The Emperor's Commission

The Mercenary Alliance. Branch manager of the Babylonia Capital Branch.

"A commission? You want one?"

"R-Red, please!!"

"Get lost. Since when does some B-rank nobody bark orders at me?"

"I-I'm sorry!! I've only ever worked around the capital, and this is my first time here, so I didn't know!!"

Even a B-rank company with a decent name in the capital's outskirts had to watch its step if it wanted a decent commission. I was no different.

"Lady Red. Might I ask whether there's a better commission than this?"

"Why not just take what you're given?"

"Aigoo, of course I would—only, I was wondering if there might be something even lower."

"...What? Not higher. Lower? That's a D-rank commission."

Possess a mercenary's body all you like. The brain stays exactly the same.

"Because I'm scared."

"...?"

"I don't liiike fighting."

When I slipped off alone, behind the members' backs, I was so weak that only an E-rank or an F-rank job sat low enough for me to barely scrape through by myself. In any case, up until now Ruby Red had been nothing more than the woman who handed down work and coin together—someone I was meant to look up to and serve.

"It's all ruined because of you, Captain...!! Those nobles had to be there if we were going to cover Black Wolf's cleanup costs, I'm telling you—hic."

And suddenly she was calling me Captain.

"Since it's come to this, you're going to have to take that commission you refused back then!!"

"...That commission?"

And what is that, exactly?

I asked it back as if I had some idea what she meant. Ruby Red nodded quickly and pressed on.

"The mission His Majesty the Emperor assigned by naming you himself...!! You said to keep it secret, because the members would riot if they found out...!"

The Emperor?

Don't tell me it's the one from the Babylonia spoilers. Trying to slit the throat of the emperor stuffing his face at a buffet, except some idiot bastards—the masterminds, probably?—get in the way. Kill all of them, kill the emperor too, ah, forget it, fuck it, just kill everybody, the end.

That emperor who's about to lose his head?

I was so stunned the words wouldn't come.

"Anyway, this happened because you went way too far handling the commission, Captain, so you absolutely have to do at least that one with me!! Understand!?"

...Calm down.

Ruby Red might already have noticed that I'd taken over this body, and be sounding me out.

You. You're Nahan, aren't you?

She was a frightening woman, every bit as impossible to read as Lactea.

Two things to confirm, before anything else. First, whether Ruby Red truly belongs to the Black Wolf mercenary company. Second—if she is a member—why she's suddenly shown up wailing that I ruined a commission.

Once the thought was finished, I called up Black Wolf's information in my head.

Ruby Red's name had appeared in a field that had been blank. The System couldn't lie, so her place in Black Wolf was the truth.

Which left the rest.

"Before that. Hold on. I ruined the commission? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Whaaat!?"

Set the attitude. Then sound her out.

As I said, the body might have been a mercenary's, but the brain was still mine. For someone who had survived since childhood on nothing but reading the room, nothing was easier than hiding myself and drawing information out of the person across from me.

"If anything, I wanted to ask the opposite. Why you gave a commission like that to me."

"But, Captain...!!"

"There's a limit even to stupidity. Openly handing an A-rank commission to a D-rank company like Black Wolf."

"That was...!!"

"Enough. I don't want to hear it."

I rose from the dining chair and slowly closed the distance.

Nahan, captain of the Black Wolf company I had possessed, was a man who gave off an oppressive presence no words could quite hold. Out in the world he might have been nothing but the captain of an incompetent company. Within Black Wolf, at least—

"Whatever the case, I ordered the vice-captain to deal with it, and the commission was about to be canceled."

"C-Captain. W-wait...!!"

"Shut your mouth and answer the question first. Why did you come all the way here to make a scene?"

He was a captain charismatic enough that his own members feared him.

"Ruby Red. Do I have to be disappointed in you one more time before you answer?"

By the time her back met the wall, Ruby Red had already dropped her eyes in a hurry.

"...I'm sorry, Captain."

