Hunt #2
Whether in the Soter Kingdom or anywhere else, there were always those who stood watch over the borders.
Sometimes they guarded against fellow humans, sometimes against monsters; each simply did their duty as the situation demanded. Among those threats, the vast forests and mountains swarming with monsters never ceased to be dangerous. Facing them was no different from staring down a standing army—one that lived in constant readiness for war, spears and blades kept sharp, discipline drilled tight, nerves drawn to a razor’s edge.
Monsters might form ecosystems of their own, yet no one could ever be certain when one would suddenly burst out of place and become a genuine threat. Vigilance, therefore, had to stay clenched tight. Monsters did not wait for humans. Their thoughts could not be read. Whatever thoughts they possessed, they were half-beast, and instinct ruled them far more often than reason.
“Ellen, have you ever been to the Riesling Border Marquisate?”
“Hmm. It isn’t as though I’ve never set foot there, but I might as well say I haven’t. The people there treat monster hunting as their own affair and handle it themselves, so they rarely bother hiring mercenaries. That said, it doesn’t mean there are no mercenaries at all. We don’t only fight human wars; plenty make their living solely by hunting monsters.”
Helena passed the time talking with Ellen, who rode alongside the carriage. I simply listened, offering not a single word. There was no need to insert myself, and the mood was pleasant enough as it was.
Combat mercenaries, huh.
From my point of view, the word “mercenary” usually meant men who ran across battlefields, yet there were quite a few who specialized only in monster hunting. The entry bar looked absurdly high—equipment and skill both had to be solid before you could even start—but once you began landing kills, the addiction made perfect sense. Not every monster part sold for a fortune, yet the money was real. So people hunted, grew stronger, upgraded their gear, and chased bigger game. Plenty of them died or ended up crippled along the way.
“If hunting is all they do, how good are their skills against people?”
“Anyone who’s been at it a long while will have solid technique, of course. You sound worried about a fight breaking out, but I wouldn’t call it a real problem. There’s no systematic training in this line of work. You get strong on nothing but your own experience and talent.”
“I’ve heard as much. They’re extremely tight-fisted about teaching techniques or training others.”
That tracked. I nodded inwardly, understanding the cold ruthlessness of the mercenary world. Skill was their livelihood and their lifeline; it was also the advertising tower that raised the value of their name. Hand those techniques to someone else? They would rather keep them out of sheer possessiveness. In a trade full of rough, self-centered people, that went without saying.
“Exactly. So of course they don’t casually pass on techniques they learned by risking their lives. I’ve seen a few arts too good to let die out, yet the owners would rather bury them than let anyone else use them if they themselves can’t.”
“Is that just mercenary greed?”
“It might be greed, but isn’t it also only natural? Humans have never been good at watching someone else succeed.”
There was a reason the saying about a cousin buying land and your stomach aching had come into existence. This world lacked that exact proverb, yet similar sentiments were known across the continent. Helena had grown up hearing such maxims; she nodded without the slightest protest, fully in agreement. She had been born a duke’s daughter and raised under jealous stares. The gap between her and ordinary people had grown so vast she now lived above the clouds, so those looks had lessened—yet even now she still drew envious eyes. Perfect surroundings straight out of a fairy tale, and a person nearly perfect herself. The only thing that dulled all those advantages was her obsession with me.
“Lady Helena. We should take lodgings for the night.”
I spoke while watching the afternoon sun slowly turn the sky red. There was no reason to camp when a proper territory lay right ahead of us.
“Shall we? What do the rest of you think?”
“We’re fine with that. It isn’t a journey we can finish in a single day, so there’s no need to wear ourselves out rushing this early.”
“Then we’ll rest here tonight… Zion.”
Helena suddenly called my name and brought her lips to my ear. We were sitting side by side on the carriage seat; a slight tilt of the head closed the distance completely.
“Yes? What is it?”
“If word gets out that I’m a duke, it’ll only cause a fuss. I want you to handle the identification instead.”
“That’s fine, but… what do you plan to tell the gate guards?”
I tilted my head, wondering why this needed to be a whisper. We were still far enough from the gates that there was no reason to lower our voices, so the secrecy felt odd.
“I’ll just say I’m your escort knight. Honestly, Ellen’s mercenary band alone should get us through without trouble, but better safe than sorry.”
“Understood.”
“Oh, and one more personal request… Could you act a little rough and arrogant?”
Rough and arrogant. She wanted me to behave like a noble—or at least someone with the status or wealth to match. I understood the request itself well enough; the problem was the reason.
When I asked, Helena flushed and gave an answer so ridiculous I nearly lost my composure.
“I just… want to be dominated by you even outside. Is that all right?”
It was absurd enough to make me wonder if she had developed a masochistic streak. Put simply, she wanted to be pushed around by a bad man. When exactly had this started? The darkness felt so deep I couldn’t even guess the beginning.
“…All right.”
It wasn’t a proposal I found completely unacceptable, and if I had truly refused she would have taken the words back at once. So I agreed not out of pressure, but from a mix of mild optimism and curiosity.
“Ellen. Until we reach the Border Marquisate, stop treating Lady Helena with formality.”
Having accepted Helena’s request, Ellen needed to know. Once I had drawn Helena aside, I spoke to Ellen and made the simple request: treat Helena the same as any ordinary mercenary or free knight among them.
