There is a danger with letting monsters roam free, Ceressa thought as she trekked up the mountain trail with her partner, Ruth.

She still, on occasion, reminisced about the Mythril Cave, and every time, she shuddered at the thought of it teeming with not just one, but two species of monster.

Was it a good idea to let them be? Even if the heroine says so, I just can't bring myself to believe such a convenient thing.

At most, I can only consider those tribes an exception. They were able to speak; they didn't kill us on sight... I can't say the same thing with the monsters on the surface.

The kobold and sith were Master-class threats. It wasn't because they were horribly powerful as some monsters were. They were not. A single kobold was no stronger than an adult human though it could run away much faster. Meanwhile, a sith may be a lot stronger, but it was quite slow on its tiny legs.

They were classified as such because they were social. And thus, there was never just 'one kobold'.

There was a saying among frontiersmen: 'If you see a pack of kobolds, hide and pray they don't see you. But if you see a lone kobold, run. They've seen you. And you're their prey.'

But more than their immediate threat, they also posed another, perhaps more sinister, danger. One that haunted the desolate badlands and the frontier settlements unfortunate enough to be settled in and around them.

A few days ago, Ceressa and Ruth were looking for a quest to run.

"Aww, that a drag," the sullen archer complained, "I don't want to do Journeyman quests anymore..."

"Can't help it." The easy-going swordsman shrugged. "We don't graduate until next month, and we still need to make money to eat."

She put on a scowl and muttered to herself, "Tsk. Does it even matter? It's not like we'll suddenly get struck off the list or anything!"

"Haha... well, that's just how it is. So anyway, which quest do you want? I say let's do the escort job to Alfheim. It doesn't pay as much, but it should be a lot easier than hunting up in the mountains."

"Hmm... the Empire, huh?" She mulled it over for a moment, rolling her chin over her palm.

"Yeah, we haven't seen it for a long time, huh?"

"Easter sausages are pretty good..."

"Haha, I knew you'd say that! So, we're taking-"

She then cut him off. "But let's do the hunting quest."

"Eh!? A-are you sure? We don't need that much money to make it till next month... Or, uh...was there something you want to buy?"

Angrily, she turned away. "It's not about the money, dumbass."

"Eh...!? Why are you angry all of a sudden?"

"Tsk. I don't want to do some boring escort quest." She then leered at him. "You don't either, right?"

He was taken aback for a moment, but afterwards, he let out a snicker and smiled. "Yeah. You're right."

"Right?"

"Okay. I'll go talk to the receptionist, then we'll gear up."

Watching as he walked farther and farther away, the moody young woman slumped herself over the table.

Stupid Ruth.

What's the point of being an adventurer if you're just going to be an errand boy for some rich kids?

She sighed.

He's been like that ever since Mitchie died... has he lost his nerve? Not yet, I guess, or he wouldn't come around just because I tell him otherwise...

Her cheeks flushed.

Tsk. Don't make me worry so much, dumbass...

After some preparation, they departed to meet with the client.

An overcast sky flew over the trackless forests hugging the border between Londinium and Rafale. Typical of the climate in that region, the air kept to a mild cool despite it nearing high noon.

"Did you hear that?" Ruth whispered.

The two stopped dead in their tracks and listened in to the ambient noise. Stuck between the white noise of the wild rainforest was a distant, rhythmic clacking, like wood being clanked together.

"It's the trap we set by the riverside...!"

"Alright," Ceressa said in response. At the same time, she pulled several arrows from her quiver, nocking one in her bow and holding the rest in the same hand she would pull the string with. "I'll lead the way. Keep your eyes open."

"Got it."

They had been following their target's trail all morning. Their client, a farmer whose cattle were getting slaughtered in the middle of the night, apparently caught a glimpse of the culprit and gave the description of a biped with pointy, cat-like ears.

In short, a kobold. But that's strange... Northmarch isn't a frontier territory. The nearest badlands is far up north, in Rafale. Is the badland expanding?

The forest soon opened up to the river bank. And there, laying on the ground was the broken remains of their makeshift snare, rigged to make noise from the wood clappers they hung from the vines above when sprung.

"The snare broke..." she said as she crouched down and inspected the scene. "It looks like it's been torn through..."

"Does it have a weapon?"

"Maybe. One that isn't very sharp. Otherwise, it might have just gnawed through the rope."

After close examination, she noticed some slight recesses on the dirt leading out into the riverbank.

Footprints!

"Follow me!" she said, dashing ahead whilst sweeping left and right, ready at any moment to shoot an arrow at anything that moved.

"Right!"

However, with no sight of the target, she resorted to following the tracks downstream. With no time to lose, she processed her findings in her head while on the move.

And slowly, she began to realize something strange.

These prints... aren't they a bit too large for a kobold's feet? I seem to recall them having these stubby little-

However, before she knew it, the trail suddenly stopped. It curved, slowly, inwards into the forest before abruptly ending by a cluster of trees.

Huh!?

Looking around, there was still no trace of their mark.

"Did it leap into the bushes...?" she grumbled to herself.

"Lost it?" Ruth asked.

"Damn..."

Kobolds are fast. they could easily outrun us if they feel threatened...

"Don't worry about it."

Moreover, they're nimble and clever. They might even-

She was about to turn back around, when, at the corner of her eye, she noticed some scrapes on the tree bark.

Her eyes widened.

even...

And her heart skipped a beat.

Purely by reflex, she let go of the loose arrows in her hand and reached for her dagger.

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She hardly had any time to think before she heard a low growl.

It came from above.

