Chapter 36 - The Rules of Engagement (1/2)

Chapter 36, The Rules of Engagement

May 10, 2020

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Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

There was a residence complex ruin near Kugamayama city that could be reached by vehicle. That area was called Higaraka Residence Ruin.

The Hunters from the city already regarded it as an exhausted ruin since most, if not all, worthwhile relics from that place were already brought out due to the years of expeditions. But for the Hunters who already had vehicles, it was still more profitable to search for relics in this ruin.

Elena and Sara brought Katsuya and his friends to this place. But it was not for searching relics, the request that Elena and Sara accepted from Drankam was to train Katsuya and his friends.

Elena turned at Katsuya and said with a serious face.

“We’ll have you guys look for relics in the Higaraka Residence Ruin. This is ruin exploration training and we’re here as your instructors. With that being said, I’m sure you guys are not complete amateurs, so we’re not going to instruct you in each and every step of the way. You’ll make your own decision and move accordingly.”

Sara was smiling as usual when she said.

“The monsters roaming this area shouldn’t be that strong, but in the end, it’s just based on the latest information. So keep in mind that the possibility of encountering a strong monster is not zero. We’ll still be watching over you from a distance and we’ll immediately come to help if we judge that the situation is too hard for you to handle. And don’t worry, I don’t think monsters in this area can give us any trouble.”

“But try to decide and move a.s.suming that we’re not around. Once you’re done exploring the ruin, we’ll give you our evaluation. Normally, we’ll also evaluate the time when you decide to end the exploration and go back home. But for this time, you have 4 hours at most. So, any question? If not then we’ll start right away.”

Elena looked over Katsuya and his friends, and suddenly, Yumina opened her mouth.

“I know that you are telling us to freely search the ruin, but what exactly should we do?”

Sara answered the question.

“It’s also a part of your training, try to think about that yourself. But well, you can just think that you’re here for a usual ruin exploration.”

“…But, if I’m not mistaken, there’s no more valuable relics in this ruin, right?”

“You can a.s.sume that your training for today is to confirm that. After all, it’s not like you can have training in a ruin with valuable relics since powerful monsters would also roam that area. The request that we took is also to make sure that you guys return back alive, you see.”

Elena then added.

“We know very well that there’s no more valuable relics in this ruin. That’s why, even if you guys can only come back with cheap relics, we won’t give you a bad evaluation. So there’s no need to worry about that. We’ll evaluate your performance based on other factors like how long you spend searching an area before moving on or are you properly watching your surroundings and keeping your guards up etc. So please just continue like how you usually search for relics. Of course, if you can find any valuable relics, it’ll give you a big boost.”

“Alright.”

Yumina nodded and ended her question. Airi was the next one to ask.

“Is there any pa.s.sing grade for today’s training? We might have to change the way we move according to the pa.s.sing grade.”

Elena answered that question.

“Nope, but if I have to say anything, then it would be to get the biggest result from the least amount of work. Basically, we’ll also test whether you can accurately predict how much you can earn from doing something dangerous. It’s important to make the best possible choice in our line of work as Hunters, you know. Originally, it’s as Yumina said, you should start from deciding whether you would search for relics in this place, but since this is only training, so let’s just say that you picked this place because of a certain reason. With that being said, you can also decide to immediately go back home after a brief search. And if you do that, you just need to explain to us why you made that decision and we’ll evaluate you based on your reasoning.”

“I understand, I’ll aim to do an effective exploration rather than just going back home.”

After Yumina and Airi finished asking questions. The last one among the three of them, Katsuya, made a stern face as he asked.

“Uhmm… Who was that boy that I saw coming out from Elena-san and Sara-san’s house?”

Sara and Elena turned and looked at each other. While Yumina looked worried and Airi didn’t make any visible reaction.

Elena then smiled at Katsuya, there was a strong intimidating pressure of a veteran Hunter emitting from her.

