64 First Quest With Katsuki

"So… We've been… Looking at a ten year old?" Jack muttered almost inaudibly behind me.

"Well… I suppose this would be the first… I remember that time we got smacked so hard by that one hundred year old vampire girl who we've been treating like a kid because she looks like a ten year old…" Markus commented with a shake of his head. "Makes me wonder if all the other Meslatars we've been gawking at were actually underaged…."

I suppose seeing such reactions from these guys was understandable. On the other hand, the girls were more impressed by Katsuki.

"Where did you learn to move like that?" Sabrina asked excitedly.

"I.. I trained from young…"

"Wow! And you're an orange tier in Pyromancy?" Melissa gasped.

"Yes… I practised a lot…"

"Did you have a teacher?"

"Yes, I did…"

Oh? So she had someone teaching her? That's news to me as well.

I went back to the reception counter and gave the form back to the receptionist, confirming Katsuki's registration as a Mercenary.

"Congratulations, Katsuki, you're a Mercenary now," I grinned, handing over her Guild card to her.

She looked down at the card before looking back at me, "Thank you Mistress, I will do my best to support you!"

"Fufufu~ Well, in that case, shall we take a quest to commemorate this?"

Jack perked up, "Oh? You're already going that far huh? Just to let you know, we have different rates for accompanying you on your que--"

"Shut up Jack, no one asked you," Melissa interrupted.

"Yeah, we're following our fellow sweet loving sister out on her first quest, so you can bugger off if you don't feel like it!" Sabrina added.

Jack's mouth opened and closed like a fish, "But… But… I'm supposed to be the leader…"

Technically it's not my first quest but whatever…

"So what are you comfortable doing, Katsuki?" I asked while standing in front of the quest board.

"Shouldn't we inform Madam about this first, Mistress? A quest might take a few days to complete."

"Not if we take one of the easier ones. Oh! Look! An F rank quest! 'Cull the Horned Rabbit population outside the city', that looks simple enough. They even pay us a small bronze coin for every rabbit horn we bring back and two small bronze coins if we bring an entire rabbit!"

Jack chuckled at the quest, "Oh damn, this takes me back. I remember when I first started out as a Mercenary and I took that quest too. Those rabbits were so annoying."

Loyd turned to me, "Those rabbits are quite dexterous, it's usually best to use a trap to catch them instead."

Oh yeah, I used to make traps to lure the rabbits to me before attacking them. Well, I should be able to make something quickly with my hunting skill anyway.

"Ah, but it seems like this one is having you deal with a large group of them who had moved to the fields," Markus mused. "In that case, you don't need one since they'll be all over the place."

Oh? Then that's even easier. Both Katsuki and I can just chase them down!

"It's alright, I have hunted them before so I know how to deal with them!" I assured them.

It seems like this quest was meant to be taken by multiple Mercenary groups at once so we only need to tell the receptionist that we are undertaking the quest to be registered. Sort of like those repeatable quests or something.

The girls wanted to accompany us but Jack put his foot down and denied them, stating that it was bad manners for them to intrude on our quest especially when they weren't our mentors which was a thing apparently.

Thus, they saw us off at the gates and told us to be careful, even going so far as to tell us that they would go and search for us if we weren't back by nightfall.

For a bunch of Mercenaries that we've only known for a week or so, they seem really attached to us for some reason.

That question must have shown on my face because Katsuki asked, "Is Mistress wondering why they are so nice to us?"

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Erm… Yes?"

"They most likely believe Mistress is of noble birth and they're hoping they could latch on to you to receive benefits."

"Even though I don't claim to be?"

"Mistress… Your dress… It's worth more than what they can probably earn in their entire lifetime… Even if Mistress is not a noble, you are at least very wealthy in their eyes."

"Then… Shouldn't they be accompanying us on this trip to make sure we're fine?"

Katsuki grimaced, "Mistress… They don't mind if we die… They'll just come find us later and loot our bodies…"

I stared at her and she just nodded her head slowly.

"Even Melissa and Sabrina?"

Katsuki poked her fingers together, "Umm… How should I say this? It's not like they are actively hoping for it to happen, it's more like it's an occupational hazard that everyone is used to. Those two might be nice to us, but if they were to find us dead on this quest they would probably just mourn for a bit before moving on."

