A Slayer of Ferocious Beasts

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO GO HUNTING FOR FOOD!?”

Kimi blurted out at Akio once she and her fortunately many surviving Common Folk made it back to the fortress and armory, as she stood before her rather weary and hungry, but still orderly  formations behind her. Akio was hovering before them, speaking to Kimi telepathically, though she couldn’t help but blurt out a response verbally based on what he said. 

“Again, you’ll have to hunt in these lands. Fortunately for you, Frost Boar are easy enough to come by - in the rural, snow and frost covered grounds of this fiefdom of the realm. I should caution you once more however, Slayer Queen - your title will be tested in both leadership and human-beast combat and capabilities.”

Akio replied psychically with his usual meaningful and focused tone, while also being as strict and  uncompromising as ever before. 

“Wait - I - I have to do this alone….?”

Kimi replied psychically as she sighed and nodded. Two facts of the situation that she knew ti be true were that she had ti feed herself and the Common Folk under her, and that she had to price herself capable to them, herself, and even to Akio. And with that in mind, Kimi took one last breath and looked up at Akio, and then at orderly formations of Common Folk behind her, before returning her gaze to Akio.

“So what is a Frost Boar like?”

Kimi asked Akio psychcially, putting on a brave face despite feeling an extreme amount of nervousness about the coming hunt!

“They’re much larger than yourself, thirty to fifty feet, and they can break through walls of ice. I’d recommend having a shield forged and using one of your Sorcerers and Slayers cards to not only further enchant your sword - but also the shield. Should you succeed - it’ll provide enough food to last in preparation of the coming battles. Now - go.”

Akio said psychically, flying away in his wingless dragon form, as Kimi then turned to her formations. She still wasn't used to being put in this position - having to speak to mass armored and armed formations, as it was nothing like having to give a presentation in her class, or speak to the student council at her school about preparations for the school festival each year that she had been at her high school. As Kimi took a deep breath, she then began to speak further. 

“I’m going to go hunt a beast that’s in our fiefdom, called a Frost Boar. Akio advised me that I should have a shield forged to take with me. But I’ll say this too - let’s forge a large stockpile of shields to accompany the swords.”

Kimi said as she then thought for a moment about what a good design would be, before she snapped her fingers and smiled. She surprised herself, admittedly, having ever really thought about the forging of weapons outside of when it pertained to fantasy worlds in anime, manga, and light novels that she sent her time with prior to being transported to this other world. As she bit her lip and took a moment to pause and consider what she'd say next? A brief, passing moment of levity came over her when she thought about how she was now ordering weaponry to be forged in the same manner that she had until recently, discussed decorations and their designs for various school festival exhibits.

“Make them all a rather thick hourglass shape, like two tall, thin, vertical trapezoids merged together, in sakura pink, mountain red, and frost white.”

Kimi said as she smiled, leaving only once she saw the Common Folk disperse in an orderly manner, with half taking on their duties in the interconnected armory and forge, while the rest took their positions on the walls. The manual converter belt moved as metal was fed into the gaping mouth of the stone and brick, tall chimney furnace of the forge, while the molds for the swords identical to Kiki’s cosmetically, were then forged and stored at the ready. 

Kimi noticed just before going into the fortress to ascend to her throne room, her order about the shields being carried out precisely as well, which elicited a smile from her. It was within these small moments of levity and satisfaction that made her feel like she could actually make it through this, like maybe - just maybe - she'd be capable enough in terms of intellect, attitude, and ability to make it through the War of the Realm and then set everything right. Those small moments of levity and satisfaction - how she loved and cherished them. With that bit of positivity in mind, Kimi made her way back to her throne room.

Once Kimi had made it back to her throne room, she sat on her ivory and ruby throne, searching through the Sorcerers and Slayers cards in the box that was made of the same materials. Fortunately, two cards stood out:

The Pioneer Slayer Who Tames the Frontier - Effect: Allows the Slayer Queen to deal critical damage with her enchanted sword to any beast within her fiefdom.

Swiftness of the Winter Wind - Effect: Allows the Slayer Queen to move with greatly increased combat movement and agility against want beast within her fiefdom.

