appears, a lord has nothing he can do. They assume an anomaly is simply some kind of monster or sorcery. Ignorance breeds contempt, and contempt always leads to reckless decisions. Only after paying the price in blood do they regret it and come looking for a specialist like me. For whatever reason, it has been a full ten years since I transmigrated into this romance-fantasy world where anomalies exist, and I had somehow become an elite specialist in hunting them.
I advanced down the corridor of the splendid lord's castle toward the lord's chamber. The refined fragrance that had been drifting faintly through the air was, in an instant, swallowed by the thick smell of blood. The moment the attendant opened the door, a ghastly scene greeted me.
Theodore Belpheart, the frontier Count of the Rewen Empire. In the original novel, he appeared as a steadfast ally of the protagonist, and there he lay, bedridden and attended by his physicians. His appearance was very different from what I remembered of the book's descriptions. For one thing, unlike the original, where he was described as whole and unharmed, both of the Count's arms had been completely severed. The cuts were so unnervingly clean that they told me what had taken his arms was no ordinary blade, but something incomprehensible.
"Fifty men... a full fifty of them."
The Count, sensing my presence, spoke with a labored voice. "Fifty soldiers, annihilated in the blink of an eye. That deer-like thing slaughtered my men in some unspeakable way...!"
No trace of frontier lordly dignity remained in him. Only eyes filled with terror and humiliation, like those of a man who had witnessed something he was never meant to see, cut through the air. Then the butler standing guard beside the Count gestured me forward with a tilt of his chin. I gave the proper formal bow and addressed the lord.
"Anomaly Hunter Lehin, here to see Lord Theodore."
"An Anomaly Hunter... ha! To think I'd live long enough to invite your kind into my castle."
After spitting out that soliloquy of contempt and resignation, Theodore turned his gaze toward me and continued in a voice thick with disbelief. "I hear you've made quite a name for yourself... They call you 'Excellent Hunter Lehin' out there in the world, do they not?"
"That is correct, my lord. I can proudly say I am an expert in the field of anomaly hunting."
"Your confidence alone I will grant is admirable. But listen, hunter. Neither spear nor sword of my soldiers availed against that unholy creature. How, then, do you propose to hunt such an absurdity?"
Calling me in himself, then refusing to trust me like this. Well, it's only natural he'd talk that way. Every client of lordly rank asks me the same question. It's a dismissal — how could the likes of you kill what even I and my soldiers couldn't touch?
I answered evenly. "An anomaly is not a thing of this world. Naturally, cold weapons — tools of this world — cannot hunt it. I will use a different method."
"Not a thing of this world...? What in the blazes does that mean?"
"Hunters often compare this world to a manuscript, and anomalies to ink spilled upon it. They are entities from outside the work that destroy the manuscript itself. That is why we bind them within this world's laws through a special ritual..."
Just as I was continuing my detailed explanation, the lord shrieked at me in an irritable voice. "I don't give a damn whether you people compare the world to a sheet of paper or a canvas! There is only one thing I want to know! Can you kill this thing, yes or no? That is all I'll hear!"
Excuse me, you're the one who asked first. He's got a worse temper than the novel gave him credit for. Well, fair enough — anyone would be on edge after losing fifty of their own soldiers and both their arms.
"I cannot guarantee a kill. However, I can subdue it so that it never again brings harm to you or to Belpheart Territory."
"Then what are you dithering for! Get to the forest at once and bring me that thing's head! Capture it alive, and I'll pay you three times the promised reward!"
His attitude toward compensation, at least, I could appreciate. And since repeating the same explanation for the hundredth time wears thin, I simply bowed my head in silence. "Leave it to me. Before I go, may I hear about the anomaly's characteristics?"
"My knights will explain it to you. Go with them and listen as you travel."
"...With the knights, my lord?"
When I asked in a flustered tone, the Count bristled with fury. "That thing did THIS to my arms and butchered my territory's soldiers! It is an insult to our land and our house! I cannot possibly leave it to a hunter like you alone!"
