"Are you serious? It looks like you're a kid that's younger than me."

Jaegar shook his head and raised his hands beside him. He then leaned closer to the young girl while placing his elbow on top of the counter.

"It may be a little too early to be killing your parents like that. Can you call your father or mother—"

"They're dead. Monsters killed them when I was younger. I'm afraid I can't call them."

The young lady stopped moving and stared at the dishes in front of her.

"... I'm sorry. I guess I was... out of line."

He lowered his voice and looked away.

"That's fine. Strangers like you don't bother me at all. Now, if you're serious about that request, then let's talk about it."

The young lady was now looking straight at Jaegar, her eyes fixed on him but with no hint of anger.

"Did you request this for… revenge?"

Jaegar stared into the young lady's eyes. She suddenly laughed at hm.

"Don't be silly!"

The young lady grabbed her stomach as she was trying to control herself from laughing any further.

"Wait, were you just joking about your dead parents?!"

"No, they're dead, for sure."

She was still laughing a little bit.

"Then, why did you laugh?"

He slammed the counter with both of his hands. He stared at the young lady with one eyebrow raised.

"I always tend to get one adventurer or another with that 'dead parents' stuff. The other day some mage even cried. Your reactions are priceless, I tell you."

The young lady wiped a tear from her eye.

"So, this request is just a joke to make you laugh, then?"

He raised his clenched fist in front of the young lady.

"No, no, no. That request is real. Do you see this large restaurant? This is the only restaurant in Yuberden, and since we're the nearest town to Unowne, we get a bit of customers who are going to and leaving the Capital. So, we need a lot of food supply."

She suddenly turned very serious and looked directly at Jaegar.

"And that's where the monsters come in."

Jaegar then slowly lowered his clenched fist.

"You got it. Now, if you can get me twenty wild boars, then you can have one free meal here. Just like what's written in the request."

The young lady smirked at Jaegar.

"Music to my ears. Man, I'm hungry. Better hurry up with cooking that meal."

He left the counter and exited the restaurant.

---

Thirty minutes have passed. Jaegar returned to the restaurant dragging twenty corpses of wild boars, tied together by rope. He went straight to the counter, thus dragging the bodies of the boars inside the restaurant. The customers eating inside didn't even flinch.

"Here are your twenty wild boars. Can I eat now? What do you have?"

He sat on a chair in front of the counter and asked the young lady.

"Wow, that's fast. How did you do that?"

"Just went out there and did my thing. As you can see, I am a member of the Knight's Order—"

"I couldn't care less which organization you're a member of. I have more tasks related to monster hunts for you, if you want. There will be some money involved, too!"

The young lady's eyes were glittering as she leaned closer toward Jaegar.

"For such a young lady, you really know how to entice people."

Jaegar tilted his head as he stared back at the young lady.

"Remember my dead parents?"

She then looked at the ground and stared blankly while talking.

"This again?"

Jaegar whispered to himself.

"I had to learn quickly if I had to inherit this restaurant. It's the only thing my parents left me."

Tears started to well up in her eyes.

"No need for the water works, I was going to do it anyway. Just get me my food."

Jaegar placed his hand in front of the young lady's face.

"Oh, I hate quick learners."

She smiled at him and then proceeded to prepare some food.

---

Three days have passed. Day after day, Jaegar did more and more of the requests the young lady had. Wild boars, sleepy mushrooms, lazy lizards and even crazy birds were on the list of monsters to be hunted. These monsters could be considered to be at the bottom of the monster totem pole. Suffice to say, they were no problem for Jaegar.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

Jaegar asked the young lady while he was eating his meal during noon at the counter of the restaurant.

"Yes, my dear slave?"

The young lady responded while still cooking some food.

"How come there are still monsters out there when I have been hunting them for three days?"

"That's probably because the parent monsters are still alive."

She looked up at the ceiling with her finger on her chin.

"What? So, it means that if I kill the parents, then there'd be no more monsters around here?"

Jaegar placed down his spoon on top of his plate.

"Yes, probably… But! I order you not to do that."

The young lady turned around and pointed her spatula toward Jaegar.

"What? Don't tell me you don't want those poor monsters to be orphans like you? I'm not falling for that."

Jaegar crossed his arms and glared at the young lady.

"Because we'll lose our source of food supply, you idiot!"

She angrily waved her spatula.

"But still, if you can eliminate the source of the monsters, then you should do it. Why don't the people here do it?"

"We would have if we could. Why do you think my parents are dead?"

She stared at Jaegar.

