“They’re holding a hunting competition by village?”
“They’re giving prize money too!”
“I heard you can receive the title of the greatest hunter in the north!”
“...? I don’t think they said anything like that....”
“Be quiet.”
As soon as news of the hunting competition spread, the entire north grew noisy.
It was news of entertainment dropped into a world lacking amusement.
And when it was said that people would compete in an event where nearly every other household was full of confidence, it would have been stranger if they had not grown excited.
“I’ll show those weak bastards living in the warm lands near the lord’s castle exactly which village real northern men come from.”
“This competition must have been made for me! I’ll show my parents. If I lead our village to victory, they’ll surely understand how sincere I am about wanting to become a mercenary.”
“My husband seems to be slowly forgetting what happened in the past. Should I go out myself and snap him back to his senses?”
Though each of their excuses differed, their true thoughts were the same.
‘I’m the best at hunting!’
There was one more thing that stimulated the competitive spirit of the northerners.
“As expected, a bear is worth twenty points!”
“An Iron Boar is only fifteen points? But it’s still a monster.”
“Monsters differ from monster to monster. That one’s a stupid bastard that only knows how to charge. Back in my day, when I hunted an Iron Boar—”
It was the fact that different points had been assigned to every beast and monster living in the north.
Men, by nature, were a species that could stay up all night arguing over utterly useless debates such as, “Who would win if a lion and a grizzly bear fought?”
(Of course, it was a fight the grizzly bear would win.)
This was all hormones playing tricks, but the problem was that in northerners, this testosterone-like hormone seemed to be genetically passed down regardless of sex. If even three people gathered, all of them began arguing and debating the assignment of hunting points.
“Bwahahaha! Of course a snow leopard is stronger than a Snow Goblin Shaman!”
“That makes no sense...! Anyone can see that the shaman is stronger, so what happened to these points?”
“Heh heh. Admit it! Our respected Lord has certified like this that the snow leopard I caught is a more dangerous and ferocious being than the Snow Goblin Shaman you caught.”
“Ugh...!”
Because of the point scoreboard, some people finally placed a period at the end of arguments more than ten years old.
“This old woman, you see, went hunting when I was just your age. Something went fluttering up, and I thought it was a goose, so I quickly shot it down with my bow. And would you believe it, I hit its left eye. Now, how difficult is that? Look here. Anyone who shoots the eye of a flying bird and brings it down receives fifteen points regardless of the species, yes? This old woman was not called the Divine Archer of our village for nothing. Hohoho.”
“Wow! Grandma, please teach me how to shoot a bow too!”
The elders sank into old memories and, for the first time in a long while, their eyes sparkled.
Still, the most important matter lay elsewhere.
“Now, it is time to choose.”
“Hoo.”
The people sitting around with tense faces were so nervous that some even had beads of sweat on their brows despite the weather not being particularly hot.
“We tried to select as fairly as possible, but if anyone has objections, speak now.”
“Yes, Village Chief!”
“The first person selected is... Kulan!”
“As expected! The vigilante captain is only natural, of course.”
“And Shantore, Mirantz, Lenti, Hayesna....”
“Yes!”
“I cannot accept this. Why was I left out?”
“Hey now! This is a selection list that could not be fairer. Are you venting your anger just because you failed to make it?”
“Ghk!”
It was the matter of deciding the ten hunting competition participants from each village.
Those selected had been recognized by their village in and of itself, so strength entered their shoulders. Those who had failed resolved that they would absolutely be selected for the next competition.
The children were already running around in groups, playing hunting games and shouting, “When I grow up, I’ll become a player representing the village!”
***
The lord’s castle.
Late at night, officials and servants gathered in the darkened kitchen.
“Everyone heard the news, right?”
“They say the players participating in the competition are being decided one after another in every village.”
“Our lord’s castle must finish selecting ours soon too.”
“Let’s decide today for certain.”
It was the formation meeting for “Team Lord’s Castle.”
Despite Aiden scolding them not to say anything ridiculous, Jamie and the head cook, Brikal, had secured the right to form a team together.
In truth, Aiden had tried never to grant permission because he feared needless controversy, but in the end, he lost to the lord’s castle servants walking around with expressions as though the sky had collapsed.
“If people start saying anything later, I won’t let you off.”
“That will never happen. A person who does not accept defeat in a fair and square match is no northerner!”
“What the hell is the north, huh?”
“Heh heh.”
Aiden, who was genuinely worried, had actually grabbed a few villagers and asked them, but they all reacted as though there was nothing wrong with the lord’s castle forming a team.
In fact, some people thought it would be a problem in its own way if the lord’s castle did not participate.
They said this was a competition for the position of true first place in the north, so if any place was absent, the victory would only be half complete.
“Still, strictly speaking, the lord’s castle is the host. Do you truly think this is all right? There may be disputes over judgments later.”
“The knights and soldiers are not participating, are they?”
“That is true, but....”
“It is a pity. I wanted to face the soldiers too!”
“Pardon?”
“In a duel where life and death are at stake, competing against the strong rather than the weak is the romance of it, is it not?”
“...It is just a hunting competition. It is not a life-or-death duel.”
“Hoho. I only mean that is the mindset, Administrator!”
Aiden thought this.
