Chapter 3

Chapter 3

3. Career Concerns (2)

“It’s a Black-Striped Fang.”

The name of the magical beast Benrik inferred. It was a difference of mere color, but between the two there existed a gap as wide as that between a cat and a tiger.

“Nonsense.”

So this kind of chilly reaction was not incomprehensible.

It was just that there was no time to explain at length here.

“I’ll explain while we go, so for now while walking─”

Despite Benrik’s urging, Jenkinson stood stock-still and questioned.

“A Black-Striped Fang is not a magical beast that lives in the high mountains. How on earth did you come to that conclusion?”

“No, I’m saying I’ll explain while we go.”

Benrik narrowed his brows and got irritated. If it were Gerik, he would have been hit on the back of the head four or five times for such words and actions.

Even if he’s called rude, it can’t be helped.

Being ill-mannered is better than dying.

The activity range of the Black-Striped Fang was much wider than that of the Yellow-Striped Fang. The distance between the place where the companions were and the shrine site was only around 5 kilometers.

They had to join up with the companions as quickly as possible and move the campsite.

“······.”

Jenkinson, who had been looking as if trying to grasp Benrik’s intention, nodded his head with a reluctant expression.

Regardless of whether he trusted the child’s words or not, it was right to respond to what could be responded to.

It was better to do one futile effort than to suffer harm from not being careful.

Because there’s only one life.

The fact that Jenkinson could wander all over the vast empire and still make a living begging for food with his limbs intact was also partly due to this kind of caution.

Above all, for nonsense said out of a desire not to lose, the child’s expression was quite serious.

“···But what have you been scattering since earlier?”

Jenkinson, who had put distance from the shrine site following Benrik, asked. From the moment they left the shrine site, the sight of him repeatedly taking something out of his pocket and scattering it was curious.

“It’s Wild Hog bone powder. The natural enemy of the Black-Striped Fang. If I scatter it, they won’t chase after our scent.”

Even he, who had rolled in this field for over ten years and had a fair amount of folk knowledge, was hearing this for the first time.

The Wild Hog is a lowest-grade magical beast that isn’t even graded. That kind of thing is the natural enemy of the grade 2 Black-Striped Fang?

Seeing Jenkinson’s untrustworthy face, Benrik added.

“Is that the only thing Jenkinson doesn’t know?”

“What, you punk?”

“It’s a joke.”

He, who had been making a complicated and subtle expression at Benrik treading the line precariously, asked again.

“So what is it.”

“Yes?”

“The reason you’re sure it’s a Black-Striped Fang.”

“Ah, that. The smell was different.”

Benrik opened his mouth calmly. The residual scent of magical energy remaining in the nest was different.

It resembled the fishy smell unique to beasts, but there was a slight difference.

In the point that if you keep smelling it, from deep in the chest, suddenly, killing intent arises.

It was not simply a dimension of feeling bad or unpleasant, but stirs up an emotion like an impulse.

In a more appropriate expression, malice was felt.

“To be precise, the concentration of magical energy mixed in the fishy smell was clearly different. And the second was the traces carved on the shrine wall.”

The Yellow-Striped Fang would have settled and lived there since it was a cub. Traces of it sharpening its claws as it grew remained on the wall in stages.

But the most recently carved trace showed an abnormal size. The depth was also extraordinary.

If it was a rapid change enough to cover all the traces carved with the passage of time, there were two things.

The appearance of a new individual larger in body than that one, or rapid growth due to absorption of magical energy.

Then, seeing the pit, he was sure.

There were more black fur clumps than yellow fur clumps.

“Well, something like that.”

Even after Benrik’s words ended, Jenkinson could not open his mouth for a while.

Because every time the words continued, traces he had missed floated up one after another without effort.

He didn’t want to admit it, but this side had more credibility.

“···It has a point.”

While saying so, on the other hand he wiped his chest.

‘······We almost got fucked.’

At his level, even one Yellow-Striped Fang was a magical beast that could only be caught by staking a desperate resolve.

The Black-Striped Fang Benrik spoke of was a grade 2 magical beast treated one step above that.

It meant a guy where even if the entire mercenary group prepared fully and faced it, victory could not be guaranteed.

But why did he boast so grandly?

When a young child asks “But just in case, might we die?” how many mercenaries in the world could say “Yes.”

Even if there are, Jenkinson was not a person belonging to that minority.

While feeling relieved, on the other hand he looked at Benrik again.

In addition to knowing the characteristics of magical beasts, he had the ability to carefully examine traces and infer based on that.

Even if he was the son of a magical beast hunter, not everyone would be like this.

Above all···.

“But why are you so calm?”

That was it. He was too composed. As far as he knew, Benrik’s age was only twelve now.

It was a situation where even wetting his pants and trembling would not be enough.

Even after finding out the identity, far from being scared, he was unrealistically calm, to the point of even forgetting the fact that the place they had been until a little while ago could have become a grave.

“Because it was everyday, well···.”

“Everyday?”

“The first one-on-one with a magical beast was always me.”

“······.”

What on earth is the child of a magical beast hunter? It was when Jenkinson was looking for words to say in the air.

Benrik added as if it were nothing.

“Anyway, as a result it turned out well.”

“······Turned out well, what?”

