Promise with the Female Leader (3)
The two sentries blocked Ision as he tried to enter the leader’s tent.
“You may not enter.”
“The leader has ordered that no one be allowed inside the tent.”
“It should be about time for the meal to end. Does she have some other urgent business?”
“Right now, Kang Hyun-woo is having a private meeting with the leader.”
“Kang Hyun-woo?”
The unexpected name made Ision’s expression turn puzzled. He stroked his chin and narrowed his eyes.
“Why would Kang Hyun-woo be meeting with the leader…?”
Even after that, Ision didn’t leave. He kept circling the leader’s tent, pressing his ear firmly against the fabric, straining to catch any sound that might leak out.
“It can’t be that. There’s no way it’s what I’m thinking. I heard that bastard Kang Hyun-woo is pretty well-endowed, but the leader isn’t the type to indulge in such things…”
When nothing could be heard from the east side, he moved to the south wall and pressed his ear against it. When that yielded nothing, he shifted to the west wall, desperately trying to eavesdrop on the conversation.
“Sir Ision? What are you doing…?”
He was caught by a sentry patrolling around the leader’s tent. Ision immediately straightened up and cleared his throat as if nothing had happened.
“I thought I heard a noise from inside, so I was just listening for a moment. It seems it was nothing. I’ll be on my way. Keep up the good work.”
“Understood.”
As Ision walked away with a calm stride, questions swirled endlessly through his mind.
Why would the leader suddenly call for Kang Hyun-woo without saying a word to me, her strategist? What on earth is going on…?
I studied the female leader’s expression. What would she think? Would she agree with my idea, or would she choose to stay comfortable in the current reality?
But she only wore an unreadable smile as she swallowed the finely chopped meat.
“A mercenary band, you say. Do you really think living as mercenaries would let us live in style?”
“It’s not just for that reason. Right now, the royal family is showing strong determination to wipe out every bandit group in the southern region. We have to survive that storm. When I met Vice Commander Ryan Hart before, she told me something. Even if the Ryan Hart unit fails to subjugate the bandits, the royal family will never give up. They’ll keep sending even stronger units.”
I added meaningfully, “We need to prepare before the typhoon sweeps everything away. We’ll survive by changing our name from bandit band to mercenary band.”
“Just laundering the name?”
“Simply laundering the name won’t be enough. We have to change everything. We must become a real mercenary band and only engage in activities related to mercenaries from now on.”
“Will it be easy to suddenly become a mercenary band? I doubt they’ll believe us if we just peel off the bandit label overnight and slap a mercenary one on our foreheads.”
“We can make them believe it.”
I answered confidently, as if I had been waiting for the question.
“What’s the method?”
The female leader smiled softly and resumed the meal she had briefly paused.
“Is there a good way that won’t make them suspicious?”
I swallowed dryly. The truth was, my plan was still incomplete.
“There is, but I haven’t finished coordinating with the person who can help us. So it will take some time.”
For a lowly bandit group to be reborn as a respectable mercenary band overnight, we needed that female knight’s help. Since I had already given her a hint when we escaped the Dark Forest, I expected that I would only need to go meet her to hear her answer.
“Time, you say…”
I didn’t touch my food and waited quietly for the female leader’s next words.
She lifted her wine glass, took a sip of the red wine, then gave me a light smile.
“Go ahead with it.”
“Pardon?”
She was allowing it so readily that I was taken aback. But of course, there was a condition.
“However, on the condition that you bring me Chen’s head. What you’re trying to do will bring a huge change to the band. If someone in the position of a mere squad leader—not even at Ision or Bernhardt’s level—tries to arbitrarily change the nature of the entire group, you’ll face fierce resistance and strong backlash. To minimize that resistance, you’ll need to prove your strength by accomplishing a feat worthy of it. Until then, I cannot permit it.”
I licked my lips, then put strength into my eyes and nodded vigorously.
“Understood.”
It was actually good news. I had been putting off my revenge for Phelton and Harry on Chen anyway.
“Dana!”
As soon as I returned to the tent, I looked for Dana first.
Inside the room, Marcus, Haida, and Evynee stood surrounding Dana, who was sitting with an expressionless face. The moment Marcus saw me, he spoke with a frustrated look.
“Hyun-woo, is this girl mute? I talk to her and she just stares blankly without answering. Shouldn’t a person reply when someone speaks to them?”
“Master! My sister and I have been talking to her for a while too, but she hasn’t said anything! This sister must be unable to speak! Mute! Mute!”
