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Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (Light Novel) - Volume 3, Chapter 2: The Encounter With the Girl Part 1
Volume 3, Chapter 2: The Encounter With the Girl Part 1
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
There was a morning breeze blowing through their slightly lazy post-breakfast atmosphere.
Despite that easygoing feeling, the Nelphan fort remained durable. Its armed guards were still protecting it so securely that not even a single rat could enter through any of its entrances. There were no secret passages from which they could enter and every window had been fitted with iron bars.
The fort was so high security that anyone would think it strange.
That’s the kind of fort it was, but… Ryner and Ferris had somehow managed to trespass.
It was simple. Ferris just knocked the eight guards at the front gate out so quickly they couldn’t even call for help…
“Have some common sense,” Ryner muttered. “Isn’t sneaking in through a back door the polite thing to do?”
Trespassing at all was pretty impolite, though…
They were currently descending the stairs to what they assumed was the treasury.
Ferris turned back to Ryner when he spoke, but then another voice came from ahead.
It was a soldier who’d had the bad luck to try walking up the stairs at that moment. “W-who are y—”
In an instant!
“—augh.”
That was all he ended up able to say.
Ferris had cut him off with her hand, using a chopping motion to knock him dead cold so fast that it was impossible to see her move. His body slowly slid down the steps.
Ferris left him abandoned there on the stairs. “Mm. It’s going exactly as planned. Nobody has noticed us at all.”
“…’Planned,’ you say… as if you ever had one of those. If you’d said ‘we’ll use brute force’ or ‘we’ll use coercion’ then I’d get it, but… well, whatever. This way’s easier…”
Ryner walked around the collapsed soldier and continued to descend. In the end, neither he nor Ferris looked nervous in the slightest.
“So? I haven’t heard about what sort of item this heroic relic they’re protecting is yet,” Ferris said as they walked downwards.
“Hm? Oh, umm… if I remember correctly, it should be a sword.”
“A sword?”
Ryner nodded. He folded his arms as he searched the depths of his memory for information about it, then looked up. “That’s it. If I recall, it was a legend that went like this: ‘From far to now; people from their creation to birth to when death scatters them, their flame burns. The midnight sun continues to burn. A faraway twilight, jealousy, a nightmare. A relaxed world, the underworld; it all darkens as it’s packed into midnight—”
“Make it easier to understand,” Ferris interrupted.
Ryner took a long suffering expression. “But we’re still at the very beginning of the legend. There’s not much to understand yet… and it’ll get more interesting as it goes on, you know.”
Ferris nodded. For some reason, she almost looked impressed. “Hoh. Not interested. Summarize it.”
“Huh…? Well, um… not interested, huh… You said that so easily… it’s whatever, but…”
Ryner looked a little disappointed. He continued reluctantly.
“Anyway, the beginning was about the time when the demon king took over the world.”
“Demon king?”
“Yeah, like in the legend of that last relic we found, the legend of the great Dark Emperor. But I don’t just mean he was a super tyrant or anything. He was literally a demon king. You can see that in the beginning line, from far to now - that one beast appeared from somewhere far and trapped the world in the depths of fear. It’s pretty amazing to think about, right?” Ryner said excitedly and turned to Ferris.
Ferris just nodded, bored. “Hmm.”
That’s all she had to say…
Ryner sighed. “Hey, you… is ‘hmm’ all you’ve got to say? Aren’t you curious how a single monster managed to take over the whole world?”
“No. It’s just a fairy tale.”
“Hey… we’re travelling the world for information on those ‘fairy tales’ right now.”
Ferris shrugged. “I’m only interested in the relics the legendary heroes used to defeat that monster.”
“…You have no sense of romance, huh,” Ryner muttered, a little disappointed. “Well, whatever… we’re in a fort that might house a heroic relic. May as well summarize the legend.
The great knight of legend, Grouse Calvert, defeated the demon king. When he died, that sword was thrust into the ground somewhere around here…”
“Hm.”
“And it’s kinda cliche, but no one could pull it out…”
Ferris tilted her head. “No one could pull it out, and yet it’s inside this fort?”
Ryner nodded deeply. “Yeah, that’s right. No matter how strong they were, no one could pull it out. It was pretty conspicuous, and I bet it became a really popular tourist destination.”
Ferris nodded. “And yet I’ve never heard of it.”
“I think that’s why they ended up building a fort on top of it. To protect Nelpha’s important cultural relic…”
Ferris crossed her arms. “Mm. It’s not a bad idea. Just knowing that a fort protected their important cultural relic…”
“Yep, that’s about how it is. And so—”
Ryner stopped suddenly tensed. He narrowed his eyes. He could see a large room at the base of the stairs. It was dark. There was a light somewhere, but one light couldn’t fix the darkness of such a large basement on its own.
Ryner gazed into the dark room. “It sure would be nice if there were a heroic relic there~”
“If there isn’t, your head will—”
“Yes, yes, that’s enough of that. So what d’you think of this place?” Ryner asked, motioning towards it with his chin.
