My Glasses

Chapter 182 – Glasses boy and the hunting festival – part four

(Chace’s PoV)

“Did you all just arrive?” Hariatan asked us.

Traululu gave out a cat-like laugh, “Good job.”

While me and Lisse were discussing what to do next, Lisse’s old friends and Traululu arrived.

We seemed to have been just a slightly bit faster than them.

“Oh, so you’re here now too and… That’s a big monkey.” I commented.

A huge Demon Beast was on the cart that came back with them. A very large monkey with thick, hairy arms, neck and body.

It may be a bit shorter than the Ironhead we hunted at the assassins’ village, but it’s much wider.

Moreover, its basically made of pure muscles, with no fat to be seen at all… It’s clearly a Demon Beast that is much stronger than an Ironhead.

“It’s a Vajra Ape!” Someone exclaimed.

The people in the plaza became even more excited when seeing yet another large Demon Beast be delivered.

This wasn’t a good place to talk, so we decided to go somewhere else.

******

(Chace’s PoV)

We finished handing over the two Ash Cats, so my team’s part in this hunting competition was done now.

Lisse didn’t have time to properly register herself as my teammate before we started, but she was treated as a team member for the scoring without any issues.

Normally, only one Demon Beast would be delivered per team, but I was told it would be more impactful if there were two of them there, so I decided to just leave both with the festival’s organization staff for the time being.

The Ash Cat is a strong enemy that can’t be easily hunted down, and is also somewhat rare. We’ll surely make some good money if we sell it, so I play to collect it later once the festival is over.

That said…

“I guess it’s impossible to go right now?” Lisse said while pointing towards the warehouse.

She said she wanted to see the Demon Beast there, but… With such a huge crowd surrounding it, I couldn’t help grimacing.

Even if we go now, we certainly won’t be able to see it any time soon.

But well, it’s still early evening. Surely the wait time will be shorter later at night, so we can just come back later.

And it was at that moment, when we were discussing what to do next, that the Tower of Bryne team returned, with Hariatan as their representative.

So, after meeting up, we moved to a place near the edge of the plaza, where it wasn’t too crowded and we could talk more easily.

“Why don’t we go take a bath?” Hariatan suggested.

It was a pretty reasonable proposal. Everyone was dirty and sweaty right now. And a bath would be perfect to get ourselves refreshed and to then change into clean clothes.

Traululu clicked her tongue at the suggestion though, as she seems to have a strong aversion to getting wet.

However, she also seems to really like being clean, so she didn’t really object… She’s honestly a bit strange and hard to deal with.

“Lisse.” Eorazel carefully approached her.

He is usually a pretty quiet person. He is also fairly handsome and gives off the feeling of a noble… Or rather, he is more like a prince straight out of a fairy tale.

This prince-like Eorazel whispered in Lisse’s ear, “I want to go in with you.”

“You’re so annoying. Let’s go take a bath already.” She shoved him away.

Like this, our group decided to go take a bath.

Truly… Eorazel would basically be perfect if he could keep his mouth shut… Alas, he is actually able to speak.

******

(Hariatan’s PoV)

It seems like the organizers were already expecting the tired hunters to want a bath, so they prepared a luxurious inn for the participants, as well as some supplies like a change of clothes to those that didn’t have spares.

So well, we made use of that and took a bath, washing off the sweat and dirt, then returned to the plaza.

Chace seemed to have given up on training for the day, so he decided to accompany us.

The sun had set a decent while ago by now, so the sky was completely dark.

However, the plaza was still as lively as before… Except that more and more people seemed to be reaching their limits in drinking, so they were falling down on the spot.

The organizers also seemed to have prepared for that though, as the people who passed away were being dragged somewhere.

But well, it seemed like the festival was still far from over. There were still many people here, and neither the singing nor the music had stopped.

As for the five of us who had been hunting since noon… Well, we were hungry.

So, the first thing we did was to buy some food and drinks at stalls, then we looked around to see what else the festival was offering.

And in the meanwhile, I kept on overhearing a specific topic being brought up by all the multiple groups of people we passed by amidst the crowd.

“Seems like everyone is talking about the Dragon Fish.” I commented.

