Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Volunteers (2)
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The morning mess hall. The biggest concern among the mercenaries was, of course, the disappearance of their comrades.
“What about a rescue party?”
“They’ll announce something soon. It must be complicated for the higher-ups too.”
“We’re short-staffed. Companies 10 and 12 just got back from a mission, and aside from Company 9 on defense, there’s no one else available. Besides, I heard Companies 10 and 12 are scheduled to be deployed on another mission right away.”
“Still! We have to go save them! They’re our comrades!”
“It’s not a simple problem. We have the Holy Kingdom’s mission and the monster wave to deal with. The Ashar Desert is still a mess, too. It’s not completely resolved yet.”
Two weeks already. To be precise, two full weeks since contact was lost. According to the manual, it was time to mount a rescue.
Given the circumstances, the fact that there was still no word from the higher-ups was causing dissatisfaction to bubble up among the other members.
Amidst this situation, Kratos watched their conversation with a sense of detachment.
If a mission was assigned, he would go. If not, he would train until another was assigned.
It was better than rashly stepping in and making things worse. Wasn’t that how an organization worked? And while it was strange to call it a past life, things like this had been a daily occurrence before he died.
*Sigh, it’s nice not having to worry about these things. I can just use my body. The saying ‘a dull mind makes for a weary body’ is only half true.*
*If your body is ridiculously strong, you stop using your head even if you’re smart. It’s true. I know from experience.*
Therefore, if there was no news, the proper course of action was to eat a lot to prepare for training. I’m definitely not eating this much because I'm hungry.
“You heard, right? All of Company 3 is missing. Twenty men, gone just like that. But where in the world are you putting all that food? Can you even digest it?”
“Easily. Digestion is just another form of training.”
“Such a training addict.”
Despite his words, Seamus also inhaled his food before heading to the training grounds with Kratos.
It had only been a few days, but in that short time, Seamus had made considerable progress.
“Still, I think they’ll form a rescue team soon. Who’ll go is anyone’s guess. The other members’ missions are dragging on, which is also a problem.”
Seamus was surprisingly well-connected; I had no idea where he picked up all this information.
In fact, it occurred to me that Seamus might be the kind of person Hattie Shaw needed.
“*Sigh*, don’t you care that our comrades are in danger?”
“The higher-ups will decide. We have to rescue them, but we also have to carry out our other missions. And we have to pay attention to the ones already in progress. If you’re part of a group, you follow its lead. Worrying in advance won’t change anything.”
“You could at least pretend to care. Argh, seriously! I’m definitely landing a hit on you today!”
Before Kratos could even get into his stance, Seamus threw one sword and quickly followed up, thrusting with the other.
But the high attack was a feint; he lowered his stance, shooting forward like an arrow as he jabbed the other sword toward Kratos’s abdomen.
“Nice.”
Kratos parried the blade and swung his own sword toward Seamus’s shoulder. But Seamus dropped so low he was almost flat against the ground, retreating before turning to aim for Kratos’s back.
“That’s it! You need to improve your agility. Forget about facing me head-on! What kind of assassin fights head-on!”
A gray energy flowed from under Kratos’s feet and wrapped around Seamus’s ankle.
*Thud- Thud-*
Kratos’s sword stopped just short of Seamus’s neck, and at the same moment, a small blade that shot out from Seamus’s wrist guard tapped against Kratos’s chest.
“Heh-”
“Hah.”
He hadn’t expected it at all—that Seamus had hidden a small blade inside his wrist guard.
“Yesss!!!”
As Kratos let out a dry laugh, Seamus jumped up and down on the spot, celebrating his victory. In the dozen or so bouts they’d had over the past few days, he hadn’t managed to land a single successful attack until now.
“*Whew*. Just keep doing that. Don’t try so hard to do what you’re bad at. You need to make what you’re good at even better.”
With the sparring session over, it was time to train his spiritual power.
“But are you really not curious about the disappearances? I’m sure you are.”
“*Sigh*, fine. Tell me. What’s the deal with Company 3 going missing?”
“Right?! I knew it! You have no idea how hard I worked to get this info! They say they disappeared in the Chalcis Mountains in Thrace. You know, the mountain range next to that city famous for its magitech. It was there.”
“!!!”
It seemed.
It seemed a legacy of my past had come to find me once again.
***
*Dong- Dong- Dong-*
The bell rang three long times. It was the signal for all members within the base to assemble.
When they arrived at the largest open area in the headquarters, the same place they had drunk beer after their last mission, all the currently stationed members were gathered in small groups, discussing how the rescue would be carried out.
To be more precise, they were discussing which company would be sent.
“Kratos, what do you think will happen?”
“Who knows.”
“Can we do both? Everyone’s worried about being short-staffed.”
“It won’t be easy. A mission from the Holy Kingdom. It’s an order we can’t refuse. But they’ll form a rescue party, too. Probably.”
Honestly, trying to catch multiple rabbits at once was never an easy task. And with a mission to confirm the status of the missing, there was no telling how high the difficulty might climb.
If possible, he planned to join the company sent on the rescue mission. Since he wasn’t permanently assigned to one company and moved between several for missions, he had a good enough reason.
The best-case scenario here would be to call for volunteers. The number would probably be around three to five. But to form a team of that size, it had to be done in a way that was sufficiently convincing.
Although the White Mercenary Corps still maintained its position in the top five of the mercenary industry, it was true that its influence had waned compared to the past.
