Short Story 2: Longdagger’s Reach is Short, Pantile Has Golden Eyes
『Longdagger’s Reach is Short, Pantile Has Golden Eyes』
Three months since enrolling in the academy in the Royal Capital.
A little over one year since becoming an adventurer.
Shin Longdagger, the thirteen-year-old second son of the household of the shockingly Impoverished Viscount, stood before the Royal Capital’s gate in the Faltar Kingdom, watching adventurers depart for other countries.
It was three in the afternoon on his day off, having just been released from the training of his master, “Kind Barbara.”
Adventurers could be broadly divided into two categories.
Those who didn’t move from a specific country.
And those who operated across multiple countries.
The Faltar Kingdom had the unique circumstance of being prone to the emergence of more powerful Monsters compared to other nations, so most adventurers active in Faltar chose to operate there willingly.
Or rather, Faltar Kingdom was where adventurers who preferred such conditions gathered.
But, naturally, there were those who didn’t prefer it, and such adventurers became the type to operate across national borders.
Their numbers, however, were strangely few.
Thirteen-year-old Shin Longdagger watched those few adventurers who operated internationally.
The emotions reflected in his eyes were a faint longing and the innocent curiosity befitting his age.
Even Shin, who, despite being a member of the nobility, had become an adventurer at twelve simply because he wanted to, understood certain things.
Being a noble yet becoming an adventurer, and furthermore, living as an adventurer in another country—that was surely impossible.
So he understood that this faint longing he currently felt stemmed simply from the fact that it was impossible for him.
Yet, understanding this, when mixed with his innocent curiosity about unseen foreign lands, it still appeared quite appealing.
Shin mulled over the possibility in his heart for a while.
It was partly an escape from the training imposed by his adventurer master, “Kind Barbara”—training that quite seriously required a willingness to die—but the imagining itself was rather enjoyable.
However, after indulging in the fantasy for a time, Shin casually discarded it.
If Shin Longdagger had been an ordinary boy, even as a member of the nobility, he might have savored that appealing fantasy a little longer.
But he was Shin Longdagger, and it was hard to call him ordinary.
In short, Erika Solntsalri was not in those other countries; for that reason alone, he cast aside the sparkling, brilliant fantasy.
＊
“I might actually die, huh.”
Carrying his weapon, Shin walked home along a side street instead of the main thoroughfare, surprised by the words that had suddenly escaped his own lips.
Had he only just now realized it?
That his master was, well, a bit much.
Shin was astonished at himself for only noticing now.
It had been a little over one year since he became an adventurer.
His master was attentive, her skills were impeccable, and Shin himself was aware that he had become unrecognizably stronger in that year compared to before he became her disciple.
But his master, unfortunately, lacked any sort of restraint in certain, yet critical, areas.
Shin was an eccentric noble son who became an adventurer because he wanted to, but otherwise, he was just a naive child, so at first, he had thought that was just how adventurers were.
However, around the time his near-death experiences reached double digits, he finally understood—ah, so my master is like that.
That sudden understanding was what led to the earlier mutter.
For a moment, the thought of changing masters crossed his mind, but he couldn’t think of anyone else who would train his below-average self—someone who could barely use Magicka—up to an average level.
Besides, would any peculiar adventurer even consider taking a noble child as their disciple?
The idea that his master had taken him on because she was like that seemed entirely plausible.
After all, the only other disciple his master, “Kind Barbara,” had taken besides Shin was also a child his age, and also… like that.
Shin, while concluding that it couldn’t be helped that his master was like that, wondered if it was really okay to continue studying under her.
Wouldn’t he end up dead? This question was, from Shin’s perspective, quite serious.
But Shin shook his head as he walked.
No, no, wait. Wait, me.
Isn’t Master imposing such harsh training on me precisely because she needs to forge someone below average up to average?
Otherwise, no matter how you looked at it, Master’s thinking would be far too off—inflicting such cruelty with a smile on a child who had just learned Physical Enhancement? Surely she couldn’t do that without some sound reasoning, Shin arbitrarily decided he understood his master’s thinking and convinced himself.
