The Disciple Learns of Her Master's Unknown Past
"Well, it's not like I don't get why the big guy was like that. Back then, Jade was pretty twisted up. He wasn't even someone who'd become a mercenary because he wanted to. From his perspective, everything was already rubbing him the wrong way—and then he had to watch some clueless brat running wild on top of it. Of course that set him off even more."
That was something Sera had been extremely curious about as well.
Given Jade's talent, if he'd only set his mind to it, he could have become a knight or anything else. No—an A-class mercenary of his caliber would have had any noble scrambling to grant him a knighthood and set him up for life as a knight. In other words, if Jade had wanted to, he could easily have lived as a lesser noble, or even a full noble if he'd had any skill at politics. There was no era when the walls of status crumbled lower than in times of chaos.
But Jade had lived as a mercenary, retired, and gone into seclusion just like that. It wasn't that Sera had never been curious—she simply couldn't ask him directly. The one who best understood the feelings of someone dying of an incurable disease was another person dying of the same incurable disease. And people dying of the same incurable disease didn't ask each other if they were okay. They both knew better than anyone that they weren't.
Sera had suffered more tragedies than anyone, and carried more secrets she didn't want to speak of than anyone. That was why she understood immediately. Jade, too, carried those kinds of secrets he didn't want to speak of.
Saying I know that pain well, so you can tell me was, in its own way, arrogance, deception, and hypocrisy. Judging what concerned oneself was one's own prerogative—and so Sera couldn't ask. Perhaps because she looked like a child, there was a line in Jade's mind between what he could and couldn't say to her, and that made it even harder to ask.
"Can you tell me?"
"Don't want to."
"……."
"Your face is gonna burn off! Fine, fine. I'll tell you. Knowing Jade's personality, even if he considered you precious, he'd never say a word about it. I was planning to tell you from the start anyway."
"Then why didn't you say so?"
"I was messing with you."
"……."
Should she hit him?
Could she really hit him?
But she'd already beaten him half to death, so she couldn't hit him again. More importantly, now that she knew he was an acquaintance of her master's, hitting him was out of the question. She couldn't let any more "wrong information" reach her master's ears. The fact that she'd left the Mercenary King Balik half-dead after he refused her request contained not even a speck of dust's worth of error as "wrong information"—but inside her own mind, it had already been perfectly rewritten as wrong information. As befitting a hero of infinite regression, her shamelessness was on another level entirely. She was so shameless that even the legendary Holy Sword probably couldn't pierce it, so further explanation was hardly necessary.
"It's a common enough story. Even among those who've received knighthoods, the ranks are overflowing with guys who aren't much different from mercenaries or thugs. And among those, the ones who cause trouble and then use their power as knights to make it all go away—you could gather enough of them to form an army. And when those kinds of guys and a rotten noble gather in one household… well, tragedy happens every single day."
"Don't tell me…?"
"Yeah. Jade's parents were completely crushed by that mad noble and his knights. So looking at his personality alone, he was every bit a knight… but he could never become one. What destroyed his family was a knight, and the one who covered for that knight was a noble. Of course, I know there are guys who aren't like that. But in this crazy world, the ones who are like that are the majority."
Sera knew that all too well.
No—there was no one who knew it better than Sera. She had seen the absolute bottom of how far nobles who cried "honor" and knights who cried "conviction" could fall. That no one could know it better than her was a truth that could stand on its own.
Nobles who had cried honor had prostrated themselves before the Demon King's army and licked their boots with their tongues just to survive, and knights who had cried conviction had cut down the lords they'd sworn loyalty to with their own swords just to live. In the end, some had even aimed for the back of the Hero fighting to save the world.
They had been praised as such beautiful things, but honor and conviction alike were feebler than a candle flame before the crisis of the world's destruction.
Which is why I fully intend to thoroughly plunder the nobles' wealth and work the knights to the bone.
A hero warm and kind to everyone? Sera knew well that nothing was more powerless than that kind of hero. What was needed to unite as one in the face of the world's destruction wasn't something like goodwill.
The cold wind of a harsh winter made people realize for themselves that they needed to cherish, be careful, and work harder—but while people might loosen up under the gentle breeze of a warm spring, no one grew stronger from it. And in that loosened heart, malice found it all too easy to take root.
The statistics bore it out as well. The harsh North had fought the Demon King's army to the bitter end without falling, while the East—famous for its abundant resources—had fallen to the Demon King's army faster than anyone. Among them were even lords who had opened their own gates to welcome the Demon King's army. When she had first started her infinite regressions, she'd gone to the East thinking there must be some reason, only to see lords opening the gates with their own hands and bowing to the Demon King's generals—the betrayal she'd felt then… she still couldn't forget it. Back then, she'd still had faith in her own kind, so it had hurt all the more, and it was only natural that the memory remained so vivid.