“Mm. I sense eight presences. They appear to be guarding it.”
“I bet. And it seems like they haven’t noticed us, but… hey, what’re…”
By the time Ryner was able to start asking, Ferris had already disappeared. Ryner heard eight groans from the basement… and then a single clear voice from the dark.
“Now then. Hurry up and search.”
Ryner was quiet for a moment, running a hand through his hair and staring listlessly. “Well, that’s fine, but… how can I say this… I’m not fired up at all, y’know?”
Ryner entered the basement and looked around. It was clearly a treasury! That’s all he could think as he looked around this strange room filled only with numerous treasure chests. Despite how worn out the treasure chests themselves were, the dark room itself was spotless.
“Now, which treasure chest should I open?” Ryner asked himself.
“Mm? You can just open them all.”
Ryner shook his head. “You’re so naiiivee. There’s probably only one real chest. The rest are definitely traps.”
“I see. So that’s what this is.”
“Yup. This is a common theme in stories too.”
“Hm. So which one is the real one?”
Even if she asked that… “Huh, oh, um…”
Ryner began to investigate the treasure chests.
“……”
He’d been a layman until a moment ago when they entered. Now he investigating each and every treasure chest with the utmost care. He checked to see if they had any traps, any markings, and their mechanisms of action with skillful hands.
“……”
He finally finished investigating them all.
Ryner raised his head and spoke decisively. “Alright! Actually I don’t really understand how this works so let’s just open… them a, a… what am I saying…”
He assessed Ferris’ expression, but she just replied. “Hm. Let’s open them then.”
“…Hey, at least play the straight man,” Ryner said, looking like he was about to cry.
Ferris ignored him and lifted the treasure chest closest to her open… and gazed into it for some time. Ryner peered into it too.
A huge pile of documents was inside. It clearly wasn’t the sword they were looking for, nor were they ancient documents. They were brand new.
They were unmistakably not a heroic relic. That meant this chest was a miss for them. But nothing particularly special happened either…
“…Oh, that trap was amazing,” Ferris said in her usual monotone. “I saved our lives just now, Ryner.”
“Uu… don’t bully me…”
Leaving aside their worthless conversation… they set to opening treasure chests one after another.
But…
“……”
In the end, they were all just full of documents.
Ferris took a single paper from one and looked it over with narrowed eyes. Then she handed it to Ryner. “How will you pay your debt with this?”
“Huh? Debt?” Ryner asked. He took the paper and quickly read through the article. It droned on and on about a feudal lord of this region who didn’t pay all the taxes he collected from his people to the king and instead unjustly embezzled much of it. Ryner was taken aback. “It can’t be that this fort was made to cover this up… right?”
“It appears so,” Ferris said easily and nodded.
Ryner’s whole body trembled. “But… but the relics?”
“Who knows.”
“But… I got up so early, and I did all sorts of things I usually wouldn’t for this… What about all my hardships?”
“Don’t care. But there’s one thing I want to confirm,” Ferris said.
“What?” Ryner asked. He raised his head to see Ferris unsheathing her sword.
“I’ll forgive the debt you owe me for making me waste time and effort on this if I can cut your head off…”
“Gyaaaahhh!? W-w-w-wait! Slow down! It’s like, see, um, even if I was completely wrong on some accounts, I do still want to get those Heroic Relics…”
Ferris, who was brandishing her sword, narrowed her eyes. “I don’t want to hear your excus—”
“It’s not an excuse! So slow down! See, it’s possible that the fort with the relic wasn’t drawn in exactly the right place on the map I have. It’s probably in the forest nearby.”
“Hoh. So?”
Ryner stepped away from her as he continued. “So like… um, you know where we camped last night? Back in the forest?”
“Mm.”
Ryner took another couple steps back. “See, when I look back at that map I found in some documents, I think that place looks an awful lot like where the sword might be…”
“Hohoh… and why didn’t you tell me that then…?”
Ryner was now hurrying away from her. “Well, I was worried that if it wasn’t there, then it meant someone already made off with it or that the whole thing was nothing but rumors to begin with… or that because it’s been so long it’s buried completely in the ground… I-if that was the case you’d make me dig for it, right? That’d be such a pain. I thought it was more likely that we’d find that sword hidden in this here fort than digging around for a hundreds or even thousands of years old sword outside… and you seemed like you thought the same, and, um… so… please don’t kill me?”
In the end, Ferris raised her sword… and pointed it in another direction. “Who’s been sneaking around over there?” She asked loudly so that her voice could be heard throughout the large room.
Ryner turned to where she was looking, too - it was the nook under the stairs. “Right, right. You don’t seem like you really wanna attack us, so what’re you doing?”
It was impossible to see anything but darkness under there where the light didn’t reach, but Ryner and Ferris had felt a presence over there for some time now. But they weren’t Nelphan soldiers, nor did they have any sort of friendliness nor killing intent towards Ryner and Ferris. They had just stood there silently and watched the whole time.
Then, the strong, slightly high-pitched voice of a girl echoed through the room. “Augh, geez! They found us out because you moved, Sui!”
