Chapter 38 - Bow Technique

　　"Hear the mournful strains, the chants from the Goddess.

　　Why does she, who is eternally happy, sing this sentimental nocturne?

　　Because love has faded and life has come to an end.

　　And she had only to, to cut the threads of fate."

　　Lenka had just casually sung this elven nocturne, but she hadn't expected to make the entire guild sink for it.

　　Evely even got infected by the melancholy atmosphere of the song and covered her face in her pillow and cried.

　　Of course, the Huntress would also cry because the song gave her an inexplicable sense of defeat, of having lost the ride. It's as if what the goddess cuts off in the song is her unformed love.

　　After the song had ended and the entire guild had returned to silence, the hunters realized something new.

　　This nocturne is imbued with magic.

　　After hearing this, the hunters all felt a surge of raw power welling up inside them, a power that had nowhere to go, making it difficult for the group of stout lads to sleep.

　　As a result, at the suggestion of no one in particular, the young hunters had put on their armor and silver swords to go out of town to hunt the vampires in the wild.

　　Originally, all the gates of Constantine had been closed, but the hunters slapped the guards awake and forced them to open them again with a bit of lulling and intimidation.

　　Watching this group of hot-blooded young men rush out of the city, the guards even felt a tinge of sadness for them. Although the surrounding area of Constantine was relatively safe, night was ultimately the home ground of demons, and this group of hunters was afraid that they would be in a bad way.

　　It wasn't until the next morning, when the guards saw the group return carrying the body of a single demon, that they realized they had underestimated the lads.

　　However, despite the rich harvest, the lads' faces were rather hard to read.

　　For one thing, it had been a full night's hunting, and while it had killed a good number of forest spirit ogres and other demons, it had not found a single vampire.

　　Secondly, now that the reinforcing effect of the nocturne had dissipated, the lads, who had not slept all night, felt doubly fatigued.

　　As soon as many of them returned to the guild, they flopped down on their beds and fell asleep.

　　When Renka saw this, she also misunderstood the vampire hunters, thinking that they had developed the habit of traveling by day and night in order to deal with vampires.

　　She didn't realize for a second that she was to blame for this misunderstanding.

　　When she approached Chief Hector in a daze and asked what kind of work she was going to do today, Chief Hector's eyes lit up.

　　"The song last night, did you sing it?"

　　Renka didn't know why the chief steward was asking this question, but subconsciously felt that she must have done something wrong.

　　"Ah, I'm sorry, am I breaking guild rules?"

　　The world-weary elfin girl is afraid she'll be driven away because of it.

　　"The guild doesn't have such strange rules, but did you add blessing or strengthening magic to the song?"

　　"It's... I didn't."

　　".... No? So that song from last night, can you sing it again?"

　　"Okay."

　　Lenka cleared her throat and sang the nocturne again.

　　The melodious and melodious voice sounded again, and some of the hunters who had already fallen asleep jumped up again, staring at their bloodshot eyes and clamoring to go out of the city to kill.

　　Chief Hector also clearly felt the magic contained in the song.

　　Elvish songs are actually written from spells of natural magic, which is itself a form of magic.

　　When Lenka finished her song, Chief Hector asked again:

　　"Can you use magic?"

　　"Yes, I can use beginner and intermediate nature magic."

　　Things like singing and casting spells were mundane, everyday little things to Lenka, and she hadn't realized at all that they were precious skills in a human country.

　　"What about swordsmanship, bows and the like?"

　　"I don't know how to use a sword, but a bow, slightly."

　　"Come, try with me on the training ground."

　　Without saying a word, Chief Hector led Renka to the training grounds.

　　"Uh, just shoot that archery target?" The elven girl asked, cocking her head as she picked up a training longbow and nocked the arrow.

　　"Right. You try shooting three arrows first."

　　Renka steadily shot one arrow before picking up two more at the same time, showing off a handful of rapid-fire skills.

　　All three arrows hit the red center with precision.

　　"Phew, it's good that it's a fixed target to shoot at, I'm pretty good at that, I wouldn't have the confidence if I was shooting at a moving target."

　　Lenka was clearly saying this in a very sincere tone, but the hunters on the sidelines heard the feeling of Versailles.

　　Evely, in particular, has never been able to properly control a bow due to a physical defect somewhere in her body.

　　"Well, try a moving target." Chief Hector had one of his squires carry the archery target and jumped into the far trench running back and forth.

　　"Hey? Do we really have to try? I'm really not good at this." Rinka took a deep breath and this time, after carefully aiming, shot an arrow.

　　The arrow ended up hitting the moving target, only off center.

　　"Ah, failed, you can't hit its eyes if it's real prey." Renka said in chagrin.

　　Chief Hector was quite speechless.

　　Here comes another one who is superb in every way but pretends he can't do anything!

　　"Lenka, you don't have to mop up."

　　The comment sent a shock through Lenka's mind, thinking she had failed the test.

　　"You're qualified enough to be a full-fledged vampire hunter."

　　"Uh? An official vampire hunter? What do I need to do?"

　　"For now, you just have to sing."

　　"Just for singing?" Lenka's eyes widened, "And how much commission do I get?"

　　In her mind, there probably wasn't much money to be had if she only sang and didn't work.

　　"100 Constantine gold coins per month."

　　"Meow Moon one hundred?" Renka bit her tongue in excitement.

　　Wouldn't that only take two months to pay off Kayne's debt!

　　Not only that, but food and lodging are provided, and all one has to do is sing.

　　Excited, Lenka began to get suspicious.

　　How in heaven's name can such a good thing happen?

　　"Is it really just singing? You guys aren't going to ask me to do something weird, are you?" Renka said with some fear as she clasped her hands to her chest.

　　Chief Hector, however, didn't hear the tainted flavor of her words as he said, "Well, we will be going out of the city from time to time to exterminate the vampires, and we'll need you to sing to strengthen everyone's fighting strength. And there may be danger in the melee, can you protect yourself?"

　　"To fight vampires. I've never seen a vampire, are they good? How do they compare to Wraiths?"

　　"A regular vampire would be almost as strong as an ogre, but with a much higher intelligence. Higher-ranked vampires usually can't be encountered, so just leave it to Kayne when the time comes."

　　"I'm not afraid if ogres. On the way to Constantine, I accidentally broke into an ogre's cave, and thirty to forty ogres rushed out to try to catch me, but I ended up running away."

　　Renka said smugly.

　　Chief Hector was once again speechless.

　　To single-handedly take on thirty or forty ogres and still escape unharmed, this kind of person was already considered a monster.

　　Even if it's Kayne's words ....

　　Well, if it had been Kayne, the 30 or 40 ogres would probably have been cleaned up by his fire.

　　Chief Hector has recognized Kayne as the most brilliant wizard in a century.

　　.... Or the kind where you can slash people with a silver sword.

　　At that moment, none of the hunters surrounding Renka noticed that Ivory had secretly picked up a training longbow.

　　She takes careful aim at the target, nocks the arrow, draws the bow, and releases!

　　The bowstring struck her, and the pain brought tears to the huntress' eyes.