Morena Territory (1)
Morena Territory (1)
We spent that night at the inn, which served as a safehouse for the Organization.
The next day, Joachim, Paula, and I had breakfast and changed our clothes.
Instead of farmers' clothes, we put on worn leather armor and buckled serviceable iron swords to our waists.
With our robes pulled low over our heads to conceal our faces, we looked like seasoned, short-statured mercenaries.
Once we were ready, we fugitives set out from the inn alongside Martin, the mercenary.
I committed the inn to memory and set off with the group.
After graduating, I'd planned to hunt for artifacts alongside mercenaries or adventurers, if time permitted.
But I never expected to experience anything so similar so soon—and with companions like these.
And since it was hard to fully trust the companions traveling with me, I couldn't even take anything out of my artifact pouch.
I'd packed a full supply of rations and survival kits just in case, but for now, I had to put up with carrying a heavy pack on my back.
"It's completely different from the Kingdom's capital. Things are worse than I thought."
Joachim whispered as he watched the passersby while we walked down the road.
"With the country in this state, the capital's nobles are throwing money around like crazy just to align themselves with the princes... It's honestly a miracle this kingdom hasn't collapsed yet."
Paula raised her voice slightly in response to Joachim's words. Perhaps the situation had gotten under her skin.
Martin, who was leading the way, waved a hand in response to her words.
"Things were fine when the King was healthy. Or rather, I should say things were fine before both princes were born with the ability to succeed to the throne."
As expected of someone who had lived in this kingdom for a long time, Martin knew a great deal about its past.
Just as he'd said, the problem was that both princes had been born with 'Mana Resonance,' the so-called King's Ability.
The royal authority and succession system, which had remained stable for generations, collapsed in an instant.
Factions splintered, and the nobles growled at one another; once the King stepped back from state affairs, everything burst into the open.
Everything they'd said was true, but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Even though I remembered my past life and lived differently from others, perhaps deep down I still thought of this kingdom as my homeland.
We continued down the road, making small talk.
Perhaps because Joachim and I were there, Paula and Martin refrained from bringing up the Organization.
'Come to think of it, I haven't even heard the name of the Organization yet...'
It surely had a proper name, but everyone simply referred to it as "the Organization."
That was how strictly they guarded their secrets.
Walking down the road dressed as mercenaries was a world apart from riding in a carriage surrounded by knight escorts.
Whenever we passed through villages in dire straits, children swarmed out to beg from us, and some locals offered us a place to sleep in exchange for sharing our food.
On top of that, bandits—who had once been invisible to us—started popping up.
"Tsk, another dud!"
"You have to keep your expectations realistic."
An overturned cart lay at the side of the road, surrounded by fallen bodies.
A few bandits were rummaging through the cart while others had the women and children surrounded.
It seemed the bandits had ambushed a traveling family.
Judging by the swords and crossbows dropped beside the corpses, the men seemed to have been reasonably capable fighters.
But in today's world, that level of skill was hardly enough to make a journey safely.
It was difficult to bypass the scene and take another route.
As we drew closer, the bandits spotted us, too.
"Hey, mercenary gentlemen, fighting will just be a hassle for both of us, so pretend you didn't see anything and keep on moving."
The man who seemed to be the leader spoke, casually waving his sword toward the back.
Hahaha!
The bandits burst into loud laughter, and Joachim bit his lip.
"Hold back. The Royal Knights are looking for us. If word gets out that there are mercenaries using mana around here, they'll definitely come to investigate."
Paula's words weren't directed at Joachim alone. She was warning me, too.
I thought I'd kept my expression hidden, but apparently I hadn't.
Or perhaps she was warning me in advance because I was a citizen of the Carlos Kingdom.
Unfortunately, her advice quickly became useless. We weren't the only ones who had to exercise restraint.
"Boss! This haul is a total bust. Let's rob those mercenaries too!"
An older bandit rifling through the cart pointed at us.
"Are you sure about that? They look like mercenaries who've been around the block a few times..."
Another bandit expressed doubt, but the old bandit tapped his own neck.
Hanging around his neck was an iron token, the mark of a mercenary.
"How many years do you think I spent in the mercenary business? The guy in front is a properly seasoned mercenary, but those three behind him wearing robes aren't real mercenaries at all."
At his words, Paula and Martin sighed.
Sure enough, clothes alone couldn't fool a mercenary with a sharp eye for detail.
Joachim placed a hand on his sword hilt. He looked eager to step up and deal with them immediately.
Paula looked troubled as she glanced at Joachim.
"If that's what your eye tells you, I trust you. Leave one or two to guard the captives; everyone else, attack!"
The bandit leader seemed convinced by the mercenary-turned-bandit's assessment.
He twirled his sword through the air once more, and the bandits advanced.
Clack.
I grabbed Joachim's hand as he tried to draw his blade.
"As long as we don't get caught using mana, we're fine, right?"
I asked Paula, still holding Joachim's arm.
"Well, yes, but..."
"Then I'll handle this."
Releasing Joachim's arm, I stepped forward.
Martin had drawn his sword, but he was already discreetly backing away.
As expected of a veteran mercenary.
With powerful companions present, there was no reason for a hired hand like him to step up.
It was a real shame that such a practical mercenary belonged to that organization.
