Didn't I Say To Make My Abilities Average In The Next Life?! Volume. 2 Read online

“I understand.”

  Having narrowly missed throwing the kingdom into ruin, the princess looked back to the girls, still pale.

  “So, you do know it, don’t you? Miss Adele’s secret…”

  Th-this girl! She has such a soft face but an iron fist! Marcela feigned calm, even as she broke into a cold sweat.

  Monika and Aureana entrusted the full burden of this conversation to Marcela and sat silent as stones. Marcela tried desperately to come up with an excuse that might hide the truth of Adele’s abilities.

  “You know, don’t you? About the goddess residing within Miss Adele?”

  “Wh…”

  With that spectacular piece of self-sabotage, the princess continued. “As reward for hiding the fact that Adele is an avatar of the goddess, for aiding her and covering for her, she gave you the divine blessings of magic, isn’t that right? You can tell the truth. Everyone here already knows about the goddess…”

  What in the world is she talking about?

  Marcela thought hard.

  This had to be the result of a ruse Miss Adele concocted after overdoing it in front of the princess. There was no doubt in Marcela’s mind. But, just what would she…

  She probably let herself be seen using some kind of impossible magic. If I were her, how would I try to cover that up?

  If Marcela lowered her general knowledge to Adele’s level, and matched her lack of common sense and her inability to read people, then multiplied her carelessness by five, and tried to imagine what Adele could have been thinking…

  Marcela had become quite adept at deciphering Adele’s actions thanks to this Adele Simulator, which allowed her to emulate her friend’s thought process.

  Marcela was able to sense—sometimes right in the middle of conversation—“Oh no, she’s about to say something weird.” And she would clamp a hand over Adele’s mouth or grab her by the arm, just before Adele could make a move, thus preventing in the nick of time an undue tragedy…or comedy. Now, once again, the “Adele Simulator” was running at full tilt.

  All the rumors I’ve heard up until now were about…the descent of a goddess, or the servant of a goddess. And now, there’s this talk. An avatar of the goddess? What might Adele have said to lead them astray?

  She was surrounded by people making unreasonable demands, so to protect herself… What could she have decided with that tricky brain of hers?

  That’s it!

  “What?!” Marcela exclaimed. “You all know all about the goddess too?!”

  “I knew it…” At Marcela’s cry, the princess nodded, satisfied to have her own suspicions confirmed.

  “Then,” Marcela continued, “you should also know that it’s forbidden to meddle in her affairs…”

  “We are not meddling! I merely want to be her friend—and properly thank the girl who put herself in danger to protect my reputation. Where is the harm in that? It has nothing to do with the goddess. Don’t tell me the goddess ordered Miss Adele not to make friends!”

  There was a triumphant ring to the princess’s voice.

  This girl! She doesn’t really want to make friends. She just wants Miss Adele all to herself!

  Marcela glanced the king’s way, but he and Bergl merely nodded in agreement.

  Are they all in on this?!

  Inside, Marcela was grinding her teeth, but she would never show such feelings in front of the royal family. But if she said nothing, she wouldn’t be able to contain her anger.

  “But if you can’t find Miss Adele, there’s nothing you can do about it, is there?!”

  “Grngh…”

  “I-In that case—” The king interjected as the circumstances looked grim. “Do you have any idea as to Adele… as to the Viscountess Ascham’s whereabouts?”

  “WE DON’T KNOW ANYTHING!”

  The three girls answered in unison. Just as they had practiced, many times before.

  After that, they were asked many things: if the names of any towns or countries had come up in their conversations with Adele, or whether she mentioned any acquaintances. These were all things that the girls truly knew nothing about, so they answered straightforwardly.

  Then, after quite some time had passed, the Wonder Trio were finally released.

  No matter how good their magic had become, they were nothing without Adele. Therefore, as things stood, Marcela and the other girls were of no value to the palace.