“It seems that our explanation was not enough. I meant questions about the training.”

“Uhm, it’s just that it’s really bothering me. So I think it might disrupt my concentration during this training.”

Katsuya still stood with his question though he was under pressure by Elena’s gaze. So, Sara replied back with a smile.

“In that case, you should experience it yourself how dangerous it is to not maintain your focus. This might also double as training to keep your mind clear of anything unnecessary during dangerous work.”

“If there’s no more question, then let’s start the training.”

As Elena’s smile marked that she would not take any refusal, Katsuya and his friends scrambled into the ruin in a panic.

Sara then turned her bitter smile that she just directed to Katsuya to Elena.

“I think it’s fine if we tell them. We can just keep the fact that we know him as secret and just say that he’s someone who bought your unused information gathering device.”

“What if he has a lot of questions cropping out from that statement and starts probing further instead? I don’t want to deal with that, you know. He might even ask questions that we need to answer very carefully. That’s why it is fine like this. Since we promised Akira not to say or ask anything unnecessary, we also have to be careful not to reveal anything that might make other people probe about him.”

“…Now that you mention it, that makes sense. Guess I need to be more careful too.”

Sara’s face stiffened a bit as she remembered that after she asked Elena and s.h.i.+zuka just a bit about Akira, she was able to make a pretty detailed guess about Akira.

***

As Katsuya and his friends continued the training, they were able to find some relics albeit just cheap ones. They were also able to successfully take out the monsters that they encountered. But because the exploration went smooth, it gave enough room for Katsuya to start thinking about Akira again.

“Say, about that boy who came out from Elena-san and Sara-san’s house… He’s the same Hunter that we met back then, right?”

“Is that so?”

“I don’t really remember.”

Yumina and Airi did not really remember Akira. After all, to them, he was just a fellow Hunter who coincidentally was in the same truck as them during one of their patrol jobs. And it was not like he left any memorable impression on either of them.

But for Katsuya, Akira left a deep negative impression on him. Although he was just another young Hunter who was more or less of the same age as Katsuya, a Hunter who was looking down on other young Hunters recognized his skill. And when Katsuya did not have any other choice but to sit quietly on the truck to head back home after s.h.i.+karabe challenged him, Akira, on the other hand, headed to the battlefield alone. On top of it, s.h.i.+karabe seemed to recognize Akira’s guts when he saw that. All of these things were burned into Katsuya’s memory and left a deep impression inside him.

The image of Akira from those memories somehow stuck in the back of his mind. Then he saw Akira coming out from the house of the Hunters that he looked up to. So he just could not shake it off from his brain.

Seeing how Katsuya was acting, Yumina got annoyed.

“Katsuya. I don’t know exactly why you’re so bothered about that boy, but just like Sara-san said, you need to straighten up. It’s dangerous to lose your vigilance here, you know. Or do you also want to make Sara-san and Elena-san think that they’re only here to protect us?”

Airi also joined as she gave a strict warning.

“If you keep troubling Sara-san and Elena-san, they might really think like that. So get a better hold of yourself.”

Yumina and Airi thought that their warnings were just a little bit harsher than usual. But they did not expect Katsuya to suddenly pick himself up and make a solemn expression.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I need to get a better grip on myself.”

If they made Elena and Sara take care of them, it would feel like they made Elena and Sara clean up their mess. It was something that Katsuya wanted to avoid no matter what. Because of that, Katsuya immediately renewed his resolve.

Airi and Yumina saw Katsuya’s serious expression, he looked so reliable and cool. But on the other hand, thinking of the reason why Katsuya changed his att.i.tude so quickly, Airi and Yumina felt a bit of displeasure.

***

Elena and Sara were watching how Katsuya and the other kids were moving around as they were looking for relics. They told Katsuya and his friends to stay within their detection range, while at the same time, they kept their guards up in case a monster that the kids could not handle appeared.

