Chapter 25 - The Hunting Festival (first)
Chapter 25: The Hunting Festival (first)
The delicious scent of dinner floated out from the inner rooms of the store.
When I looked outside, it was already dusk, or more like it was about nightfall.
I wonder what dinner is tonight.
While I was thinking like that I was closing up shop, and she ca in.
“Reiji-?”
It was one of the terrifically beautiful elves – – Kululu-san’s younger sister, Lilica.
“What do you want, right when I’m closing shop.”
I said with annoyance, turning to face the counter.
“This isn’t sothing you need to be so an about, right?”
“If you’re going to co, I’d like you to co a little bit earlier, though.”
“Lunch was ... ... I had lots of things going on, so it’s impossible.”
Recently, the homo Kululu-san seems to be busy, so he mostly hasn’t been coming to the shop.
In exchange, it seems his sister Lilica has co instead.
“And so, what do you want? Make it brief.”
“This ti, there’s a hunting festival in the forest.”
“Hunting festival?”
“Yes. To put it simply, it’s a yearly event to see how many monsters and animals in the forest you can hunt, but you can’t use magic, so your ability with the bow is vital, they say.”
Uhuh, I see; while listening, I look at Lilica’s slightly red face.
“Onii-san’s pretty good with the bow, right? So every year he’s the victor, but this year he’s on the managent team so he won’t have a chance to appear. And so this year I’m supposed to appear but ... I, the bow isn’t my thing.”
“I’m telling you ahead of ti, but I can’t make a dicine that make you good at archery, okay?”
“I – I wouldn’t ask you for sothing like that! Don’t look down on , please.”
“Then what is it?”
Was it unexpected? Lilica turned her head away with a humph and muttered.
“ .... ... A dicine that can make a crappy archer like the champion ... ...”
“Like he-ll!”
That’s practically getting soone else to do it for you.
Or rather, that feels like it would be way harder than ‘a dicine that makes good at archery.’
“Wh,why!? You made a dicine that causes an arrow to definitely hit the target for Onii-san, right!? I know about that, okay?”
“I don’t rember making any such dicine. That was just eyedrops. It was a dicine that only cleared your vision a bit to make it easier to focus.”
It happens every ti; everyone gets the wrong idea about the dicine I make, and add their own embellishnts about the effects.
Isn’t it fine to have your dearly beloved Onii-chan help you practice archery? It’s better than relying on dicine.”
“Onii-san always treats like a child. “Archery is a little too difficult for Lilica,” he says ... So I don’t want to rely on Onii-san.”
“And so you’ll make do sohow with dicine, so you ca to my place?”
Lilica stared silently at the shelves without looking in my direction and nodded.
“By the way, why does Lilica want to beco the champion? I think it’s fine even if you put the effort into getting good at archery but don’t make it.”
“I ... want Onii-san to look at properly. If I, who he treats as a child, beco the champion in the hunting festival, I think Onii-san will acknowledge .”
Hm; I cross my arms.
She’s a stubborn person so she won’t show her practice efforts at all, but there are many painful-looking blisters on the hand I can catch a glimpse of.
So she’s been trying hard, doesn’t know what to do anymore, and is now coming to for help... ?
It might be unfair to the other contestants, but I ended up thinking that I really wanted to give this girl strength after all.
It looks like theirs no grand prize for the champion, and there’s no award money.
To bluntly put it, you’re just given the honor of being the champion.
“Alright, I get it. I’ll help.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’s just, without knowing how good Lilica’s ability is, I can’t make any dicine. Also, I can’t make dicine that makes you the champion or dicine that makes you good at archery, okay? At the very end, it’s just dicine that assists you.”
“I understand.”
And so, I’m lending a hand to help Lilica beco the champion of the hunting festival.
—
The next morning.
Along with the enemy-detector Noela, I ca to a corner of the forest where she was always doing her training.
“Reiji, Noela, good morning.”
“Good morning.”
“Morning.”
When Noela and I had given our greetings, Lilica nocked an arrow to her bow.
Swish.
The shot arrow grazed the target 20 ters ahead and pierced into a large sand dune behind it.
The second shot, the third shot. None of them hit their targets.