Shin had a tendency towards intense assumptions in rather strange ways.
The fact that Shin ultimately concluded he had found a good master was, to anyone who knew “Kind Barbara,” practically in the realm of miracles.
It was right after demonstrating such miraculous conviction that Shin’s eyes caught an unfamiliar, strange Magicka.
＊
Jenniferlin Pantile was satisfied that she had the composure to admit she was in a bad situation.
She had been targeted the moment she sent her guards away on an errand after work.
That meant her opponent was methodical and harbored enough resentment to want her dead.
Now, which one could it be? Jenniferlin wondered, looking at the assassin whose face was hidden by a mask.
She was aware that she had been quite “aggressive” since receiving permission from her parents to conduct business freely at the age of twelve.
However, an opponent who would suffer enough damage to send an Assassin likely wasn’t involved in legitimate business.
The opponents she had gone all out against without holding back were mostly involved in borderline illegal or completely illegal businesses, so she had anticipated something like this might happen and taken countermeasures, but…
“Hmm, perhaps I was a little careless?”
Jenniferlin murmured, activating the Magic Tool to recall her guards.
It would likely take several minutes for them to return.
Members of the Pantile House were often targeted, so Jenniferlin had been taught magic and combat for self-defense even before entering the academy.
Therefore, she had thought that even if she dismissed her guards for a bit, if something happened, she could buy enough time for them to return.
No, this opponent is impossible.
Jenniferlin’s eyes accurately assessed the masked man’s strength and reached that conclusion.
The appraisal Skill that occasionally manifested in members of the Pantile House was extremely useful and frustratingly accurate.
The Adventurers Guild’s warehouse district, rarely used normally, was deserted. Even if she screamed or resisted with all her might, she would be killed before anyone arrived.
In the middle of the narrow crossroads of the warehouse district, Jenniferlin’s eyes promised her future with stark accuracy.
Facing certain death, Jenniferlin gave a faint smile, thinking that finding satisfaction in not panicking was a way of dying that suited her tastes.
Perhaps that was why, when she saw a man—masked just like the one in front of her, whose very existence she hadn’t even known—fly spinning over her head from behind her with a short cry of “Gya!”.
She found herself blushing after letting out an involuntary “Kya!”
It felt as if her pretense—that she was perfectly prepared for death, that her calmness and composure were real—had been exposed.
Therefore, towards the boy who had appeared between her and the remaining masked man in front.
Before questions like when he had appeared (her eyes hadn’t caught him), or whether he was friend or foe could surface.
Jenniferlin shot the boy a resentful glare.
＊
Shin spotted a strange Magicka in the warehouse district owned by the Adventurers Guild.
Whether it was a Skill or a constitutional trait, Shin had a knack for seeing Magicka.
It wasn’t that he could see all Magicka, but Shin knew from experience that he couldn’t see Magicka that was merely drifting in space, but he could see Magicka with intent or will, or Magicka freshly emitted from a living being.
The Magicka Shin saw clearly had intent, and based on the simple intuition that it felt like somewhat hard Magicka, Shin judged it to be from a Magic Tool.
He followed the source of the Magicka partly out of curiosity, but also because he sensed a vague desperation within it.
And so, Shin found a girl cornered from the front and back at a deserted crossroads in the warehouse district.
She was a girl with neatly trimmed, short, dark brown hair, dressed in fine clothes.
Her attention seemed entirely focused on the front, and she hadn’t noticed the masked man behind her.
The man behind held a Dagger.
There was no time. After hesitating for only a fraction of a second, Shin decided to follow his master’s teachings.
According to my master, Barbara, I used the Physical Enhancement magic I’d finally become capable of using at the level of a low-Rank adventurer.
I was lucky, I thought.
If my opponent had been a proper adventurer like Master mentioned, an attack using my half-baked Physical Enhancement wouldn’t have worked, even as a surprise attack.