“Eh? It’s my fault?”
“Obviously! You’re always making mistake after mistake and I have to follow around to see them! I swear, you big oaf of a brother! Dimwit! Moron!”
“Aah, I understand. I’m sorry, Kuu. But we’d better think of what to do next too.”
“I know that! But we’re obviously gonna run!! Which sucks because it was our chance to steal the treasure since the Nelphan army wasn’t hanging around outside and all… if these’re those monsters who took out the soldiers outside, there’s no way they’ll help us!!”
“Um, Kuu… well, I realize we have to run even without you going through the trouble to give me such a spot-on explanation…”
“Aaauuuughhh geez!! You are seriously an idiot! Didn’t I already tell you!? I said it because then that amazingly strong woman over there could hear that we only came in here to take the treasure. That way we can escape easier. Do you understand that? Do you?? They know it’s bad to chase after us if that’s all we came to do!!”
Her words made her sound like she was begging, but her headstrong tone sure didn’t…
Ryner watched them dumbfounded as he listened to their loud conversation. “So what’re you gonna do, Ferris?”
“Hm. Were the goods here not our objective as well? Or do the two of you actually have no interest in the treasure?” Ferris asked.
The two… or rather the younger sister called Kuu stepped out of the dark, flustered. “N-n-no! Sui, don’t just stand there quietly! This is a trap! Nobody could stand before treasure without any interest at all!”
“Well, I have no interest in it though,” Sui said calmly.
“Huh!? Then why were we hiding here!?”
“Like I said before, I’m curious what they’re hiding in a fort that Nelpha has protected for years and years. It’s awfully mysterious, right? Any novelist would find it fascinating,” Sui said.
“Are you serious!? Eating something ‘awfully mysterious’ would leave anyone unable to work! Augh, geez, this is why I hate novelists… you’re twenty six but you can’t earn a living on your own at all! I’m only fourteen but I still have to look after you! Aren’t you embarrassed at all!?”
“Uu… I have given that some thought before… but…”
“And, and… because I always have to take care of you I’ll never be able to fall in love or get married, and I’ll get old and still have to take care of you… Oh, I’m such a pitiful girl… don’t you think? Hey, don’t you think?” Kuu asked.
“Huh? Think of what…?”
“I said don’t you think it’s horrible that a sweet fourteen year old girl like me has to take care of you until it leaves me rotten! Weren’t you listening!?”
“Until you’re rotten, huh… that is troubling. I want to see you happy.”
“Then what about what we’re supposed to be doing now!?”
“Oh… right. Obtaining the treasure, right?”
“Right! Okay, let’s go! We’ll prepare and then go get it, yeah! I’ll do my best! I’m going! Eyyyy!!!”
With that, the lone girl flew at Ryner and Ferris vigorously. She was a cute kid. She said she was fourteen, but she looked even younger than that because of her height. Her hair was a rare color… not brown, but more pinkish. She wore it long and with bangs. She wore a suit-like pitch black dress on her petite body. She had a handsome face and almond-shaped eyes. Her tone from earlier betrayed her true appearance: that of a beautiful, graceful girl.
She clasped her hands together in front of her, almost shoving them at Ryner and Ferris in a begging gesture. “That’s how things are! If you want to help rescue me, a sweet fourteen year old girl, give me a portion of the treasure! Augh, c’mon Sui! Help me out already!”
A lean man left the shadows after her. He was a little taller than Ryner but wasn’t intimidating in the slightest. He was the kind of guy who stared at a situation like this kind of meekly, smiling all the while. His hair was sorta long, and the same color as Kuu’s - so they really were siblings - and for some reason he had an ornamental comb placed in it. His face resembled Kuu’s too, but because his eyes were closed it was impossible to tell what color they were.
His head bobbed as he bowed to Ryner. “Um, so that’s the state of things… do you think you could let us have a treasure chest so we can afford a wedding for Kuu?”
What a thing to say.
Ryner felt like he was losing a mental battle here. “Umm, you weren’t listening in on our conversation before, were you?”
Kuu tilted her head. “Hm? Conversation…?”
“These treasure chests aren’t full of treasure, they’re… oh, whatever. Do whatever you want with them.”
As soon as the words left his mouth Sui and Kuu were on the treasure chests, opening them energetically.
Several minutes passed before they’d checked them all. Sure enough, Kuu was first to speak. “The hell is this! There’s no treasure here at all!”
“That’s not true, Kuu,” Sui said. “This is amazing. It seems like this is what the lord left here. He embezzled tax money and then a struggling young man of the village and the girl who fell in love with him… ah, ideas for stories are rushing through my mind like rapids…”
“There’s no way a cliche story like that would sell!”
A moment passed.
Sui’s face had fallen into despair. He was so overcome with grief that it was actually funny. “Uu… Kuu… don’t you know that if you don’t have anything good to say you shouldn’t say anything at all?”
Kuu completely ignored him, instead turning to Ryner. “What’s with this? Where’s the treasure?”
