The plane we boarded was a Globemaster C-17 transport.
It wasn’t the largest transport aircraft the U.S. military had, but the interior, filled with personnel seats, was incredibly spacious.
More than a hundred soldiers sat in seats installed along the sides and down the center of the cargo bay, while the inner area was packed with all kinds of military supplies.
However, the area around Magreta, Catherine, and me had been left quite empty.
On top of that, only a few special forces soldiers assigned to guard us were seated nearby, so we had to endure the soldiers’ stares.
As the gazes continued to pour in, Magreta, who was sitting to my left, leaned toward my ear and apologized.
“I’m sorry. The higher-ups must have thought it would be troublesome if information leaked while only we were moving separately. That’s probably why they put us on the same plane as the troops being deployed.”
Did they think the plane we were on might be shot down if information leaked?
If it really had leaked, I felt like it wouldn’t matter whether we went together or not, but I accepted Magreta’s apology.
After all, it had been decided by people who didn’t know about my abilities.
I had no intention of criticizing them for doing their best to protect us in their own way.
Perhaps she had heard what Magreta said, because Catherine, who was sitting to my right, looked at us with puzzled eyes.
Catherine currently believed I was an ordinary person who couldn’t use magic.
In that situation, it was only natural that Magreta’s apology would seem strange to her.
When I waved at Catherine, who was staring at me in confusion, the back of my head began to prickle even more.
I could even faintly sense killing intent.
It seemed most of the gazes fixed on me were because of the two women sitting beside me.
They were both extremely beautiful in appearance, so to the soldiers, I must have seemed like an enemy for having beauties seated on both sides of me.
Their stares contained killing intent, but I didn’t get angry.
If I had been sitting over there, I would have felt the same way.
As time passed, the flood of gazes gradually diminished.
We wouldn’t be getting off midway like on a civilian flight, but even on this transport, it would take over ten hours, half a day, to fly to Djibouti.
In that situation, it was difficult for them to keep paying attention to me.
The soldiers slept and listened to music through earphones.
Some watched videos of their families, while others watched movies on small screens.
Catherine and Magreta were also diligently typing away on their laptops.
It seemed both of them were busy writing reports they hadn’t been able to prepare until now.
Of course, I was holding the phone I had gotten back on Earth as well.
A video was playing on the phone screen at five times the speed, but I wasn’t the one watching it.
Above my head floated a new window hidden by magic.
The one currently watching the video was Soph inside that window.
Right now, I was nothing more than a phone stand.
The video Soph was watching was about this war.
A war that had begun in Yemen and Somalia and spread throughout the Middle East and Africa.
With the Persian Gulf already blocked and oil fields burning, the global economy was plunging straight to the bottom.
If it had been before the war, I would have worried about the world economy getting worse, and if I hadn’t gone to Trappist, I would surely have worried about prices rising.
However, right now, I was more worried about the ruins than any of that.
While watching the video continue to play, I fell asleep as well.
While I was asleep, the transport plane crossed half the globe and arrived in Africa.
In truth, the place where I woke up wasn’t Africa, but the sky over the sea between the Middle East and Africa—the Gulf of Aden.
—Attention, all personnel aboard. This is the captain. We are beginning our landing approach to the base. We are currently descending, and there are twenty minutes until landing.
At the captain’s announcement, the soldiers began to move.
They gathered up the gear they had scattered and woke their dozing comrades.
We did the same.
Magreta and Catherine checked their belongings, and I slung the backpack containing the box over my shoulder.
Next, it was time to fasten our seatbelts.
Instead of fastening my seatbelt, I grabbed the window floating above my head.
Killing intent was approaching.
It wasn’t the mischievous killing intent from the soldiers I had been feeling all along.
It was killing intent stripped of human emotion, meant to kill people.
It was the same killing intent I had felt before bullets flew in or when artillery shells approached.
“You can’t stand up during landing!”
“What’s going on?”
Catherine got angry when she saw me rise, but Magreta asked with a serious expression.
“Right now…”
It was the moment I tried to answer.
Bwoooooom!
The transport plane tilted sharply to the side.
Crash, clatter!
Items that hadn’t been secured flew everywhere.
“Aaaagh!”
“Gah!”
“Grab something!”
The same happened to the people who hadn’t managed to fasten their seatbelts.
Several soldiers were thrown from their seats.
Screams erupted.
My body was pulled as well, but this much didn’t even require magic.
I grabbed a seat with one hand and called Soph.
[Soph! It’s a missile attack!]
Soph answered my call.
[What will you do? I can put up a barrier around you, but not one large enough to cover this plane!]
That was troublesome.
If we put up a barrier like that, not only would it reveal that I could use magic, but the other soldiers would have no choice but to die.
If things became truly dangerous, there would be no helping it, but I had to try another method first.
The problem was, there wasn’t much time to think.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The transport plane danced madly from side to side, and from outside came the sound of flares being launched.
Fortunately, the flares worked.
The incoming missile changed direction, chased the flares, and exploded.
Kwaaaang!
The shock of the explosion swept over the transport.
Thud! Creeeak!
The transport shook, and the aircraft screamed.
Fortunately, the transport could still continue flying.
