Chapter 18

Let’s burn myself out!

Here’s the next one, enjoy the start of our new totally normal, average Hunter .

18 Novice Hunter

The Hunter Guild was empty .

Right now was the least busy time since it was already afternoon .

Neither was it a mysterious building that fused a reception with a bar, nor was there an event where she got harassed by drunks .

The girl headed to one of the free counters, choosing arbitrarily .

「Excuse me, I would like to register as a Hunter…」

「Ah, yes!」

A 17~18 year old woman, who looked like she hadn’t done this job very long yet, hurriedly faced Adel .

「Um, can you write?」

「Yes, that is no problem . 」

「Then, could I ask you to fill out this form?」

The girl was handed a sheet from the clerk and headed towards a desk a little removed from the counter with it .

She put down the sheet and picked up the provided pen before staring at the first item on the form, which of course was her name .

(My name… . )

The girl was deep in thought .

(“Adel” gets sealed, no choice there . I probably won’t get to use it anyway besides when I meet some of my old classmates… .

And I left “Misato” back in the previous world so I have to think up a new name)

But then she remembered a conversation she had had with her father when she had been a child .

If she remembered it correctly, it was when they got the assignment in elementary school to “ask your parents where your name comes from . ” .

And her father’s response to that question was something like this .

『Misato, you know that your father works with planes, right? In this business we use a unit called mile to measure distances .

There are land miles, and nautical miles . There are several different types of land miles like the international mile, the survey mile, the statute mile, and many others .

But for the skies and oceans, and in turn all ships and planes, there is only the nautical mile . Since it would be a problem if different countries used different units for the seas and sky that is shared between everyone .

While the land miles are defined by several different things, there is only one way to define the nautical mile . 360° when you go around the earth from south to north . One such degree is 60 miles, so a sixtieth of a degree is one mile .

The Kanji of your name Misato can also be read as Kairi, the japanese name for the nautical mile .

Something that will always be understood no matter where you go in the world . That’s the kind of girl I wanted you to be when I gave you this name…』

The girl’s hands moved the pen vigorously to write down her name .

『Mile』

This was the birth of the Novice Hunter, Mile .

Mile then continued filling out the form one by one .

Gender: female . Age: 12 . Profession: mage . Specialities: none . Wants to form a Party: no . Previous Hunter experience: none . Further notices: none .

When she returned to the counter, the clerk didn’t have any problem with the form and accepted it .

「Ah, Mile-san . Are you from around here?」

「No, I come from a far away mountain range . When my parents died there was no other job I could think of…」

「I-I’m sorry I touched on an unpleasant topic…

But now I’ll explain a bit about the Guild!」

The explanation that Laura the clerk gave her largely matched with what the boys in her class had told her .

There are eight Hunter Ranks ranging from G to S .

G-Rank is for the 6 to 9 year olds who are “Quasi-Guild-Members” and aren’t allowed to do anything but odd jobs around town or herb gathering with an escort .

From age 10 onwards you could be a real F-Rank Guild Member, but the available quest are only things like plant or mineral gathering . You can’t take on extermination quests for bigger monsters than Horn Rabbits and boar and deer are the limit when it comes to hunting wild animals .

On E-Rank you could fight against monsters up to Goblins or Orcs . From D-Rank onwards there were no restrictions .

But a D-Rank Hunter was still considered half-baked and while they could take on escort missions, the commissioner would usually request a C-Rank or higher .

C-Rank is what you would usually call a “proper” Hunter and it is the Rank with the most members . But since their actual strength could range from “barely above D-Rank” all the way up to “almost B-Rank”, this Hunter Rank is kind of vague .

B-Rank Hunters are first class and can command a sizable amount of respect in a rural town . A-Rank Hunters are celebrities known throughout the country whereas S-Rank Hunters are already in the realm of Heroes .

In return, there are only a handful of S-Rank Hunters even in the capital .

