As the subtitle says, this is a story about the people involved, shortly after Tenma left.
Dozuru's Story
"It's already been a week since Tenma left... Time sure flies."
They'd had long-term guests before, but never before had a child — one who hadn't even come of age — stayed for an extended period.
That day, two years ago, Tenma had wandered into this inn... What was it he was here for again?
Well, whatever. The point was, he'd paid several months' worth of lodging fees all at once upfront, so at first, the regulars had spread rumors that he was some great noble's illegitimate child.
In reality, he'd been hunting Monsters at a rate that was almost unbelievable and paying with a portion of the bounty.
Because of that, shady adventurers and lazy adventurers who tried to exploit Tenma as a cash cow ended up getting what was coming to them... Well, thanks to that, the town's security had improved considerably.
Still, he was a real oddball. For a kid, his combat ability as an adventurer was first-class and then some, and on top of that, his magic skills were top-notch too... It gave me the creeps just thinking about what it would've been like if he'd actually been a troublemaker. Fortunately, as long as you didn't provoke him, he was a decent guy, so that was fine... Come to think of it, there was even a rumor going around that more than fifty people had been forced to retire after tangling with Tenma.
"Hey, you~ Are you done with the prep work?"
"Almost there!"
Oh no, oh no — I'd been lost in thought and my hands had stopped moving. The Duke's envoy was supposed to come today, so I needed to be more on my game than usual.
After that, the sweets made at the Manpokutei spread far and wide thanks to Duke Sanga, becoming known not just in Gunjou City but all the way in the Royal Capital, drawing noble customers from far and wide — but Dozuru placed limits on how many sweets could be sold, refusing to let the nobles buy up everything in bulk. This created a sense of rarity, and before long, the Manpokutei's sweets became a brand unto themselves.
The brand name was "Tenma-brand." When Tenma caught wind of this, he was mortified — vowing that one day he'd go and complain about it in person.
End of Dozuru's Story
Guild Story
"Deputy Guild Master, it's terrible! The number of Monsters slain by adventurers this week has dropped about thirty percent compared to last week."
"Calm down! That's to be expected. Tenma isn't here anymore starting this week."
The flustered staff member said "Oh, right!" and returned to their post.
Under normal circumstances, it would be strange, even abnormal, for a single boy to be responsible for nearly thirty percent of all Monster subjugations. But once my staff hear it was Tenma who did it, they accept it unconditionally—it seems their sense of proportion has been completely numbed.
"This might not be good."
If the staff's sense is numbed,
General
adventurers might be unconsciously pushed into unreasonable subjugation quotas... I should consult the Guild Master.
"Guild Master, excuse me."
I knocked on the Guild Master's door, but... there was no answer. Reluctantly, I opened the door on my own.
"That man... is slacking off again?!"
The room was empty. It was a regular occurrence, but he could at least say something before skipping out... Well, if I actually said something like that, I'd definitely be on thin ice.
As I worked with irritation simmering,
"Guild Master!"
I spotted the Guild Master, who had snuck back in while hiding behind an adventurer.
"My bad, my bad. Just needed a little change of pace."
"What part of you needs a change of pace?!"
As I scolded him, I noticed the Guild Master was holding a bundle that smelled wonderfully sweet.
"What is that?"
"Oh, if you let me off this time, I'll share these with you."
What he pressed into my hand was,
"Pastries from Manpukutei?"
They were sweets from Manpukutei, which had become incredibly popular lately.
"Well, I called in an old favor and managed to get some set aside. Here—this should earn your forgiveness."
Attempting to bribe me with nothing more than cream puffs... Well, at least the thought counts!
"Thank you very much. I'll gladly accept."
So saying,
package and all,
I took it—
"Everyone! Treats from the Guild Master! There aren't enough to go around, but the Guild Master says he'll bring more for anyone who misses out!"
I shouted at the top of my lungs to the staff.
"Hold on! I never agreed to any of...!"
"Isn't that right, Guild Master?"
"No, that's not—"
"Gu-ild. Mas-ter."
"Yes..."
Getting him to agree was all well and good, but I'd completely forgotten to discuss what actually mattered—and I'd pay dearly for it.
Guild Arc — End
Wildcat Princess Arc
"It went that way, Nelly!"
"Got it, Lily! Millie, cover me!"
"Okaaay! Here goes!"
Today, the three of us are out rabbit hunting in the fields near town.
