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Chapter 136: Hunting at the Age of Ten

Author’s note: From here onwards, Nicole is ten years old.

Three years had gone by in the blink of an eye ever since I enrolled in the Magic Academy.

I had reached the age of ten without incidents, finally graduating from the lower grades. Lyell and Maria had been troubled about their weakened bodies, but due to the effect of the potion, they were looking so young now you’d mistake them for 30-year-olds; the potion’s effect seemed to be that great.

Thanks to that, they were still wildly active even now, which prevented the organs of the state1 from meddling with me and Michelle.

My magic skills were improving favorably, too, and I had conquered my innate weakness of magic emission. At this point, even if I didn’t have it extracted every day, it didn’t interfere with my daily life. I still needed to do it once a month, though.

Thanks to that, my stamina had finally reached the suitable level of a girl my age without the need of supplementing it.

“……There it is.”

Hiding inside the forest, I gave a signal to the comrades behind me. With it, the three moved at once.

Before us was a buffalo that was eating grass without a care in the world. It was quite a bit of a challenge for the present us.

Letina walked to my side and asked in worry.

“Isn’t buffalo too dangerous for us, after all?”

“We’ll be fine with proper preparations. We have a meat shield with us too this time.”

“Is that meat shield supposed to be me?”

Approaching from behind Letina, Cloud answered in grumbles. I was training him, but I couldn’t just keep on limiting it to night practices. Since he was aiming to become an Adventurer, he had to learn how to act in a party.

Thus, after he had reached a suitable level of strength, I had introduced him to Michelle and Letina as one of the Adventuring comrades. Of course, we kept our night training a secret still. The moment he revealed that would be the moment he’d stop being my pupil.

I wasn’t blatantly using threads before him during our training, but I still showed a degree of experience that was unthinkable from a child my age. If he disclosed that, that’d invite needless doubts to me.

“Since it’s a buffalo, winning in a direct fight would be impossible but we can probably easily defeat it if we set up traps.”

“Traps, you say? What kind, exactly?”

“It’s nothing that grand. In short, as long as we stop it in place, Michelle should be able to finish it off.”

“Yup, leave it to me.”

Michelle declared confidently while tapping on her chest. But I was more curious about her chest armor that wobbled according to the impact.

We were already ten years old. It was about the time for our gender traits to start manifesting. Michelle had a particularly speedy growth, so her chest had started to stand out quite a bit. Seeing it evoked a weird mix of happy and sad emotions in me.

It made me happy to see ***** jiggle, small as they may be, but realizing that I too would have a similar pair one day brought my spirits down.

Either way, we needed to prepare.

Michelle had brought both her hunting bow and the Third Eye, so she had heavy luggage. Moreover, the weight of the arrows she carried added to it, too.

In other words, she had no choice but to go for a one-shot certain kill. She couldn’t stand and keep on shooting when the opponent was a buffalo.

Of course, I could easily hold it in place if I used my thread, however…

“Let us set up the trap first. Then Cloud and I will lead it there and trap it.”

“And then, I’ll shoot it and boom, right?”

“Yup, I’m leaving that to you.”

We had no time to start digging a pit, so I just started to make a trap with a simple rope that would tangle its legs and stop it. While I was doing that, Cloud stood in watch for the buffalo’s condition.

The preparations were done, and it was time to start the fight.

“Eya!”

I was usually fighting in semi-short distance, but with a buffalo as our opponent, I wasn’t so reckless as to challenge it in a close fight.

What I used was a tool made with leather straps called a sling. I accelerated a stone with the centrifugal force and threw it towards its head.

The stone reached the mark without fault, directing the now angry buffalos gaze at me. It scrapped the ground a few times with its hind legs prepared to charge at me.

I couldn’t just keep on watching it either. I gradually took a step back and put some distance between us. Buffalo or not, animals were faster when it came to straight movements. It was better to hold as much advantage over it as I could.

The buffalo howled in anger and charged at me. I immediately turned tail and ran at full speed. By all rights, turning your back at the animal was an extremely dangerous action. However, as I had no chances if I fought it directly, it was better to lure it towards the trap as fast as I could.

After running a certain distance, I grabbed onto the tree branch that I had set as my goal and jumped up, separating myself from the ground below.

After looking at the sight of me, it decided to make Cloud its next objective and quickly shifted the direction towards him. We acted as bait for it in turns and led it towards the location of the trap.

It was a simple trap that utilized rope. However, one side of its end was tied to a bendy branch to make it easier for the rope to get entangled with its legs.

And it indeed happened as expected – the rope obstructed the buffalo’s legs and made it fall spectacularly. It should have been able to easily shrug a rope of this level off were it the usual. That’s just how strong a buffalo was.

However, being dragged around by me and Cloud for so long had tired it out, so having been tripped once its balance was off made it unable to stand its ground. It made the buffalo stop just for a moment, but that moment was more than enough.

“Letina!”

The moment I saw it fall into the trap, I first called out to Letina. Responding to my shout, Letina let loose fire magic, a simple Firebolt in specific. The lowest level at that. It normally wouldn’t be able to deal any significant damage to the buffalo.

However, the fire bullet landed straight on its hind leg and decisively robbed it from its movements.

It sank to the ground as its rear left leg got scorched by flames. And then, Michelle’s carefully aimed arrow pierced it through.

The arrow she let loose from the ideal hiding spot that she chose by predicting where it would run and fall had accurately pierced through its right eye. The arrowhead gouged its brain out and stopped its life activity in but an instant.

The buffalo twitched with the arrow stuck in its head, and then toppled over with a loud sound. After that, its body convulsed two-three times… And ceased all movements.

I readied my katana and dagger and approached it to confirm it was dead. After making sure that it was dead, we finally let the strength leave our shoulders.