The Red-Eyed Mercenary Band (1)
Dieta Arvenia.
She appeared before Najin under the pretense of a chance encounter, but the truth was a little different.
She already knew that Najin had accepted a commission from the middle-rank priest Volkman—knew the details of the request and even the date it was to be carried out. She had plenty of informants planted in the guild. All that remained was to wait for Najin’s return.
And when he did return…
“What a coincidence.”
Dieta approached Najin as if she had “happened” to stop by the guild on business and had “happened” to run into him in the process. He was a man worth that much effort.
“You won’t refuse me this time, will you?”
Then she pulled off her glove and offered her bare hand.
Last time he had refused the handshake. This time would be different.
“Judging by the look of things, you’re after commissions above your grade, aren’t you? I believe I can help with that.”
Because I have what you need.
Dieta smiled. Najin glanced back and forth between her outstretched hand and her face with a dubious expression, then finally reached out and shook it.
2.
The private reception room of the Dieta Merchant Group.
Najin took a sip of the coffee in the cup set before him and scowled.
Disgustingly bitter.
Come to think of it, Ivan used to brew coffee every so often, didn’t he? In the underground city it had been an outrageous luxury. But who would drink this for the taste? With that thought, Najin set the cup down.
“What exactly do you mean when you say you can help?”
“Exactly what I said. I introduced myself last time—do you remember?”
She pointed to her nameplate.
“I’m the head of the Dieta Merchant Group, and my company plays a fairly important role in this city. We’re quite large, too.”
Najin knew. The basic information he had gathered over the past ten days living in this city had included the Dieta Merchant Group.
The Dieta Merchant Group.
One of the three largest trading houses in the city, and the one responsible for commerce beyond its walls. They exported the monster materials adventurers sold off to the outside world.
“Our company is partnered with the Central Guild. And a group with enough credibility to partner with the guild can…”
She drew a sheet of paper from her breast.
“…write something like this.”
A sheet stamped with the crest of the Dieta Merchant Group.
Dieta pointed to it as she spoke.
“What matters most when taking commissions is the grade the guild assigns you. But a credible organization can also write a letter of introduction saying, ‘This person is trustworthy.’”
In short—
“A guarantee, if you will.”
Dieta smiled.
It was not unheard of for a particular organization to lend its name to someone who still lacked a track record but possessed the skill to climb higher.
“In this case, the Dieta Merchant Group would be vouching for your ability. You would be able to take commissions of a far higher grade than Black.”
She waved the paper in front of Najin.
“A rather attractive offer, isn’t it?”
“It is an attractive offer, but—”
Najin looked at Dieta.
“Why go this far for me?”
The same question as last time.
Then, Dieta had dodged answering. This time she did not. She spoke plainly, as if the answer were obvious.
“Because you look like you’ll make me money.”
“...Excuse me?”
“Why else would a merchant treat someone well? Because she thinks gold will come of it. You’re not the type to stay stuck at Black grade for long, are you?”
Dieta knew.
The boy sitting before her was not someone whose skill would remain at Black grade. She had not yet seen him fight, so she could not be certain, but he clearly possessed ability approaching Blue grade.
And…
He would climb higher still before long. The clues were few, but her instincts said so. The man in front of her was worth investing in.
“Lending the company’s name is an enormous gamble for me as well. Your failure could become a drop in the company’s credibility.”
And yet she was offering the guarantee—
“To win your favor. Like getting my claim in early on someone who might rise high.”
“...You’re just saying that out loud?”
“So what? You already know anyway.”
Dieta shrugged.
What was wrong with showing desire? Clear intentions and purpose were more trustworthy. Nothing was as distinct as pure desire.
“Isn’t approaching someone with pure goodwill more suspicious? That’s what seems shady.”
“I can’t deny that.”
“Of course, even if I give this much away, you might turn around later and pretend you never met me—but even then, the market will remember that I ‘invested early’ in an outstanding talent. That alone makes it a profitable venture.”
Dieta sipped her tea.
“In any case, I’m in the position of investing in you. The more results you pile up, the more I intend to invest.”
She narrowed her eyes.
Those vivid golden pupils flicked over Najin.
“An adventurer who raises his grade at breakneck speed not long after arriving in the city, receiving support from the Dieta Merchant Group. Using the company’s equipment, the company’s potions, the company’s vault… that alone makes for quite the advertisement.”
Adventurers admired the exceptional.
Admiration became imitation, and imitation became consumption of the same goods as the object of that admiration. Dieta knew that alone could produce staggering advertising value.
“You benefit from the support; I get to use you as a model for advertising. We both win, don’t we?”
Dieta laid her inner thoughts completely bare.
There was no reason not to.
“I’m going to use you, and you’re free to use me. What other reason is needed?”
Najin, who had been listening quietly, let out a laugh without meaning to. Dieta tilted her head at the sound.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Just… it’s refreshing.”
“...Pardon?”
“I’ve never met anyone who lays out their purpose this cleanly.”
Najin exhaled a long breath.
“Well, all right. I don’t know what you saw in me, but… if you want to invest, I’m grateful.”
He pointed at the letter of guarantee Dieta had produced.
“How high a grade can you vouch for with that?”
“I can write one up to Blue grade, but I’m still considering it. I haven’t confirmed the extent of your skill yet.”
Hmm. Najin rubbed the corner of his mouth.
Is it all right to show her?
—Your fake age is twenty-eight, isn’t it? Then showing a fragment should be fine. You were planning to start revealing yourself soon anyway.
True enough.
Najin made his decision.
