“Ah, yes... We have so many young ladies in attendance this year, it really is a sight. And to think, they’d be so proactive... Wait, we can’t let girls into the forest!” As wild as the king was, that was a step too far for him. The boys were all taking Hunting Techniques, so they had, at minimum, the stamina to run away from any monsters if necessary, and training to protect themselves. The girls, on the other hand, didn’t have any sort of foundational exercise to work off of.
“Emma, what are you thinking?! You of all people should know how dangerous monsters are!” Prince Edward’s face contorted in rage. Her right cheek still bore such terrible scars from the slimes’ attacks back then.
“Ah, Marion? Remember how we had that talk before we came here about having a bit more self-awareness about what it means to be a duke’s daughter?” Marion’s brother, Arthur, looked a bit displeased as well. The Bell household’s patriarch was the captain of the knights, and he’d been letting her get away with far too much. She was already of an age where she could be married off, but she was still dressing in masculine clothes, training her swordsmanship, and was several times more handsome than her potential suitors. They were having serious trouble finding her a partner, and it was driving the family crazy.
Okay, but you two are raising your hands as well! Both of you are raring to go yourselves! thought all the other students, but they weren’t about to actually say it. If they did, they might get wrapped up in all this too, and it would’ve been no laughing matter if they had to join, so they just silently watched the scene play out before them.
“Your Highness, if I may? The thing you need most on a monster hunt is knowledge. I want to know more about them. The more I know, the more useful I can be to our land.” Emma wasn’t the type to simply give up just because Prince Edward told her to. There really weren’t many opportunities for her to go into a forest with monsters, even when she was back home on the border. Even if nobody else could fill in for her father, brother, or uncle, they still wouldn’t let Emma watch them hunt. She knew it was dangerous, but the danger was why such specific countermeasures were born. To put it plain and simple, Emma had confidence she would be a lot more helpful than the prince.
“Arthur, you know I want to protect others more than I want others to protect me!”
“Don’t hit me with the clichés here... I understand how you feel, Marion, but this isn’t a game!”
Unfortunately, Emma’s claims were being drowned out by the Bell siblings’ passionate dispute. Apparently, Arthur was none too pleased that his sister wanted to be a knight. Given that he’d been thoroughly trained as a knight himself and that his sister Marion was absolutely among the people he’d sworn to protect, it was completely understandable.
“I know it’s not a game! You know that last year, I passed Beginner’s Hunting Techniques at the top of my class, and I’m taking Monster Studies this year as well. I am perfectly qualified to do this!”
“Nngh... It’s still no! Anything can happen in a monster encounter!”
Though Marion kept arguing, Arthur never once relented. As such, none of the girls were allowed to step foot into the forest.
“Well, shoot.”
“Shoot indeed.”
The lord of Pallas, Leonard, whispered, to which the acting lord of Pallas, Arven could only agree. They’d lost the girls in all the hustle. Here they’d thought that if there were girls with them, then perhaps the king would hesitate to attack any monsters right away for the girls’ safety. Having a battle-hungry king (who was a complete amateur when it came to monster hunting) without any restraints was a terrifying thought. But the biggest problem of all...
“If Emma’s not coming with us, then...”
“She won’t come either, huh?”
“Yeah, probably not...”
Kongming.
Even if the king had scared him into it, one of the biggest reasons why he’d agreed to let him enter the forest was because of Kongming. She could easily hide among the trees, so he thought they could bring Kongming along as long as she kept out of sight—just in case the worst should happen. Unfortunately, if Emma had to stay at camp, then Kongming was probably going to stay with her. Emma was Kongming’s number one priority; everyone else’s standing varied from day to day.
“And we’re pretty sorely lacking too...”
“You can say that again...”
Leonard and Arven sighed.
When monsters were around, the most dangerous person was one who didn’t know much about monsters.
There was one person who could easily predict the unpredictable nature of monsters that Arthur would still be worried about, and that was Emma. Who was no longer coming with them. In other words, they were significantly hindered. It didn’t matter how much stamina she had or whether she could use a sword or not; just having someone with such a wide breadth of monster knowledge around made hunting so much easier. There were many monsters in Skyte that weren’t in Pallas, and since George wasn’t all that confident in his knowledge, it made him a much less effective fighter. Without Emma and William around to help with their monster know-how, they wouldn’t be able to let their guard down for a second.
“And it’s not like we can say we’d like to take Emma either, huh?”
“Probably not...”
In the end, the people who were going into the forest for the special hands-on exercise were:
The king (A total problem child)
The prince (The boy who cut a slime in half)
The Stewart men (George being a wreck when it came to monster knowledge)
Arthur (The one responsible for cutting their forces down so much)
The Monster Studies and Hunting Techniques professors (They both seemed reliable, but also looked pretty worried)
“It’s always times like this when the worst kind of monsters show up, huh? Uh, not like I’m trying to say they will.”
“Seriously, don’t jinx us.” Arven could only frown as Leonard laughed off his ominous prediction. After all, triggering event flags was the Stewart family specialty.