So this was what it meant that, in a village where people with three eyes lived, a person with two eyes became abnormal.
He had thought he had figured them out quite a bit by now, but it seemed he needed more time to fully understand northerners.
In any case, the meeting to select the ten competitors for the lord’s castle hunting competition was filled with a vicious atmosphere.
“Wouldn’t it be better to choose the leader first?”
“No! It would be better to choose the ten competitors first, then have them choose the leader!”
“That makes no sense. If the leader is to represent our lord’s castle, then not only the competitors but everyone belonging to the lord’s castle should agree!”
“Stableman, do you think I don’t know you’re trying to obstruct choosing the leader because you don’t think you’ll be selected?”
“Hmph! Why exactly do you think I will not be selected? I simply wish to become a leader who receives everyone’s applause with dignity.”
“Hah! Ridiculous. The leader is naturally mine to take!”
“What did you say? Do you think I would allow a man who cannot even properly hunt three wolves to represent the lord’s castle?”
“You had better apologize for those words right now!”
Among the fierce and belligerent northerners, the lord’s castle workers had an especially large number of reckless ones.
Whether people like this had come to work at the lord’s castle, or whether working at the lord’s castle had made them like this, the order of cause and effect was not clear.
CRASH—!
As battles of spirit broke out here and there, a sound like a bolt of lightning rang out.
Crack.
THUD.
Immediately afterward, a wooden dining table that looked to be half a handspan thick split in half and fell to the floor.
“You are all quacking like a flock of ducks. It is too noisy to listen any longer.”
“......”
It was Brikal, the head cook.
Gulp.
Aiden, who had been coming down to the kitchen while working overtime because his mouth felt bored and he thought he might take some rabbit jerky, saw the sight and thought,
‘Shouldn’t that man have become a knight instead of a cook in the first place?’
No, even for a knight, was it truly reasonable to split northern oak, which was said to be so dense that even an axe could not properly bite into it, in half with a punch?
“Ah, you have come, Administrator.”
“Please don’t mind me. Continue what you were doing.”
Brikal insisted that he could not do that and quickly disappeared into the kitchen, saying he would make him a sandwich.
“...Hasn’t the leader basically been decided?”
At Aiden’s words, everyone nodded as though they had agreed in advance.
Before their eyes lay the pitiful table, split cleanly in half.
‘At any rate, nothing ever passes quietly here. Good grief.’
Aiden sent a look toward Jamie, who had taken a seat, telling him to wrap things up quickly and go rest.
He only hoped that things would be quiet from tomorrow onward.
And the next day.
“What is this?”
Aiden, who had come to work first in the office again today, was dealing with work and interfering in all sorts of matters when he suddenly felt something strange.
‘Why is the castle so quiet today?’
Was everyone this quiet because the members of Team Lord’s Castle who would enter the hunting competition had all been finalized?
‘Even so, it feels even quieter than usual.’
Unable to overcome his curiosity, he eventually left the office, took a walk, and wandered around the lord’s castle. At last, he realized it.
Since construction of the Administrative Welfare Office had not yet ended, all five newly created departments had entered the lord’s castle.
Residents, who had usually kept their distance from public offices for no reason, had realized through the reward money and pilot cultivation site matters that “public offices are not bad places.” If they had nothing to do, they would also wander in for no reason to see whether anything new had appeared.
In other words, the first floor and garden were always crowded.
But,
“What the hell? Where did everyone go?”
There were no people.
He could not know for certain, but compared to usual, more than half seemed to have disappeared.
Aiden liked this silence very much, but,
“Come to think of it, where did that bastard Jamie go?”
Only belatedly did he realize that his aide had not shown so much as the tip of his nose in the office all morning.
“Aide Jamie took leave.”
“Leave?”
“Yes. For the next three days.”
“Did something happen?”
“Well—”
Kalisa shrugged and answered.
“From what I heard, he failed to be selected as a representative for the lord’s castle yesterday.”
“And?”
“It seems he could not accept it.”
Well, this was unexpected even for Aiden.
To think the human weapon Jamie had been eliminated.
‘I thought he was the head cook’s only rival. Was he just strong and nothing else?’
Then again, he seemed to have said that ever since he was young, he had only studied because he hated becoming a hunter.
When the villagers had made a fuss telling him to become a hunter, he had thrown a fit because he hated it. Now that they told him not to, he was jumping around again. He was like a colt that had not yet matured.
“But what was the reason he was eliminated?”
“They said he has never properly hunted.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yes. He has beaten down quite a few mercenary groups that turned into raiders, but it seems he has never gone out intending to hunt beasts.”
“......”
When people were catching bad men and receiving rewards, they had treated catching people as hunting, yet apparently beating down raiders did not count as a record.
It was a standard he could not understand, but Aiden had no intention of getting involved.
“So now he is going to prove it.”
“Prove it? Prove what?”
“That he is sufficient to become one of the representatives. He took three days of leave to prove it.”
“...Madman. Did he finish the report I assigned before leaving? When he comes back, he should know he is giving up every weekend and holiday, good grief! ...But where did he go?”
“...The mine.”
“?”
“He said that if he wanted to catch beasts and monsters at once, that place was the best.”
Hah.
He truly did all sorts of things. All sorts.
Aiden had to suffer from another headache today.