Chapter 16: The Baby Goes Hunting

“The other day when I came here, I thought there were a lot of wild rabbits over that way.”

“Yeah. That’s about what I figured too.”

Dimo and my brother exchanged words, and my brother chose the left path at the fork.

We walked on for a while.

“There.” Dimo whispered. 

I followed his gaze and spotted a small brown creature huddled among the piles of dead leaves, just beyond a slight hollow.

It was a wild rabbit.

Its head bobbed up and down as it looked over at us, not seeming alarmed or in a rush.

Though they were called rabbits, their ears were only slightly prominent, and if anything, their size could nearly rival mine.

“When they show up close to people like before, they’re maddeningly quick. And those guys know exactly how far our bows can shoot. If we’re out of range, they just sit there looking relaxed. But get even a little closer, and they’ll disappear in an instant.”

“They really are infuriating, aren’t they?”

Father and son whispered to each other.

I asked softly, “Will the bow reach from here?” 

My brother shook his head.

“With my bow, I’d have to halve the distance at least. How about you, Dimo?”

“For me, I’d have to get even closer. About a third of the way.”

“So they know that and act all carefree, huh?”

As the two talked, Ahim chimed in indignantly.

Then Dimo quickly whispered, “There’s another one over there.”

He pointed slightly to the left of the first, where another was bobbing its darkened head at about the same distance.

“There’s one beyond that, too.”

“They’re really getting on my nerves…”

Squinting, I could see another brown shadow near the first one, and it seemed like there were two around the dark shadow as well.

Confirming that father and son were glaring at the dark one, I whispered, “Can we get into that hollow?”

“We probably could, but those guys will bolt the moment we do.”

“Let’s run for it and shoot right away.”

“Huh?”

I measured the positions of the brown rabbit and the white shadow nearby.

I reached out my hand.

In an instant, both rabbits leaped up,

“Now!”

I tapped my brother’s shoulder, and he dashed off without hesitation.

In a flash, he halved the distance, and with his bow drawn, shot at the brown and white rabbits curled up on the leaves.

Both arrows hit their marks, and the two rabbits writhed in agony.

“What?”

“What?”

“What?”

Father and son behind us, and even my brother who had fired the shots, let out stunned voices.

“They hit?”

“Wolf-sama, that was amazing!”

“Y-Yeah…”

Their praise came one after another, and my brother, still dazed, replied absently, quietly whispering to me now that there was some distance between us.

“What was that just now?”

“The Blessing of Light.”

“Huh?”

“Explanation, later.”

“…Oh.”

As we approached, both wild rabbits had died.

We carried them back in our arms and, with father and son’s help, drained the blood.

“That really was incredible, Wolf-sama. I didn’t think you’d hit them.”

“Wolf-sama, what did you do?”

“Well, um, that’s a bow technique with the Blessing of Wind. Trained during Knight instruction.”

“Hehh, that’s something else.”

We packed the hunt into Ahim’s pack.

The three of us crouched and kept watch on our surroundings again.

Before long, we sensed more of them nearby.

“Three to the right, and… three on the left, I think.”

“Dimo, take the left, please.”

“Yes, sir.”

While father and son focused on the left, I reached my hand to the right.

Three more rabbits leaped up.

My brother dashed out and fired in quick succession.

All three arrows hit their marks, and the rabbits curled up on the ground.

“Wow, again—Wolf-sama, you’re amazing!”

We continued the hunt like that, and in about two hours, my brother had bagged nearly twenty wild rabbits.

Ahim’s pack wasn’t enough, so the three of us ended up carrying them in both hands, almost at our limit.

“Ah, I take my hat off to you. Wolf-sama, your Knight skills are truly splendid.”

“Amazing. I can only respect you.”

Father and son showered my brother with praise, and he could only give a wry smile.

“I’ll take two home, so can you distribute the rest to the village?”

“Oh, it’d be a waste to refuse. Really, thank you.”

Dimo looked as if he were worshipping.

When news spread that we’d be distributing the hunt to everyone in the village, people were so overjoyed it was almost as if they were bowing down in thanks.

Getting meat even once a year was a rare occasion.

“Thank you, thank you.”

“Amazing, Wolf-sama.”

People all praised my brother, and his embarrassed grin only deepened.

“I think we can enter the forest two or three more times before the snow comes. I don’t want you to expect too much, but if everyone can work out a way to preserve two or three times this amount to use during winter, that would help.”

“Understood.”

“Leave it to us.”

For a village of over two hundred people through the winter, it was barely a token, but the villagers seemed ready to prostrate themselves in gratitude.

When we returned to the Noble Mansion and showed off the two rabbits, the chef Lansel was said to have nearly danced with joy, and even the butler Henrik forgot his usual composure in excitement.

It was such an astonishing event that nobody even suspected my brother might have brought me into the forest.

Not only wild rabbits, but the Kuroaosou was also now easier and more stable to harvest, according to my brother’s report, which moved our mother to tears.

That night’s dinner, lavish with meat and vegetables, “tasted of Wolf’s love,” and the usual light eater was all smiles, eating with gusto.

All the servants joined in, and it was said to be like a festival.

There was a reason these events came to me only as hearsay.

Before we reached the mansion, I fell asleep on my brother’s back and didn’t wake until late that night.

When I finally opened my eyes, a lamp was shining softly from the side.

I saw the figure of a boy sitting at his desk.

I seemed to be lying in my brother’s bed.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

“…Mm.”

“I was worried, you know. You slept straight through from evening. Are you all right? Nothing hurts?”

“Mm.”

“Everyone thinks you were just tired from your first long outing, and I’d like to believe that too.” 

My brother leaned in and placed his hand on my forehead. 

“But you didn’t, by any chance, faint from overusing the Blessing, did you?”

“…Unknown.”

“…Well, yeah. I guess you wouldn’t know yourself.”

He pulled a chair up beside the bed and let out a deep sigh.