The division of labor on the way back to the Academy Guild happened naturally.
First, Stella, who had the greatest stamina of the three of us, took charge of dragging the Giant Boa's body lying on the ground.
Lulu, who had a strong understanding of materials, carried the Giant Boa's severed head.
I carried Dike's reasonably heavy greatsword.
There might not have been any real need to retrieve it, but there was no harm in taking it with us.
It was ownerless now anyway. If necessary, I could simply sell it to a weapons shop.
It had taken about thirty minutes to reach the inner forest.
We spent the same thirty minutes getting back out and returned to the Hunting Guild.
Ordinarily, the added weight of our burdens should have slowed us down.
But Stella's pace remained fast despite dragging the heaviest load, the Giant Boa's carcass, so the trip did not take any longer.
The body alone must have weighed well over a hundred kilograms.
Although I had reduced its weight slightly with wind magic, Stella could only move like that because she had been born with such a sturdy frame.
Without her, the hunt would have ended on a hollow note. We would have taken only the boa's head as proof of the kill and stopped after extracting the materials we needed.
Even on the way back, I was keenly aware of how fortunate it was to have Stella with us.
The moment we entered the guild with the Giant Boa's corpse, every employee and student inside turned to look at us at once.
As soon as we requested dismantling and purchase, the receptionist hurriedly contacted someone.
Not long afterward, students from the Department of Technology arrived and began dismantling the Giant Boa.
At the Academy Guild, monster dismantling was generally used as hands-on training material for Department of Technology students to improve their skills.
That led to the unusual advantage that the rarer and more difficult a monster was to dismantle, the lower the dismantling fee became.
After all, for students majoring in dismantling, experience working on rare materials was the sort of credential they would gladly pay to acquire.
“Is that really a Giant Boa?”
“I've never seen one in person. So that's what they look like.”
“All I've ever handled are Goblins and Kobolds. I never thought I'd get to work on a Giant Boa before graduating....”
The members of the dismantling crew each voiced their own impressions of the Giant Boa.
Five or six members of the crew, most of them fourth-years, swarmed over the Giant Boa's entire body. The once-massive creature was gradually divided into flesh, hide, and organs.
“......Ugh.”
A small groan escaped Lulu as she silently watched the dismantling process with her mouth hanging open.
She seemed to be twisting her body because she was itching to get her hands on the precious materials.
Before long, she began asking the guild manager overseeing the dismantling and purchase about something.
“I have a favor to ask.”
“Ah, yes. Go ahead. Are there any materials you need us to set aside instead of selling?”
“That's not it. I'd like to participate in the dismantling too. Would that be possible? I'm only a second-year in the Department of Technology.”
The moment Lulu showed him the black insignia that symbolized the Department of Technology, the guild manager's expression softened into a kindly smile.
“Of course. You contributed to hunting the Giant Boa as well, so naturally you may participate if you wish.”
“Then I'll join them.”
The moment she finished speaking, Lulu changed into dismantling clothes.
But instead of approaching the torso, where many students had gathered to work, she went to the untouched head and drew a knife without hesitation.
“One moment, Student Lulu.”
“Yes?”
“The head is a difficult section to dismantle, so one of our guild's professional dismantlers will handle it. Have you ever dismantled a Giant Boa's head before?”
“I've done an ordinary boa before, but this is my first Giant Boa.”
“In that case, I recommend leaving it alone. You would not want to make a mistake during the dismantling and render the valuable materials unusable, would you?”
“......”
It was a heavily softened way of admonishing a student, but in the end, his meaning was simple.
A beginner should not meddle with a difficult section and ruin it. She should quietly stick to an easier section and learn by following along.
Lulu's expression, which had brightened for a moment, turned slightly disappointed.
The instant I sensed her disappointment, the words came out of my mouth on their own.
“It's fine. Just do it.”
Both Lulu and the guild manager turned to look at me.
In my previous life, Lulu had handled nearly all the dismantling for our party.
And although she was still a student, I also knew that her skills had already been nearly complete by her first year.
Rather than needlessly hurt her feelings, I entrusted the Giant Boa's head to her, partly to confirm her ability for myself.
“Conrad?”
“If she damages it while dismantling it, you can simply decline to purchase the head. We still own it, after all.”
“...Even so, would it not be better for her to work alongside a professional dismantler? Most of a Giant Boa's value lies in the materials and hide from its head. If they are damaged, the price will fall far below the estimate.”
“That's fine. If that happens, we'll simply treat it as though we never had them to begin with.”
The guild manager looked displeased, but he seemed to have already concluded that he would not be able to change my firm stance.
“Very well. We will not take responsibility for any damaged materials, so do as you please.”
“You heard him, Lulu. You can do whatever you want with it.”
“Uh, um...?”
I had gone to the trouble of negotiating with the guild manager and obtaining permission.
