My Duke Won't Die!

“The rules of the hunting competition are simple.”

The hunters who were standing in the clearing of the Antain Forest listened to the words of the Knight Commander. It was 500 gold. When they thought that the handing of such a large sum of money would be decided here, they couldn’t help but concentrate.

“Each one goes into the forest to hunt. Whoever hunts the most types of monsters before the sun reaches the ridge will win.”

Depending on the type of monster, the habitat and the radius of activity differ. Therefore, the more knowledge of the characteristics of the monsters you have, the more you will be able to hunt.

“And the winner will become our guide.”

“Hey, I have a question for you!”

As soon as the knight commander finished speaking, a hunter shouted.

“Why! You rude-!”

One of the knights that followed stepped forward, but the Commander stopped such a knight and nodded his head generously. It was expected that it would be difficult to expect ordinary manners from a monster hunter anyway.

“Tell me.”

“Are we hunting alone? This is usually done by a hunting party…”

“You will have to do it alone.”

Before the hunter could even finish his words, the Commander firmly said.

“Because we are evaluating the ability of each person individually, not the ability of the hunting party. As we are only picking one guide.”

At those words, the eyes of the hunters who murmured between themselves turned to one place. It was where Ella Lane, with a deep expression on her face, stood.

If only one person was chosen, there was no one who could stand up to Ella Lane.

“Damn it, better not even dream about those 500 gold.”

It was a time when the other hunters shook their heads in discouragement at the murmuring of one hunter. Another young hunter shrugged his shoulders and opened his mouth.

“But it’s not like you can’t win at all, right? 

“What are you talking about, Barron? Who will beat Lane?”

“This competition is not about getting the highest grade or hunting the highest amount. It’s about getting a lot of different kinds. That means we have a chance because they’re not going to rank our game.”

It was quite a plausible remark. 

“Well, then we should head to Uralta Valley.”

“Hey, only beginners go there.”

“But I don’t think those dudes know that.”

“Haha, you got a point!”

Around the time the hunters, with renewed hopes, giggled behind the knights backs while taking out weapons they were familiar with. 

“……”

Clive Winterlock was looking somewhere.

It was the place where the last registered hunter stood in the crowded square.

‘Ella Lane.’

She was a woman with golden hair that was somehow familiar.

The woman held a single old ax among hunters who brandished a large double-edged ax, a long spear, or a bastard sword. It was one faded gray single-edged ax used by woodcutters to cut wood.

Clive frowned.

There was no way she could hunt monsters with an ax like that. No, in the first place, it was doubtful whether she could even injure the skin of a monster.

Responding to a request for assistance from Count Louise on the northern border, the first monsters they encountered all had skin covered with hard scales or tough leather. Thanks to this, there were only dozens of swords that lost the blade edge as the helpless knights recklessly swung them.

The monsters on the western border would have been worse than that. Because this is the place where high-ranking monsters, that you have only seen in books, appear, those beyond the types of monsters people are familiar with.

Surprisingly, however, there was no one stopping the recklessness of the hunter who hunted monsters with a woodcutting old ax.

Rather than that….

‘They are conscious.’

It was hard to believe, but there was no other intention in the eyes of the hunters. It was a curious thing. When Clive squinted his eyes to get a closer look at the ax of the hunter that was attracting the attention of the other hunters.

He found out.

Unlike an ordinary gray blade, the sword was overly mottled.

“…….”

“Wh-Why are you like this, Duke? If there is any inconvenience……”

Seeing Clive’s appearance, a man quickly approached and asked. It was Eis Gleason, the son of the village chief, who was responsible for overseeing the hunters along with the progress of this hunting contest.

Eis was very nervous. It was because it was the first time he had seen the nobility of the capital, and the nobleman was supposedly a winter Duke famous for his coldness.

The cold Duke’s gaze was enough to make a normal neck cool down. In fact, it could be blown away in case he uttered a single word wrong. He remembered that an old man, who once visited the village, hinted that the aristocrats in the capital hated low-class people.

Around the time Eis, who swallowed dry saliva with his bad imagination, was waiting for the Duke’s answer.

The Duke’s reply was very short and concise.

“None.”

It was a low, dry voice.

“Uh, uh, I s-see! Well, shall we start?”

“Yes.”

“……Yes, I will!”

Eis, who stole the cold sweat from his face, thinking that he was a noble of very few words, raised the red flag in his hand.

“Wow!”

“Let’s go!!”

Starting with that signal, the hunters who were scattered all over the forest were full of aspirations for the 500 gold prize.

* * *

It was around the time when the sun was quite red and reached the ridge of the low and bumpy Antain Forest.

The hunters who returned to the clearing where the Duke and knights were gathered put down what they had been hunting.

The leather of Idyl, a level 5 monster that was easy to hunt and was basically one of the items that everyone had. Some came with a horn the size of a forearm, but some came with only a few claws the size of a human finger.

It was because no one was used to hunting alone as they always hunted with a hunting party.

Nevertheless, the knights had to work hard to capture their surprised expressions, because there were quite a few hunters who had been hunting four or five kinds of monsters in less than a day.

The hunters giggled once again as they looked at the faces of those knights.

“Ugh, it’s hard, it’s hard.”

The one who showed up almost at the end was a hunter with dark blue hair.

The hunter, who put down a horn the size of a torso that he had been carrying on his side, on the floor, took off the sack that was on his shoulder, disappointing the other hunters.

