Chapter 8: Herb Gathering

Author: Kurohitsuji
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2086fk/9/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Back in front of Adventurer’s Guild reception.
The same beautiful older girl is standing behind the counter.

“Ou, Liza. Register this miss for me.”
“Certainly. Can you read?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Then please read this first.”

Uh, let’s see, Adventurer’s Guild regulations?
…Look, I get “refrain from actions that harm the guild,” but.
“Don’t do bad things as much as you can”—what is this.

“That’s because if we write it in detail, nobody reads it…”
“Ah, I see.”
“Keep those two. Then please fill this in.”

She hands me a white tablet a little larger than my palm.
What is this, I think, and letters float up on the board.
Ooh, amazing. Some kind of magic?
Ah, fill it in, right.
Name, sex, age… eh, that’s all?

“Miss, only three fields?”
“Yes, that’s all. Rewards and punishments and so on float up on their own.”

Oh. Super convenient. Then: Ouka, female, 15.
Is this okay… ooooh? Now the letters vanished. Magic is amazing.

“Yes, thank you. The tablet, please.”

I give the board back and am handed a copper-colored plate instead.
Ah, my name’s on it. Hoh hoh.

“That completes registration. I think gathering requests would be a good place to start.”
“Eh, that’s it?”
“That’s it. If you do something bad it’ll show on that plate, so be careful.
See the stacks of request forms there? Right is gathering, left is subjugation.”
“Then these on the right. Let’s see.”

I flip through the bundle of request forms.
Ah, I know this grass. The one that’s good for cuts.
This is the bruise one. Oh, they have detox grass too.
I just need to bring the amounts written, I guess.

“Then I’ll take these. I’ll go gather a bit.”
“Don’t push yourself. Monsters come out even along the highway.”
“Thank you. I’ll be going. Glad, thanks too.”
“Yes, take care.”
“If you don’t know something, ask Liza. Do your best.”
“Okaaay.”

I stuff several request forms in my bag, and with the two of them seeing me off, I push the swinging doors open in high spirits.

…Hmm. When I came, I never thought I’d become an adventurer.
Then again, a few days ago I never dreamed I’d be in the capital.
You never know what life will do, honestly.

Well, for now, shall I try looking toward the forest.

About an hour’s walk from the city gate, a forest comes into view.
The trees aren’t tall; it doesn’t seem like a very large forest.

I find the requested herbs as soon as I enter, but there isn’t enough.
This grass should grow in stands… did animals eat it?
Hnn. Can’t be helped. Look elsewhere.

“—Proposal: shall I use the search function?”
“Uwah!?”

A voice out of nowhere; I nearly jump.

“Eh, what, Ring? Search?”
“—Answer: I can search for the location of the relevant items.”

Ooh. That sounds handy.

“You can do that. Then may I ask?”
“—Acknowledged: searching… complete. Guidance start. Please proceed forward.”
“This way?… Ooh, there they are, there they are.”
“—Guidance: next, right of the tree in front of you.”
“Uh, right of the tree… ah, found the bruise one.”

I keep exploring like that, and in barely ten minutes I’ve finished gathering the requested herbs.
Hmm. This kid might be quite useful.
If I get lost, I’ll ask Ring.

“Good work. Thanks, that helped.”
“—Ending search… Warning: attention rear. Monster readings.”
“Eh, no way, where?”

I spin around in a hurry, but I don’t see anything moving.

“—Not visually confirmable: in the direction Master is looking, goblins, five, about 50 m ahead. Combat sounds present.”

Goblins, those green ones with big ears and short stature, right. Monsters that show up a lot in picture books and stories.
They’re not that strong, but they’re smarter than they look, and a pain in a pack, I think it was.

“…Wait, combat sounds, meaning someone’s being attacked?”
“—Affirmative: probability is high.”

For real. I thought I just had to go home.
…It’s a bit scary, but I’m curious. Maybe I’ll go look.
But first.

“Ring. Combat prep, can you?”
“—Yes, my master. Sakura-Drive Ready.”

“Ignition”

Sakura-pink mana-light surges.
My awareness switches. The faint fear is scraped away without even a remnant.

I take both handguns in a stance and run, scattering pale-crimson mana-light.
Dirt, branches, trunks. Anywhere my feet land is the same as the ground.
I kick off and leap. Accelerate, land, leap again.
I take the shortest route toward the destination.

