Chapter 4: By the Time Summer Had Entered Full Swing

By the time summer had entered full swing, an uncharacteristically long letter arrived from Angeline. It was as if she was jotting down everything she never got the opportunity to write about before. Belgrieve took his time reading through it, then re-read it even more slowly.

“I should have taught her proper writing too,” he concluded.

It was full of misspellings, and it was hard to call her penmanship tidy by any means. However, the letter was overflowing with her thoughts and emotions.

“She’s doing her best out there.”

He couldn’t contain his laughter when he read through her rant on how she had failed to return for a third time, only to grimace a bit when he remembered he himself had also fallen into dismay as he anxiously awaited her return. Belgrieve grew a little sorrowful when he read about her defeating a wyvern and giga ant colony without breaking a sweat; it occurred to him, Anything I can teach her won’t be useful to her anymore. Watching a child’s growth wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows, and it came with its fair share of loneliness too.

In any case, he would have to send a reply. He wrote slowly and thoughtfully. Up until now, his letters had always been simple and to the point—he didn’t want to suddenly inflict her with homesickness after all—but a letter this long needed a mindful reply.

He wrote line upon line of everything that happened in the village, everything on his mind, and whatever words of encouragement he could offer. Once he was done, he tucked it away and stretched. Perhaps he would add to it later, but for now, he stood and walked out of his house.

It was already night by then, and while the sky was dotted with stars, it was still terribly dark. A forest grew behind his house, and from the branches of the trees dangled quite a number of wooden logs suspended from ropes—more than thirty in all.

Belgrieve stepped into the center of them, removed his sheathed sword, and used it to strike one. The log flew in the opposite direction, of course, but it swung back towards him on the rope.

He struck another one, then another. The logs would fly this way and that way, but they would always find their way back to Belgrieve. He would then dodge, parry or sidestep.

There was no way he could have relied on his sight in the darkness, and yet Belgrieve continued to elude the irregular swings of the wood assailing him. He managed to do so even as the logs smacked into one another, suddenly changing their trajectories.

Eventually, the logs began to calm. Their swings grew smaller and smaller until they had finally stopped.

Belgrieve sighed and said, “I’m losing my edge.” He rubbed his shoulder—the one place a log had managed to strike. “I can’t let Ange laugh at me.”

He struck the logs again. Practicing his sword swings had always been part of his daily routine, but when he devoted himself to training like this, it brought him back to the days he had first tried to make it as an adventurer.

The next day, he was grimacing at his muscle pains as he walked out into the fields.

“Dammit, I really have lost it...”

However, he was also relieved that it had taken only a day for the muscle pains to set in. The farmers from his same generation would laugh and say, “You know you’re really getting old when even the pain is running behind.” Compared to them, his own body was still robust.

He had to regain his instincts, and he would need real combat for that. While he was already beyond the ripe age of forty, he was seeking out stimulation like a young boy. Are Angeline’s exploits having an impact on me at my age? he thought as he kneaded his beard.

As he wiped off the sweat he had worked up by tending to the field, he saw Barnes rushing over.

“My old man’s calling for you, Mr. Bell.”

“Kerry?”

He followed Barnes to where Kerry was making quite a conflicted face. Sitting beside him was Maurice the priest and a number of lumberjacks he recognized.

“What’s got you all gathered here?”

“Yeah, about that, Bell. Word is a fiend’s been showing up around the forests.”

Oh really? Belgrieve wondered. It had occurred to him when he guided the children through the mountain the other day that the number of fiends was definitely on the rise. He had forbidden the children from entering the mountains since, but it seemed the fiends had finally made it to the outskirts of the village.

It was the lumberjacks who ran into the fiend. There had only been one foe, and the men had been armed with axes, so they managed to drive it off; however, they now hesitated to return to those woods.

“See, we’ve got to rebuild the church for the autumn festival, and we’ve been talking about constructing a school too. We need lumber, but that’s not happening at this rate.”

“I do feel bad for calling you every time, Bell. But fiends are more than what we—”

Bell cut off the lumberjacks there. “Don’t worry about it. What did the fiend look like?”

“Looked like a wolf—a gray one. We only saw one of them, but it might be part of a pack.”

grayhunds... Alone, they were only E-Rank on the adventurer scale, but they were dangerous enough to untrained villagers. Belgrieve nodded and turned towards Maurice, the priest.

