Strange Grief Wants to Retire ~ The Weakest Hunter Dreams of a Hero ~

Chapter?6: Punishment?game

Chapter 6

Punishment game

The Explorers Association Zebrudia Branch is about a 15 minute walk from clan headquarters, sandwiched between a large shop and a tavern.

Although it is smaller in size than the other two businesses, it is bigger in terms of prosperity.

There was a fluttering flag with the symbol of a Treasure chest upon a red background.

I double checked my surroundings, and then passed through the entrance, feeling the urge to throw up.

Hot air enveloped me and I furrowed my brows in discomfort. Within this building is the citadel of monsters.

There is a distinct difference between ordinary people and treasure hunters. I’m not talking about their equipment, or some other visible difference.

It’s about forcefulness, should I say the difference in nature between each living thing?

The Imperial Capital is called the holy land of treasure hunters, but the total amount of them is still not that many.

It would be hard to meet one just walking around outside, but there are places where more of them haunt, and I’d call the Explorers branch the biggest infestation.

I straightened my back and moved through the wide lobby.

In the atrium room, roaring voices, snickering, and jovial singing constantly echo out. It’s like a war scene.

There’s an indistinct combination of blood, sweat, alcohol and metal that creates the unique stench that you could call the adventurer’s odour.

A giant hunter that was at least twice as big as me glanced downwards at me, then passed by without a word.

Are Hunters truly the same as people, I remain doubtful.

The Explorers Association – An organisation that supports hunters.

From Relics to monster material trading, item restocking and services to provide information on parties. Anything and everything necessary for the hunter trade; an organisation that shares the same history with the profession of Treasure Hunter itself.

Shrines and Hunters, parties and clans – Explorers is responsible for allocating levels and ranks to them all.

Invading a Shrine is possible even if you aren’t a hunter, but it’s a good way to die. It’s half common sense to enter the Explorers and become a hunter.

Of course membership isn’t free. Each year you are charged according to your earnings. And from time to time, a request will be pushed onto you.

When the clan is on the scale of Footprints, people take care of it themselves. Most clans are like that, not wanting to keep a personal eye on everything.

Well, since the fee takes care of itself, I was content to be a dog of the Explorers.

The receptionist girl is like an incredibly cute looking model. The organisation is useful in various ways.

Among the mass of hunters that reek of blood and excitement, I straightened my back and strolled forward with a swagger.

I passed by hunters wrapped in bandages from old wounds, it’s terrifying but I know from experience that I was more likely to get entangled with them if my head was cast down.

The weak get eaten. This place, why does the centre of town end up ruled by the laws of the jungle?

A hunter suddenly spread a newspaper which came into view. It was the picture of the pub that was partially destroyed.

It wasn’t the Zebrudia Days newspaper, but apparently other newspapers had posted similar articles.

It’s not my fault. It’s not my fault.

Blame it on someone else you tabloid trash! “Fame is... a miserable thing.”

I feel queazy, but on the surface I show a nihilistic smile and line up at the reception desk.

While praying for my turn in line not to come, it comes quickly. “Thank you for using the Explorers Association today.”

The black haired girl at the desk gives a smile that soothes the heart. The Explorers receptionist isn’t a hunter.

The reason our clan staff also aren’t hunters is because I was envious.

Trying to act cool, I place both hands down on the counter with a bang, and then give my best low voice impersonation.

After all, my aim is to be hard boiled.

“I have business with Chief Gark. We have a meeting, please guide me through.”

The receptionist responded with a full smile, without any reaction to my counter slam.

“Oh, yes. The total destruction of a pub wasn’t it. Come on through to get lectured. Cry-san, I say this every time, but when you get summoned you don’t have to line up you know?”

It wasn’t total destruction, it was partial.

§

“I apologise for causing so much trouble!!” “-!?”

A sincere apology is important.

A self important countenance is generally fine elsewhere.

But if your opponent is Gark, then it’s ok to throw away your pride without hesitation.

At any rate he’s seen me in a miserable state countless times before.

After passing through reception, the moment I came face to face with him I knelt down on the ground.

As expected, making eye contact with the veteran Chief Gark makes my face freeze up.

The branch chief Gark is a human being. He looks like a monster, but he really is human.

His height is over two meters. Running diagonally across his cheek is an old scar, and from his bald head, veins bulge out.

His body was so well trained you wouldn’t think he was retired.

He had a truly villainous face, but he was human.

A distinguished one at that. He always wore a sword but he was a normal part of the general public (currently).

When you line him up next to the cheerful smiling face of the deputy branch chief Kaina-san like this, you really get that beauty and the beast feeling.

He was human though.

It’s a secret that I think a wild beast would be more docile. I am much obliged as always thank you.

“O-Oi, Cry...?”