Ryner sighed. “There isn’t any.”
“You already finished taking all of it out?”
Ryner shook his head. “No, it was like this from the start.”
“Then what in the world are you two doing here?” Kuu asked.
“Hm? Looking for the heroic—”
Murderous intent suddenly welled up behind him, balled up, and aimed for his head…
“Eh? Hey, w—”
Bang! A dull sound whacked Ryner to the ground. Ferris gracefully returned her sword to its sheath soon after.
“We were sent in secrecy by the king of Imperial Nelpha himself to investigate this matter,” Ferris said.
Ryner rubbed his aching head from his place on the ground. “W-why’d you suddenly whack… gyah!”
Ferris stepped on his back, leaving him unable to say another word…
“Our journey to find the Heroic Relics is another country’s secret,” Ferris whispered. “You understand that, do you not? What were you saying?”
“That doesn’t mean you gotta hit—ow!!”
Kuu piped up before Ferris could deal the finishing blow. “You’re investigators? What’re you investigating?”
Ferris nodded, her expression very typical of her. “Mm. Our duty is to expose the unjust acts of the lords and save their people. This time we’re investigating the suspicious activity of this area’s liege, Fappel.” Ferris took a paper from a treasure chest. “That Fappel… so he really was raising taxes unjustly just to embezzle them!”
“Um… I have a question,” Kuu said with a mysterious expression.
“What?”
“Shouldn’t the ruling lord of this region be Payrose…?”
“Ah, Fappel’s his nickname,” Ferris said. “The nobility all call him Little Fappel.”
“…A nickname, huh,” Ryner said. “You tell such remarkable lies so easily… ow, I’m joking I’m joking, I get it, don’t step on me!” Ryner said then somehow managed to overcome the pain and sit up. “Anyway, that’s how it is. We should go soon, Ferris. The next corrupt liege is waiting for us.”
“Hm. You’re right.”
They two of them made to leave, exiting the large room by the stairs.
“……”
But for some reason, Sui and Kuu followed them wordlessly from behind.
Ryner turned back. “Um, why’re you guys coming too?”
“Oh, well, to punish the lords who’re saving up too much money!” Kuu said. “And if we’re with you guys, we might be able to take some of that money they’re stockpiling!”
Sui continued, looking like he was getting a little carried away with the idea. “Ah, secret investigators… doesn’t that have a mysterious ring to it? I can see it now, the “Expressionless Investigation Girl” series. This idea is even more intoxicating than the treasury itself.”
“So you intend to stay with us the whole time?” Ryner asked, already tired.
“Of course!”
Ryner and Ferris began to ascend the long staircase. Then Ryner sighed and spoke tiredly. “What should we do? We can’t search for the relics if they’re following us around…”
“Hm.”
“So what should we do?” Ryner prompted.
“Mm. In any case, you said the relic is buried, right?”
“You’re really gonna make me excavate it, aren’t you.”
Ferris completely ignored Ryner’s distasteful comment. “If that’s the case, our current equipment is insufficient. We need a shovel for our long stay in the forest.”
“…You’re literally going to make me dig it out… Dig… a relic more than two hundred years old out of the ground… are you joking?”
“Hm. To use your words, I mean it ‘literally,’” Ferris said.
“Ah, right… so you were considering the future. That means our next stop’s a town, right, I see… but what’re we gonna do about those two!!”
“Hm…”
“……”
Ryner and Ferris looked at each other, and then… began to sprint.
Then they heard Kuu and Sui from behind.
“W-why’re you running so suddenly!? Wait up!!” Kuu said.
“Ooh, has there been an incident?” Sui asked. “I’d like to conduct a follow-up survey afterwards!”
With that, they gave chase…
Without turning back to see how close or far they were, Ryner and Ferris just ran with all their might.
---
She dreamed.
It was the same dream as always. A dream about the orphanage. A dream about that boy. A dream about Ryner Lute…
It was the same as always. That place always overflowed with death… and in the midst of it, that boy had strangely appeared before her.
The reason was trivial… she’d misjudged the distance between herself and her instructor’s attack and taken lots of damage. She lay collapsed on the ground…
It was fatal.
Power left her whole body and blood gushed from her head. She was bleeding too heavily. She couldn’t move. It was pooling around her. She couldn’t move even a finger on her body.
That meant death.
Being unable to fight meant death.
That was the orphanage’s sole rule.
They’d decide who was allowed to continue living at the end. If one died then another could live. So it wasn’t just the adults. Everyone should have overlooked her death.
The friends she’d laughed with yesterday should come to welcome her because it was the end…
That’s what she thought as her vision clouded from blood loss. Even so, she frantically surveyed her surroundings with dimming eyes. She was looking for that boy…
She wanted to see him one last time. Where in the world was he? She searched frantically.
What would he say if he saw her like that? Would he be angry? Or would he be a little sad for her?
But when she finally found him, he wasn’t sad at all. Nor was he angry.
He just stared at her with a strangely hollow, astonished expression…
“…M, Milk… why… what’s… everything’s kind of, urgh, it’s… it’s like… save me… from this… sa… a, a-a-a, aaaaaaahahahhahaha!”
