The Imperial Hunter Chapter 69 - The Hunters (4)

Unlike me, who could conceal my presence as a mage almost perfectly, my subordinates had clear limitations in spreading and gathering their auras. Meaning they could reduce their presence, but had no way to hide the fact itself that they were awakeners.

So Kyung-tae was pestered with recruitment offers until right before takeoff. When Kyung-tae finally declined, Jack, the member who had been most enthusiastic about the offer, drooped like a retriever puppy deprived of a snack. My most loyal hound seemed to have made quite the impression.

“Takeoff will commence shortly. All passengers please verify your safety harnesses are secured.”

The pilot’s voice came through the internal comms headset. The snow piled under the accelerating rotors scattered like fog, and the frozen weeds flashed their withered leaves under the winter sunlight. As the fluttering of those leaves passed a threshold, a gap began to form between the helicopter and its shadow. The widening gap was the increasing altitude. Outside below my feet, the ground and people sink at a rapid pace. The craft rising 8 meters per second soon traced out a semicircle as if gliding along the canal, turning its nose eastward.

In the midst of this, I discovered a nun gazing up at the sky on the outskirts of the city.

“…!”

Despite the blinding sunlight making her shade her eyes with a hand, her facial features were the spitting image of Grace from my master’s memories. And an unnatural sense of discrepancy. The plummeting heart and surging pulse set my blood vessels ablaze. If my vision wasn’t capable of piercing through obstacles, I would have leaned out the door to chase her receding back.

“What’s the matter?”

Noticing my abnormal behavior, Kyung-tae asked worriedly.

“It’s nothing. I just thought I saw someone I know.”

A deliberately calm response, conscious of my surroundings. But my gaze remained fixed rearward. Kyung-tae murmurs, “Someone hyungnim knows…?” In the meantime, the silhouette of the woman in a habit shrunk into a small, distant point. Even when her form grew indistinguishable, my quickened pulse showed no sign of easily settling down.

I wasn’t ready to meet her yet.

The odds were slim that it was someone else who just resembled her face. A black and white habit was clothing the witch truly enjoyed wearing, to mock the white men’s god. It was rare attire in Utah where later-generation Protestant churches held dominant sway.

While pondering her garb, it was only after my head had cooled some that I realized the source of the unnatural feeling I sensed at first glance.

Opacity.

Preoccupied with only her face, I was late to notice that the headscarf and habit fluttering in the wind were nearly opaque even to the Eye of the Golden Age. This meant those clothes were at minimum artefacts of quality magical tools.

With conviction attained, I composed myself with slow deep breaths.

‘She can’t recognize me anyway.’

The face of the woman gazing skyward held no particular emotion. It was simply the expression of someone distractedly glancing back after hearing a loud noise.

I could recognize her, but she could not recognize me. So long as I was equipped with the ability to conceal myself and identify enemies first, there was no reason for me as the hunter to overreact. Even less reason to flee recklessly at this very moment. I was merely startled by an unexpected encounter. There should be a limit even to chance meetings.

“The town visible to the left is Glenwood, and the peak to the right is Bull Claim Hill. The herders spotted a group of boars. Two helicopters will drive the boars down the valley. Passengers, please ready yourselves to fire at any time.”

Hearing the pilot’s voice over the line, I contemplated why the witch might have come here.

Firstly, the Trembling Giant itself.

She had already dispatched her cult to turn the Poplar Woods into a man-eating labyrinth. Like a criminal returning to the scene, or a schemer assessing and scheming their next strategy, she had abundant motive to scout the woods and surroundings.

And as a mage outside the Round Table like me, Grace too might have sought magical wisdom from the Trembling Giant. Although she lacked eyes like mine, once one became a mage on the level of the Round Table’s masters, even indirect observation alone could produce some results. The outcome would differ greatly depending on the time and effort invested, though.

Perhaps proselytization was her aim. This region was teeming with humans tinged with vague mysteriousness. They were ideal human resources for Grace to bring into her flock. In extension, infiltrating existing groups here with her existing worshipers would also be a valid strategy.

Lastly, another imaginable reason was human hunting. Imperialist lapdogs were sure to be around here. Catching and killing them would be a tremendously rewarding leisure activity for a witch. The list of potential prey she was after likely included the name of my accursed dead master, Crowhurst.

「Alright, passengers. The boars will emerge straight ahead shortly. Straight ahead from your perspective, so don’t get confused.」

Giving this alert, the pilot lowered the craft’s altitude. It was flight keeping the ridgeline close to minimize noise propagation. The watershed approached like some sort of boundary. The moment we crossed that boundary, the large hybrid boars abruptly changed direction upon sighting the new helicopter, milling about in disarray.

「Now!」

The muzzle flashes light up in succession. Red blood sprayed over the snow-white mountains. Dead boars and startled boars roll down the slopes. But since that was the direction of pursuit, boars that tumbled down before they could get back up turned into corpses. Those shot in the belly bled more copiously than previously seen.

