Chapter 39: The Bear Goes Snake Slaying

Chapter 39:
The Bear Goes Snake Slaying

 

MY CONVERSATION with Cliff and the Guildmaster held me up, but I finally made it to the quest board.

 

D-Rank Board

• Sword teacher (women-only).
• Orc slaying.
• Tigerwolf full materials.
• Two hundred goblin mana gems, no time restriction.
• Obtain Melmel grass.
• Stone monkey slaying at Hoelle mountain, unknown number.

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There wasn’t anything that called to me.

Sword teacher (women-only). Did bears count? All I knew about sword fighting was from the game. Teaching another person seemed like a pain anyway. Orc slaying didn’t seem like fun. I’d defeated tigerwolves earlier, and I couldn’t remove gems from goblins, so that was impossible. Not knowing how many stone monkeys there were was a problem. I didn’t want to take any quests when I didn’t know how long it would take.

If I hadn’t been taken captive for so long, there might have been others, but I couldn’t do anything about that.

I decided to check the C-rank board.

 

C-Rank Board

• Wyvern materials.
• Convoy for a certain person, strict secrecy.
• Mermaid scale.
• Annihilation of the Zamon thief group.
• Histori flower collection.
• Watersnake slaying, includes materials.
• Firetiger slaying, includes materials.

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The C-rank slaying quests looked like fun, but they were things that didn’t have a specified location or were far away. I was surprised that mermaids existed, though. It might be nice to go see them some time. Just when I was thinking of going home since there weren’t any interesting quests I could do in a day trip, I noticed there was a commotion at the front desk.

“Why not?”

“It isn’t that you can’t do it. I’m just saying it would take time.”

“Then it won’t be done in time. My mom and dad and everyone in the village will die.”

There was a short boy crying and pleading with Helen.

“Like I said, we don’t have any adventurers that can defeat a black viper. Even if we called one out, it would take until tomorrow.”

“My mom and dad, though…”

The boy broke down into sobs.

“What’s wrong?”

“Yuna.”

I headed over to the two.

“Apparently a black viper appeared in this boy’s village.”

“Is that a snake?”

“Yes. It’s larger than a normal viper. If it’s an outsize specimen, maybe a hundred-odd meters. It seems several of the villagers have been eaten. This boy rode a horse all the way to town, but even if he were to get an adventurer who could defeat it, they’re still out and won’t be back for several days.”

A black viper, huh? I looked at the sobbing boy.

“Then how about I go?”

Not like I had anything to do anyway.

“You want to just go? It’s not like you’re taking a stroll through the neighborhood. The large specimens are B-rank monsters.”

“But if we don’t hurry, then the village will be in danger, right?”

“Yes, but…”

“If it’s dangerous, I’ll bail out; it’ll be fine. Helen, could you at least prepare the formalities for calling adventurers? I can at least buy some time.”

“You think I’m an idiot?!” the boy yelled. “There’s no way somebody dressed as weirdly as you could defeat the black viper.” That was valid. Normally, people wouldn’t think that a girl in a bear onesie could defeat a monster like that.

“Uhh, in that case, I’ll go ahead of everyone and collect information.”

“Collect information?”

“I’ll collect information and hand it over to the adventurers you call, Helen. If we can figure out how big it is and where it is, then it’ll make things go faster, right?”

The boy nodded slightly at my off-the-cuff lie.

“So, Helen, where is that village?”

“It’s a day and a half’s journey to the southeast, assuming you’ve a fast horse.”

I wondered if a day and a half was far. I didn’t know how many hours a horse could run in a day. Obviously not all twenty-four.

“Are you really going?”

“I’ve got nothing better to do.”

“Please wait a moment. I will confirm things with the Guildmaster.”

Helen left her seat and headed to the Guildmaster’s room. However, the Guildmaster immediately came back with her.

“You’re going to slay a black viper?”

“I’m just going to check it out. If it seems like I can defeat it, I will, and if I can’t, I’ll run and gather information that I’ll hand over to the adventurers that Helen calls.”

“Helen, who are those adventurers?”

“That’d be One-Eyed Rush’s C-rank party.”

What kind of middle-school edgelord nickname was “One-Eyed Rush?” I didn’t want to be called anything like that, but I sure wanted to see them. I wondered if they had eyepatches or something.

“The one-eyed C-rank, huh. I don’t feel all that confident just sending one party. If you can make arrangements for others, please do.”

“Understood.”

“In that case, let’s go, Yuna.”

It sounded like the Guildmaster said something weird.

“Let’s go?”

“I’m going, too. I used to be an adventurer myself. I won’t hold you down.”

That wasn’t very reassuring.

“How do you plan on getting there?”

“I’ll use my horse. We should be able to get there tomorrow.”

“In that case, I’ll go ahead. My summons shouldn’t even take a day to get there.”

“Is that true?”

“I have two, so if I switch them out, then probably.”

I didn’t know for sure, though.

“You go ahead, then. Don’t do anything ridiculous until I get there.”

“Got it.”

The moment I tried to leave the guild, the boy stopped me.

“Wait. Could you take me with you?”

“You’d get in the way.”

“I’ll guide you there. That should cut some time down.”

I gave him a once-over. He looked light. I guess it’d be fine if I was just carrying a kid’s worth of extra weight.

“Okay. We won’t take any breaks.”

“I don’t mind. It’s for the village. I can’t wait around here by myself.”

“In that case, we can’t lose any time, kid.”

“I’m Kai.”

“I’m Yuna. Let’s head out, Kai.”

We left town, and I summoned Kumayuru. Kai was surprised.

“Get on. We’re in a hurry, aren’t we?”

“Miss, what is that? And what’s with your outfit?”

“That doesn’t matter right now, does it? Your family’s waiting, aren’t they?”

Kai nodded and mounted Kumayuru. I got on behind him.

“Make sure you look ahead and guide the way.”

Kai nodded.

Kumayuru ran, following Kai’s directions. Kumayuru was faster than a horse and had stamina to boot. After running for three hours, we dismounted and made some time for a small meal.

“Let’s finish in five.”

I pulled bread and juice from my bear storage and handed them to Kai. He thanked me and practically wolfed down the bread.

“How far out are we?”

“We’re about halfway there, maybe a little less.”

In that case, we’d arrive in about three hours. After we finished our meal, we switched over to Kumakyu. Even though Kai should have been tired from riding his horse into town at the crack of dawn, he guided us patiently.

“If we’ve got a straight shot for a while, you should sleep for a bit.”

Kai shook his head.

“I’m fine. I wouldn’t be able to. We’ll lose time if the heading’s even slightly off anyway. At first, I thought having a weirdly dressed girl come wouldn’t help, but you’ve got to be something special if you can summon bears like these. Maybe you’ll be able to help everyone escape, even if you can’t defeat the black viper. That’s why I want to get there fast. Even if I get to the village, I won’t be useful. I think my role is to make sure you don’t get lost and get you close to the village, if nothing else.”

Kai was way too mature. Between Fina and this kid, what was going on with the kids in this world?

“In that case, make sure you do a good job showing me the way.”

“Please save everyone in the village, miss.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

Kumakyu bore down on the village.