Chapter 134: Listening

「Uhm, from what you had mentioned earlier.

You guys are hunters from the guild, who received the (guarding) escort request from the shopkeeper, right?」(Mile)

「Yes, that’s right. We saw a request posted late in the morning, it was an escort request for a short time during business negotiation. The request say:

“The counterparty is group of four hunters.

In case, the negotiation ends of failure and they might violent, the client wish to hire some hunters as guard escorts to protect him and to intimidate the other hunters.

The hunter group is just 4 brand new hunter girls that the client never met before and only talking to him in a very short time yesterday.”

And we had taken that request as soon as I read it.

I thought we would earn enough to have meal and drink」(Hunter Leader)

A male hunter who seems to be the leader of this group, answers Mile while scratching his head.

「Well, but right now, you already understand the situation, right?

This person tried to take away spices from us, made a false accusation to obtain the trade route from us, and also tried to make you do the criminal act.

With these quant.i.ties of spices, it’s contradition with his previous testimony.

And, if he really thought that we were bandits, normally, he wouldn’t hire hunters to buy back the goods, but he would report to the guards or the guild.

He had hired hunters, made false testimony, only to make us speak where we got these spices.

You can testify to the Hunter Guild and the guards about all of these, right?」(Mile)

「Yes, of course. Otherwise, it will be troublesome for us to get request failure or crime conduct burden.

On the contrary, we have a favor that we want to ask of you.

I need you to testify that we didn’t have faults or illegal activities, just being deceived!」(Hunter Leader)

Mile agreed with it, and the hunters were having a relieved face.

「And, about the shopkeeper …」(Mile)

The shopkeeper became pale.

「You knew that the spices wasn’t stolen one but still tried to make us a criminal to rob it.

Even though you aren’t the owner of the stolen spices in the first place.

And, you also tried deceiving the escort hunters with request via the guild and made them do criminal acts.

Is there anything you would like to say before we handed you over to the guards via the guilds?」 (Mile)

When Mile turned the table, the shopkeeper became desperate.

「Eh, I didn’t think that was anything bad! It’s just a little …」(Shopkeeper)

「Oh, so you don’t feel bad?

You didn’t think that you did any bad thing at all?

Or for you, such act is just a normal act that doesn’t need to worry about the conscience?」(Mile)

Not only Rena and other girls but also the hunters stared at shopkeeper as if they looked at dirt.

「… No, no, that’s not what I meant … this is …」(Shopkeeper)

「Because you thought that “there was nothing wrong”, so you can do criminal acts that harm other people?

With this, if thing went bad, you would cause a violent crime …」(Mile)

Having that said, Mile turned to the hunter leader and asked.

「In addition, he had tried to make hunters fighting each other by asking via guild, hadn’t he?

How would the guild solve this problem?」(Mile)

「… This is a malicious hostile act to the guild, that rarely seen.

Not only the guild will reject all of his requests, but also hands him over to the guards as a criminal.

If things went bad, we may have fought with you, young ladies, and there would be some casualties.

This crime will get heavy punishment」(Hunter Leader)

Listening to the conversation between Mile and hunter leader, the shopkeepr isn’t only pale but also s.h.i.+vering and trembling. As Mile saw that, she thought she should ask once again.

「So, why did you do this?」(Mile)

As he heard Mile’s question, the shopkeeper responded desperately while trembling.

「About this, I only wanted spices! Not just temporary but long term.

If I can continue to buy spices cheaply, I can offer cheap dishes using plenty of cheap spices …

That spice’s quality isn’t good, but that spice still has intense pungent taste.

If I can afford it cheaply, I can mix it with ordinary pepper to fix the lack of flavor and scent or add other ingredients to do it somehow!

As long as I can have the spices cheaply on a regular basis, many of our customers who aren’t rich enough to buy my dishes until now, can afford to buy my hot dishes at any time …

You girls are traveling hunters, right?

If this town really have such 4 prominent young hunter girls, I should have known already. And you will leave this town soon, right?

So, at least the route! I just wanted to know how to get it …」(Shopkeeper)

The shopkeeper put both hands on the floor, deperately said that.

Mile were a little troubled.

This shopkeeper was slightly arrogant from the time they first met.

But he was a client, so it’s normal think that his position was above Mile’s group that were only young girls

And he also thought about food and customers, he seems to be honest in some way.

If the girls don’t receive this request.

