6. The Al…rhan Mercenary Company
After informing the soldier of the Magistrate's arrival.
Even as we entered the mansion along the path.
Al was snickering, looking back at me.
He seemed to have a rough idea of how lofty a position Magistrate was, but he didn't know the exact specifics.
Even though I had clearly given him a brief explanation.
But I swallowed my mockery of him and nodded.
I could have asked for a man's head. As a suggestion, of course.
Whether it was the captain of a mercenary company or some nobody from a bandit gang rolling around on the road.
I just couldn't command it.
That was the extent of an advisor's ability, armed only with powerless knowledge.
A limitation that had driven me to despair and that I had ultimately failed to overcome.
A position that held meaning only when backed thoroughly by a monarch's authority.
A station worse than a rolling pebble if the monarch turned away or discarded it.
"Yeah. Once you become a Magistrate, do whatever you want. Whatever you like."
'If only I could do that.'
* * *
Before long, inside Ibolg Castle.
"Hang that bastard!"
The Magistrate Areuhan, who had just arrived at Ibolg Castle, ordered.
I covered my face with one hand and let out a deliberately audible sigh.
"Please shut your mouth, Magistrate Areuhan. You… haven't you lost your mind?"
Lord Ibolg VII shook his head.
"No matter how much we're falling into ruin… a scholar like that! Conte, that old man, is foul until the very end. Casper, take the mercenary company and pay their fee."
"Yes, my lord."
At that, the Knight Captain of House Ibolg, clad in full plate armor and standing beside the lord, moved.
'Knight Captain of the Ibolg Order, Casper.'
Faced with full-body armor emblazoned with ornate patterns, the former bandits—now turned mercenary company—were extremely tense.
Even I, who stood before them.
If a knight donned full plate armor, he was truly comparable to a moving weapon of war.
Common infantry, archers, or simply armed soldiers would find it difficult to be a match no matter how fiercely they charged.
Just then, the Magistrate shouted.
"Food? Hahahaha, yes! Bring food! Bring all the meat!"
"You seem a bit weary from your long journey. Steward! Guide the Magistrate to his room."
"Yes."
"No, th-this isn't…?"
I turned to follow Casper, glancing sideways at Al and the steward beside him.
Seeing the face of that steward, the only one in Ibolg Castle who had treated me kindly, a strangely uncomfortable feeling arose in me.
"My Lord Magistrate, we shall prepare your bath and meal first."
But I nodded and cast aside my guilt.
He would enjoy extravagant meals and a comfortable life befitting his status for at least the remaining three days.
In any case, after Asta occupied Ibolg, they would sooner or later wipe out all the bandits, so it was merely a difference of a couple of months in lifespan.
Rather, it was I who had to endure a harsh life in the meantime.
The mercenary company of forty-three gathered in the training grounds following Knight Captain Casper.
The atmosphere among the mercenaries was extremely subtle. A strange excitement and anxiety. No matter how you looked at them, they were men who had been ruined by petty thievery.
Casper spoke.
"Tell me the amount the Magistrate promised your mercenary company."
"T… two gold."
At one mercenary's words, he nodded, and another knight in full plate armor stepped forward carrying a chest.
When the chest was opened, it was filled with gold coins.
'Two gold? No.'
"No. Including participation in the war, it's four gold, Knight Captain Casper."
Casper glared at me for a moment. After a brief battle of glares lasting several seconds, he nodded with a doubtful expression.
It wasn't as fierce as my swordsmanship teacher, Maise, but it was still quite a sharp gaze.
But you have to take what you can get when you can get it.
"Four gold…… very well, you shall be paid right this instant. In exchange, unconditional obedience. Any bastard with complaints can get out of Ibolg immediately."
At that, the mercenaries' faces brightened.
Though they couldn't quite cheer out loud, the affectionate gazes directed at the back of my head were enough to feel almost painfully warm.
Because everything was flowing exactly as I had explained.
Al seemed unaware of such things, but.
While feeling betrayed because their boss had left without the slightest hesitation, I, who kept my promises well and even possessed mysterious abilities, was a leader more perfect than any other.
To the point of seizing control of subordinates and earning their loyalty in an instant.
Everything was proceeding according to plan.
* * *
The moment I encountered the bandits on the road.
I discarded every plan I had made thus far and drew up a new one.
Past reports I had accessed and my experience with House Ibolg were of great help.
