Part 4: Until We Got Back
NONE of us had imagined the horned boar would be so massive. Standing side by side, we all stared in shock at the monster that had been so huge it had even made a thunderous noise just from falling over. Yes, we had defeated it, but we were clueless about how to dispose of it.
Before we’d set out, Albert had excitedly declared he’d hunt several of the boars today to raise his rank quickly, but from the look of him now, he definitely didn’t have the energy to hunt another one.
The whole thing still felt unreal to me, like I was in a strange dream. Corinne was the first to regain her composure and go back to her usual self. She poked Albert on the shoulder with a mischievous smile.
“Hey Al,” she teased. “How many horned boars did you say you’d hunt today?”
“Shut. Up.”
“Let’s see. You need five to rank up, right?” She counted off on her fingers. “Gonna hunt four more, then?”
“I said. Shut. Up.”
“Awww, come on. Don’t be like that. Tell me what your next move is. Come on. Come oooon.”
“Okay, fine,” Albert said. “I think we should just tie its legs to the fallen tree and then carry the tree. What do you think, Haruka?”
Albert, who was otherwise ignoring Corinne, scratched his head for a moment before offering that suggestion. He was probably used to dealing with Corinne’s antics, since they were childhood friends and all.
As for me, until that moment, I’d been studiously avoiding looking at our prey. But after Albert spoke, I gave the horned boar in its pool of blood a cautious glance. The monster was about seven feet tall, just as wide, and nearly twice as long. Its weight was probably easily in the tons. And unless that tree was extremely strong, it would break the moment we lifted it.
Thinking back on all the work I’d done over the past few months, I didn’t think the weight itself would be impossible to carry. I knew I was strong enough now to do it. But the balance—or imbalance as the case may be—concerned me. Plus, I was horrified by even the mere thought of hefting a bleeding carcass around. I racked my brains for a better idea, but all I could think of was to dismember it on the spot. Not that any of us had the skills or tools to do so.
As we all folded our arms in thought, we heard a voice from afar.
“Hey, that was pretty loud. You all okay over there?!”
It was Andre, the leader of the team called Drawn Swords, thwacking bushes out of his way as he approached us. Other than the fact that you could never get him to stop talking about his obsession with swords, he was generally a calm, good-natured man who was well-liked by new adventurers.
“Wait a sec… Whoa, whoa, whoa.” He paused. “Don’t tell me you lot actually took that thing down yourselves?”
I remained quiet, expecting someone else to answer. But no one did, so the silence just stretched. Then, when I looked, first to my left and then to my right, I found that the rest of my party were all looking at me.
“Y-Yes, that’s right.” I sounded suspicious even to my own ears.
Andre rubbed his beard and exclaimed in admiration. “Damn, nice job, ladies and gents. Congratulations, you defeated a tyrant boar on your own.”
The rest of the members of Drawn Swords soon appeared and approached the fallen boar, saying things like, “Jeez, will you look at that slice?” and “This is amazing.” But my friends and I just stood there, baffled. We had never heard of a “tyrant boar.”
“Hey, what do you mean by ‘tyrant boar’?” Albert asked. “Isn’t it a horned boar?”
“Don’t tell me you took it down without even knowing what it was?” Andre exclaimed. “Well, laddie, this right here is a tyrant boar, a monster evolved from a horned boar. The guild put up an emergency request to take it down, notifying folks of its appearance this morning. Adventurers below Rank 4 were told not to go near the forest because it was so dangerous. Guess you didn’t know though, eh? Well freaking done, laddie.”
And with that, Andre slapped Albert on the back. The boy still looked confused as he looked back and forth between the tyrant boar’s corpse and Andre’s face. Then his face suddenly split into a wide smile.
“Does this mean I’ll rank up?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’d say at least to fifth rank. You’ve got a reputation for being a hard worker and all, too.”
Albert pumped his fist in the air, ran over to Montana, hugged him, and shook his shoulders excitedly. “Didja hear that? Didja hear that?!” he repeated. “I’m not just dead weight anymore! I can go adventuring with my head held high now!”
“Co-Co-Congratulations,” Montana said with some effort, the words rattling out of him thanks to Albert’s overenthusiastic shaking. Our de facto party leader let go of him and rushed over to me next.
“Now we’re equal! I’m gonna be Rank 5 too!”
Seeing his joy made me feel like I was watching a large dog. I was prepared for him to jump on me like he had with Montana, so I was surprised when instead, he stopped right in front of me. He stood there expectantly, like he was waiting for something. So I reached out and ruffled his hair. I thought he would dislike being treated like a dog or a child, but when he silently accepted the gesture, I realized I’d made the right decision. I kept petting him because I was enjoying it, and then Corinne hugged me from behind.
“Haruka! Pat me too.”
“Huh? Oh, sure.”
Though I wondered if it was really okay to touch a young woman’s head like this, I nevertheless gave in to her demand—after all, she had been waiting patiently—and gently patted her on the head. Her hair was glossier and easier to stroke than Albert’s.
After a while of this, Montana walked up to stand right next to me, took my free hand, and placed it on his head. He didn’t say anything, but I took the hint. His hair was soft, especially around his ears, and felt like silk. I stroked his ears for some time, then, hoping I wasn’t making him uncomfortable, I glanced down at him. His eyes were happily narrowed, and he looked utterly relaxed.
Andre’s scolding voice broke through the moment I’d been enjoying. “Oy, the job isn’t over until you go back,” he said. “We’ll keep an eye out here, so you lot had best get moving and report to the guild. Don’t forget to bring reinforcements back to carry this thing.”
I quickly straightened up. He made a good point.
“Bloody hell, can’t believe a bunch of pipsqueaks beat us to the punch,” Andre said playfully with a dramatic shake of his head. “What rotten luck, eh?” Then he sat down and waved us off with a lazy flick of his wrist.
“Right,” I said. “We’ll be back before you know it.”
“Nah, take your time. We’ll handle any monsters that come after this thing and make some money for ourselves in the process,” he answered lazily once we started walking away.
Grateful to the veteran adventurer, we hurried off toward town.
As it happened, this incident led to my promotion to Rank 4 while Corinne and Montana ranked up to Rank 5. Albert, however, only made it to sixth rank, perhaps due to his less accomplished track record. The fact that he managed to sulk and be happy at the same time further solidified my impression of him as being a tad more childish than the other two.