65 A Noble Brat
In the end, we managed to bag forty two of those rabbits with myself killing twenty five of them. I got a little too excited, ok?
It may seem like I have an advantage with the bow, but I quickly realised the rabbits were surprisingly perceptive. They somehow knew that someone was aiming at them and would immediately run off the moment they sensed that.
Thus, I adapted by shortening the duration of my aim and fired as soon as I pulled the bowstrings while moving around the field.
Seriously though, shooting a bow while moving is harder than it looks. The only reason I'm able to do this is the fact that this bow is enchanted to use Air magic to fire and it literally has aim hack.
On the other hand, I got to see Katsuki using her assassination skills for the first time.
It seems like the skill allows her to hide her presence and coupled with her Umbramancy magic, she is able to sneak up on her quarry and strike at them before they even knew she was there. The fact that the magic still worked despite it being the middle of the day was not lost on me.
To the Horned Rabbits, they were basically minding their own business before Katsuki would appear behind them and kill them with a quick slice of her dagger.
The only reason she got less kills than I did was that she ran out of mana and it got harder for her to hunt the rabbits this way.
"Mistress is really strong," Katsuki praised as I was securing the rabbits to the side of my bag.
I didn't want to put them into the Pack of Folding since I didn't want Jack's party to realise I have one and they would ask questions if I were to return empty handed.
I shrugged, "The bow did help me quite a bit. I saw how you killed yours though, also just as impressive."
"Tha… Thank you, Mistress," She whispered, suddenly shy.
That was when I heard footsteps getting closer to us and I looked up to see the well dressed kid I noticed earlier approaching me with his slaves.
Among the slaves were three Mahuns and one Wrunch, the orc looking especially out of place amongst them.
"Which noble family do you hail from?" He asked rather crassly.
I stood up from my bag, "What do you want?"
"I asked you a question, could you answer that first?"
I briefly considered telling him my family name but just decided not to since I don't know the significance of it yet.
Instead, I simply shook my head, "I am not in any noble families as far as I am aware."
His attitude then suddenly changed and he sighed dramatically at me, "In that case, I'm willing to buy all the Horned Rabbits you have slain so far for one small bronze coin per rabbit."
I tilted my head at him, "You do know that if I were to deliver these, I would get two small bronze coins from the Guild right?"
"Yes, but you still need to bring them back, don't you? If you were to sell them to me, you could avoid such trouble and you can go and hunt more right now."
What? How is this even a good deal at all? In what universe would even anyone consider this as a good transaction?
"Excuse me but… Who are you?" I asked.
He gasped and looked completely aghast at my question, "You don't know me? Do you not recognise this insignia?"
I watched him gesture exaggeratedly at his chest where some kind of crest was sewn on his shirt featuring a lion holding a sword or something.
Well, obviously I don't recognise what it's supposed to signify but I can guess it's supposed to be his house crest or whatever to show how important he was. Too bad I didn't study on the local nobility and what not so I of course don't know what it means.
Good thing I have a cheat I can use here though.
[Name: Mikeal Leo
Title: Young Master of Leo Family
Race: Mahun
Stats:
7 Strength
5 Dexterity
5 Endurance
10 Magic
Skills:
Noble Etiquette (Tier 1)]
Ok… This is the first time I've seen someone with less than a ten in any stat… You even have only one skill too…
At least I know he really is a noble…
Obviously slighting him might be a bad idea since he could be a pain in the ass later with how self-important he's already acting so I'll just play along for now.
Ahem… Let's see, I'll do the classical lady act this time.
I curtsied, "Oh, my apologies, young master Leo, I did not recognise you. Although I must still insist that I cannot sell these as I am on a tight schedule to return to the city and it would be bad for me to return empty handed. Perhaps the young master could try your hand at hunting the rabbits too? I'm sure if you were to help out your retainers, you could complete this quest even faster than anyone else!"
Ha, don't underestimate an author who has to constantly write multiple dialogues for different kinds of people! I know how to emulate different types of speech on the fly!
Besides, I'm sure nobles would love to show off right? Surely me saying this will make him want to go and show off his 'skills' by hunting a few of those Horned Rabbits.
Contrary to what I thought would happen, his brows furrowed at me, "Are you making fun of me? Because of you, there's barely any other rabbits for me to hunt! It's your fault that I'm not able to hunt as many as I wanted!"
I looked around the field.
Ok… It's true that I culled quite a number of them… But there's still some hopping around you know?
Besides, it's not like there's a minimum number of rabbits you need to kill to complete this quest either… The Guild's paying you by how many rabbits you bring back so even if you bring back one, they'll still pay up.
I restrained myself from sighing, "In that case, how many rabbits do you want to buy?"
"Oh, forget about buying, you've got on my nerves now. Hand over all your rabbits or I'll tell my slaves to beat you up!"
Ahh… Now we're moving to the threat of violence huh…
I looked at his slaves and I noticed they were probably around the same age as this brat, which I'm guessing to be around twelve or thirteen years old.
I could definitely take them all out right here by myself if we were to come to blows but I'd feel bad for these slaves who were forced to fight me because of this idiot.
Sighing internally, I pulled out my bow and shot out an arrow quickly before they even realised what was going on.
My arrow pierced through the neck of one of the Horned Rabbits nearby and I moved to pick it up, dropping the rabbit in the brat's hands.
"Here, no need to thank me. Have a good day."
I quickly took Katsuki by her hand and ran off, right as the brat recovered and started screaming about having blood on his hands and shouting after me.
Yeah ok, I got pissed off at him ok?
"Is that alright, Mistress?" Katsuki asked even as we were running.
"Meh… We're only staying here for another day anyway, all we need to do is to lie low. Besides, we didn't actually hurt him. Do you know about the Leo family?"
"I'm sorry Mistress, but I'm not familiar with the nobility of this Kingdom either…"
"Oh, no need to worry yourself so much, it's not a big deal. I can ask Mother about it later."
Soon enough, we arrived back at the gate and true to their word, Jack and his party was right where we left them.
"Oh? Back so soon, Miss Aster? Looks like you girls managed to… By the Gods… How many Horned Rabbits did you even hunt?!"
"Oh, only forty two, they weren't that big of a deal," I answered casually.
Markus whistled, "Wow… So your servant was actually holding herself back during the test huh? Quite impressive."
Looks like they thought Katsuki hunted all of them by herself, not that I would bother correcting them anyway but Katsuki was obviously not going to let that slide.
"Mistress had taken part in the hunt as well and she hunted most of them."
Judging by the smiles the group sent towards Katsuki, it was obvious they didn't believe her considering I was dressed in an outfit that wasn't fit for hunting monsters.
Katsuki clearly knew that they didn't believe her too but I shook my head at her to let her know not to bother.
"Well! I guess this is your first successful quest! Let's go back to The Guild and we can call it a day eh? I'm sure your mother must be worried about you by now!" Jack suggested.
Nah, she's definitely hanging around nearby, we just don't know she's there…
