Chapter 44: Hunt

Allen stayed the night at the village mayor’s house.

The activities start at the 6 o’clock bell. He has no luggage and is ready to go. He has a wooden sword at his waist, as usual.

I leave the village mayor’s house with the Lord, the Knight Commander, and the Vice-Commander. The Lord’s daughter Cecile and the butler stayed at the village mayor’s house. The butler was called Sebas.

(The square has become a camp, hasn’t it?)

In the square in the village, the Knights had set up an outdoor tent. They are the Knights who intend to hunt Boars if the hunters in the village fail. There were about 20 Knights camped outside because there was no place to stay in the house.

The Knights were ready to go. They seem to leave their horses behind and go on foot. They are walking behind the Lords.

(Oh, it’s Dogora.)

Dogora is staring at the Knights with sparkling eyes from some distance away. There are twice as many Knights here this time as there were when they came to see Kurena. Dogora looked at the Knights’ ranks with admiration.

We came to the gate of the village. At the gate, there is a group of commoners and serfs. There are forty of them waiting for their Lord. All the commoners and serfs who went hunting last year have joined again this year.

“Oh! You’re wearing armor!”

There are about half of them wearing armor. Seeing this, the Knight Commander shouted.

“Yes, its leather armor is made from Boar leather. We couldn’t get enough for all of them, but those with the heavy responsibility are given priority to wear it.”

Allen answers as the guide. 

“What is the heavy responsibility?” the Lord asked.

“I’ll explain it to you during the Boar hunt.” Allen replied.

“Is this why the village mayor requested an excuse?”

　The Lord murmured as if remembering. We hunted eighteen Great Boars last year.

The Lord listened to the request, partly because we had succeeded in hunting 18, exceeding his target of 15. However the village mayor only paid 10 to the Lord. The remaining 8 were used to make armour.

“Yes, we used the money to prepare for our goal of killing 20 this year.”

“Oh.”

“That’s what my father Rodan said.”

He added that Rodan had been thinking about it.

This time, Allen’s goal is to make Rodan’s achievements all over the place and turn the family into commoners. Of course, whatever Allen comes up with will be Rodan’s idea. Besides, it would be more credible to say that Rodan came up with the idea rather than Allen.

Since everyone had arrived, Rodan tells the Knight Commander that they are going to continue on to the Boar hunting grounds.

The serfs and commoners start moving forward, and the Knights follow behind them on foot.

I got on the horse with the Knight Commander because he told me to. The Lord came to the village in a carriage, but today he was riding a horse to the hunting grounds.

After three hours of walking, we arrived at the hunting ground around mid-day. It was the usual hunting ground.

There is an unfamiliar wooden platform, about two meters high, which can accommodate about ten people.

“Uh? What is this?”

“This was made for the Lord’s viewing pleasure. You can watch the Boar hunting from here.”

The Lord was well prepared for the observation. He climbed up from the rear stairs. A chair was made at the top, and the Lord sat on it. Allen and the Knight Commander also went up to the top. The Vice-Commander began to surround the high ground with the Knights. This is to protect the Lord.

The Lord stares deep into the forest where only trees can still be seen. His eyes were as ruthless as a hawk’s.

(When I think about it again, it’s amazing how prepared the Lord was to come all the way to the forest where magical beasts come out. Is that the extent of the Royal Order?)

(The Boar hunt has become quite a story, huh.)

“What are you going to do now?”

The Knight Commander asked me. I guess I should talk to the Knight Commander instead of explaining to the Lord directly.

“First, three people will go into the forest and bring one Great Boar to this square.” I started explaining to them.

“Hmm…”

“Then we’ll surround it and take it down. The three baits are going now.”

The three of them disappear into the woods in the back with Pekeji in the lead

“You’re going to use the shield to stop the Boar?”

“Yes sir.”

The armor was made from the leather, bone and tusks of eight Great Boars.

The Great Boar is as big as a hippopotamus. From the amount of materials we had, we could have made a few more pieces of equipment, but they were lost in the cost of making them.

There was no blacksmith in the village who could make this much equipment, so we brought one from a neighboring village

The Knight Commander’s attention was drawn to the large leather shield, which was two meters long.

“Yes, we will use those two shields to stop the Boars from raging further.”

“I see.”

It was the Knight Commander who pondered as he looked at the serfs and commoners hunting together. He seems to have a general idea of what he’s looking for.

Half an hour has passed since Pekeji disappeared into the depths of the forest. Pekeji and the other three members of the fishing team were wearing leather breastplates. It was a lightweight piece of equipment that covered only the chest, the most critical part of the body.

