「Since this forest is solely for the use of our family, feel free to use your magic. I’ll accompany you and help you gather your catch.」

「Ah. So that’s why I haven’t run into any other hunters.」

「There’s so much land in our territory that there are plenty of places for the villagers to hunt and gather freely. Nobody complains that we keep this forest for our personal use. Even if the territory were to experience a wave of emigration, we can just develop the common, uninhabited land. There’s no reason to use this forest or do something rash.」

「Right.」

It turns out that my family has gone so far as to prohibit people from entering this forest in an attempt to keep my magic a secret, all to prevent the succession crisis that would likely ensue if my magic became public knowledge. 

It makes me grateful to my parents once again. I then looked at Ralph-

「I’m sure you could handle it yourself with a bow…」

「It would be a lot easier if I just did it alone in the first place.」

「Is that so? Well then, good luck.」

Saying so, we parted ways. The reason was the challenge Ralph had initiated between us about who could find a bigger catch.

『I am going to win!』

Motivating myself once more, I started the hunt.

◆◇◆◇◆

[A few hours later]

「H-hey, Claude. Wanna call a truce?」

「Y-yeah. I think it would be a lot faster if we work together.」

Dammit! What the hell? Why is hunting this hard? Although I agree that all I ever hunted in this forest was guinea fowl but because they are said to be hard to hunt, I considered my self rather adept at hunting. 

But all I could hunt until now was just 3 guinea fowl. It's not like I didn't find other animals. But unlike the guinea fowl, they wouldn't die in one hit! And when I tried to cast a higher-level spell to kill them, they would sense my presence and escape. Moreover, I couldn't find that many guinea fowl in the forest either.

「A-anways, just asking but how many did you catch until now?」

「Me? Ummm........3 guinea fowls, that all.」

After hearing my answer, Ralph breathed a sigh of relief. Then he smiled wickedly and spoke-

「Is that so? Well you see, I caught 4 guinea fowls. I think you should thank me for showing consideration to losing opponent you know?」

「Soooo......you couldn't hunt either?」

No one spoke after that for a while.

Anyways, after some more 'discussing', it looks like Ralph couldn't catch much either as the animals would get alerted if he got too close to them. So, for the time being, we decided to team up.

We walked together in the forest while talking.

First of all, I cast a《Support Type》spell on both of us,《Silence》, of《Dino》level. It is supposed to suppress any sound the user makes. Both of us would not make any sound even if we tried to yell with all of the might but we can still hear each other though.

Using the spell《Detect》that had always allowed me to avoid large animals, we sought out a big game to hunt. Once we spotted our quarry, Ralph would fire an arrow and I would reinforce it with magic.

The reinforcement would be done with another《Support Type》spell,《Addition》, of《Raja》that would allow the user to attach any《Attack Type》spell on an object.

I would usually attach it with《Fire Bullet》. I had also cast 《Strength》on both of us. From time to time, I would also cast《Heal》.

It’s been said for some time that Ralph is the best archer in the Curzon family. As of today, I can unequivocally confirm that fact. I don’t need to correct the arrow’s direction at all. Magic-enhanced arrows mercilessly find the vital points on each wild boar, deer, badger, and guinea fowl that we encounter.

Ralph and I quickly drain the blood from our kills, each expertly felled with one arrow to the heart or head. We smear the hide in salt so that it can be tanned later. Honestly, it was a lot of hard work for both of us, but it is made tolerable by the fact that I can strengthen our body with magic.

We finished without any problems.

「Woah! Look at the amount we hunted, isn't it way too much.」

「I know, right? But it was so much fun! Normally after hunting for an hour or two, my body would start getting exhausted. But with you here I could hunt as much as I want. Actually couldn't you have hunted these all alone?」

「I tried but I am still not that good.」

「Ah! I see you have to be a talented magician to do that after all.」

「Huh? Are you trying to say something, big bro Ralph?」

「Nothing really.」

He started to laugh after saying that. This guy.....doesn't he know how to thank a person?

According to the books, there are some magicians born with a large amount of mana. These magicians can hunt monsters all alone.

If a magician can shoot fireballs at least as big as softballs then he can make quick work of most large animals and monsters such as goblins or slow-moving zombies.

Well, their mana capacity is huge after all. But I still find that the book can be wrong sometimes. I mean it said that every magician's mana pool only grows for a few weeks at most before achieving its maximum capacity. But my mana pool has been constantly growing for the past 2 years, every single day without fail. They really need to update the contents of the book.

