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Belltina jerked into a straightened posture; she must have realized an answer she didn’t want to know. She probably isn’t certain about it yet, but the possibility must have crossed her mind. The possibility that Ailneige has a patron that can demand things from the Hunter Guild’s top brass.
And while this probably wouldn’t be enough to equate Ailneige to Mistress Fiiyanamia’s daughter, it’s still significant information.

Would the Hunter Guild offer certain accommodations or considerations for individuals that become S-rank?

Since Palra didn’t seem to understand what was going on, Belltina tried to explain, but it seems like she still couldn’t get it.
I suppose from a commoner’s perspective, it might be hard to imagine something higher than a noble.

「Are you convinced now?」
「Y-yeah, somewhat.」

For now, with that topic finally over, Mia, who was waiting behind Ciel, silently came next to us and whispered, 「Lady Ailneige, if I may?」
Palra and Belltina seem to be curious about Mia, and now that I think about it, we completely forgot her introduction. Well, it was difficult to find the right timing to introduce her as well.

I suggested Ciel introduce Mia to the others, and then, as if convinced, Ciel started to speak.

「It’s a bit late, but let me introduce you. This is my attendant Mia.」
「I am Sumiaria. You two must be the friends of milady, Lady Palra and Lady Belltina. Lady Ailneige has spoken much about you.」
「I brought Mia along today since she’ll remain here during my return to Central.」

Finishing everything she had to say, Ciel fell silent, but then Palra seemed to look particularly uncomfortable.
Perhaps noticing this, Mia asked, 「Is there something wrong, Lady Palra?」

「Uhh, umm… I’m not really important enough to be called ‘Lady’…」
「B-Bell isn’t… used to it either…」

Palra is one thing, but Belltina, too? I only know from secondhand information, but it doesn’t sound like Belltina was treated like a proper lady in her past.
Hearing their words, Mia turned her gaze to us, as if asking what to do in this dilemma.

「Since the two are bothered by it, you can be more casual.」
「Affirmative. In that case, will ‘Miss’ be alright?」

She’s still being proper, but the two seem satisfied enough.

「With the introductions out of the way, since we’ve used up some time, let’s look for monsters now.」

With Ciel’s words, the three nodded in response, and Belltina began to lead the way.

◇

After marching for several minutes, Belltina reported sightings of 5 goblins ahead. It seems like they didn’t notice us yet, but if we continue onward, they’ll eventually notice us.

「If we get noticed, how many can you two handle by yourselves?」

Hearing Ciel’s question, the Palra and Belltina made eye contact and answered,「Two at most.」
There was strength and confidence in their eyes, which is telling of how much they worked hard and practiced in secret. After all, even with them attacking from a safe range behind Ciel, they weren’t able to defeat goblins.

Without Ciel, these goblins can approach them easily. And while it may be possible to defeat them from afar, the goblins are going to rush at them.
The fear this brings would be incomparable to when they’re behind the safety of Ciel. It may just be goblins, but we only see them as trivial because we already have plenty of fighting experience and strength cultivated as a result of it.

『No need to hold back today, right?』
『They already know we’re a high-rank hunter, so it shouldn’t be a problem.』
「In that case, I’ll defeat three of them; please try to handle the rest by yourselves.」

Nonetheless, they’re just goblins, so the moment they were visible to Ciel, she operated a magic circle and chopped the heads off three of them. The remaining goblins, as well as Palra and Belltina, were naturally surprised, but eventually the goblins noticed us and headed our way.
Soon after, the two came back to their senses and began preparing for interception.

It will take the running goblins around ten seconds to reach us. However, before that could happen, Belltina finished casting a spell and launched two fireballs.
While I was impressed, they landed directly on the goblin’s faces, stopping their movements.

The next instant, I hear two arrows cutting through the air and piercing through the goblins’ skulls. Receiving the full weight of the arrows, the two goblins fell on their backs and moved no longer.
Even after seeing this, the two didn’t let their guard down and kept their weapons ready, but after several seconds of silence, they finally realized that they won, 「We did it!」 and the two began jumping in joy.

They don’t usually act like this; they must be overjoyed.
In truth, they’ve improved so much compared to before.

Palra has stronger nerves; she can now reliably aim her arrows even when being charged at by enemies. The fact that she’s able to improve with the pressure that they might be in danger if she doesn’t manage to defeat the enemy in one shot is impressive.

It’s not only Palra; Belltina has also improved the precision of her spells. Moreover, I can see that she desperately thought of how she can play to her strengths.
Belltina’s sorcery is, to be honest, practically just for show. If hit by her fireball, the most you’d get is a light scalding. Against monsters, it can only burn the ends of a wolf’s fur at best. However, it’s more than enough as a distraction, and it’s because of this that Palra is able to focus on making clean shots.

It only works for the first time; if the monster ever notices that the spell doesn’t cause much damage, there’s a risk that they’d simply ignore it. However, it doesn’t change how Belltina shortened her cast time; her efforts cannot be underrated. It took her absurdly long to cast a single spell back then; now look at how far she’s gone.
Having weak sorcery also has its advantages, as being able to use fire sorcery when inside a forest can be a real surprise; it’s actually amusing.

Belltina’s growth has been particularly striking, and I believe she’ll eventually be able to reach Viviana’s level when she was still afflicted with the same condition. Her improving faster than Palra, who is well-aligned with her Job, may be partly because they simply had different starting points but also because of her Job’s versatility.

「I didn’t expect you two to defeat them that easily.」
「Yup, we did train hard, after all.」
「We did our best!」

The two happily responded to Ciel’s praise.

「However, it seems like it’ll take some time for you two to be able to deal with three of them.」
「That’s… yeah, that’s right.」
「It went well this time, but what would you have done if they came close?」

―Leaving the reflection session for later―the two did very well this time. I was fine to end things there, but it seems like Ciel would rather strike while iron is hot.
Although Belltina is there, there’s a chance of her being caught by surprise, leading to the monsters instead being able to reach them instead of being stopped earlier. It’s important to consider the plan of action if that ever happens.
Even if Belltina were to make a barrier, its durability would be questionable; most importantly, with Belltina being bad with magic circles, I don’t think she’ll be able to cast it in time.

「I intended to fight in front with my knife today… The truth is, I planned on setting a trap before the start of the right.」
「Palra is a huntsman, after all.」
「Yup. If things started looking bad, I’d run. No, once the monsters approach the trap, I’d run.」
「I think that’s the right idea. And I’m glad to hear that you’ve thought everything through.」

I don’t know how high our chances are of making the first move in perfect condition, but just having Belltina along greatly increases the odds in our favor.
It’s practically all thanks to Belltina that we can use this strategy. In exchange, Palra is in charge of making fatal hits and, in worst cases, going in front to intercept the enemy.
If the two officially form a party, their division of roles isn’t that bad. It’s not as rigid as Ciel and I, but it’s important to have a good division of roles when in a party.

「I now have a rough idea of how much you two can do, so let’s try having Mia in the formation as well.」
「Understood.」

After that, while adding Ailneige to the formation sometimes, we continued our hunter activities.