She heard him laughing.
And then… he was able to do something he shouldn’t have been capable of.
People disappeared one after another. It went exactly like in the stories: they disappeared, they were crushed, they crumbled…
And the one and only sound through all of it was that laugh.
People disappeared one after another from her view… and then she heard a scream.
“A m-monster!?”
“What is he!? R-ru—”
“Ryner, stop! Stoooo—”
“Please don’t kill me, no, I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna d—”
They were all silenced halfway. In the end, everyone faded away… until the only one left in her line of sight was Ryner.
She’d be killed…
She really thought so. This wasn’t the Ryner she knew. This was the true power of the Alpha Stigma bearers that spread nothing but death and disaster…
That was why they were feared and loathed and called monsters…
Her eyes had become nearly useless from blood loss, but when she closed them, she was smiling sincerely. “Are you there, Ryner? You’re going to kill me, right?”
Ryner didn’t reply. But she knew he was there. She could hear him breathing. He was right in front of her eyes. He was standing right before her so that he could kill her.
“Don’t worry about it,” Milk said. “I’m happy. Because I think it’d be nice to be killed by you.”
“……”
He wasn’t laughing like earlier, but she already knew he was going to kill her. Because once an Alpha Stigma bearer went berserk they couldn’t go back to the way they were before. That’s why they were said to be unable to coexist with humans.
So she’d be killed. She knew that.
But… even so…
She wanted to see him one last time.
Because even if he’d become someone else, she still made a promise to never let go of his hand.
She wiped at her blood with all her strength and tried to open her eyes, ignoring the pain as her eyelids cracked upwards…
But all she could see was red.
Not because of the blood that’d fallen into her eyes.
It was because every single living being had been killed.
Only she and Ryner were left…
Ryner looked at her from the center of it all, blank astonishment on his face. “I… killed them? I… I didn’t want to kill anyone… I… I really am a monster…”
“It’s okay if you’re a monster!” She screamed without thinking.
Ryner gazed at her with questioning, tear-filled eyes. The red pentagram still floated atop each eye as tears flowed down his cheeks, his gaze fixed on her…
She stared back and continued. “Even if you’re a monster, I’m fine. You didn’t kill me. Other people… me, my friends, my mother, my father… we were all killed by other people. You didn’t do it. You didn’t kill me. So it’s okay even if you’re a monster! So… don’t cry, okay? Because—”
Her words were cut off there. They were surrounded by men wearing black combat uniforms.
“This monster really is special. He’s different from the Alpha Stigma bearers we already have data on. His rampage stopped after 837 reacted. There’s value in researching this.”
837 was the number she was assigned. They didn’t call them by their names here. They were all trash who’d die and need thrown out sooner or later anyway so there was no need for names. There wasn’t a single time they were treated as people.
In the end, she too was a nameless monster…
But she was a little happy.
See, Ryner? Because they were both monsters… he wasn’t alone.
She tried to say that, but…
“Both 837 and the monster may prove useful as research subjects. Don’t kill them. Take them with.”
The moment one of the men said that, she was smacked hard on the back of the head and fainted.
---
“…Mm… fuaaaahh… Even though I haven’t seen it at all recently, I had that dream again… I wonder what triggered it?”
Milk Callaud woke against the too-bright sun filtering in through her wavering curtains. She peeked through the window to see the cloudless sky. It looked like all day today would have good weather, much like yesterday. She smiled, but her eyes were wet with tears.
“Ah, I really am gonna cry again…”
She wiped her tears, flustered, and set to getting up energetically. She made her bed as soon as she was out of it.
That was how she was taught to start the day in the Callaud family - the place she’d been sold to after the orphanage. She was to make her bed efficiently and then immediately report for harsh training. It was so bad that it could make her vomit blood… no, it actually did make her vomit blood dozens of times. Even so, the training just continued. That’d been her day-to-day reality.
But she wasn’t going to her training now. And she wasn’t in the Callaud house now, either. She was in an inn in a large town in Nelpha. Of course it didn’t come with any of the Callaud household’s instructors or their training. Even so, she couldn’t shake her deeply ingrained habits. She stretched for the day’s training while she did her hair in the mirror.
“Aaaalright, counting off. Ooone, twooo, threeee…”
She counted all the way to ten while she tied her flaxen hair in a ponytail. She had lovely big eyes and a baby face. She was a little smaller than the average sixteen year old, and more than anything, she looked quite young and naive.
Despite her appearance, this girl was chief of a Taboo Hunters team…
A knock sounded at her door. “Chief Milk, are you awake yeeet~?”
“Oh, Luke? It’s alright. I’m up!”
“Oh, how remarkable. You get up nice and early in the morning.”
“Yaay! I was complimented!”
“Heheh. You’re a remarkable child. Now then, breakfast is ready downstairs so please come down before it gets cold. I’ll go wake the others.”
“Alriiight! I’m pretty hungry. Wonder what today’s breakfast will be?”