“It wasn’t deliberate. There was no ill will involved!

In order not to bother the public, we received permission from the pub owner to destroy it in advance-!!”

It’s the truth.

Thinking things could turn out this way, I paid meticulous attention as to not draw in the public.

In my growth as a leader I gained the apology skill, the preparation skill, and the bluff skill.

Quite good I’d say!

I kept rattling on breathlessly.

“The point is, those guys are really troublesome, right?

You want things to stop, but they don’t, and then you have no choice but to go through with things!!

Hey, tell me how to get them to stop, those guys!! I want them to stop. I truly want them to stop ok! If I could do it I would, those bastaaaaaards!!”

I couldn’t help it, in a place where it wouldn’t bother ordinary people I let off some steam.

Ordinarily it’s better not to give excuses, but my excuses were precise. It was to invite sympathy. It’s not like Gark was that mad either.

There was no damage to regular people therewasnodamagetoregularpeople, above all else there was no damage to regular people.

I get back on my feet, and from receiving the force of my apology, Gark takes a step back.

“Oi... don’t try to just push past this.”

“The main point, is that we only demolished a building don’t you think!?

It’s just some Newspapers reporting nothing broken, there aren’t any complaints right!?

Fine, we broke a little building! But we didn’t break people so isn’t that fine!

I’ll pay the reparations!! The owner and I go way back, and he’s a great guy so don’t worry!

Just forgive me with a smile!! I want to eat ice cream.”

The partially destroyed store is a pub, but it also sells super delicious ice cream. Their ice cream making has to put them in the top three ice cream stores in the Imperial Capital.

After I continually persuaded while feeling like throwing up, Kaina who had remained silent until now had a twitch in her smile.

“N-Now now, calm down, Cry-kun. While the chief wanted to reprimand you, there hasn’t been any criminal offences filed.”

Each time Gark would get furious, Kaina would let out a ‘now now’ that reigns him in.

I guess they are balancing out the same role.

Gark has the role of being angry and giving threats, while Kaina searches for a compromise.

Like I thought, Gark lets out a long sigh.

“I haven’t done any reprimanding yet though... Well alright. Sit.”

All right- I’m forgiven. I wouldn’t do such a showy apology just anywhere.

I obediently took a seat on the fluffy sofa. The feeling of wanting to throw up receded slightly.

As I relaxed and let my guard down, Gark slammed both hands down on his table with a bang.

The sudden noise reverberated in my body. He stared at me with his teeth bared.

“This time as well, Cry. I’ve summoned you when I didn’t want to.” If you didn’t want to, then don’t summon me, it would be better.

In his admonishing tone of voice Gark continued.

“You know, even if there was nothing filed, it was something that appeared in the newspapers right? I can’t just forgive you for this one.”

“...”

????

You should forgive me. If we went by the usual Explorers standards you would usually give me a bit of leeway.

Anyway, there was no one hurt. The destruction of a building falls under Empire law.

A broken pub is something small. There’s no way a pro at cleaning up after people like Gark doesn’t understand that.

I looked to Kaina-san but she had a bitter smile on her face. Guess it can’t be helped. I’ll toss this to Ark.

“This wouldn’t be, a punishment game right?” “...”

To my question, Gark’s expression soured over.

The Explorers main duty is to assist hunters in capturing Shrines. Coincident with that, it ran a service of receiving and appointing requests.

Hunters were strong to the point that you stopped thinking of them as being human, so requests would come from merchants and countries that sought to borrow their strength.

Escort jobs and monster suppression, obtaining specific Relics.

The level of difficulty and job type differs, but beginner hunters that can’t capture shrines or form connections will pick up requests if they want some extra money.

However there are some requests that go unaccepted by hunters, whether it’s because the reward is too small, the time constraints are too inconvenient, the level of difficulty is too high, or because of some reason involving the client.

From here, whether it’s paying for a mistake or something else, Explorers finds themselves in troubling circumstances. So they exercise their authority over the hunters that show weakness or become involved in scandals.

We hunters give those types of request the honourable name of ‘punishment games’, and avoid them.

To my choice of words, Garks eyelids twitched in spasms.

“Oi, don’t use that phrase in front of me.”

“Gark-san’s a former hunter right? The main point is that it’s that kind of trouble isn’t it. More or less, I’m also burdened by the weight of my clan.

There are various ways that clans are run, but ours is a democracy.

Even though I’m the master, we decided by majority vote. My influence is really not that great.

I have some high ground now, seeing me immediately cross my legs and recline back cockily, Gark’s eyes peeled back in anger.

He let out a sigh, and seemed to be preparing to admonish me again.

“No no, I’m not saying I won’t accept it. How long has Gark been taking care of us until now, I also understand our position. Allow me to accept.

