Chapter 12: The Giant

Author: Kurohitsuji
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2086fk/13/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Today’s lunch was a sandwich.
The kind packed with bacon and leafy greens.
Crisp-fried bacon and the crunch of the greens fit together well, and the mustard was working; it was very good.
Delicious food is justice. That’s the absolute standard in me.
I’m grateful to Liza all over again for recommending this inn.

But when I go to the guild, Liza isn’t there, of all times.
I was going to thank her for the good food, too.
That said, what isn’t there isn’t there, so I pick up the stack of request forms.
Yesterday I only looked at gathering; maybe I’ll look at subjugation too.
I have to earn lodging until the reply to the letter comes.

I flip through the not-very-thick stack.
Mixed in with goblins and orcs there are kobold and wyvern subjugation requests, but nearby it seems like only the standing goblin request.
I’ll memorize the proof parts written on them for now.
I might run into something while I’m killing goblins.
Goblins and kobolds are canines, orcs are the nose, wyverns are the hooked claws. I think I can manage those with the knife I have.

Ah. I kind of wish I’d kept some of the smoked orc I made on the way here, instead of giving it all away.
But I didn’t know you could sell it at the guild… the merchants were happy, so it’s fine.
Hmm. If I see more I’ll hunt them.
Anyway, to the forest, I guess.

I leave the Adventurer’s Guild and head for the city gate, and yesterday’s uncle waves and greets me.

“Good mooorning.”
“Ooh, morning. Herbs again today?”
“Nah, I thought I might try a subjugation request today.”
“Oi oi, you all right? Don’t push yourself too hard.”

He looks surprised and worried. Hnn… the capital’s full of good people, huh.

“Thanks. I’ll be fine.”
“Well, take care.”
“Okaaay.”

I wave big again today and head for the forest.
Someone else might take the herb requests, so I’ll pass this time.

“Ring. Search for monsters, please.”
“—Search: seven goblins within detection range.”
“Uwah, that’s a lot… anyway, guidance please.”
“—Guidance: please proceed along the path.”
“Got it. Thanks.”

I go into the forest with a handgun hanging in each hand.
Ring is really convenient. It tells me about the surroundings, and I don’t have to look myself.
In the first place, without Ring I couldn’t have been an adventurer.
A town girl with no knowledge, no experience, and no fighting power couldn’t be an adventurer.
All hail Ring. I’m grateful.
Well, Ring is also why I came to the capital.

“—Ouka. Twenty meters to the goblins.”
“Nn, I see them. The usual, please.”
“—Sakura-Drive Ready.”

“Ignition!!”

Pale-crimson mana-light rises, threading the gaps in the forest trees.
A sight I’ve gotten used to. But no matter how many times I see it, it feels strange.
The sakura-pink that gives me courage and the power to fight.
A strange lift fills my chest.

All right. Shall we dance today too.

I run. I close the distance, into my range.
A face surprised to see me burst out; I put a round through that brow.
A goblin bursts. I accelerate with that at the edge of my vision, run up the tree in front of me, and leap.
I leap with my black hair streaming, shoot another from above. I kick a branch, change direction, fire again.
Using the trees as footholds, I fly every which way.

I turn the shock of landing into speed and race on, still low.
I fire as I leap, through the chest.
I shoot through a branch coming at my face and kick the larger fragments away.
Where that swipe stops its movement, I rain rounds on it.
Land, stretch both hands, fire left and right, and finish.

Seven in total. Subjugation complete.
Yep. I can hunt a pack no problem after all.
…Looking again, Sakura-Drive really isn’t ordinary.

And now that I think of it, the guns’ accuracy is abnormal too.
I’m moving around this much and the shots still go where I aim—is that the handguns’ ability?
I shoot because I understand that if I shoot, it hits… but what’s going on with that.
Together with the not-being-able-to-use-magic thing, I might be better off talking to a specialist.

I’m turning that over when—

“—Large specimen detected. One ogre. In the depths of the forest.”
“…An ogre? In the forest next to the capital?”

Ring tells me something odd.
Ogres are those huge humanoid monsters with one horn, right.
But I thought they only lived on the Gernika continent, way north of the capital?

“—It is armed. Caution.”
“Ring, think I can do it?”
“—Affirmative.”
“Then let’s go. I don’t like leaving it either.”

I run through the forest with the handguns still in hand.
The ogre Ring reported is found at once.
I’d heard, but it’s big. Ten meters, maybe.
A huge club in its hand, looking this way.
Ah, well. If I was going bang bang that much, of course it would notice.

“All right. Shall we dance. You’re too big for a dance partner, though.”

I pick up speed. Close in, fire in a string.
The target’s big and easy to aim at, but it doesn’t look like it’s doing much.

I run around it spraying shots, but the muscle is too thick; the rounds don’t punch through.
Shooting at random won’t work. This isn’t doing anything.

In that case: ankle, back of the knee, Achilles tendon, shin.
When I shoot the humanoid vitals, the huge body staggers a little.
All right. The weak points are the same as a human’s. Then I can do this.

Just as I feel the response, the enraged ogre’s giant club comes down. That’s not a size I can slip with a gun butt.
I accelerate forward in a hurry, and a crash from behind.
The shaking ground almost takes my feet; I recover at once.

A graze from that would kill me instantly. I have to be careful.

I dodge the next club, use that hand as a foothold, run up, and leap.
An eye about the size of my head.
Our gazes cross.

No matter how big you are, this is a weak point, right?

I spray with both hands.
Gunshots that sound connected, and a giant’s scream.

A swinging arm. I kick the shoulder and evade; a palm passes over my head and the wind pressure blows me away.
I spin just before I hit a tree, take it on my legs, kill the momentum with my knees.
Before gravity pulls me to a landing I kick the tree and leap, and dump a volley into the back of the knee.

The knee folds. The ogre falls.

I take that opening, leap onto the giant’s back, and put a muzzle to the back of its head.
How about this.

I fire.

It twitches once, and the ogre stops moving.
I put distance and stay wary, but it doesn’t so much as twitch.

“—Cessation of vital signs confirmed. No hostile organism readings in the vicinity.”
“…Haha. I’m amazing.”

I return the handguns to my hips.
Sakura scattering around me, I sit down hard, put a hand to my chest, and take a deep breath.

My pulse is fast. My body is hot.
But as Ring said, it worked out.

This isn’t something an ordinary town girl does, is it.
Appalled at myself, I flop on my back, spread-eagle.

Through the gaps in the trees I look up at, a scrap of blue sky is showing.