Promotions are awarded by the Guild conference according to the number of successfully completed tasks or other contributions to the Guild . But unless there are special circumstances, there is a minimal age for certain Ranks .

Any manipulation in regards to promotions is absolutely unforgivable . If they are found to be guilty, even if they are a branch chief, they will get banned from the Guild for good or, in the worst case, even get executed . This is to ensure that there is no way to easily buy your Rank .

As long as it’s just small fights between Guild members, it’s their problem . If it turns into a crime though, they will get punished by both the city guards as well as the Guild . They might be part of the Guild, but they are also still citizens and will get punished accordingly for their crimes .

While the clerk was explaining these things, a Hunter plate had been made according to her form . It was a small iron plate with a chain to wear it like a necklace . The letter F(its equivalent of the local writing system) as well as Mile’s name, this branch’s name, and her identification number were etched into it .

Obviously, it didn’t come with mysterious functions like automatically recording the number of slain monsters or informing the Hunter of emergency quests . It was necessary to always collect the designated part of a slain monster and carry it back to the Guild to update the plate . If you want to change your base of operations, your branch office needs to send your record as well as a letter of introduction to your destination .

Since they highly value their integrity, there was no fear that the content of that letter or its destination would be traceable if a Hunter wants to vanish .

「If you happen to find the remains of a Hunter somewhere please collect their plate . Their families or friends will then be notified and receive their Hunter plate after all records have been erased . There will be a small reward for retrieving these form the Guild . Sometimes from the families too .

Furthermore, all other belongings of a fallen Hunter belong to the one who finds them, including their armor and weapons . 」

The clerk told Mile this as she handed over her plate .

After she had finished all of her explanations, the clerk straightened her posture and addressed Adel once more .

「Welcome to the Hunter Guild!」

That night, Mile made plans for the coming day while laying on her bed .

The most request for F-Rank Hunters were continuous commissions rather than specific quests .

Continuous commissions were quests that didn’t need to be reissued every time and simply left open . Hunters could then just skip the formalities and only needed to harvest or hunt the requested target and the Guild would buy it off of them . An example for this would be gathering herbs or Horn Rabbit meat .

This kind of quest was convenient since it let you avoid the busy mornings in the Guild .

Also, it was a loophole Mile could use to hunt higher ranked monsters than Horn Rabbits and turn them into money despite being only F-Rank .

One such loophole was forming a party, but this option was obviously discarded .

The one she aimed for this time were continuous commissions for higher ranked monsters .

The restriction placed on lower Rank Hunters was to keep them from getting killed meaninglessly and to ensure a low failure rate . But since there was no success rate for the continuous commissions and it sometimes happened that one was attacked by a stronger monster during hunting . And the value of the prey wouldn’t sink just because she was an F-Rank .

They don’t really recommend it, but if you did it in full knowledge of the dangers, the Guild respects that and won’t make a fuss about it .

Only, Mile had no intention to go out of her way to hunt higher ranked monsters . She was an absolutely normal, average F-Rank Hunter .

There were several reasons why Mile had decided on becoming a Hunter .

It’s a profession that doesn’t care about your background or age .

With a Hunter plate you could easily cross domain or even country borders .

If anything bad happened she could simple migrate to the next country .

And even if her name should become known in the surrounding countries, she could just take on a new name and start over as a F-Rank Hunter again in a far away country .

If her opponents were only monsters and animals, it wouldn’t be too tragic if she made a mistake in controlling her power .

If she went solo, there would be no need to restrict her magic or sword skills .

She wouldn’t bother anybody if she suddenly vanished .

And finally, once a week might have been fine, but tending to a shop all week would be boring, and she wanted to make a little bit of money in preparation for her future married life .

When she thought about the future, she couldn’t think of any other profession for her to take up .

And most of all, Hunter was a job all those took who had problems finding work and didn’t have any special abilities . In other words, a very normal, average occupation .