Enter, Pursued by a Memory
Enter, Pursued by a Memory
I hadn't expected to cross paths again with the mercenary band that had made it a policy to refuse any request if it looked like they might get on my bad side, but the world was a painfully small place.
I wanted to exchange a few pleasantries, but unlike Kal Guls who was talking me up, I still had no idea how successful the Blue Owl mercenary band actually was, so I had no choice but to nod in greeting.
"As you already know, I'm Eldmia Ega. How many can I hire to safely move to Raviel?"
"One would be enough. I won't charge you separately. I'd like you to consider it a small token of my sincerity toward Balakia."
Only after I watched Kal Guls wipe his mouth with a napkin, displaying a rarely seen courteousness, did I belatedly start wondering why the mercenary band was called 'Blue' Owl.
No matter how different the world, places where people live always had one thing in common, and in this world's inland regions, just as in my past life, the symbol of a pure bloodline was called blue blood.
The massive difference was that, unlike my past life where it was a metaphor for pale skin and veins, there were clans that bled actual blue. Descendants of great ones, they were rumored to heal wounds quickly and even move a single drop of blood at will, a trait renowned for manifesting only in royalty.
Common sense dictated that, bloodlines or whatever, it was simply caused by something magical affecting the blood, but that wasn't what mattered right then. What mattered was that because those people literally bled blue, in that region, the noble color symbolizing nobility or royalty was blue.
"Are you a noble?"
Considering a man who had noble manners ingrained in his body, the unusually well-disciplined mercenaries, and even the band's name, it was a guess worth voicing at least once, even if it was a leap. Above all, having lived as a butler and observed proper noble brats, I had a solid hunch. The manners etched into Kal Guls's body were not something you picked up overnight.
At my somewhat sudden question, Kal Guls merely raised an eyebrow, while the mercenaries' eyes turned sharp, unlike before. Fortunately, when Kal Guls noticed and raised a hand, their gazes were quickly withdrawn.
"I used to be a noble. How did you know?"
"I asked because you seemed so familiar with etiquette you could put most nobles to shame. The story that some inland kingdoms believe nobles have blue blood also came to mind."
"Ho, not only brave but knowledgeable too. That explains our origin. We're from the Kingdom of Banais, one of the kingdoms bordering Bolta Bay."
"...Was that Balakia fellow a noble too?"
He was a guy with quite a few flaws to be called a noble, no matter how I looked at it. At my question, Kal Guls gave a small laugh, wet his lips with beer, shrugged, and continued as if it were nothing.
"Not all of us. We were originally called Banais Owl, but we gathered people with no patriotism left and, as you said, we harbor a lot of resentment toward the blue-blooded nobles, so we changed the name to openly mock them, and that's where we are now. Though it's true that an unusually high number of fallen nobles and bastards have gathered here."
Judging by how he laughed heartily after joking, 'But Balakia obviously lacks a bit of dignity,' the mercenary band's bond seemed pretty solid.
"Well, you're busy too, so enough small talk. Should I just pass on the fragmentary story that orcs appeared to the Raviel Adventurer Guild?"
"To be precise, 'There is a high possibility that unexpected monster movements are occurring, and villages are suffering successive orc attacks.'"
"Mm, I'll remember that. And I'm asking out of curiosity... is it that important to report to the guild? We're in the business of dealing with people, so it's hard to gauge."
A mercenary of noble birth might not know. Thanks to that, I learned a little about the Blue Owl mercenary band, so I gave him the gist as concisely as possible.
"Itisel has decent land, so both people and monsters don't move easily from their established territories. Because of that, just periodically sweeping the areas near the capital guarantees a certain level of safety. Things like kobolds and goblins, which have exceptional breeding rates, will crawl out anywhere no matter what, so they're hard to exterminate completely, but higher monsters like orcs are a different case."
"...You're saying they've been exterminated."
"Yes. As a result of continuous subjugation since the kingdom's founding, no monsters live in groups on the territory between the capital and the gate cities."
The point is 'do not' live in groups, not 'cannot.'
Monsters think too. They're excessively hostile lifeforms, so they're frantic to kill, but if both sides agreed, they possess enough intelligence to communicate.
What the kingdom tried was to make them avoid the capital's vicinity of their own accord. It might have failed against goblins or kobolds, which traded intelligence for hyper-prolific breeding, but it yielded quite good results against those capable of forming their own colonies and gathering as well as hunting and pillaging.
