“Yeah, I think you’re the one who has to go.”
The name of the man making such an unreasonable request of me right now was Heath,
the captain of our mercenary corps.
With bulging muscles and a long scar across his face, he was the picture of a typical macho man.
His weapon of choice was a greatsword, too.
As you might expect, his fighting style was to charge mindlessly into the midst of monsters and sweep them away.
If it had only gone that far, he would have been reliable enough to be admirable, but...
The problem was that his words and actions were exactly that style, too.
How does someone like that lead an organization called a mercenary corps?
There’s a vice-captain being ground down beneath him.
If I get the chance to introduce her later, I will.
Lately, I haven’t seen her come out of the office at all...
Anyway,
“No.”
I firmly refused the captain’s demand.
Part of it was because it was a pain, but in truth, there was a bigger reason.
“It’s too risky.”
The purpose of the tournament was to recruit a mercenary to help the Hero’s party.
Not a mercenary corps, or a single unit, but a mercenary.
Just one person.
Normally, when clients hired mercenaries, they hired them by the unit.
After all, hiring a single disposable item to take on dangerous work was practically meaningless.
Sending several in at once made sure there were no pointless extra expenses or loss of time, and that the job was finished properly.
Then why had the Hero’s party announced that they were only looking for one mercenary?
Probably to prevent rumors from spreading that the one bearing the sacred destiny of the Hero had used mercenaries as sacrifices, even if mercenaries were socially regarded as meat shields.
Murder to silence.
The dead tell no tales.
It was inefficient, but it was the cleanest way to keep rumors from spreading.
Ah, for reference, I doubt the Hero’s party came up with such a vicious idea.
The person who formed the Hero’s party, who found the Hero and gathered talents from all over the nation.
The emperor, Gilbert la Deus.
It must have come from that bastard’s head.
What, are we not his subjects? Is that it?
Fucking bastard.
They say everyone gets badmouthed behind their back at least once, but that bastard is probably being cursed by every person with even half a brain.
Anyway, for that reason, as obvious as it was, even if I were chosen, I probably wouldn’t get to see the Hero’s party for even a single second.
With the Hero’s personality, there’s no way she’d quietly accept knowing that one mercenary was being sacrificed for her sake.
Even if the Hero said she wanted to thank me, or that she wanted to meet me once, they’d obviously pull some bullshit like, “The mercenary is busy working right now, so you cannot meet him.”
Now, here comes the question.
Why do mercenaries participate in this tournament even though they know that?
Is it because the Hero is definitely beautiful, so they want to get her attention even like this?
Or because if they don’t die and survive, they might be able to rise in status?
Well, those reasons might exist too, but first of all, the reason the captain told me to participate was,
“They said they’d provide funding to the mercenary corps the selected mercenary belongs to, and supply us properly too. They say we’ll be treated almost like a knight order.”
For the first time, the captain revealed a troubled feeling to me.
I said earlier that he was the refreshing macho type who just pushed forward simply, but that didn’t mean he was stupid at all.
That man’s conscience was probably tormenting him like crazy right now.
He must have hated himself for telling me to enter the tournament as if it were nothing.
But, you know something?
Of course, since I never told him, there’s no way he’d know... but the person who saved me in my village when I was young was none other than the captain.
In other words, he was my savior.
Everyone in the mercenary corps had been a good home to me, and a place I could return to.
I had been handling some of the mercenary corps’ work, but honestly, it was hard to say I had repaid that debt with just that much.
Because I knew it meant going to my death, I had refused firmly at first.
But seeing as he brought it up again even after I refused, the mercenary corps’ situation must have been truly serious.
The captain had a family.
The mercenaries belonging to the corps had families too.
They had a duty to support their families.
Coldly speaking, I was not their real family connected by blood.
If you asked anyone passing by which side would be more precious in this situation, of course... it could only be their real family.
“If... if you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. I was just...”
“No. I was, well... interested in the Hero too.”
A lie.
