Ah, This Isn't Working (3)
"The gallbladder we need to bring back is just the one, right?"
"Yes, that's right."
"...But you're saying there seem to be a few more grizzly bears around?"
"Yeah..."
"...So if we take all of them down, those extras are ours?"
"That's right."
Ain, who had been speaking in that even, unhurried voice, suddenly shot to his feet.
"What are you waiting for? Get up! We've got hunting to do!"
"Ain, calm down. We don't even know where the other grizzly bears are. We can't just go charging off blindly!"
"She's right. We need to move the one we already took down while it's still fresh."
The grizzly bear they had just hunted was already dead. The longer they waited, the more the gallbladder and other byproducts would lose their value — and if they dragged their feet long enough, they could even fail the request entirely.
And then—
"Baby bear lost its mama."
"W-wait... Haru, what did you just say?"
"Baby bear was waiting so desperately for mama to come home. Clutching its empty little belly, waiting and waiting. But she never comes. Because... well. She's lying right here."
Haru gazed down at the dead grizzly bear with those indifferent sky-blue eyes. Rarely for her, a flicker of pity had found its way into them.
"Wiping out a whole family for personal gain... so cruel."
"..."
Ain, who had gone silent in bewilderment at Haru's words, eventually spoke in a voice more serious than anyone else's.
"...Are you being serious right now?"
"Sleepy. Hungry. Wanna go home..."
"Then just say that! Don't go tugging at people's heartstrings for no reason!!"
Ain snapped at Haru, who had needlessly sent his feelings into a tangle.
"They're magical beasts anyway. Even if we don't do it, someone else will end up putting them down."
"Ain's right about that. Grizzly bears may not leave their territory often, but it's the 'what if' that you have to worry about."
These weren't ordinary wild animals. They were magical beasts, fattened on mana and strengthened far beyond nature. Thinking of the villages they'd passed at the foot of the mountain on the way here, it would be better to pull up any seeds of danger before they left.
"You can't write off a grizzly bear cub just because it's a cub. Even the young ones are as big as a grown man."
"This bear... female. If a mother left her cubs to wander around... they were probably grown to some extent."
Haru said this, then furrowed her brow slightly.
"Overtime... declined..."
"But look at how fat this would make our purses."
Ain held up his thumb and index finger in a little circle for her, but—
"I have lots of money..."
"..."
The utterly casual remark that followed left him speechless. He muttered under his breath.
"Damn filthy professionals..."
"Ain, I don't think anyone's more of a professional than you."
"Everyone stop joking around and let's decide. Pull out? Or push forward?"
Either way, there wasn't a real problem. They'd hear everyone out and decide from there. Having reached that conclusion, Er voiced her own opinion first.
"I still think we should hunt down the remaining grizzly bears."
"Why? Do we really need to?"
"What happens when the cubs grow up?"
A fully grown young magical beast leaves its parents and becomes independent. It carves out its own territory, hunts its own prey, and finds a mate of its own. And to do that, it has to leave its parents' territory and go somewhere else.
"I don't know how many there are, but once those cubs mature, the damage to the surrounding area is going to get worse. They might even attack villages looking for territory or food."
If the cubs grew up and struck out on their own, that alone could become a threat. Someone might say they could just deal with it when a problem actually arose — but by then, someone could already be hurt or dead.
That possibility sat poorly with Er. As she said as much, Ain's eyes twitched, and he let out a small sigh.
"Going out of our way to make more work for ourselves..."
"That's not it at all. A knight... I mean, an adventurer should do what's right."
"..."
A knight, huh.
Er showed that side of herself from time to time. Something closer to a knight than an adventurer — an altruism that put others before her own desires.
"Pfft. Er, you've been dreaming of being a knight, haven't you?"
"Th-that's not it! I just misspoke!"
"Sure, sure. I get it. Everyone carries a dream or two in their heart."
"Jina!!"
Jina, who seemed to have picked up on the same thing from Er's words, curled the corner of her mouth into a smirk.
