“Really? I had no idea you wanted to be a Hunter, Rod. You should have written me! Why not rely on your brother?”
“Well, you were far away, and then when I thought you were back last year, you were all busy with the knights. I couldn’t ask you with all that going on, could I?” Rod pursed his lips, looking more his age.
“I’d help you out even if you didn’t make it a condition for helping Ann. I’m not here for a request or anything this time, and I was already planning on spending some time in the dungeon.”
“Really?!”
Sara was enjoying the heartwarming scene of the brothers deepening their bonds when Rod suddenly upped the ante.
“Can you help my friends who have just become Hunters too, then?”
Now that Sara thought about it, he had said “us” earlier, hadn’t he?
“Of course,” Kuntz said right away. He would come to regret this a bit later, Sara thought.
Ann returned to the Hunter’s Guild just before noon, her eyes sparkling. Rod had apparently told her they’d meet up there later.
“I got to help out with deliveries! I’m fast ’cause of the physical strengthening.”
It seemed she’d had a good experience just in the few hours of the morning.
“It happens to be a busy time right now, so they said I could work there for ten days starting tomorrow, from nine to three. They’ll even provide lunch!”
“What are you getting paid?”
Rod had introduced the place to her, but he didn’t know what sort of work they’d offer her, so he asked what he was curious about.
“Umm, excluding lunch breaks, it’ll be four or five hours a day at 500 gil per hour. So I’d make 20,000 gil if I can work all ten days. Look, see? They said I should get permission from my guardian to work.” Ann showed them the money she had in her hand. “This silver coin is 1,000 gil, and this round one is 100. I made 1,500 gil today!”
“Pfft.” Allen snorted. “It’s just like when Sara first worked. She’d never seen money before, so she was like, ‘Oh, this is what it looks like.’”
“Well, how was I supposed to know? There was no need for money on the Dark Mountain.”
She still held a bit of a grudge toward Nelly about that.
Rod nodded, giving Sara and Allen a glance. “That’s reasonable for a kid’s salary. Sounds like the Marta Company will work out just fine.”
He was like an agency giving out temp work. What a useful guy to know.
“What can I do for you in return? As long as it’s not money, that is.”
Ann was just as reliable. She didn’t intend to take Rod’s kindness for granted.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get my brother and his friends to pay me back.”
And his friends? A question mark popped up above Sara’s head. That was when Rod waved his hand toward the entrance of the guildhall.
“Heeey! Over here!”
When he did, a big group of kids around Rod’s age—in other words, around Ann’s age as well—started to gather. They had swords or daggers at their waists and wore clothes that were easy to move around in, so they must have all been Hunters. It looked to be an equal mix of boys and girls.
“One, two, three... Hey, now...” Kuntz said with some exasperation. “Nine in total? Ten with Rod... By ‘us’ did you mean...?”
His guess was correct.
“They all became Hunters recently and have been struggling to get stronger. Guys, this is my brother Kuntz, and this is Haruto, Allen, and Sara.”
Sara smiled at the children as she was introduced to them.
“You said you were gonna work for ten days, right, Ann?” Rod asked Ann.
“Yeah.”
“Then you all can teach us for the ten days you don’t need to look after Ann. Everyone, say thank you!”
“Huh?” Haruto, Allen, and Sara all said at once.
“Thanks for your help!” the kids said in unison, though the trio couldn’t exactly say they hadn’t been informed of this.
“Sorry, Allen, Sara, Haruto. I just remembered how cunning this kid has been, ever since he was little.” Kuntz looked up at the ceiling, holding his head like he had a headache.
“I kinda like him.”
“Me too.”
Allen and Haruto held up their hands and greeted the other children. They were in, Sara supposed.
“I’m not a Hunter, so I don’t know if I’ll be any help, but, why not, I guess.”
Sara smiled and nodded as well, as if she’d intended to help from the beginning.
They decided to meet up the next day at nine and parted ways for the time being.
“You don’t have to go home, Kuntz?”
“I’ll go back tomorrow. Since we’re all gonna be instructors, I figure we should discuss things together tonight.”
“Yeah, I guess so. I didn’t think I’d be joining you.”
Sara was an apothecary. She had a Hunter’s license, but she wasn’t a Hunter. She didn’t think Plant Hunters counted either.
“There were ten, including Rod, but it’ll probably only be two or three who want to focus on magic.”
Even kids got some muscle on them when they fought using physical strengthening. It might have been a bit unkind to assume, but the thinner kids with poorer posture probably relied on magic more.
“They say they’re having trouble getting stronger, but I’m guessing they just want to make more money.”
Kuntz seemed to have given the matter some thought already.
“You’ve probably figured this out, Ann, but kids can’t work all day, and the most they can earn is around 2,000 gil a day. It’s enough to eat, but you could also say it’s not enough to do anything besides eat. And that’s assuming they have a place to live.”
“Right.” Ann was listening carefully.
“If there are kids who’d be good at gathering plants, they might be able to make more money doing that.”
“That’s my cue!” Sara exclaimed spiritedly.
“If we’re all going to be helping, let’s spend the first day figuring out what they’re all best at.”
“Sounds good. We can do the basics of mana manipulation every day too, like we learned with the knights.”
“Then we can split them up according to their strengths.”
“What about ending with giving them magic examples? Some of them might pick stuff up just from seeing some spells. Like my lightning.”
The honorary instructors were making good progress already.
“For the second half, we can do some practical training in the dungeon.”
“Maybe we’ll split them into parties if that seems like it’ll work better.”
When they’d more or less decided what they’d be doing, Ann pursed her lips.
“This sounds fun. I wanna do it too.”
“Well, I get how you feel.” Sara patted Ann on the knee to console her.
“You can’t do everything. You’ve gotta concentrate on one thing at a time.”
“I knooow.”
Sara would have been scared just joining in with a group of ten kids she didn’t know, so she almost envied Ann’s enthusiasm.
The next day, they headed for the guild while Ann headed for the Marta Company. Sara’s group soon stood before ten rookie Hunters.
“Okay, let’s check everyone’s aptitudes. We’re heading for the meadow.”
They left the guild in a big group and headed out. The central dungeon was just outside town, so they didn’t have to walk far to make it to the meadow. Sara also knew that medicinal plants could be found in the meadow outside the capital.
“Okay! We’ll check how much talent you have for gathering plants first. Now, these unassuming plants at your feet right now are healing herbs.”
Ignoring the kids who started making a fuss when she mentioned gathering plants, Sara bent down and picked a healing herb at her feet.
“No way...”
“There are healing herbs growing right here?”
A buzz went through the gathered children.
“Huh? No one’s gathered healing herbs before? Not one?”