Even though I say "rabbits," I'm talking about a rabbit-type Monster known as the "Horned Rabbit" — they have horns roughly ten centimeters long growing from their heads.
The meat is edible, the horns can be processed into crafts or medicinal herbs, and above all, the fur is extremely popular among women.
The recommended subjugation rank is D or above, and it should have been a job we could handle with ease.
"Lily, something's wrong! There are way too many of them!"
The three of us had already taken down more than thirty of them since a while ago. Normally, Horned Rabbits rarely gather in groups exceeding ten outside of breeding season. Even if several groups had assembled for mating purposes, the complete absence of baby rabbits or pregnant females was deeply unusual.
But Horned Rabbits are weak enough that even ordinary children can hunt them, so we weren't in any real danger. We were just getting tired.
Truthfully, we didn't need to be doing this kind of work. The money from subjugating that bandit gang the other day was still sitting completely untouched. Back then, we'd been relying entirely on Tenma, so we assumed most of the bounty rightfully belonged to him — but he said that wouldn't do and handed us roughly 3 million G. At first he tried to give us half, but that was far too much, and holding that kind of sum scared us, so we settled on that amount instead.
Still, having that money planted a seed of desire in us. Well, when I say desire,
I mean—
we simply want our younger brothers and sisters to attend a decent school.
It doesn't have to be a prestigious academy in the Royal Capital, but any reasonably large city has academies that ordinary people can attend without issue. Of course, that costs money. On top of that, Gunjou City only has small local schools, so if we wanted to send them somewhere proper, we'd have to factor in boarding expenses as well, and the total would become quite substantial. For five of them…
So we work! Searching for prey that's low-risk, pays subjugation rewards, and yields materials that can be turned into money!
"You two, let's collect what we've bagged so far and head back to town."
That was when I made the suggestion. From the bushes, a Horned Rabbit easily a meter tall appeared—
"Peeeeeeeeeeee—"
—letting out a piercing shriek. As if answering that call, an enormous number of Horned Rabbits materialized from every direction — where on earth had they all been hiding? — and surrounded us.
"Whoa! What are these things?!"
"One of them is cute, but this many is terrifying!"
The other two were just as shaken. No matter how small Horned Rabbits are, being encircled by forty-centimeter Monsters is reason enough to be scared… though, until recently, we'd spent a lot of time around people who weren't exactly normal.
"Lily, what do we do?"
"That big one over there — it looks like it's totally relaxed and confident."
At Milly's words, the big Horned Rabbit... let's just call it the Boss. The Boss was staring at us with an infuriatingly smug grin (or at least that's how it looked).
"Fine, if that's how it is, I'm taking down that Boss!"
Pumped up and ready, the three of us launched an attack using our signature teamwork. The result—
"Piiigiiiieeeeee—"
With that death cry, the Boss dropped dead without so much as a fight.
"...What the heck? All that attitude, and it was way too weak."
"Completely all bark and no bite, huh?"
"I guess no matter how big they get, Horned Rabbits are still just Horned Rabbits."
We'd psyched ourselves up so much that the anticlimactic ending caught us completely off guard.
And it seemed the outcome was just as unexpected for the other Horned Rabbits, because—
"Nelly, Milly, the other Horned Rabbits have frozen! Now's our chance!"
With that, she waded into the surrounding Horned Rabbits and tore through them.
"Welcome back, Lynx Princesses."
Totally spent, we finally stumbled into the Guild, where Flute — someone we'd grown close to recently — came to greet us.
"We're back, Flute..."
"Hm? You all look awfully exhausted, don't you?"
Right in front of Flute as she said this, I upended the Magic Bag. This bag was something Tenma had given us before leaving the city, and it had become an absolute treasure we relied on heavily.
"Wh-what is this?! This many of them?!"
Flute let out a startled cry as she watched the Horned Rabbits — already bled out — tumble from the bag one after another.
The people watching from behind commented among themselves.
"Hey, look at that. You really can't hold back when you're with Tenma."
"No, it's not that — it's that you end up running into Monsters way more easily."
"What the heck, that's so envy-inducing!"
Ignoring their chatter, we explained the situation to Flute.
"You're telling the truth? That a massive herd of Horned Rabbits was led by one that huge?"
Flute looked a bit skeptical, so I showed her the boss's carcass.
"Let me go get the Guild Master right away!"
She said that and immediately brought the Guild Master back. The moment he laid eyes on the carcass,
"This here's a King Horned Rabbit. Not many people know about it, but Horned Rabbits do have Kings."