However I won’t do anything unreasonable. One only. This time we haven’t done anything that bad.”

“Cry-kun, does your agitation skill increase every time we meet?”

When you have no choice but to bow and scrape, at that time you bow and scrape, and when you have to be overbearing, then be overbearing.

If you aways remain scared you will die. That’s my worldly wisdom.

As I got carried away with myself, Gark involuntarily started grinding his teeth. He spoke in a threatening low voice.

“Bring it here.”

Kaina-san brought over a leather bound file and placed it in front of me.

The Explorer Association practically coerced hunters into taking requests, but from rumours it seems like there were a lot of guys that rejected them without batting an eyelid.

Hunters have tough egos, and they hate being tied down by people. In particular the tendency to crush up requests is strong with veteran hunters.

As expected, a lot of the ‘punishment game’ requests had been collected. To be in the position of having this many stockpile up, I can feel some sympathy, but we are a business. I can’t give anymore than I must.

Gark turned his gaze on me before speaking, and I could feel murderous intent smouldering behind his eyes.

“...Choose.” “Right.”

I flip and skim through the pages.

The punishment games can also be categorised from best to worst. Time involved. Request contents. Reward. The are many cases where the request circumstances are bothersome.

I’ll pick out the number one simplest request and dump it on Ark.

Going from one to the next, as expected they were only fitting as ‘punishment games’. There are many that I would hate to even think about.

If it’s Ark, his party could handle any one of them, but a hunters pride was connected with capturing Shrines.

Keeping that in mind, for now lets just look at the ones that deal with Shrines. Level 5. Level 6. Level 5. Level 5. Level 4. Level 6. Level 3. Level 7. Level 6 – Ah, just now, that was a level 3!

Flip back to the page. Then check over the contents... Yep, this one’s ok.

Many of the Punishment games were difficult, that I could get one that was level 3 was pure luck.

『Silver Star Heavy Thunder』the alias of Ark Rodin – his level 7 rank was one of the best in the Imperial Capital.

The hunter ranking is an approximation of the difficulty of shrine they should challenge.

If it’s a level 3 shrine then it’s a easy win. The reward was low and the time period was reasonably long. I mean, it’s a volunteer request, but it’s not much of an obstacle to clear.

I pulled the request out of the file and shook it in front of Gark.

“Alright, I’ve decided. Gark-san, I’ll take on this easy『body retrieval』request.

“......Cry-! Saying that’s a bad omen! It’s not『body retrieval』, it’s『emergency rescue 』.

...Eh? There’s no way to tell whether they’re alive though?

§ § §

Like a storm.

When Cry left, deputy brach chief Kaina breathed out in relief.

She held the urgent request file under her arms, and turned a forced smile at Gark. “...The same as ever, that child is like a storm... but it turned out well right?”

“...It went well. He got caught in the moment at just the right time.” As the very picture of self control, Gark answered.

In terms of scale itself, there are many older clans that are larger sized, but compared to those half stagnant clans Footprints was still in the middle of its growth.

The fact that they gathered the attention of newspapers was proof of that.

Rather, from Gark’s standpoint, Cry consistently maintaining the same attitude from when he first started out as a hunter, despite forming such a large clan – was the best.

By all rights, it was strange that he hadn’t left the Explorers yet. To a clan with a certain amount of power, there were few merits to staying with the Explorer Association.

In fact, the promising clans that had left weren’t just a few.

Although he took on a frivolous attitude, it was obvious how Cry treated the Explorers with care.

“To begin with, he said it was easy, but he took on the most dangerous request.” “...Well that’s... the same as always.”

Out of more than twenty requests, recalling how he picked that one without hesitation, Kaina smiled fondly.

Certainly, the Shrine he picked was the lowest level. But a shrine’s level and a request’s level were different.

A leader needed to have a discerning eye that could reliably assess risk. The request’s contents had also been accurately outlined.

Cry that carried a large clan on his shoulders, and was the leader of『Strange Grief』, it was impossible for such a person to misjudge the degree of difficulty on a request.

Actually in the past, Cry had always chosen the requests with the highest difficulty. Did he feel so obliged to the Explorers?

“God only knows what may happen... Well, if it was someone else apart from Cry that would be the case. Regardless of how he acts – that guy has a good eye.”

“We owe him one don’t we?” Translator Notes

-Paraphrasing, the receptionist is described as a kawaii Idol. I know some people probably prefer it left like that, but to me it requires a little more obscure understanding of Japanese pop culture. Her mannerisms are like cutesy mixed with professionalism I suppose.

-The excuses Cry gives in argument are shouted with comically long sentence endings – Deshooooou? Desuuuuuu! I wasn’t sure how to make that as funny in English, sorry.

-『銀星万雷』 Silver Star Heavy Thunder – also still unsure about this translation, seems too long.