Strange Grief Wants to Retire ~ The Weakest Hunter Dreams of a Hero ~

14 白狼の巣② White Wolves Den 2

Just as I finished climbing back up the stairs and came into the Clan Masters room, I happened to meet Eva.

She looked at the open bookshelf and then at me, and blinked.

As much as I could, I had hastily outfitted myself in hand picked Relics.
Right now I was so to speak, a living Shrine.

A deep blue overcoat, on my back was a crossbow type Relic and a half size sword Relic.
On my hands each finger was fitted with a ring type Relic.
Still not enough, from my waist hung many chain type Relics.
Yet still insufficient, I had put more into a tool bag that hung from my belt.

There are so many ring type Relics.
Why does a human hand only have ten fingers?

The clothes and underpants were not Relics.
I was wearing lightweight sturdy equipment that Hunters often wore.
With the exception of that, everything else worn was a Relic.
Even going that far, it was a situation where I didn’t know what could happen and felt like I needed to throw up.

From my experience up until now, I knew that even if an ordinary person strengthened their equipment with Relics they still wouldn’t be able to do accomplish much.

As usual the vice clan master was wearing a pressed white uniform.
And even though the day had already grown dark, there was no area with even a particle of dust on it.
It was already night and she was still working? She truly is diligent.

Incidentally, the existence of the private room had pretty much leaked out to everybody so it wasn’t something surprising.
Eva was involved in the construction of the clan house, and seeing through hidden rooms was a Hunters speciality.

Even in everyday life, they are always checking ceiling height and wall distances for empty space.
It’s scary.

“What’s the matter, Cry-chan.
So heavily armed…”

“Fufufufufu… I’m going for a stroll.”

“…Even though you’re that worried you are shaking.”

Found out in one shot.

“Fufufufufufu… I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

This has all put me at such my wits end that I had started to let out some weird laughter.
Eva was staring at me with shock.
It’s probably not because of the Relics that I’m equipped with.
I was always prepared with a whole body worth of Relics.

“Do you want someone from another party to go with you as a reinforcement?”

Eva made an attractive proposal.
Although a member of the same clan, they would be from a different party to me.

At such a time, there’s no party that would walk the roads at night, to a Shrine known to be dangerous.
I couldn’t make such an unreasonable request.

I calmed myself down and did my best to put on a strong front.

’

“Theres no problem.
It’s all going according to plan.”

“Wait a moment.”

Without paying attention to my broken attempt to act tough, Eva suddenly came in closer.
Her gaze was on the pendant hanging from my neck.
It was a simple dangling metal capsule.
It wasn’t a Relic.

“That, isn’t that Sytry’s slime?”

“………”

“If it’s used poorly it could completely destroy the Imperial Capital, so they said to never open it.”

She stared at it but didn’t reach for it.
She was in the middle of crisis management.

The capsule was something sleeping in the depths of my vault.
It seemed to be a slime that was selectively bred, but I’ve never seen it so I don’t know anything.

A slime is a particularly weak existence among monsters.
It’s whole body was composed of a sticky organ.
Because it was soft – striking, cutting, boiling, or roasting would easily defeat it.
There were a variety of species, most of which were truly insignificant.

Even to me a slime is a small fry among small frys.
I could say for sure that among the so called monster kingdom, the one crammed into this capsule seemed to be somewhat different.
I don’t know what’s different, just that it is different.

Relics were powerful, but the power and amount they could be used was limited by Mana.

The person that always loaded up my Relics with Mana was the rear guard of 『Strange Grief』.
The last time they had done so was before they all left on an expedition, not less than two weeks ago.
By now most of the Mana would have drained out.
I couldn’t expect much power.

The capsule was something of an alternative.
Tino was excellent so I think she should definitely be fine, and I planned to avoid fighting and escape as much as possible.
But it’s only natural for a Hunter to set aside some measures in case of an emergency.

I’m a wary hard boiled kind of man.

The truth is I really didn’t like it, and I absolutely wanted to avoid bringing it, and there were other weapon Relics I wanted to take but they were too large to carry with me.

The use of it was dubious, but inside a Shrine I could just throw it and run away and hope for the best.
It couldn’t replace the life of my cute adorable junior.

“No way.
That thing would violate the laws of the Empire, I wouldn’t carry something like that.”

“……”

However, unlike me who respected the spirit of the law, there are times when my childhood friends would break straight through it.

Since my faults were pointed out and exposed, I quickly headed behind my desk, to the extensive window and gripped the handle to open it.
From the large open window, a breeze that was colder than expected blew in.

’

The reason it can open is because if it didn’t Liz would calmly break in.
But preparations such as these were also useful in a time like this.

Eva was looking at me with unusual worry.
Her sight was on Sytry’s Slime.
I was doing something excessive, and she was worried it might have an effect on clan management.

“A-Are you really alright?”

Yeah yeah, I know.
It’s no good though…

Truthfully I want to take someone else as well, but the 『Night Sky’s Dark Wings』 can only be used by a single person.