At least five different types of claws and leather had fallen from the hilt.

“That’s Moria Winnon.”

Eis said looking at him.

“The hunter who came with that big horn. He’s good. Those horns are from a level 3 monster called Wenger, but the magic stone is embedded in the back of the horned forehead, so it is better to just cut the head off.”

As soon as Eis finished speaking, the Commander, James River, winked at the glasses-wearing knight standing behind him.

After receiving the signal, the knight found the chapter with familiarity on which Wenger was drawn in a book that was too thick to hold with only one hand, and then wrote down what Eis had said.

Meanwhile, except for three or four hunters, everyone gathered in the vacant lot.

The winner was almost decided, and everyone had only thoughts of drinking a cold beer.

But when Eis said that it would end only when everyone returned, they had no choice but to stay in the clearing.

And just before dissatisfaction broke out among the hunters who had been waiting, a blunt voice was heard from the entrance.

“My whole body hurts. Hey, get out of the way.”

Of course, it was Ella Lane.

“……”

“……”

All the hunters who unintentionally turned their heads lost their words. This was because five huge horns of different types followed Ella as she walked while holding the rope hanging from her shoulders.

“…Wow, you really went all out.”

Ella indifferently nodded her head at Moria’s admiration.

“An opportunity like this doesn’t come often.”

“Well, 500 gold is great.”

“It’s not wrong, but money isn’t what’s important to me right now.”

“Huh? Then what is it?”

Ella did not answer Moria’s question.

She just turned her head and looked somewhere with her shining olive-colored eyes.

“……”

And Clive Winterlock, who made eye contact with Ella Lane at unexpected timing, was stunned. 

Even before becoming a Duke, Clive had been trained to hide his emotions for a long time, but this was the first time he was in a situation like this.

For example, it was like a situation in which a monster hunter he had never seen for the first time was staring straight into his eyes.

The hunter’s eyes were filled with an unknown and intense emotion (‘He looks good even when seeing the front angle.’). Her eyes were densely gleaming like a beast preying on its prey.

But soon Clive shook his head. 

It was an absurd idea. He was never afraid when he inherited the Duke at a young age, or when he was resented and restrained by the nobles.

So the eyes of a monster hunter would never be scary…

“……”

“……”

……But, somehow, it feels dangerous.

Clive thought, closing his dry mouth.

An instinctive warning that he should run away flashed in his head. It was something he couldn’t understand at all.

“Duke?”

It was then that Eis’s voice was heard.

Eis spoke to Clive, who turned his head, trying not to feel too much relief. Eis’s gaze was on Ella, who was wiping the ax with her intense gaze..

“That crazy, no, great hunter who just came in is Ella Lane.”

“……”

Clive thought it was a disturbing slip of tongue. 

“As you can see from what she has been hunting, she is a very skillful hunter.”

She is also quite the nutcase. 

Eis struggled to swallow the last words. Because this was almost the only chance to get Ella out of town.

His father hoped that Ella Lane, who is capable, would not leave the village, but not him. 

Ella Lane was weird. She suddenly appeared, and Ella, who was living without deep interaction with people, seemed like a person who was somehow far away from everything.

Everyone thought nothing much about her, but Eis Gleason had been suspicious of her existence from the moment she appeared.

‘Everyone had completely forgotten the quality clothes she was wearing and the way she spoke the day Ella Lane first appeared.’

Eis thought, twitching his tongue.

The problem was that this time, Ella Lane had only hunted five kinds. Based on the number she had caught, the one chosen for the guide role would be Moria Winnon.

So Eis decided to try her best to package Ella Lane as the best pick.

“Sh-She’s very strong, and knows the characteristics of monsters better than anyone.”

At his words, the eyes of the knights standing around turned to Ella.

Ella Lane, who was tall and had a slender body, gathered her scattered blonde hair together and hung it on her shoulders. Strangely, the intense olive eyes stood out, but that was it. 

“…So far, her skills look good.”

James replied in a voice that remained a little skeptical while looking at the horns that Ella had brought with her. 

No matter how you look at it, it didn’t seem like she had great strength, it was because it seemed that it would be difficult to catch even a rabbit with that old single-edged ax she was holding.

Perhaps the hunting trophies that she brought now were also not completely hunted by herself.

It was when Eis found James’ suspicious gaze and shook his head thinking that this time too was a fail.

“Ahhhhhh!”

A scream was heard from afar.

The hunters standing in the clearing and the knights behind them instinctively pulled out their weapons. The scream of someone being chased by a monster was clear.

Clive also drew his sword and turned in the direction the sound was coming from. A sharply forged blade flashed in his hand.

Then there was the sound of a tree breaking.

“It’s a large monster! Empty the clearing!”

It was at that time when the hunters, who retreated from the clearing in unison at the sound of someone’s call, were taking their respective fighting postures.

The Knight Commander, James, found a hunter left behind in the clearing.

“Hey, hunter!”

At James’ urgent cry, the one who remained in the clearing raised her head. It was Ella Lane, who was counting the types of monsters that Moria Winnon had hunted with a serious expression.

“Come on, hurry up and avoid it…!”

James had not even finished speaking.

Another hunter jumped out of the grass with a confused face while a large tree fell behind him and a monster appeared in the clearing.

It was Gaira, a second-class monster that wielded huge claws and spewed acid.