“They say she’s the same age as me, right? Eighteen. They say not to look up at a tree you can’t climb, but with looks like hers, don’t you think she’s worth aiming for at least once?”
It was a lie.
“And I recently awakened aura too, so this works out. If I apply for the tournament, I’ll get in right away, won’t I?”
At my sly and calm performance, the captain stared at me blankly for a while and said nothing.
“Yeah... then let’s have you go.”
“Sure. I don’t have to work until the tournament starts, right?”
“...Do as you like.”
I carved the captain’s face, which might be the last time I ever saw it, into my eyes.
Then I bowed my head and left the captain’s office.
Thud.
The captain’s office after Evan left.
The captain, Heath, said nothing as he watched Evan’s back leaving without hesitation.
Neither the words “Take care” nor “Thank you” would leave his mouth.
“Fuck...”
Heath was a man who had failed to overcome the wall of Expert.
It wasn’t as if Heath particularly cared about that fact or was obsessed with becoming an Expert,
but the reason this was being brought up was because, during a recent commission he had personally led, an entire unit had suffered damage close to total destruction.
At that time, for the first time in his life, he thought, “If only I could use aura.”
And he had continued thinking so ever since.
Because he had not been strong enough, he had nearly lost a whole unit, and now, though Evan was not his biological son, he was sending a boy he had grown quite fond of to the tournament in order to maintain the mercenary corps.
Of course, if he wanted to turn back, he could.
If they slowly completed commissions with Evan, who had become an Expert, at the forefront, then even if the rumor spread that one of their units had been annihilated, applicants would still come.
If they slowly gathered funds again, then someday the mercenary corps could return to its original state.
But, in truth, that was a gamble in the current situation.
According to the official notice from the royal household, each mercenary corps had to put forward at least one mercenary as a candidate for the tournament anyway.
Supposedly, it was to increase the odds of finding suitable talent.
Starting over slowly with Evan at the forefront seemed, in the current situation, as though they would lose nothing more.
But being an Expert did not mean he could succeed at every commission.
What if Evan died before they got back on track?
With the mercenary corps’ current budget and circumstances, they couldn’t even reliably support Evan enough to keep him from dying.
It was impossible to support him so he could grow further, too.
Under such conditions, could Evan truly grow rapidly, as if in a dream, and become the face of the mercenary corps?
If such hopeful expectations were crushed, he and every mercenary belonging to his corps would lose their affiliation in an instant.
Rather than bear that uncertain possibility, if he sent Evan to the tournament, whether Evan lived or died, as long as he won, they could receive definite support with one hundred percent certainty.
When judged rationally, the choice he had to make was clear.
He was the leader of an organization, and so he could not choose a gamble.
What if Evan didn’t win?
From Heath’s perspective, that possibility was extremely low.
It was a situation where victory might as well be considered guaranteed.
How many mercenaries were there who were Experts, and how many of them would participate in the tournament?
Even if there were any, Evan could win.
Because the talent he had seen in Evan was truly once-in-a-generation.
Of course, he had never once met a true master in his life, so he knew his judgment could be wrong.
“Yeah, Evan’s talent is outstanding. He’ll definitely survive...”
For these reasons, deciding that Evan would be the one they had to send no matter what was, for him, an unavoidable choice.
Heath rationalized it to himself like that, clutched his head, and sank into guilt and deep self-loathing.
***
“Do you really want to become a mercenary?”
When I heard that question, I did think a little that maybe I should have just run off and become a knight.
Ever since that fucking awful thing where I suddenly woke up on Mount Tusnis, it feels like only bad things have kept happening,
but well... the timing was just bad, I guess.
I decided not to care about it anymore.
Step. Step.
Marie was handling administrative work at the mercenary corps building today as well.
I told her I would be participating in the tournament, and that I would take a short break to prepare.
“The captain... allowed that?”
I performed for Marie the exact same way I had for Heath.
Saying, “The Hero is so beautiful that I want to hold her hand at least once.”
The difference was that, unlike the captain, Marie did not just let it slide.
“Yes. The captain will probably come down and tell you soon, so please take care of it that way.”