“Me…? What are you talking about all of a sudden? I don’t understand at all…”
“I don’t fully understand either, but it’s Lady Helena’s request. She seems to want to avoid standing out too much with her ducal rank. I share your bewilderment, but…”
“Ahh. In short, she wants to shrug off the shackles of status and relax her shoulders. Understood. If she wants to enjoy a little game, I’ll gladly play along.”
“Thank you.”
Fortunately Ellen took my clumsy excuse, fleshed it out on her own, and accepted it. Whether that came from sharp instincts or a vivid imagination, I couldn’t tell—but simply getting past the moment without trouble was a relief. The thought of having to expose the duke’s private tastes had already made my chest tighten.
“Next!”
A short while later we took our place in line after coordinating our stories. When our turn came we slowly drove the carriage up to the gate guards.
“Actual dark elves, huh.”
The guard’s face stiffened as he eyed the women lined up behind the carriage. He had looked startled the moment we entered his field of vision, but he seemed to be adjusting somewhat.
“That’s right. Ellen Redhood’s mercenary band.”
“Redhood…! What are you doing bringing those infamous bitches all the way out here?! There’s no war going on!”
The moment he heard the name Redhood, whatever composure he had managed to cling to crumbled. It was almost pitiable how thoroughly the reputation alone wiped it away.
“I brought them for a monster hunt. The Riesling Border Marquisate is our final destination.”
I lifted my chin high and painted on a thin, disdainful smile, playing the part of a spoiled young master raised in a decent household who had never known the sky had limits. Having never done anything like this, the unfamiliar expression pulled at my facial muscles and cold sweat prickled along my back.
“Th-then you hired the mercenary band… is that what you’re saying, young master?”
“That’s right. As you can see, I used my connections to pull in people staying in the Krauser Dukedom. So hurry up and let us through. Don’t waste my time.”
“B-but I still need to verify the identities of the young master and the person beside you…”
Young master. The title wasn’t wrong, yet hearing it while projecting such a foul impression left a bitter taste. Even though it was Helena’s request, the self-loathing rose so sharply I wondered if this was really necessary. Watching the guard cringe under my sustained arrogance almost made me feel sorry for him.
The self-loathing quickly turned into irritation, and a fundamental question surfaced: why the hell was I doing this pointless act? The answer, of course, was Helena—but seeing her sitting there so comfortably only made my chest feel tighter. I wanted at least a small outlet for the frustration. That would make me feel better.
“Ahn…!”
I pulled Helena’s waist against me with one arm, right out in the open, and began lightly stroking circles over her firm lower abdomen. If I were going to play a complete bastard I should have groped her chest, yet that felt like too much exaggeration, so I held back. It would have been unbearably humiliating for Helena herself.
Yet watching her enjoy being forcibly held and caressed left me utterly speechless.
“This girl? She’s my plaything. I picked her up by chance and put a sword in her hand so she’d protect me, but she doesn’t have any real talent.”
“I-I’m sorry…! Ahh…!”
I slid my hand lower, to the place where waist met hip, rubbing slowly while spouting the sort of lines only a thug would use. Acting like a lowlife meant using lowlife words, yet refusing to let my hand slip any farther down was the last scrap of conscience I had left. Open groping stopped above the pelvis.
Still, seeing her light up at being called a plaything left me with thoroughly mixed feelings. The fact that she was happy made it even more complicated.
“B-but still…”
“Hey. Do I have to drag the local lord out here and make a scene before you’re satisfied? Is that what you want?”
“Hieek?! Th-that won’t be necessary!”
Calling the lord over something this trivial was absurd. It would only damage Helena’s dignity and accomplish nothing useful. In other words, pure bluff meant to scare the man into backing down. I couldn’t even invent a plausible false identity on the spot, so I simply crushed him with raw authority.
“Then clear the road. Redhood alone should be identification enough, shouldn’t it?”
After the stick came the carrot. I pulled a few silver coins from my coat and dangled them in front of the guard’s eyes. Bribing him might have invited suspicion under normal circumstances, yet the sheer terror on his face showed the bluff had already broken him. Just in case, I attached a plausible excuse of my own.
“Consider this my goodwill. I got a little heated thinking you were challenging my authority, but a gate guard is allowed that much, right?”
“Y-yes, of course…!”
“Good. So take the money. Just record us as porters attached to Redhood’s band. Fair enough?”
I layered a final warning into my tone as I faced the flustered guard. Narrowing my eyes, I made it clear that any further delay would earn him real anger—and a thoroughly miserable stretch of guard duty. He glanced between the coins and my face, then snatched the silver from my hand. Between the flash of greed I glimpsed and the fear still gripping him, he seemed to decide that taking the money and sending us on was the smarter choice all around.
“Th-then please enter carefully.”
With a short bow the guard stepped aside and opened the way.
“You should have done that from the start. Yes. Good work.”
I left him with a light warning to be more careful next time and drove the carriage forward. A nobleman personally handling the reins might have raised questions, yet no one asked—fortunate, because I had been ready to snap that it was simply how my house did things and to complain that the place was so rotten it made even him look rotten by association.
In any case, we had passed safely by trading on Ellen’s reputation… yet that still left a problem.
“Mmh…”
Helena, rubbing her thighs together, toying with my hand, and letting out sweet little sounds, was the real issue.