Good.

Just as I'd expected, she shrank in fear like the rest of them.

...What the hell did that bastard Nahan do to these kids, that every one of them is this terrified?

I set the question aside and took one step back from the woman curled in on herself.

"Anything else?"

"No, Captain."

Good. That ends it. Now I just have to close this cleanly.

"Thank you for everything until now."

"Hm?"

The next instant, steel whispered free of its sheath.

Ruby Red drew a familiar dagger from inside her clothes.

"Don't trouble yourself. I've already written my will. I've arranged matters so that if I disappear, Peter can take my place."

"...Peter?"

"He's infiltrating the Church, but if you need him, Captain, he will come at once."

She had already returned to the cold face of a Mercenary Alliance branch manager, and the words left her like ice.

"The sin I committed against you, Captain—I will repay it with my life."

A familiar routine.

I had a bad feeling, and she's doing it too!!

I shot out a hand and caught the wrist of the woman about to open her own throat.

"...Captain?"

Again.

Push a Black Wolf member even a little, and they reached for suicide. Day to day they followed me without a shred of doubt, but the moment I stopped them from dying—

"......?"

—they looked at me exactly like this, eyes full of suspicion. As if certain that Nahan would never have stopped them.

A mere D-rank mercenary was still a monster to someone who had lived an ordinary life, and in moments like these I genuinely thought I might die. Even so.

"You ought to get a chance to make up for it. Recruiting a new member would be a hassle in more ways than one."

"......!"

A sloppy excuse was all it took.

"Th-thank you, Captain!! This life you've given me anew—I will never disappoint you!!"

She plastered herself to the floor as if she had never doubted me and swore her loyalty all over again. Staying with Black Wolf was safer than leaving it.

Having put the situation down for the moment, I held out a hand.

"I heard you. Get up."

"Yes...? Ah, yes! Yes, Captain!!"

I pulled her to her feet, turned it over for a moment, and spoke.

"Since it's come to this anyway, we might as well talk about the things we never got to."

"Yes, Captain!! I'll answer anything!!"

"Right. You will. First..."

I glanced around, confirmed the others weren't there, and let it out like a whisper.

"That commission the Emperor named me for. I want the details."

"Ah! Now that you mention it, the vice-captain was with you then, so I only dropped a hint."

Stopping every bad ending was a condition, and so was saving the Emperor and the Hero. If information could be had, the right move was to take it first and decide after.

Of course, once I've heard it, I'm refusing.

My goal was only to stay alive until every bad ending had been stopped. I had no intention of running around solving incidents just because I'd possessed someone, the way protagonists in other novels did.

A moment later, that plan died.

"Originally, the commission His Majesty asked of you was only one thing, Captain. To assassinate Viscount Gapelt, the Golden Magnate."

The moment the quietly whispering Ruby Red placed a black commission slip in my hand, a deep-blue System window rose, and a pallid light spread.

"......"

"Captain?"

"...I'm thinking."

"Ah. I'm sorry."

I no longer had any choice ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but to accept the commission she had put in my hand.

If it's before sunrise tomorrow...

Once I had the shape of it, I took Ruby Red's hand and stood.

"Let's go."

"R-right now!?"

"We finish it before dawn tomorrow. You and me. Before the others notice."

"...Understood. I'll follow."

As I stood now, I was nothing but a C-rank mercenary. An ordinary man who had spent his whole life in peaceful South Korea, one month into a possession.

Can I actually do this?

My hands were already shaking, my heart kicking hard against my ribs, but I locked it down at once.

I have to. Otherwise I die.

So I would get this one thing done, however I had to.

And then I'll spend the rest of my time loafing as productively as I can.

A few hours later, in the basement of a mansion so vast and gaudy it could have passed for a marquis's estate, or a duke's, a girl knelt inside an iron cage with her hands clasped, weeping.

"...Lady Aria, Goddess of Light. Why do You give a trial like this to me?"

