Normally, now that we've reached this point, it wouldn't have been difficult at all to capture it—especially considering that, this time, thanks to my beloved's help, there were three of us against one.
But if this had been an ordinary Over Beast, Aislyra and I would have already captured and cooked it long before that day.
That Wind Over Beast Boar, however, was anything but ordinary.
Normally, Over Beasts, although undoubtedly far more dangerous than most animals, are, in a certain sense, easier to hunt than ordinary beasts.
The reason lies in their overwhelming aggression—almost akin to a berserker state—which drives them to attack practically anything that enters their territory or appears before them. And no matter how wounded or battered they become, they will not stop until whatever they have targeted has been eliminated.
Precisely because of this, they are extremely dangerous for Rangers like me. Since part of our duty is to protect wildlife from overhunting, we are ordered to eliminate every Over Beast we encounter. They attack anyone, regardless of species—whether a simple animal or a member of an intelligent race. That makes them a threat to literally everyone.
On the other hand, that same aggression—which prevents them from retreating even when gravely wounded—also means they never run away. As a result, when facing an opponent stronger than themselves, they become comparatively "easy" prey.
But the leader of the forest was different from almost every other Over Beast. Within its piercing eye, glowing with an eerie green light, one could detect the unmistakable glimmer of intelligence.
The enormous boar opened its mouth and began drawing in the air before it.
Fortore, who stood directly in front of the beast, had to thrust his sword into the ground and grip its hilt tightly just to avoid being pulled toward it.
On the other hand, that muscle-brained girl—damn it, how could she already have been so monstrously strong at that age?!—managed to resist the beast's suction simply by planting her feet firmly on the ground.
I, meanwhile, was standing far enough away that I could barely even feel the pull.
Immediately afterward, the Over Beast expelled all the air it had just inhaled, pushing both my beloved and Aislyra back several centimeters while raising a massive cloud of dust. The thick cloud prevented the two fighters in close combat from seeing the enormous boar's movements.
I, however, thanks to my exceptional eyesight, was still able to make out its silhouette. And I immediately realized that it had already turned in the opposite direction.
So I shouted at once, "Damn it! It's about to do that again! Aislyra, stop it!"
But it was already too late.
Another mighty grunt erupted from the Over Beast's mouth, and a tunnel of compressed wind formed directly in front of it. The gust instantly swept away the cloud of dust.
But by the time my beloved and Aislyra could clearly see the leader of the forest again, it had already entered the tunnel of air it had just created. Using it as a pathway, the gigantic boar shot away at incredible speed.
With a defeated expression, I lowered my gaze to the ground.
This is what I meant when I said that the leader of the forest was different from most other Over Beasts. An ordinary Over Beast would have completely ignored the wound inflicted upon it and continued fighting until either it or its opponent died.
But the leader of the forest must have retained the survival instinct it had possessed before becoming an Over Beast—the instinct that told it to flee whenever its injuries became too severe.
And with that, our umpteenth attempt to hunt down the leader of the forest had ended in failure...
Or at least, that was what my younger self believed.
"Don't worry, Eme—that's exactly why I decided to bring Fo along with us today," I heard Aislyra say.
So I looked up.
There, I saw my gorgeous, radiant beloved racing after the leader of the forest and already beginning to catch up to it. Aislyra was chasing after him as well, and although she was clearly slower than Fortore, she wasn't trailing him by very much.
'Damn it... I can't let that perverted commoner leave me behind,' I foolishly thought back then.
And without another moment's hesitation, I immediately broke into a run, determined to catch up to the two of them.
But after a little more than five minutes, I had already exhausted most of my mana and stamina. By then, I had completely lost sight of both that monster named Aislyra and my beloved—who, as always, was nothing short of incredible—as well as the leader of the forest itself.
Even back then, my physical conditioning and my mastery of the Physical Enhancement spell were already quite good. I was capable of climbing to the top of practically any tree in the Yggdrasill Forest within just a few seconds.
But trying to compete with those two had undoubtedly been a completely ridiculous idea. Even at that age, I already knew that simply trying to keep up with Aislyra required me to push my Physical Enhancement spell to its absolute limit. And there was no point even mentioning my beloved, who was obviously even faster than Aislyra.
"Damn it... this day just keeps getting worse," I muttered to myself between deep breaths as I struggled to catch my breath.
So I found myself completely alone.
Still, that didn't worry me very much. It certainly wasn't the first time I had been by myself in this part of the forest, and both Aislyra and I knew this area like the backs of our hands.
Nor was I worried about Fortore. After all, Aislyra was with him.
However, being left out of the hunt by that tomboy princess and by the man whom I still believed at the time to be nothing more than an exceptionally skilled—but hopelessly perverted—commoner...
I absolutely did not like it.
So, instead of simply standing around waiting for them to return, I decided to follow the trail left behind by the leader of the forest on foot.
There was no point exhausting what little stamina and mana I had left by desperately trying to catch up with them. Even if I somehow managed to reach them, I would have been in such poor condition that I would only have gotten in their way.
So I chose to proceed at a fairly leisurely pace. That way, I could slowly recover both my stamina and my mana while still making my way toward them.
As usual, now that the enormous beast was no longer nearby, the forest had regained its natural aura of tranquility.
Countless species of birds chirped cheerfully among the branches of the towering trees overhead, while small woodland creatures scurrying through the undergrowth produced gentle rustling sounds beneath the bushes.
The sounds of the Yggdrasill Forest had always brought peace to my heart.
At that moment, I felt as though everything that had happened earlier no longer mattered.
I had loved the Yggdrasill Forest ever since I was very young. That was probably why I had already decided, at the age of eight, that I wanted to become a Ranger. Unfortunately, unlike the kingdom's other military branches—where all one needed to do was pass an entrance examination—to become a Ranger, a candidate not only had to pass a rigorous test but also had to be at least thirty years old.