  They had not accomplished their plan to win the princess over and someday open a useful avenue for their friend, but at the very least they had managed not to hand over a single detail about Adele beyond the incorrect reports the palace already had.

  I’d rank that quite a good performance, thought Marcela, as she, Monika, and Aureana stood to leave. Just then, a voice called to her from behind.

  “Um. Could I trouble you for another talk sometime?”

  “O-of course! I would be happy to…”

  There was no way that the third daughter of a poor noble could possibly refuse a request from the princess.

  ***

  Several days later, Marcela was in her dorm, chatting with Monika and Aureana, when suddenly there came a knock at the door.

  “Miss Marcela, your father is here to see you!”

  “Oh! All right, I’m coming!”

  Marcela scrambled from her seat and opened the door to find the dormitory supervisor and her father, who appeared flustered and out of breath.

  “What’s the hurry, Fath—”

  “M-Marcela! I-Is it true that you were called to the palace?!”

  “Ah, yes! That is true…”

  “Wh-why did they summon you?! What’s going on?!”

  Her father’s panic was understandable. If his daughter had been summoned to the palace and the visit went well, it would mean a magnificent fortune, but if it went poorly, or she had been impolite, then woe betide their family’s legacy.

  Paying no mind to the presence of her friends, Marcela continued. “Well…it seems Her Highness the third princess was very interested in becoming my friend…”

  “Wh-what?! Wait. If that’s true, that’s an enormous blessing—but, why? Why someone like you, without connections?”

  “Who knows?”

  “Wh-who knows, my foot…”

  “If you really want to know, then perhaps you should ask the princess herself.”

  Marcela pointed, and her father’s gaze followed her finger to…

  “I am Morena, the third princess. Please, pardon the intrusion.”

  There stood a girl of around fifteen years old, bowing her head politely.

  Chapter 11:

  Completely Normal C-Rank Hunters

  “This is a historic moment! It’s time for us to take on our first ever job as C-rank hunters!” Reina announced as they stood proudly in front of the posting board at the hunters’ guild.

  “What shall we choose?”

  “Goblin hunting, definitely!”

  “Huh?”

  Mile’s proposal didn’t appeal to the others.

  “Why, after all this time, would we bother with goblins?! The extermination reward is low, goblins carry nothing you can sell, and you can’t even eat their meat. They’re only good for D-rankers to get pocket change and target practice!”

  “No!” Mile was not prepared to back down. “A hunter’s job starts out with gathering herbs and ends with hunting goblins. Definitely! Hunting goblins is the first hurdle you face as an E-rank hunter, after rising from a rookie F-rank who can’t do anything but harvest herbs and hunt jackalopes. It’s a job that symbolizes our growth! Besides, what will happen when we have to guide those who come after us if we don’t know a goblin’s behaviors and weaknesses?!”

  “Huh? Isn’t a goblin’s weak point its neck? I’m pretty sure if you cut off their heads they’ll die, so…”

  At Mavis’s interjection, Mile let out an uncharacteristic yell. “Even a dragon would die if you cut off its head! That’s not a weakness!

  “Anyway,
we may be C-rank hunters, but we’ve only ever hunted goblins once, during our training at the prep school, and that was in a secure location, with everything set up ahead of time so we could just wave weapons around and blast some spells. That can’t possibly be considered a real goblin hunt.

  “Reina, you were an E-rank, so perhaps you have some experience already, but Mavis, Pauline, and I only hunted goblins that once. Even if we fell a direwolf or an ogre, you can’t be a full-fledged hunter if you haven’t done the basics. Skipping too far ahead might get us in trouble someday. Honestly, we should probably start with herb gathering, but we already did that so much on our days off that the thought makes me feel sick…”

  Though Reina still appeared dissatisfied, she understood that Mile had a point and, for the sake of the other three, she agreed.

  Certainly, it wouldn’t just be a bit of pruning for pocket change. When the request for goblin extermination came from a small village, the battling wasn’t even the important part. What mattered was the preliminary investigations, planning, and preparing the surroundings so that not a single goblin escaped.

