Kays Translations

Chapter 62 

An overwhelming sense of fatigue, and the feeling that something was being drained from her entire body.

She pushed herself forward, trying to get out of the swamp as quickly as possible, even as her strength threatened to give out.

I can’t collapse here… I’ll be covered in mud…!

But that wasn’t the only concern. That last attack had definitely pierced through and obliterated the monster.

However, it seemed that such a refined strike produced no aftershock.

The monster’s shadow had been completely wiped out. But perhaps because it was outside the arrow’s range, only the silhouette of its massive wings remained—and they were now spinning violently, barreling toward her.

“W-Whoa!? You’ve got to be kidding me!?”

She escaped the swamp and took cover behind a tree.

A moment later, a deafening crash roared as the monster’s pair of massive wings came plummeting down, toppling trees and gouging deep scars into the ground.

“Whoa… the torso was obliterated, but the wings…”

She honestly didn’t even have the strength to stand anymore. Her consciousness grew heavy, and a sleep-like drowsiness began to creep in.

Hurriedly, she pulled out a potion and downed it just as her vision began to blur.

The drowsiness vanished, but what remained was a numbing emptiness that filled her entire body.

Even so, thinking the wings might serve as proof of subjugation, she began dragging the enormous things to one spot.

“Huff… huff… So heavy… There’s no way I’m getting to Lindblum like this…”

If she were in full health, she might have been able to tie a rope around them and drag them along.

But for some reason, even after drinking potions and magic power restoratives, her condition wasn’t improving at all.

Luckily, perhaps due to her ring’s effect, her strength was gradually returning—but it would still take time.

Magic power must be a kind of willpower, a force tied to one’s spirit… maybe.

“Honestly… I really don’t want to spend the night here…”

The sun had fully set, and the stars and moon were hidden behind clouds.

She was in a swamp, blanketed by darkness—one where undead had spawned, even if they’d now been purged.

It was just about the worst place imaginable to spend the night.

“How about I carry that thing for you?”

At that moment, a voice came from deeper in the swamp, beyond the veil of darkness.

Instinctively, she readied her bow and activated an enchantment spell, preparing to fire at any second.

She forced her tired body to respond, invoking another skill, and took aim.

“Whoa, take it easy. I don’t want to get blasted too. But seriously… was that you who did that?”

With a squelching noise, someone approached, wading through the swamp. Illuminated by the glow of her arrow, a man appeared.

…It wasn’t her memory. It was someone from Same’s memories.

And the moment she remembered what Same had seen, her face flushed red.

Why!? Why is the guy I ran into at the public bathhouse here!?

Trying to recall what happened just made everything come flooding back.

If she remembered correctly, this was the man Same had labeled “dangerous.”

She seemed to recall he was affiliated with the Mercenary Guild.

“Who are you? As you can see, I can attack at any moment.”

“Well, I could test whether I can block it, but I’d rather not get obliterated. I’ve got no intent to fight. I came here for the same reason you did—hunting that big mutated flying monster.”

“…State your name and affiliation.”

Feigning caution, she probed for more information.

As a Mercenary Guild member, he technically wasn’t someone she needed to be overly wary of.

“Mercenary Guild. Clan Revolt. I’m their leader—Vias. And you?”

“Vias, is it? I’m Sheele, of the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“Tch… Another adventurer. All the talented ones keep getting snatched up by your lot. If you’re ever thinking of transferring, we’d be happy to have you in my clan. We’re looking for archers and mages right now.”

“You’re recruiting me? In this situation? …Very well. I’ll trust you.”

With that, she finally lowered her bow and eased her stance.

“Still… that was insane. So the body was completely blown away, huh?”

“Most likely. Though… the price was steep. Honestly, I feel like I’m about to collapse just getting back to Lindblum. May I take you up on that offer to carry the wings?”

“Sure. I got a hell of a show out of it, and taking care of a beautiful woman beats any reward.”

