Goddess of the Hunt’s Blessing ①
狩りの女神の祝福 ①
With the preparations and personnel training done, we were finally able to open. However, the soft opening received a weird reception:
“I would like to check in with my lady friend.”
“What? This is a diner? Oh, sorry then hook us up with something that would give us energy.”
“Not bad, the food was surprisingly good! Too bad this was not that kind of place.”
“Mama I’m hungry, let’s eat there…”
“Shhh, this place is only for adults… what it’s a restaurant? Okay then, do you have any kid’s meals?”
Why you may ask, well the couple who are oblivious about their choice of name HAD to use the most romantic incarnation for their restaurant: Lover’s Nest. Really, I did try to stop them, but their puppy eyes had stopped me from stopping them.
The customers first had reservations or indifference due to restaurant’s name, but unsurprisingly, out of curiosity they took their first bite, once the costumers took a liking by Lady Anna’s cooking, they started to frequent.
Since we are only serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner at definite time intervals, we should be able to do away with rush hour preparation and work. This should allow us to do things at a seemingly leisure pace. By the way, the time in this world has the same equivalent with my previous world. Instead of calling it hours, they call it ‘Bells’. They don’t have equivalent for minutes though, they use indefinite time adverbs to speak of time beyond or before the bell, like say for example half before the 3rd bell and the likes.
Now we just wait for customers to come and eat at the diner, get a good impression and a snowball effect will follow. The customers who like Lady Anna’s cooking will talk about the restaurant. With her cooking skills, it was not impossible to have more costumers but…
As the 12 o’clock bell stroked, no more costumer even tried to get close to the diner. Location wise it was not completely out of the way, the Romaria mansion is close to one of the three main roads and gets more traffic and yet not even passers-by are moving back and forth.
We were clueless for the reason until we found out what caused it… and it was so obvious that we had tried to forget about it.
“Mama I’m hungry again, let it at that restaurant again.”
“Shh, we can’t go there anymore.”
As soon as the mother said those words, she grabbed her child and left in a hurry. I could see the desperate look in Lady Anna’s face as she saw the mother and child ran away from the mansion.
“Don’t worry, today is just the first day!” Sir Heid immediately lightens the sour mood and started to bus the tables, both Lady Anna and I refreshed our minds and followed suit.
The second and third day passed and not even the weird costumers came to the restaurant.
“Ace, would it be okay if you could get a few more ingredients?” Hmmm, odd with no costumer since yesterday we should have more… Ah! I see. “Okay I will get all the tomatoes we need.”
Before closing the door, I could slightly see Lady Anna’s tears; she must have been holding it up until now. I should let the couple have some time alone and immediately run to look for more potatoes.
*****
While lost on thought as to how we could garner more customers, a few minutes away from the mansion while looking for the apples another incident occurred and stopped me.
“Arghh!”
“Go get them apothecary!”
Wounded men of different ages are carried towards the central plaza, they seem to have either been bitten or pounced at.
“What happened?” Curious, I asked what brought the situation.
“FOREST WOLVES attacked ‘em while cutting woods for lumber. We thought we would try our luck today too but…” Apparently, they tried to go cut some trees thinking that I was out hunting.
“Hmmmm… How about letting the local militia handle it?” I just wanted to provide my opinion but…
“You’d think they’d move for somethin that scary!?” the elderly man half spat at his words. “The Town Elder won’t permit it; they probably won’t move even when the monsters are at their faces!”
“Yeah, if only we have a Hunter’s Guild here in Amarante” a younger person joins our conversation.
“Now that you mentioned it, why does this town have no Hunter’s Guild?” I knew from sir Heid that the guild had stopped operating here in Amarante a couple years back, but as to why I did not know and so continued my inquisitive mode.
“Heh! The Town Elder is backed by them nobles and they hate the Guild. They keep tellin the Guild that there ain’t no more place to set up an establishment.” There he goes again spitting at his words, must be out of spite. “He a coward and just don want to go against them nobles if you ask me.”
“Where are you going!” while the wounded were still being treated, I started to move towards the west gate. The elderly man noticed where I was heading and so asked my destination.
“Hunting!” I had gotten a good information from them, so I decided to help them out if just a little. Now to get the desired meat. (Not even wondering what happened to getting those tomatoes, potatoes, and apples.)
*****
“Sir Heid. Lady Anna. Sorry for being late, it took a while to get the needed meat we need for tomorrow.”
That night after our scrumptious meal, there was something I wanted to confirm about the Guild and its Operation, as a former noble Sir Heid should be familiar about them.
To summarize, the Hunter’s Guild was an independent entity from the state. Apparently, one of the Goddess of this world -Erebel the Goddess of the Hunt had created the guild to protect humanity from monsters. That is why the Hunters are often called Monster Specialists.
As an organization built by the goddess, no kingdom can degrade or destroy the guild without justifiable cause. Due to this, some of the greedier nobles who could not lynch the guild had grown to despise them since they are unable to bring them to their side.
Unlike in the template I’ve had read in the previous world, adventures or hunters which were given freedom, freedom to even choose to be employed by another, the Hunters Guild in Resmere however have their members solely employed by the guild and so cannot serve under anybody else except for the guild. They can however be lent temporarily but only for a set duration and should only involve dealing with monsters. Anything other than that, the guild will refuse the lending of their members.
