An Unexpected Request
"Welcome, hunter! I've been waiting for you!"
Count Belpheart threw both arms wide to greet me as I returned to the lord's castle to deliver my report.
His attitude was on an entirely different plane from when we'd first met. Where there had once been a subtle undercurrent of contempt, there was now unmistakable admiration. Considering his severed arms had been fully restored, perhaps that was only to be expected.
"Truly magnificent! To slay that abominable creature in mere hours! Your reputation was no empty boasting after all!"
"You flatter me, my lord."
I bowed politely to the count as he approached and clapped me on the shoulder. His face then filled with burning curiosity as he asked, "How on earth did you do it? Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine my arms would come back! Did you kill that monster and break its curse?"
"I didn't break the curse. I raised the anomaly to obey my commands."
"You raised the anomaly?"
"Yes. The anomaly carried a rule that instantly killed anyone who tried to destroy it. So, judging its extermination to be impossible, I decided to isolate it somewhere safe instead. In the process, I succeeded in taming it, and I gave the order for it to return your arms to you."
Hearing my explanation, the lord tilted his head, clearly struggling to wrap his mind around it. "So even though you went to all the trouble of capturing it alive, I can't take its head myself?"
"That's correct. You would be killed before you could land a single blow. That is precisely what happened to the vice commander and the other knights."
The lord's gaze naturally shifted toward the surviving knights. The two most senior among them stepped forward, exchanged a respectful bow, and nodded.
"The hunter speaks the truth, my lord. Even our Aura was useless against that thing. The vice commander fell without managing a single counterattack."
"It cannot be harmed by ordinary means. The hunter subdued it without taking a scratch himself. He is more than worthy of your trust."
They had dismissed me at first, but after witnessing my hunt firsthand, they seemed to have developed genuine faith in me.
Having heard the knights' testimony, the count stroked his chin in reluctant concession. "Hmm... very well, then. Since the knights vouch for it so earnestly, I'll leave the disposition of that creature to you. Just make sure it never shows itself in my domain again."
"As you command. The anomaly will never cause you harm again."
"Good. Roric, you will lead the soldiers to attend to the dead. See that the heroes who gave their lives defending this domain receive the honors they deserve."
"At once, my lord."
"And hunter — come with me. My daughter wishes to meet you."
"Your daughter, my lord?"
Surprised by the count's words, I asked, and he nodded, leading me toward the courtyard.
"My daughter took part in the hunt as well. Like me, she lost both arms, and she was heartbroken over it."
I hadn't imagined the daughter had suffered the same fate. Perhaps he'd kept quiet about her beforehand to stop rumors from spreading. Becoming crippled was as good as shutting the door on any prospect of marriage.
For a noble daughter, nothing mattered more than a good match, so I could understand why he'd wanted to hide her disfigurement.
"If not for you, my daughter might have taken her own life in despair. You saved her life and her future. As her father, I thank you from the bottom of my heart."
The face of relief and gratitude of a father rose upon the lord's countenance. There could be nothing more devastating than looking upon a child left maimed. That was likely a large part of why his attitude toward me had so thoroughly changed.
"My daughter is deeply grateful to you as well. That's why she wished to meet you in person. Ah — there she comes now."
When we arrived at the courtyard awash with roses in full bloom, a girl emerged from the covered walkway, attended by her maids, and approached me. Wavy pink-blonde hair, jewel-like violet eyes, and an ornate white gown frilled with lace.
The very picture of a romance-fantasy heroine. At the same time, it was a face I knew extremely well.
"It is an honor to meet you, Lord Hunter. I am Luciella Belpheart, daughter of Count Belpheart."
Holding the hem of her skirt, Lady Luciella dipped into a formal curtsy.
Luciella Belpheart. A supporting character from The Marquis's Daughter Becomes a Genius Because She Wants to Live, the romance-fantasy novel written by my close friend.
In the original story, she becomes entangled in a ballroom assassination conspiracy, helps the protagonist unravel the truth behind it, and continues to appear steadily afterward as the protagonist's friend.
"Is something the matter, Lord Hunter?"
I had been staring at Luciella for some time, and her expression turned puzzled. I hastily recovered and offered a proper bow.
"My apologies, my lady. Your beauty was so radiant that I committed an unintended breach of etiquette. I am Lehin, an anomaly hunter."
The reason I knew this world was a romance-fantasy setting was simple. I had seen every single illustration of the characters my friend, the original author, had drawn herself. Ever since transmigrating here, original-novel characters kept cropping up wherever I went, so it was impossible not to recognize them.
"Heehee, you have quite the silver tongue, Lord Hunter. But more importantly, thank you truly for saving my father and me. Thanks to you, I have my arms back."
Luciella smiled gently and bowed her head to me. Most noble daughters wouldn't even deign to give you a proper greeting — she must have been exceptionally grateful.
Returning her thanks with a bow of my own, I adopted a humble demeanor. "I merely applied the knowledge and skills of my profession. Being able to subdue that wretched creature was entirely thanks to your father's support."
"Hahaha! Quite right — without the knights of my domain, the matter couldn't have been wrapped up so swiftly!"
Honestly, I could have subdued it easily enough without the knights, but I simply grinned and nodded along with the lord. This was the sort of tact one absolutely needed to survive long in this trade.
"But Father, it's also true that the hunter rendered the greatest service. Shouldn't we reward our family's benefactor as he deserves?"
"You speak sense, Luciella! To handle the matter this splendidly and settle for the agreed fee would be beneath my dignity as a lord!"
At the count's words, my ears perked up despite myself. Count Belpheart was the most generously disposed lord I'd met yet. And with Luciella vouching for me like that, I might receive something beyond mere payment, couldn't I?
