“...Dad!”
“Papa! Papa!”
“Ah... Fint, Yuran! You’ve been well!”
A young man came running, alongside a boy of about ten.
The father who had returned from the battlefield lifted his younger son into his arms and pulled the older one close too.
“You’re home... welcome back...!”
“...I’m home, Philia...! Thank God... thank God you’re safe...!”
The mother, who had come running after her two sons, joined them, and the four of them embraced each other tightly.
And scenes like that were playing out everywhere.
This was a provincial city in Belerforesti.
The hunter men who had been conscripted for the war against the Prava Divine Kingdom had finally been released from service and returned home.
But the hole left behind by those hunters had been enormous.
No one remained to hunt the monsters living in the <Demon Forest>, and before long, the monsters understood that their natural enemies were gone.
Then, in less than a year, one village and town after another that had served as hunter strongholds came under attack from monsters and fell.
Of course, they had not settled and developed those places without any defenses at all.
They had prepared a certain amount of defensive equipment, and emergency procedures had been set in place.
But they had been decisively short on fighting strength.
The outer walls were destroyed, and the monsters that broke in rampaged freely. In the end, no one even knew how many villages had been attacked, how many towns had fallen, or how many people had died.
Retired hunters who had remained in the villages and towns, or still-inexperienced apprentices—thanks to their efforts, the monsters were somehow driven back, but all that remained were walls and houses so badly damaged they could not withstand the next attack.
And so the surviving residents abandoned their homes and evacuated to rear-area hub cities.
“So then... where are you living now?”
“Yes, don’t worry. The lord had rooms prepared for us. They’re a little cramped, but they’re more than enough for the four of us.”
“The lord did... I see...”
In any case, the family took the father in as though celebrating his safe return.
The place they led him to was a simple residential district prepared for refugees. Houses shaped like large boxes stood in neat rows at regular intervals.
It had already been half a year since they evacuated.
Though the houses all had the same shape, each had been decorated differently by the people living there.
The house they were shown had been decorated with a well-worn bow, carved wooden dolls, and cut flowers.
Apparently, ever since word had come that the father was returning, the three of them had kept it decorated so he could come home at any time.
The bow was a practice bow they had made for the older son, who would inherit the trade of hunter.
To hang it in the house meant he had been recognized as fully fledged and had earned a proper hunting bow.
“When the village got attacked by monsters, I just happened to be on night watch. I climbed ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) the lookout tower and drew my bow like my life depended on it. At the end, I was shooting at the monsters that had made it inside the village...”
Apparently, thanks to what he had done, casualties among the villagers were kept to a minimum.
When the headman heard about it, he personally recognized the boy as a full hunter.
Of course, part of it had probably been consolation for the people who had lost their village—something of a performance as well.
But there was no question that he had achieved enough to deserve recognition as a hunter.
And so the family celebrated their reunion, drinking, eating, and talking far into the night.
◇◇◇◇
The refugees lived in simple prefabricated wooden housing provided by the southern great power, the Kingdom of Lepuitari.
They were made of wood, but carefully waterproofed, with no gaps.
Judging purely by construction quality, they were far better built than the homes they had originally lived in.
“This is a pretty fine house...”
“We’re properly issued food too. Look—they even gave us such a nice pot...”
What she showed him was a large, thick, round-bottomed pot. There were also glossy ceramic plates, along with metal knives, forks, and spoons.
The clothes the family was wearing now had also been made from issued cloth. More than that, the tablecloth and the bed sheets used the same fabric. Looking only at that, they were living far better than they had back in the village.
“And now Fint is earning money as a hunter too. Life’s gotten much easier for us.”
“I see... In just a year, you’ve become quite a man...”
The older son, now working as a hunter, used a well-made bow and a mountain knife. Apparently those were issued by the Kingdom of Lepuitari too.
And on closer inspection, all the issued goods had the same symbol engraved on them: the profile of a person’s face.
Apparently, they had all been made in the same workshop.