They kind of talked to each other like a preschooler and their teacher might…
After all, Milk didn’t look like a Taboo Hunter chief at her age. And this was her first assignment… but she was in an unbelievably elite team.
She was to chase down the deserters and runaways capable of using the Roland Empire’s magic and defeat the spies and such called taboo breakers so as to keep the secrets of Roland’s magic as secrets. Now that the war was over, this was the most dangerous job for those in Roland’s military to take.
There should have been a huge amount of responsibility along with it, but…
“Tiiime for breakfast!” Milk said energetically as she opened her door.
A sleepy boy a little older than Milk exited one of the other doors. “Good mo…uawning, Chief Milk,” he said through a yawn.
Milk smiled. “Oh, Moe! Mornin’. Today’s weather’s real nice! And Luke says breakfast is already ready!”
“Really? Did Luke make it?”
“I hope so! Luke’s cooking is tasty! Which of his dishes do you like best?”
“Hmm. I like his curry.”
“Ah! Me too, me too! I love Luke’s curry!”
A tall man who had white hair despite only being twenty five came out of another room with a smile. “My, my. I’m happy you like my curry so much… but it’s breakfast so there’s no curry, okay? Also, the lady who owns this inn made breakfast for us today.”
“Whaaat,” Moe grumbled, dissatisfied.
Milk just smiled. “But y’know, just by talking to everyone around the table I can get full! I love eating meals with everyone!”
Luke and Moe looked at each other and spoke in unison, their voices filled with emotion. “Ahh, what a good kid…”
To reiterate, Luke and Moe are Milk’s subordinates, not the other way around.
“Alright!” Luke said. “Since the Captain’s such a good kid this morning, she gets a big serving!”
“Huh, really? Yaay!”
The door Luke had come out of slammed open to reveal a willful boy about Moe’s age. “Aa-ah! It’s not fair if the Captain’s the only one who gets a big serving! Give me one too!”
“Huh? Then give me one too!” Moe said. “If Lach gets a big serving then I should get one too, right?”
Luke shrugged like it couldn’t be help. “Okay. Moe, you can have a big serving too. But you slept in, Lach, so no can do~”
“Whaaat!?” Lach said, shocked.
“Then I’ll give you my extra portion!” Milk said.
“Are you serious, Captain!? Yaay! I’ll follow you for the rest of my life!”
“Lach, that’s not fair! I’ll follow her too!”
Luke smiled kindly at their conversation. “Let’s stop playing around now and go eat breakfast. Lach, I’ll give you a big portion too so don’t worry.”
“Okaay,” everyone said. They all nodded and walked down in a little group. They were so relaxed that it was impossible to watch without wondering if they were really the elite team they were supposed to be…
Even so, Milk’s duty was heavy. It was to protect the balance between countries. To protect the secret of magic…
In the first place, magic was completely different between countries. How should one trigger it, what medium should they use? Should they write an incantation or draw a magic circle? It was all completely different. It could be said that if the secrets of the Roland Empire’s magic got out, then their war ability was completely bared to other countries’ eyes. If that happened it would be easier for another country to declare war. It was possible that Roland would be destroyed.
So Milk and her team had a great responsibility.
If even a single taboo breaker got away, a war could start and many people might die. They had to apprehend or otherwise kill them before that could happen.
It was a job where they had to kill their former comrades… and a quite dangerous job at that. It was risky and they couldn’t save anyone. It was important work… but they were feared and loathed nonetheless. Nobody wanted to do it.
But if it was to protect their country, their families, their friends, their happiness…
And it was work that somebody had to do. So they were the ones given that duty.
They arrived at the inn’s dining room and began to eat with a cheery atmosphere.
“Wah, this is tasty!” Moe said. “Look, look, here, Lach, you should eat some of this too!”
“Augh, you know I hate vegetables!”
“Captain, Luke, Lach says he doesn’t like it!”
Luke’s kind face turned stern, but he somehow failed to be threatening. “You don’t get any dessert if you don’t eat your veggies.”
“Uu… I get it, I’ll eat ‘em… guuhh…”
Lach forced his vegetables down his throat without chewing them.
Milk laughed happily as she watched him. Because it was the first time she’d gotten to eat such fun meals.
She wasn’t a real daughter of a noble family. She was a puppet bought so their name could receive military honors. They didn’t need a useless puppet. The useless would be disposed of. She wasn’t treated like a person.
Living every day happily, talking with others like they were all people over meals like this… wasn’t necessary. It wasn’t that it wasn’t allowed. It just wasn’t necessary.
All that was wanted of her was absolute obedience and the ability to be highly successful in the military.
So…
“Oh, Captain, you haven’t eaten much,” Luke said, worried. “A-are you not feeling well?”
“Huh?”
Lach and Moe were looking at her a little uneasily now, too.
“Come to think of it, you haven’t been talkin’ much either. You okay?”
“Captain Milk… are you unwell?”
