Boom— boom— boom—.
A heavy drumbeat echoed beneath the mountain foot.
The several hundred northerners gathered on the grassland listened to the drumbeats, which sounded like heartbeats, and felt their blood slowly begin to boil.
“Hah. I’m getting nervous.”
“What do you have to be nervous about? Our village is going to win anyway!”
“That joke goes too far.”
Every village registered in the lord’s castle’s family register ledger decided to participate in the 1st Hunting Competition.
With spectators following the ten participating competitors from each village, the atmosphere had become quite festive.
Inside the host tent, Aiden finished checking the participation applications and other documents one last time, then stepped outside and looked toward the tent beside it.
“Are the merchants all prepared?”
“Yes. All three have finished preparing.”
Kalisa answered confidently, together with the officials under her in the Commerce Development Department.
“They have agreed to purchase monster corpses immediately after each hunt ends.”
“What about the bidding method?”
“Since three groups have gathered, an auction, of course.”
“I hope some competition breaks out.”
“It will. Monster corpses with few flaws are always materials that mages go mad over.”
“Let’s make sure the participants don’t overdo it.”
“The lord’s castle’s knights and soldiers are fully prepared. You do not need to worry too much. They are all seasoned hunters, so they will not approach the habitats of truly dangerous creatures.”
Jamie added his own words as well.
“This is an official event, so safety comes first, and safety comes second. Keep that in mind.”
“Yes, sir!”
This was a large-scale event hosted by the lord’s castle.
Good hunting results were important, but even more important was that the competition ended safely.
‘There must not be an accident. Of course not.’
This was not a world with media or the internet, but that made word of mouth even more frightening.
Word of mouth was structured so that every time it passed through another person’s mouth, it would inevitably distort little by little, whether intentionally or not.
“By the way, Administrator. Are you truly not going to give a congratulatory speech? Everyone must be waiting.”
“No need. At events like this, nothing is worse than some person no one knows coming out and wasting time while they talk about honored guests and whatnot.”
“Who would not know you, Administrator....”
“In any case, I am not doing that. And do you have the leisure to keep wasting time here? Aren’t you a representative too?”
“Heh heh. Then I will be going.”
“Do not get hurt.”
Jamie had finally earned qualification as one of Team Lord’s Castle’s ten representative competitors.
He had realized the unnatural events occurring around the mine and returned to the lord’s castle immediately, but the beasts and monsters he had caught before then had already been more than enough for him to be selected as a representative.
In both quantity and quality.
“I will bring back victory and present it to you, Administrator.”
“I do not need that kind of gift, so stop it.”
“Come now, you like it, but you are acting like this for no reason again! Bwahahahaha!”
Watching Jamie leave the tent with his frivolous laughter, Aiden naturally sighed.
“Haa. He did not hear a word I said about being careful, did he?”
Kalisa merely shrugged. She gave no answer.
[The 1st Northern Hunting Competition! Which village possesses the finest hunters? Starting now, two days! In only two days, the finest village will be decided! Hunters, prepare yourselves—! Let your passion burn—!]
BOOM—!
When a heavy hammer fell onto an even heavier bronze plate, a roar burst out.
At the same time, the participants and spectators all mixed together and shouted.
“Waaaaaaaah!”
“Victory is ours!”
“Do not let them take it!”
“Go prove that we are the best!”
As though the cheers of the crowd were the signal, the hunters from each village standing at the starting line shot toward the mountain range.
One village’s ten hunters moved like a single person, while another village split into three teams of three or four and moved strategically.
Clank, clank.
“We will depart as well, Administrator.”
“I leave it to you.”
The lord’s castle’s knights and soldiers seemed to have finished preparing to depart as well.
They would not directly participate in the hunt.
Their goals were detecting foul play and securing safety.
“I hope this goes well.”
“Do not worry. They are northerners who have lived with hunting their whole lives.”
Thus, the first day was passing.
***
Team Lord’s Castle’s ten warriors—no, servants—were divided into two groups.
Since it was the first day, those with strengths in searching formed one team and decided to find prey that could earn many points. The other team planned to sweep away every visible creature with overwhelming firepower.
At the very front of the search team stood the scout, the stableman.
With his unique sensitivity, he quickly detected the presence of prey. To someone who did not know better, he seemed almost like a fraud.
It was because he seemed able to hear every sound ordinary people could not.
Hiss, hiss, hiss—!
“Shh, that way!”
In any case, the stableman once again caught the presence of something crawling along the ground.
“A snake?”
“It is a little different. There is a metallic sound mixed in.”
“A monster, then.”
“Probably—”
“An Iron Viper.”
“If it is venomous, shall we withdraw first?”
“I will go forward.”
The gardener stepped forward.
In his hand was something like a strangely shaped pole, its end finished with sharp metal.
“It is a pity, but with venomous snakes, it is safest to take the head off immediately.”
The reason there was a gardener in the lord’s castle, which was bleakly barren and had no proper garden, was to prevent dangerous things from entering the front yard and back garden in advance.