"Creatures like orcs know. They know entering this territory means certain death. They only see humans as prey, but they have their own traditions and passed-down knowledge."
"Coming in knowing they'll die... indeed, those cases are dangerous on the battlefield too. Thanks, I understand clearly."
It was a relief to talk to someone who caught on quickly. With a final promise to chat once things settled down, I rose from my seat and approached Asilie, who had finished eating and was playing with Laika.
"So this is how it ends up. Honestly, I thought the whole thing with the lodgings would just be a little squabble, but it always goes against expectations, huh?"
"Tell me about it. The world's seriously going to hell, I swear."
And for butting in with that joke, I got smacked on the shoulder.
◈
After that, we didn't stay at the guild hall but rented an entire house to ourselves.
It was the original contract, but it was also an extraordinary privilege. So if trouble broke out, I naturally expected it to erupt here, but because a totally different fuse got lit, the adventurers couldn't voice a single complaint and the issue fizzled out.
After that clean, sound sleep, the morning sky I woke to was still dumping heavy snow, but unlike yesterday, it had cleared enough to see the sky.
I woke up early and had time until the assembly, but since I had to take charge, I had to move in a hurry. I had to reorganize the remaining adventurers for duty, ask the mercenaries and residents to focus on sentry duty rather than work just for today, and also get Siel's consent, so honestly, it was pretty tight.
Still, thanks to the mercenaries and Siel showing me a friendly attitude, no other problems arose. The fact that the adventurers resting from injuries, unlike the healthy ones, had their heads screwed on straight also played a part.
As a result, it felt like they'd gotten injured trying to be diligent at their jobs while the others played tricks just to save their own skins, so as soon as I arrived at the assembly point, I smacked Bardena, who had been waiting in advance, on the back of the head for no good reason, but anyway, it was a clean start.
"Thank the gods you at least have enough intelligence not to run away from here. It means you won't have to experience how terrifying it is to be chased by an elf in the forest."
When I recalled the training I'd done with Asilie in tracking at Ogwen, it was clear that from the moment your life was on the line, it would be a thoroughly unpleasant experience.
Among the guys who tensed up at my words, I formed a search party simply by putting the four red-ranks as squad leaders, each taking one blue-rank and one yellow-rank, but since the numbers were odd, I had no choice but to briefly consider what to do with the one leftover blue-rank.
"Eh, wouldn't it be fine if I accompanied Eldmia?"
Maybe I looked like a retard who couldn't do basic math, because the guy who'd had his arm cut off in Ogwen sidled up and asked, so I briefly explained the reason for my dilemma.
"For you guys, more numbers increase your chances of survival, but to me, you're a hindrance."
I had every intention of scouring the forest that day. That would naturally mean relying on Asilie, who was far superior to me in that field, and no matter how I looked after my body and moved relatively leisurely, it wasn't at a level the blue-rank here could keep up with. It would just eat up time unnecessarily.
"You four red-ranks. Raise your hand if you think you’re the weakest of the four. I’ll put the extra blue-rank in the weakest one’s group."
"I'm the weakest!"
I really liked how he raised his hand like a knife without any pointless pride, but the problem was he happened to be the guy whose arm I had cut off.
He might have been a cripple back then, but judging by this bastard's movements and reaction speed, he was definitely stronger than Bardena at the very least.
"...Fine, fine."
Come to think of it, increasing numbers to ensure safety was one method, but putting the extra mediocre adventurer in a slightly stronger guy's party to raise that adventurer's chances of survival was also an option.
"If you're red-rank, you all have pocket watches, right?"
Even if they were a bit pricey, because of their convenience, they usually carried a silent pocket watch fueled by a magic stone as soon as they reached red-rank. Fortunately, all four of them were meticulous about their equipment and quickly nodded.
"The orc attacks were in the east, so we'll disperse that way and search today. The snowfall is still heavy and the sun is likely to set early, so the rule is to return by 2 PM. Calculate the round-trip time well and don't attempt any extra searches unnecessarily. Anyone have questions?"
"Oh, what should we do if we encounter orcs?"
"If you find a clustered colony, return and report it. Otherwise, avoid combat unless you're directly confronted. Orcs have brains too. If the scouting brats they send keep dying, they'll get wary."
The goal was extermination, not subjugation. It wasn't about killing a few and letting them flee—it was about wiping out a whole new colony, so there was no reason to raise their alert level unnecessarily.
They were the kind to understand that without a detailed explanation, so there were no rebuttals, and we headed into the forest with the mercenaries seeing us off.