They really went out of their way to ask her that…
“……”
For some reason, Milk was brought to the verge of tears for a second. It was really only a second. She’d never thought a day like this would come. She’d always thought she wouldn’t be allowed to do this…
But she was their chief. She couldn’t show them weakness. Crying… wasn’t necessary, so she couldn’t show them her tears.
Milk clung to her smile frantically. “No, I’m fine! And it’s so tasty! Let’s eat!”
With that, she started to eat once more, smiling with all her might.
And yet her tears fell of their own accord…
“Huh!? Captain?” Luke raised his voice in a panic.
“Wawawawah, the Captain’s crying… w-w-w-w-what should we do!?” Moe asked.
“This is ‘cause you made me eat my vegetables, you idiots! The Captain must hate those vegetables too!” Lach said.
“What!? Really? Is that true?” Luke asked.
Milk shook her head back and forth vigorously. “No, no, that’s not it! I’m fine, everyone can just keep eating! Um, um, umm, these aren’t tears, so it’s alright!”
But Luke just continued, worried. “But you’re actually crying, aren’t you? Does something hurt? If so, you shouldn’t just bear it. If you don’t say it hurts, then…”
Milk shook her head. “No, that’s not it. I just… I’m so happy being with you guys. I’ve never been able to enjoy talking to people over a meal like this before… so…”
As soon as she said that Luke, Lach, and Moe all burst into tears with her.
“R-really?” Luke said. “Don’t worry, Captain. You’ve found where you belong now.”
“Uu… I’m so moved,” Lach said.
“Me too… I really will follow Captain Milk for the rest of my life,” Moe said.
At that moment, the door opened to reveal a cool, clean-cut young man. He eyed the four who were crying suspiciously. “Um… what in the world happened here…?
Milk raised her head. “Ah… welcome back, Lear!!”
Lear was the last of Milk’s four subordinates. He’d been out collecting information since their arrival in this town yesterday evening. He nodded. “I’ve returned, Captain Milk, Luke. So what’s happening?”
Moe answered first. “Ah, well—”
“Idiot,” Lach interrupted quietly. “Consider the Captain’s feelings. She might be embarrassed about this.”
“Ah, um, right. Later then, Lear,” Moe promised.
“Right, right. Later. Then you’ll hear all about this heartrending masterpiece,” Lach said.
Lear tilted his head. “Hah? Heartrending masterpiece? What?”
He looked awfully confused, but Luke tried to set that matter aside. “So how were things, Lear?”
“Oh, and the food’s all ready,” Milk added. “Do you wanna eat too?”
Luke nodded. “Ah, that’s right. Let’s talk while we eat, Lear.”
“No,” Lear started then glanced at the door he’d just come through. “Actually, I found some people with plausible information and brought them back here…”
Luke’s eyes narrowed. He dropped his kind expression from before entirely and assumed a tensed, prepared one instead. “So what are they demanding in exchange for their plausible information? If you brought them all the way here instead of just taking their information alone, that means they demanded to meet with me… no, with Captain Milk or they wouldn’t tell, correct?”
Lear was a little troubled at that. “Well…”
Lear started to talk but the door slamming open from behind him cut him off.
“What? What’s this!? You’re going to eat breakfast over this distressing information!? Don’t get stingy just because it smells so good! So? D’ya feel like sharing some with me and my brother Sui? No? If you don’t decide fast I’ll die of starvation!”
A lone girl had busted in. She was considerably smaller than Milk and appeared to be twelve or thirteen years old. She was graceful and beautiful, far different from what her aggressive tone implied.
A smiling apologetic man followed her. “Umm, leaving aside what my sister said, is it really okay if we join you for breakfast? I like to have fish for breakfast, personally.”
Lear looked quite bothered by them. “So that’s the state of things. I thought I’d bring them to eat with you guys so that we could talk over the meal…”
Luke looked to Milk. “What do you think?”
Milk nodded. “Then let’s all eat!”
And so they started their breakfast anew.
Lear set out in an explanation as he watched the newcomers voraciously devouring their breakfasts. “According to these two, they’re siblings. The older brother is Sui Orla and the younger sister is Kuu Orla. Sui is a novelist. He’s taking Kuu with as he travels to various countries to widen her horizons—”
“Wrong! It’s the other way around!” Kuu interrupted. “The other way, the other way! I’m taking Sui to various places! ‘Cause he can’t do anything on his own!”
Lear shot a kind of disgusted look over to Sui.
But Sui just smiled like always. “Please don’t worry about it. I really can’t do anything by myself. I’m in her debt. Ahahaha.”
“It’s true! If I didn’t work so hard he’d wander off on his own and I’d find him dead by the roadside! That’s why I hate novelists! They’ve got zero life experience ‘cause their heads are always in the clouds!”
“But you’re always so reliable, so…”
“Geez… God really plays favorites. There’s nothing we can do about that, so I’ll look after you… Look, you’ve got sauce on your face,” Kuu said and reached over and dabbed at it with a napkin.
Milk smiled sincerely. Even if she called him names and insulted him, in the end they were still siblings. They got along well. She was even a little jealous. “So I heard that you guys had some information…?”