He said that, then picked it up by its hind legs,
"Even as Kings, these guys are pretty pathetic. Most of the time they end up getting eaten by other Monsters or beasts. After all, they're weak but big and tasty."
After finishing his explanation, the Guild Master said he'd leave the rest to us and went back inside.
"Flute, even for Horned Rabbits, culling over a hundred isn't easy."
Even accounting for how unexpected this was for the Guild, I still wanted to at least get a little gripe off my chest.
"I am so sorry! This was entirely our investigation's fault. When they said a Horned Rabbit herd, I was thinking maybe twenty at most."
This time it happened to be Horned Rabbits, so we were fine — but if it had been Orcs or something, we could have easily ended up dead. That's how dire this had been.
"For now, please handle the cash-out and our rewards. With a little bonus on top, of course!"
"Mm... Lily, you're really starting to sound like Tenma, you know that?"
I wasn't sure about that, but either way, we received our reward after having it dyed to the proper color and headed back to the inn.
Recently, we've been staying at the Manpukutei inn. Thanks to the old man's generosity, we get priority on the room Tenma used.
The three of us discussed today's events in the room. We've been having a lot of these discussions lately, and at the end, we always—
"It's Tenma's fault, after all!"
—conclude in unison, like a shared catchphrase.
I later heard that similar mistakes to the ones we'd made had shown up in several other cases at the Guild as well, so they decided on what they called "training"—a series of simple subjugation missions carried out by Guild staff.
End of the Mountain Cat Princess Arc
Gunjou City Knights, Fourth Unit Arc
"There! Don't let your guard down! Your skills are slipping!"
The Commander-in-Chief has been spending all his time with the Fourth Unit lately. On a personal level, I'm happy about the solid training, but as the unit's captain, I find it deeply embarrassing.
"Primera! Snap out of it—two of them are down over there! Clean it up!"
The reason for my embarrassment is the utterly pathetic sight spread out before my eyes.
The majority of my unit is made up of third sons or younger, or third daughters or younger, of noble families. I don't know the exact reason, but lately I've come to think that perhaps someone as inexperienced as me leading equally inexperienced people is simply a perfect match.
That's why I want to build up my strength through the Commander-in-Chief's training and get a little closer to Tenma.
The first time I met him, it was a shock. He looked like a child, yet the aura he carried made him feel like a hardened veteran warrior.
I'm the third daughter of the Duke's house, and I'll almost certainly never be involved in the ducal succession. I technically have succession rights, but with two older brothers and two older sisters, I gave up long ago.
Fortunately, my father doesn't seem very interested in political marriages, and when proposals come from other noble houses, he apparently turns them down by saying, "Primera intends to live as a knight, so let's pretend this conversation never happened..."
I'm getting off track, but being part of the Duke's family meant I had plenty of opportunities from a young age to see various top-tier military officers and adventurers. Yet Tenma... his presence was similar to what those people carried—no, he actually overwhelmed them, if anything.
There was a time when I got into a dispute with my subordinates, and Tenma's killing intent hit me so hard I couldn't even move.
After that, I had several opportunities to meet him, and each time, I forgot that he was younger than me, and my feelings of respect only grew stronger.
The other captains often joke that when they see me using polite language with Tenma, they can't tell which of us is the older noble.
I thought it was only natural. After all, this was the man who had single-handedly taken on all the nobles' hired fighters and won without a scratch—and even when we all ganged up on him, we couldn't come close to matching him.
While I was lost in those thoughts, every noble-born member of my company had already collapsed face-down on the ground.
"All right, that's enough for today! Rest up properly and don't carry any fatigue into tomorrow!"
The supreme commander said that and left the training grounds.
"Is everyone all right?"
Those words were met with a series of dopey-sounding replies of "We're fine~."
The members of the Fourth Company had often been the butt of jokes from the other companies, but lately, more and more people seemed to be reconsidering their opinion after seeing us go through such grueling training—even stepping up to offer us advice.
Thinking about it, the fact that the knights' top brass had been thoroughly crushed by Tenma had probably served as a bitter but effective tonic. My own company had its share of proud, arrogant types straight out of the noble playbook, but I hadn't been seeing much of that behavior lately.
If things kept up like this, I could see the Fourth Company stopping being just a dead-weight unit and becoming a proper knight company before too long... though I just hoped we wouldn't lose anyone before that day came.
Still watching my subordinates sprawled across the ground, that was the wish I held.
End of the Fourth Company of the Gunjou City Knights Arc