This was the result of being under immense scrutiny from the Empire, who suspected a connection to Prometheus, as well as their concurrent involvement with the resistance.
If anything, Mike Hoare’s ability to lead them this far was worthy of praise.
If they poured all their resources into searching for the missing, the mercenary corps’ value would decline. If they did the opposite, the trust of their members would plummet.
It was a choice that was anything but easy, intertwined with the continent’s political situation.
*Thump-*
Derek Heinman stomped his foot lightly, and the crowd quieted as Peri Batoni entered behind him.
“I assume you are all aware of the situation, so I will skip the explanation.”
The atmosphere was incredibly heavy.
“Ah—I’ll keep it simple. We are forming a search party for the missing members of Company 3. We’re taking volunteers. Five people.”
“Is five people even possible?! Twenty people went missing on that mission!”
He wasn’t wrong. For a job where twenty people had vanished, sending only five was enough for the members to feel like their comrades were being abandoned.
“You could see it that way. Which is why I will be going myself.”
“The Vice-Commander, in person!”
“As of this moment, the White Mercenary Corps will enter a state of emergency until further notice. I will not accept any objections. In my stead, Captain Lando will serve as acting Vice-Commander, and Company 10 will be assigned to base defense.”
So he wasn’t a complete idiot. Even I had to admit it was the best decision he could make right now.
“The Vice-Commander is a Sword Master, you know.”
“A Sword Master… Then he has reason to be confident.”
I didn’t know how skilled the Vice-Commander was among Sword Masters, but he wouldn’t have risen to that position with just a sharp mind.
“I volunteer.”
“Kratos?”
The moment Peri Batoni finished speaking, I stood up and raised my hand.
The place I needed to go to use the key I found in the underground vault of the Lubeck Central Bank.
The Chalcis Mountains of Thrace. That was the birthplace of my first identity, Da Vinci, and the location of the research laboratory I had sealed away.
***
“First, we will set up a base camp in Granok, a city in the Thrace region near the Chalcis Mountains.”
Peri Batoni looked at the members who had volunteered for the mission. Besides Kratos, there was Seamus, Doug Reinhardt, and Adnes, a mage from Company 9.
“By the way, what was Company 3’s mission? I think we need to know why they entered the Chalcis Mountains in the first place.”
At Kratos’s question, Peri Batoni seemed to consider something before slowly nodding his head.
“The mission… I suppose I can tell you. You’ll need to know to prepare. Everyone, listen up.”
It had been a top-secret mission, but it was meaningless now, and it was something they absolutely needed to know in the process of rescuing them.
“Let me say this first: this mission must be treated as top secret. Very few people know about this. Company 3’s mission was to investigate chimeras.”
“Chi… meras? Those cursed things!”
“It was a suspected base for a warlock. Somewhere in the Chalcis Mountains.”
“Even if it’s not the most rugged range, a mountain is still a mountain. Just finding the location where Company 3 went missing will be a task in itself.”
The disappearance of Company 3. While not 100% certain, I had a rough idea of where it was. The place where I first awoke to an unfamiliar ceiling was the Chalcis Mountains. After that, I settled in a town bordering the mountains.
The name of that town was Granok. The place where the magitech revolution first began, and now a city widely renowned for its science.
Of course, at the time, I had moved on to the larger city of Lubeck, but there was a certain symbolism to it, wasn’t there?
“You don’t look so good. Is something wrong?”
“Ah. I was just thinking about what might be near that area.”
“Who knows. No one really knows. The Chalcis Mountains suddenly became a restricted area about two years ago. Managed directly by the Empire.”
“Restricted, you say.”
“Rumors were rampant. Something related to warlocks, something related to demons. In any case, for the Empire to openly control it, it must have been serious.”
If what Seamus said was true, the Empire had likely discovered my research lab two years ago. That’s why they turned it into a restricted zone.
Even I had to admit that the value of that lab was quite terrifying.
Had they managed to seize control of my entire lab? All my countless research materials?
When I shut down that lab, I had placed seals on many parts of it. Multiple layers, both magical and physical.
There were even some inventions I had buried deep underground. Back then, I was practically a mad scientist.
I had immersed myself in research to a degree that made me wonder if I had truly gone insane at the thought of never being able to return to Earth. A dark chapter in my history, you could say.
“Everyone, get ready.”
“My first time in Granok. I heard it’s a city of gourmands. All thanks to the influence of the great Da Vinci.”
“You and your food. You’d do anything for a good meal.”
At Seamus’s jab, Doug Reinhardt flexed his biceps and smiled with satisfaction.
“Hah. You think this body maintains itself? It’s born from eating well and lifting hard.”
As the train arrived in Granok, the members looked around, taking in the unfamiliar sights. It certainly had a uniqueness not seen in other cities.
Of course, I didn’t see it as uniqueness so much as the city itself being closer to the modern era than the medieval one. It’s because I meddled everywhere, playing real-life SimCity out of a misplaced sense of duty. All of it.
Think about it. Was a person from 21st-century Earth with a perfect memory just going to stand by and accept the culture and living standards of this medieval fantasy world?
I couldn’t change the big things, but I changed a lot of the small ones. Architectural styles, designs, and so on.
“But… what’s going on here?”
Granok, which I was visiting after a very long time, was not the town I remembered.
The entire town, unbeknownst to its people, was shrouded in the same demonic energy as Ragaris.
It was, quite literally, a den of demons.