Chapter 63

That night, in a corner of the dining hall, three women and one young man sat huddled around a pot of bear stew.

“As a healer, I’m grateful you always come back without a scratch… but if your heart is ever aching, you come to me anytime. It pisses me off when people think a healer can’t handle counseling, and I refuse to be the kind of woman who can’t worry about her own junior disciple. Got it?”

“Yes, Dr. Pheles…”

“As for the bear Varna-kun took down, even if it wasn’t the main culprit behind the commotion, it wasn’t exactly an innocent bystander either. Besides, the villagers are thrilled that such a dangerous Great Bear was hunted. For doing such a splendid job, Nonoka presents Varna-kun with an award! Who’s a good boy? You are!”

“Nonoka-san…!”

“Varna-boy, you fought a bear and survived. That means you won a life-or-death struggle for survival. I don’t know much about knightly pride and all that, but because you won, you’re alive to eat this bear stew. That alone makes it a victory worth having. Before you worry about missions or being a knight, don’t you forget that you are a living soul yourself.”

“Chef Tamae… I, I just…!”

The three ‘Mother Goddesses’ worked to heal the boy’s deeply wounded heart. Perhaps their efforts paid off, as the youth—the knight Varna—bowed his head, and tears began to spill from his eyes, washing away the darkness. It was as if he were rinsing off the ash that had long covered his accumulated sorrow, pain, and the weakness he never showed to others—

Or at least, that was the emotional atmosphere one might expect, but reality wasn’t quite so sentimental.

“Tch… Leaving aside Grandma Tamae, having Dr. Pheles and Nonoka-san all to himself is just plain cheeky. Acting like a ‘good boy’ and acting cute just to stay in their good graces… Is being young really that great?!”

A middle-aged knight, driven mad with jealousy as if to ask why anyone would expect compassion for a knight returning from the brink of death, shouted at the top of his lungs. To put it bluntly, he was a total jerk. Around him, several others who were more or less jealous of Varna nodded in agreement, though any knight who actually knew how to navigate social circles would have laughed at such a careless outburst.

“Oh? Is this the pathetic jealousy of the unpopular crowd I hear?”

“Hmm. Is this a roundabout way of committing suicide by insulting the Head Chef?”

“Ah! It’s the unsightly spectacle of an old man who stayed weak, grew old, and missed his chance to get married!!”

“Gah?! A phalanx of words!?”

“And for that, we’ve decided your meals will be reduced as punishment starting tomorrow! ♪”

After being showered with verbal abuse and then subjected to a ‘corpse kick’¹ from the cooking squad, the middle-aged knight slumped onto the table, twitching. This knight order, which operated mostly on whims, was just as likely to jump on someone’s bandwagon as they were to find a flaw and tear them down.

Though, his fate was probably sealed the moment he called Chef Tamae ‘grandma.’ Even if he had a bit of alcohol in his system, the man was far too reckless.

“Still, I heard he traded blows with a bear? That kid is as strong as ever.”

“No, I heard his sword froze and he couldn’t pull it from the scabbard, so he beat it to death with the scabbard instead?”

“Huh? I heard he decided he didn’t need weapons and KO’d the bear with a Dempsey Roll?”

“The stories are getting way too exaggerated! No matter how much of a freak Varna is, there’s no way… there’s no way he’s that absurd… Wait, hang on. If it’s Varna… could he?”

It was strange how, despite having just denied it, their confidence began to waver midway through. They tried to reject it with logic, but then they remembered that Varna was also incredibly strong unarmed. As they repeated the internal monologue, the story started gaining a sense of reality simply because of Varna’s track record.

“Yeah, I feel like he could actually do it. If it’s Varna, he totally could. Haha, what was I even saying? How did I miss something so obvious?”

“Get a grip!! Even for Varna, that’s impossible in a snowy mountain environment!!”

On the other hand, a knight who knew the bear he’d taken down was an impossible four-meter class shook the man’s shoulders to deny it, but his words only invited further suspicion.

“So you’re saying if it wasn’t a snowy mountain, he’d win…?”

“Eh? No, I mean, surely outside of a snowy mountain… Ah, but come to think of it, Varna can pull off evasion maneuvers that look like teleportation when he’s serious, so maybe it’s not impossible?”

“How much do you guys want to turn your own junior into a monster… I’ll admit his strength is basically a cheat code, but he’s still human… a human? Come to think of it, I’ve never actually seen the color of his blood. Could it be the rumors of Infernal blood are…? No, wait, maybe Celestial…?”

“So Varna isn’t huma— mgh.”

“Don’t go there, okay? No, seriously. It wouldn’t be a joke if it turned out to be true.”

