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Beast Tamer Who Got Kicked Out From the Hero’s Party Chapter 91

CHAPTER 91: WHO IS THE VICTOR AND WHO IS THE LOSER?

「“Heal”.」

I used my magic to heal the Horn Wolf’s wounds.

Fortunately, I should say, the wounds on this fella were not all that deep, and I was easily able to heal them all up with my Beginner-level healing magic.

But what if it had suffered some deeper wound?

What if the weapons that inflicted those wounds upon it were poisoned?

If that was the case, then my Beginner-level healing magic might not have been enough to get the job done.

Come to think of it, I don’t think that we have a dedicated Healer in our party.

Sora and Luna are good at Attack-Type magic, but that’s it. I can’t imagine them using support or healing spells.

「…… Alright. Everything should be fine now.」

「WOOF!」

As I healed its injuries, the Horn Wolf chirped cheerfully.

It even got closer to me and rubbed its head against my body.

「Oh? Alright, good boy. Good boy.」

「WOOF!」

「It looks like this little fella grew attached not only to Nina, but now it attached itself to Rein as well.」

「I think it now understands that Rein is a good person.」

「It would be really nice if it really understood that.」

I stroked the Horn Wolf’s head and its eyes narrowed pleasantly in response.

Honestly, that was a really cute reaction.

I wanted to just keep on petting it like that. There was even a thought flashing through my head to take it home with us for a short moment.

However, this guy has its own life and friends.

Besides, it would be hard to keep an animal that is designated as an Endangered Species with us at home.

I guess it was too bad, but we just had to give up on it. And that was that.

「See you later. Take care of yourself!」

「…… WOOF!」

The Horn Wolf looked back at us once……

And then it ran deeper into the forest, disappearing from our view.

「…… Take, care……」

Nina waved her hand in the air in the direction of the wolf.

「So, I guess that takes care of that, huh?」

「Yeah. Now all we have to do is hand these guys over to the Guild and be done with it.」

「Fumuh.」

「What’s wrong, Luna? Is there something on your mind?」

「I feel like we are forgetting something here.」

「Huh?」

We managed to save the Horn Wolf from the poachers.

We even managed to apprehend all of said poachers in the process.

Was there anything else we should have done here?

「That explosion…… I have heard it coming from around here somewhere!」

「This might be the doing of those blasted poachers!」

From deep inside of the forest, both Ogg and Kreutz suddenly emerged.

「Ah!」

Kanade made an expression as if she just came to realize that those two were still inside of the forest with us as well.

As for everyone else…… Well, we all had similar expressions on our faces, to be perfectly honest.

Which one of our parties would be able to catch the poachers first?

Yeah, there was actually a competition that was still going between us. But I only managed to remember that just now.

It was a rather unimportant matter, so I had forgotten all about it really fast.

「Fufunh! You’re too late to the party, guys!」

「If you are still looking for those poachers, then look no further! Because we managed to capture them all already!」

Both Kanade and Tanya puffed out their chests in gestures of pride.

They were so proud of their accomplishment, but I’m pretty sure that they also managed to forget all about that contest right away.

But as soon as they remembered, they started to boast about it.

「What the……!? You mean to tell us that you already managed to catch the poachers!?」

「Nonsense! There’s no way you could get ahead of us like that!」

「Oh, you’d better believe it! And it was really easy to boot!」

「Want some proof? Here! Have a good look at those chumps lying around.」

Seeing that Ogg and Kreutz were looking all skeptical, made a gesture with her hand, pointing towards the unconscious poachers that were still sprawled out on the ground.

「…… Well, those guys look like genuine poachers to me alright.」

「What kind of trick did you guys use?　It’s not something that should be possible. Normally you would never be able to catch those guys before we would be able to do that!」

「Huh? Are you sure that this isn’t what we would call a “Skill Difference”?」

「Guh.」

After Tanya directed that thorny jab towards the two veteran Adventurers, Kreutz made a troubled face.

And as if to follow up on that, Kanade makes a scowl at the two of them.

「Hmph! I guess we’ve won this game!」

「So this means that the request is ours to take. Just like you promised.」

「Gunuh……!」

「…… This is utterly unacceptable.」

「Nyah?」

「Come to think of it, it’s not normal! There’s just no way that you would be able to locate the poachers and take care of them before we did! There is no way that we would lose to a newcomer who has only been adventuring for a month or so! You must have used some kind of trick, didn’t you!?」

「Yes, that’s right! Actually, you already knew where the poachers would be, right!? You knew that, and you still lured us into this ridiculous competition, right!?」

「No, that’s not really……」

What are those two even talking about here?

