The Promise with the Female Leader (2)
“No one knows. Ever since that day two years ago, I’ve only ever called her Boss.”
“Even Sir Ision and Sir Bernhardt don’t know?”
“It seems they don’t.”
“Her name must be pretty old-fashioned then.”
“Hey, you brat. Would our beautiful leader really go around with some lame name? She must have a story from her past that makes her want to hide her identity.”
“You don’t know what she used to do?”
“She never talks about it, so of course not. But judging by her looks and the way she speaks, it’s obvious she isn’t from around here. People with that deep black hair like yours and the Boss’s are rare in our region.”
If the female leader had been from this area, the well-connected Marcus would have known. She must have come from somewhere else.
“Besides, facial features differ slightly by region. The Boss’s face shape is common in the capital area. I lived there when I was young, so I know it well. I saw quite a few beauties who looked a lot like her.”
“I see…”
I nodded and headed for the entrance.
“I’ll go see the Boss.”
I spoke with a bright smile and was about to step outside when I turned back.
“Oh, and when I get back, teach me how to generate sword energy on my dagger, will you? You know, the way to make the blade shine bright?”
“Sword energy?”
Marcus looked at me with a slightly flustered expression.
“Is sword energy really necessary?”
“Of course it is. It’ll make me stronger.”
Marcus declared with a heavy face, as if stating a fact.
“You can’t do it. You don’t have mana.”
“Why don’t I have mana?”
“If you did, I’d sense it immediately. But I don’t feel any mana from you at all.”
“Come on, that can’t be right. Isn’t mana that mysterious power everyone in this world basically has?”
In all the movies, novels, and anime about other worlds I’d seen, even ordinary people could use mana if they just trained hard enough.
“You must not know because you came from a faraway land, but mana isn’t something just anyone can possess.”
“Then who has it?”
“Only royalty and nobles, or the rare few outside the ruling class who were lucky enough to receive it.”
“Huh…?”
The incredulous sound slipped out on its own.
“There are people with mana and people without it?”
“That’s right.”
“And I’m one of the ones without?”
“Correct. I’ve tried many times before to sense mana in you. But I never felt a thing.”
“So you’re basically telling me I can never grow stronger than I am now. It’s a death sentence.”
“I never wanted to say those words myself, yet here I am hearing them from your own mouth…”
Marcus let out a deep, pitying sigh. The world went black before my eyes; it felt like the sky itself was collapsing.
This had better not be getting secretly filmed. They’re not zooming in on my devastated face and laughing their asses off, right?
“Marcus. You’re joking… right?”
“Look at my face, you brat. Does it look like a joke? I could already see the future of my disciple who wants to reform the bandit group, and I’ve been agonizing for a long time over whether I should tell you. Do you have any idea how much more of my already sparse hair has fallen out because of it?”
So Marcus had known all along. That there was no hope for someone like me without mana.
This is insane. Why is this world’s setting so fucked up?
“Then do you have mana, Marcus?”
“My own origins aren’t exactly stellar, so I don’t have it either. That’s why every skill I’ve honed over a lifetime has nothing to do with mana. They’re purely practical techniques that any ordinary person can master through hard work.”
“Heh…”
A hollow laugh spilled out of me.
I had wanted to wield an aura blade like the Boss.
Even so, one question flashed through my mind.
“Are all members of royal and noble bloodlines born with mana?”
“They aren’t born already possessing it. They inherit a certain amount from their parents and gradually cultivate it inside their bodies.”
“Is it possible to pass it on to someone else?”
“Of course. It’s even possible to take it back.”
“What about Haida and Evynee? Their mother is a noble.”
“I checked both of them. They don’t have any. Those girls have no mana.”
The immediate answer told me it was true.
In a half-hearted voice, I asked, “So there’s no chance I’ll ever obtain mana?”
“For people like us, it’s almost impossible. Royalty and nobles don’t hand it out freely to their inferiors. They guard their authority and privileges too closely. Even if they did offer it, they’d demand an enormous price that’s impossible to pay.”
“Not even with ninety-eight gold coins?”
“With all the gold you have, maybe three hundred would make it possible.”
Damn it. No matter how hard I worked my whole life, I’d never get mana.
Resentment colored my voice. “How did it end up this way? Why do only royalty and nobles get to have mana? Isn’t the world too unfair?”
“To explain that, we’d have to go all the way back to ancient times.”
Marcus stroked his beard and stared quietly at the ceiling.
