The Second Kill
With the leap from the carriage, the dagger plunged into another’s flesh with clear intent. Aiming for the left chest of the thief closest to the carriage, I drove it in without resistance.
“Graaah…! Kack….”
The dying scream of the thief who collapsed helplessly to the ground, carrying the full force of my leap. The blood that burst forth like a volcanic eruption soaked my gloves and face. Without time to dwell on it, I yanked the dagger free and moved immediately.
There were only three thieves. One down, two left. I remembered hearing that the first time is always the hardest for anything. Even if something feels unfamiliar and awkward, once you manage to succeed the first time, everything after becomes much easier. It seemed the saying held true… After killing someone for the second time, a cold self-justification—that I had simply done what needed to be done—settled over my mind.
“This little brat!”
The two men charged at me, eyes wide after losing a comrade so pointlessly right in front of them. Naturally, these weren’t high-level bandits. Just common thieves preying on ordinary citizens and carriages for a living. I swung my leg—longer than my arm—at the first one to reach me, driving my knee inward from the outside. It was the kind of kick a normal adult might laugh off, coming from a fifteen-year-old with no real power behind it.
“Guhk!”
But that simple kick carried the weight of my level. Leaving the man who dropped his weapon and crumpled behind me, I turned my gaze to the remaining thief still holding his blade. I dodged his wild, momentum-driven swing, then grabbed his upper body without slowing down and drove my dagger into his side.
“Hraaaagh!”
The man’s scream rang dizzyingly in my ears. I had only given him one deep wound, but the fight was already over. In a way, it was obvious. Unless someone was accustomed to extreme pain, they couldn’t keep fighting the moment bones broke or blades pierced flesh. Only game characters could stay standing after being cut, stabbed, having bones shattered, or being poisoned—as long as they didn’t die. Pain was no different from a status effect like paralysis. Thinking that, I drove my dagger into the back of the thief who had charged first and fallen forward.
“Graaaagh!”
In the world of mercenaries, they especially emphasized finishing off thieves. Realistically, in the middle of the forest with blood pouring from his side, how high were the odds of survival anyway…? Medical facilities in this medieval fantasy world were crude, but potions existed that more than made up for the gap in medical technology. I drove my dagger into the hearts of the two thieves who couldn’t even stand from the pain, one after another.
After dealing with all the thieves, I walked steadily toward the carriage that had stopped up ahead. It seemed the driver had been about to flee, then stopped after seeing how strangely the situation had turned. I walked up to it, placed my hand on the rear, and climbed aboard. Wetting a cloth with some drinking water, I lightly wiped my face and gloves.
“Aigoo… Thanks to you, I’m alive. I thought I was done for.”
From the front of the carriage came the driver’s voice, sounding like he had just let out a long-held breath. Honestly, in terms of difficulty, facing the boar pack in the forest had been far more dangerous. Still, calling the act of killing people “no big deal” felt wrong, so I answered with feigned nonchalance, letting out a long sigh.
“Hoo, that was close…”
“Good! When we get to Windren, I’ll buy you lunch or dinner!”
The driver, an old man, made a bold promise to treat me to a meal in response to my drained reply. Windren was a place we’d have to stop at anyway on the way back to the village, so there was no reason to refuse free food. Even with blood all over me, I grinned and asked.
“Ah, really?”
“Of course! What wouldn’t I do for the one who saved my life?”
Unlike us chatting away, the young man and woman had fallen completely silent. The man who had been acting like a senior mercenary full of knowledge now sat with his head bowed low. The woman who had been showering him with affection and admiration was nowhere to be seen; she sat with her legs crossed, wearing a displeased expression and not even glancing at her lover. I had no idea what had happened between them while I was dealing with the thieves… but the lovey-dovey atmosphere was gone, replaced by a chilly tension that felt like they were on the verge of breaking up. I pretended not to notice the two of them.
I’m just an innocent kid who doesn’t know anything.
The afternoon meal was simple portable rations that could be eaten inside the carriage. We made do with non-cooked foods that didn’t require getting out. A proper meal only became possible when stars began to dot the dark night sky. The carriage wheels that had been creaking along, the horse’s sturdy legs that kept bending and straightening, and everyone’s bottoms that bounced whenever the wheels hit gravel—all of them finally got to rest at that moment, and that was when we could eat warm food.