Whatever it was, it fell on her like a ton of bricks, sending her crashing onto her back. At roughly the same time, as her arrows spread across the dirt, creating an eerie crackle behind ear as she struggled for her life.

"Ack!" she screamed as a sharp pain shot up from her arm.

She had, by instinct, put it up at her neck-level, using the breadth of her bow as a makeshift shield. It offered no real protection, however, as her assailant simply avoided it and gnawed at her leather-wrapped forearm.

Shit! That was close...! It was going for my jugular!?

In the heat of the moment, all higher-level thought shut down completely.

All that remained was her will to survive.

Thus, leveraging her position, she lifted her knee and, shoving the dagger into her attacker for good measure, tumbled backwards, throwing the monster up and over.

It all happened in a flash, such that it was all over even before Ruth had the chance to react, much less come to her aid.

"Ceressa!" he screamed as the monster flew by his face, "Are you okay!?"

"Yeah!" clutching her arm, she stood up.

"You're bleeding!"

"It's just a bite. We'll treat it later! Right now..."

For the first time, she came face-to-face with her assailant - an intelligent predator, one that could even turn the tables on their hunter.

As the client said, it did have the distinctive cat-like ears and a human-like gait. However, it looked far more human than even Ceressa had imagined.

It took the form of a savage young girl, standing close to Ceressa's shoulder, were it not hunched forward as it was. The thing had the pointed teeth of a kobold and the slit eyes to boot, but most of its body retained a distinctly human form. It even wore what appeared to be patched rags, or perhaps woven grass, as clothes. However, it growled in very much the same fashion as did the wild kobolds of the Raffalian badlands.

So, it wasn't a kobold after all...

Ruth then stepped between them with his shield raised. "It's a satyr..."

The monster clutched its belly, dripping with blood from the wound her dagger had inflicted.

"It's injured, but not dead," Ceressa said, "let's fix that."

The cat girl's eyes widened as she saw Ceressa pull another set of arrows from her quiver with one hand.

With the adventurers in between it and the forest, and a deep river behind it, the wild satyr leapt on to all fours and attempted to circle around them.

But Ceressa had seen that move before. That feeling of helplessness, that unpleasant, humbling experience gnawed at her pride since leaving the Mythril Cave, that she had been practising on moving targets ever since.

She yelled, "Not so fast!"

And in quick succession, nocking one arrow after another, she released each of those five arrows with the barest pull necessary to hit her target.

Several hits landed, though shallow. But with one piercing into the cat girl's leg, it finally crashed into the ground, and forced, literally, into a crawl.

Finally, Ruth let out a sigh of relief. "It's incapacitated. But stay alert, it might not be the only one around."

Ceressa crouched down and looked the thing in the face.

It stared back at her with fearful eyes, seemingly filling up with tears. It opened its mouth, and with a trembling whimper that seemed to imitate human speech, it said, "N-no... die..."

What happened when a monster successfully attacked a village? There were many rumors that circulated among frontiersmen of such horrors. Most dismissed them as myth, or perhaps city-folk talking down their noses to the humble settler.

But at that moment, she saw the answer with her own two eyes.

These monsters, making a mockery of us!

She clenched her teeth.

Making these... these things!

At that moment, she felt a hand clasping her shoulder.

"Hey," Ruth said, "that's enough."

Almost immediately, her emotions ran dry.

He's right... there's no use brooding about it. We all know these things happen...

She stood up.

"All we can do for it..." He raised his sword, pointed downwards. "...is put it out of its misery."

Even then the monster still clung to life - crawling, even while it left a trail of its own blood, behind it.

But before Ruth could swing his sword down, Ceressa grabbed his arm.

"Wait," she said.

"Huh?"

"I'll do it."

"...are you sure?"

She hesitated for a moment, but then nodded.

And as Ruth stood back, she drew one last arrow and pulled her bow at full draw.

It was natural to hesitate when faced with such monsters. Many adventurers refused to draw their blades against fellow humans, and for that reason, there was a certain pride they took as protectors, rather than killers.

What then, when the monster so uncannily resembled the human they wished to protect?

'Monsters prey on humans, just as humans prey on animals.' Such thoughts circulated in her mind, as justification for what she wished to do.

If I let it go now, then it will surely go on to kill more humans. In extension, their deaths will be my fault as well.

But what if she was wrong? What if all monsters held the same potential as those of the Mythril Cave?

The more she thought about it, the more her judgement clouded.

And in the end, she could not make a decision.

Instead, her strength ran out, loosing the arrow she held at her fingertips.

And with a roaring thrust, it embedded itself into the monster's back, piercing its heart.

"Ngk-!" Ceressa flinched.

With one last twitch, the satyr fell face-down into the mud and died.

She panted.

I... did it.

"Hey, you alright?" Ruth asked, "You look pale."

Snapping out of her trance, she shook her head and replied, "A-ah... no, it's nothing... maybe I was just thinking too much about it."

He sighed. "That's why I told you not to look at it..."

"A-ah... yeah."

"Well, it probably doesn't have any mates, since we've spent all this time here and nothing's come out yet." Finally, he sheathed his sword and lowered his guard. "I guess we can turn in the quest now."

"Mm."

"Alright, help me lift the body."

He had just reached out to the satyr's arm when she suddenly interjected, "Wait."

"Huh?"

"Let's bury the corpse."

"Are you serious? How are we going to prove we've finished the quest, then?"

"Let's just... cut off the ear or something."

He sighed. "Fine."

Ultimately, it was not that she had arrived at an answer either way; only that she had come to realize that it was not as simple as she once thought.

Damnit... it's all that cave's fault...

And so, they dug.

But somehow...

...this feels like the right thing to do.