Of course, there is no such thing as a fact that we would have known the location of the poachers in advance.

In the first place, it was Ogg and Kreutz who wanted to make finding the poachers into a stupid contest.

You can’t just prepare in advance for something as stupid as that.

Could it be that they just wanted to complain about it?

No, that’s not it……

Does that mean that they do not want to admit that it’s their loss here?

「This match is officially invalid. You got that?」

「Goodness gracious…… You knew full well that you would never be able to beat us fair and square, so you resulted to some foul trickery, huh? I know that some people just can’t help themselves, but please refrain from doing something like this in the future. You might not even realize it, but you are dragging the good reputation of all Adventurers through the mud like this……」

「Nyaah…… Those two are absolutely disgusting……」

「They somehow remind me of the Hero’s Party. They are equally as scummy.」

Yes, their words and actions certainly did not make that much sense.

However, it was still true that those two were the fellow Adventurers.

So there was no way for us to possibly turn to force in order to resolve this conflict…… But if that was the case, then what was it that we could do here?

「Ah…… For the time being, why don’t we put the matter of the request on hold?」

「What did you say?」

「Are you trying to weasel your way out of this situation with petty excuses like that?」

「No, that’s not it. I just think that now is not the time to be engaging in silly disputes like that.」

I looked at the sky and saw that the sun was slowly starting to set.

Apparently, this matter has taken way longer than we initially expected.

「It’s going to take us a while to get back to the city, even longer since we need to tow those poachers away. So how about we call it a day and set up a camp for the night?」

「T-That’s…… Well…… Yeah, you’re right.」

「Apparently, there’s a base camp nearby that was used by the poachers. And since they are out of commission, we can take advantage of that. We can always go back to discussing this topic on our way back to town tomorrow.」

「…… Alright. We understand.」

Oh, great.

They seem to be okay with that idea for the time being.

「We’re going to prepare the poachers for transporting. You two can go ahead and check the camp out, alright?」

「What, are you going to tell us what to do now?」

「It’s just a suggestion. The poachers are a large group, so it only makes sense that we prepare them with a larger group as well, don’t you think? It doesn’t mean anything in particular.」

「…… Ogg, this is……」

「Yeah, I know.」

For some reason, both Ogg and Kreutz made suspicious eye contact with one another.

What were they thinking?

I just hope that they were not thinking of something completely nonsensical again

But still, I just couldn’t help it but to get a really bad feeling about this.

And when it comes to things like that, my intuition is usually pretty spot on.

I hope that it’s just my imagination, but what happens now……?

***

Ogg and Kreuz moved to the base camp used by the poachers.

Multiple tents were arranged in an open space in the forest clearing.

Apart from that, there was a large cage with a pulley attached to it.

It was most probably used to keep the captured animals in captivity.

「What about that side?」

「There’s nothing in particular.」

There was always a possibility that there were more poachers nearby, a group that could have worked separately from this one.

They determined that, and searched the base camp in hopes of finding possible clues.

As a result, they came to the conclusion that there was in fact no one else there.

「I thought there would be something in here, but to think there’s nothing at all……」

「It’s a bit of a letdown, isn’t it?」

「Well, it’s also a good thing that we can take it easy. But more than that……」

「The question is: what are we going to do about that request?」

Ogg and Kreutz were both reluctant to let a request like that go just like that.

The request was intercepted by a newcomer who had been an Adventurer for less than a month.

and what’s worse, he have dealt with it using some sort of underhanded tactics for sure.

It was unforgivable.

As the Veteran Adventurers, I wouldn’t feel good if they didn’t show him the right way to do things.

……..In fact, what they were thinking was completely off the mark.

But there wouldn’t be any chance of them realizing that anytime soon.

「What do we do?　If we don’t do anything, they’re going to take the commission away from us.」

「Yeah, that’s right……」

「That’s bullshit…… It is at least a hundred years too early for little shits like that to steal the good quests from us! He needs to be taught a lesson!」

「Well, about that…… I actually have an idea as to what we can do……」

「Oh, that’s my partner for you! What do you have in mind?」

「It’s simple, really. We’ll just have to accomplish the request first, before they get the chance to do it.」

「Hm? And how do you even want to accomplish that?」

「So, here’s the thing……」

Ogg and Kreutz then proceeded to discuss their future plans.

Although the content of their discussion was nothing more than what one would call “coward’s tactics”……

They never doubted that they were the ones who were in the right here and that the truth was on their side all along……