My Glasses

Chapter 189 – Glasses boy and the hunting festival – part eleven

After making my prayer in thanks for the hunt, I raised the smoke signal that I was given.

Bright blue smoke, thicker than the sky itself, raised up high.

Beckenberg said that it could be see even at night, but as it’s still daytime, I couldn’t quite understand how that would work…

Mmmm… Is the smoke glowing, perchance? I don’t quite get how, but that must be the gist of it.

Well, the exact details don’t really matter to me. What matters is that someone will come collect the Dragon Fish, so I just have to wait now.

So, for now, I removed the rope that was restraining the Dragon Fish’s body, and… Huh?

The Dragon Fish’s white body was no longer slimy… I couldn’t help tilting my head at that.

In fact, the scales were now very hard and smooth. They really felt like dragon scales at this moment.

Now that I think about it, the tail that hit me when the Dragon Fish was thrashing about… I couldn’t pay enough attention at that moment, so I can’t say it for sure, but I think that tail wasn’t slimy either.

… So what was that slime anyways? Was it maybe some kind of mucus that the Dragon Fish’s magic core created? Perhaps the Dragon Fish created it only when it felt it was necessary?

Also, the color of these scales is a bit duller than the color of the ones I saw at old man Tatsunami’s store, I think… Well, they still shine plenty and are quite beautiful anyways.

… Ah. I didn’t use Forced Information Disclosure on the Dragon Fish… I could have done it before killing it, but I…

No. That’s not the right way to think about it.

That situation was way too dangerous. I couldn’t afford taking my time while right in front of the Dragon Fish’s head.

At that moment, all I could think about was to kill my prey as quickly as possible. There was no time to hesitate or to obtain its Gift.

It’s a bit of a shame that I couldn’t register the Dragon Fish’s gift though… But well, the hunt was still a success anyways.

There were a lot of flaws in my plans because I didn’t know much about this Demon Beast, but I was still able to safely kill it.

Though well, I can’t relax just yet.

I did not pull out the harpoons for the time being, as the Dragon Fish’s blood would start leaking out if I did that.

Demon Beasts would surely be attracted by the smell of the blood, and fighting them while also protecting the Dragon Fish would be quite unrealistic.

I haven’t even pulled out the knife from its head yet.

Let’s see… The harpoons will probably be kept there as is and only be returned to old man Tatsunami once we get back to Krozheit, but the knife I’ll probably retrieve as soon as the recovery team arrives. I’ll just put some cloth on the knife’s wound to stop the blood from overflowing.

Now, the only thing I need to figure out, is what to do with the fishes floating in the lake.

They floated to the surface while I was repeatedly using Flower Bolt on the Dragon Fish, so their death was most likely my fault.

As a hunter, I would rather avoid killing animals in vain, but… When I looked at the lake again, I noticed something strange.

The ten or so fishes that had floated to the surface were now gone.

… Did they survive the Flower Bolts perchance? Did they just swim away after recovering from the temporary stun?

Or were they eaten by birds while I fought the Dragon Fish?

… Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter. Either way, they seemed to be gone.

******

“What’s this!?” One man exclaimed.

Seven hunters, all men, who must have seen the smoke, came to the lake.

I had seen the faces of three of them at the starting point.

Three others I hadn’t seen before, and there was one that I couldn’t judge.

All things considered, those were probably participants of the hunting festival that did not properly register as a team, and instead just hid themselves in the forest before the competition started.

Points were scored based on team size, after all, so these seven people were hunting together while pretending to be a team of only three people.

I guess this is why I felt a bit wary when I entered the forest?

I did notice that there were some people scattered around here and there in the forest, but I was hoping that those were people that Beckenberg had put in here to keep an eye out on everyone and make sure the rules were being properly followed.

But well… I guess this is not the case.

Or rather, I thought about it since I heard the rules… It was way too easy to cheat in this competition.

And considering that Beckenberg and those two elderly people were the ones who designed the rules, then it was probably on purpose that they made it easy to cheat.

I mean, if I could figure out that it was easy to cheat on this, then surely those three were able to as well.

In fact, they probably thought one or two steps further than I did. It’s hard to imagine that they didn’t expect any cheating to happen.

As in, the rules were made in this way to encourage people to cheat.

If this assumption is correct, then the easy cheat methods are probably a trap set by the organizers… Though I’m not sure of the exact purpose of this trap.

Well, it’s certainly related to their profit though. Those people were way too greedy, after all.