The moment his hand settled on the hilt at his waist, the guardian knight standing beside Dieta—Pasion—reacted. Sensing that Pasion was poised to lunge the instant the blade left its sheath, Najin spoke first.
“I intend to show you.”
He drew the sword and let the blade hang toward the floor rather than toward Dieta. Then he clenched the hilt hard.
Fssss…
He did not draw in external mana the way he usually did.
Using the mana cultivation method Merlin had taught him, he moved the small amount of mana stored within his body and shaped it into aura. White radiance flowed down the blade.
It was a fragment of aura.
Careful not to let it become complete aura—careful not to let platinum-gold light spill out—Najin limited his power. Because he was not drawing large amounts of mana from outside, regulating the force was not especially difficult.
And yet even so—
The white radiance clinging to Najin’s sword was more than enough to make the onlookers’ eyes go wide. Pasion and Dieta both stared at the blade with their eyes open wide.
“Is this enough for Blue grade?”
A short while after Najin left with a letter of guarantee from the company stating he could undertake commissions up to Blue grade, Dieta, remaining in the reception room, spoke.
“Sir Pasion.”
“...Yes, my lady.”
“That was aura, wasn’t it? Definitely.”
“More precisely, a fragment of aura.”
White radiance.
It had not yet taken the complete form of aura, but it was a light that approached aura almost infinitely. In other words, the boy’s realm was approaching that of a Sword Expert.
“His registered age is twenty-eight, but… he doesn’t look it, does he?”
“At a generous estimate, early twenties. At a glance he could pass for your peer, my lady.”
“I thought the same.”
A fragment of aura in his early twenties.
Dieta let out a hollow laugh at that level of attainment. Of course, it was possible the man’s name really was “Ivan” and that he was a youth in his late twenties.
Even so, it was fast.
Promising talents from good houses who received proper support produced aura no earlier than their early thirties. Even Pasion, who had been called a genius discovered by the Arvenia family, had drawn aura at thirty-one.
“How long do you think it will take that man from earlier to complete his aura?”
“...If he finds the right catalyst, it will be complete. At the latest, within a month or two.”
Dieta laughed emptily again.
“What in the world? Do the rangers of the Techel Range even produce aura? I thought they trained in other directions rather than aura…”
“I don’t know either.”
Pasion answered while concealing his disquiet.
He had seen the aura Najin displayed from close range. Dieta, who knew little of the sword, would not have been able to tell, but Pasion could.
The strangeness of the boy’s aura.
It had not yet fully formed, yet the white radiance flowing along the blade had been extraordinarily dense. Pasion had never seen a fragment of aura with that kind of density.
I’ll only know for certain by clashing with it, but…
Even as a mere fragment, it did not look as if it would yield when set against properly drawn aura.
3.
The Dieta Merchant Group’s letter of guarantee.
When Najin showed it at the counter, he was able to view commissions up to Blue grade. Looking at the papers densely plastered across the board, he clicked his tongue inwardly.
Blue grade really does get more complicated.
At Black grade, most commissions had been simple monster subjugations or material collection…
Escort Mission.
Capture of Special Specimen: “One-Eyed Orc.”
Capture of Wanted Criminal: “Wyman.”
Blue grade commissions centered on escort work, the capture of special monsters, hunting of wanted criminals, and the like. Scanning the now considerably more professional request notices, Najin’s gaze stopped on one.
This one doesn’t look bad, does it?
—Not bad at all. Good for building experience, and good for making a proper name for yourself.
A commission suited both to standing out and to piling up real results.
Then this one it is.
Najin and Merlin were of one mind.
Rip— Najin tore the request notice free.
“Captain.”
“What is it, Barger? Got a report?”
“Recruitment for the commission you took earlier has closed. I pulled the roster—want to look it over?”
“Oh. Good work.”
The documents her subordinate handed over.
The woman flipped casually through the stack, then scowled. Face twisted in open disgust, she jabbed a finger at the paper.
“What the hell is this? Why’s there a blackie on here?”
“Blackie”—a contemptuous slur for the Black-grade adventurers who were a dime a dozen. The place she pointed listed information on a man named Ivan.
“The minimum grade for the commission was Blue, wasn’t it? How does a blackie take the job? Did those guild bastards screw up the paperwork?”
“Please check the special notes.”
“Special notes?”
Still frowning, she finished reading the document.
“...The Dieta Merchant Group vouched for him? The Dieta Merchant Group I know?”
“Yes.”
“The place with that gold-swallowing crazy bitch? Why the hell would she go writing guarantees for somebody?”
“I was going to filter him out, but that part caught me, so I brought it. What will you do?”
At her subordinate’s question the woman crossed her arms and tapped her forearm with her fingers.
“I don’t think that snake Dieta would just hand out a guarantee for nothing. She’s got to have something she’s banking on.”
Now I’m interested.
Muttering that, she rose from her seat. Her jet-black hair swayed with the motion. She roughly tied the long fall of hair down her back with a rubber band and said,
“Leave him alone for now. Let’s see what kind of bastard he is.”
She chose one of the swords hanging on the wall, belted it at her waist, and slung an arm over her subordinate’s shoulder.
“If he looks decent, maybe I’ll snatch him right up. What do you think, Barger?”
“I don’t think the Gold-Swallowing Snake will sit still for that…”
“So what? In this business, the one who puts up the better terms gets the catch. That’s just how it is.”
The woman’s red eyes glittered.
“Well then, shall we go take a look at his face?”
The captain of the Red-Eyed Mercenary Band.
One of only five White Horns in the city.
Sword Seeker Roselyn Ascalo smacked her lips.