However much a person might be a sinner from the moment of birth, and spend a whole life washing that sin away—

"You push me into hell without even the time to wash it clean. What am I supposed to..."

"Hey. Quit praying and come out. She isn't going to listen anyway."

"W-wait!!"

A household soldier burst in and dragged her out, and the girl's prayer scattered without an ending.

"What you are doing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is a sin!!"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry for sinning, so quit fighting and let's do this the easy way."

"Nngh...!! Let go!!"

"Agh! This miserable bitch, I swear!!"

A vicious fist cracked home, and the slender girl folded, clutching her stomach.

"Fuck's sake, you came here yourself for the money, so why do you keep throwing a goddamn fit?!"

"Kh...! It was supposed to be maid's work...!!"

"Sure, sure. Take that up with the Viscount yourself. Bite me one more time and I'll pull every tooth you've got, so think real carefully."

He hauled the girl up like luggage, crossed the basement, and started toward the light.

The girl understood what that light was. Not the Goddess's. The gleam of the gold Viscount Gapelt owned. How many people had she watched die, bewitched by that false shine?

So I will not break.

Somehow she would find a gap, get out, and leave the Babylonia Empire with the people from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the orphanage. Asylum, anywhere.

But she also knew better.

"Hope the Sister lasts a while. His Lordship likes his fun so filthy that hauling out the corpses turns my stomach every time."

The odds of escape were almost none. Even so, it was all right. Even if she died, the orphanage, at least, would go on in peace.

So please. Let them know nothing.

At last she was softly bringing her hands together for a final prayer when the soldier spoke again.

"Oh, right. Almost forgot. His Lordship said to tell you just before I brought you up."

He dropped her hard, dug in a pocket, and held something out.

A crude bracelet. A half-burned handkerchief. A bent symbol of Aria. All of them charred black.

"Ah...?"

She lifted her head with the things clutched in her hands, and the soldier grinned as he added the rest.

"The orphanage. Killed the lot and burned it."

"Ah... aah..."

"A soldier I'm friendly with started a mercenary company recently. Pretty sure it was Black Wo— what was it. Anyway, those bastards do clean work."

Metal clicked. The last thing he drew out was the bracelet the orphanage director used to wear.

"His Lordship said to give it to you. Told me to send you in with all of that dangling off you."

Those were the last words.

"Aaaah...!!!"

In the instant her mind was about to snap—

"Peekaboo."

With a wet, explosive burst, hundreds of crimson spears erupted from the body of the soldier holding her.

"Guhhh...!!"

But the soldier did not die. More precisely, he wasn't allowed to.

"Kyaha. Look at the state of him."

"......!!"

He couldn't die.

"Wanna live?"

"......!!"

"Sorry. Not happening. Pfft—hah!"

The man locked rigid, unable even to scream, and a woman whose eyes had gone mad with delight came closer, covering her mouth with a blood-slick hand as if startled.

"Huh...? You know me, right? I think I saw you with the Black Fang company before."

"......!!?"

"It is you!! Good to see you, right?! I'm happy to see you too!!"

The red-haired woman shook hands once with the man who had become her handiwork.

"Oh, right. Look at me, spacing out."

She came back to herself at once, turned with a bright, innocent face, and waved.

"I saved her, Captain!"

And with her, a man in black. Hair like pitch. Beneath it, black eyes lit with a dreadful gleam, and a face sunk deep in shadow. Even the girl, furious enough to lose consciousness, trembled without meaning to at the sight of him.

A soldier made into a living corpse. A red woman laughing in little bursts. A basement that held nothing but a dim light, and a man darker than even that dark. She had prayed her whole life for no one but the Goddess of Light, so why was the answer coming out of the dark?

In the moment a darkness like light began to bloom in the girl's heart, the man who had settled into that horrific scene as if he belonged there muttered, face perfectly ordinary.

"...Safe."

I nearly failed before I'd even started. Anyway.

"Did you come alone?"

"...Yes?"