“Evynee. You shouldn’t say things like that.”
While Haida gently scolded Evynee, I looked at Dana with an urgent expression even as I smiled. It was time to quickly absorb mana from her and begin intense training.
“Dana, can you give me mana right now?”
She stared at me quietly before opening her lips.
“Yes. Now?”
The moment Dana’s voice came out, Marcus and the two sisters simultaneously opened their mouths in shock and stared at her.
“Do it now. Is it possible even here?”
“It is.”
“No, she speaks so well—why did she keep her mouth shut when we were talking to her earlier?”
Marcus clicked his tongue and grumbled, but Dana’s gaze remained fixed only on me.
“Stand up and face me.”
We stood facing each other as she instructed.
“Hands.”
I took both of her outstretched hands. Her skin was incredibly soft and warm.
“Keep looking into my eyes. Even if it’s difficult.”
Even if it’s difficult?
The moment I tilted my head inwardly, she began chanting.
“Das Ru.”
"Das Ru."
⟨ Mana Transfer ⟩
The method of transferring mana to another person was extremely simple. As Dana chanted the short spell with a reverent expression, blue mana resembling the color of the sea suddenly surged from her eyes like a whirlwind and struck both of my eyes directly.
“Uwaaaaaaaaaah!”
The mana that flowed into my body instantly wrapped around my brain, then spread through my esophagus throughout my entire body. It felt exactly like riding a roller coaster that shot up into the sky only to plummet endlessly downward.
Because of my scream, I could hear Haida and Evynee crying in fear.
The sensation of falling forever suddenly vanished in an instant, replaced by a clear, warm energy that gently embraced me.
—I’m Dana.
Huh? What is this?
Suddenly, Dana’s voice echoed in my ears like a reverberation.
“Dana?”
When I opened my eyes and came to my senses, I found myself trapped alone inside the eye of a mana storm. And I was floating in midair.
The blue mana swirling quietly around me displayed Dana’s entire growth process like dozens of TV screens playing simultaneously.
—Giving mana to another person also means trusting them with everything you have.
After hearing Dana’s voice, I slowly began to examine each of the many screens one by one.
Dana had been born twenty-two years ago in the Ferus Kingdom as Princess Piria of the Piria royal family. She grew up in the palace, learning magic from the kingdom’s archmage. At fifteen, she met Henrietta, the maid who became her only friend.
Seven years later, a rebellion broke out in the country. She fled to the neighboring Ingibar Kingdom with only Henrietta. To survive the pursuers sent by the rebels, they switched clothes at Henrietta’s suggestion. Henrietta, wearing the princess’s clothes, was shot by an arrow while running and died.
Henrietta’s sorrowful voice right before her death echoed in my ears along with the image.
—Your Highness… Please, you at least must survive…
After losing Henrietta, Dana fell into despair and lost the will to live. Time passed, and when she had sunk into severe lethargy, Chen’s subordinates happened to find her in the forest. They tied her up, loaded her into a cart, and that was when I rescued her. The mana storm showed every single one of her past memories without omission.
It even replayed the scene where I had asked her not long ago if she had ever lost someone precious. The reason tears had immediately flowed from her eyes back then was because she had remembered her dead parents and Henrietta.
After watching Dana’s entire life story this way, the dozens of screens that had shown her life disappeared. Then a massive mana storm suddenly engulfed me.
“Huk! Huk!”
Back in reality, I was breathing harshly. The mana-sharing ritual had finally ended.
I looked around. The room was wrapped in silence, and everyone except Dana was staring at me with shocked eyes.
“A-are you alright?”
I quietly nodded to Marcus, then looked at Dana. She seemed a little tired as she stared back at me. I could feel that the grip of our joined hands had grown weaker than before.
I squeezed those slender hands tightly.
“Dana.”
My voice came out hoarse—probably from how much I had screamed while receiving the mana.
“It must have been really hard getting here, right?”
Dana slowly nodded. Her beautiful eyes quickly grew moist.
I pulled her into my arms and gently stroked her back. Then I whispered softly into her ear.
“I may not be as good as Henrietta, but from now on I’ll always be by your side. So you can relax now.”
Like me, Dana had also lost her beloved home overnight and become like a lost baby duck. I was a stranger from another world, and she was a stranger from another country. Perhaps because we were in such similar situations, I could empathize with her circumstances. A tender feeling naturally bloomed, and a special sense of closeness took root.