"You should have just said that in the first place. You can still make food if you raise your own livestock and plant some vegetables. It'll be much safer around here if I eliminate those parent monsters."

Jaegar shook his head.

"But, what can you do? You're just a single knight. Many have tried before, and none were able to slay them. Don't waste your life. We've accepted our fate as it is..."

"There's one thing you don't understand. I'm not going to waste my life. My mission IS my life, and now I will be one step closer to completing it."

Jaegar stood up from his seat.  He then took out all the gold he got as payment from the previous requests the young lady gave him.

"Here. Use this to start a farm or something. I have no idea if that's enough or not, but since I'd be causing you trouble by killing those monsters, I feel I should help at least a little."

He then turned around to leave. Before he exited the restaurant, he shouted at the young lady.

"Don't worry; I'd get that revenge for you!"

"Stop acting cool, I prefer way older men than you."

She whispered as tears were flowing down her cheeks.

---

Jaeger went back to the inn to collect his things. He then asked around town about the location of the parent monsters. Some said it was at the top of the mountains, while some claimed they were deep in the forest just outside of town.

On his agenda to collect information, he ended back at the tavern. He thought there was no harm in asking the barkeep some questions. He entered the tavern still with some hesitation.

"You're still in town, I see."

The barkeep greeted him with a snarl.

"Yeah."

"So, what brings the mighty knight to my humble tavern?"

The barkeep was intently looking at Jaegar while wiping the glass he was holding.

"I just want to ask a few questions. Do you have any idea about the whereabouts of the parent monsters here in this area?"

Jaegar stood by the entrance of the tavern.

"Don't tell me you're planning on killing those monsters, too? You adventurers sure are crazy."

The barkeep shook his head while smiling.

"Wait, did someone else look for them as well?"

"Yeah. And I probably sent her to her death. She was here a few days ago asking around, so to get my payback on you lousy adventurers, I told her where those strong monsters live. That's her fate, I guess."

The barkeep stopped wiping the glass he was holding.

"So, you don't regret it, after all."

Jaegar clenched his fists.

"You bet I don't. You deserve all what's coming to you. My son would still be alive—"

"Where did you send her?"

He glared at the barkeep.

"Now you want to be a knight in shining armor, eh? Well, even if you follow her to the northern most part of the forest, she's definitely dead by now! Maybe even before she got there! There's nothing you can do—"

"You're weak and all you get to do is complain. Suck it up. That's your fate, I guess."

Jaegar disappeared from the tavern. The barkeep didn't even see him leave.

---

Jaegar ran as fast as he could. In just a few minutes, he reached the northern most part of the forest. It was surrounded by several mountains. He then walked slowly and quietly so as not to alert any monsters lurking around. He then found a small clearing where a cave was located.

"That must be a nest or something."

Jaegar had his head peeking behind a tree.

"Who are you?"

A guy in tattered clothing was sitting on top of a large tree branch above Jaegar.

"Huh? What are you doing up there?"

Jaegar looked up at the guy.

"I'm observing the cave. Those parent monsters haven't come out for a while."

The guy pointed at the cave Jaegar saw.

"I mean, why are you up there? And if it's true those strong monsters are here, isn't it dangerous to be hanging around in this place? You should go back."

Jaegar scratched the back of his head as he stared at the guy hanging out on the tree branch.

"It's true. I was the one who found it and told my father about it."

The guy lowered his arm and looked downward.

"Don't tell me… your father is that grumpy old barkeep?"

Jaegar pointed his finger upward.

"Hey! Don't talk about him like that! He's grumpy, old and a barkeep but... Well, he's still my father."

As the guy seemed to realize that everything Jaegar said was true, his face turned red.

"I think he said you were dead… How come you're still alive?"

"Oh, don't mind him. He's starting to be senile anyway. And I was a trainee at the Warriors Guild, though I was a dropout. So, I can hold my own in a fight."

The guy thumped his chest with his fist.

"That's reassuring."

As Jaegar looked again at the cave, suddenly the ground shook and a large wild boar ran out from inside the cave. Its size was five times bigger than the ordinary wild boar. It stood tall over Jaegar and the guy on top of the branches. It cried out a loud roar.

"Hey, come back here!"

A girl with blue hair wearing a mage hat ran out from the cave to follow the huge wild boar. The boar turned around to face the girl and ran towards her.

"Darn it! She's in trouble!"

Jaegar prepared to run towards the girl when the guy fell from the tree due to the ground's strong shaking. In a split second, he had to choose which one to save first.