Chapter 238 – Penance.

Igor, the hunter, frowned as he watched the spores sway in the damp, chilly wind of Ragado. It was because of the prolonged hunting and having an unscheduled lunch on the outskirts of the Fungus Forest.

“You’re annoying.”

As he watched his surroundings, holding back his nervousness at the rare prey, a man approached him and cautiously opened his mouth.

“Captain, why don’t we withdraw soon?”
“We’ve driven almost all of our prey, so let’s run away?”

When Igor couldn’t hide his nervous expression, he continued talking while looking at him.

“It’s not good to leave the town empty for too long.”
“Who doesn’t know that and thinks it’s like this?”
“But didn’t the captain hear it too? That sound.”

He immediately frowned and drew a dagger from his waistband and aimed it at his neck. The dagger, forged from the claw jaws of the Karambisque, was so sharp that Igor clicked his tongue as he could see blood flowing even though it had merely grazed his neck.

“Huh!?”

I didn’t like the way he was frightened by the mere threat.

“What is our role?”
“Sah, hunting game and selling it.”
“Yes, but why do you keep interfering with the hunt?”

They were hunters.

“If we don’t catch the game this time, our village may starve to death. But let’s go back empty-handed?”

And they had a duty to support the village. Of course, sharing the game they brought with them could not feed all the villagers. However, if you sold the game to another village in Lagado, you could easily get several months’ worth of food. And it was something that had been passed down from generation to generation in their village from long ago.

“If you say one more weak sound, I’ll rip you apart before I rip open the prey. Then, even if we don’t catch the prey, our village won’t starve.”

At least it would be a little more helpful if you find wooden rafts, weapons, and ropes that the game seems to have used and sell them, but it was nothing compared to the value of the real game. As Igor glared at him as he turned his face white, his other companions came to him.

“Come on, calm down, Captain. That’s enough.”
“That’s right. It’s not like he does it once or twice.”

Seeing his colleagues approaching him and patting him on the shoulder or lightly holding his hand holding the dagger to stop him, he lowered his hand reluctantly.

“Whoa, it would be a waste of time to do this when it’s not enough to focus on hunting.”
“Okay, well thought out.”

The occasional occurrence of this was something he had become accustomed to while leading the hunters. Igor was here as their captain in place of his decrepit father, who originally led the hunters. Because of this, he has been hunting with advice since he was younger than other hunters. As he gained experience like that, he was able to continue to be recognized as their captain with his own know-how.

“I don’t know where my father saw that person and said he was useful.”

But Igor still couldn’t fully understand his father. Being timid and sensitive with unnecessary worries, he was always a thorn in Igor’s eyes. He would have picked the boat long ago had it not been for his father’s words that he was in charge of reconnaissance and that the role of announcing the arrival of game every time and that he was also a useful talent.

“Let’s not do that too much. But he’s a useful guy.”

He listened to a fellow hunter about the same age as his father and nodded his head. He was not without complaint, but it was undeniably true that their advice had helped him.

“More than that, our captain.
“…You don’t have to worry about that.”
“You don’t have to mind! Your dad got married before that age too.”

Igor spoke roughly, thinking it was just the beginning, but it was an interesting topic for them to talk about, so he didn’t miss it and asked what to say.

“How is our daughter? Her personality is a bit condescending, but her mother is just like her and she’s smart.”
“Hey, is there any way to catch someone? It’s a waste of the captain.”
“What?! What about our daughter!”

Looking at his noisy comrades, Igor sighed. Because sometimes they were overly tense. I had to keep my mind straight. However, as he was also the body that had to give birth to an heir, he could not completely escape from their chatter.

“Come to think of it. Didn’t you say that one of the prey that came in this time was a woman?”
“Right! You did?”
“Huh? Uh. I did.”

When the first person who confirmed that the prey was coming nodded, they made headlines with their story.

“Kiya. Can you taste a woman outside after a long time?”
“You have a wife, what are you doing?”
“Uh huh, let’s put the wife aside for a moment.”
“Don’t the women outside of Lagado have a different taste? Their skin is not pale and soft. It has a sticky taste.”

But if there’s one thing Igor still doesn’t get used to, it’s their dirty talk. In fact, it has long been an open secret that if there is a woman among the hunted prey, it has been an open secret for a long time to use it as a plaything for hunters. As long as you don’t kill them first, there’s no need to worry about freshness, so letting them do whatever they want helped resolve hunters’ complaints or boost morale. While they were already giggling and figuring out what to do with the woman who had already become their prey, Igor tried to figure out what to do with this prey, but his colleagues put him back into the conversation first.

“Right, Captain, why don’t you take this opportunity to marry a woman outside?”
“Yeah! Because there wasn’t any. Isn’t it a good opportunity?”
“I don’t need it. The prey ends with the prey.”

He shook his head at their words. The prey was just the prey. However, as long as this hunt was longer, he might be able to leave it to his colleagues for a little longer.

“Ah, I don’t know why the captain isn’t so interested.”
“Isn’t that actually using power?”
“Stop…”

Sure enough, it was the moment when he was trying to stop his colleagues who were trying to make fun of him. The sound of something flying sharply was heard.