I find the goblin pack at once.
A girl in a hood sitting on the ground, and a boy also in a hood. They seem to be holding the goblins off with wooden sticks.

Why in the forest… no, I can see herbs in the basket. They came to gather, same as me.
No wonder there were no herbs near the entrance.

I accelerate again, run up a trunk, leap. Kick a branch and accelerate.

Those goblins have swords.
They have the numbers and they aren’t attacking: they’re playing.
I see. Nasty ones.

My body stirs. My heart is cold and still.

All right. Let’s dance.

I come down in front of the boy.
In the same motion I bat the lead goblin’s sword away with a gun butt and fire into the flinch.
Through the gut. That’s one.

 

Sorry for the suddenness. But I won’t hold back on you.

The remaining four come at me at once, but they’re slow.
I sweep my right hand wide and fire. Through the head of the one that leaped.
Without killing the momentum I spin, kick away the rusted sword coming in with my left foot.
I turn further, drop, and sweep the legs.
I aim at the one that staggers and shoot. It doesn’t miss: through the brow. I take distance.

I sink my hips and take my stance. Left hand forward, right hand reverse-grip beside my face.

I bat aside a goblin’s fist from the side as it runs in, and kick it into the one coming from behind.
Collision. I don’t miss the stagger; I shoot.
Spouting blood from the chest, the two goblins go down still tangled.

“Ring, confirm hostiles.”
“—Acknowledged: no hostile organisms within detection range. Suppressed.”
“That’s it. Copy.”

I return the handguns behind my hips.
The sakura-pink comes apart, mixes into the air, and is gone.

…Hey. Wasn’t I moving kind of amazingly.
I was bouncing off tree branches.
Hmm. Amazing, but is this actually all right. I’m pretty uneasy…

Ah, wait, are those two okay.
I look back, and the boy with the stick is staring this way, slack-jawed.
This one seems all right.

“Hey. You in the back, you okay?”
“…Ah, yeah, I just fell.”

The girl gets up, knocks dirt off her skirt hem, and comes toward me.
Looking close, she’s still quite young. Both of them around ten, maybe.

“All right. Not hurt?”
“Yeah… thank you for saving us.”
“Nah, I just happened to notice. More to the point, can you get home on your own?”
“No. We actually got lost… and that’s how the goblins attacked us.”
“I see. I can take you as far as the capital, but what do you want to do?”
“Then as far as the forest entrance, please?… Come on, Raito too.”
“…Ah. Yeah, thank you. Please.”

They both bow. Yeah. Well-raised kids.

“Sure. Then come on. Ring, guidance please.”
“—Acknowledged: pathfinding start.”

I walk slowly, checking behind me now and then.
Nn. They’re following properly. Good, good.
The boy walks in front, knocking branches aside so the girl can pass easily.
Yeah. Kind kid.

“I’m Raito. This is Riito. You?”
“I’m Ouka. Just a town girl.”
“A town girl… you’re not an adventurer?”
“No, I only just became one.”
“I see… um, you saved us, and I feel bad, but we can’t do a reward or anything.”
“That’s right. We don’t have money, so we came to gather herbs ourselves.”
“…Nn? No, I already heard a thank you. Isn’t that enough?”

I did it because I wanted to. I only did what I could.
The word thank you is enough.
…Wait, more importantly, they just said something I’m curious about.

“If you came to gather herbs, did someone get hurt?”
“Yeah. Mama was attacked by a giant bat.”
“Eh, wait, is she all right.”

Those huge bats are pretty scary.
They’ll go after sheep no problem, and a gouge from those hooked claws might be a fairly deep wound.

“She’s all right now, but it seems a pack made a nest nearby.”
“Uwah. Can’t you drive them off?”
“They’re nesting up high…”
“Ah. So you can’t get rid of them.”

Those huge bats go after fields and livestock, so a nest nearby is life-or-death for a small village.
Normally the men would drive them off… maybe the nest site is bad.
Then you’d normally put a request in at the Adventurer’s Guild, but that costs money and time.

…No, wait.

“…Hey, you two. Could you show me to the village for a bit?”
“Eh, that’s fine, but… what?”
“I just had a bad idea.”

If going through the guild costs money, then don’t go through the guild.