Varna’s reputation continued to expand infinitely without his knowledge. In reality, Celestials and Infernals rarely came to the human world, and even if he were a half-blood, he would likely inherit traits from his parents that would make it obvious, such as skin color or wings on his back. Rumor had it there was a village where half-bloods gathered, but that was a story from far across the sea and practically irrelevant.

They say famous people get stuck with strange images or labels, but there was likely no other knight who was as transparent with his peers yet still so doubted. According to his own account, “I had three teachers and one animal teacher before entering the military academy,” but the details were so suspicious that nobody believed him—mainly the ‘one animal’ part.

…Incidentally, the phenomenon Varna reported where “the blade froze and wouldn’t come out of the scabbard” had already been flagged as a priority matter. Since they had few operations in sub-zero temperatures, this was the first time such a case had been reported, making it a valuable piece of data in its own right.

“But seriously, what does ‘the sword froze’ even mean?”

“It was likely caused by condensation forming on the blade due to a rapid temperature difference, which then froze once it was taken outdoors.”

Following the explanation from Neige, a female knight who had relatively good grades at the academy, a male knight named Kebes gave a vague nod that made it immediately clear he didn’t understand a word of it. He then suddenly struck a cool pose.

“Leave it to me! I shall open a path through the condensation (ketsuro)!”

“That’s the wrong kind of ‘path’ (ketsuro—blood path)!”

“The water’s boiled (kettle)!”

“That’s a ‘kettle.’ Why is the conversation getting further away?”

“Can I touch your ‘ketsu’ (butt)?”

“Haha… I see. Do you have a death wish?”

They were a tight-knit group of knights, but one could only pray that the ‘blood’ in ‘blood path’ wouldn’t belong to Senior Kebes after his sexual harassment comment.

By the time my spirit had stabilized after various events, Dr. Pheles and Chef Tamae had already returned to their respective workplaces. When I thought about how they had gone out of their way to make time for me despite being busy, I felt nothing but guilt.

“But both of them seemed to really enjoy the bear stew, so maybe we can just call it even?”

“Well, that may be true, but… I can’t help but feel a bit pathetic for summoning three whole people just because I had a temporary lapse in spirit, Nonoka-san.”

I’d have to make it up to them somehow. In this knight order, leaving favors unpaid is a terrifying prospect. Especially when it involves women… well, according to the rumors, the payback can be quite substantial. Those are mostly horror stories from my seniors, though; I don’t have much personal experience with that.

As for this whole ordeal, it was my own fault for mistaking that bear for a ‘Last Boss’ just because it was freakishly strong. From an outsider’s perspective, I probably looked like I was overreacting. But that bear really was that powerful. It was on par with, or perhaps even stronger than, the strongest Boss Orc I’ve ever fought. Combined with the fact that it was white, it was only natural for me to assume it was the target.

However, as we now know, the thing currently simmering in the pot was a different story. According to Nonoka-san, the bear’s white fur was simply a genetic mutation—a loss of pigment. In zoology, it’s a rare occurrence known as an ‘albino’ individual.

An albino bear’s fur is white, but the structure of the hair is normal. In contrast, the target we’re searching for has fur that appears white due to a unique physical structure. They might look the same, but their true nature is entirely different.

“So, Nonoka-san. What was the connection between that bear and the current case?”

“I’m glad you asked! First, there’s the bloodstains found on the bear. I ran an analysis and discovered the blood didn’t belong to the bear itself… in other words, it was spray from an enemy. When I took a sample just to be safe, I detected something rather troublesome.”

“Troublesome blood…?”

“Poison. Specifically, the same type of toxin carried by various monsters, including Orcs.”

As she spoke, Nonoka-san pulled two sealed test tubes from her lab coat. One contained a transparent blue liquid, while the other, containing a tuft of animal fur, had turned purple. They were clearly some kind of testing reagents. Needless to say, the purple one indicated poison.

Blood containing the same type of toxin as a monster’s is essentially the same as saying it is monster blood. That means the bear had fought a monster in these mountains, and the red stains I saw were the aftermath of that fight. I hadn’t been in a state of mind to look closely at the time and mistook it for the bear’s own injuries, but thinking back, there were stains in multiple places. In contrast, there was only one trace of a living creature found in the traps.

The bear had been misleading as hell, but if we consider that it provided us with this lead, the encounter wasn’t a waste. With that in mind, Nonoka-san snapped her index finger upward with a sharp bishin!

“Animals that aren’t monsters don’t carry this kind of blood—or if they do, they’re automatically classified as monsters! Therefore, there is a monster in these mountains. This is a certainty!”

Nonoka-san then raised her middle finger to form a peace sign.

