Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! Volume 4 Read online

  Eep!

  “It’s pretty dangerous to have something like this hanging around where the forest is still so thin,” Pauline observed.

  After processing and storing away the fangbear, they proceeded deeper into the forest.

  “It seems like there are a lot of small animals too… I guess they ran away from the heart of the woods.”

  Just as Pauline said, there were many more animals and monsters around than usual. They hunted anything that would threaten the village as they traveled, along with the monsters the guild had instructed them to catch or cull. Mile stored them in her inventory, feigning storage magic as usual.

  It was mostly for their own peace of mind, but the hunting was good to do. Besides, it was part of their job description. They could sell parts for an added reward on top of their commission, as well. Of course, finding the investigation team in a timely manner was their priority, so the party moved along, hunting only when it wouldn’t slow down their progress.

  Darkness came early in the forest. It had been around midday when they first entered the woods, so they decided to make camp once it was too dark for them to go further safely.

  Tomorrow, they would set out as soon as it was light. They ate a light dinner and headed immediately to bed.

  ***

  “Something is a little strange here,” said Reina.

  Indeed, as they continued toward the heart of the forest on the second day, something felt off. This was the first time the girls had entered this part of the forest, so the only information they had to go off of was what people had told them. However, compared to other forests, something was clearly strange here.

  First off, it was lacking the animals and monsters that had been abnormally numerous on the first day. There were very few of the mid-sized beasts around as well, perhaps because the field mice, jackalopes, and other small creatures they usually fed on were scarce.

  By contrast, fangbears, ogres, and other fairly strong monsters were numerous. Since these were among the creatures the guild had asked them to thin out, the Crimson Vow felled one after another. Mile put them away with her “storage magic” (read: inventory).

  Normally, such prey would be impossible to transport, and hunters resorted to cutting off some token part as proof of the kill. The Crimson Vow weren’t like other hunters, though. Their earning rates were in a league of their own.

  They got the feeling that all the more hapless wildlife had been driven out, while only the stronger, more territorial creatures remained. Of course, many stronger creatures had moved out for the same reason or left in pursuit of the animals that were their prey.

  Just like that very first fangbear they encountered.

  “I can think of a number of reasons why we might not be seeing weaker animals and monsters here,” Reina said. “Number one: their own food sources have vanished. Number two: the number of creatures that want to make them food has increased. Number three: it’s become difficult for them to live here for some other reason. Or number four: a large number of them suddenly went extinct.”

  Answering the hand signs Reina made as she spoke with a subtle nod, Mile nonchalantly reached her left hand down and grasped the slingshot at her belt. Her right hand slipped into her pocket to grab a stone.

  Whoosh!

  Mile quickly slipped the pebble into the pouch and let it fly. The pebble soared through the air fruitlessly, disappearing into the trees.

  “Sorry, I missed.”

  “That’s fine. I’m sure it will come back again,” Reina said.

  Indeed, something had been peering down at the girls from a nearby tree. Unsure whether or not this something was a human, Mile had used a somewhat dialed-down attack, but it had been avoided.

  Mile had become more skilled with her slingshot, so lately, not wanting to rely too much on the nanomachines, she had been forgoing their course correction. However, her aim was still true.

  She hadn’t missed; her target had dodged. In other words, this was proof that it had been looking directly their way.

  “Anyway, we know that it isn’t reason number one or two. All the grasses, fruits, and bugs the prey animals usually eat are normal, and we didn’t see a large number of mid-sized animals or monsters either. Plus, I don’t see signs of any great calamity or environmental change that would have caused a sudden mass extinction, so number four is out…”

  “H-hey, Reina, just a minute ago, what was that?” Mavis asked.

  Ignoring her, Reina continued as though nothing were out of the ordinary.

  “In that case, we can assume this isn’t because of natural causes, but rather the work of some external force. And if the makeup of the monsters in the area suddenly changed—”

  Mile continued. “Then these stronger creatures either evolved or invaded, and caused a change in the local biosphere?”

  Reina nodded. Mavis and Pauline’s eyes went wide with shock.

  “M-Mile,” said Mavis, “You’re using a lot of big words there, but do you understand what they all mean?”

  Pauline nodded in agreement. Apparently, that was what the two were shocked about.

  “Didn’t I already tell you that I was head of the class back in my home country?!”

  “Well, we thought that was because you crushed all the honor students with your magical skills.”

  “Whoever said it was anything like that?!?!”

  “Layl—uh, no one. It was no one!”

  “Laylia?! It was Miss Laylia, wasn’t it?!”

  “Waahhh…”

  “Now, shall we continue our conversation?” Reina said, her voice strained as veins popped on her forehead.

  The other three girls snapped to attention.

