“Ah, Master Beryl!”
It was after some time we cleared out the herd of saber boars. We safely passed through the Aphrata Mountains and arrived near the foot of the mountain.
I was a little annoyed that we ran into some more saber boars again in the meanwhile. Well, we should have been able to exterminate a lot of saber boars in this area as we went about. I don’t know if they’ll start breeding again next year, but at least it should be fine for a while.
“Adel. Was everything okay here?” I said.
“Yeah! Because I was here!” Adel replied.
“I see, that’s good to hear,” I say.
We join the disciples who were placed at the foot of the mountain.
It doesn’t matter, but she’s been standing tall ever since I confirmed that was her from a distance. Could it be that she was stuck in that pose during the operation? Her demeanor is as good as the Boss of the saber boars.
“Ah, um… tha-thank you for your hard work…” Edel said.
“Yeah, thank you too Edel,” I said.
Edel shows concern for us. Adel and he are supposed to be twins, but I feel like it’s a little unusual to have such different personalities. It’s not a bad thing because it can be seen as their individuality.
“Hmm… I guess the saber boars didn’t come here,” I said.
I took a quick look around, but I didn’t see any particular traces of the battle. I can’t see any blood, and my disciples are unharmed.
For me, it was a relief that the foot of the mountain was not attacked, but especially from Adel’s point of view, it may have been a slightly unsatisfactory day.
“One came! It ran away immediately, but…” Adel said.
“Oh, is that how it was?” I asked.
However, the reality is that it wasn’t completely peaceful. Does that mean they were close enough to each other that they were within eyesight?
But if that’s the case, it’s hard to imagine a saber boar retreating at the first sight of a human being. Is it reasonable to assume that something happened?
“Since we were moving relatively flashy, is it an individual that learned from that?” Landrid theorized.
“Ah… isn’t that impossible?” I asked.
It’s true that we mowed down the saber boars, so a stray individual who happened to see it got scared and ran away, and after that, he saw similar humans, so he ran further away… that’s my idea, I can’t help it.
Monsters have no intelligence, but they do have the ability to learn based on instinct. Especially for young individuals with little combat experience, it seems like it’s not uncommon for them to recognize the human form itself as a threat and run away.
“In other words! They were frightened by my power!” Adel cried.
“Hahaha,” I laughed.
There is a factual side to her words. It wouldn’t be a misunderstanding that she terrified that saber boar when it saw a humanoid shape and ran back up the mountain. I have a lot of confidence in that happening.
A strong will that doesn’t doubt one’s skill or one’s future. Certainly, if you have decided to live as a swordsman, this selfishness is important. I should have given up on it a long time ago and put an end to my passions, but after all, once I dreamed of it, it wouldn’t end so easily.
Landrid and I must pave the way for these young shoots to pursue their dreams.
It is useless to pull from the front. It doesn’t lead to personal growth. You should show the way to the finish line and entrust the person to decide whether to walk there or not. Only then can you become a splendid swordsman and human being, at least that’s what I think?
“Th-That tusk… could it be that Master Beryl killed it…?” Edel asked.
“Oh, this?”
When I was thinking about the future of those who aspired to become swordsmen, that came up.
This thing really stands out. It’s not a size that can be held in a normal hand, so in the end I carried one of the Boss’s tusks with me on my shoulders.
“Well… you’re right,” I said.
“After all, Master Beryl is amazing!” Adel said, thrilled for some reason.
Hmm, I feel like I’m happy and embarrassed in half measures each.
This old man has only one fang, so if you return to the scene, you should have another fang. It’s a premise that someone might try to scavenge without permission, but it’s probably okay because there’s no one who’s going to sneak into a place like that.
If this is a hunter, it’s the size that one can display at home as proof that you had killed the owner. Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of obsession, so it would be nice if it had a nice fang, even with a few scratches, and fetch a good price for it.
I had a hunch that depending on the skill of the merchant, the price would be quite high because it would be well received by the nobles if it was this big.
“Oh, right,” I said. We’ve killed most of the saber boars, so I’d like to collect their corpses as loot, but we don’t have enough manpower.”
“Me, me! I’ll do it!” Adel cried.
You can’t forget the post-battle processing. If it’s a mountain as big as the Aphrata Mountains, it will eventually return to nature, but it’s a source of income and stock for food, so I’d like to collect it if possible.
To do that, we need manpower, but Adel was somewhat enthusiastic. It’s much easier than being rejected, but I don’t know why the tension rises so much to collect the prey. Well, if she’s having fun, that’s fine.