Watching the masked man go flying from my Kick, I was grateful that my opponent was only skilled enough for a surprise attack to succeed.
Without losing the momentum from the Kick, I inserted myself between the girl and the other masked man.
Feeling slightly puzzled as to why the girl was looking at me with accusing eyes, I spoke.
“My master taught me that if a woman and a man are having trouble, beat up the man first. If the villain turns out to be the woman, you can just beat her up later. So forgive me if I’m wrong.”
I said that to the masked man, then glanced at the girl.
“Though, that possibility seems low.”
A well-dressed girl and a masked man arguing in a back alley… if the girl turned out to be the villain in this situation, I’d probably lose faith in humanity.
A voice protested against my common-sense thoughts.
“Hold on a moment, you. Are you trying to say that I—that I, Jenniferlin Pantile—am less of a villain than some petty crook who needs to hide his face with a mask just to lightly dispose of a helpless little girl? That I lose in terms of villainy?”
The girl’s clearly indignant voice made me start.
“My apologies. Judging villainy by appearance was disrespectful to villains.”
Jenniferlin gave a satisfied smile and nod at my straightforward apology, while the masked man responded with a thrust of his Dagger.
Fast. But…
…I can handle it. I quickly swung my Sword towards the single point of Magicka concentrated in the masked man’s gaze.
He wasn’t a master like my teacher, whose gaze you couldn’t even follow.
I could see the masked man’s eyes widen as his Dagger was deflected.
Then, I deflected three more thrusts with my Sword.
“It’s so fast I can’t even see it.”
Jenniferlin said, sounding dumbfounded.
Hearing her words normally told me that she could use Physical Enhancement to some extent.
“Putting aside who the bigger villain is, did I interrupt something important?”
I asked Jenniferlin, whom I was now shielding, keeping my eyes fixed on the masked man.
If she attacks me from behind now, I’ll look like a complete idiot, I thought.
“No, you’re a great help, you.”
The self-proclaimed greater villain girl said.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t look like I could win with my skills. Though I wouldn’t lose in a battle of words. So you saved me, Longdagger? Was that it?”
“You know me?”
“Rather, it’s amazing that you don’t know me, classmate-kun.”
Deflecting five thrusts, I glanced towards the girl for just a moment.
No good. I can’t remember her.
I quickly gave up trying to recall her.
I was confident I could remember every pore on Erika Solntsalri’s face, but I couldn’t recall Jenniferlin’s.
Perhaps sensing from my demeanor that I didn’t remember her, Jenniferlin shrugged.
“Well, fine. Expecting a classmate to remember my face after I’ve been rescued is probably asking too much. What, just because I remember you, I won’t call it unfair. After all, you did save me.”
Catching the sarcastic tone in Jenniferlin’s voice, I thought, She really has a way with words.
“If you can hold out for a few more minutes, my guards should arrive. I’ll be sure to reward you, so may I ask you to do that?”
Just as I replied affirmatively, the masked man, who had been silent until now, let out a roar and slashed wildly with his Dagger in a reckless, wide swing.
Not good.
I resisted the urge to click my tongue.
Jenniferlin Pantile was truly grateful that the boy who had suddenly appeared was not her enemy.
The strength of his Physical Enhancement was leagues above her own; the speed it granted was practically synonymous with invisibility.
The reason she had blurted out the pointless words, “It’s so fast I can’t even see it,” to the boy who effortlessly deflected the Assassin’s three thrusts was because she felt the overwhelming gap between herself and the boy, who seemed to be around her age.
It was because the results of the Appraisal Skill she used reflexively made her involuntarily think, Are you really human?
She was so inwardly relieved when the boy responded with human words.
But what surprised her most was the appraisal result indicating that she should know this boy, Shin Longdagger.
Pantile’s brain went into overdrive.
She considered the fact that this boy before her, whose appraisal results made her doubt his humanity, was her classmate.
Her first thought was that there was no way she would overlook or forget someone with such appraisal results.
It was an Appraisal Skill she now used reflexively on anyone she met for the first time.
