YM778.TV Chapter 25 - The Hunting Festival (first)
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 came 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 something you need to be so mean about, right?”
“If you’re going to come, I’d like you to come 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 come instead.
“And so, what do you want? Make it brief.”
“This time, 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 management 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 time, but I can’t make a medicine that make you good at archery, okay?”
“I – I wouldn’t ask you for something like that! Don’t look down on me, please.”
“Then what is it?”
Was it unexpected? Lilica turned her head away with a humph and muttered.
“ .... ... A medicine that can make a crappy archer like me the champion ... ...”
“Like he-ll!”
That’s practically getting someone else to do it for you.
Or rather, that feels like it would be way harder than ‘a medicine that makes me good at archery.’
“Wh,why!? You made a medicine that causes an arrow to definitely hit the target for Onii-san, right!? I know about that, okay?”
“I don’t remember making any such medicine. That was just eyedrops. It was a medicine that only cleared your vision a bit to make it easier to focus.”
It happens every time; everyone gets the wrong idea about the medicine I make, and add their own embellishments about the effects.
Isn’t it fine to have your dearly beloved Onii-chan help you practice archery? It’s better than relying on medicine.”
“Onii-san always treats me 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 somehow with medicine, so you came to my place?”
Lilica stared silently at the shelves without looking in my direction and nodded.
“By the way, why does Lilica want to become 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 me properly. If I, who he treats as a child, become the champion in the hunting festival, I think Onii-san will acknowledge me.”
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 me 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 medicine. Also, I can’t make medicine that makes you the champion or medicine that makes you good at archery, okay? At the very end, it’s just medicine that assists you.”
“I understand.”
And so, I’m lending a hand to help Lilica become the champion of the hunting festival.
—
The next morning.
Along with the enemy-detector Noela, I came 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 meters 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 something, just say it! Y’you’re thinking I’m a failure...”
“We didn’t say anything like that, right? Show me 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 me 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 me.
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 resumed 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 somehow encourage the depressed Lilica, who was clutching her knees, and somehow motivate her, for now, I measured 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 somehow five meters.
At school, it’s the distance three seats in front of you.
My complaints would be ... you intended to become champion like this....?
No, I should calm down.
I’ve decided to help her.
I have to do something about this.
The wild beasts probably won’t purposefully come 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 meters, 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 me a disagreeable look and was unwilling, but I got her to agree somehow and explained the plan.
“ – And so, if Lilica raises the accuracy of her short bow archery, and can definitely hit within a few meters-”
“I’ll definitely be the champion...!”
We nodded in unison and immediately took action.
Lilica returned once to prepare a short bow, and Noela and I gathered the necessary ingredients for a new medicine.
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 medicine, I made a medicine with the targeted ability.
Advisor Noela gave it her seal of approval.
If she uses this, there won’t be any problems.
[Attractant: A medicine that gives off the smell that monsters and beasts like. Super effective.]