“Father, could you muster up some fiend-warding measures, just in case?”

“Understood.” The priest meekly nodded.

“I want everyone to help you put up defenses.”

“Hey, Bell. Are you gonna be all right on your own? We ain’t used to battle, but if it’s just to make up the numbers...”

“Yeah, we know our way around the forest pretty well...”

The lumberjacks offered their services, but Belgrieve firmly turned them down with a smile. He would be fine with an adventurer watching his back, but having to fight while defending inexperienced lumberjacks would just make the task more dangerous.

“I’ll be just fine. Focus on protecting the village. Not to mention,” Belgrieve said with a grin, “I was just in the mood for a workout.”

All those gathered gulped at the adventurer’s visage that Belgrieve rarely showed.

Once he was back home, Belgrieve changed from his work clothes into a more mobile ensemble. He took his sword in hand and hung pouches containing various tools from his belt. It had been a while since he had gone out fiend hunting like this. It had happened a handful of times since he returned to Turnera, but those occasions were few and far between. Each time, he would feel an excitement that he thought had left him long ago. How am I going to fight? What new tricks shall we test out? It was as if his fifteen-year-old self was talking to his forty-year-old bones.

He gave a wry smile and muttered to himself, “We’re not playing around here, you know?”

I know, I get it, the boy sulkily replied. Belgrieve smiled and stroked his beard. He rolled his shoulders and stamped his leg against the floor, testing his body’s condition. He felt fine and was still moving properly.

“All right... Let’s go.”

He left his house and headed for the forest. The village of Turnera faced the eastern side of the mountain. A dense forest sprawled around its base and was climbing its way up the slope. The other side of the village was made up of flat land, sparsely dotted by small trees.

The moment he stepped in the woods, the air was filled by peculiarly chilly air. It was far colder than when he had brought the children, despite the fact that the hottest days of summer were upon them.

“Hmm...” Belgrieve pictured what sort of fiend it could be as he warily pressed on. He already had a vague inkling when he first heard the story, but it seemed something greater than a grayhund was lurking.

Gradually, he began to feel presences surrounding him. Suddenly, standing on a ledge above him was a fiend clad in silver fur and cloaked in a layer of frigid air—an icehund.

“I knew it... Did you come from up north, big guy?” Belgrieve asked, drawing his sword.

An icehund was a C-Rank fiend. It boasted the appearance of a great silver-white wolf, its body was constantly surrounded by cold, and it could exhale a freezing breath from its mouth. It was far more dangerous than any of the E-Rank fiends around these parts.

Presumably, thought Belgrieve, the grayhunds and other fiends started gathering up, entranced by the mana emanating from the icehund. Lesser fiends would gather around more powerful ones, and it wasn’t rare for that to someday develop into a colony.

The icehund howled, and in response, the surrounding presences flew at Belgrieve. A pack of grayhunds pounced from the shadows of the trees.

Belgrieve lowered his stance and sliced through the first, then used his peg leg as a pivot to turn and take out the one behind him. Next, he pounded his left leg against the ground to leap up. He had continued training even after losing his leg, and now he could make full use of movements only possible because there was no sense of pain in his artificial leg. The way he carried himself did not fall short of someone in perfect condition. Sliding along the ground in this manner, it was not long before he had exterminated the last grayhund. He glared at their leader.

“Still watching from on high, eh? Pretty stuck up, ain’tcha.”

The icehund growled. It now recognized Belgrieve not as prey, but as a foe it needed to defeat. What had been sneering eyes now looked down upon him with sharp hostility. In an instant, it was bounding down the ledge with the force of an avalanche. The cold air around it howled, blowing against Belgrieve more forcefully than the fierce northern winds. A membrane of frost descended over the ground.

Then it roared a gravelly roar, and with it came its powerful breath. Belgrieve had been expecting this and sidestepped with ease; however, the icehund used its breath as a smokescreen, bounding straight through it. Its sharp claws and fangs glistened like ice.

That too, Belgrieve dodged as if he had seen it coming. As they crossed paths, he tossed a small ball from his pouch. The icehund had opened its maw to bite down on him, and the ball swiftly disappeared down its throat.

The fiend burst into a coughing fit. He had fed it a pill made of a compound of chili pepper, onion, and other impactful flavors.