“Elena. When we took this request, you said that this might be their first step for recruiting us into Drankam, right?”

“Yeah. But that might be only me reading too much into it. After all, Drankam seems to be looking for Hunters to teach their young Hunters. That also might be the reason why they sent us some requests to work together with Katsuya and his friends lately.”

“Recruiting us, huh…? Although we always refused their offer until now, what are we going to do from now on?”

“It doesn’t seem that they would let us go easily once we join them. If they rush us for a decision, we’ll refuse them again. I think Drankam also knows this well, that’s why they won’t rush us for a decision. So let’s take our time to properly think about it before making any decision. Sara, what do you think? If you think that it might be a good decision, I’ll try to be more optimistic.”

“To be honest, I’m not really sure yet. But are you okay with that?”

“There are pros and cons if we accept their invitation, after all. If we join Drankam, there’s no mistaking it that we’ll have an easier life. We will be able to get better equipment and all kinds of help from them. I’m sure they would help us if we ever get into a similar situation like back then when we couldn’t even refill your nanomachine reserve.”

Sara smiled bitterly and made a stern face as she said.

“When you say it like that, it does sound pretty enticing…”

“But if we join them, we’ll lose some amount of our current freedom. We’ll have to do the job a.s.signed to us even if we don’t want to do it, and not to mention that there’ll be a lot of other problematic stuff we need to take care in order to get along with the other members.”

Sara’s nanomachine reserve was basically her lifeline, thus she usually welcomed any money that she could get as an insurance in case anything bad happened. But there was also a chance for Drankam to basically hold her life hostage because of that. There was also a very good chance that they would slip a clause in their contract that would limit Sara and Elena freedom in exchange for gang’s support.

Whether it was for the better or for the worse, Sara and Elena were already used to living freely as a team of two Hunters. Thus it would greatly affect them if they lose their freedom.

Although she knew that it was important for her to stay alive, Sara also did not want to cause trouble for her best friend or make her worry. Looking at Sara who was at loss on what to do, Elena firmly but gently smiled at her.

“I’m sorry that it seems like I’m pus.h.i.+ng the decision to you, but I think that you’re the one who will be affected the most. That’s why I want you to decide first. But don’t worry, you can take as much time as you need. And no matter what decision you come up with, I won’t complain.”

“Thank you, Elena. I’ll think about it carefully.”

Sara smiled back at Elena as she was delighted to hear that her best friend was genuinely worried about her.

***

There was not much time left until they reached the time limit that Elena had set. And during this time, Katsuya and his friends kept looking for relics seriously. Although they were still a bit amateurish, they tried their hardest to show their promising potential to Elena and Sara, who were watching over them from afar.

And it was worth it, Katsuya and his friends were able to gather a good amount of relics from Higaraka Residence Ruin. But Katsuya was not satisfied with the result. Thus he could not help but grumble as he found a relic when he was searching a certain abandoned house.

“There is really nothing but cheap relics here.”

“Well, that can’t be helped. Elena-san and Sara-san did say that there’s no valuable relic left in this ruin anymore.”

“Ah, the time limit is near, I think it’s fine if we just finish here. So how about we stop looking for relics now? Katsuya, what do you think?”

“…Say, how much money do you think we can get from all the relics that we gathered today?”

“Only a small number of them have any technological value as the old world relics. So I’m sure it won’t fetch us a good amount of money.”

After hearing that realistic but expected answer from Airi, Katsuya let out a sigh and seemed pretty disappointed.

Although he did get motivated by Airi and Yumina’s words from before, deep in his heart, he also hoped for a better result.

Despite the fact that they gathered quite a lot of relics considering that they did it all by themselves, their result was still not satisfactory. And if they used Elena and Sara’s abilities as a standard, their results were not worth all the hard work. Not to mention that Elena and Sara were contracted to keep Katsuya and his friends alive, so in short, they were there as paid bodyguards. Thus if the reward that Drankam needed to pay to Elena and Sara was included, there was no mistaking it that they would end up in the red.

