Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash vol. 1

7. Slow Start

"Can we ki— take down animals?"

Everyone stopped walking.

Now that she mentioned it, a volunteer soldier's job was to slay monsters and members of hostile races, not to hunt for food and things they might be able to sell.

"Yume thinks..." Yume screwed up her face, having a hard time saying what she wanted to. "Yume learned from Master how to show appreciation to an animal after taking its life, you know. But Yume likes animals, and Yume really doesn't want to kill them. They're cute. Yume'd feel bad about it, you know."

Ranta scoffed. "Don't be a softie. What are you, a prim and proper young lady? Because every living thing is eventually going to die and be embraced by Lord Skullhell. If something needs to die so we can survive, there's nothing weird about that at all."

"If that's true..." Yume suddenly took aim and nocked an arrow. She was aimed squarely at Ranta. "...it'd be okay if you had to die for Yume and everyone's sake, Ranta."

"Do—!" Ranta leapt backwards. "D-Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Don't be stupid, Tiny Tits! Killing me won't do any good, you know?! It won't! It seriously won't! I mean it! S-Stop it, please!"

"Yume would feel better after doing it. You did call Yume's breasts tiny, after all."

"Y-Y-You called yourself that before, didn't you?! You said your tits were tiny!"

"Saying it yourself and getting called it by someone else are different. Especially when it's from a boy. It hurts, you know?"

"I-I-I'm sorry! I-I apologize! I apologize, okay?! Look, I'm begging you!" Ranta did a jumping kowtow. "See?! My bad! Forgive me! Please! Yume, they're not tiny! Those things are huge! Explosively huge! They're almost into marvel-of-nature territory!"

"Man..." Haruhiro looked not so much down at as down on Ranta. "You haven't repented in the least, I'll bet."

"I-I have, okay! How haven't I?! How can you say I haven't?! On what basis?!"

Yume sighed, returning her arrow to its quiver and putting down the bow. "...Waste of an arrow."

"Whew," Ranta stood up and made a show of wiping the sweat from his brow. "You know what? Either way? Even if you'd shot, I think you'd have missed. Just saying. For the record. Hey? Yume? Stop with the machete. D-Don't pull it out! That's not funny! If you stick me with that, it'll hurt! I'll die! I'll seriously die!"

"So, about our prey," said Manato with a somewhat forced smile. "From what I hear, even close to Alterna there are mud goblins, ghouls, and other targets that even trainees can probably handle. Though, that's just what I hear, so I don't know for sure."

"Goblins and ghouls..." Haruhiro thought hard. The names sounded familiar to him. He might just have been imagining it, but he had a vague sense that they were humanoid creatures.

"...Okay, then," Shihoru spoke more forcefully than she usually did. "Why don't we focus on those mud poplis and cools?"

When Haruhiro mildly suggested, "You mean 'mud goblins and ghouls'..." to correct her, Shihoru's face turned a bright shade of red and she shrunk into herself.

"Sure, whatever works," agreed Ranta, not seeming to care.

Yume said, "That's better," seeming happy with the choice.

Moguzo said, "O-Okay," with a nod.

"I guess we'll try the woods, for now." The priest, Manato, took the lead. Haruhiro and the others followed him towards the nearby woods.

The woods were unrelentingly woodsy. There were broad-leafed trees they didn't know the names of, as well as undergrowth so thick they couldn't even see game trails. There wasn't much hard ground. It was all strangely soft, or slightly squishy. The footing was poor, which made it hard to walk.