“I see, so it still works on C-Ranks,” he said casually, as though this was nothing but an experiment to him.

Ever since Belgrieve lost his right leg, he had pursued another angle that would keep him from being a burden on the battlefield—he focused on knowledge. In the time it took for him to rehabilitate, he thoroughly read through books and guides on fiends, and records of past battles against them. He would repeatedly simulate countermeasures, thinking long and hard about the optimal way to fight off each new fiend he encountered in his studies.

The icehund was one of the fiends he had thought about, having already encountered them before, though only a handful of times. However, this was his first time field testing the pill.

“I should quit playing around,” he said after a moment. He had already been fishing around his pouches for the tool he would test out next before he even realized it, but he shook the thought from his head. Carelessness will be the end of me.

The icehund pounced at him, seething in rage. Though it seemed it could no longer muster a breath from its throat, the rush of its supple limbs made it clear this was still a C-Rank fiend. However, its movements were far too linear.

“You’re getting too fired up for an icehund...”

Lightly twisting his body and just barely dodging, Belgrieve raised his sword and swung hard. A swipe with the strength of his entire body behind it easily separated the fiend’s head from its body. Now a corpse, the icehund’s body continued to soar with its momentum until it crashed into a tree and toppled to the ground. The cold air dispersed, and the summer season swiftly flooded the area. The layer of frost melted instantly, and Belgrieve grimaced that it had suddenly become so unpleasantly hot.

“Good grief... This heat is nauseating.”

He could not sense any other fiends around. Now that he had defeated the icehund, there wouldn’t be any other fiends attracted to its sweet mana. Belgrieve did not get chances like these often, so he took out his knife to strip it of its pelt. The icehund’s fur was a beautiful silver. There was a girl in the village who would be married soon, and surely she would be delighted at the gift.

The young, novice adventurer inside Belgrieve gave a satisfied laugh, while Belgrieve the elder smiled bitterly. He was now convinced that his daughter’s exploits were having a bad influence on him.

○

“Achoo!”

“What’s wrong, Merry? Catching a cold?”

“Nah, that shop’s air cooling magic is getting to me... It was way too cold in there.”

“Suddenly going from that to this... It’s making my body feel all out of whack.”

Angeline, Miriam, and Anessa walked the streets of downtown Orphen, complaining about the cooling magic of a restaurant they didn’t usually visit.

In the end, after saving Seren and seeing her off, Angeline was forced to return to the capital. Seren just barely managed to see her father while he was still alive. With all her gratitude, she wanted to welcome Angeline as an esteemed guest, but Angeline only partook in one dinner and refused the rest.

She did not have enough vacation days left to visit Turnera and make it back in time. And so, upon returning, Angeline spent all her remaining time writing a letter. She had always written in whatever free time she could find, and she would always have so much to share that she could barely write down any of it, but this time she decided she would just put it all down.

She wrote, erased, wrote, and erased, over and over again. This letter was different from any she’d written before, and it took close to a week for her to finish. By then her holiday was over, and she was back to her normal schedule, rushing frantically to and fro on difficult requests.

It was only yesterday she had returned from subjugating a kraken—a massive squid-like fiend—in Elvgren, a western seaport. Tomorrow, she would be headed east again. She truly was being sent off in all directions, and was kept incredibly busy. These were fiends that only high-rank adventurers could deal with, so there was little she could do about it.

In any case, she had the day off, and while of course she could not go see Belgrieve, she did not hate spending her time with her party members, who were also her good friends.

“Still, we’ve got no time to use all this money we’re earning... Not that I have anything in mind,” Anessa lamented.

Miriam smiled. “Then let’s blow through it today. There’s a cake shop I’ve been curious about.”

“That’s not even going to make a dent... What do you want to do, Ange?”

“I approve of sweets.”

“All right, it’s two against one. Off we go.”

Miriam led the other two with a skip in her step.

The cake shop was a large building facing the main road. Its freshly furnished interior was neat and tidy; customers would place whatever sweets they wanted on a tray, then take that to the register to pay for all of it. There were tables and chairs, both inside and outside the store, to eat sweets that had already been paid for.

Angeline and Miriam’s eyes twinkled at the pastries that sparkled in every color of the rainbow. Though Anessa remained a step behind them, she too gulped at their splendor.

