Chapter 47: Can’t Let Your Guard Down on the Way Home Either

It seemed the three-eyed eagle had found an opening because Ren had been looking only at his feet while walking and chanting the “Boots Refresh” incantation with every step.

“Kyii!”

“It’s coming again! Ah, maybe it’s the smell of blood!”

He swung the hemp sack around with a whoosh to drive it away, but the three-eyed eagle nimbly flew up, circled around, and charged again.

“Kyii!!”

“It’s coming again!!”

Ren pursed his lips and grabbed his bow, but judging he wouldn’t make it in time, he instantly produced the small box as a shield substitute.

Thud!

“Kyii!”

As the three-eyed eagle that had crashed into the small box shield fell, he quickly pushed the small box toward the three-eyed eagle like a falling domino to strike it.

The fallen small box covered the three-eyed eagle, and with a plop the three-eyed eagle entered the small box, then he drew his knife to finish it off.

“…I wish I could do something about the three-eyed eagles coming after me.”

The hemp sack had torn where the three-eyed eagle had struck it. The Horn Ferret’s head was sticking out from the tear in the sack, but fortunately it didn’t appear to have been bitten off.

If he stored all his prey in the small box, he could avoid the smell of blood drifting about, but returning to the village gate empty-handed would surprisingly attract attention, so he had been putting a reasonable amount of prey in the hemp sack to carry back on his back. If he hurried back it was usually fine, but occasionally three-eyed eagles would sniff it out and attack.

“…For now, I should hurry back.”

Pushing the Horn Ferret’s head back in through the torn part and being careful it wouldn’t stick out again, Ren broke into a run toward the village.

“Oh my, an Ashveil—you’ve brought something quite rare.”

“Ashveil?”

At the guild’s purchase window, the elderly guild staff member identified the gray bird lined up on the counter as an “Ashveil.” It was a monster whose information hadn’t been on the beginner’s shelf in the guild archives.

“Is it rare?”

“They’re good at hiding with dark magic, you see. Only the magic stone has any value.”

The meat is tough and the feathers aren’t attractively colored, so they’re unpopular. Apparently they rarely show themselves. The reason they weren’t in the beginner materials was that simply seeing one was uncommon.

The purchase window staff weren’t particularly thorough in teaching, but while processing the number of items for purchase, they would sometimes mutter information they knew.

“Horn Ferret and Moss Rabbit pelts are popular.”

“Is that so?”

“What about the meat?”

“Um, I’ll take the Moss Rabbit meat home.”

After receiving his number tag, Ren immediately headed to the archives to memo what he had been taught on a board.

He had memo boards and a quill pen, but there was no space to dip the quill in ink and write in front of the purchase window.

When he entered the guild archives, there was already someone in the beginner’s corner.

A figure sat on a wooden box before the shelf, looking at the board with the red string, so Ren stopped at the entrance to the archives. It was a boy who looked slightly older than Ren. He wore a gray linen tunic with a thin leather jacket and shoulder guards. A long rod hung at his waist.

Perhaps noticing Ren’s gaze, the boy with short chestnut-brown hair turned his face toward Ren. He widened his chestnut-brown eyes and smoothly held out the board with the red string toward Ren.

“Need it?”

“Ah… no.”

“Oh. I see.”

When Ren shook his head, the boy nodded slightly, then glanced down at the board with the red string in his hand and reached toward the boards lined up on the shelf.