“Aaaah, I hate this! Striders always want to fight!!! They’re so barbaric!!! Aaaah!!!”
“Come on, Dru, cheer up!”
“Hmph, child.”
Aaaah! Seriously! Aaaah!
…And so, I sulked at the Striders Guild.
The temperature was finally stabilizing, making it a pleasant time of year. Fewer sick people, and no work for today.
So, I was healing my frayed nerves by being fawned over by the girls at the Guild…
“Here, here, I’ll let you squeeze my boobs, okay?”
“Ugh… not much to squeeze…”
“Heh, wanna get blown away?”
While being scolded by Shio, I squeezed Margot’s breasts with my other hand. Well, Margot’s were medium-sized, I guess? Shio’s were non-existent.
“Don’t worry, Shio. They’ll get a little bigger if you get pregnant, and even if they’re small, it’s not like it’s a disease. You’re perfectly healthy!”
“I see, Dru will get me pregnant someday, right! Then, it’s okay!”
“Eh, I don’t want to…”
“Huh? No way, Dru? A Gira Tribe female warrior never lets her target escape.”
Eek.
“Hmph, I’ll be with Dru, forever… living together for eternity.”
Margot was super heavy.
Well, she’s an Elf, so eternity is pretty much what she means.
I’m a Changeling too, though.
“That’s not fair, nya?! Me too—!”
Oops, Mirei hugged me.
“…Even so, Dru-san, you were so strong, nya! I’ve fallen for you all over again, nyaa!”
Hmm?
Ah, she must have watched the mock battle the other day.
“Not really.”
I said modestly.
“Amazing, nyaa~, I admire you, nyaa~!”
Hmm, I’m getting a lot of praise. Feels good…
But strength isn’t really the part of me I’m proud of. Magic either.
Well… my swordsmanship is my own, but my magical power is a gift.
You can’t really be proud of something you were given, can you?
So, I’d be happier if you praised my face or my skills. My face is just luck because I’m a Changeling, unrelated to my bloodline… but my skills are something I cultivated in my previous life. If you praise that, my self-esteem skyrockets.
That’s good and all…
“Don’t you guys have work to do?”
I asked Shio and Margot.
Can the busy ‘Blue Comet’ afford to be selling water in a place like this?
“We just crushed a Demon Lair the other day… there aren’t any big jobs right now, I guess?”
“Hmph… ‘Blue Comet’ specializes in hunting big game…”
Ah, that’s right.
‘Guardian’s Shield’ mainly takes requests from nobles and wealthy merchants, protecting important people.
‘Guiding Hawk’ manages and maintains the mountains and forests, and hunts and gathers.
‘The Fang of the Wolf Gang’ is the typical Strider Clan, taking any request, a bunch of roughnecks…
And ‘Blue Comet,’ the clan these girls belong to, specializes in conquering and destroying Demon Lairs, and hunting large Monsters in groups…
That’s how each Strider Clan has its own characteristics, or rather, its own specialty.
And these girls’ job is hunting big game.
Apart from that, it’s common for them to take on small, personal requests to earn pocket money, like Shio did the other day, but that’s another matter…
Basically, their main job is to destroy uncontrolled Demon Lairs that appear in the Midford region, preventing Monster outbreaks… and dealing with large Monsters heading towards the city.
Hunting big game pays a lot at once, so it makes sense that they have long periods of rest.
“Oh, but if Dru wants to, how about we go hunt the Fortress Crab in Lake Purlan? We could take about three of our juniors—if I and Margot are there, it should be doable, right?”
“Fortress Crab… a Fortress Crab, huh…”
A giant crab about 5m long with a carapace as tough as iron.
Its iron carapace is so tough it could probably deflect an Earth rifle, and if you get caught in its pincers, you’ll be cut in half…
But it’s not that fast, and if you surround it with multiple people who can use Magic Skills, you can deal with it.
And more than anything…
“Hmph, I’m here. It’ll be fine.”
This Monster is incredibly weak to electricity.
With Margot who can use the True Word of “Lightning Flash,” it’s practically a sitting duck.
“If we take it down with magic, the carapace will be left intact… it’s worth at least Three Million Lido~!”
If we split it six ways, that’s about five hundred thousand each. It’s called Three Million, but it’ll probably be more, and we can count the extra as expenses… yeah, not a bad job.
Well, honestly, I don’t really care about the money, if I can go hunting with cute girls, that’s already a bonus.
“Who are you planning to get as juniors?”
“Hmm, Shirley and Hanna and… is Roa okay?”
“Xiaolin and Hanako and Roa, huh? Sounds good to me.”
“Ugh, I can’t pronounce them! Roa is a Tribesman, but Shirley and Hanna are Easterners…”
“Xiaolin is from the northern part of ‘The Continent,’ the mountain people. Hanako is an Oni from ‘Azuma Country.'”
“I don’t get it, what’s the difference—!”
“Well, it’s a foreign country after all…”
“Anyway, I’ll tell them to gather tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah, please do.”
And that’s how my plans were made…