“Wow, they’re way too pretty. Tasty looking too.”

“Merry... We will have to take them all down one at a time...!”

“All right! We can do this!”

“D-Don’t overdo it, you two...”

Angeline and Miriam went around and filled their trays with whatever sweets caught their fancy, while Anessa, still pretending like she didn’t care, picked out several of her own. Regardless of being S- and AAA-Ranks, at heart, they were still young girls. After paying a fortune to the cashier, who was frozen stiff with a smile on her face at the sight of the mountains of sweets, the three headed for a table.

“A bit much, maybe?” Miriam blinked, upon looking back at her own mountain.

Angeline shook her head. “Not a problem... I’ll order some tea.”

Once the order for floral tea had been placed, they immediately dove into the incredibly sweet and delicious confections. Both Miriam and Angeline’s faces had relaxed and become slovenly messes.

“Mmm, dewishous.”

“Incredible... Anne, pass that one.”

“Hey, that’s mine... And wait, you just had lunch. Where are you two packing all that in?”

To Anessa’s question, the other two tilted their heads.

“I have a second stomach for sweets. Right, Ange?”

“That’s just common sense for a lady...”

That doesn’t make any sense, Anessa was about to say, but ultimately sighed instead. However, when she had a taste of her share, she found that it was indeed delicious, far more so than she had anticipated. Once they saw that even she had grown a little entranced, Angeline and Miriam looked at her with smug grins.

As she munched on honey sponge cake, Angeline muttered, “It’s good... I wish I could give some to dad...”

“Right... It’s a shame what happened.”

“You weren’t able to go home, huh?”

“Right... And I don’t know when I can take my next vacation. You never know where life will take you... Nom, nom.” She stuffed her cheeks with a sorrowful look on her face. Anessa and Miriam exchanged wry smiles.

“But the one you saved was the daughter of Count Bordeaux, right?” Anessa tried to console her.

Angeline paused for a moment. “Who’s Count Bordeaux?” she asked.

“What...? I mean, he’s the lord of the northern territory that Turnera’s a part of, a pretty important guy. It’s kind of incredible, having connections to an influential noble.”

“I couldn’t care less about that...but I’m glad Seren got to see her father.”

“I-I see.”

Anessa’s cheeks reddened a bit. She felt a bit ashamed of herself for viewing it in such a calculating way, though such an outlook should have been part and parcel of being an adventurer.

“Never mind that...!” Angeline washed down the contents of her bulging cheeks with a swig of tea. “Next time, I’ll see him for sure...! If I continue completing quests at this pace, the guild can’t deny my next vacation application. Mwa ha ha... Anne, Merry, just follow my lead.”

That suspect laugh of Angeline’s was met by a tired shake of Anessa’s head. “How about you think about how we feel, being dragged around like that... Not that I really mind.”

“Heh heh, I get to visit all sorts of places and eat delicious food. No objections here.” Miriam laughed before taking another sweet mouthful.

In order to earn her next holiday, Angeline was taking and completing any and all quests that came in. Her speed was several times that of a normal adventurer. The way Angeline saw it, the more she achieved, the harder it would be for them to decline her requests.

As a byproduct of all her hard work—though this was supposed to be an adventurer’s main goal—she was saving up an incredible amount of money. Her equipment was already of such high quality that she hardly ever had to consider replacing it. She would frivolously splurge between quests, but was ultimately earning money faster than she could spend it.

“If it’s not going anywhere...” Anessa suddenly muttered, “maybe we should donate a bit to the orphanage.”

“Yeah, that’s right! The sister would love it,” Miriam agreed.

Angeline had never heard anything about this before. “Orphanage...?” she asked, tilting her head.

Anessa scratched her cheek awkwardly, a wry smile on her face. “Oh, we were brought up in the church’s orphanage.”

“The sister was like a mother to us. Never really had a father though.”

“Right. We barely had any money back then, so we became adventurers out of desperation.”

“Right, right. Us orphanage kids banded together, and that was our first party.”

“The sister was super against it, though.”

Anessa giggled, while Miriam giddily bit into another treat.

Angeline’s eyes narrowed. I didn’t know about that. Come to think of it, I don’t know much at all about the two of them, she realized. She knew that she wasn’t all that talkative herself, and having such a busy work schedule meant that their conversations always revolved around fiends and other adventurers.