Of course, I could have fled the moment I left the Tower.
Or I could have pushed Ethan into this position, or begged for my life from House Asta.
But.
'Would that be enough?'
What remains after escaping danger and saving my own life?
A loser remains.
The honor of the Tower of Knowledge, and of course my teachers' honor, would fall to the ground.
In the long history of the Tower of Knowledge.
Could there have never been a case like mine?
There were countless instances where a domain fell immediately after an appointment.
However, according to an old adage:
'Honor is worth as much as the blood spilled for it.'
For the Tower of Knowledge, for my teachers and brothers.
Even when fighting against irrationality, we never ran away.
This time too, instead of choosing to flee.
I staked my fate on the war between Ibolg and Asta.
* * *
Knight Captain Casper merely twitched his brows as he readily handed over gold coins to the rabble.
It was a foreseen event.
A considerable time had passed since House Ibolg declared war, but they still hadn't secured sufficient troops. The houses within the domain were doing so, and even some vassals were watching the mood, sending materials instead of auxiliary troops.
Of course, money was needed to wage war, but the most important thing was troops. Money was for recruiting, arming, and feeding troops.
However, the moment rumors spread that conscription was beginning, men all started fleeing to other domains.
The subordinate houses and knights who had wagged their tails pledging loyalty to House Ibolg, the former conqueror of the Northeast, responded to the call as if they had never done so, or even if they dispatched troops, they didn't send proper ones.
If this were an ordinary war, Ibolg would have easily won and then squeezed their vassals and knights one by one.
But now, the fate of the house hung on this war.
In the past as well, the head of the house had made the same choice.
He conscripted every troop that could be scraped up nearby, and swept up every mercenary company there was, paying several times the market rate.
To the point where bandits, boys, and old men were dragged out, not to mention prisoners locked in dungeons, all made to take up arms.
"This gold… is your oath to fight bravely under the banner of House Ibolg."
I lowered my head and let out a small sigh.
To think a knight was personally handing out money and even mentioning an oath.
And that to mercenaries or vagrants who had rolled in from who knows where.
Anyone with even a little brains could have read from that alone how great a crisis House Ibolg was facing.
But these idiots were beside themselves with joy over the gold coins.
"Cowards, get out! We don't need you. However! If you remain in battle without fleeing, I shall pay each of you an additional five gold!"
Only now did the mercenaries begin to stir, intuiting that they had gotten involved in something extraordinary.
But it was already too late to pull out.
They glanced at me, but I completely ignored them.
Casper, who had been personally handing gold coins to the mercenaries, approached me. One more gold coin was placed on top.
"So you're the captain. Your eyes don't look green, but these are mercenaries who trusted you and followed you. Repay that trust."
"It is an honor."
"Hooh, I ought to know your name. You seem surprisingly well-trained?"
"Not at all. My name is Al…rhan."
"I see you've brought in some wild folk without proper equipment……. Well done, Alrhan."
Casper patted my shoulder and moved past.
Casper.
The Knight Captain of Ibolg, one of the ten houses that commanded the continent.
A position high enough to infer that he had long since reached the realm of an Aura Expert.
For such a man to personally converse with mercenaries and even try to raise their morale.
It would have been quite effective on ordinary soldiers.
It only failed because these fellows were cowardly petty thieves.
"Alrhan Mercenary Company! Those with shoddy weapons, draw supplies here!"
'Hmm……'
I recalled the records of Conte, the former Magistrate of Ibolg, from my past life.
If conscripts were scraped together from every domain, there would be sixty thousand from the direct territories alone.
Adding thirty thousand standing troops, plus assembled loyal houses, knights, and soldiers, Ibolg boasted a military force truly difficult to rival in the Northeast.
A number truly befitting one of the Ten (十) Great Houses.
However, the troops that actually assembled were a mere twenty thousand.
And even they were a rabble scraped up from the direct territories near the lord's castle.
The Northeasterners, sensing the betrayal of others and their lord's defeat, broke their oaths and fled to save their own skins.
Only a handful existed who had supported with money instead of troops, securing the bare minimum of justification.
Lord Ibolg and Knight Captain Casper had expected fierce siege battles and a prolonged war, planning to gather troops during that time.
Betrayal and revenge were matters for later.
Survival came first.
That was the wise way to survive in an era of warring states.