  If even a few of them managed to slip away, they would just multiply again and return to harm the townspeople. So, you demolished the goblins’ dwellings as swiftly as possible, leaving not one male, female, or child. Besides, the females and young were weak and could be hunted for their soft flesh.

  “Very well. I suppose that’s what we’ll do then. Mavis and Pauline, what do you say?”

  “Roger that!”

  “No problems here.”

  After hearing Mile’s explanation, both were wholly in favor of the plan.

  The surrounding hunters were moved by the girls’ exchange, too.

  “Impressive. They’re so young, but they’ve got good heads on their shoulders. Normally, you’d think brand-new, inexperienced C-rank hunters, just out of school, would get themselves into some established parties to gain more experience. Instead, they’ve formed a party of rookies. You’d expect them to overstep—act on their whims and get themselves killed—but it looks like they might surprise us and live long, healthy lives.”

  “Yes, siree! Those rookies are already legendary! That training school sure did a good job this year…”

  “Oh, of course. I heard those Roaring Mithril fellows were contracted for the graduation exam and lost on purpose to give those kids some confidence. But still, they seem pretty promising… Ha ha ha! Maybe it was just a special service for cuties!”

  “Uh…”

  The other hunters cast shocked looks at the man who’d spoken. He clearly hadn’t attended the exam himself but heard only the most twisted of rumors.

  “There’s nothing…” Mile slumped in front of the board, disappointed.

  There was not a single goblin extermination request to be seen, only fetch quests and culling tasks. Apparently, there currently weren’t many goblins in the area around the capital.

  To make matters worse, there were very few other nearby postings that could be completed before nightfall. On their very first day, they weren’t inclined to take any jobs that required a significant amount of travel, and they weren’t prepared to make camp.

  “Well then, why don’t we just go kill some orcs for the daily requests? There are a lot of food-related requests in there, so we can hunt anything else as we go… we did hunt orcs during our training. That should be fine, right?”

  Mile nodded agreeably at Mavis’s suggestion, while Reina and Pauline looked a little relieved. While they saw the sense in Mile’s idea, they didn’t really look forward to hunting goblins.

  The smell of burning goblins is disgusting… orcs don’t smell nearly as bad on fire, thought Reina, the fire magic specialist.

  Certainly, the smell of roasting boar was far more enticing.

  ***

  “We can’t catch them…”

  Reina collapsed in a disappointed heap, hands planted on the ground.

  This is a familiar sight, thought Mile, though she didn’t say it out loud. She was finally learning to read the room.

  This forest was unlike the places they had visited during their time at the prep school— the hunting areas used by E and F-rank hunters. These were genuine hunters’ stomping grounds, used by those of C and D-ranks.

  In fact, this was one of the primary grounds for their fellow C and D-ranks, so there was a lot of competition. It would have been surprising to find much prey left in the thinner parts of the woods. Small animals like jackalopes and birds scampered here and there, but the girls hadn’t made it all the way to C-rank just to spend their first day pursuing the same critters they’d hunted before.

  “We have to go deeper!”

  The other three nodded. That was something they could all agree on. Together, they pressed deeper into the forest.

  Bwoosh!

  Mile suddenly shot off a pebble and then hurried forward a short way, returning with a jackalope in hand.

  As much as they wanted to track down bigger prey, there was a chance that they might not catch any. Besides, even if they did catch bigger creatures, they couldn’t let quarry slip away before their eyes, no matter how small or humble. Even with just two additional silver, dinner for the four of them would be that much more luxurious. And since they had an unlimited carrying capacity, there was no need for the Crimson Vow to be choosy about their prey.

  “That magic really is handy, you know…” said Reina a bit jealously, glancing at Mile’s finger gun for the hundredth time.

  “But what if you lost your fingers?”

  “Grngh…” Reina grumbled in frustration.