About an hour passed. They still haven’t come back.

(Well, they are taking quite a while this time.)

Pekeji told me that there were hundreds of Boars in the forest. The Boars come from the foothills of the White Dragon Mountains.

“And by the way, how is the Master Swordsman Kurena doing?”

The Knight Commander asked as the silence continued.

“Yes, she is very well.”

“She is a bundle of energy.”

“Well, tell her that I’ll be sending a teacher to teach her in the spring of the next three years.”

“Yes, I will.”

(That’s the year after I turned eleven, right? The following year is the school’s exam, so I have one year to study.)

“Hmm? Are you okay?”

“Can’t you send him a little earlier?”

The Lord is listening to the conversation and interrupts. He starts talking about how he will become a laughing stock in the capital if he fails the Royal Order.

“I’ll tell the steward to send it to you two years from now, in early spring.” The Knight Commander replied.

Apparently, the Lord was quite anxious. The study period will be extended to two years. A year and a half from now, Kurena will begin studying for her exams. As I was imagining Kurena wearing armor like a Swordsman, I heard a noise from deep in the woods.

“It’s coming.”

“Hmm.”

From the back of the plaza, I hear a sound like the earth is shaking.

“Gummo-ooh-ooh-ooh!” Pekeji came out from the woods.

As soon as he came out, Rodan gave him a shout of encouragement. They all responded to his voice.

Pekeji comes out of the woods. Not long after, a Great Boar came rushing through the forest. Pekeji is the only one who seems to be able to see it. It was following right behind Pekeji. It was Pekeji’s baiting technique. He’s just barely keeping his distance.

Pekeji runs through the space between the two large shields.

The four of them, including Gerda, don’t have spears, so they split into two groups and position themselves behind the two leather shields. It takes all their strength not to be blown away by Boar.

The Boar crashes into the shields. The Boar’s thrust stops as it is caught in the middle by the large shields. Their horns stretch the shield, but do not tear it.

“This is how we stop their charge. That large shield is made of double layers of skin from the Boar’s back, which is the hardest part of the Great Boar’s outer skin. It takes two men to hold one of those shields down.”

“I see.”

“Now that we have stopped the charge, we’ll surround the Boar further to prevent it from getting out of control.”

Allen went on to give a detailed explanation. 

“We need to remove the large shield so that we can aim at the Boar’s vital point which is its neck. That will be done using two-meter long spears.”

“The Encircling team next to the large shield presses the Boar around and attacks it with the spear.” Allen further added.

With Gerda’s command, the participants with 4-meter long spears who were waiting behind stepped forward. As the number of participants increased, they started attacking not only the face but also the back with their long spears.

“We’re letting those who haven’t participated for a long time to attack with longer spears of 4m length from behind.” Allen said.

“I see, the armor is given to those who have shields and short spears, heavy responsibility.”

The Knight Commander seemed to understand.

“That’s right. We’ve trained the long spearmen so that they don’t accidentally attack the people in front of them, but we’ve also covered their back, neck and the other vital areas with leather armor just in case.”

“The Boar’s outer skin is very hard. They aim for the neck when it’s stuck like that. Oh! It appears that they have hit the vital point.”

“Ohhh!” The Lord exclaimed.

Fresh blood comes out from the Boar’s neck.

“My Lord.”

“What is it? Zenov.”

“They are not Knights but they are true warriors who hunt the Boar.”

“It’s the same with Knights, each one plays a role. Spearmen, Archers, Scouts. If any one of them is missing, the unit loses its strength.” The Knight Commander added.

He feels that this is similar to Boar hunting. He was impressed with the way each of them understood their roles and acted. He murmurs over and over again, “Brilliant.”

The Boar, spewing fresh blood, slowly fell.

“It was indeed a great battle. It looks like you’ll have no problem taking down twenty of them.”

The Lord watched as the Boar fell.

He seemed to be convinced that the Boar hunt could be accomplished by the villagers alone. The Lord also nodded repeatedly as he watched the Boar hunt.

“Yes, my Lord, you’re right. I see the two who went into the woods have come back. Why are they running as fast as they can like that?”

Of the three, only Pekeji had returned, but the other two had just jumped out of the woods.

The hunt should have been over by now, but they came running out of the woods as fast as they could, just like Pekeji.

And the answer to the Knight Commander’s question also came out of the woods.

“GUMOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

“GUMOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

Two more Great Boars appeared.

The two Great Boars were bloodthirsty as they closed in on the two members of the fishing team.