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  “So, I was thinking maybe something like a fenrir or an earth dragon appeared. If that’s the case, then just confirming the existence of the creature will mean half of our job is done, but given the sense we’ve been getting…”

  If such a monster were to appear, even a party of four A-rank hunters would be no match for it. The guild had already assumed a party of only a few hunters couldn’t handle the task in the first place, which is why the job was an “investigation” and “finding the source.” “Elimination” wasn’t part of their mission. That would happen after the cause had been determined, and they had a chance to organize for battle. This was merely a preliminary investigation toward that end.

  “Someone’s watching us?” Naturally, Pauline had a sharp nose as far as such matters were concerned.

  “Yeah, and given the fact that it was watching from above the trees, and that it disappeared in the blink of an eye, I don’t get the feeling that it’s a human we’re dealing with,” Reina said.

  Mavis, who was normally quick to spot enemies, looked shocked. She hadn’t noticed, but she had never been very good at detecting foes who intentionally obscured their presence.

  Mile wasn’t fond of using tricks, and was scared of everyone becoming too reliant on her, and so she had not been using her long-range detection magic. However, being negligent—or worse, letting them stumble into a situation they couldn’t escape—was a scarier prospect, so she had been using short-range detection magic to at least ward off surprise attacks. That was how she had noticed the watcher, but the fact that Reina had done so without magic was even more impressive.

  In reply to Reina’s implication that the thing watching them was not human, the other three asked as one:

  “…A demon?”

  Yes, saying that something that “wasn’t human” was in this forest immediately brought to mind what the elderly mage (naturally, they had all long since forgotten his name) had said about receiving his pet “from a demon.”

  Everyone’s expressions went tense.

  The Crimson Vow could brag that they were no longer rookies but proper C-rank hunters. But with a demon as their potential opponent, they were suddenly nervous. “Demons” were really just another race, the name of which came from a t
runcation of the phrase “decidedly magical persons.” They couldn’t assume that the individual in question was of lower-than-average ability.

  Looking at this objectively, the only one with any possibility of winning a one-on-one battle with such a being was Mile, and even that was just a possibility.

  If the four girls took on demons as opponents, they could reasonably handle two—assuming the demons were weaker than they imagined. They probably weren’t. The demons in legends were always much stronger than anyone imagined.

  Of course, legends only ever told of the most grandiose of events.

  Indeed, just like Mile’s “Japanese Folktales.”

  Unthinkingly, Mavis began to fiddle with her pockets. In them were two containers Mile had given her; two very small, metal containers. Mile had handed them to her before they left the capital, “in case of an emergency.” Because they were small and metal, they would be difficult to break.

  However, the Japanese folktale Mile had told them after giving her the containers was the one known as “A Slice of Bread.” What was the significance of that?

  Slightly, ever so slightly, Mavis glared at Mile.

  The Crimson Vow proceeded through the forest for several more hours.

  The path they followed was the investigation team’s planned route, provided by the guild. The primary directive for this job was to search for the missing team, so they had little other choice but to keep to that plan.

  The missing hunters had been free to follow whichever leads they chose, but the Crimson Vow stuck to the route as much as possible. They had, after all, made a promise.

  “We will absolutely… make your wish come true!”

  They had no obligation to honor an oath coerced by threat or force. In fact, it was better to simply laugh off such oaths and put them firmly out of mind.

  But promises made to people who believed in them? Promises made to people who were desperate or hurt? Those were the promises they simply couldn’t break. No matter what happened.

  Even if her chances of survival were painfully slim—even if all they could bring back was a piece of her or her belongings—the four of them would find the guild master’s daughter, and bring her home. They had given him their solemn vow, and they would see it through with conviction.

  “There’s a lot fewer of them, aren’t there?” said Mile.

  “Yeah,” Mavis agreed.

  Just as the two noted, the numbers of the monsters they had been told to cull were shrinking.

  That could only mean one thing.

  “We’re here! There’s eight people, three hundred meters ahead!”

  They had reached the source of whatever had caused the unusual relocation of the creatures in the forest.

  “They don’t look like monsters, like goblins or orcs. They look…like they’re human…”

  Mile’s words were halting, but they understood. It was likely because the people were demons, and so her detection magic had a slightly different reaction than it did with humans. Coming to this conclusion, Reina couldn’t contain herself.

  “We have to launch a counterattack! Our enemies are probably stronger than us. When an enemy launches a surprise attack on you, you have to intercept them with your own counterattack. Consider this our only chance of winning.”

  These were rather pessimistic words, but if their opponents were even half as strong as the ones she remembered from her father’s bedtime stories, or the ones she read about in fairy tales and legends, then their chances of victory were slim.

  In the middle of the woods, they wouldn’t be able to shake off a group of opponents who were well versed in the terrain and likely had far greater physical abilities than themselves. They would likely run themselves to exhaustion and then be pounced on, or picked off, one by one.

  All they had managed so far was being stalked by demons and learning that the destruction they’d been seeing was possibly demon handiwork, but that did mean they had fulfilled the investigation portion of the job. Now, they needed to determine what sort of force would be necessary to get rid of the demons.

  And then they had to make it home alive.