§　§　§

“Um… shouldn’t we just withdraw already?”

The raging warrior had vanished, leaving no evidence they ever existed.

Ruda’s mood had melted looking at the wolf warrior, and she made a suggestion to Tino.
Greg also lowered his striking long sword, and gave his agreement.

“That’s right.
At any rate, I doubt the rescue target could have survived.
Continuing is pointless.”

The wolf warrior had been strong.
The body was covered in armour that could repel most attacks, and receiving one of the slashes from it’s burly arms would have inevitably resulted in fatal wounds.

Beast type phantoms originally tended to be quick and strong, and in addition this wolf warrior had been armed.
It most definitely didn’t seem like an enemy that came from a level 3 Shrine.

Greg was a Level 4 veteran, but it would have been a difficult opponent to fight one on one.

Nevertheless, they had somehow managed to defeat the phantom and remain relatively unharmed.
This was because it was an opponent that had strayed off and the number advantage was on their side.
Tino constantly attracted the warriors attention, so it’s attacks were kept in check.

But if anyone had been injured and had their movements slowed, the battle would have dragged out.

In Greg and Ruda’s line of sight, their leaders eyebrows twitched.

“The decision hasn’t changed.
Anyway, we haven’t even entered the Shrine yet.”

“H-Hey come on.
What are you being stubborn for? Whatever it is, living is more important!? The guy from just now obviously came from the 『White Wolves Den』, who knows how many more are swarming inside?”

“When I was here just the other day they were only ordinary wolves…”

Ruda looked in the direction of the Shrine and her shoulders trembled.

’

Originally what appeared in the『White Wolves Den』were phantoms that were simply slightly larger wolves.
Similar to the Silver Moon, there was also a variant phantom called the Red Moon.
It wasn’t a werewolf armed with a sword and armour.

That’s what had appeared when Ruda had visited a few weeks before, they were far below the strength of that werewolf.

More than anything, the heavily armoured werewolf wasn’t going to be cut by the dagger that Ruda carried.
The only way she could, would be to aim at the uncovered head or the thin gaps in it’s armour.

For the skill Ruda currently held, to aim for the werewolf’s head while defending against it’s attacks and matching it’s agile speed would be asking a lot.

“This is training.”

“Training… really…”

As if it was natural, Tino shrugged.

Despite the abnormal situation, she remained calm to a surprising degree.
Ruda felt a big difference to herself.
Having that attitude was like saying she had been through fights of that degree many times over.

This was『Strange Grief』.

“Greg-sama is missing the main point.”

“Just Greg is fine.”

“Greg is making a misunderstanding.”

Gilbert was looking down quizzically at the sword in his hand.
He’s holding the most powerful weapon.
No matter his personality, he is the main attacker this time.

Master didn’t allocate the boy to Tino for no reason.

After all, the necessary things were all gathered here.
Master was correct.

Tino gave a nod, and there were still intermittent roars coming from the Shrine as she spoke.

“Since Master sent us here, that means the rescue target – is still alive.”

“-!?”

To Tino’s declaration, Greg was dumbfounded.

They didn’t understand.
No it was normal not to understand.

’

Since Shrines were danger zones, most rescue targets would end up dead.
Hunters had trouble even asking for assistance at unpopular Shrines.

The only way to confirm if a target was alive was to visit the Shrine.

Can you predict something so far away sitting in the capital? Anyone would tell you it’s impossible.
At best you could only calculate the probability of survival from the date they went missing.

But you can.
The impossible is possible.
Smash through common sense.
It’s for this reason that Cry Andoric was Level 8.
Master wasn’t just an ordinary idiot.

“The ingenious schemes of Master that are commanded to me definitely make sense.
Greg you’ve lived in the capital, do you think there are even 3 people at Level 8?”

To that coercive cool gaze, sweat ran down Greg’s cheek.
Trying to get rid of the bad atmosphere, Ruda forcefully spoke out in a light voice.

“Y-yeah.
If the rescue target is still alive, we have no choice but to continue.
Right, Gilbert?”

Gilbert was suddenly called to, and he frowned while he spoke without touching on the subject matter.

“The mana in the purgatory sword has run out.
I only just charged it the other day though… and I can’t charge it…”

“…Eh?”

Relics required a huge amount of mana.

Normally mana was used everyday.
If you were not a Magi that could boast of having several to ten times the regular quantity of mana, you needed to accumulate mana in advance.

In the Capital there were even Magi that specialised in it.
If your party had a Magi then you would be able to receive a charge, but this party didn’t have one.

Gilbert spoke with confusion, and Tino quickly guessed the situation.

“Master… Master why do you hate me…?”

Tino and the others still hadn’t entered the Shrine yet.

Translator Notes

One of the names of Cry’s party is mentioned.
Katakana: Shitori.
Difficult to say for sure, but I just went off how Shidoni = Sydney.
Sytry – Sitri : Not really a common name in English unless you are a demon.