But regardless of all that, I replied to the men who were stunned at the sight of the Dragon Fish, “There are no Demon Beasts nearby, so you should probably search somewhere else.”

I was pretty sure that this wouldn’t amount to anything, but I figured I’d say it just in case.

I was already prepared for negotiations to fail though, so I was holding the stones that I used during the battle against the Dragon Fish.

It would be quite troublesome to run out of stones in the middle of a battle, so I made sure to carry plenty of them with me, which is why I still had a good amount left even after throwing thirty or so of them at the Dragon Fish.

Those hunters might die if I hit them on the head though… But well, I can’t afford holding back when dealing with seven armed men. I’m not very used to interpersonal combat in the first place.

Either way, after hearing my words, the men looked at each other, then gave out a somewhat evil laugh.

Mmmmm… I can really feel the difference now.

The evil faces of Beckenberg and those two old people were on a whole other level when compared to these hunters.

When those three people were planning something, their smile emanated pure evil.

But these hunters? They feel more like kids planning a prank.

The gap was just way too big… The greed of the three organizers was much stronger than that of these hunters.

“Hey, miss-“ One of hunters started saying.

“I’ll speak first.” I cut him off before he could say anything, then gave them a clear warning, “First, think about whether or not you could hunt this Demon Beast.

“Then, think about whether or not you can beat me, who have just hunted this Demon Beast.

“Consider those two points for a second. If you still think you have a chance, then by all means draw your sword.”

Then, with Anomalous Ogre activated, I threw a stone towards the branches of a tree.

One man screamed, then the grass ruffled.

Seems like I hit him, and he fell off his tree.

There were six people in front of me, but I saw seven people total with Body-Heat Vision. One of them was hidden in the trees.

They must be used to hunting… Still, I don’t think they’d be able to hunt a Dragon Fish.

Especially if they were betting on the advantage of having a hidden fighter who can’t even avoid a stone throw. There’s no way he’d be able to avoid the much faster water blade of the Dragon Fish. He’d be cut in half by it.

“W-what are you doing-!?” The man that was talking to me spoke again.

So, I threw a stone directly at his stomach.

He must be the one in charge of negotiation, and as he decided to try talking again, I attacked him, and my stone sent him flying.

… This Gift is just way too strong. I was even able to drag the Dragon Fish around… If my copy is able to do this much, then I can’t even imagine the true limits of Florentine’s actual Gift.

Anyways… I couldn’t help wondering why these hunters weren’t careful around me.

I didn’t say I wasn’t going to attack them for as long as they didn’t draw their swords.

A warning is a statement of your intent. It means that you’re ready to attack right away.

Demon Beasts use intimidation as their warning… This is no different.

How could they remain so unguarded in front of someone that is threatening to attack them at any moment?

… That’s just how hunts work. Your prey may be targeted by carnivore animals or Demon Beasts.

Killing the prey doesn’t end one’s hunt. The hunt is only truly over when you bring your prey home.

As in, I was expecting, from the very beginning, that there would people like them that would try to steal my prey.

“Damn it! Everyone, get ready!” One man exclaimed.

The remaining five seemed to have finally realized that I was ready to attack them regardless of what they did next, so they raised their weapons.

Still… They were too slow. Slower than I expected.

The third stone was thrown while one of the men was still drawing his weapon.

******

Once there were only two men remaining, they started apologizing to me, but I ignored their words and threw stones at them too, knocking them out.

It couldn’t be helped. I just couldn’t trust those people.

So, I used the ropes, that I had previously restrained the Dragon Fish with, to tie the seven men up.

Right now, they were all either unable to move due to the pain, or unconscious, so it wasn’t particularly hard to tie them up.

And with this, I guess I just need to wait for the recovery team now.

Mmmm… I’m now getting a bit worried about Zett.

One of my earliest hunting memories was getting lost in the woods, and it was quite the terrifying experience.

… I hope he didn’t get lost.

******

I spent a while thinking about yesterday’s hunt of the Dragon Fish, but eventually I replied to Hydra, “I’m sorry, I don’t think there is anything else I can tell you.”

“I see. Then it can’t be helped.” Hydra replied.

After that, we changed topics and talked a bit about the Tower of Bryne, then I went around the nearby food stalls, dodged random people that were hitting on me, dodged drunken people, and dodged the hands of people who were trying to touch my butt.

And like that, the conclusion of the hunting festival approached.