"My lord, anomaly hunting is different from ordinary monster hunting. I'm more than sufficient on my own, and bringing non-specialists along is..."
"My honor and my pride are at stake! Our finest knights are waiting at the barracks — you will accompany them! That is an order!"
The Count clearly had no intention of bending. He simply could not comprehend that going to hunt an anomaly without any knowledge was tantamount to suicide. No explanation of mine would matter. If I refused the knights' company here, he'd obviously send me back empty-handed. In that case, so be it. Nothing left to do but handle it as best I could and try to keep everyone alive.
"Understood. In exchange, may I assume field command falls to me?"
"So be it. Hear me! Let it be known that the knights are to obey the hunter's orders above all else."
Fortunately, he knows how to treat a professional. Among the pride-blinded lords who can't read a situation, this much puts him on the better end.
Leaving the chamber, I was once more escorted by the attendant to the knights' barracks. In the training yard, knights in ostentatious uniforms already stood at attention. Their number was around twenty. Every single one looked like a cut above the sort of men you'd find anywhere — wearing parade uniforms instead of armor, which itself meant they possessed bodies beyond the human norm.
"You are the hunter his lordship hired?"
While I was gauging the knights' capabilities, one knight in a particularly striking uniform approached me. Judging by his tall frame and refined features, he had to be the son of some noble house. Second or third son of a barony, most likely.
"My name is Lehin. An honor to meet you, Sir Knight."
Just as I had with the Count, I placed a hand over my chest and bowed slightly. The knight looked me up and down as though examining some curious trinket, then introduced himself. "Tielan Folkes. Vice Commander of the Belpheart Knights. So this is my first time seeing an Anomaly Hunter in the flesh. But at the end of the day it's just monster hunting, isn't it? Do we really need you?"
Tielan's gaze was brimming with contempt and suspicion. I nodded calmly. "Anomaly hunting operates on an entirely different level from ordinary monster hunting. You must follow my instructions without fail."
"Oho? And precisely how is it different?"
"An anomaly can butcher a human being in the blink of an eye through any number of incomprehensible means. However outstanding your martial prowess, Sir Knight, if you break a rule the anomaly has set, you will lose your life before you can even react."
When I spoke as gravely as I could manage, Tielan adopted something resembling a listening posture. It didn't last long before it curdled into a sneer of displeasure.
"Ha! You jest too far, Anomaly Hunter. Or are you mocking us? Don't tell me you lump us in with those slaughtered foot soldiers?"
"Not at all, Sir Knight. I was merely attempting to explain the anomaly's particular nature. I had no intention of insulting you."
"Then it seems you know precious little about knights. Roric! Show him a thing or two!"
At Tielan's command, one of the knights beside him drew his sword. In the next instant, blue light gathered along the blade, taking the form of a keen edge.
"That is Aura — the ultimate weapon, forged only by knights who have trained their swordsmanship and inner mana to the absolute limit."
"Ah, yes..."
As if anyone here doesn't know that.
"A sword wreathed in Aura slices through the hardest plate armor like butter, and deals lethal harm even to spectres. Every man here can wield this Aura. Do we still look to you like fodder that can't so much as fight back?"
Tielan's voice carried pride that could pierce the heavens. And at the same time, it betrayed an arrogance that insisted there was no conceivable way he could lose to some creature out of the forest. In short: talking to him was pointless.
"I have no doubt of your skill, Sir Knight. But as I said, an anomaly is not an enemy that force alone can—"
Before I could finish my desperate attempt at persuasion, the other knights cut me off.
"You do go on, Anomaly Hunter. An anomaly is just a ghost or a spectre by another name, they say. How many of those do you think we've cut down?"
"All you need do, my friend, is stand beside us and tell us the anomaly's weak point. Might be you won't even get a turn before we finish it off!"
"HAHAHAHA!!"
After those two quipped in turn, every knight burst out laughing together.
Great. These people are all going to die.
"We've dallied long enough — move out! I'll brief you on the quarry as we march! All of you, ride!"