For instance — impressed by my hunting techniques, he might take me on as his personal exclusive hunter. Or appoint me as a special unit within his private knight order. If things went really well, he might even hire me as Luciella's guard knight.
Just as I was running every happy circuit in my head and sending him an expectant look, the lord barked a hearty order to his soldiers.
"You there! Bring it out!"
"Yes, my lord!"
At his command, the soldiers marched off in perfect unison toward somewhere out of sight.
That thing. Whatever could it be?
Don't tell me he's having them fetch his prized sword. To appoint me as his guard knight right here and now?
Not long after the order was given, the soldiers returned to the courtyard dragging something along. It was a carriage. A luxurious carriage drawn by fine, well-bred horses.
The lord and lady of Belpheart gestured toward it with warm, pleasant smiles. "You have a long road ahead of you to leave the domain, so along with your promised fee, I shall lend you this carriage! Take it and be on your way promptly."
"Those horses are dear to me, so do handle them with care."
"Ah... yes... of course."
The roaring flames of my happy circuits froze over in an instant. Generous-hearted of him, sure — but at the end of the day, it amounted to get out of my territory.
Should have known. I suppressed the sigh rising in my throat and resigned myself. I accepted my compensation — a sum equivalent to three months' wages for an entire company of common soldiers — and climbed aboard the carriage.
Just as I was driving the carriage out of the lord's castle myself, something popped out from inside my sleeve. It was a girl with a tiny frame, dressed in an adorable fairy-tale dress, like something straight out of a storybook.
The blonde girl, small enough to fit inside a teacup, gazed up at me with eyes brimming with curiosity. "Got rejected again, Dad?"
"Yeah. Got rejected."
Her name was the Fairy of the Tea Party — one of the many anomalies under my protection and management.
The moment I answered in a voice full of desolation, another voice spoke up from my other shoulder. "What a shame, that is. Times like these call for drinking your troubles away. Here — have a cup."
Perched on my shoulder before I knew it was a second fairy, identical to the one that had emerged from my sleeve — except this one wore a bartender's outfit, complete with a sloppily glued-on mustache. What the bartender fairy handed me, absurdly, was a cup of black tea.
Having been through this countless times, I didn't even bother to protest. I quietly accepted the teacup.
"Dad, Dad. Want some cake too?"
"Yeah. Give it here."
With the shortcake from the fairy perched on my opposite shoulder added to the mix, I suddenly found myself holding a tea party with them. The reason these creatures were called the Fairies of the Tea Party was precisely this: they carried a bizarre rule compelling them to hold tea parties with anyone who crossed their path.
What's more, by some incomprehensible mechanism they could split themselves apart, so that before you knew it, you'd be having tea with dozens of them at once. As long as they didn't overdo the partying, they weren't especially dangerous — which made them relatively easy to manage.
"So? So? Why'd you get rejected this time?"
The fairies clustered onto the seat beside me, each clutching a tiny teacup, and showered me with questions. I took a sip of tea and answered with a sigh threaded through my voice.
"I told you, didn't I? People don't look kindly on anomaly hunters. This round of clients was no different."
"But only people like you can catch our friends, Dad."
"Then why do they treat you so badly?"
The fairies had a point. Anomaly hunters were virtually the only means of countering anomalies in this world. But being the only means didn't automatically earn you good treatment.
"Hunters' methods are just too grotesque, that's all. Because of it, even people who owe us their help end up harboring revulsion in the end."
"Is it because you use blood?"
"Is that why people think badly of you, Dad?"
"That's part of it. Some people insist that anyone who gets tangled up with a hunter goes mad sooner or later, or that I could turn into an anomaly at any moment, so no one should come near me. High-born or low-born, those rumors have spread until they're treated as plain fact."
I answered while accepting a slice of cake one of the fairies held up to my mouth. The tea and cakes these creatures made were always of the finest quality.
Thanks to the sweet taste of the strawberry shortcake and the mellow fragrance of the black tea, my gloomy mood seemed to lift a little.
"Too bad, Dad! You always wanted to serve under some noble!"
"You should just open a café with us instead!"
"Yeah! The nobles would love that too!"
I gave a wry smile at their chatter. "I'm too famous. If I opened a café, nobody would come."
"Why not?"
"Being famous is good for business, isn't it? Free advertising!"
"Nobles say their standing in high society drops just from being seen with a hunter. To those people, I'm nothing but a tool — effective, but hideous to look at. And who would welcome a tool like that suddenly brewing them black tea?"
At my self-mocking words, the fairies all put on sorrowful expressions at once.
"But you don't want to keep doing this forever, right, Dad?"
"No... I certainly don't."
After ten years in this line of work, I knew all too well how far-fetched it was for an anomaly hunter to enter a noble's service. But people are creatures who nurse hope even in the gutter.
Especially when a dazzling light glimmers beyond the gutter's edge — then you can't help but hope.
While I very nearly had my throat slit for opening the wrong door, the nobles were off flirting and philandering in high society. I tangled with nobles plenty through my work, so how could I not dream of latching onto some high and mighty lord and living off the fat of the land?
"Haah... honestly, I just wish some open-minded noble out there would sign a lifetime contract with me..."
"Pardon me — may I have a moment of your time?"
"Holy—! You scared me!"
I suddenly sensed someone's presence beside me. It was not the tiny presence of the fairies — the moment the voice reached me, they all scurried away and vanished to who knows where.
At that exquisite voice, sharp as a freshly honed blade, I turned my head reflexively. Sitting there was a woman so beautiful she seemed to dazzle — like freshly fallen snow.
Sky-blue eyes like a frozen winter lake, and silver hair tied up in a neat, high knot. I drifted for a moment, dazed by a beauty that most noble daughters couldn't approach even with a calling card in hand — then I recalled a set of very familiar features and drew in a sharp breath.
Could this person be...?