“I’m honored. I’ll leave the transport to you, then.”

She braced her legs and stood, forcing herself to balance.

She staggered a little—but it was manageable.

Activating a top-tier skill… She’d need to be cautious from now on, no matter what form she was in.

“Still, I don’t recall any archer as skilled as you among the adventurers. Are you new?”

“Yes. I just joined yesterday. They took a liking to my archery and started me at the Emerald Rank. They said they’d been having trouble with flying monsters and asked me to take care of it.”

“That’s not a job for a rookie… Must’ve been bad info on the monster.”

“What do you mean?”

“Happens sometimes. The Mercenary and Adventurer Guilds don’t always get their intel right. No offense, but adventurers have a habit of exaggerating their reports. Some even get rank promotions off easy jobs. That’s why we mercs tend to take adventurer reports with a grain of salt.”

“Ah… I see. So you judge based on the person’s character and assume they might be embellishing the story.”

“Exactly. On our side, anyone caught fudging a report gets hit with harsh penalties. It’s a brutal system, but we get the job done right.”

“I understand. That’s what I’d expect from professionals who value real combat experience.”

Hmm. So that’s how things are split between them. An unspoken balance.

“Then I’ll borrow your shoulder for a while, Vias, until we reach the Grand Guild.”

“Drop the ‘sir.’”

“Then I’ll be counting on you, Vias.”

This might actually be a useful situation.

With that realization, she began thinking about how best to leverage this man, and made her way back to Lindblum with his help.

When entering Lindblum from the west gate, the first thing one sees is Traveler’s Row.

It leads in a nearly straight line to the east gate, and while it’s a fair distance, it’s easy to follow. In that sense, it serves as Lindblum’s main street.

Along the way lies a steep slope leading to the mid-layer—the well-known den of adventurers she was now quite familiar with.

Naturally, countless adventurers and mercenaries passed through the area, which meant many of them now witnessed the sight of:

A mysterious elven woman, chatting familiarly with Vias as she leaned on his shoulder, carrying a gigantic pair of monster wings.

The massive size of the wings alone helped draw attention.

“Hey… that’s Vias.”

“Holy crap… What’s with that cargo?”

“Who the hell did they fight…?”

“Who’s that woman with him? She’s an elf, right?”

“Total knockout… Don’t tell me she’s teamed up with Vias?”

“So sexy… what a babe…”

That was the goal.

I figured I could eliminate any interference with my activities in advance.

He was likely a fairly well-known figure. By borrowing his shoulder and returning together, I thought it would reduce the number of people trying to mess with me.

“…I see now. I get what you’re up to.”

“Apparently I’m quite the beauty. Thanks for being a good bug repellent, Vias.”

“Pff! You’re one hell of a woman. You can walk on your own by now, can’t you?”

“Ah, you caught on? Then if you’ll excuse me.”

The objective was achieved.
Time to stop pretending to be injured and head to the General Guild.

When we arrived at the General Guild, people around us gasped in shock at the massive wing we had dragged in.

But what really caused a stir was—

“Hey! Adventurer’s Guild! I need a word with you—now!”

“Y-yikes!?”

Vias stormed up to the receptionist who had handled me this morning, his tone more intimidation than conversation.

“You didn’t properly investigate that subjugation request, did you!? Take a look at what we brought back!”

“Eek! U-um… I’ll go call someone higher up!”

Apparently, Vias was furious over the poor handling of the guild’s recent request.

“Vias, calm down a bit. Well, yes, if someone else had taken this request, it could have ended very badly. But maybe this mess will lead to better practices going forward.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m making a big deal out of it. Ah—here they come.”

From the back of the reception area came a man I’d dealt with before. If I recall, his name was Sigurd.

“Vias? What’s going on?”

“That flying-type subjugation request—there was a prior report, right?”

“Yes, a Topaz stone-ranked party reported it to us.”