“In ancient days there was a god named Mirandal. He was the first to bestow mana upon a farmer called Damus. Having luckily gained tremendous power, Damus used it to build a great empire and reigned as king of all humanity. Damus had fifty wives and many children. The wives who wanted their own offspring to ascend the throne pestered him every single day, showering him with every charm and coquetry they could muster to obtain mana from him.”
Marcus picked up the water glass on the desk, took a sip, and continued.
“In the end, the wives who received mana from Damus passed it on to their children. That power somehow spread far and wide across the world. After thousands of years, it led to the present day. The descendants of those ordinary families who luckily gained mana back then used its power to become today’s royalty and nobility. Does that make sense?”
“The only part I understand is how Damus must have felt, being hounded by dozens of wives every day.”
I let out a heavy sigh.
Now that I knew my abilities had a hard limit, all motivation drained away.
With slumped shoulders I turned to leave.
“I’ll go see the Boss.”
“You don’t need to be so discouraged. There may still be a chance.”
“I don’t need any talk about believing in luck or miraculous encounters. You just said it was almost impossible.”
“It would be a miracle, but that child has mana.”
The moment Marcus spoke those words in a perfectly ordinary tone—words that should have made me ecstatic—my feet froze mid-step just as I was about to leave the barracks.
I spun around.
“Who?”
“Her. Right there.”
The person Marcus pointed to was Dana, lying on the bed.
Ah! That’s right—Dana was a mage!
I’d completely forgotten.
“When she wakes up, why not persuade her to share a little? After all the care you’ve given her, I think she’d do it. If she has any conscience, she’ll want to repay the favor.”
At that exact moment, Dana suddenly shot upright like a corpse rising from its coffin.
Both Marcus and I flinched. Haida and Evynee let out short screams, jumping as if they had seen a ghost.
I quickly steadied my startled heart and walked over to her with a bright smile.
“Dana, are you feeling better?”
She stared at me with an utterly expressionless face as I approached. Then she spoke in a low, quiet voice.
“I will give it to Hyunwoo. My mana.”
My body stiffened as if struck by lightning.
Had she overheard the entire conversation between Marcus and me?
When exactly had she woken up? There hadn’t been the slightest sign.
Still, her willing consent brought a smile to my lips.
With this, I could take another step forward.
***
I was sharing lunch alone with the female leader inside her barracks.
Eating together like this—I never imagined such a thing would happen before I came here, so I felt genuinely flustered.
In contrast, the female leader sat across from me in comfortable clothes that revealed her cleavage, calmly cutting her food.
She was also wearing a hairstyle I had never seen before.
Her long hair was tied back tightly in a single bundle, probably because it got in the way while eating. The look was refreshingly different.
It highlighted a feminine side I hadn’t noticed until now.
She had always let her hair flow wildly like a lion’s mane in front of her subordinates. This was new.
Still, why had she called me here and even insisted on sharing a meal?
What did she want from me?
Was she trying to soothe me because I said I wanted to leave the bandit group?
No. That couldn’t be it.
It wasn’t as if I possessed skills so outstanding that the female leader would desperately try to keep me. Why go through the trouble of appeasing me when she could simply force me to stay?
“I changed the setting to somewhere comfortable because I wanted to speak with you openly, Hyunwoo. Yesterday you said, ‘You and I are aiming for different worlds.’ Correct?”
“Yes, I did.”
The water had already been spilled. I met her eyes without shrinking or showing any awkwardness and answered firmly.
“The life you desire, Boss, and the life I desire are different.”
“What kind of life do you desire?”
The female leader set down her knife and fork.
Was she ready to listen?
I spoke the words I had been carrying in my head for a long time.
“I want to live in style, not scrape by cheaply.”
The female leader smiled and asked, “Does being in our bandit group mean living a life without any style?”
“Why aren’t you leading the bandit group in a better direction, Boss?”
I countered, then pressed further. “Are you satisfied with a life where you’re treated as nothing more than the head of a lowly bandit band?”
I had spoken harshly enough that if someone with Bernhardt’s temperament—quick to act before thinking—had been in front of me, I would have received a slap across the face.
But the female leader simply listened with a faint smile.
Then she asked, “Do you really think it’s possible to lead men whose only learned skill is banditry in a better direction?”
“I’m not certain, but I believe it’s possible if we try.”
“Do you have a plan?”
I did. How could I not, after agonizing endlessly over reforming the bandit group?
“We abandon the name Elk Bandits and found a mercenary company under a new name.”