I truly enjoy drinking, food and entertainment, but like any other person who was selected to be an assassin trainee, I can also be calm and thoughtful when needed.

Traululu gave off her usual cat-like laugh, “I heard it too.”

She seemed to be enjoying herself quite a bit in this festival, just like me, but she too seemed to be paying attention to what the crowds were talking about.

Though well, everyone in our group was probably listening in. It was hard to miss a rumor that simply didn’t stop circulating, after all.

Truly… It seems like somebody really has hunted a Dragon Fish.

“What is a Dragon Fish?” Chace asked.

Chace himself is not very familiar with the Demon Beasts of this area, so it’s unsurprising that he doesn’t know.

Lisse also seemed to not know it though. Probably because she wasn’t planning on joining the hunting festival in the first place, so she spent no time gathering information in advance.

In fact, from what we’ve talked while walking around the festival, she and Chace ended up hunting Ash Cats simply because that was the first Demon Beast that they found that wasn’t a Destroyer Horse nor a Demon Pig.

Though honestly, I don’t know that much about the Dragon Fish either. I know it’s a Demon Beast, and from the rumors I gathered, it’s extremely rare, and potentially very strong.

It’s most likely a Demon Beast that is quite hard to hunt.

“I don’t know much more than the name, but I’m sure it’s rare.

“Do you know anything else, Eora?” I asked him.

The prince-like Eora always disappointed everyone when he spoke… And this time it was no exception, as he decided to speak… In Traululu’s ear, “It’s a very rare Demon Beast.”

Traululu shrieked in response to the whisper in her ear and hid herself behind Lisse.

Today was their first meeting, but it seems like the two girls became good friends during their bath. Perhaps because of how friendly cat therianthropes tend to be.

Eorazel seemed to be disappointed at Traululu’s escape, but he continued, “I only saw it once in an illustrated book, so I don’t know that much about it either.

“However, the book said that it was an incredibly beautiful pure-white sea serpent.

“That’s about all I know.”

A Dragon Fish.

A dragon.

A fish.

And now a sea serpent.

“… Just what is it anyways?” Chace’s words probably reflected everyone’s thoughts.

The information we have is just too incomplete, so we can’t get a clear picture of it.

“I wonder…” I mused out loud, with a rare serious expression on me, “Do we have any chance of winning?”

Both mine and Lisse’s team returned just as the sun was setting, and we all hunted strong Demon Beasts.

A fast hunt against a strong enemy with a small team. Both of our teams should be in a position where we should be able to aim for victory.

Only three teams arrived before us, in fact.

I know one of the teams hunted an unusually large Demon Pig with a group of four participants, but that’s all I know.

I can probably find out more if I ask around, but…

“No, we don’t.” Lisse clearly stated, “We’re not winning. No chance. We have already lost this.”

It was a very shocking statement. Especially because it came from Lisse.

I mean, me and Eora know her pretty well, and Chace should know her well too by now.

We know it. Lisse is strong. She’s probably the strongest among us, in fact.

Back in the institution we were being raised in together, Lisse always got the best results. I almost never saw her lose, and she never ran away from a challenge.

In the first place, Lisse only came to Krozheit through a different route than me and our other friends because she there was too much of a gap between our skill level and hers.

Lisse had always been way ahead of everyone else.

And that Lisse had, just now, clearly admitted defeat.

“We lost in speed, on what Demon Beast we targeted, and on team size. We lost in all three factors.” Lisse stated.

I really didn’t want to hear Lisse of all people say those words, but everyone understood that she was saying the truth.

“Let’s just go see the Dragon Fish already.” Lisse stated.

And without waiting to hear anybody’s reply, she walked towards the warehouse that has been in our minds for a while now.

“I can’t tell you everything right now, but I can say that a person around our age hunted it. They outperformed us in everything.” Lisse stated.

******

(Lisse’s PoV)

Even though it was night, we still had to wait a while to get inside the warehouse.

Still, I could now finally see this Demon Beast that he hunted, the Dragon Fish.

I was honestly a bit disappointed at my defeat, but I still felt a bit proud of him anyways.

That’s what Eil can do when he is serious. That is the man I can call both a friend and a rival.