At Tielan's gallant cry, the knights and I set off toward the castle gates. Suffocating, yes — but I was well used to reactions like this. This world is, at its core, a romance-fantasy world built on grandeur and romance. Anomalies are things that were never supposed to exist here, and their frequency of occurrence is vanishingly low. It's only natural, from the knights' perspective, that they feel no difference between them and the monsters they fight every day. They can sneer at anomalies all they like — I just pray they don't get in my way during the hunt.
"According to the testimony of the surviving soldiers, the thing looks like a stag. Except its antlers, they say, look like a man's arm bones woven together. Ever caught one like that before?"
Tielan explained as we traveled toward the Count's hunting grounds where the anomaly had appeared. I answered while observing our surroundings. "No. Anomalies have no fixed species. Each one appears with a different form and different rules."
"Tch. How absurd. So you've never caught this thing either, then? And yet you call yourself an expert?"
"There is no fixed species, but there are broad classifications and rules of behavior. The anomaly those soldiers saw is most likely a Biological Anomaly."
"Biological?"
"Just as the name suggests — an anomaly in the form of a living creature. What defines them is that they take the habits of an ordinary animal and turn those habits into absolute rules."
"Interesting. Go on."
"This anomaly manifested in the shape of a deer on the hunting grounds. That means it was once a perfectly ordinary stag, and it likely took the habits of a deer as its rules. It will be extremely cautious, like a deer, and refuse to let anyone approach too closely. Or it will be crepuscular, active only at dawn and dusk — that sort of thing."
Though Tielan had called it interesting, he didn't seem to have much intention of actually listening. While I spoke, he merely went "hm, hm" and nodded along half-heartedly. The other knights ignored me entirely, too busy chattering amongst themselves. Most of the conversation centered on how they'd pin down this deer-shaped anomaly. They all seemed mightily enraged that their lord had lost both his arms.
"Let's hope the thing's stupid enough to let itself be caught. So we can take its head in front of his lordship."
"We brought the Magic Snares, so we just hack off its legs and capture is easy as eating cold porridge. It's a deer, after all."
Planning to capture an anomaly with a magic snare is seriously pushing it, no matter how you slice it. Should I slip away right now, scout ahead, and resolve this alone before they arrive?
Just as that thought crossed my mind, something entered my field of vision. There, beneath a great tree in the middle of the forest, stood the figure of a small child.
"Vice Commander, I've spotted something."
"All units halt. Form ranks."
The instant I spoke, Tielan raised his left hand, fist clenched. At once the knights who had been chattering fell silent, hands resting on their sword hilts as each took up his assigned sector of watch. It proved they were no mere mob of strongmen.
"There is a child over there. Life signs unknown."
"I see... His lordship would not have brought a child along on the hunt."
"With your permission, may I go and investigate first?"
"Granted. We will hold the perimeter. If you sense even the slightest danger, fall back behind us at once."
With Tielan's words behind me, I moved cautiously toward the tree where the child lay. When I got close enough to see the child clearly, a curse slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."
The child slumped against the tree was more grotesque than anything I had imagined. Arms, like a centipede's legs, sprouted from every inch of a boy who looked about ten years old. From his head, his shoulders, his stomach — numberless arms grew out unnaturally, writhing without pause. Each and every arm seemed to plead to be released from the boy's body. What made it worse — far worse — was that despite this hideous state, the child was breathing normally. He simply couldn't move, pinned down by the arms that had erupted from him.
"How does it look, hunter? Is the child alive?"
"Yes, he's alive. But his condition is... serious."
"Serious how?"
"He's been affected by the anomaly. I'll confirm whether he can speak first."
Before speaking to the boy, I pressed a Blood Paper Doll to my lips — a paper talisman with my name written in my own blood. Certain anomalies inflict grave harm on you for nothing more than exchanging words with them. Because this doll is crafted through a special ritual, an anomaly made to converse this way mistakes the paper doll for the one speaking, not me. If there's a rule forbidding speech, the paper doll takes the damage in my place. And since the rule might instead be that one must not hear the boy's voice, I quietly drew my dagger. Sorry, kid — but if I catch so much as a hint of a rule being broken, I'll put him down on the spot.