Kimi smiled at the two cards, before nodding to herself and heading back down to the armory area with a quickness on her pace that was present due to her nervousness about the coming hunt. Even with the two Sorcerers and Slayers cards in hand - she couldn't help but feel nervous. The feelings of dread, fear, and uncertainty of the coming battle loomed over her like a specter, and she couldn't help but feel conflicted once more. Kimi sighed, thinking about how in the anime, manga, and light novels from within the isekai sub-genre that she'd watched and read, respectively, back in the other world - the protagonists of those properties were always perfectly brave and swift in their actions, always ready to overcome any and all challenges that they confronted - yet not her, not Kimi, not completely at least. Kimi then shook her head, before nodding and standing up as she looked around her throne room. 

"No - I have to do this, I don't have a choice, because I'm not doing this just for myself." 

Kimi said to herself, and then moments later, Kimi was at the armory - and she was both impressed and grateful that there were so many high quality shields being produced - and just in the design that she’d suggested! Each of the new shields - which were nearly as tall as the Common Folk and essentially as tall as her, had the pink painted neatly on the top third of the shield, the white in the middle, and the red on the bottom - all in the specified shades as well! Kimi had no doubt that Akio helped influence this industrial smoothness. 

As Kimi hoisted one of the shields up - she could feel that despite it being as tall as her, the shield was exceptionally lightweight! As she held it, an aura of sakura pink partly enveloped it - though Kimi wasn’t worried. Like her sword, due to the powers of the original character that she’d designed and was now essentially incarnated as, the shield too, was strengthened through the power of enchantment. Kimi considered for a moment, once again, that this just might work - that she just may've come up with solution that would result in victory in the near and in the longterm. 

“Thank you, all of you, for doing this! I won’t let ahh of you down - and please guard the fortress and armory while I’m away on this Frost Boar hunt.”

Kimi said gratefully, before departing on her way to go hunting, enchanted shield and sword, as well as both applicable Sorcerers and Slayers cards in hand. The snow crunched under her feet as she walked, with small, light snowflakes fell down as she made her way forward, while the red mountains that were covered in frost and snow looked beautiful to her, having reminded her of Hokkaido in the winter, a thought of reminiscence that made Kimi sigh as she kept on her journey. As she trekked, Kimi couldn't help but once again think back to how in different manga, anime, and light novels - quests involving hunting and otherwise going on different sorts of "fetch quests" in what usually, but not always, amounted to "filler arcs". In that sense, going on a hunt like this certainly felt like a "filler arc" to Kimi, though she didn't see that as a bad thing. 

The entirety of the journey out of the fortress and armory wasn’t a particularly long one - but it was one that produced a sort of rush within her. Her feet crunched under the first and snow as she made her way along the slightly hilly, rocky, valley ground as he looked around, smiling, as Kimi felt the fresh air felt nice at the very least, even if there was an odd slowness that she felt within the overall tempo of this endeavor that was the hunt. It was different from those moments of slowness when she was with Kana, or when she was simply preparing for the coming War of the Realm. 

“ROOOOAAAARRRRR!”

That was what broke the silence, however, as a Frost Boar, an ice spiked, white, massive, three tusked boar that was sized exactly as Akio had described - roared and charged at Kimi while she was standing in a snow and frost covered clearing!

The Frost Boar charged towards Kimi - with Kimi realizing that she only had one way out of this situation - and so she activated the The Pioneer Slayer Who Tames the Frontier card, and then the Swiftness of the Winter Wind card - getting the idea to use the slight diehard slope of the ground to the advantage of both of the cards! 

With this in mind, Kimi threw down her shield author a sakura pink aura around it, riding it as if it were a snowboard, while she dashed towards the Frost Boar in this way with her enchanted sword in hand - slashing on one side of the Frost Boar on one side, and then on the other, swiftly! 

When Kimi stopped a moment later, the Frost Boar was deceased. She’d succeeded in securing a food source for herself and the Common Folk under her!

It wasn’t long before they were all gathered in the great hall portion of the fortress and armory - armored with the same, intense but beautiful, ivory with ruby inlay decoration, the now prepared Frost Boar in the middle of all of them on the main table.

“I wish I could give you all more comfort than just my words and an attempt at a brave face - but it’s all I have, nonetheless. We may have won the day yesterday , with a glassed beachhead surface and a the ruler in stewardship of one of the other fiefdoms defeated - but the War of the Realm isn’t over yet. So let’s eat, and then prepare.”

Kimi said as confidently as she could, before blushing and smiling - still not used to the position that she was in. Though, the Common Folk didn’t seem to mind, as they all sat down with her, chatter and laughter in the air as they began to set aside their troubles for the night over this feast.