At least I know they were genuine to a certain extent.

"You err… Seem to be quite knowledgeable about this?"

"Because my family does this too and I learned this from them… It's quite common to target new members of The Guild like this… Mistress, the world isn't as kind as you might think it is…"

I see… And here I thought that the isekai trope would bring me into a world that is all fun and games where everyone lived happy lives and there's no suffering around.

Just kidding.

I mean there's slavery around here for crying out loud, there's bound to be suffering and other kinds of crap going on here so it's definitely not all sunshines and rainbows.

Well, that's one reason why I want to grow stronger in the first place so I don't need to worry about things like this.

"Anyway, do you remember where we need to go, Katsuki?"

"Yes, Mistress. We should be there after we get past that hill over there."

Katsuki followed me as I crested the hill, looking down on the plains in front of me that, according to the quest notice, would have an abundance of horned rabbits.

And sure enough, there were quite a number of them running around the field.

Chasing after those rabbits though, were several other people who were clearly Mercenaries as well, most of them looking like they were the same age as my physical age except they were clearly less skilled.

"Huh… What are they doing?" I asked, watching one such boy wearing leather armour unsuccessfully chase after a horned rabbit.

Katsuki frowned, "I think they are new Mercenaries as well, Mistress… But they clearly don't know what they're doing."

"I suppose we should just find our own spot then… Do we need to set traps?" I asked just to check Katsuki's opinion on this.

My Inugami maid shook her head, "I can outrun them, Mistress, so there's no need."

Well, her dexterity stat was higher than Horned Rabbits so I guess that's to be expected.

The two of us went to a relatively empty part of the field since most of it was being occupied by those beginner Mercenaries, all of them struggling to take down the Horned Rabbits around them.

This part was left alone since there were fewer Horned Rabbits milling around, not even caring that there were people out here hunting their kin.

Speaking of which… Katsuki's still wearing the training gear that we borrowed from The Guild.

The condition for borrowing it was that we return it at the end of the day, which was the reason why we're doing this quest right now since Katsuki doesn't have a proper set of Mercenary gear.

Though I say that, I'm still wearing my dress but it won't hinder me anyway.

One thing she was missing was a proper weapon so I gave her my Assassin's Dagger to use, which kind of suited her just fine.

As for me, I pulled out the Tornado Bow which I would be using in conjunction with my Umbramancy to hunt for those rabbits.

"Eh? Mistress is taking part in the hunt too?" Katsuki asked, surprised by the bow in my hands.

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Of course? I registered myself for this quest too, didn't I?"

"Umm… Usually when the owners bring their slaves for this… They just use the slaves to complete these quests to raise their rank while they do nothing…"

To prove her point, she gestured to a group of people nearby where a well dressed brat was seated under the shade while watching four slaves trying their best to hunt the rabbits.

"Why do they even do that? Like what's the point of artificially raising their rank like that?"

"I do not know, Mistress… Perhaps Madam might know? I only know that this is quite common for nobles…"

I shook my head, "I'm not that kind of person, Katsuki. Have I told you my dream?"

She shook her head.

"I want to go out and explore the World on my own two feet while eating all the sweets. So to do that, I need to be strong!"

Katsuki blinked a few times at me, "I… I see… I suppose it makes sense since Mistress is the second child right?"

I waved my hand, "Not at all, I'm Mother's only child but I'm not a noble. Don't ask me why I have a family name because till date, Mother hasn't told me anything yet. I was literally born in a cave."

Katsuki's face was now of pure confusion.

"Has Madam not told Mistress about your family?"

I waved my hand, "Not at all and don't think too hard about it. I've already decided to just live my life as it is. Anyway, I'll be joining the hunt too, you don't mind, right?"

"Not at all, Mistress."

"Ok, so we get two small bronze coins for each rabbit, how about let's aim for at least twenty five rabbits to earn back the cost of hiring Jack's party?"

"Understood Mistress. I shall do my best!"

"If I get more kills, I get to fluff your tail!"

"Ngghhh… I still don't understand why Mistress is so fascinated by my tail… Very well…"

Yeah! Time to hunt all the rabbits!!