If there was one thing absolutely essential to warm food in this era, it was undoubtedly a campfire.
“Hoo, there we go.”
The old driver rubbed his hands, red from the cold, after successfully starting the fire. Thanks to the dry weather, the conditions for fire were good. The young man who had done nothing earlier had insisted on starting the fire himself and jumped into the world of fire-making without fear… but after only producing smoke and struggling, he received a sharp scolding from the driver about the sun setting and was now sulking.
“You worked hard.”
Leaving the sulking man alone, I thanked the driver and brought out today’s portion of food from inside the carriage. Unlike the ready-to-eat rations, this was raw meat cut into easy-to-eat sizes. Before leaving the royal road, I had packed some young boar belly from a meat restaurant. As the driver watched me unwrapping it in front of the campfire, he pointed at the meat and asked.
“Oh, what kind of meat is that?”
“Boar. Some young ones.”
“Boar, huh? That’s tasty! Do you eat tusk too?”
Just as I thought we were continuing the meat conversation, the driver brought out some long things from the front of the carriage. Abbreviated as “tusk”… tusk snake. In other words, snake. No matter how much you skin and cut it, it all looks the same, but that long shape was still deeply unsettling. With my eyes squeezed shut, I jerked my head back and turned it to the side, openly showing my disgust.
“Ah, I’ll pass on that…”
“You haven’t tried it yet? It’s quite a delicacy. If you’re going to keep being a mercenary, you’ll need a strong stomach.”
“Urgh…”
Hit with an unexpected truth that came out of nowhere, I found myself at a loss for words. My modern sensibilities instinctively rejected snake meat. I fully agreed that a mercenary needed a strong stomach. My ultimate goal was to become a traveler, but… anyway. Unable to come up with a decent excuse, I silently skewered pieces of meat onto metal rods and held them near the flames. The key was not putting them directly in the fire, but keeping them near the flames.
Near the blazing campfire, the red surface of the meat gradually turned gray. Fire was quite difficult to handle, which made me realize just how revolutionary and modern a frying pan really was as a cooking tool. Just when it seemed to be cooking nicely, putting it directly in the flames would char the outside in an instant. Once it started cooking properly, oil began dripping down the skewers. Along with it came the rich aroma of pork spreading through the air. There was nothing quite like it for driving both the nose and an empty stomach wild.
It took quite a while to cook, but I devoured my share of the meat in no time. After finishing the final meal of the day—something like a late-night snack—I huddled close to the campfire with the others, trying to preserve as much warmth as possible while falling asleep.
“Haaam…”
While the couple slept soundly beside me, I let out a long yawn and kept watch over the fire. Usually, this was the job of the mercenaries escorting the carriage, but if you didn’t want to freeze to death in the middle of winter, someone had to do it. The difference from a merchant’s carriage was that the driver also took part in this unpleasant duty. Starting tomorrow, the couple sharing the sleeping bag next to me said they would take turns watching the fire… Considering the time it would take to reach Windren, I only had to endure this for today.
“Haa, mm…”
…Just today. If I could just get through today. Maybe because of that desperate thought, the drowsiness became even harder to resist. Even as I told myself I couldn’t fall asleep, yawns kept coming and my eyelids began to close. Eventually, I stood up near the fire, thinking I should wake myself up a bit. In the darkness, only the occasional chirping of insects and the howling of four-legged beasts could be heard. After a lukewarm night passed without incident, morning arrived, and without eating breakfast, I walked toward the carriage.
It was the time when everyone organized their belongings to greet the morning. Having already packed my own things during the night, I climbed into the carriage and lay down on the spacious seat. You had to sleep enough while the carriage was stopped.
Because…
That thought didn’t finish. It was cut off in an instant. However, it only lasted a moment…
From the pitch-black view, a jolt and the sound of something shaking my body.
“Ack!”
The impact against the side of my head made me lift my head from the seat with a short scream. My vision was blurry and swaying, and I could hear the rattling sound of the carriage. As I woke up and tried to grasp the situation, I pressed a hand to my throbbing temple. The wheel must have hit a protruding rock, causing the carriage body to lurch violently. This was exactly why you had to sleep while the carriage was stopped. You simply couldn’t sleep properly in a moving carriage.