Watching the mercenaries take their weapons, I opened the window I had kept closed.
"[…rhan! Do you really intend to go to war? Did you come here planning this from the start? War isn't child's play! You'll die, you brat!]"
"[If you don't want to see me die, find a way to help.]"
"[You little brat……!]"
Though I couldn't see his face, I could feel the stubborn old man furrowing his brows deeply.
"[Very well… flee and survive. I promise you knowledge.]"
The last page of Al Kazaf unfolded, and golden letters began to form in the empty space.
Just as one could see recipe ingredients and finished products when looking at an alchemy circle, conditions and rewards could be read.
Condition: Flee from the war.
Reward: Foundation of Practical Alchemy.
"[It is something not found in Al Kazaf. It is the foundation of alchemy and a secret art divided by schools, but…… you know nothing of such things. It is the knowledge to perform alchemy outside even without a dedicated laboratory. How about it?]"
'Performing alchemy without an alchemy laboratory……'
The moment I heard that, my eyes went wide. Those words meant an alchemy circle.
Only its existence remained in records. Proper alchemy circles had not a single fragment left due to the Emperor's thorough purges.
"[Of course, it is somewhat limited, but for the likes of you, this much should be……]"
"[Do I just need to survive?]"
"[Huh? Yes, if only you survive…… if you die now, I would be good for nothing……]"
"[You must keep your word just now.]"
"[Of course, you brat. I too am an alchemist. I must follow the law of exchange! So, do you feel like living a bit more now?]"
"[But I have no intention of fleeing now. Elder, if I keep running like this, it never ends. Because in the end, I just need to survive by fleeing.]"
Now that the letters were carved into Al Kazaf.
The deal with Isaac would be judged as accurately and fairly as an alchemy circle functioned.
* * *
I was leading the mercenary company, heading toward our assigned quarters.
Once weapons and equipment were supplied to the mercenaries, the atmosphere changed. As if their earlier tension had been traded away, the bandits—no, the mercenaries—drew their issued steel swords and marveled with childish innocence.
Seeing their bright expressions, I couldn't help but worry how many of them would survive to follow me.
'I have to keep as many alive as possible, or the next plan will be delayed.'
In this era, whether they were noble troops or conscripts, soldiers generally had to equip themselves at their own expense.
These men were drifters even as mercenaries, yet they didn't realize the significance of being issued regular army weapons.
It meant they had far fewer troops than prepared weapons.
At least Pako seemed to grasp the situation; his face was pale white.
At that moment, their expressions seemed to overlap with the horrific sights of my first battlefield from before my regression, and I furrowed my brows.
The faint smell of blood from somewhere.
The moment the reality that war was approaching sank in.
I did everything I could to survive.
And at the same time, I handed my dice over to the Goddess of Fate.
'Now… I have to trust in luck.'
.
.
.
Pako, the former acting leader of the bandits, looked at Areuhan—no, now at Alrhan, the mercenary captain—with uneasy eyes.
He couldn't even guess when they had fallen into the schemes of that sorcerous man.
Perhaps from the moment they had blocked his path.
At times, he felt like he had become a chess piece caught in that man's grip, yet he saw no way out.
It felt as if a cold hand were gripping his neck.
Yet the reason he didn't think of fleeing.
Was the man's peculiar gaze.
Calmly dealing with any situation.
Cackling yet seeming coldly composed.
Though swept up in a massive current with no known destination.
With the strange conviction that if he followed that man, he could survive.
Pako quietly followed behind him.
* * *
The next day.
At dawn's break, I stood on the battlefield.
The mercenaries and I were deployed on the plain before the castle.
A long stretch of woods lay beside it.
From the distant horizon, the war horns began to sound, piercing the morning mist.
The forces, composed not of the main army but of mercenaries and reserves, would first encounter the detached forces of House Asta south of Ibolg Castle.
Ibolg's main army would engage the main forces of House Asta to the east.
In preparation for siege warfare, the moat had been deepened and the castle walls reinforced to be sturdier.
However, the fierce siege battle that the lord and the knight captain anticipated was not scheduled to happen.
Because the troops of House Asta currently advancing on this castle did not include siege weapons like trebuchets.
The reason was simple.
In my past life.
Despite possessing knights at the level of Aura Experts and Aura Users, the reason Ibolg's main castle fell in an instant.
Someone opened the castle gates in the middle of the war.