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After the festival, the countdown for the end of the semester and the graduation of third year students began. Olivia continued struggling with her studies, but thanks to her friends’ help she’s still on track to graduating.

Which means it won’t be too long before we end up leaving Ingralowe. But before that happens there’s something I have to take care of.

There’s still that Cruel Predator in the Valhen Woods. I still go visit it from time to time, offering some of the monsters I hunted in exchange for fruits, but after Olivia graduates I won’t be able to return to this part of the forest. So I’ve come for one last visit to say farewell properly.

“It’s around here, right?”
“Yes, though I don’t see it…”

Ruri is accompanying me, and we made it all the way to the Cruel Predator’s territory, but we don’t see it anywhere. I can’t even sense its particular scent. While it can hunt much better than before as a Man Eater, it still uses that sweet scent to lure prey closer, so it’s really strange that I can’t smell it now.

“I also can’t hear anything like it around here.”
“Maybe it moved to another territory, or went far away to hunt… Or maybe some adventurers took it down.”

Those are all valid options.

Cruel Predators are pretty strong monsters, but they’re not immortal. On top of that, we aren’t too far from Ingralowe, and they prey on humans too, so it’s entirely possible that the guild placed a bounty on it sometime.

“That’d be quite a shame…”
“Yeah…it’s a shame, but there’s nothing we could’ve done. It’s still a wild monster after all.”

Wild monsters like that are hardly adapted to human civilization, so it’s hard for both to coexist. Even more when it’s a monster that preys on humans.

It’s normal for people to hunt dangerous monsters, as it’s for their own safety. There’s nothing to blame about that, and it’s just the way of life. Even if someone killed the Cruel Predator, it’s not something I should hold against them.

And it’s not like the Cruel Predator is wrong for eating humans either. They’re just part of the monster’s diet, and it’ll see them as food unless they somehow interact with it like I did. Though well, I’m also not human.

Anyway, the point is that it’s ridiculous to try forcing human values and morality onto a wild monster.

“Hmmm, well, if that’s what you think then we can leave it at that. So what should we do now? I’d like to check in with the guild if you have nothing more to do.”
“Let’s go then, I also have some materials I’d like to sell.”

After that we returned to Ingralowe without much concern and went to the guild to finish some business.

I sold the monsters I was meaning to feed to the Cruel Predator, as well as the medicine I made as alchemy practice. Most of the monsters are just low level goblins and orcs, and the potions are just basic healing ones, so they didn’t really fetch a high price, but I expected as much.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting, but I finally ranked up.”

I was done first so I waited for her outside, and eventually Ruri came, grinning happily as she showed me her guild card which registered her as an adventurer. The guild cards are engraved with magic, showing the registrant’s name and rank.

Looking at it, I see that Ruri’s rank is…

“Wait, you’re still ranked E?”

Ruri is ranked E, which is even lower than Danny when I first met him. I really thought she’d be at least rank C considering how strong she is.

“Woah, why so judgemental? Trying to get the rank up is just too tedious and annoying.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah. They don’t just measure your hunting skills, but also how well you can camp in the wild or guard someone. I can’t take any requests that take longer than a day to complete, and since Reibana and Seperion still have stuff to work out I can’t get the best rewards. But I kept going and steadily got to this rank.”
“I see, sorry about that, I wasn’t aware. I really thought someone with your skill would climb up much faster.”
“Hmmm, I see. In that case I’ll forgive you.”

She shrugs saying that, I guess she isn’t mad anymore. I honestly believe that Ruri is really strong though. We’ve had practice matches a lot of times already, but I still can’t strike a hit on her. Putting aside that I simply suck, I also can’t rely on my physical strength to brute force the fight, no matter how much stronger than the average person I am.

Her usual behavior might conceal it, but she’s clearly an expert.

“Hm? What’s wrong? Did you just fall for me?”
“No way in hell.”

Yup, it really is hard to imagine from her usual behavior.

“I was just wondering how you trained to use your katana. Did you study under a master of the Urado family?”

Considering they could afford to send their daughter overseas to improve international relations, the Urado family must be quite influential, so it wouldn’t be strange if they also have plenty of skilled swordsmen and instructors at their disposal, and it also made sense if they appointed one of them to train the bodyguard of their daughter.

“Mmm, I guess I did get taught Urado Mori-ryuu by my instructors. Oh yeah, Urado Mori-ryuu is the fighting style taught to the servants of the Urado family. Though I only used it as the foundation, and then I just came up with everything else.”

Being taught that still sounds kinda special, I guess she does have a pretty high rank amongst the servants.

“It’s impressive that you did so much on your own. Did you train because you wanted to become stronger?”
“It just happened, you know? I just moved around by instinct, killing and killing and killing, I don’t even know how many people I killed, but before I realized I was like this.”
“…”
“Umm…you aren’t going to come up with a witty comeback now?”
“Oh, ahh, you’re just joking. I don’t think there’s a way to say a comeback to that though.”
“Hmm, guess it was a bit too dark, tee hee.”

Ruri sticks her tongue out and playfully knocks on her head. It’s not that it was a bit too dark, it just seemed out of character for Ruri.

“I mean, that’s not exactly what people refer to when they talk about their body count.”
“Oh, that? There’s three servants like me, the girl from the dango stall, the girl from that nice restaurant, and the florist’s daughter.”

I try to play it off somehow, and Ruri starts counting with her fingers.

“Ahahahah, that’s the kind of joke I’m more used-”
“…”
“Wait, did you actually mean it?”
“But man, the florist’s daughter… We were really getting into it when my damn instructor walked in on us¹.”

Ruri says with a grumbling voice, but I don’t feel a single bit of sympathy for her. Or rather, I’m actually glad her instructor was there to put an end to her debauchery. Good job, instructor all the way in Reibana. Though was it really a good idea to let out a menace like her into the world?

“Now now, don’t go thinking I’ll chase any skirt I see, alright? I always make sure to steer clear of anyone who’s taken.”
“You better.”

We didn’t have anything more to do at the guild after that, so we just wandered aimlessly through the city for a bit before returning to the dorm.

1. Robinxen: Oh… okay… uh fair play author. I didn’t expect you to play that straight… or not straight in this case…