If they had brought only 『average』quant.i.ties of 『average quality spices』, this shopkeeper might buy it like normal and kept working normal as a cook.

[… Wasn’t it because we brought too much spices that triggering his criminal act attempt, which made this shopkeeper’s life go wrong?]

When Mile thought so, she felt like she couldn’t let it go.

「Well, what are you gonna do if we fought back to the hunters?」(Mile)

As he heard Mile’s question, the shopkeeper replied with an empty face.

「Well, I thought that there wouldn’t be a fight because you girls would surrender easily.

After that if you girls keep insisting that you aren’t a thief then I will ask you to tell me where did you get the spices to prove your innocent.

And I was going to listen to the route …」(Shopkeeper)

「And then did you intend to hand us to the guards to torture and execute us with an innocent sin?」(Mile)

As he heard Mile said that, the shopkeeper surprised raise his voice.

「No, I did not mean to do that!

It is enough if I know the route of purchase.

After I can hear about it, I will give everyone the gold coins, I will say『Sorry, I mis-understood』and end everything!」(Shopkeeper)

The shopkeeper replied so, and Mile asked even further.

「What if we didn’t talk about the supplier?」(Mile)

「…Huh?」(Shopkeeper)

「As I said, if we didn’t talk about our suppliers, what would you do at that time?

Were you going to hand us over to the guards as bandits, or would you plan to torture us to get it?」(Mile)

After he heard that, the shopkeeper said that with bland look.

「… I didn’t think about that」(Shopkeeper)

「「「「Huh?」」」」(Red Oath)

「I didn’t think that far …」(Shopkeeper)

Apparently, this shopkeeper is kind of stupid person.

「Well, there was no such possibility anyway」(Mile)

「「「「「「Huh?」」」」」」(Hunter + Shopkeeper)

The shop owner and the hunters’ voice overlapped.

「If we really confront the hunters, we will beat them up and and hand them over to the guards via guild, saying we were attacked by robbers」 (Mile)

As the hunters heard that, they laughed lightly with Mile’s words, like a funny joke.

Mile felt a little angry.

She asked all those thing because she just wanted to know about the shopkeeper’s intention.

After heard everything, she says『Well, there was no such possibility anyway』as she doesn’t mind that much.

But the hunters take the words that she said lightly as a joke.

「Rena-san, Pauline-san!」(Mile)

「Flame Explosion!」(Rena)

「Ice Needle!」(Pauline)

With Mile’s signal, Rena and Pauline created a flock of small fireb.a.l.l.s and ice needles overhead by casting magic with only the spell’s name.

「「「「「Huh!? Non-chant magics!」」」」」(Hunters)

All the hunters surprised.

Meanwhile, Mile took out a copper coin from the item box and threw it off with her finger toward Maevis.

「Maevis-san!」(Mile)

「Oh!」(Maevis)

At that moment, Maevis swings her sword and slashs the coin and catchs it with her other hand.

Yes, this is the technique that Mile did in the past, 『Copper slas.h.i.+ng』

In the town where Mile registered hunter before.

The hunters in that town who witnessed Mile’s technique and named it『Copper slash』

Maevis had heard about it from Laura, the receptionist at the guild, and then Maevis asked Mile about it and was taught that trick.

However, although it is a trick, it isn’t something anyone can imitate it if you are teached.

And Maevis can easier do this technique than others because she used the sword that Mile made.

「「「「「Huh……」」」」」(Hunters)

The hunters saw 2 fragments of the copper coin in Maevis palm, opened their eyes with astonishment.

And again, they looked back at the flame bullets and ice needles floating above Rena and Pauline that keep increase the numbers.

「「「「「You still aren’t finis.h.i.+ng the spell!?」」」」」 (Hunters)

Knowing the power of the『Red oath』

What if they really fought, as they imaged it, the hunters became pale.

「But, I was surprised, everyone is still young girls…

And you already had such amazing swordsman, 2 magicians that was as strong as B rank.

You are still very young, but are you the brain of the party?」(Hunter leader)

Mile heard the leader asking, shook her head.

「No, the party’s brain is Pauline-san, …

I’m just like a baby if compared to her intelligence

I’m both swordsman and magician」(Mile)

Rena told the hunters from the side.

「Mile is the strongest among us, in both sword and magic」(Rena)

「「「「「Huh……」」」」」(Hunters)

…Scary. These young girls are so scary!

5 hunters thought so.