As we were heading back, Ralph started to speak-

「Magic is really amazing. To be able to strengthen my arrow’s power to the point that it can travel so far…」

「It was easy since I only had to adjust the power and not the trajectory. Your aim is perfect.」

「I’ll gladly take the compliment.」

When I hunt I usually make an arrow out of《Earth》magic and fire it toward my prey. But Ralph correctly points out that it’s a bit of a waste. Indeed, I’ve had my own bow and arrows for a long while now. It would actually use less mana if, instead of using magic to create and fire an arrow, I instead fire a normal arrow using my bow and subsequently reinforce the arrow and its course using magic.

However, I’ve gotten into the habit of deliberately wasting mana to grow my mana pool. I figure it’s a habit I picked up because I want to quickly reach my highest mana capacity.

「Alright, I think we’ve done enough for today.」

「Okay.」

In front of us lay the day’s catch, which we have already bled dry and organized. It’s a huge haul. Generally, I am the only one that makes use of this forest. As a result, the forest is still pristine and largely untouched, so it has a huge bounty to offer. It’s not that different than many of the wild plains and forests in our territory.

Although there aren’t any monsters living here there are ferocious wild animals like bears and wolves. As such, it would be unsafe for women and children, and even most of the territory’s men, to enter the forest alone.

But it isn’t so dangerous that it would prevent the development of more farmland and new settlements if Father were able to gather people and lead effectively. He’s been generally successful in this pursuit in the past.

Of course, the expedition would have yielded valuable goods such as medical herbs, plants, and animal materials. Medical herbs that can be gathered from monster territories are pretty similar to the materials that served as a base for herbal medicine and homoeopathy.

But, in addition to these valuable yet somewhat common goods, Father may have been able to collect truly rare materials that can be used as ingredients in magic medicine and other elixirs, many of which only can be found in monster territories such as the Demon Forest. Magic medicine can miraculously heal injuries and cure illness. Apparently, there’s even medicine that can revive the dead. However, the raw materials necessary to produce magic medicine are quite rare, leading to high prices at the market.

Some magicians specialize in magical pharmacology, a branch of healing magic. By channelling mana, these magicians can refine the raw ingredients into powerful draughts. However, skilful magical pharmacologists are rare.

Because the base material costs are high and the skill necessary to refine that material is rare, magic medicines currently command exorbitant prices.

「Because few people enter the Demon Forest, the precious medical herbs and other materials that have been successfully collected usually come from near the entrance.」

However, because there is higher traffic near the entrance, many of the rarer materials had been picked clean. As such, they could no longer be found unless an adventurer ventured beyond the entrance and searched the depths of the Demon Forest.

Even with conservation efforts and a ban on indiscriminate gathering, it takes much longer for magical plants to grow when compared to normal medical herbs. And no matter how broad the prohibitions on indiscriminate gathering may be, there’s no way to actually confirm that adventurers are complying with such efforts given that no enforcement officer can follow them into the monster territory.

「Anyway, we’ve done enough for today. We still have three days to hunt, so there’s no need to rush to get it all done at once.」

That sounds right to me too, so we return to the mansion with our catch loaded onto a cart.

Ralph and I delivered much better results than the hunters from the villages. With three days left until the wedding, the family is counting on our strong performance to continue.

And after five days, at long last, Karl’s wife arrived with her escort group. The old priest that ministers to our territory presided over the wedding. The wedding took place in a church.

Cecily, the bride, turned 16 this year, so there’s an age difference between her and Karl. But that is the norm for people, and there are many instances where older royals, nobles, and successful, wealthy merchants marry younger women. In fact, substantial age gaps can appear when such men take wives or mistresses of a lower social class.

And Cecily certainly wouldn’t find it odd to get married at her age. Some women tend to marry later, such as successful adventurers (that often put their male counterparts to shame), but most women are married by 20. There is some variance from person to person, so no one would speak ill of an unmarried girl until she was in her early twenties. But after about 25 she will be treated as a spinster.

Cecily’s family, the Meinbach House, is in better financial condition than the Curzon House, so she is wearing an expensive dress for the big day. In fact, her family sent along with some fine gifts, such as quality furniture. That just goes to show the importance of maintaining appearances for a noble.

『Will I have to do the same when I would be getting married?』

I pondered upon it a bit.

『Oh well, I will think about it when the time comes.』

Thinking so, I enjoyed the party that was held for the marriage being successful.