CH 83

Chapter 83 – One month since then – Part six

(Horse’s Point of View)

“Hello.” I heard a girl’s voice.

The sun was still high up in the sky.

I was currently taking care of the horses, and I was approached by a villager, who was currently smelling of blood, with a report.

“Swallow?” I asked. I didn’t need to turn around to know that it was her.

Her voice was that of a child, her presence was that of a child, and she moved like a child… Unsurprisingly, since Swallow really is a ten years old girl.

Even at this age, her combat prowess is quite high though. She’ll surely grow even more in the future.

But from the perspective of the people who live here, she’s still quite inexperienced.

“We finished it.” She told me.

As the person in charge of this village, I should hear people’s reports when something worth-note happens.

Swallow came to report that the Demon Beast subjugation planned by her student and the other two trainee assassins had been completed.

I heard of the plan in advance, and Swallow had asked for permission to take the trainees to the mountain, so as to let them execute their plan.

And I allowed her to go.

It is still too early to have the trainees practice in the mountain, but if Swallow, who is being Chace’s master, judges that he can go while she accompanies the three of them, then there was no reason to not allow them to execute their plan.

“It was a great success. And I brought a souvenir, meat from the Ironhead.” Swallow told me.

“Oh? Thank you very much. Please wait for a bit.” As I replied to her, I finished giving one final brush to the nearby horse, then closed the stables.

Then, I received the large chunk of meat wrapped in leaves from Swallow, and started walking towards my home.

This meat still smells of blood though, so I won’t eat it just yet, and will instead eat preserved meat.

Also, while our rules aren’t as strict on one another as they are on the students, the villagers here still live with bartering as our main rule, so I’d like to offer her something in exchange.

Once we arrived at my home, “Do you want to eat?” I asked Swallow.

I was about to eat lunch anyways.

“No. I’ll be eating with my apprentice, so I’ll pass on your offer.

“I’ll go to him as soon as I’m done with reporting.” Swallow replied.

“Alright. Take this then.” I put some preserved meat on the table, then sat across Swallow, “You said it was a great success, right? What happened?”

She didn’t just say it was a success, but a great success. Something happened that was better than expected.

When I asked for details, the answer she gave me was simple, but also very meaningful.

Once her explanation was finished, I asked, “I see. And he is going to eat it?”

“Yep. He fought it, recovered from the blow, and is going to eat it now. That’s huge, isn’t it?” She replied.

Just as Swallow said, this was huge.

The strong aren’t necessarily strong after they’re struck down.

It’s not uncommon for warriors to receive an unexpected blow from a Demon Beast and lose their will to fight. It is one of the walls that all students who come here need to overcome.

And I’ve seen many who, in the end, couldn’t overcome this wall and changed their paths as assassins.

Owl, our pharmacist, was injured during a training battle and distanced herself from combat after that. She went from being a strong assassin who can do anything, to an assassin specialized in poisons.

Though in her case, her Gift was already related to medicine, so even without that, her final path might have not changed much.

“Did you lend them a hand?” I asked.

“I opened my mouth.” Swallow replied.

And also delivered the final blow. An attack on the neck of the Ironhead, that broke its bone and made it collapse on the spot.

Because otherwise, the Ironhead would have fallen on top of Chace, who was right in front of the Ironhead.

Chace’s spear pierced the ribs of the Ironhead from left to right. There was no doubt that the match was over after that.

Swallow’s push was unnecessary. She reaped the life out of the Ironhead when it had already been defeated.

However… “This was good enough.” I said.

It’s only been a month since the trainees arrived. It’s still too early for them to go to the mountain, but they still succeeded in their hunt.

Even if Swallow had to interfere by saying something, this is still good enough at their current stage… And the result of this training exercise can absolutely be called a great success.

“It’s strong. The Fast Boots gift.” Swallow commented.

I nodded, “Indeed. As expected of a Gift that heroes were said to possess.”

Chace’s gift is said to be a weaker version of the Lightning Fast Boots gift that a hero of an old fairy tale supposedly had.

Like lightning running through rain clouds. A gift that lets one run at the speed of light. The Lightning Fast Boots.

The Fast Boots may be slower than that, but the way they’re used is still the same.

The reason we discovered Chace was due to his Gift in the first place. We realized how much potential he had if he had a chance to grow.

However, properly honing your skills is more important than growing solely your Gift. If you rely on your Gift excessively, then you’ll surely die due to a careless mistake. Like challenging a strong Demon Beast when you aren’t prepared to do so, then getting easily defeated.

To have someone with such a rare and strong Gift die this kind of meaningless death would absolutely be a national loss. These people should be given the opportunity to grow and nurture their skills and their Gift instead.

“I knew that Chace was stupid, but it really became clear with today’s training. I was quite surprised.” Swallow commented.

Swallow, Chace’s master, was the one who was most pleased with the results of this training… Or well, perhaps the strongest feeling for her right now isn’t pride on her student, but relief that he is still alive.

“I really didn’t think he was going to aim for the Ironhead’s abs with his first attack.” Swallow sighed.

… It seems like he didn’t think of anything and just charged straight ahead. Aiming at the part of the Ironhead that you want to avoid the most.

“… He really aimed for the abs?” I asked just to be sure.

It was hard to not show the surprise. This was unbelievable.

“Yeah. Chace’s stab went deep into the Ironhead’s belly, so the spear got stuck inside it. This was why he couldn’t get the spear out in time, and why he got hit.

“If he aimed for the heart though, the battle would have been over then and there.

“… Why did he aim for a place where the Ironhead wouldn’t die even if he was able to completely pierce through it?

“Did he even understand why paralyzing poison was used? To slow down the enemy’s movements and expose its weak spots… Chace doesn’t seem to have understood the plan at all.” Swallow grumbled.

That was awful. Terrible indeed.

It was so bad that even the usually optimistic Swallow was now lamenting.

“The result was a great success, but it seems like it was still too early.” I commented.

“You’re right. He is already strong alright, but he needs to train his head more.” She replied.

Truly, there are quite a few unusual trainees this time around.

“By the way, what about the mountain?” I asked her.

The report on the students’ training was finished, so now I wanted a report on the state of the mountain, which I had asked her to examine too.

“It’s just as you heard. The number of Demon Beasts seems to have decreased a bit.

“Maybe there was some overhunting by adventurers? Though I couldn’t find any traces of that.” Swallow suggested.

“No. We got no such report from Haidiga.” I replied.

If an excellent adventurer hunted a lot of Demon Beasts within this mountain, then they’d surely be based on Haidiga.

However, no such report came from the assassins hiding within that city.

In other words, there are no abnormalities in the city itself.

Therefore, “A big game might have come.” I said.

It’s something that happens once every few years. A Demon Beast that disturbs the ecosystem of the mountain can sometimes enter it from outside.

The current state of the mountain is very similar to what usually happens when such big game arrives.

“Is that how it is?” Swallow asked me.

“If it is, then we’ll surely get a contact from Haidiga.” I replied.

And a few days later, we received our contact. We received information about the Obsidian Wolf.