Chapter 173: I’ll Do Anything You Want
Elsa and the White Whale were Boss Monsters of the same attribute.
Maybe some instinctive pull had drawn it in. Or maybe, as he’d first suspected, it was hunting her outright.
The timing was far too precise to write off as coincidence, and he found himself biting down lightly on his lip.
"D-do we really have to fight it?"
"He’s right. From everything you’ve told us, this thing sounds like something we simply can’t handle..."
"Can’t we just avoid it, or hide?"
A few hunters spoke up.
Fear written all over them.
Understandably so. If a light attribute S-rank hunter could go missing mid-battle, it wasn’t hard to guess what would happen to a bunch of B-ranks.
Elma shook her head.
"That isn’t an option. If we leave the White Whale alone, there’s a strong chance every shelter loses the cleared gates it holds."
As she’d said earlier, the White Whale was a monster that devoured gates.
Which made it obvious what it would do first once it made landfall on Key West. It would go after the gates each shelter depended on.
"And if we lose the gates, we can forget about any stable food supply going forward."
In a world frozen into something like hell, the cleared gates each shelter held were both a refuge for the non-Awakened and a lifeline where crops could actually be grown.
And if all of them were lost?
Every avenue for obtaining food would vanish.
"If that happens, we’re truly finished."
Elma’s face was hard as she said it.
The brutal truth that running or hiding only meant death arrived a little later. At those words, a heavy silence descended over the room again.
Then a voice broke it.
Gordon, the chief of Coral Cave.
"What about using that ring to move the region itself?"
The artifact on Elma’s finger, the Gate Ring.
If she used its ability to link gate to gate, couldn’t they escape off Key West entirely?
Then there’d be no need to fight at all.
That was what Gordon had hoped.
But Elma shook her head, her expression still dark.
"I obtained this after the Antarctica gate release. Because of the second activation condition, I can’t move anyone beyond Key West."
The Gate Ring’s special skill.
[Gate Link] only functioned with gates visited after the ring had been put on.
And Elma had been on Key West continuously since before the Antarctica gate release. Which meant that, as things stood, she could only travel between gates within Key West.
"Ngh, so that means..."
"We can’t run and we can’t hide."
Low groans came from the hunters.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, they sighed one after another. Walfred, by contrast, was unmoved.
He had a way off Key West.
More than anything, if he was being honest with himself, he wanted to forget the White Whale entirely, gather up Jenna and the people around her, and quietly leave the island.
’But if...’
If the White Whale really was after Elsa?
Then no matter where they hid, there was a strong chance it would chase them to the end. Simply running wouldn’t shake the thing off their trail.
Walfred’s eyes glinted coldly.
’It might be better to finish it here, before it grows any stronger.’
While it was still an S-rank Boss Monster.
And right now, he could count on support from Elma and the other hunters.
While he was still turning it over, a voice cut through the silence.
"Then the conclusion is..."
Gordon parted his firmly shut lips and said, in a low voice,
"Running and hiding get us nowhere, so one way or another we have to stand and fight the White Whale."
"That’s correct."
Elma nodded.
Gordon exhaled shortly, then slapped his own cheek hard with an open palm. Wearing a grimly determined expression, he spoke up.
"So what’s the actual plan for dealing with it?"
"I’ve already prepared one."
"Let’s hear it, then."
"Yes. Though for this plan to work at all, one crucial piece of firepower absolutely has to be there."
"Crucial firepower?"
What was that supposed to mean?
At Gordon’s question, Elma answered immediately.
"That’s right. And we have to find him within the four days we’ve been given."
"Find who?"
"Hunter Walfred."
The words had barely left her mouth.
"...?"
Gordon tilted his head.
And he wasn’t the only one.
Aria and the other hunters, along with the man whose real name had just been spoken, all did the same.
Elma, apparently not noticing, looked around at them and spoke with real urgency.
"So please, does anyone here know Hunter Walfred? Even the smallest detail would help. Anything at all."
"...What?"
"If we have Hunter Walfred, I believe we stand a real chance. This is a man who took down an S-rank boss, the Spirit King, single-handedly. A monster among monsters."
Elma clenched her fist.
"The last confirmed sighting was in Savannah, Georgia, so with a bit more digging I’m certain we can locate him..."
Then she let the sentence trail off.
Because she’d caught something odd in the way Gordon was looking at her. A look full of exasperated disbelief.
Elma tilted her head.
"Sir? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"...You’re seriously asking because you don’t know?"
"What? What do you mean...?"
"I mean, Hunter Walfred is..."
Just as Gordon started to turn toward him, Walfred cut in first.
"There’s something I want to ask."
He held up an open palm toward Gordon.
As if telling him not to say another word.
Gordon obligingly shut his mouth, and Walfred looked Elma straight in the eye.
"If someone brings you Hunter Walfred, what do they get out of it?"
"...! Don’t tell me you know Hunter Walfred..."
"Answer my question first."
Elma’s eyes went wide, and Walfred pressed her.
She didn’t hesitate for a second.
"I’ll do anything you want."
"Anything? You’re saying you’d grant a wish?"
"Yes. If it’s within my power."
Her eyes held a hardened resolve.
Seeing her answer without a shred of hesitation, Walfred let the corner of his mouth curl up.
"Now that I like."
With that, he walked toward her.
He stopped about a single step away, then said in a confident voice,
"There. I brought him."
"What? What do you mean by..."
Looking at her bewildered face, Walfred grinned.
"It’s me. I’m Walfred."