「Excellent!」

The militia member assigned to me brightened up. How fast and accurately the shooter shot them down was a factor directly tied to the speed of the hunting drive.

In any case, I calmly gunned down the boars. There were no specimens of particular note. They were just animals. Though some with opened circuits were mixed in proportion to their numbers, none had “codes” of quality worth collecting.

「Don’t see any special ones in there, right?」

「Yeah.」

Kyung-tae, confirming with me, continues his precise shooting. The group of some 20 boars rapidly dwindled. For a four-legged animal, running down a slope blanketed in snow made maintaining fore and aft balance tricky. The boars demonstrated desperate slapstick, stumbling and rolling repeatedly.

I revised my evaluation of this militia upward.

‘Their skill at herding prey is considerable…’

The three helicopters nimbly adjusted speed and position according to the movements of the target group. What was impressive was those tactical maneuvers were made without any instruction from Brigade Commander Neilson each time. Their tactical movements seemed to hold many aspects I and my kids could learn from. Of course, hunting people and hunting beasts cannot be technically identical. It was an unexpected benefit.

Seeming to share the thought, Kyung-tae fired questions over the internal line whenever there was a lull in shooting.

「You don’t recover the dead boars?」

The reply comes from Neilson in the co-pilot’s seat.

「No. We transmit the coordinates to a ground ops team nearby, so they’ll take care of retrieval instead.」

「Wow! You have a separate team working the ground too?」

「Yes. It’s one differentiating element from other companies, and also one reason we price higher than others. If we had to land and string up corpses every time we bagged a group, can you imagine the waste of time? And how the movement of the helicopters would slow?」

「I see.」

「Mr. Kim paid so agreeably I didn’t need to explain such details. Long term, we want to attempt true joint hunting operations across very broad areas.」

Kyung-tae asked a new question.

「Is the brigade in your team’s name because the scale is so large?」

A brigade as a military formation was the minimum unit capable of independent operations, though it varied by country, at a minimum including over 1,000 combat personnel. Asked again, Neilson snorted with laughter.

「Of course not! The core tau-runners (awakeners) active number is just over thirty, and even combined with the other armed members it’s not yet 100. It’s called a brigade only counting local residents who join as general members as one family, so to speak.」

「What’s the difference between that and general members?」

「The members are actually more like customers. They’re the ones who contribute a few dollars monthly to help with community safety. We provide enhanced patrol service for the residences of such members. Also, send helicopters for emergencies at night. Of course, additional fees for maintenance and fuel apply for chopper dispatch.」

「So to speak it’s another business item, then?」

「I guess so. The system’s not completely established yet, though.」

「In the future you might become a division or corps.」

「Hahaha! Wouldn’t that be grand! But even if everyone in this area joined, it wouldn’t be enough to form a corps. The population density is too low around here.」

In part, it meant they also served as a private security company. Demand was probably decently high in remote areas where it took police a minimum of an hour to arrive. An excellent case study of awakeners commercially leveraging their abilities.

…

Dammit. I made an effort to shake off the returning worry, and anxiety about Grace, that arose unprompted.

‘Good thing we booked the hot springs in advance.’

The hot springs we planned to visit after the hunt were located about 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) south of Richfield, where we had a safehouse. It’d be best to contact the ones left in the safehouse there and check the surroundings.

Right now I had no way to get in touch, being out of comms range. Satellite phones also couldn’t be used while traveling by helicopter.

The pilot’s voice flowed from the headset.

「Alright, next prey is coming up soon. I’m told some suspicious ones are mixed in, so both of you get ready.」

Two agile helicopters herded a new group of boars from afar. Groups that were originally separate amalgamated into a single mass, forcibly grouped together. The hybrids of domestic and wild boars boasted abnormally large physiques.

Among them, the male at the lead was even bigger than the rest. Just from the looks of it, its weight exceeded probably around 1,000 pounds (around 454 kg). Its power and speed matched its size, making its sprint across the snowfield look like a high-speed snow plow. With the violently swirling snow, even discerning the boar beyond it with normal vision would be difficult.

「Whoa, that guy’s gotta be T-hog level, right?」

At Kyung-tae’s words, Jack riding along chimed in agreement.

「We’re really lucky! That much power will for sure get an exotic game rating! The bounty starts at $3,000 so we’ve definitely got to bag it! O’Neil! It is recording properly, right?!」

「Of course!」

As the militia members get fired up, I closely observed the boar’s galloping which brought to mind a tank. Its “code” undulating through the bristled hair on its back was, as expected, focused on the most basic physical enhancement. No completely new or outstanding parts, but inspired enough mana manipulation to be worth tucking away in my mind. Might come in handy someday.

「Huh?」

The pilot made a surprised sound. A new helicopter flying in at max speed cut in recklessly. We had no choice but to give way to avoid collision.

The hijacking craft’s occupants immediately opened fire on the lead boar. They were trying to poach the prey we had cornered.

Neilson erupted in anger.

「Damn those utterly shameless bastards!」