…The content of her report was anything but peaceful, though.

“Furthermore, considering the circumstances, there’s a high probability that the monster that fought the bear also has white fur! We discovered trace amounts of the target fur caught in the bear’s claws!”

She added her ring finger to the count.

…The way she held her hand looked like she was trying to poke someone’s eyes out.

“Wait, there’s more! Since there were no major injuries on the bear’s body other than the hole Varna-kun put through its heart, the match was the bear’s victory! Judging by the amount of blood spray, it’s unlikely the bear landed a finishing blow, so we believe the monster is currently injured! It won’t be able to move around much in this deep snow!!”

Finally, Nonoka-san raised her pinky and made a grand declaration.

“Given that the blood was still fresh on the bear, its hiding spot is likely further in from where the bear appeared! Now that we’ve narrowed down the direction, all that’s left is to have our new familiar, Pero-kun—who is already tracking the scent based on the sample from the cage—search the area! It’s only a matter of time before we find the target!!”

“…That’s incredible! You’ve cleared the path straight to our target!!”

The surrounding crowd erupted at the impressive report. A few knights were confused, asking, “Wait, what’s a ‘pro’ (pero)?” but there was no doubt that with the nose of that wolf, Pero, we’d be led straight to the enemy. There was still the question of whether there was only one target, but even capturing one would provide a massive leap in information.

“So? What do you think of Nonoka’s analytical skills, deductive reasoning, and tactical planning?! Praise me! Worship me!!”

“You’re amazing, Nonoka-sama!!”

“Yeah! The greatest brain in the Knight Order!!”

“The Kingdom’s greatest doctor and master detective!!”

“Ehem!” Nonoka-san puffed out her chest with childish pride as the crowd showered her with cheers. It was a strange sight—adults worshiping a child—but since her bust size, actual age, and intellect were anything but childlike, there was nothing truly weird about it. I figured Caliban, who had been working non-stop with Pero, would be jumping for joy as well—but when I looked around, I tilted my head in confusion.

“Caliban isn’t here… and wait, Captain Akina and Busse-kun are missing too?”

I only just noticed the missing faces in the corner of the dining hall that usually radiated a dense aura of eccentricity. The Tool Creation Squad often skipped meals to return to the workshop when they were pulling all-nighters, but they shouldn’t have been that busy right now.

As I wondered, Senior Rock walked over with his arm around a pale-faced Yagara. Sensing my gaze, he spoke up.

“Captain Akina is staying over at young Busse’s house tonight~ ♪”

“Oh, is that so…? Then where’s Caliban?”

“He’s already dead to the world from exhaustion~ ♪”

“…???”

I could understand the Captain heading to the house if there was an issue with a trap component or something, but why was Caliban already exhausted? Even if he’d been out on scouting duty, he was supposed to be a man of considerable stamina. Regardless, I figured the search with Pero would start tomorrow, so I gave up on questioning the trio’s whereabouts for the night.

The following morning:

“I heard you had quite a fun time last night, Captain Akina? Staying over at a man’s house and coming back in the morning… I’ve heard all sorts of things, like how you shared a bath and spent the whole night ‘comforting’ an innocent young boy?”

“No way! Oh my gosh, Captain, was that your type all along?! How unexpected!!”

“But ten years old is basically a crime… you’re not Lord Hikari Genji,² the famous pervert of the East!”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!! I didn’t do anything shameful, okay?! Besides, he’s just a kid! I wouldn’t do anything… you know, weird!!”

“It’s the way you’re getting all defensive…”

“That makes it even more suspicious…!!”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘weird’? I want to hear it straight from the Captain’s mouth!”

“Weird things are weird things!! Dammit, why is everyone asking me things with that stupid smirk on their faces?!”

There she was—poor Captain Akina, face turning beet red as she desperately protested against the women, who dodged her arguments with practiced ease. Everyone had clearly found an unexpected weakness in the Captain and was enjoying her reaction by treating her like a scandalous woman with a ‘shota’ fetish. The victim herself didn’t seem to realize that her own reaction was exactly why they were smirking.

“I don’t know what happened, but the Captain is surprisingly innocent and cute, isn’t she?”

“Don’t say that loud enough for her to hear. I said that and got punched in the face.”

“The fact that the Vice-Captain didn’t lose a single tooth after being punched by that is impressive in its own right…”

Beside Vice-Captain Zato—whose cheek was swollen red despite surviving a ‘gorilla punch’ that would have crushed the skull of a weaker man—I watched Captain Akina for a while with the eyes of someone witnessing a heartwarming scene. Let’s just say that later, after hearing the whole story from the person involved, Busse, I understood the situation and thought to myself, Well, no wonder she’s getting teased.