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–––Ciel’s viewpoint

Our current request was put up by everyone from the village, or in other words, every villager had put whatever savings they could together to form some sort of reward for it. When monsters damaged the livelihood of villagers in remote places, there were two things they usually did. One was to file a complaint with the governor of the land, which often led to a group of soldiers coming to deal with the monsters. The other option was to put money together and place a request on the adventurer’s guild.

The first option was usually the fastest, as long as the governor had no other things to worry about, but with the increase in monster attacks these days it was harder to deal with every little village that needed help. After all, there is a limit to how many soldiers are available, and the government would always prioritize bigger and more important cities.

Smaller villages like this one had a smaller contribution in taxes, and did not have many people living in them, so they were often ignored. But simply waiting for the monsters to destroy everything was out of the question, so they gathered all the money possible and requested aid from adventurers like us.

From my first look at the village, I could tell how they lived there. The forests near them were green and growing strong, and underground water reserves were abundant so they would never suffer from droughts. But they still lacked the means to really profit from it all. Simply put, they had no way of transporting their produce to sell in bigger cities.

Be it lumber, or animal hides, some form of carriage was always needed, as well as guards to keep them safe. For a poor village like that, maintaining a carriage and horses was almost impossible, so they would need to rely on some form of merchant association. Considering the items they could sell, any such association would provide transportation and guards, but at a rather inflated cost. As a result, the village’s economic situation was at a deadlock.

“Did you try asking for help from the merchant association?”
“We tried, but they said we didn’t produce enough profit to justify the costs, so they decided it wasn’t worth it to help us. Even though we provided them with plenty of wares in the past!”

An old man who called himself the village’s chief told us that when Labrusca asked for details. I felt bad for him, but I thought the merchants were right in their decision. At the end of the day, it was the governor’s duty to guard over the land, while the merchants were simply there to trade. Only a charity would spend resources on a village that showed no direct profit, or if saving them would result in a loss. Merchant associations would never make such bad business decisions.

“Ah…I’m sorry to hear that. And so…where was the werewolf sighted?”
“Oh right…I have that marked in a map somewhere, where did I put it…”

The chief turned around and shuffled around through a locker, while Labrusca heaved a deep sigh. He probably thought he pried a bit too much.

“Here it is, I found it.”

The chief held a map detailing the terrain under the forest. ‘Forest’ was probably a bit too broad of a term for the place, not everything was covered in trees after all. There were paths used both by people and wild animals, places to store felled trees overnight before carrying them back to the village, as well as huts to take breaks in, or workshops. There were many little things like those that served as landmarks, more than someone who lived in the city could even imagine.

“Maybe it’s using the workshop furthest inside the forest as its hideout..?”
“Exactly. Ever since it was seen, everyone became scared of it and never approached the place again, who knows what could happen if it attacked us after all.”

Asking for someone to go double-check was probably asking for too much. We had no choice but to confirm ourselves if there was a werewolf in that place. We decided to stay in the village for the night, then go to the forest first thing the next day, even before the sun really rose into the sky. Most monsters, werewolves included, usually are active during the night, so going to fight them when dawn comes and they are tired is the best option.

The next morning, Labrusca walked ahead with the map he got from the chief in one hand as we ventured into the forest. Vitis and Karin were to my sides, ready to defend me from any surprise attack. Every so often I would search the surroundings with Detector Magic, but I still relied on my other senses since I could not maintain the magic the entire time.

“Are we getting closer?”
“Probably. Everyone pay attention to any small sound you might hear.”

The three of us nodded to Labrusca’s indication. The workshop hut where the werewolf was said to hide was just in front of us.

§　§　§

–––Werewolf’s viewpoint

I’m nothing but a regular monster known as a werewolf. I have no name, my master simply calls me with a “hey” or “you,” or sometimes when my master is in a good mood I’m “puppy.” As I’m a monster, most people would assume my master is the demon king, but that’s not true, my master is a regular human who tied me with a magic contract.

Not every monster can understand words as I do, but not all of them are mindless beasts either. There are some with even more developed understanding than even humans. I’m not that smart myself, but since I’m a werewolf I still have some man-like consciousness. Since my head is shaped like a wolf, speaking words is really hard, but if I take my time and enunciate every syllable carefully I can communicate with humans.

As to why I’m in this forest, it’s to form a bond of friendship with humans. Of course, that’s not something I personally wished for, my very nature makes me see humans as enemies, and as soon as I see one I feel a rush to dig my claws in them, but the contract with my master forbids me from doing that. It’s honestly an annoying situation.

Some time has passed since I willingly showed myself to the inhabitants of this hut. According to my master, it should not take much longer until a group of misfits called adventurers to come here. And well… just as I thought about that, my nose picked up the scent of a couple of humans. It was about time… I exited the hut and hid behind a tree nearby to observe the humans.

There were four of them. One male, three females. I had heard before that humans like to travel in packs, but seeing there’s a single male commanding over three females, I could guess he was quite a strong foe. My job was simply to approach an adventurer with an open mind and hand them a letter from my master, but I still hadn’t figured out how to talk to them. If I randomly showed myself in front of them they would think of me as an enemy, and if I looked distracted with my back to them they would try to attack me as well.

I was starting to lose my mind seeing time tick away, when I saw an ice lance fly towards me, which made me twist my body to evade it.

The tree I was hiding behind burst open with a loud noise. That was a close one, I really wasn’t expecting them to figure out I was hiding there so quickly. They were stronger than I had expected.

“Let’s move as planned!”
“Alright!”
“Understood!”