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Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Silavin
The town where the Crown branch of the Airika Kingdom was located was a castle town that included Livia Castle. The name of the town was Livia, which stemmed from the castle.
The area around the town of Livia was, as one could expect from the royal capital’s backyard, seldom visited by large monsters.
It was not that they never appeared, but even if they did, they were almost always defeated by the Knights.
However, intermediate-level monsters still appeared within a few days’ walking distance for adventurers.
The majority of requests for monster extermination from guilds were issued by the town of Livia and the country of Airika to maintain public safety in the satellite cities surrounding the royal capital.
Most of the adventurers active in Livia earned their money by defeating these monsters.
To the west of the town of Livia, there was a large area of dense forest. It was said that it was once an even larger forest, that spread out to the whole west of the Airika Kingdom.
Even if the forest areas had been reduced, a considerable amount of forest area was still left untouched. It was more than enough for the monsters to make it their stronghold. In fact, there were several large areas like this remaining within Airika.
Consequently, the main source of income for adventures was hunting the monsters that live in those areas.
The first request Roman and his team took on was to hunt a Lynx, a squirrel-like monster; it was not to be misunderstood as the common domesticated cat breed. This monster could be found about half a day’s walk from the royal capital.
The Lynx was a monster that also appears in Amamiya Tower, so it was a familiar opponent for their first hunt.
Despite its large size, it bites with considerable speed.
What made them even more troublesome was that they usually attack in groups of two or three, making them more difficult to hunt down.
If it were just one individual, it would not be that difficult to defeat, but because they always come in groups, it had been considered a D-rank request to hunt them.
D-rank outside of the central continent. If in the Central Continent, it would be ranked lower than D-rank. Crown headquarters would treat it as an E-rank threat, also only because of the inevitable group battle.
Such was the difference between the Central Continent and other Continents, including the Eastern Continent which Airika Kingdom laid in.
For this reason, the reward was set at a reasonable amount. To complete it, simply bring proof of the parts of the monster that had been defeated. No need to bring in the whole monster carcass back to verify.
In Livia, this was a request that was considered to be too tough for its rank, and therefore not worthy of challenging.
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The Roman decided to set their base of activities in a village called Taen, which was about half a day’s walk from Livia.
There was no problem with the monster itself, but the number of Lynx listed on the request form.
For a normal hunting request, four or five Lynx would be normal, but this request listed a whopping 100!
Sometimes, when a request for a hunt was not very popular, multiple requests were combined into one.
Even so, Roman thought that 100 was too much. Though, it could not be helped because it was so unpopular.
Still, for Roman and his friends, who were used to fighting against Lynx, the reward for this request was very tempting to them. As it was impossible to take on 100 Lynxes all at once, they decided to make the village of Taen, which was close to where groups of Lynx appeared, their temporary base.
Incidentally, the hunted parts were to be deposited in a storage area like a safe deposit box.
While looking for a place to store them, we were lucky enough to be offered a vacant room by the owner of the inn that we were using as a base.
However, even though it was called a safe deposit box, it was not as well-guarded as a real storage.
They were able to borrow the storage space on the condition that they were completely responsible for the items they were storing.
The day finally arrived when they were to head out to defeat the monster.
When everyone had gathered, Roman gave Arisa a final confirmation.
“We’re going to head out to defeat them now, but is it okay for Riku to be joining us?”
Roman didn’t know that Riku was a member of the royal family. He merely suspected that he might be the Son of some noble.
At first, he had shown the appropriate attitude, but after being rejected, he was now calling Riku by his first name.
“Yes. And by the way, you don’t have to worry about us, you can go ahead at your own pace.”
“Okay.”
Roman and the others have seen just how skilled Arisa was at the training school. They knew that escorting a single child to the place they were about to enter would be no problem for her.
“Oh, but I’d just like you to be careful about your traveling speed. It’s his first time entering the forest for anything other than hunting.”
Arisa said and looked at Riku.
Riku nodded without hiding anything.
They had already experienced on the way to the village that trying to hide things would cause more trouble.
“Yeah, I understand. Well, Lynxes don’t live very deep inside the forest, so I think we’ll be able to find them without going too deep…”
“This isn’t the forest of the Central Continent, so we can’t be too careless.”
One of the party members admonished Roman.
“I know that. Besides, there are only so many of them. Eventually, we’ll have to go deeper into the forest.”
“Right. Well, I’m going to go and scout around.”
“Please do so.”
With Roman confirmation, the party’s scout quickly entered the forest, leaving them behind.
The scout would check to see if there were any monsters nearby before the group head off to defeat them.
Meanwhile, Roman and the others did not stand idle. They continued to advance through the forest as a party, ensuring their safety.
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As the Romans advanced through the forest, the scout returned.
“They’re just ahead. Five of them.”
“Got it. Are you ready?”
The members of the party nodded in response to Roman’s confirmation.
Riku’s existence had already been relegated to the back of Roman’s mind, his thoughts were mainly focused on the battle ahead.
Even though they had defeated this opponent many times in the past, they could not afford to be careless.
Besides, it was not like there were no other monsters that might appear.
Roman, the leader, looked at Arisa for a moment. When he saw her nod, he gave the order to the members.
“Alright, let’s go!”
Upon that call, the party members started to move, to carry out their respective roles.
Lynxes were not bothered by their large bodies and could be found on the branches of relatively large trees. It was as if they had no weight, even able to be on twigs. Naturally, this just means they could easily scale up trees and travel between branches.
Its behavior was similar to that of a squirrel, but it was not as cute and as small.
There were five Lynxes in total that Roman and his group were tasked to take down this time.
It was only when there were that many of them, the Lynxes’ characteristic of group battle could be fully demonstrated.
To prevent this, the scouts first used their bows to keep them at bay from a distance.
The Lynxes, having noticed Roman and his group’s presence, deftly jumped from branch to branch and ran along the ground, launching their attacks.
By the time they reached Roman and his group, one of the Lynx had been killed by the scout’s arrow.
Riku watched intently, holding his breath as he saw a monster being defeated for the first time.
He felt the power of the battle, which was not just something he could read about or hear about from others. This was in many ways far more terrifying.
Naturally, the defeated monster was spewing blood.
Although he did not feel any sense of revulsion at these raw sensations, this did not mean he felt elated.
He just stared at the battle that was taking place right in front of him, which decided life and death.
Arisa intently watched Riku.
Riku watched on as the first battle ended after about 15 minutes.
Fortunately, there were no other monsters that intruded in the battle, so they were able to cleanly finish them off.
Unfortunately, however, it was not possible for them to bring back all the monster carcasses, which were over a meter long.
After cleaning up the blood and taking only the necessary parts they needed, and after scanning the surrounding area, the group headed off to their next hunting ground.
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