Chapter 26: CH 26

After paying our respects to the Star Stone, we entered the forest. The cute, pink, harmless little dragon, the himekoryuu, who we called Himeko, joined us like it was the natural thing to do, but it was fine since the kids were used to him by now. Ludo-san looked like he wanted to say something, but he knew Himeko from that time we were running from Su, so he let it slide.

“It’s a long walk to the river, keep it up~”

“I’ve never been around here before! Look, there are some pine cones we can pick up over there!”

“This is too far, too much work~. Are the orbazards1 we’re hunting today that rare?”

“… over there, there’s an orbazard.”

“Uwaa! That’s it!”

Leonardo pointed to the orbazard, today’s target. We slowed our steps, approaching it carefully and quietly.

Orbazards were armadillo-like creatures. They were dark grey in color, about a forearm in length, and had an elephant-like elongated snout. They were easy to spot because they liked to bask in the gaps of sunlight shining through the forest canopy, but they had hard ‘shells’ and were difficult to so much as scratch when they curled up. They were also very curious, sometimes wandering up to humans.

The orbazard we found noticed our shadows and waddled over. With its long nose, it sniffed the childrens’ shoes, its round eyes and languid movements easily making them drop their guards. Liliana almost immediately crouched down and started petting it. Leonardo, too, crouched down to observe it.

“Cute~~”

“… true, it is cute.”

“Hey, Sumire, why do we have to go all the way to the other side of the river? Isn’t this guy what we’re hunting?”

Marth, who was the only one not crouched down, asked that question with his hands clasped behind his head. Liliana looked at him, horrified, and Leonardo’s face scrunched up. Marth involuntarily took a step back at the reproachful looks from his friends.

“No, you can’t! I’ll miss him so much!”

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“He’s so cute… I can’t hunt him.”

“But it’s your job, you know? You won’t get any stars if you can’t do it.”

“Mhm, that’s the challenge, isn’t it?”

I asked them as much, nodding deeply.

Orbazards were cute, personable little creatures. Especially in the forests near towns, they were loved and occasionally got familiar with the locals. Our target was one that didn’t consider humans to be enemies. They were cute and approached without worry, making many hunters uncomfortable in the process.

There were also those that loved them as pets, but it became more and more difficult to stomach hunting orbazards the more familiar you were with one. Regardless of the tough choices to be made, most hunting requests had to take place deep in the forest so that any beasts attracted to the smell of freshly-spilled blood wouldn’t be led to the town.

“To be honest, it was the hardest request I’ve ever taken in my 3-star career… it even licked my hand…”

Just remembering it made me want to cry. I’m convinced that their innocent loveliness is the sole reason why orbazards, which turn into relatively good meat when the shell is peeled off, aren’t overhunted. Still, I felt guilty — I felt like I’d become an atrocious villain. Even if other creatures were more difficult to catch or were more ferocious, I would definitely feel more comfortable hunting them instead.

“So, that’s why adventurers have to make sure they don’t develop too much love for wild animals. If there’s a request for hunting or subjugation, we have to do whatever it takes. Himeko here is a corrupted dragon, too docile and not someone we would hunt, but if you plan to raise your star-rank, you’d best be prepared.”

With Ludo-san’s follow-up and encouragement, the three children seemed to have made up their minds to go further into the forest. However, Liliana and Leonardo still looked down with a trace of lingering sadness, and Marth told Himeko, “If you’re targeted, you better run.” I don’t know if the himekoryuu understood, but he let out a cheerful “Kuee~!” It didn’t do much to lighten the suddenly-heavy atmosphere, though.

“Errmm… well, orbazards have their dangerous points, too… I guess this is a good story everyone should know.”

In order to lessen the children’s anxieties, I decided to tell a little story as we walked.

TL Notes:

1: Lit. マルマリトカゲ (marumaritokage), from 丸まる (marumaru: to roll up into a ball) and トカゲ (tokage: lizard). This was clearly supposed to be a lizard from the name but, for two reasons, I’ll refrain from referring to it as such. For one, the description given is pretty much just that of an armadillo — a mammal. And second off, the official manga shows the creature having fur on its underside (as an armadillo would), which is something a lizard wouldn’t have. Speaking of the manga, credits to the TL’ers there for their less-problematic translation.

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