"Can you talk?"
With my preparations complete, I called out, and the boy turned his dazed face toward me. "Mister... who are you...?"
No problem from hearing his voice. The paper doll remained intact as well — but depending on where the conversation went, we might still cross a rule, so I kept it pressed to my lips.
"I'm someone the lord sent. I can save you. How did you end up like this?"
"The deer... gave them to me..."
"The deer? Was it a deer with antlers shaped like human arms?"
"Yes..."
"Why would that deer give you arms? Did you do something wrong?"
"No... The deer said it was a reward... for saving it..."
"A reward?"
"When the lord was trying to catch the deer... I hid it... So it thanked me, and gave me the arms..."
"Before you hid it — were the deer's antlers normal?"
"Yes... but after I hid it, suddenly... the antlers changed, strangely..."
"...Thank you for answering. Stay right here. I'll have you back to normal soon."
Having gotten that far, I returned to the knights. I had a rough picture of what had happened.
"I've found the reason the anomaly came into being."
"Truly? How did it come to appear?"
"As I suspected, this anomaly really was an ordinary stag. It nearly lost its life as his lordship's quarry, but the boy over there hid it and it survived. In that process, it became an anomaly."
At my explanation, Tielan tilted his head, then objected in a tone of pure incomprehension. "Hold on. THAT is all it took to make an anomaly? Because a child hid a deer about to be killed? That alone?"
"The catalysts that create anomalies are usually beyond human understanding. But most of them carry a deep story behind them. Here, the story of a child saving a deer is what gave birth to the anomaly."
"Absurd... If it had been born of a grudge, like a ghost, I could understand. But over something like THAT..."
Just as Tielan trailed off, the knights spoke through gritted teeth.
"Isn't that thing the reason his lordship ended up like that?! Unforgivable!"
"That's right, Vice Commander! If that brat is the cause, he must pay the price!"
The knights' mood turned savage in an instant. They'd been hunting for nothing but someone to avenge their lord's humiliation, so I could understand the attitude. But rash action helps no one in an anomaly hunt.
"One moment, Sir Knights. Punishing the child can wait. Right now we must focus on subjugating the anomaly."
"No, hunter. Out here, we do things our way."
Before my words had even settled, Tielan stepped forward. He drew his sword and advanced slowly toward the child. I rushed to restrain him, but the other knights barred my path.
"If the anomaly is something like a ghost or a spectre, that boy could be its vessel. Meaning — kill the boy, and we slay the deer with him."
"No — anomalies are on a completely different level from those things!"
"Either way, this boy must answer for the harm done to his lordship. If answering for it leads straight to slaying the anomaly, there is no reason to hesitate!"
It was the moment Tielan, having come within arm's reach of the boy, swung his blade down.
"Huh?"
Tielan's sword stopped, dead in midair. When I checked why, I saw it: another arm had sprouted from Tielan's own arm and seized the blade in its grip.
"Wh-what in the— mmph! MMMMPH!!"
Then a horrifying transformation seized Tielan's body. Something burst from the throat of the man who was gagging and retching. Shockingly, it was an arm. The hardened arm of a grown man forced Tielan's mouth apart as it tore its way out.
"V-Vice Commander!!"
"What in God's name is happening?!"
While the knights panicked, death closed over Tielan with terrible speed. "KKHUOOOOOHHMP!!"
The arms did not stop at one. Two, then three burst out in succession. The arms that erupted seized Tielan's jaw and face — and tore his head apart, long and clean. By the time Tielan finally lost his life and collapsed to the ground, a single stag was walking out from the thicket. Antlers in a grotesque shape, as if countless human arm bones had sprouted from them. Spears and arrows embedded across its whole body. And where its face should have been, in place of an ordinary deer's countenance, two hands pressed atop one another were playing the part of a face.
"There it is..."
Just as I confirmed the anomaly's presence and moved to respond—