New World with Four Husbands

With the wedding preparation going well, Coco has busied herself hunting for monsters outside the city walls once more.

The Archensheen city doesn’t have a hunter guild branch, nor do they have a mercenary guild branch, but Cleora has given her a small team that she can lead whenever she wants.

Unfortunately for that team, Coco loves working alone so they don’t get called out of walls often.

The team has one female mediator, which made it more difficult for Coco to call because she doesn’t want to put no mediator in harm’s way.

Though there’s no saying that said mediator might be stronger than a woman or a man, the fact that they are the ones who are capable of carrying a child is more than enough to consider them precious.

I should talk to mama about them. Coco thought, scratching the back of her head as she stared at her team.

The team decided that enough is enough and confronted her before she could walk out of the city gates, and unfortunately for Coco, all of them are unnaturally fast for an average human.

"We want to help hunt this time, ma’am." The tallest member of the group said, his hands clenching into fists.

"You don’t have to." Coco quickly rebutted, shooting him an awkward smile. "I do this because I want to, not because I’m obligated to. All of you were paid to work under me, right? You can ask the Duchess for a different job instead if you want."

Truthfully, Coco never talked about them to her mother— not that she needed to.

The team was sent to her so she can work outside the city gates, to hunt for monsters, to hunt for spawn stones in the misty, frosty forest, and to break the said stones into pieces.

Lately, she found out that the shards from the broken stones could be sold.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get money to buy something for her husbands, to give them weekly allowances, and store some in her system pocket.

She’s happy that she has enough money to get around, but that happiness is now slowly dampening with how stubborn the team was being.

"No, ma’am!" The female mediator of the group denied her request to have them go away. "We volunteered to work under you, because we heard from Her Grace that you are an amazing hunter that came from the main city!"

Coco raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about..? It’s not like it’s a big deal—"

"The main city is where the Hunter Guild is established." The second tallest member of the team butted in, cutting Coco off with a firm step forward. "The guild hasn’t built a branch anywhere else, so you being one of the top hunters there is magnificent news."

Coco froze and she slowly turned her head to look at the man who had just spoken.

"You know?" Coco mumbled, blinking owlishly. "How did you know that I’m a hunter from the Hunger Guild? I’m pretty sure I haven’t told anyone about.. Wait.. Did the Duchess said—"

"No!" The third male member quipped, stepping in front of the tallest member. "Are you not aware of how famous you are?"

"No." Coco answered, eyebrows furrowing. "How can I? I don’t socialize."

The team froze in their spot, their eyes slowly widening in surprise, but it was the female mediator who had broken free from her shock.

"Then.. How come you’re good at hunting?" She asked, shifting her weight from one foot to another.

"Good at hunting?" Coco repeated, tilting her head. "Do I have to use my mouth to hunt monsters? Last time I checked, I only needed my eyes, ears, my fists, and my unbreakable hoe. It was never stated to us by the guild master that we needed to socialize to be able to hunt."

The mediator couldn’t stop herself from flinching, because Coco’s words were cold.

Though it was lessened by the fact that the woman before looked genuinely confused as she answered the question, with her eyebrows furrowed and the corner of her lips curled down.

The mere sight was enough to make them relax their tensed muscles and nod in agreement.

"I’m sorry." The female mediator apologized and lowered her head. "I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t mean to come off as rude or dumb—"

"Hey now." Coco sighed and raised a hand to wave off the mediator’s crude comment about herself. "I didn’t say anything about you being dumb, did I? I was just stating what I got to observe so far from the guild members."

Of course, just because Coco stopped her from speaking rude to herself doesn’t mean that Coco likes her.

She can’t stop her heart from racing though. After all, Coco is a fine young woman who would be able to provide for her if she were to get impregnated by her, no?

The mediator shook her head and cleared her throat, forcing her gaze away from Coco.

"I.. I see." She murmured, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her top. "I didn’t want to cause any misunderstanding, ma’am. Please forgive me."

"No need to apologize." Coco tutted towards the woman almost immediately, her eyebrow twitching from mild irritation. "Anyway, as I was saying, I don’t need you guys to keep coming back here. I can talk to the Duchess to put you somewhere safer than outside the city walls."

"With all due respect." The tallest member spoke up, catching everyone’s attention. "We’re here, because we volunteered."

The shortest member of the group nodded, taking a step forward. "He’s right, ma’am. Please don’t push us away and let us accompany you on your hunts. We promise that we won’t get in your way or anything. Just allow us to observe you."

"Observe me..?" Coco echoed, blinking.

"Yes, ma’am." He answered quickly, grinning. "We want to witness the strength of the top hunter of the Hunter Guild using our two eyes."