  When Reina first pressed Mile to teach her magic, Mile discouraged her by showing her how she could bend a copper coin with just her fingers. In order to use magic, she said, she underwent special training from a young age, lest she lose her fingers when a spell went off.

  In truth, it wasn’t magic, but raw finger strength—something she couldn’t have taught Reina even if she wanted to.

  Whoosh!

  Snap!

  As they traveled, they gathered enough prey to guarantee a decent payout, but it was all just from Mile shooting pebbles. The other three grew bored.

  They’d already traveled quite deep into the forest when, after walking for some time, Mavis stopped and held up her hand in a silent signal. Prey was near.

  Mavis was at the front. She was the broadest and tallest, and could spot prey quickly. Besides, if anyone else was in the lead, clearing grass and undergrowth out of the way, Mavis’s height meant she still had to avoid the higher branches. But the number one reason for Mavis’s position was that she was the party’s only forward guard. Reina and Pauline were in rear guard, while Mile covered forward, middle, and rear.

  At Mavis’s signal, everyone stood still, peering ahead.

  There it was.

  As they’d not taken on any special requests and only gone for prey with a standing order, they couldn’t really call it fate, but nonetheless, it was an orc. Exactly what they had been aiming for. Three orcs, actually—adults, by the looks of them.

  “Mile, you’ve caught plenty today. Leave them to us!”

  Mile nodded at Reina’s whisper and took advantage of the opportunity to sit back and observe.

  “I can take one of them out for sure. Pauline, see if you can wound the other two. And Mavis, the moment the magic hits them, you launch a surprise attack and strike the final blows.”

  The other girls nodded.

  Reina and Pauline began casting in soft voices, releasing their spells simultaneously at Reina’s signal.

  “Icicle Javelin!”

  “Water Blade!”

  Though she was a powerful mage, ice and water magic were not Reina’s specialty. All the same, she poured all her strength into one powerful ice attack while Pauline, whose strength was her quick thinking, let off two rounds simultaneously.

  The ice attack went splendidly, striking one of the orcs straight through the gut, while the t
wo rounds of water struck the other two.

  Crystals spread through the orc struck by the ice and it fell, but while Pauline’s water attacks left cuts in the gut and shoulder of the other two, the blows were not fatal. After a moment’s faltering, both orcs were ready to jump back into the fray, searching for a glimpse of their opponents.

  By that point Mavis, who leapt out the moment the magic struck, was already in front of them, brandishing her sword with a flourish.

  Before the orcs realized, she was bringing down her blade. With one diagonal slash, the first orc was mincemeat. There was a horrid scream as it fell forward and collapsed, blood gushing from its body.

  Mavis stepped aside, drawing her blade back and bringing it down on the other orc in a diagonal arc.

  This orc was already doubled over from the magical wound to its gut. The tip of Mavis’s blade struck it in the throat, and it fell down into the dirt.

  “W-we did it…”

  Having felled an orc for the first time with her own two hands, Mavis stood in a daze of surprise, satisfaction, and adrenaline.

  “Behind youuu!!” Reina screamed, and Mavis whipped around to look. The orc which had been struck by the ice spell—and should have been vanquished—was on its feet again, barreling toward Mavis.

  “Ahh!”

  There was no time to raise her sword, so Mavis tried an upward cut from below.

  Mile had no intention of interfering, planning to stand by and watch her friends achieve victory with their own hands. Luckily, Mavis’s practice adjusting to Mile’s speed allowed her to strike the orc in the nick of time.

  Even a second later and—

  Cutting the orc through from below, Mavis safely avoided being flattened.

  However…

  Snap!

  “Oh…”

  It broke.

  No, not Mavis’s heart. Her sword.

  There was a particular formula that could be applied to this event:

  Ek = ½mv2

  Kinetic Energy = 1/2 x mass x velocity2

  Thanks to her special training with Mile, Mavis was incredibly strong. The speed of her blade was even more remarkable. Naturally, this amplified her power. However, it also amplified the stress on her sword.