Looking at it pessimistically, it would seem like they made Elena and Sara watch over them using Drankam’s money. Although Katsuya might not be aware of it himself, those thoughts had already taken roots deep in his mind, that was why he was unconsciously hoping for results enough to cover for that. And now that the time limit was closing in and he still had not gotten the desired result, he started to panic.

***

Suddenly, Elena’s face turned grim when she was monitoring the area. It was because her information gathering device detected a big sized monster not too far away from Katsuya and his friends. The signal appeared from a place that was not directly visible from Katsuya’s location.

Elena adjusted her detection device to gather detailed information from that signal and tried to make a guess from the shape of the image that she got. But her face turned grimmer after she got a good guess of what kind of monster it was.

“Greedy Crocodile… So they’re also here, huh?”

Greedy Crocodile was a type of monster that looked like a crocodile. It had two tails and strong metallic scales, and its big and strong jaws could easily tear through mechanical monsters. Its diet was clearly reflected in its appearance. All the mechanical monsters that it ate caused it to grow guns on its back and all the tanks that it ate caused tank cannons to grow from its body, even some of them had tank wheels under their bellies.

Elena could confirm the size and the shape of the greedy crocodile and guess its firepower from the data that she got from her information gathering device. Fortunately, this monster had no guns growing out of its body. But even so, it still had its powerful jaw that could easily rip metals, powerful hard scales, and a strong vitality like the other biological monsters.

“Sara. I think it’s not heading this way, but just to be safe, be sure to prepare yourself if it does. I don’t think Katsuya and his friends can handle it.”

“In that case, should we go there and kill it?”

“Let’s just leave it alone so long as it doesn’t come here. It seems that it had not noticed Katsuya’s group too, so it should be fine if we leave it be.”

“Well, there’s no need to kill it if it doesn’t attack us, huh?”

And so they decided to just keep their eyes on the crocodile for the time being.

Katsuya and his friends were about to end their relic search and go back to Elena and Sara. He suddenly noticed a faint signal from his information-gathering device. It was so faint that normal people would not notice, but Katsuya was able to notice that due to his rare talent as a Hunter.

Because of that, Katsuya put up his guard and turned towards that direction. What he could see on the far end of his view was a greedy crocodile creeping out slowly from behind wreckage.

Katsuya then thought.

[That’s a greedy crocodile… The relics that we gathered today are not great. But if I kill that monster, then it might leave a good achievement for today’s training as a monster subjugation rather than a relic search. If I remember it right, the reward from killing a greedy crocodile should be pretty high. It’s at least higher compared to all the relics that I’ve gathered today. And if I defeat that monster… Maybe Elena-san and Sara-san will recognize my skills, right?]

He was in a position where he had the first strike against a monster that would give him a noticeable achievement if he could kill it. Not to mention that in reality, the Hunter job was mostly about hunting monsters rather than hunting relics. Plus it was the perfect chance to overturn their result. These reasons pushed Katsuya to make his decision.

Katsuya asked Yumina and Airi while making a serious face.

“Yumina, Airi. Do you think we can kill that monster?”

“…Greedy crocodile, huh? It’s still far away from us and it doesn’t seem to have noticed us yet. It doesn’t seem that it has any guns growing on its body either. I think we have a good chance of winning against it if we ambush it…”

“We might be able to focus on its head and kill it before it notices us.”

As Katsuya looked seriously at Yumina and Airi, their answer encouraged Katsuya’s decision to attack that monster. Yumina said that they had a good chance against it and Airi came up with a strategy to kill it.

After hearing their answers, Katsuya judged that they had enough of a winning chance.

“In that case, I want to kill that monster. Our relic search did not go so well. Although it is not relic hunting, I want to at least leave this place with an achievement. Tell me if you’re against it.”