“Then you under-ranked the request and put it up, didn’t you? Over on our end, that kind of thing is classified for Ruby Rank and above only. What criteria are you even using for these requests?”

“What? No, I wouldn’t—”

“Then look at that corpse blocking your entrance. That wing alone is massive. You were going to let a Emerald stone-ranked adventurer take that on? You trying to get more rookies killed?”

Sigurd rushed to the giant wing near the door and examined it closely, his face turning pale.

“No way… What is this… It’s the size of a full-grown dragon…”

“You should’ve done a proper investigation before putting out the request. Your Emerald stone-rank rookie here took it on alone.”

“Wait—you mean she… No way! Vias, don’t tell me she—”

“Oh, over here. I’m right here.”

Ah, I’d been hidden by the wing while he was examining it.

And from what I saw with my appraisal skill… this has a lot of potential value.

“Good quality meat still remains on the wing,” and “feathers are as tough as wire”—this should sell for quite a high price.

“Sheele! You’re okay!?”

“Yes. I completed the subjugation successfully.”

“Wait, it wasn’t Vias who defeated it?”

“Nope. I didn’t even get a shot in. I was chasing the creature when Sheele here took it out in a single blow. I wouldn’t stand a chance against something like that either.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t aim at people. Unless they become enemies, of course.”

“You should consider adjusting her rank. She’s not someone you keep in Jade. Honestly, if she moved over to my clan, I’d trust her to lead a squad.”

“…If even the leader of Revolt, Vias, says so… I admit, we were in the wrong for how we handled this request. Sheele, I sincerely apologize. We’ll adjust your reward and add a bonus for the value of the parts you brought in.”

And just like that, I gained far more earnings than expected, silenced any would-be onlookers before they could speak, and racked up valuable combat experience and skill usage counts.

Hmm… yes, this was an extremely efficient maneuver.

“Well then, I’ll take my leave here. I have some investigations to conduct and will be leaving the city briefly today, so as for the appraisal results for the parts… hmm, please pay Melt instead.”

“Understood. Really, I’m terribly sorry… This all happened because I asked you to take a flying-type subjugation request…”

“No need to worry. Thanks to that, I was able to take down a troublesome monster. From now on, please make sure to properly verify monster sighting reports before putting up requests.”

“I’ll take it to heart. Then… I’ll make the payment to young Melt-san.”

“In that case, could you also give her some of the meat left on the wings? It seems edible.”

“Huh? You’re planning to feed someone this?”

“It looked absolutely delicious.”

The appraisal results said “High-quality chicken wings” and “Suitable for consumption.”

Now, all that’s left is to head home.
I wonder what kind of work Melt was doing today?

“Heading somewhere, Shiele?”

“Oh, Vias. Were you waiting for me?”

“Yeah, kind of. Like I mentioned earlier, if you ever want to transfer, you’re welcome in my group. I’d even make you a squad leader in a clan led by one of the Thirteen Knights. I guarantee great pay and benefits.”

Hmm… the Thirteen Knights, huh. People on par with Shuris or Kles… or perhaps even more skilled.

“You flatter me quite a bit. But I’m already part of a certain brigade, so aside from basic ID, I don’t need anything else. I’ll accept the sentiment, though.”

“Tch, fair enough. A brigade, huh? Can’t say I’ve heard of one that could have someone of your caliber.”

“Well, it’s unknown. Just recently established, actually.”

“No helping it then. I’ll give up on scouting you. Damn… and I thought I’d finally found a good replacement.”

“Replacement?”

“Yeah. I was actually wandering the western region looking for a certain adventurer. Never did find them, but instead I found you.”

“I see… sorry about that.”

“Nah, it’s fine. Take care, Sheele.”

“Yes, I’ll be going now. Goodbye, Vias.”

Hmm… perhaps he was acting with the bigger picture in mind—his organization, and Lindblum as a whole.

The Thirteen Knights… they seem like a group with some truly unfathomable depth.

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