  Whssh!

  Suddenly, two shapes whizzed out of the treetops.

  “Earth Rod!”

  “Water Spear!”

  Bang!

  Ka-shunk!

  One of the pair of enemies who had suddenly descended from the treetops toward Reina and Pauline, hoping to instantaneously disable the backline fighters, was struck hard by the rod of earth that Reina had conjured and tumbled to the ground. The other was struck by Pauline’s water spear and crumpled in turn.

  Because the attack was made of water, the spear didn’t pierce the enemy’s body; however, the force of the water compounded with the speed of descent increased the attack’s power several fold.

  “Huh…?”

  The four stood perplexed. Thanks to Mile’s precise detection magic, they had accurately predicted when their enemies would strike. However, they hadn’t expected their attackers would be felled so easily, nor that they would attack physically rather than with magic.

  However, just as they moved to observe the creatures crumpled on the ground…

  “Don’t move!”

  They looked back only to see four enemies at their rear. The other two were probably hiding somewhere. Atop the heads of these enemies who had now shown their faces were…ears. Strange ears.

  A pair of tall, pricked-up cat ears. Lopped and drooping dog ears. Fox ears. Rabbit ears.

  And they all had fluffy tails.

  “B-beastpeople?” the girls gasped in unison.

  Indeed, no matter how you looked at them, they weren’t human. But they weren’t demons, either.

  “Don’t resist and you won’t get hurt. Keep quiet and throw down your weapons.”

  If the beastpeople—or rather beastmen, now that they looked—had intended to kill them from the start, they would have been better off attacking with spears or bows, rather than plunging from the trees. Even now, with the Crimson Vow so off guard, they could have launched an attack without preamble.

  That they did not meant that they probably only intended to capture them.

  Even so, this didn’t mean the Crimson Vow would just surrender and allow themselves to be captured. Regardless of the beastmen’s apparent intentions, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t be interrogated or offered up as living sacrifices to some vengeful god.

  Plus, they had yet to offer any reason as to why the girls should be detained in the first place.

  Now that they knew that their opponents were not in fact demons, the Crimson Vow had a bit more room to work. Though beastpeople had greater physical prowess than humans, they lacked magic. This was probably why they had schemed to take the mages out from the start. Unfortunately, that plan had fallen apart.

  It was likely they had made light of the Crimson Vow, thinking that with two little girls in the front and two novice mages at the rear—and all with the weak physicality of humans—they would be easily overtaken. Even now, the beastmen seemed to think that the two companions on the ground before them was just a side effect of their sneak attack.

  “If you don’t resist, we won’t kill you. Lie down on the ground, bellies up,” Reina commanded.

  “Wh…?” The four beastmen were dumbfounded.

  This was unthinkable. The position Reina demanded they assume was one of utter submission and absolutely humiliating. They would never do so willingly, and certainly not on the command of some little human girl.

  Of course, there was no way someone as smart as Reina wasn’t aware of this. She was clearly trying to provoke them.

  Being taken prisoner in a place like this would be a problem, and of course, to simply do as they said would be unthinkable. So, they needed to wrap this up quickly—in other words, by goading them into battle. That way they could say that their enemies had attacked them and they had merely responded with “justified self-defense.”

&
nbsp; However, this gambit wasn’t something Reina had concocted independently. It was one of several that the four had planned ahead of time for just such a situation, having brainstormed many such scenarios they might encounter on the job.

  Naturally, they did not intend to kill them. This was a plan concocted with a great deal of thought. The moment she realized their opponents weren’t demons, Reina had decided to act on it.

  “Y-you little… Looks like this little lady’s underestimating us,”

  The four beastmen approached, spitting the phrase the girls had now heard so many times before. They were equipped not with swords but with something more like machetes. These were perhaps not originally intended as weapons but as tools for navigating through the woods.

  First off, Mile was clearly much stronger than these men.

  And, if Mavis strengthened her resolve and went into ‘True Godspeed Blade’ mode, they shouldn’t be any problem for her either.

  And while Pauline and Reina defended themselves with their staves and their spells would be less powerful than usual, they were accustomed to firing off quickly incanted spells, which would give them the advantage in battle. With enough leeway, they could probably even let off a slightly more powerful spell. Plus, they had already silently prepared their first spells, just waiting to let them off.

  Mile would have sensed where the two hidden enemies were by now, so they were no problem, either.

  With this all in mind, Reina thrust out her left hand, palm to the sky, middle finger beckoning.

  Yes, this gesture was a sign of provocation: Bring it.

  “Y-you little… All right then, let’s go! Just be careful not to kill them!”

  Apparently, the beastmen really didn’t intend to harm them. At least, not here. But now they were in combat, so all bets were off.

  They might not want to kill the Crimson Vow, but on the field, with both sides swinging their weapons around, who knew what might happen? Even if they actively tried to avoid vital areas, they might still land a fatal blow while dodging an enemy attack, or something like that. Such things happened often.