“Wh...what? I,if you want to say sothing, just say it! Y’you’re thinking I’m a failure...”
“We didn’t say anything like that, right? Show your hand.”
“N, wai, don’t -”
Seizing the hand she was trying to hide, when I looked at it, there were the usual, painful looking blisters left behind.
It’s likely difficult to concentrate like this.
“You should speak up when it hurts, okay?”
“... If you say you’ll make good at archery, I will...”
Good grief, this stubborn person.
I had brought along several bottles of potions and energy potions for such an occasion.
“Noela-? Bring out the potions -”
“Ru?”
Sitting on top of a outdoor chair while behaving herself, Noela was holding a bottle and drinking a potion.
I give Noela one potion every morning.
Recently, Noela seems to have fun drinking it little by little.
Noela took one bottle out of the bag and handed it to .
I had Lilica drink it.
“This is effective for stopping blood and heals external wounds, but it should also be more or less effective against blisters.”
“I didn’t say it hurt.”
“You shouldn’t turn away a person’s kindness.”
Separating from us a little, Lilica resud her practice.
And when she did:
As expected, thanks to the lessening of the pain of her blisters, one shot out of five shots hit.
“So I can hit it after all.”
“That’s how this kind of thing is. It’s not like you won’t hit ever.”
That said, if she can only hit one out five while motionless, the in the very likely poor footing in the forest, or if she was on the move, then she would naturally not hit at all.
Probably bored, Noela grabbed the spare bow Lilica brought along and took a single arrow.
“Noela, can you do archery?” (lilica)
“Don’t know.”
So saying, she imitated what she saw and shot the arrow.
Swoosh –
The arrow flew with a terrifying speed and pierced through the dead center of the target.
“Ru-? Master, hit! I hit?”
“Ooo, amazing Noela!”
Wag wag
With her tail wagging at full power, I patted Noela’s head.
“H,how did she, so easily ... and dead center...”
“Ru-”
Booya.
With a face that just looked like it was saying that, Noela puffed out her chest.
When Noela shot another arrow, it also hit dead center beautifully.
The next one, and the next; they were all completely dead center.
While watching this, the light faded more and more from Lilica’s eyes.
“Ru-ru-ru- ? Master, bow, is fun.”
“Noela-san. You’re going to break the heart of the elf next to you ... or like, it’s already broken, so I’d like you to stop.”
“It’s fine, I’m just ... at any rate, I’m a failure of an elf, so ...”
Understandably, she’s depressed!
To sohow encourage the depressed Lilica, who was clutching her knees, and sohow motivate her, for now, I asured the distance that she could reliably hit.
“Eh ...here? At this range?”
“Th...that’s right, you got a problem with that?”
This distance is sohow five ters.
At school, it’s the distance three seats in front of you.
My complaints would be ... you intended to beco champion like this....?
No, I should calm down.
I’ve decided to help her.
I have to do sothing about this.
The wild beasts probably won’t purposefully co over and enter this range, so ...
Furthermore, they wouldn’t obediently hold still.
“Ah-! If that’s the case ... that would be fine, right ....?”
“What? What did you think of?”
What Lilica was holding was a normal bow.
If she’s at the level where an accurate shot will only happen within five ters, then we don’t need a long bow.
“I’ll have Lilica practice the short bow.”
“Now way. Short bows are for children to use, right?”
“If you suck, you don’t have the surplus composure to act cool, right-?”
“U...”
Lilica gave a disagreeable look and was unwilling, but I got her to agree sohow and explained the plan.
“ – And so, if Lilica raises the accuracy of her short bow archery, and can definitely hit within a few ters-”
“I’ll definitely be the champion...!”
We nodded in unison and imdiately took action.
Lilica returned once to prepare a short bow, and Noela and I gathered the necessary ingredients for a new dicine.
Getting all sorts of opinions from Advisor Noela, we gathered fruits, flower nectar, and tree sap for ingredients.
When I returned to the store and made dicine, I made a dicine with the targeted ability.
Advisor Noela gave it her seal of approval.
If she uses this, there won’t be any problems.
[Attractant: A dicine that gives off the sll that monsters and beasts like. Super effective.]
Reviews
All reviews (0)