At the sound of the missile exploding, some soldiers let out sighs of relief, but it wasn’t over yet.
More missiles were coming.
At that moment, a parachute appeared before my eyes.
The special forces soldiers who had approached at some point were holding out parachutes to us.
A man who seemed to be the team leader spoke quickly.
“We’ve received word from the captain. There are too many missiles. Flares and chaff alone won’t be enough to stop them. Put on the parachutes immediately and follow us this way.”
The place he pointed to was not the rear ramp used to drop cargo, but the emergency exit at the front.
“Wouldn’t it be faster to open the back?”
Catherine asked as she put on the parachute, and the team leader shook his head.
“The rear ramp is malfunctioning.”
When I looked back, one officer was hanging over the console and repeatedly pressing buttons.
But the rear ramp did not open. It seemed the ramp had been damaged by the earlier explosion.
In the end, the captain and the special forces soldiers intended to abandon the other soldiers and evacuate only us.
It meant they considered us that important, but I didn’t follow those words.
Instead of putting on the parachute, I said to the team leader,
“Let’s go to the cockpit.”
“Pardon? What do you mean…”
If I wasn’t going to save only those around me with a barrier, then I had to go to the cockpit.
[The targets are too fast. If you want to hit them with your targeting, you need to be somewhere you can at least see outside.]
To stop the incoming missiles, I needed Soph’s magic.
And to target the missiles, he needed me.
The missiles were too far and too fast to catch with my senses. I had to confirm them with my eyes.
I had to go to the cockpit, where I could see outside.
I could go to the cockpit alone and force the door open, but there was no need to invite unnecessary danger in this situation.
People stared at me with dumbfounded expressions.
Among them, one person wore a different expression.
“Do as he says and go to the cockpit. This is an order as plenipotentiary ambassador of the State Department.”
Magreta said to the team leader.
On Trappist, Catherine’s position was higher, but on Earth, Magreta’s post was the highest.
Just as her superior was an Assistant Secretary of State, she, too, was both an intelligence agency operative and a plenipotentiary ambassador of the State Department.
The special forces soldiers had also been assigned to us by the intelligence agency through the State Department.
In the end, the special forces soldiers had to obey her.
“What are you doing!”
Catherine got angry again, but the team leader bit his lip and followed Magreta’s words.
“Understood. Follow me.”
As expected of Magreta.
Telling her had been the best thing I’d done.
Since the team leader had accepted it, there was no need for us to go together.
“I’ll go ahead. Please tell the captain to leave the door open.”
I said that to the team leader and ran ahead first.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of flares being fired continued outside, and the transport shook like mad.
The soldiers clung to their seats with pale faces, and objects flew everywhere.
But within all that, I moved quickly as if I were running across flat ground.
I dodged incoming objects, leapt over seats, and arrived in front of the cockpit door in an instant.
The moment I arrived, I heard the lock disengage.
I threw the door wide open.
“Huh!”
When I opened the door, I saw the startled copilot.
I pushed the copilot aside and stood behind the pilot’s seat.
“What on earth is going on!”
The copilot’s shout came from behind me.
The pilot glanced at me as well, then shouted.
“I opened the door as ordered, but evacuate immediately! The fact that we’ve dodged them so far was just luck!”
I ignored the two pilots’ words.
Instead, I focused on the scene before my eyes.
The vast sea and the land visible far away.
The wide sky spread out above it.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Across that vast sky, flares and chaff were spreading.
Shoooooo!
Missiles pierced through the flares and chaff, flying toward us.
“Aaaagh!”
At the sight of the incoming missiles, the pilots screamed.
At that moment, I also finished confirming them.
[Targeting complete!]
I had designated all the incoming missiles as targets.
At the same time, Soph cast his magic.
[Blow, wind! Strike down, lightning!]
Perhaps because he was in a hurry, Soph’s spell was a little childish.
But the result was certain.
Crackle!
Sparks flew across the fronts of the incoming missiles, and the missiles lost their direction.
Like they had been caught in a sudden gust of wind, the missiles flew off in all directions.
“Uh, what is that?”
“The missiles are acting strange!”
The missiles crashed to the ground or collided with one another and exploded.
Kwaang!
The pilot and copilot stared open-mouthed at the falling missiles.
“What on earth happened?”
“Don’t tell me… we survived…”
The two people who knew nothing about magic couldn’t understand the situation.
They seemed to think we had simply been lucky, or that a miracle had occurred.
That was enough.
At this rate, the others wouldn’t think I had done it either.
At that moment, Magreta and Catherine, who had arrived in the cockpit, saw the scene.
Magreta looked at me with a meaningful expression.
Catherine, who had been watching the falling missiles with a bewildered expression, turned to look at me in shock.
“Don’t tell me…”
Unlike the others, it seemed Catherine had realized it.
“This should help you make your decision too, shouldn’t it?”
At my words, Catherine stared at me intently.
Magreta seemed displeased with that Catherine.
With the missile threat gone, a strange tension flowed through the cockpit this time.
In any case, we had managed to avoid the barrage of missiles.
And a short while later, the transport arrived at the U.S. military base.
Mercenary (1)