"I'm with our little knight. If more magical beasts start popping up, ordinary people are the ones who'll get hurt. As a priest of the Church, I can't just sit back and watch that happen."
"...Come to think of it, you were a priest, weren't you?"
"Come to think of it? You looking for a fight?"
"Haru, what do you think?"
Nominated by Er, Haru gave a slight shake of her head.
"...Hungry. Wanna go home."
"We packed some rations and dried fruit."
"Then it's fine."
"So you really were just hungry..."
Watching Haru take the dried fruit from Er and start chewing, Ain let out a short laugh.
"I wanted to use my skill a bit more anyway. Using it just once doesn't even count as practice, does it?"
"Then it's decided. Haru, is there a way we can store the grizzly bear we already hunted?"
"Magical beast corpses don't rot easily. Still..."
Trailing off, Haru kept chewing as she waved a hand. Blue particles of light scattered from her fingertips, and a sudden chill brushed against their skin. Ain shuddered.
"...Frozen storage?"
"Done... enough for today."
"Then let's move. If we follow the tracks, we should find them soon enough."
Er's companions nodded.
"Do you know what happened to the grizzly bear subjugation request?"
While organizing the guild's request board, Lize had noticed that a request form that had occupied a corner of the board for quite some time had vanished. She asked another clerk.
"It looked like it'd been sitting there forever. Did we mark it incomplete?"
"Ah, well..."
The clerk rummaged through a few documents piled on the office desk.
"No, it was accepted today. Grizzly bear subjugation and gallbladder procurement. This is the one, right?"
"Yes, but... accepted?"
It was a request that had gone unfulfilled for so long that they'd been considering handling it some other way.
"Who took it?"
"It says Er's Party."
"Er's Party..."
She'd thought their activity had gone quiet lately. Maybe they were finally coming back. If so, a simple request like hunting a magical beast would be a perfect fit. Lize nodded a few times and turned her gaze away.
A party with two Silver-rank adventurers in it had no reason to fail a single magical beast hunt. All she needed to do was wait for the completion report.
With that thought, she was heading back to her seat to finish the remaining work when a group of adventurers came running toward the guild's reception desk.
"Welcome to the Karpe Adventurer Guild..."
"We've got a huge situation!!"
"...What's going on?"
The plates hanging from the necks of the adventurers who'd rushed the reception desk were a dull iron-gray. Lize had seen their faces more than a few times, so she had no trouble recalling that they were people who'd been adventuring for quite a while.
So why were they running in making such a fuss?
There were only two reasons adventurers ever made a fuss. Either they wanted to inflate their own accomplishments, or—
"A n-noble came to Karpe!!!"
Something had actually gone seriously wrong.
"...I thought something had actually happened. Making a fuss over a noble..."
But the appearance of a noble wasn't particularly special. Servants of nobles looking to post requests with adventurers visited Karpe — home of the Adventurer Guild — often enough, and nobles themselves occasionally came in person to indulge in the city's pleasures.
"It doesn't matter. The nobles won't pay any attention to this place anyway. If you adventurers would just continue carrying out your requests diligently, as always..."
"That's not it!"
"...What are you talking about?"
The adventurer thumped his chest a few times, frustrated by Lize's utterly unflappable response, and shouted.
"This isn't just any noble! This is a... a Count! A Count's house!!!"
"...A Count?"
"That's right!"
Thinking he finally had her attention, the adventurer caught his breath for a moment.
"I used to be a guardsman in the royal capital, and I saw it! The crest on the noble carriage that just arrived in Karpe... it's the crest of House Arkhansiel!"
"...Wait a moment. Wasn't the Arkhansiel ducal house destroyed?"
About five years ago. Lize recalled the story of House Arkhansiel, which had been wiped out on charges of treason.
"The man who survived by reporting the family's treason inherited the family name and rose to the rank of Count. I heard he'd been living on the battlefield until recently...!"
"...And why would someone like that come here?"
"I heard it from an acquaintance who's still a guardsman..."
At the words that followed, Lize couldn't help but draw in a sharp breath.
A survivor of a destroyed noble house.
A noble's visit, for the sake of finding that person.