If she had seen someone monstrous like this, she would absolutely never forget them.
But at the same time, she did have the memory that there was a person named Shin Longdagger among her classmates.
Jenniferlin knew the names and faces of not just all her classmates, but everyone attending the academy.
This boy before her was definitely Longdagger, and she knew him.
I see, so this is it.
The words passed down in the Pantile family for generations.
Do not drown in your Appraisal Skill. For the first time in her life, Jenniferlin truly understood the meaning behind those words.
Indeed, that’s absolutely right. To drown in a Skill that would cause me to overlook something of this magnitude would disqualify me as a Pantile.
The girl most like a Pantile in the Pantile family—a family that had persistently, cautiously, fervently, fanatically, blindly invested money in people, things, land, knowledge, art, valuable objects, and formerly valueless objects—gave thanks for her own ignorance and her good fortune.
To meet someone at a young age who could dispel her own ignorance was truly a rare find.
If that was the case, then the fact that he didn’t know her was, well, forgivable.
And precisely because of that.
—Because Jenniferlin Pantile had absolute confidence in her own eyes, even more than in her Appraisal Skill.
Even when Shin Longdagger’s Sword shattered after taking the Assassin’s wide swing, she wasn’t worried in the slightest.
Seeing Shin’s form—which her own Physical Enhancement, praised by her family tutor as being Rank 4 adventurer level (“To possess such skill at your age, you are truly a prodigy, desu na”) could only perceive as an afterimage—Jenniferlin thought.
“There really are people in this world worth investing in.”
The Assassin vanished at a speed that made him seem to disappear, and the next moment, he crashed into the warehouse wall and crumpled to the ground.
Her Appraisal Skill told her the Assassin was still alive, meaning he possessed the skill to survive that blow without dying.
She was truly fortunate; not only had she survived, but she had also made the acquaintance of someone extraordinary.
Jenniferlin, aware of her slightly pounding heart, took a step forward to speak but stopped.
Because Shin Longdagger, the one she should be thanking, was slumped over with his hands on the ground, head hanging low.
His Soliloquy reached her ears.
“I did it now… I broke it. Money, more money down the drain… No, more importantly, if Master finds out, what kind of ‘kindness’ will spring forth…”
Jenniferlin gave a wry smile at the content of his Soliloquy.
Does this guy even understand who he’s put in his debt?
“Normally, I should start by thanking you, but I’ll dare to say this instead. Are you an idiot? Or are you underestimating me? Do you understand that you’ve put me, Jenniferlin Pantile—called the Pantile of the century, the most Pantile-like Pantile—in your debt?”
Even as Jenniferlin said this, she struggled to hide her inner surprise at Shin’s transformation.
The boy before her seemed like a different person from moments ago; the results of her Appraisal Skill were utterly mediocre—or rather, beyond ‘mediocre,’ they revealed nothing at all.
He really is a mysterious man.
As Jenniferlin thought this, the boy stood up, muttering something incomprehensible to her about “kindness that might really get him killed by his master.”
“Jenniferlin Pantile, was it? Sorry, apparently we’re classmates, but I don’t remember. By the way, as a member of a noble house, I do at least know the Pantile name, okay? This isn’t some noble-like, roundabout insult or anything, you know?”
“Rest assured. Anyone who has exchanged words with you, even upon first meeting, would understand that such a high-level technique as a noble-like insult would likely be impossible for you.”
She felt a strange sense of amusement seeing Shin Longdagger’s eyes widen at her words.
“You really have a way with words.”
“Didn’t I tell you? In a battle of words, I don’t lose.”
She felt a sense of favor towards this abnormal boy cloaked in mediocrity, whose attitude didn’t change even after learning she was a Pantile.
“No matter what broke, consider it my thanks for saving my life. I shall buy you a replacement. If it’s something that has a price, leave it to me.”
Jenniferlin Pantile pondered just what kind of Sword she should buy for him.