With a bit of a clatter, she adjusted her chair and turned to face them candidly.

“I was abandoned. My dad picked me up in the mountains...”

“Eh?”

“Wow, that’s crazy. Tell me more!”

Anessa and Miriam leaned in, deeply intrigued.

All right. Today, I’ll tell them everything—about the village, about dad, about me... And I’ll ask them too—about their childhood, the orphanage, and the sister.

She ordered another cup of tea.

○

Dear Dad,

We have been having a long spell of good weather in Orphen. I fought a large bug in the east the other day. It was weak, and a little sickening to look at. I am B-Rank now. Hooray. I am doing it. I think I will eat something good to celebrate. I like sautéed duck. It is good.

○

Dear Angeline,

I am glad to know you are doing well. We have been having great weather in Turnera too. Congratulations on your promotion to B-Rank; your father is very happy to hear you are doing your best. However, these celebratory times are the times you should watch out the most. I am sure the food is good in Orphen. Please, take care of yourself.

○

Dear Dad,

I became an S-Rank the other day. I celebrated with all my friends, and it was a happy time. But I have become very busy. Snow is sprinkling here. That means it is already pure white in Turnera, right? Do not catch a cold.

○

Dear Angeline,

Congratulations! It seems that you have become first-rate while I was not looking. I am proud of you. It has been four years since you left the village. Upon receiving your letter, I imagined how you would look now, and threw a modest celebration of my own. I know that you are busy, but please, do not push yourself too hard. I am rooting for you.

○

Dear Dad,

I’m sorry I could not send a letter. I am very busy.

I bought a new sword. It was made of iron from eastern parts and is a good sword. I have been fighting stronger fiends since I became an S-Rank. I have good equipment now. It feels completely different when I hold it and swing it. That is a load off my mind. Better to be safe than worry, as they say.

○

Dear Angeline,

What wonderful news. It is not often that an adventurer is blessed with a good sword. You are entrusting your life to it, so please maintain it and treasure it. Turnera is already deeply entrenched in the winter weather. Perhaps it is a little warmer in Orphen? Still, look out for yourself, and take care you do not catch a cold. Also, the saying is “better safe than sorry.”

○

Dear Dad,

I plan to take a vacation at the end of the month to return to Turnera. I have a lot of things to tell you.

○

Dear Dad,

I am sorry I could not return. The truth is, I received a sudden quest. A fiend called a wyvern appeared, so I had to go to Garuda to kill it. I will take another vacation, and return. For sure this time.

○

Dear Angeline,

I was worried that something had happened to you, but I am relieved to hear that it is business as usual. I know that you are busy, but do not forget that there are people saved by your efforts. You are doing a wonderful job. There is no need to rush home. I will always be waiting.

○

Dear Dad,

I’ve finally gotten quite fed up with not being able to come home. I always have so much to write that I don’t know what to say, and it always turns out too short, but this time I’ve decided to just write everything. I don’t even know where to start! I have lots of things to talk about, and when I try writing about one thing, another thing pops up!

First off, as for why I could not come home. The first time was a wyvern. I wrote about that, yes? I took another vacation after that and bought gifts for everyone back home. I thought I would surprise you, so I didn’t write a letter.

When I was waiting for the stagecoach, this girl from the guild came up and said Asterinos was in trouble. I was disappointed because I thought I could go home, but if I ignored them I figured you wouldn’t praise me for that, so I did my best. I went there and fought in the city surrounded by giga ants. There were a lot of them, but they were just ants, after all. It wasn’t too hard. I took them out with my comrades.

I hurried back from Asterinos, argued that the quest had postponed my vacation, and left straight away. I rode stagecoaches and hitched rides with peddlers, and it was all going well. But along the way, I saved a girl who had been captured by bandits. She was in a hurry to see her father who was sick in Bordeaux, so we turned back to Bordeaux even though that meant I couldn’t go home anymore. I did not have enough days off. Still, I’m glad that Seren (that’s the girl’s name) got to see her father, so I’m happy I saved her.

As you can see, I’ve tried to return three times and failed every time. The great gods and the spirits, they’re all such meanies to me.

Still, my adventurer work is fun. Now, it’s nothing but fiend hunts, but it used to be herb gathering and dungeon exploration. Lately, I’ve been wanting to try my hand at that again.