The dangers of the Aphrata Mountains haven’t completely disappeared, but even so, now that all the saber boars around here have been exterminated, it should be relatively safe. Basically, we’ll go through the shortest route we’ve conquered, so the effort and time it takes will be greatly reduced.
Of course, the members who enter the mountain must still be carefully selected. There is no change in the fact that it is a little too dangerous a place to enter like a picnic trip.
After that, I would like to ask Mr. Rob, the village hunters, and if luckily adventurers stop by, those people, too. I can get the reward from the saber boar I collected, and since it’s not a subjugation, there should probably be someone who will accept it.
Well, luck is involved here. It might be a bit difficult to collect all the ones we took down.
By the way, it’s not prohibited to issue requests to adventurers without going through the Adventurer’s Guild. However, the Guild side sticks to the stance that it does not take any responsibility for those informal requests.
In short, even if you are involved in a crime or get scammed, it is your own responsibility. That said, most adventurers do it to the extent that they receive a small request while they’re visiting a client by chance.
In the past, Bidden Village also made such a request. It’s not like we’re going to go out of our way to call them through the Guild, so if there are adventurers who stop by at the right time, I feel like I should ask them to help.
“We’ve confirmed everyone is safe, so let’s go back to the village,” Henblitz said.
“You’re right, I want to clean myself up and calm down,” I said.
Although they didn’t suffer any noticeable injuries, we all smelled like beasts and were sweating. Afterward, I was bathed in a lot of blood. As Henblitz says, I want to go back quickly and have a quick bath and have fun.
“Master! Can I have that fang?” Adel asked.
“Oh, that’s fine. It’s quite heavy, so be careful,” I said.
She showed so much interest, so I gave it to her.
At the same time as the weight disappears from my shoulders, both of the arms Adel was holding out instantly sink. But she held back with a grunt and used all her arms to hold the majestic fang against her chest.
“Uwah… fufufu, I’ll have prey like this one day…!”
“Hahaha, I’m sure you’ll be able to do it. I was able to do it, too, after all,” I said.
Seems she’s dreaming of earning this sort of battle result with her hands.
In order for it not to end as a mere dream, Landrid and I must do our best to teach and guide them. I have a job as a special instructor, so for the time being it’s Landrid’s job.
“It’s always a pleasure to see the growth of the next generation,” I said. “I feel that way again.”
“It is,” Henblitz said. “But you don’t want to be overtaken easily, do you?”
“Of course. We also have to grow,” I said.
Henblitz’s dignity as a single swordsman and his pride as a person standing above others are combined at a high level. When I was his age, I was just doing my job as a teacher of swordsmanship, so I can feel not only his ability but also his mental strength.
“Ahn? What, are you back already?” Pops said.
“Huh? Is that you, Pops?” I said.
It was after joining the disciples and heading back to Bidden Village for a while. I ran into Pops at a position where there was still some distance from the village’s defensive fence.
A serious sword is firmly attached to his waist. It didn’t seem like he was on a business trip to see anything.
“The weather is nice, so let’s go for a short walk,” Pops said.
“Huh, with that sword still on your belt?” I asked.
“Don’t make it seem like I’m chronically ill,” Pops snapped.
I think he probably moved forward a little because he was worried about the disciples. He is strict as my father and a very strict master of swordsmanship, but his attitude is clumsy, but you can also feel a certain affection. I won’t say it out loud as he’s going to be on me in quickly.
“Oh, that’s a pretty big tusk,” Pops said, his attention turning to the tusk Adel is carrying. “I don’t think that little chick over there killed it.”
“Well, yeah,” I said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Surprisingly, Adel didn’t react to Pops’s words. Perhaps she herself knows that she cannot win against that tusked big bastard with her current strength. She’s cocky and a troublemaker, but she’s not stupid.
“I suppose it wasn’t my time to step up, was it?” Pops grumbled.
“Now don’t say that,” I said. “It’s only because you were waiting at the backline that I could have gone up there, Pops.”
I chuckled and Pops grumbled, “Fuhn.”
However, what I said was also true, and it was precisely because he was protecting our back that we were able to push all the main combat personnel into the front line. If Pops wasn’t there, we would probably have left Landrid behind. Had that happened, things might have turned out a little differently.
“So then, didn’t you bring back the meat?” Pops said.
“You can’t easily carry prey that size…” I said.
“Oo-ooh, how pathetic, how pathetic,” Pops said. “When I was young, don’t ya know—”
“Aren’t you an old man now?” I asked.
“Shut up, you.”
We joined up with Pops, who seemed to be in a good mood.
The return trip to Bidden Village became quite lively.