Yet after overhearing the discussion about the price, Lulu became flustered instead and began questioning me.
“A-Are you sure? What if I make a mistake and ruin it?”
“I won't hold you responsible even if you do. It's ours anyway, so dismantle it however you want.”
“...O-Okay. Then I'll do my best.”
Lulu cautiously nodded at my words.
She immediately approached the Giant Boa's head and began dismantling it with both delicacy and speed.
She precisely cut along the section where the scales changed color and separated them from the head first.
Then she cut open the flesh around the hidden venom sac and carefully removed and stored it without letting it burst.
She soon sorted the eyes, venomous fangs, and teeth one by one, completing the dismantling perfectly without wasting even a single drop of blood.
Before I knew it, even I had become entranced by her clean, efficient movements and was watching intently.
“Phew, I'm done. I was a little nervous.”
When Lulu wiped the sweat from her brow with one arm and looked around after finishing everything,
“Huh?”
Everyone in the guild was already staring at Lulu alone.
“Hm? Wh-What is it? What's wrong...? Why is everyone looking at me?”
What else could it be?
They're all amazed by your skill.
***
“Huff, huff, huff....”
A man over two meters tall desperately raced through the center of the Demon Forest.
The deep wounds in both his thighs opened wider and wider.
Even so, he could not afford to slow his fleeing steps.
“Damn it! Damn it! Fucking goddamn it!”
With every step he took, The man groaned from the pain rising from his thighs and spat out curses.
“Look what that damned little bastard's done to me! Fuck!”
The plan should have worked perfectly.
He had intended to strike the bastard from behind after he was exhausted from hunting monsters, then take the quarry as his own trophy and return to the guild.
As for the corpse, he could simply leave it in the Demon Forest and let the monsters take care of it.
The only witnesses were a first-year freshman and a student from the Department of Technology with no combat ability.
He had thought that once he cut Conrad down, the other two would be no match for him.
'That last fight wasn't even his full strength?! And he can cast nine spells at once?!'
The one-sided violence had revealed such an immense gap that Dike had come to feel not merely overwhelmed by Conrad Ferdalos, but afraid of him.
Remembering Conrad's eyes when they had last faced each other, Dike quietly shuddered.
“That bastard. He really meant to kill me.”
He had lived a life filled with grudges both great and small, and had become an expert at telling whether someone truly harbored murderous intent.
The killing intent Conrad Ferdalos had shown him in the Demon Forest was intense enough that it would not have been surprising if he crossed the line.
Dike understood that one wrong move could truly have cost him the thing sitting above his neck.
“Damned little bastard.”
The moment his heated head cooled and his confused emotions settled, dark feelings began sprouting in Dike's mind once more.
“That fucking bastard. Who the hell does he think he is, deciding whether I get expelled?”
Then, without tiring in the slightest, he immediately began devising his next plan for revenge against Conrad.
“Just you wait, little bastard. Next time, I'll even borrow an Artifact from Professor Oliver and finish this....”
As Dike muttered to himself and headed toward the guild, something heavy collided with his body.
Dike had been distracted for a moment, and the impact knocked him back slightly.
“What the fuck? Was there a tree here too?”
“Grrr....”
“Huh?”
It did not take him long to realize that what had knocked him back was not a tree.
It was a humanoid monster even larger than Dike, who was considered a giant among humans.
A three-meter-tall adult Orc was glaring at Dike after he had bounced away from its body.
“Perfect timing.”
An Orc might have been a large and powerful monster, but Dike was also counted among the stronger figures at the Academy.
A lone Orc wandering by itself was something he could cut down in a single stroke with the greatsword he always carried....
“Ah, fuck.”
Or he could have, had he not dropped his sword during the battle moments earlier and left it behind.
Only now did Dike realize it, and a curse escaped his mouth on its own.
“You're lucky. Consider yourself damned lucky I left my sword behind. Otherwise, I'd have butchered even you....”
Orcs would not start a fight as long as they were not attacked first.
Pretending to be relaxed, Dike turned his back on the Orc and tried to resume walking toward the guild.
“UOOOOHHH!!!”
THUD—!
Something struck by the Orc's club made a sickening sound as it was crushed.
The Orc had interpreted the initial collision against its body as a preemptive attack and mercilessly swung the club in its hands at the offender.
“UOOOH! UOH! UOOOOHHH!”
Dike's body began to collapse from within beneath the Orc's club.
Even so, Dike was lucky.
The first blow had struck the back of his head and knocked him unconscious, so he did not have to feel the pain of his bones breaking beneath the dozens of blows that followed.
“Uoooh....”
Eventually, the Orc's excitement subsided. It picked up its trophy and returned to the Orc settlement.
Soon, nothing remained in the place where a fourth-year student from the Department of Swordsmanship had been.