Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1) V.A. Lewis (feel good books to read .TXT) 📖

are not the same as regular hunters who do it for game or for food. We take jobs dealing with Monsters, and not animals. This usually comes in the form of subjugating Monster hordes that are too large for a town or a city to handle with their guards alone. Of course, sometimes there are Monsters that require a whole team to take down a single one, but those kinds of Monsters tend to be smart enough to stay away from larger settlements."

"I see." The former slave nodded along. "I don’t think they do that in Bys. I, uh— think they usually send gladiators to deal with Monsters."

"Yes. That’s because there aren’t any Hunters here, see? Anyway that’s not what all Hunters do."

"What else is there?"

"Sometimes, Hunters are hired to be bodyguards of sorts. Like maybe escorting a rich man’s carriage through a forest known to be full of dangerous Monsters. But we don’t get hired to defend them from bandit attacks. That’s what Mercenaries do. Eh, although we are required by the guild to protect our clients if they get ambushed by people."

"But you mostly deal with Monsters, right?"

"Exactly. So that’s why some Hunters don’t like taking those jobs. You never know when some asshole has a target on this back, and can’t afford Mercenaries. He’d put a posting for escort through a relatively safe part so it’s cheap, then when you think you’ve got an easy job you suddenly have to deal with assassins, hired bandits, or even Mercenaries."

Feri nodded along. He was starting to get the idea behind it. But there was a glaring problem with the job that even he noticed.

"What if there’s no… Monsters?" The young man paused, then quickly added. "Like, no Monsters attacking villages, and no Monsters attacking travelers. Wouldn’t you be forced to..." he trailed off.

"Do escort jobs?" Dawa finished the Human man’s question for him. "Well that just means you’ll have to fall back to the part of the job that makes us Hunters. Do you know what that is?"

The Rabbit Beastkin just grinned as the former slave blinked in confusion. Feri was just about to blurt out a stupid answer, when a voice from the side stopped him.

"You hunt Monsters," Shang answered the question for the young man. "You hunt Monsters, then you sell their parts to the highest bidder."

Feri turned to face the Dog Beastkin as he continued.

"It’s like what most regular people do when they hunt animals. You kill a moose, then hang its head in your living room. Except it’s a Mammoth Hog, and you can’t kill it yourself. So you buy its decapitated head from a Hunter who has. There’s no sense of accomplishment behind it, but it’s a far better decoration than a moose’s head. At least, that’s what nobles seem to think."

Shang shook his head, and muttered under his breath. "Savages."

Feri saw this, and blinked. Confused. A high pitched voice piped up, explaining it to the former slave.

"It pays well, but Shang doesn’t like it," Rin said from next to the Dog Beastkin. "He thinks it’s terrible, so we never did it."

"Hrn, that’s because it is terrible. It’s like breaking into someone’s house and killing them, then selling their body after. Like killing animals for sport. And these Monsters are the intelligent ones. Maybe someone will buy a Chimera for 10… 15 gold? At most 20 gold. But the ones people are really after— like a Manticore or a Horned Ursa— they are smart. Smarter than animals. It’s wrong, and I don’t like it."

"Nn, I know that and I agree with you! I was just explaining it to Feri, idiot!"

"Both of you are the idiots. Shut up!" Dawa stopped the argument before it even began. The Rabbit Beastkin faced the young man. "Point is, Hunters do a lot of things. But at the end of the day, it has to do killing with Monsters. We preferred to do escort or subjugation jobs, so we traveled around a lot. And that’s how we ended up in Elios. Because there’s no jobs if you stay in one city— or country even— doing nothing," he finished.

And Feri understood. The young man let the information sink in. There was so much about the world he had to learn! He remembered the fall of Bys. He remembered those creatures. Those Abominations.

"Have you guys ever seen those… things before?"

Shang and Dawa exchanged a look, and the Dog Beastkin spoke up.

"No. I’ve never seen… or heard of anything like that before. Even back when I was in the navy, I never even saw any sea creature as terrifying as that. And those get really bad." Shang shook his head, then muttered under his breath. "I should’ve known. All the signs were there but I didn’t realize. Monsters don’t just attack large cities again and again without a reason— they were driven out. Driven out by those… things."

Feri nodded his head. He opened his mouth to ask another question—

"Nn, your food’s burning," Rin interrupted him.

The young man blinked and fumbled for his skewer as the Cat Beastkin laughed. Feri was desperately blowing at the blackened meat, when there was a commotion across the camp.

Feri looked up and saw a small group of riders entering the encampment. A dozen people rode in on horses, with multiple people mounted on a single horse. Half of them were armed, while the other half were not, and looked tired and weary.

"Hrn, they’re back early. Let’s go greet them." Shang stood up and gestured at the riders. "And bring some meat for them, Rin."

"Nn." The catgirl made a sound in affirmation.

Feri and Dawa followed after their two companions. And they walked up to the riders as they were dismounting off their horses.

"Hey, Em. Catch!" Rin grabbed a flank of deer meat and tossed it at one