And a northern gardener was truly a specialist in catching pests and harmful beasts.
In particular, snakes and insects were no match for him.
Hiss, hiss, hiss.
“It is coming.”
Not long after the stableman gave a quiet warning, a two-meter-long snake with rusty red skin shot out of the bushes like a slingshot.
Unlike an ordinary snake, whenever it moved, scales as sharp as blades scraped in every direction.
“You bastard!”
As though he had expected it, the gardener’s pole struck toward the snake’s head, but it went slightly off course.
CLANG—!
When the iron pole and the snake’s body collided, the sound of blades striking each other rang out.
“Damn it, this one has already started turning metallic!”
At the gardener’s shout, dismay appeared on everyone’s faces.
An Iron Viper whose entire body had not yet turned metallic was not a very difficult prey as long as one was careful of the direction of the head that sprayed venom.
“Should we give up?”
“Do you think that thing will give up now that the fight has started?”
The creature, fully enraged and brimming with venom, would not abandon the fight.
“Snakes cannot move backward! We have to block both sides!”
“Block its sides!”
Clang, clang—. Clang!
The hunters struggled to seize the weakness of the creature that sprang up like a coil and sprayed venom.
That was when it happened.
“The belly! The belly has not turned metallic yet!”
The youngest, who had slipped and fallen, happened to notice the creature’s belly gleaming white as it leapt high into the air.
“There! That is its weak point!”
“Knives! Spears!”
The hunters’ momentum changed instantly.
Now that the point had been found, they intended to launch an all-out attack.
However, a monster’s instincts were not so easy to handle.
Hiss, hiss, hiss—!
The creature that had been bending and straightening its body, leaping into the air, and spraying venom in all directions seemed to sense the shift in atmosphere and stopped leaping so readily.
Instead, it seemed to have decided to press its belly flat against the ground and constantly writhe while aiming for the hunters’ ankles.
“Careful!”
“Eek!”
The standoff was lengthening.
Just as both snake and humans were growing tired from the fierce standoff,
BOOM—!
Crack.
Thud.
“Bwahahaha! As expected, you can’t do anything without me!”
From far away, an axe the size of half a human torso flew in and cut the Iron Viper in half.
There was no need to look further.
It was Jamie.
“I thought you were taking too long, so I came to look. Were you stuck because of a single snake? Our side has already caught—”
“No, sir! How could you cut the viper in two?! This precious thing...!”
“The venom, remove the fangs first! The venom sac too! Hurry! Take them out before it decays, goodness!”
However, rather than thanking Jamie, the search team members were busy scolding him and glaring.
“No, I helped, so why—?”
“Sigh, Aide. Do you think we were struggling because we did not know how to catch this thing?”
The youngest of the search team approached him and answered.
“Venomous snake-type monsters like Iron Vipers fetch proper prices the fewer flaws there are on their bodies. But this one has been cut in two, sigh.... And the same goes for the fangs and venom sac. Once it dies, decay begins immediately. That is why we should have subdued it alive, removed the fangs and venom sac first, then finished it off.”
When the youngest let out a deep sigh as though he could die from the pity of seeing the viper cut in two,
“...I didn’t know....”
Jamie could do nothing but scratch his head.
“Our aide still lacks a bit of experience after all....”
“Still, he is certainly strong.”
“Strong, yes, strong....”
The team members began teasing him together, half in jest and half in sincerity.
The tension from the battle loosened.
Brikal, the captain of Team Lord’s Castle who had followed behind, thought that they were gradually beginning to work well together.
***
Meanwhile, at that time.
Deep in the mountain range, in a thicket where no tall trees grew to block the sunlight.
At the center of the thicket, a flat rock rose up, and on top of it, a ball of fur was sprawled out, stretching lazily and rolling around.
It showed no sign of getting up, but its two ears and whiskers twitched without pause.
-Yawn.
When it opened its mouth wide enough to split, sharp fangs reflected the sunlight.
Chirp.
A blue bird flew over beside the ball of fur and sang in trilling notes.
-Humans are hunting the intruders below the mountain?
Chirp, chirp.
-That snake got caught too? Tch! I was going to catch that one and use it as a toy!
There was disappointing news.
-Those stinking cow-head bastards! Good, good! Nyaaaang—!
There was also happy news.
-I hope the humans rampage just a little more.
Purr, purr.
Even after sending the blue bird away, the ball of fur enjoyed the pouring sunlight for a long while with its eyes closed.
Sudden news had arrived, but even so, it could not give up this time of basking in the sun and lazing about.
-This is no time to be doing that!
However, the yellow cat’s happy time did not last long.
It was because a tabby cat appeared and growled.
-Now is our chance while the humans are tearing things up! We must settle things with the spiders!
-Now? It is nap time right now.
-Do not say such nonsense!
-What could be more important than a nap? You are not catlike at all.
-Hiss!
-Fine, fine! I just have to get up, right?
Long tails and perked ears began appearing one by one from within the thicket.