A Sword crafted by a renowned artisan? No, perhaps I should just acquire the artisan themselves for him? He’s certain to grow stronger and stronger from here on out. I’ll have them craft exclusive weapons and armor tailored to his development.
The thought was rather amusing.
Jenniferlin felt she understood why so many of her ancestors had become patrons of poets and artists. Investing in people… this was enjoyable.
But Shin’s response to Jenniferlin defied her expectations.
“I don’t need that kind of reward.”
As Shin sheathed his Sword, broken in half, his expression truly showed no desire for such a reward. There was no hint of trying to leverage a greater compensation; simply put, he looked ‘bored’.
Jenniferlin found herself quite irritated by that expression.
“Oh? Do you intend to negotiate with a Pantile?”
Even as she thought, That’s likely not his intention, she felt the Pantile blood stir within her.
Assigning the proper price to the proper value is enjoyable, especially when, this time, it concerned her own life.
“But rest assured, Shin Longdagger. This will likely be the simplest negotiation of your life. After all, the one who must assign value is doing so for their own life. And that person is none other than myself, Shin Longdagger. A city? A castle? Or perhaps even a country? A country would, naturally, require some years, but very well. I shall grant it to you.”
The value of one’s own life was, in essence, the same as being asked the extent of one’s own capabilities.
Jenniferlin grew curious as to what value Shin would assign her.
Come now, how will he answer?
“I don’t need any of that. For the reward, what you mentioned at the start is plenty.”
Oops, this is bad, I might actually cry, Jenniferlin thought.
Forget a country, it was less than even a city.
“Ah, no, wait. What was this ‘thing you mentioned at the start’?”
Regaining her composure, she asked Shin.
What was the thing mentioned at the start? Jenniferlin tilted her head inwardly in confusion.
“What do you mean…?”
Jenniferlin grew flustered at Shin’s exasperated tone.
Had she truly overlooked something so important?
“‘I suppose I should thank you first,’ you said, right? That’s what I want.”
And thus, Jenniferlin Pantile burst into such uproarious laughter that she would later blush merely recalling it.
Thoroughly confusing the guards who had rushed over, their faces pale with alarm.
＊
“Allow me to express my gratitude. Thank you, Shin Longdagger. May I call you Shin?”
“Call me whatever you like, Jenniferlin Pantile. But Jenniferlin is quite long; feels like my tongue will get tied. Is Jen fine?”
“Shorten it as much as you please.”
Jenniferlin replied, watching her guards swiftly bind the unconscious Assassins and process them for handover to the Knights Order.
“Today is a fine day. I have gained an acquaintance in you… well, perhaps I already had, given we were classmates, but I have managed to leave an impression on your memory. A fine day indeed.”
“I doubt there’s much value in being acquainted with me. Sorry to disappoint, but my family is an astonishingly Impoverished Viscount Household, and I’m just the worthless second son.”
Jenniferlin shook her head, wondering how someone with such monstrous appraisal results could possibly demean himself to this extent.
That wasn’t the point at all.
“Perhaps if you were a business partner, but no Pantile concerns themselves with the ‘short reach’ of their investments.”
‘Short reach’—an idiom alluding to the scope of one’s influence or the magnitude of their power—but, as expected, it went right over Shin’s head.
Jenniferlin laughed and spoke to Shin, whose face clearly showed his lack of understanding.
“Never mind, my friend. Our Pantile Golden Eyes are drawn more to fascinating tales than profitable ones.”
Shin, still looking uncomprehending even after hearing this, spoke after a few moments of silence, his tone exasperated:
“What a troublesome clan.”
You, who preferred a simple ‘thank you’ when offered the equivalent of a country, are plenty troublesome yourself, Jenniferlin inwardly retorted while nodding in agreement with Shin’s words.
A smile naturally bloomed on her face.
She had risked her life, and in return, gained an acquaintance in Shin Longdagger.
Today was quite the profit.
A fine day that epitomizes the joys of being a Merchant.
Jenniferlin Pantile thought this, completely oblivious to the fact that Shin was looking at her as if thinking, Ah, so she’s one of those types, huh?