Milk exchanged a look with Lear, who nodded. “Yes. As soon as I told them we were Taboo Hunters from the Roland Empire with authorized entry into Imperial Nelpha, they said they had information about taboo breakers.”
“I see. Let’s hear it,” Milk said.
Kuu looked up. “Umm, weeell, I’m busy eating. You tell them, Sui.”
“Huh!? You want me to talk? You know I’m bad with words…”
“But it’s bad if I talk too much too. If we’re gonna do this right, you do it!”
“Well, maybe… if it’s alright with you.”
Luke smiled. “Please.”
With that, Sui began to speak.
Apparently they met two people in a fort a little south from the town they were in now. One was horribly motivationless and the other was a beautiful swordswoman. They’d introduced themselves as secret investigators on a secret mission given to them by Nelpha’s king.
“Nelphan secret investigators?” Milk repeated.
“That’s interesting,” Luke said. “I wonder if there is a position like that in Nelpha? Maybe it’s like Roland’s Domestic Survey Agency? But what does that have to do with us?”
“We thought it had to be a lie,” Kuu said. “Right, Sui?”
Sui nodded, smiling. “It’s gotta be a lie~”
“Huh? A lie?” Moe asked without thinking. “Why do you—”
Lach slapped him. “Idiot! Didn’t we decide to leave this stuff to Luke back when he was chief?”
“Oh, umm… right, we did. I’ll leave it to you then, Luke.”
Luke sighed at their interruptions. “Sorry about that. Now then, why do you think they were lying?”
Sui made to answer but Kuu covered his mouth and smiled meanly. “Oh, you’re interested now, are you? Then if you want to hear more, you get us lunch too.”
“Of course,” Luke agreed. “We can get you dinner, too, and a night’s stay at this inn. Your brother is such a promising novelist after all. I want him to be able to write in comfort.”
“Seriously!?”
“I’m so glad, Kuu.”
Luke continued, indifferent to their celebration. “Now that you have no worries about tonight, please continue. Why do you think those two were lying?”
“That’s easy!” Kuu said with a nod. “They were wearing armor with Roland’s coat of arms on it!”
Luke was taken aback for a moment. He looked to Milk. “There’s no mistake. These seem to be the same two taboo breakers that Major Miller said escaped to Nelpha.”
“Yeah,” Milk said meekly. “Seems like it…”
“We must catch them. It’s your first assignment.”
“…Yeah,” Milk said. She nodded real big then looked to Sui and Kuu. “And which way did the two wearing Rolander armor go?”
“Like I’d know!” Kuu said easily. “We followed them until they arrived in this town…”
“This town—”
Lach whacked Moe for interrupting again. “You moron!”
“Uu… sorry…”
“We do have a pretty good guess for where they’ll go next,” Sui said after watching their exchange. “We think they’ll go back to the forest around that fort.”
“Why do you think that?” Luke asked.
“They’re apparently looking for something out there,” Sui said. “We overheard them talking about it. Ah, but it kind of seemed like they’d kill us if we asked about it, so we didn’t… right?”
Kuu nodded enthusiastically. “They were super strong. Definitely dangerous. Sui said something stupid like how he’d be able to make a good novel out of them while we were following ‘em…”
“Huh? But Kuu, you—”
“Leave what I said out of it!”
Milk’s group turned to look at each other while Kuu and Sui argued.
Lear crossed his arms. “So they felt like they’d be killed for listening in on that… sounds like they’re quite a villainous bunch. I wonder what they’re searching for? Something they’ve hidden in the forest?”
Luke nodded. “Probably stolen goods they’d buried. That or they’re growing hallucinogens or something of the sort that are illegal in Roland out in that forest that they periodically smuggle back in… Either way, they’re rowdy fellows. What should we do, Chief? Sui and Kuu’s information is from last night so it’s still very fresh. I think we should leave immediately. What about you?”
Milk nodded to show she heard and then closed her eyes to think. This was her first assignment. From here on, she may have to fight violent escapees from Roland. They would be strong enemies capable of using magic, and on top of that, they might have more allies lying in wait too…
It was a dangerous assignment. But she knew that’d be the cause from the start. Capturing taboo breakers was something that had to be done, and she had to do it without sacrificing anyone in her team.
That was all there was to it.
She hated seeing people die. She had to move as soon as possible in order to avoid deaths. Ideally she’d get to the taboo breakers as soon as possible and ambush them.
Milk opened her eyes, determined. “We’ll head out at once!”
“Yes, ma’am!” Her subordinates all answered at once. They cleaned up and prepared themselves in the blink of an eye and were fast to move out.
“W-wait a minute! Um,” Kuu, who was still eating, said.
Before she could finish, Luke dropped several gold coins before her. “We’re grateful for your cooperation. We must advance at once.”
“Okaaay. If that’s all you needed then I guess we’re done here. See ya,” Kuu said and waved them away curtly.
Milk waved back. “Thanks! See you some other time!”
With that, Milk and her Taboo Hunters team left the inn.