The things you’ve taught me have been very useful. When I first came to Orphen, I was the best at herb gathering! I found so much devil’s dropwort and almea grass in such a short time, the lady at the desk was speechless. I’m still proud of that.

Next, I will write about my friends.

There are all sorts of people at Orphen’s guild, but only two I really hang out with. Listen to this, after becoming S-Rank, I formed my first party! At first, I wasn’t sure about fighting alongside other people, but now, I find them very reliable.

We have an archer called Anessa, and a magician called Miriam. I call them Anne and Merry. Anne is older and like a big sister. She takes care of all the hard talks with the clients, and she’s diligent and reliable, but she turns red when you tease her. I can’t help but tease her now and then. She’s amazing with a bow, and always hits everything she sets her aim on. When I’m fighting out front, she accurately provides support from behind. It is very reassuring.

Merry is a year older than me, but she’s even smaller than I am. But her boobs are bigger. Why is this? I do not know. I have hopes for the future. I am still a growing girl. Yes. No. We were not talking about boobs. We were talking about Merry.

Merry is very fluffy, and a little out of it, but she’s fun to talk to. Her skill in magic is incredible. She wields a staff taller than I am, and it’s cool to see her swing it around. Her specialty is lightning magic, and she can use it to clear up small fries in the blink of an eye.

Also, she likes sweet things. We are often on the same wavelength, and we work together to tease Anne. We got together to eat sweet things on our last day off. With plenty of sugar. And honey. It was delicious. I want you to have a taste too, dad, one of these days.

Right, since we’re talking about food, there’s a tavern I often go to. The master isn’t the friendliest, and I haven’t talked much with him, but his food is very good. He has the best sautéed duck, and I eat it all the time. I used to go there when I wanted to treat myself, but now I have money so I can go whenever I want. Sometimes, I find myself longing for the elaenia—am I spelling that right? The birds we used to eat in Turnera. It is delicious when you dip soft bread in their oil!

Oh, that’s right. I also miss the mutton and jarlberry stew we used to eat together. There is not much jarlberry growing around Orphen. Even though it’s so tasty. I wonder why. It’s a mystery.

Writing this has reminded me of all the food in Turnera. The food in Orphen might be more complex, or extravagant, or whatnot, but I want to eat your cooking, dad. I want to eat cowberries. And mountain grapes, and akebia. We have them over here, dried out or preserved in sugar, but they’re just not the same as the freshly picked fruit.

I was really frustrated that I could not go home. I want to talk to you directly, dad. Not through letters. There are loads of things I can’t convey here. It’s so bothersome. I want to see you. I’ll be back next time for sure. Please wait for me.

○

Dear Angeline,

Thank you for the letter. I was a bit worried and was relieved to hear that you hadn’t been injured. As your father, I did not want to make you feel homesick, so I always kept my letters short. However, you took the time to write out your thoughts, so I think I will write a little more than usual.

It is summer here in Turnera, and everything has turned green. It’s the season for sheep shearing. I know we never had any sheep of our own, but do you remember when we went to Kerry’s place to help out? The sheep look so relieved and free once they’ve lost all that thick, heavy coating. When you first held those shearing scissors, the sheep ran out of fear, and it was a trial and a half to get them back. I was just remembering things.

Raike and Mel got married. I’m sure you remember since you were always playing with them. Remember how they always got along? I guess it’s not so surprising, after all. Please offer them a prayer.

I sent them an icehund pelt for their wedding. The fiend appeared in the forest not so long ago, and it caused a bit of a ruckus, but I managed somehow or another. Perhaps I felt you were doing so much, and I couldn’t fall behind. It’s a bit embarrassing when I put it down in words.

I’m sorry to say this, but I laughed a bit when I heard you failed three times. However, your deeds were splendid each time, and I am very proud of you. There are many adventurers out there who only ever think about themselves, but your father thinks that strong adventurers ought to help out those in need. I’m very happy that you’re taking those words to heart. Thank you.

I’m glad you’ve found good friends. Just have fun with them, and your father will be satisfied.

I’m not going anywhere, and neither is Turnera. Take your time, know your limits, and please, return at your own pace. Then, I’ll make a jarlberry stew for you.

Look after yourself. I’m looking forward to our reunion.