“...Come to think of it.”
The father pulled out a weapon he had brought back from the battlefield as something of a good-luck charm.
It was the goddess of the battlefield.
A weapon called a <Revolver>, the one that had saved soldiers’ lives from attacks by cleric-soldiers.
It had been one of the standard-issue weapons handed out at the battlefield he had been sent to. Since the Kingdom of Lepuitari had provided it and had not demanded its return, he had simply brought it home with him.
Along with the five rounds still loaded in it, he had several dozen more packed in an ammunition box.
Because so much ammunition had been issued, many soldiers had taken some home without permission, and for the time being there was still enough in circulation that it could be obtained one way or another.
The upper ranks knew how many guns and bullets were piled up in the warehouses, so they had not tried very hard to recover the ones already out in the field.
The father himself had once nearly died facing cleric-soldiers who could deflect arrows, and had survived by using the <Revolver> he had been issued as a last line of defense.
At point-blank range, the bullet he fired had punched straight through the cleric-soldier in front of him in a single shot.
Of course, he also knew there had been cleric-soldiers who could not be brought down even with much larger rifles.
Even so, this goddess called the <Revolver> had saved him.
“Look. This is the goddess who saved my life on the battlefield.”
And engraved into the grip of that <Revolver>—its handle—was the same symbol as the issued goods.
“So our whole family was saved by this goddess.”
“That’s nice, Dad. I wonder what workshop made it. It’s definitely somewhere in the Kingdom of Lepuitari...”
◇◇◇◇
“They haven’t noticed us. Once it gets like that, it won’t move from that spot for a while. Take careful aim.”
“Yeah.”
A great bear rose upright on its hind legs, keeping watch on its surroundings.
The massive beast, nearly twice a man’s height, was a type of monster called a Forest Bear.
A report had come in that one had appeared in the woods beside the highway, and that was why this father and son had been called out.
Forest Bears were extremely savage monsters.
The tough muscles covering their entire bodies would turn aside an ordinary sword without leaving so much as a scratch.
And even if you challenged one with a fine spear or blade, the weapon would be stopped by its thick fur, fat, and layers of muscle before it could bite deep.
That was why the key to killing one safely was to pierce one of its poorly protected vital points from a distance with an arrow.
Of course, that was inseparable from the danger that if you missed, you were as good as dead.
The rookie hunter took careful aim, then loosed the arrow while pouring his magical power into it.
With a sharp hiss through the air, the arrow flew straight into the Forest Bear’s throat.
The arrow, now stronger than normal in penetrating power, punched through its hardened fur and inflicted a fatal wound.
But—
“<Mindless Last Attack>!”
The Forest Bear had clearly died instantly, its carotid artery and spine pierced.
And yet it came charging at full speed.
“Bad luck! Move, Fint!”
“O-okay!”
If this had been close-quarters combat, it would unquestionably have been a fatal blow. Its reaction speed had been that great, and the force of its charge was terrifying.
But in reality, they had kept a considerable distance, and there was plenty of time to evade the Forest Bear’s rush.
As long as they moved out of its path, it would not hit them.
“In a case like this, you can wait for it to stop moving, but...”
The father, having experienced the same situation many times in past hunts, stayed calm, unlike his panicking son.
He drew the battlefield goddess <Revolver> from his belt, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
Normally, you would follow up with another arrow or use a throwing device to finish it off.
But with a powerful weapon like a <Revolver>, all of that could be done in a single breath.
The bullet fired with a deafening blast struck the Forest Bear in the side of the head.
The violent impact jerked its head off in a wild direction, bending its neck out of line.
That became the finishing blow, and all the strength drained from the Forest Bear’s body. Still carried by the momentum of its charge, the huge body slid across the ground.
“All right. Just what you’d expect from a goddess.”
“Awesome...”
Even after losing their lives, monsters would sometimes lash out with one final blow like this.
For a rookie hunter, getting to experience that under relatively safe conditions had turned out to be a valuable lesson.