It wasn't for nothing that Sera had once given up on the world.
The depths of human baseness had no bottom, and once you'd seen it all, the will to keep striving so hard for humanity… even if they were your own kind, it was inevitable that the will would fade.
And Jade, too, had been forced to taste that bitter hell through the tragedy of losing his parents to nobles and knights. She wanted so badly to fly back to the past and save him. Unfortunately, her infinite regression was fixed to the point of Hero candidate selection, so it was impossible.
If it had been possible, she was confident she would have cut her own throat with her own hands as many times as it took to make it happen. But it was impossible. In a way, it was for the best from Jade's perspective. Even if his disciple had recovered his parents by cutting her own throat multiple times, he wouldn't have been happy about it at all. After all, if you were glad that family had shed blood to save family, that was no longer family—that was livestock. And to Jade, Sera could never be livestock.
"So that's why Jade became a mercenary. There's no job that lets you swing a sword at nobles and knights quite like being a mercenary. You can make good money legally, too. Still, mercenaries are also overflowing with filthy bastards. Thugs who can throw a punch becoming mercenaries just so they can act out somewhat legally… Anyway, for Jade, it meant he had no choice but to go through that stormy period of youth that young knights usually go through."
If you're going to defend him, defend him properly. In the end, all you're saying is that Master went through the kind of stormy youth period that young knights go through…
Her expression nearly crumpled at Balik, who was so dense he couldn't even properly defend her master—but as a hero of infinite regression, she maintained a perfect poker face. Facial control was something she'd mastered in the early days of her infinite regressions. To her, it was as simple as breathing.
No matter what anyone said, Balik was the one holding the information, and Sera was the one who needed it desperately—so she managed her expression and even went to the effort of tilting her head curiously, all to extract more information about her master.
"Then how did you two become close?"
"I chased after him. How should I put it? He just looked like the kind of person you couldn't help but care about if you were next to him."
Sera had no choice but to nod in acknowledgment that the assessment of Mercenary King Balik—that he was dense but had ridiculously good instincts—was spot on. To see that side of someone going through a stormy period of youth… at that level, couldn't you call it a kind of sixth sense? …Though looking at how dense he was, it didn't seem like that at all.
"Just as I expected, he taught me all sorts of things. Especially focusing on how to survive a long time as a mercenary. The fact that I've survived this long and even made it to Mercenary King is, no matter what anyone says, largely thanks to him. So there was even a time I said I'd take him as my master…"
Shing!
"Was that the mouth that just spouted that nonsense?"
"…Hey. If you're gonna be like that, just drop the formal speech."
"Ah. My apologies. It was an accident."
"You'll 'accidentally' cut me down, will you? Will you?"
"So what happened next?"
"Wow! Talk about shameless—you really are Jade's disciple through and through!"
"Thank you for the compliment. More than the compliment, what about the next part of the story?"
To Sera, being told she resembled Jade was the greatest compliment in the world, so she couldn't help but offer her thanks to Balik for the sudden praise. And so she sincerely expressed her gratitude and urged him on to the next part of the story.
Of course, from Balik's perspective…
"……."
He could only stare at Sera with a look of admiration(?).
This was the first time Mercenary King Balik—famous for always shutting other people's mouths and making them look at him with admiration(?)—had closed his own mouth and looked at Sera with a look of admiration(?). For Balik, who had thought that even if he lost the Mercenary King title, he'd at least hold onto the title of "the one who receives the most looks of admiration(?)" until the end, it was a fresh shock entirely.
"Well, I got rejected. That's why I still call him big brother."
"Hoo."
Sera couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief that she hadn't lost her title as the sole disciple.
"……."
Watching Sera sincerely relieved, Balik decided not to mention that plenty of mercenaries who had learned various things from Jade during his mercenary days still regarded him as a master of sorts.
If he said something like that, he'd probably get indiscriminately beaten and then hear some nonsense like, "Oh my. It was an accident."
As he'd said many times—
Balik was a man who was dense but had incredibly good instincts.
Those instincts had let him choose life over the line between life and death many times, and in this very moment, they had once again let him choose life over a line between life and death that had most certainly existed.
Sera could be relieved thinking, So I really am the only disciple, which was the best possible ending for her, and Balik had escaped a life-threatening crisis, so both sides could be said to have reached the best possible ending.
…Of course, considering Balik's half-dead physical condition, no one could directly say to Balik himself, "What a perfect ending," but still.