“Everyone raise your shields!”
“Ow!”
“Keah!”

At his words, the hunters all tried to raise their shields, but some of their companions were struck and fell before they could raise their shields. Igor shouted at the sight of the embarrassed colleague trying to approach the fallen colleague.

“Don’t move and lift your shield properly!”
“Hey, it’s okay. Kuk?!”

However, the man who was preoccupied with his colleague who had already fallen was also knocked down by the blow. But at that moment, Igor was able to ascertain for a moment what had flown and where.

“There!”

Iron balls trimmed into ovals were a feature of the bullets used in slings. It was the moment when he informed his teammates of the location from which it flew, and Igor, with his shield in front, was about to turn his sling and shoot.

– Teeing! Pak!
“What…?”

The string of the sling he was spinning broke and the bullet at the end ricocheted out. It wasn’t just worn out and broken. His sling was made from the leather of Sbadilferry, who lost his life, and even though it has been used for a long time, he has carefully managed it. Just because it was old, it wasn’t something that could be cut off like this. But he already knew why the sling broke. Because there was a bullet that flew back right before the sling broke. It was something that Igor’s common sense couldn’t understand.

A sling is a weapon that hunters have been using instead of bows in Ragado, where there are no materials suitable for making bows and arrows. That’s why I was also familiar with the characteristics of the sling. The bullet itself was just a simple iron ball, but the important thing was the speed it produced by swinging the sling. A sling that accelerates in a circle is a weapon that can shoot by putting that speed into a bullet. Because of that, it could produce more power than an arrow, so it was necessary to return the sling quickly. But what kind of bullet would be so powerful that even if he was a beat late, it would cut the line of a sling before it could turn properly?

For a moment, Igor thought that his opponent was aiming for this, but he thought it was a coincidence. Because the bullets fired by the other comrades safely poured towards the place where they flew.

“What is it? Where is this?”
“Could it be the prey we were chasing?”
“Nonsense. There were only two of them. Judging from the bullets flying, I think there were at least five.”
“…Maybe business partners.”

At Igor’s words, a commotion grows among his comrades. What he came up with after much thought was that there was a high probability that they were business partners from other villages.

“Partners? No way, they’re targeting us?”

Otherwise, it didn’t make sense for multiple bullets to fly almost equally. Besides, he knew of a town that boasted of precise craftsmanship.

“They’re not targeting us.”

Because it’s so inefficient.

“Damn it, maybe our prey?”
“They’re easy prey after a while! They’re like ghosts! Hey, dirty bastards!”

As this was the case occasionally, they easily noticed Igor’s thoughts. That’s right, it’s a prey that has been driven so beautifully. Hunters from other villages could not miss this opportunity.

“But I can’t miss it like this!”
“Even if I lose the prey, at least one shot!”

As his colleagues said, he couldn’t let go of his prey with his eyes wide open, so he took out a new sling. He carried a spare, so it wasn’t of the right quality, but it was still usable. The moment they watched the forest, Igor swung his sling again and was ready to shoot.

– Jjiik! Pak!
“””…”””

A bullet from another place tore through Igor’s sling. No one could open their mouths at the sight of his terribly bouncing bullet rolling on the ground. From across the forest, voices whispered in small whispers, as if several people were discussing their opinions. Everyone noticed that this is a warning

“…I can’t help it. Withdraw.”
“But boss.”
“They already have the upper hand.”

They were defenseless because they had come out of town, while the enemy was hiding in a forest of large fungi. Even if they faced it like this, their defeat was self-evident. It was the worst of them to have their stomach split open and become prey themselves. In the end, they couldn’t go back to the place they came from through the forest and had no choice but to walk helplessly along the outskirts of the forest to the Sbadil ferries they had been riding. But all they could see there was their empty-looking luggage and half-disappeared Svadil ferries.

“What is this?”

Everyone was at a loss for words in that situation. Igor’s empty voice for a while.

“Captain! Over there! Look over there!”

The moment when everyone sees where he pointed at the words of a colleague who found something first, perhaps thanks to reconnaissance. They could see The prey they were chasing after tying together half of the Svadilferries they had been riding and carrying a strange creature resembling Hildisbini. No matter when they got it back, they were riding like a wagon by weaving together the wooden objects they found. What stood out most of all.

“Me! Me, me!”

The man in her armor was holding the rope with one hand and holding the other aloft as if someone were watching, holding her middle finger up. To whom it was directed, they knew right away.

“Captain! Let’s chase right away!”
“No, leave it alone.”

One of his colleagues urged him to take the remaining Svadil ferries, but Igor shook his head.

“If we pursue it, we will be hunted.”

Because Igor realized it belatedly. There were no other hunters who stole their prey. The bullets fired as if several people were shooting them, and the skill at accurately targeting the vulnerable and even his sling line in such a state were not coincidental. Even several voices coming from the forest. That he did it all alone.

“What the hell are you doing?”

They could only watch his back as he walked away with his middle finger held up.