So, back then, I still had a very long road ahead of me before I could fulfill my dream.
That fact frustrated me tremendously.
Because of that, even when I was only eight years old, I had sworn to myself that I would do absolutely everything within my power to ensure that, by the time I turned thirty, I would pass the Ranger examinations with the highest marks possible. And once I finally became a Ranger...
I would quickly become the greatest Ranger alive!
That was why, in addition to training with Aislyra almost every single day by hunting together, I read every book I could get my hands on about both the Rangers and the Yggdrasill Forest. Furthermore, whenever my father had the time, he would take me with him into even the deepest and most dangerous parts of the forest—places where Aislyra and I were absolutely forbidden from entering without an adult accompanying us.
It was precisely because of all that accumulated knowledge that I began to develop a very bad feeling at that exact moment.
Mixed in with the soft rustling produced by the small animals native to this section of the forest, I had heard the unmistakable sounds of something much larger moving through the undergrowth.
Not nearly as large as the leader of the forest...
But certainly much larger than the smaller creatures that normally lived here.
That was strange. None of the larger animals inhabiting this region of the forest hunted in packs.
"It's not impossible that a pack of wolves wandered here from the deeper parts of the forest while pursuing prey..." I murmured to myself.
Then I silently added, "But that's strange... this is supposed to be the leader of the forest's territory..."
That was why I immediately stopped walking and quietly nocked another arrow onto my bow.
After a short while, I noticed that the rustling had grown much closer. Most of the bushes lining both sides of the path where I stood had begun to sway ever so slightly.
Without hesitation, I raised my bow and aimed at the bush that seemed to be moving the most. Even so, I held back from releasing the arrow. I had no idea what was hiding behind those leaves, and I had no intention of harming an innocent animal without a good reason.
I waited a few more seconds, but nothing seemed willing to emerge from those bushes.
Since nothing was coming out, I was just about to go over and investigate them when, all of a sudden, almost every bush stopped moving.
Then...
Absolutely nothing happened.
'Could it have been the wind created by the leader of the forest? Maybe Aislyra and that perverted commoner are closer than I expected...' I thought.
Even so, I resumed walking while keeping my bow fully drawn, just to be safe.
Suddenly, I sensed a strange disturbance in the air behind me. A terrible feeling washed over me, and I instinctively threw myself forward in a large leap.
The instant I landed, I looked back. Standing exactly where I had been only a moment earlier was a large, bald man with an incredibly rough appearance. In one of his hands, he was holding a handkerchief.
'What...?! He wasn't there just a second ago! Even though those strange noises had me on edge, I never stopped checking my surroundings—not even behind me!' I screamed inwardly as my feet finally touched the ground.
"Sorry, Boss... I failed," the man said.
'There's more than one of them!!!' I realized.
Without wasting a single instant, I spun around and fired an arrow behind me.
It was effortlessly knocked aside by a swordsman.
A man who appeared to have materialized out of thin air.
"Idiot! Why couldn't you have just kept your mouth shut?!" the man shouted furiously.
He had short, wavy blond hair that, while not especially well groomed, still suited his handsome face remarkably well. What stood out the most, however, were his eyes. They were such an incredibly dark shade of brown that his irises almost blended seamlessly into his pupils.
"I-I'M SORRY, BOSS!" the large bald man replied in an anxious voice.
The blond-haired man let out a long, exasperated sigh.
"All right, Gaz. I forgive you. Simply knowing that certain things exist—even if you can't actually see them—can sometimes be threatening enough."
Then he smiled faintly before continuing,
"For example... look at our little prey. It seems she's standing in the middle of a field filled with magiexplosive..."
"B-boss... you revealed my name on purpose, didn't you?! W-what am I supposed to do if this little girl somehow manages to e-escape...?" the bald man asked, sounding even more worried than before.
"All the more reason not to make such a careless mistake again, Gaz," the blond-haired man replied in a voice so calm and icy that it sent chills crawling across my skin.
Unfortunately...
That worm was right.
The amount of rustling I had been hearing just moments earlier had been far too great to have been caused by only two people. There were probably at least another dozen men still hiding somewhere nearby.
"What do you filthy pieces of vermin want with me?! Do you have the slightest idea who it is you're trying to capture?!" I demanded, glaring at that despicable creature with utter disgust while aiming my bow—already loaded with another arrow—directly at him.
"Of course... noble brats almost always look down on me, no matter how much taller than them I obviously am..." the man replied in an annoyed voice.
Then he smirked.
"But I have to admit you're much better than most of the brasts we kidnap. At the very least, you actually seem capable of backing up at least a little of all that arrogant talk...."
He shrugged casually before continuing.
"Anyway, to answer one of your questions—because, unfortunately for you, we're not nearly stupid enough to tell you who we are—yes, of course we know exactly who you are, my dear little Duchess Emeralda."
His smile widened into something far more sinister.
"And it's precisely because we know who you are... that we also know exactly how much money you're worth to us," he finished in an infuriatingly false tone of condescension.
Suddenly, a dagger shot toward the back of my right leg, nearly severing my Achilles tendon.
Fortunately, I managed to dodge at the very last second, escaping with nothing more than a shallow scratch across my leg. Without hesitating, I immediately counterattacked, driving a powerful kick straight into the face of the person wielding the dagger.
The hooded figure staggered backward several steps from the impact. They were wearing a brown cloth hood that concealed almost their entire face, making it impossible to identify them.
'Damn it... if there really are another ten or so invisible people surrounding me... I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hold out...'
For the first time that day, fear and unease slowly began creeping into my body.