Individuals who choose to join the guild becomes a part of that independent entity, and therefore, Hunters are not allowed to be drafted as potential soldier in times of war, this is also brought another reason why nobles detest the guild. The only times they can be drafted is when the war involves demons during the Demon Lord Season.
There are many other reasons to include to the count. But primarily, it is because they cannot be easily employed for personal use and inability to join the war that makes them a liability for nobles.
When asked for his opinion, surprisingly, Sir Heid did not possess that hatred for the Guild. I guess it is one of those things, some don’t like them, some do, and some just don’t give a damn. Sir Heid seems to like them though.
I guess I have another material to work with.
*****
The Lover’s Nest, which had undergone an expected roadblock, was in dire situation of closing a few days after its soft opening. It had already been a week since that very soft opening and we had still very few costumers.
On the side note, when the elderly lumberjack and the other woodcutters found out about me hunting the FOREST WOLVES, they immediately became one of our regular patrons.
However, most only bought for take-outs fearing the hatred from the Town Elder and in turn incurring the wrath from the nobles, but that can’t be helped. Since we can’t be too picky; we decided to count ourselves lucky that we have even a portion of the intended costumers and offered all the take-outs as much as we can.
By the end of the second week, little by little our costumers did grow a bit ever since we had a few eccentric costumers who were introduced to Lady Anna’s cooking. It was like a honey trap once tasted, they would keep coming back for more.
Like the town librarian who has only her mind focused on books, the elderly apothecary and only priestess in town, and the Head Manager of the Government Water Management and Regulation Office -Lisa Salsa. The three have been coming back to eat some more from the Lover’s Nest and became our promotional advertisers.
We were positive that this would give us boost sales and our image, but as always in business there are certain trials and tribulations that need to be overcome and it happened on the 5th week since the soft opening.
“Why are you lots associating yourselves with traitors” a lean man with a mean looks on his eyes came spouting these words, just when we were busy with lunch. “Want to be branded as traitors, the lot of ya!”
Before I could even do anything, Lady Anna who should have been at the kitchen sprinted outside. The speed almost made me think she invoked the skill SENKOU or something else entirely.
“Mr. Molba why are doing this?” she must have had enough of this stupidity, that her usual calm demeanor crumbled. “My family gave you our trust when they left for the capital why can’t you offer the same trust when I am wrongly accused of such false claims!”
“That is…” He became hesitant with his words in fact many of the people in the gallery seem to have the same hesitation.
I am guessing that Lady Anna’s family were indeed good and trustworthy people and yet when she got branded as a traitor none of her most trusted friends even tried to defend her.
This was the root of lady Anna’s frustration, no one even tried to defend her or her honor despite growing up here, ironically the only ones who ever did were people who did not even know about her childhood days with her family in Amarante.
“Eyyy! All those who resist will get arrested!” he was now just saying things convenient for him. But the people who have somehow awakened from their own stupidity did try to stop him.
“Hey now, the lady just wanted to talk that’s all there’s no need for arresting.”
“Yeah” the crowd was in approval.
“I am the Town Elder now, and she and her husband has been found guilty of treason.” There was no use of reasoning for him.
This look like it could get ugly any minute and was ready to defend the couple when an elderly woman’s voice interrupted the scene.
“Ohh? On which court where they found guilty, If I might ask?” the voice had this certain elegance despite spoken a bit slowly.
“That is… who the hell are you?” Well, who might she be indeed…?
*****
The night when I heard about the Hunter’s Guild from Sir Heid, I used what limited skill I learned from the two and wrote a letter to a Hunter Guild branch outside Amarante. Using my otherwise unused money and with the help of the elderly woodcutter (he did not know the contents though) I was able to send the letter for a speedy mail.
I did not hear the entirety of the couple’s circumstances. In fact, I have no evidence that the couple are indeed innocent to the crimes accused of them. But as they say anybody accused of a crime is innocent until proven otherwise. So, I moved with the thought of proving their innocence.
When the couple had told me a little about their circumstance a few days back, they never did mention that they were guilty beyond reasonable grounds in court, they were just branded traitors, and everyone had accepted it as facts. The strangest of it all is that the couple was not placed for capital punishment.
If my conclusion is right, then the couple was not really put in trial and that would mean, they should not have been found guilty as there was no evidence against them. So, the only way to settle this is find evidence that the couple are indeed innocent.
Since I am no super sleuth, I decided to have it be done by professionals instead.
The Hunter’s Guild is an organization independent from the state, although they still abide by the local state laws, they cannot be easily touched by the state without prior cause, after all this organization is said to have been created by the Goddess of the Hunt, Erebel herself. Therefore, their words should have some weight.
According to how I understood it from sir Heid, apparently, the guild had the best mediators, the best combatants, and the best investigators. If they have indeed the best investigators, then maybe…
With that, I made sure to write about the couples’ circumstance, and the fact that they have come to this place means that the investigation on the couple had turned out well.
I was right to place my bet on the Hunter’s Guild.