Marie,
Marie always wore a smile.
When handling administrative work, maintaining a smile at all times was useful in many ways.
Anyway, right now, Marie was rarely unable to hide her angry expression.
Marie and I were orphans taken in by the mercenary corps around the same time, though she was two years younger.
It was only natural that she cherished me.
Marie rose from her seat and quickly walked toward the vice-captain’s office.
If Marie felt like a close friend who relied on me and on whom I relied in return, then the vice-captain felt like the real mother who had raised me since I was young.
She had always looked after me with affection, and even after I was fully grown, she always took care of me after I finished a commission.
As time passed, she became busier and busier, so there were more times when she couldn’t look after me, but even so, she continued paying attention to me, assigning commissions according to my situation like last time.
There was no way these two would simply stand by and watch when I said I would walk into the jaws of death.
A short while later.
Bang!!!
A tremendous roar rang out from the vice-captain’s office.
Then two people climbed the stairs and headed to the upper floor.
For a while, raised voices went back and forth upstairs.
Voices filled with women’s anger and disbelief,
and a man’s voice close to a scream were locked in fierce opposition.
It was a battle between emotion and reason.
After a long fight, the result seemed to be reason’s victory.
The door opened.
The two who came down from upstairs walked straight toward me.
Marie, her short brown bob swaying,
and,
“Evan.”
the vice-captain, Helga, whose dark gray hair belonged to a woman already past forty and approaching forty-five.
As soon as Vice-Captain Helga saw me, she hugged me tightly and patted my back.
Looking down from within the vice-captain’s embrace, I saw tears streaming endlessly down Marie’s face.
“I’m sorry... I’m sorry...”
She must have argued so loudly that the vice-captain’s voice was completely hoarse.
“It’s okay. Thank you for worrying about me. I can do well, so don’t worry. It’s not like everyone who goes there dies, and I could lose in the tournament too.”
“That’s right...”
Helga stopped speaking for a moment.
“Yes, that’s right.”
A moment later, Helga’s callus-covered hand gently stroked my head.
“If you ever need help, make sure to tell us. Right now, I have no choice but to admit that sending you is the best option... but once the mercenary corps stabilizes, whenever you need help, we’ll help you.”
“Thank you, Vice-Captain Helga.”
Since the three of us had suddenly gathered in the middle of the first floor and created this atmosphere, the other mercenaries, who had frozen in confusion, also gathered around and asked what was going on.
At Vice-Captain Helga’s rough explanation of the situation, none of the mercenaries could have good expressions.
A few even got angry and said they would storm into the captain’s office, but when they heard what the captain had said, and that he probably felt the same as us, they could not bring themselves to actually do it.
“Oh, come on, seriously. Why are you all making those faces? You too, Vice-Captain Helga. What am I supposed to do if someone who used to swing a battle-axe around, happily chopping off monster heads, makes that kind of face?”
I tried my best to calm them down and reassure them.
“Marie, stop crying too. I have to go anyway. I’m not going there to die, okay?”
“Yeah... come back... make sure you come back...”
Everyone was quick-witted, so perhaps they noticed my effort, because one by one, they silently tapped my shoulder and said a few words.
Usually, it was an apology, or thanks.
***
After everyone finished saying goodbye to me, I bid farewell to them all and returned to the dormitory.
Then, without even changing clothes, I lay down on my bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.
Ah, it wasn’t the clothes splattered all over with blood from hunting the mutant boar.
No matter how gloomy I feel, I’m not inconsiderate enough to completely ruin my bedsheets.
“Phew...”
This was the right choice, wasn’t it?
With this, I repaid my debt, right?
Next time, no matter what, I’m prioritizing my own feelings and my own circumstances first, so you all had better know that.
And everyone is talking like I’m going to die, but all I have to do is survive.
I’ll make sure I survive, and when the Hero’s party disbands, I’ll come back here too.
Everyone... wait for me.
They said they’d support you generously. Don’t let even one person die. Wait for me.
I’ll be back soon.