As I stepped forward, Joachim fell back as well.
I drew the iron sword at my waist.
There were roughly ten bandits approaching.
Among them, there were no awakened nobles or anyone capable of sensing mana.
A petty bandit gang like this wouldn't have anyone of that sort anyway.
Holding the iron sword, I took a deep breath.
It had been a while since I'd fought without using mana.
Even so, I didn't think I was going to lose.
I took one step forward, then another, before sprinting straight ahead.
It wasn't the lightning-fast movement I could manage with mana.
It was a speed any well-trained ordinary human could achieve.
"He's gonna fight us alone? Is this crazy bastard insane?"
"He's practically begging to be killed one by one. All the better for us!"
"I get him first! Me first!"
The approaching bandits shouted excitedly when they saw me, and the one closest to me charged to meet me.
He gripped a bloodstained blade in both hands and raised it high above his head.
He seemed intent on bringing it down once we closed the distance, but I charged much faster than he'd expected.
The foundation of my abilities was the very first skill I'd awakened: 'Physical Optimization.'
It was the ability that had allowed me to spar with knights without mana, even when I was a child.
There was no way my speed was limited to this.
Before the bandit could bring his sword down, I brushed past him. In that split second, my blade sliced clean through both his arms.
Slash.
His arms, still gripping the sword, flew high into the air.
While everyone's attention was fixed on the arms flying through the air, I kept moving.
Stepping to the side, I swung my sword again.
Slash.
His head came clean off.
Leaving the flying head behind, I launched myself forward with all my strength, thrusting my sword straight ahead.
The blade plunged straight into the next bandit's neck.
"Ugh!"
Amid that strangled gasp, I kept moving without pause.
Not a single bandit could block my sword. None could dodge it, either.
Even without using mana, I was strong.
My physical body was near the absolute limit of human capability, and my swordsmanship was far superior to what it had been when I'd sparred with knights in the past.
Without taking a single breath, I brought down every bandit who rushed at me.
The man who was their leader managed a makeshift parry against my sword, but my blade slid down the length of his sword and cleanly severed his neck.
The bandit who claimed to have spent years in the mercenary business started fleeing the moment I felled the first bandit.
As expected, experience wasn't something to be dismissed.
But our own mercenary, Martin, shot him down with a crossbow bolt, and he crumpled to the ground.
It seemed our mercenary had far more years under his belt after all.
The bandits guarding the women and children tried to flee as well, only to fall beneath my sword and Martin's bolts.
They seemed to have assumed we wouldn't care about the captives.
Then again, skilled mercenaries were hardly the sort to jeopardize their task for the sake of captives.
Once all the bandits were down, both Joachim and Paula stared at me with wide, astonished eyes.
But I was too absorbed in checking the altered sensations within myself to pay them much attention.
Even though it was only a fight against bandits, I hadn't expected fighting without mana to feel so effortless.
Even without channeling mana, my senses remained razor-sharp, allowing me to perceive all of the enemy's movements without even looking directly at them.
My body, forged through mastery of swordsmanship, was different from before, too.
There was no need to force any of my movements.
The swordsmanship of the Gracia family, the Duke of Ceuta, and the Marquis Pisen, along with techniques I'd observed elsewhere, flowed forth effortlessly at just the right moments, perfectly adapted to each situation.
Indeed, the mana cultivation techniques and swordsmanship techniques I'd inherited from Carlos were all elements that could be unified into a single whole.
And every one of those sword techniques was formidable even without mana.
'Were these sword techniques not dependent on mana after all?'
I had a hunch there might be a new path forward—not merely a way to restore the abilities of the hero Carlos.
It was still only a vague feeling, and it meant I had another conundrum to add to my list.
Yet I was actually grateful for a dilemma like this.
After the battle, Paula's attitude toward me changed.
Joachim was also surprised to see me fight without mana, but having witnessed my skills extensively through our spars and the battle at the marquisate, his shock didn't last long.
Paula, though, was seeing my actual combat prowess for the very first time.
Hearing about it through rumors was entirely different from witnessing it firsthand.
Though she'd heard I had defeated Joachim, it seemed she hadn't truly grasped what that meant until now.
Paula treated me much more kindly than before and began asking me various questions about myself.
"From 'chicken instead of pheasant' to 'turkey instead of pheasant,' huh."
It seemed that in her eyes, I'd gone from a dead weight who might turn out to be useful to a potential substitute for Ivana.
We escorted the women and children we'd rescued only as far as the next village.
Leaving them right there would have been no different from handing them over to another band of bandits, so we couldn't simply abandon them.
Still, there was no telling whether they'd actually find a way to survive in that village.
Even so, we couldn't take responsibility for their future, either, so we turned away and kept moving.
From then until we reached our destination, we encountered bandits twice more.
I stepped forward and took those bandits down, too.
Joachim tried to join the fray while concealing his mana, but he was a noble who had relied on mana ever since his awakening.
He had never properly learned how to fight without mana.
Joachim struggled through a drawn-out brawl against just two bandits before barely managing to win.
After pressing relentlessly along the road, we finally arrived at Morena Territory, where Ivana used to live.
The moment we crossed the domain border, a system message window appeared before my eyes.
<You have arrived in Morena Territory. Would you like to set a new 'Save Point'?>