“We became able to deal with it in advance. Since the Black-Striped Fang has a wider activity range, let’s go back quickly and say we should move the campsite farther away.”

Jenkinson, who had been looking at the child with strange eyes, instead of adding more words, suddenly lifted the child onto his back and ran.

***

“I boiled more than usual today, so eat your fill.”

Oswald said as he held out a wooden bowl with pieces of meat floating in it.

“You really did a great thing, Benrik.”

“Eh, what great thing.”

When Benrik received the words as if it were nothing, the peddlers gathered in front of the large pot each added a word.

“No, it is a great thing. If it’s something even the Silver Badge mercenaries didn’t notice, and you figured it out just by looking briefly.”

“Hehe, this person···. There’s a blade in your words.”

Oswald gave a warning while glancing at the mercenaries on the outskirts, but the young merchant was unabashed.

“Why, it’s the truth. Did I say something I shouldn’t? Is it that someone who almost became magical beast food without anyone knowing can’t even say this much?”

“···There are many ears listening. This person.”

“The words are right words. In name it’s a mid-level mercenary group so we spent a lot of money to hire them, but to miss something even a kid figures out at a glance.”

“······.”

“It’s so uneasy, where would one trust and entrust work?”

At that sharp reaction, Oswald broke into a cold sweat and shook his head.

“···People really.”

“Ahem.”

As the atmosphere flowed strangely, another peddler quietly changed the topic.

“Come to think of it, I’ve heard a story that the Black-Striped Fang wanders 100km a day without getting tired.”

“I heard 50 kilos though.”

“They wander over 100 kilos too, mainly only during breeding season. In winter they don’t wander that far, because their bodies are big so even a little movement uses a lot of energy. If you use energy you have to replenish that much again.”

Benrik, who had slammed the stew into his stomach like water, naturally refilled the empty bowl and said.

“Ho, that kind of habit isn’t much different from animals either?”

“Basically, magical beasts whose origin is animals have that tendency stronger. Maybe the instinct remains?”

“Ho, this is another new opinion! Certainly the child of a magical beast hunter is different!”

“Come to think of it, a few years ago I also encountered a Black-Striped Fang. I accompanied a large merchant group by paying extra, and even though there were even Gold Badge mercenaries, more than half the people died.”

“I also the Yellow-Striped Fang···.”

As one by one they started bringing up stories from their youth, the atmosphere soon became lively.

Benrik, while scooping the third stew into the empty bowl, looked at the young merchant with an unsatisfactory expression. Seeing the eyes full of dissatisfaction, it seemed he still hadn’t abandoned his desire.

‘He said he supplied star dust to the Magic Tower.’

Thinking about it, this year the appearance of star-gazers seemed particularly rare. It seems he saw little profit from this trade trip. Or he suffered a loss.

It seemed he wanted to make up for the loss by reducing the remaining payment to the mercenaries.

‘It doesn’t seem like a wise judgment.’

Crossing the feelings of the people who would protect one’s life in the high mountains teeming with magical beasts.

It was when he was thinking and reaching out his hand with the ladle.

“Really, the more I look the more amazing. It goes in well into that small stomach.”

···Pause, already giving hints? People are stingy. Even that miser Gerik didn’t hit until the fifth time.

“Hey, isn’t it the peak growth period! Why are you giving hints!”

“No, I just found it amazing···.”

“That’s the same thing! Eat your fill, Benrik.”

“Thank you.”

Ending with a short greeting, Benrik played the spoon combatively. In fact, the meals for the past week or so were too poor for a child in the peak growth period.

‘I hope they give it like this tomorrow too.’

While Benrik was concentrating on the meal, a strange silence descended. The speed at which the boiling stew decreased was beyond the imagination of the others.

“······.”

To the sight of the stew boiled full in one pot decreasing moment by moment, even the merchant who had rebuked not to give hints was at a loss.

Only Oswald, who knew that Benrik’s stomach size was different from ordinary, just let out a hehe, hearty laugh.

***

After finishing the meal, Benrik lay down behind the cart.

“I’m full.”

He doesn’t even remember when he last felt this kind of fullness. When he was at home he was busy eating with side glances.

‘Independence···. It’s worth trying?’

The satisfying meal after a long time even diluted the sense of desolation he had been holding implicitly.

Not only that, it also aroused hope.

Not necessarily dangerous jobs like mercenary or magical beast hunter.

‘I know quite a lot.’

Methods of collecting byproducts by magical beast,

Methods of processing the collected byproducts.

Detailed uses of the processed byproducts.

Methods of finding the habitat traces of specific magical beasts.

Weaknesses of magical beasts, etc.

The things he had naturally learned while growing up seemed to have more use than expected.

Looking at the reactions of the merchants just now, it’s more hopeful. These are people who have seen and heard a lot wandering all over the empire, but they know less about magical beasts than the third.

Looking into a job where this can be utilized would also be a method.

‘They say there are also people who research magical beasts in the capital.’

Let’s think about it once.

‘In a pinch, I could write something like a magical beast encyclopedia and sell it.’

Isn’t this truly a world overflowing with dreams and hopes.

It was a night where as many thoughts as the number of stars embroidered in the black sky passed by.

© Burrito#1y0o9